The End Begins
Encyclopedia
The End Begins is the third studio album
from Louisville, KY-based band Tantric
. It is the first one recorded without the band's original members Todd Whitener, Matt Taul, and Jesse Vest. Vocalist Hugo Ferreira
, the only remaining original member, was forced to scrap the original line-up's complete third album in favor of The End Begins, an effort established by new members of the band in addition to Ferreira. This is the only album to feature ex-Fuel
drummer Kevin Miller.
On January 13, 2009, The End Begins was re-released as a "Digital Deluxe" edition. This includes the bonus track
s "Down & Out" (Acoustic) and "Fall Down." As of May 2009, the album has sold well over 70,000 copies.
in February 2005. The band finished over a dozen songs for the album, which at the time had the Led Zeppelin
-esque title, Tantric III. Samples were released in May 2007 of the songs "Fall Down" (which included a guest verse from Nappy Roots
member Skinny DeVille), "The One," and "Letting Go." However, many internal problems plagued the band over the course of this time, including the departure of bassist Jesse Vest (Whitener recorded all of the bass on the album), sales of After We Go
hurt by downloading, and the band's release from Maverick Records
, the latter of which has shelved this album indefinitely.
Finally, the original line-up collapsed in May 2007 with Whitener and Taul announcing their departure through TantricOnline.com, the band's former online message board. Ferreira has claimed that his fellow band members' departures were a result of frustrations with the record label and music industry in general. The album has been described by Blakey as the band's most aggressive, yet still possessing "beautiful pop moments." Continuing the band's traditional method, harmonized vocals and distorded guitars are featured heavily on this album, and Whitener, vocally, is featured equally with Ferreira and sheds the "backup singer" moniker. The vocal attack on T3 was truly a tandem effort. The production value is also extremely different from any of the bands previous works. Whereas Tantric
and After We Go
had very full, deep, Toby Wright influences, Tantric 3 has more of an aggressive, Low-Fi sound, that does not accent the band's ambience, so heavily featured on the previous two records.
On Ferreira's birthday of 2006, Tantric parted ways with Maverick and soon after saw the original members depart. Hugo Ferreira has shown mixed feelings toward releasing Tantric III; in 2009, he expressed interest but noted the high cost of purchasing the songs from Maverick. "If it's in the cards, it will happen someday, but more like 'the lost tapes'," he commented. Herreira also commented on his hopes to have leaked
it to the fans as a potential Christmas 2008 gift for their support.
scrapped the entire record. He began writing new material at his own studio before enlisting members of his side project, State of the Art, to record and tour as Tantric. These include ex-Fuel
drummer Kevin Miller, ex-DramaGods bassist Joe Pessia on guitar, Fosterchild bassist Erik Leonhardt, and Marcus Ratzenboeck on electric violin, adding another dimension to the band. Ratzenboeck's brother Derek, a classical concert violinist, would composed the intro violin riff to the song "Down & Out."
With returning producer Toby Wright, the new line-up finished recording within 30 days in September 2007.
The End Begins was released on April 22, 2008, and debuted at #91 on the Billboard 200
. As of July 11, 2008, it has sold over 10,000 copies, with the lead single, "Down & Out" at #8 on the Billboard
Mainstream Rock Chart. The song's popularity led it to become Tampa Bay Rays
slugger Evan Longoria
's walk-up theme as well as the theme for WZR Radio with Ryan Clark and Richard Gray on WZRonline.
In regards to the album title, Hugo Ferreira cited the process up to its inception and stated, "the end of one thing led to the beginning of another." He also noted that the majority of songs revolve around either the band itself or a troubled personal relationship he endured during the writing process. Ferreira described the album's lyrical themes in a November 2008 interview:
Oddly, the only version of the physical End Begins album is a partially censored edition; the tracks "The One" and "Monopoly" are muted of explicit lyrics and listed as "Clean" when played on a PC
. "Love Song," however, frequently uses the word "shit" uncensored during its chorus. It appears that the only way of obtaining the two aforementioned songs uncensored is by purchasing them as mp3
s via iTunes
or Amazon.com
or obtaining them through the band's manager.
Based on crowd response to the song "Fall Down," which was originally planned for Tantric III, the band rerecorded it as their second single for a November 4, 2008 radio and iTunes release. With this, they also announced a re-release of The End Begins including the said song as a bonus track
. The "Digital Deluxe" edition, available January 13, 2009, also features an acoustic version of "Down & Out" but is evidently only available in download form.
