Longtime Ed Hale and The Transcendence guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Fernando Perdomo talks about the recording process of the band’s latest album, All Your Heroes Become Villains, available at music stores everywhere, amazon.com or the iTunes music store.
“The All Your Heroes Become Villains album was recorded in a very interesting time of my life… a thrilling two week love affair I had with a talented singer had just ended and I was down in the dumps. I had an awful haircut ordered by a Latin artist I was touring with and I was totally ready to make an amazing record with Transcendence. (We ended up making two but that’s another story!)’ [Editor’s note: Perdomo is referring to the band’s often leaked and lauded but as of yet unreleased The Great Mistake album.]
“Upon arriving to the studio, I knew instantly this was gonna be an interesting project. Ed now lived in New York City but he had flown down to stay indefinitely to finish the album with the band. He was so amped up. Everyone was. He had this artist, Gina Rowland, who he had met online, there working on her art for the album cover in the studio with us while the songs were being recorded. She sat quietly and listened to get influenced and inspired by the music. We fell in love instantly…
“Recording my guitars was hard on the record because Ed had strict rules for what he wanted … No Santana, No Blues, No Allman Brothers, No Clapton, No Springsteen… He had all these annoying signs hanging up on the walls. He was constantly making signs with big magic markers and hanging them all over the studio walls. “There’s no such thing as over produced” and “There’s no such thing as not enough production”. Contradictions everywhere. All the time. The process was confusing. He was searching for something…. He was being very fluid. Also, the songs had some heavy metal influences and electronica elements to it that did not make sense to me at the time… but again he was searching for something else, something we hadn’t done before.
“Halfway through the making of the record I went off to LA to join the band PRICE. That’s when Zach Ziskin took over… He had already tracked guitar on the album. He’s like the fifth Beatle of Transcendence. My LA and PRICE days ended with my mom getting diagnosed with Cancer. I came back and added my guitars to the album. We panned Zach’s guitar part towards the left, mine towards the right, and Ed’s rhythm guitars dead center. The crazier I played the more it fit the album! That’s Transcendence.
“Years later… I almost cried listening to the finished record in my car… The album is a masterpiece… and a real testament to Ed Hale’s writing and vision and the whole band’s genius… and EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE. And so is life… you never know what will make sense in the end…”
