Fearless Juan by Fearless Juan

CD includes 10 original songs, a cover of "Every Breath You Take" by the Police, and an 8-panel color fold-out with photos, lyrics and liner notes.

About the Players...

The band is fronted by maria conti who sings and plays violin. Maria is classically trained with a masters degree from the Manhattan School of Music in violin performance. She plays constantly in classical ensembles and as a soloist when not performing with fearless juan.

Dan Conti has been playing guitar for over twenty years. He comes from a diverse musical background playing guitar and bass, programming computer music and producing audio. On their debut CD he combines the sounds of steel string acoustic guitars, nylon string flamenco with clean and distorted electrics to create juan's unique sound. He is the other half of the fearless juan songwriting team.

Mike "arms" Armstrong plays bass for fearless juan. His tasteful, in the pocket fretless playing lays the foundation for the band's signature sound. He is a veteran of progressive and hard rock bands.

Garry Bruer is the drummer for fearless juan. A veteran of the NYC jazz scene, Garry has been ripping it up for years and now lays it down for fearless juan with style.

About the CD...

fearless juan began writing and recording this, their debut CD, in the living room of their apartment in Mt. Vernon NY in spring of 1996. The finished product wasn't completed until 2003, as the artists took their time with every aspect of the album creation process. After many, many arrangements, adjustments and refinements, the result is a collection of songs that the band is very proud of.

On the CD, Maria played all the violins, wrote all the lyrics and played piano. Dan played guitar, bass, percussion and electronic keyboards and programmed drum sequencing. Tom Curiano played acoustic drums. Rock guitarist Tim Ruggiero lent his unique style and talents to the cover of Every Breath You Take.

Technical Notes... (for geeks only)

The entire album was recorded on Roland VS-Studio gear. It was initially tracked on the VS-880, then migrated to the VS-1680, and finally to the 24 track VS-2480. Recording at home allowed the band to take their time, living with the songs and changing things as they saw fit. This is a luxury you don't really get when paying for studio time, and it's a beautiful thing.

There are a variety of instruments used on this recording. Most of the guitars were recorded with a Yamaha CP series acoustic, that has a piezo pickup as well as an internal microphone. Vocals were recorded with an AKG 414 through a DBX 377 preamp. Vox on Kathy and Icicles were recorded with a Sony C-12 microphone, graciously lent to us by a friend.

Maria's violin, a 19th century Italian, was recorded in stereo with a pair of AKG 414s. The bass used is a Ken Smith BTB 6 string, recorded direct into the board. Drums are a set of Yamaha Stage Customs.

Most of the instrumentation is acoustic, however drum machine was used on the song "between the lines"... sequenced in cakewalk (3.0!) and rendered with a Boss SR-16. Electric guitars were recorded with a Godin LGX III using Roland amp modeling sounds. All keyboards were played on a little avatar controller with an Alesis Nano Piano as the sound module.

The final stage came when the band decided to add drums to some of the songs. They hired studio drummer Tom Curiano, who layed down the beats you'll hear on the album. A recording studio was rented and Grammy winning producer Larry Alexander came along to help make sure the drum recording went smoothly. Larry also mastered the album in his studio, "Studio L" in Nyack, NY. Larry is one of those producers who truly possesses "the golden ear" and his input helped take the final mixes up another level.

CD, photography and web design were also done by the band. Photos were shot at a location in northern Yonkers, NY, at an old factory complex near the Hudson river. The dogs are Rottweilers named Echo and Nina, and were graciously loaned to us for the photoshoot by Maria's mom and dad, Gerhard and Mary Lou Kistner.

In summary, this album is the product of a lot of careful thought, hard work and meticulous detail, and the band is very proud of it. Please take a chance and give it a listen. We believe you won't be disappointed.

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