.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
from Louisville, KY-based band Tantric
Tantric (band)
Tantric is a rock band from Louisville, Kentucky. The group has released four studio albums since 2001; although, their last two albums only retain Tantric's original singer, Hugo Ferreira...
. It is the first one recorded without the band's original members Todd Whitener, Matt Taul, and Jesse Vest. Vocalist Hugo Ferreira
Hugo Ferreira
Hugo Ferreira is a Portuguese-American African-born rock musician and singer-songwriter for the band Tantric.-Biography:...
, the only remaining original member, was forced to scrap the original line-up's complete third album in favor of The End Begins, an effort established by new members of the band in addition to Ferreira. This is the only album to feature ex-Fuel
Fuel (band)
Fuel is an American rock band formed by guitarist/songwriter Carl Bell and bassist Jeff Abercrombie in 1989. Originally known as Small the Joy, they changed the group's name to Fuel sometime in 1994...
drummer Kevin Miller.
On January 13, 2009, The End Begins was re-released as a "Digital Deluxe" edition. This includes the bonus track
Bonus track
In terms of recorded music, a bonus track is a piece of music which has been included on specific releases or reissues of an album. This is most often done as a promotional device, either as an incentive to customers to purchase albums they might otherwise not, or to repurchase albums they already...
s "Down & Out" (Acoustic) and "Fall Down." As of May 2009, the album has sold well over 70,000 copies.
Tantric III
Armed with Elliott Blakey in the producer's chair, work commenced on the follow-up to After We GoAfter We Go
After We Go is the second studio album by Louisville post-grunge band Tantric. Released on February 24, 2004, it debuted at #56 on the Billboard Album Charts but quickly lost momentum due to the lack of a strong single. Despite the lack of radio success, the album is considered a success by singer...
in February 2005. The band finished over a dozen songs for the album, which at the time had the Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
-esque title, Tantric III. Samples were released in May 2007 of the songs "Fall Down" (which included a guest verse from Nappy Roots
Nappy Roots
Nappy Roots is an American alternative Southern rap quintet that originated in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1995 and is best known for its hit single "Awnaw."...
member Skinny DeVille), "The One," and "Letting Go." However, many internal problems plagued the band over the course of this time, including the departure of bassist Jesse Vest (Whitener recorded all of the bass on the album), sales of After We Go
After We Go
After We Go is the second studio album by Louisville post-grunge band Tantric. Released on February 24, 2004, it debuted at #56 on the Billboard Album Charts but quickly lost momentum due to the lack of a strong single. Despite the lack of radio success, the album is considered a success by singer...
hurt by downloading, and the band's release from Maverick Records
Maverick Records
Maverick Recording Company is an American record label owned and operated by Warner Music Group, and distributed through Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:...
, the latter of which has shelved this album indefinitely.
Finally, the original line-up collapsed in May 2007 with Whitener and Taul announcing their departure through TantricOnline.com, the band's former online message board. Ferreira has claimed that his fellow band members' departures were a result of frustrations with the record label and music industry in general. The album has been described by Blakey as the band's most aggressive, yet still possessing "beautiful pop moments." Continuing the band's traditional method, harmonized vocals and distorded guitars are featured heavily on this album, and Whitener, vocally, is featured equally with Ferreira and sheds the "backup singer" moniker. The vocal attack on T3 was truly a tandem effort. The production value is also extremely different from any of the bands previous works. Whereas Tantric
Tantric (album)
Tantric is the eponymous debut album of American post-grunge band of the same name. It was released February 13, 2001 and debuted at #193 on the Billboard 200...
and After We Go
After We Go
After We Go is the second studio album by Louisville post-grunge band Tantric. Released on February 24, 2004, it debuted at #56 on the Billboard Album Charts but quickly lost momentum due to the lack of a strong single. Despite the lack of radio success, the album is considered a success by singer...
had very full, deep, Toby Wright influences, Tantric 3 has more of an aggressive, Low-Fi sound, that does not accent the band's ambience, so heavily featured on the previous two records.
On Ferreira's birthday of 2006, Tantric parted ways with Maverick and soon after saw the original members depart. Hugo Ferreira has shown mixed feelings toward releasing Tantric III; in 2009, he expressed interest but noted the high cost of purchasing the songs from Maverick. "If it's in the cards, it will happen someday, but more like 'the lost tapes'," he commented. Herreira also commented on his hopes to have leaked
Internet leak
An Internet leak occurs when a party's confidential information is released to the public on the Internet. Various types of information and data can be, and have been, "leaked" to the Internet, the most common being personal information, computer software and source code, and artistic works such...
it to the fans as a potential Christmas 2008 gift for their support.
Produced tracks for Tantric III
- Letting Go
- Fall Down w/ Nappy RootsNappy RootsNappy Roots is an American alternative Southern rap quintet that originated in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1995 and is best known for its hit single "Awnaw."...
- The One
- July - Todd Whitener, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
- People
- Stay With You
- Worth Waiting For
- Locked Out
- Lights Out
- Over
- Lost and Found
Personnel for Tantric III
- Hugo FerreiraHugo FerreiraHugo Ferreira is a Portuguese-American African-born rock musician and singer-songwriter for the band Tantric.-Biography:...
- vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - Joseph Pessia - GuitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, - Erik Leonhardt - Bass guitar|Bass]],
- Marcus Ratzenboeck - Violin, Electric Violin
- Kevin Miller - drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
The End Begins
Left without a band, Hugo FerreiraHugo Ferreira
Hugo Ferreira is a Portuguese-American African-born rock musician and singer-songwriter for the band Tantric.-Biography:...
scrapped the entire record. He began writing new material at his own studio before enlisting members of his side project, State of the Art, to record and tour as Tantric. These include ex-Fuel
Fuel (band)
Fuel is an American rock band formed by guitarist/songwriter Carl Bell and bassist Jeff Abercrombie in 1989. Originally known as Small the Joy, they changed the group's name to Fuel sometime in 1994...
drummer Kevin Miller, ex-DramaGods bassist Joe Pessia on guitar, Fosterchild bassist Erik Leonhardt, and Marcus Ratzenboeck on electric violin, adding another dimension to the band. Ratzenboeck's brother Derek, a classical concert violinist, would composed the intro violin riff to the song "Down & Out."
With returning producer Toby Wright, the new line-up finished recording within 30 days in September 2007.
The End Begins was released on April 22, 2008, and debuted at #91 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
. As of July 11, 2008, it has sold over 10,000 copies, with the lead single, "Down & Out" at #8 on the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Mainstream Rock Chart. The song's popularity led it to become Tampa Bay Rays
Tampa Bay Rays
The Tampa Bay Rays are a Major League Baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays are a member of the Eastern Division of MLB's American League. Since their inception in , the club has played at Tropicana Field...
slugger Evan Longoria
Evan Longoria
Evan Michael Longoria is a Major League Baseball third baseman for the Tampa Bay Rays. Formerly, Longoria was a star infielder for the Long Beach State University baseball team, the Cape Cod League MVP, and the Big West Co-Player of the Year.He made his major league debut for the Rays in , and...
's walk-up theme as well as the theme for WZR Radio with Ryan Clark and Richard Gray on WZRonline.
In regards to the album title, Hugo Ferreira cited the process up to its inception and stated, "the end of one thing led to the beginning of another." He also noted that the majority of songs revolve around either the band itself or a troubled personal relationship he endured during the writing process. Ferreira described the album's lyrical themes in a November 2008 interview:
- “This record is all about the strife and challenges of getting back on my feet after the second Tantric record, After We GoAfter We GoAfter We Go is the second studio album by Louisville post-grunge band Tantric. Released on February 24, 2004, it debuted at #56 on the Billboard Album Charts but quickly lost momentum due to the lack of a strong single. Despite the lack of radio success, the album is considered a success by singer...
, not only on a professional sense but a personal one as well. It deals with personal and emotional growth, and learning from the blows the industry and life gives you.”
Oddly, the only version of the physical End Begins album is a partially censored edition; the tracks "The One" and "Monopoly" are muted of explicit lyrics and listed as "Clean" when played on a PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
. "Love Song," however, frequently uses the word "shit" uncensored during its chorus. It appears that the only way of obtaining the two aforementioned songs uncensored is by purchasing them as mp3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
s via iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
or Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
or obtaining them through the band's manager.
Based on crowd response to the song "Fall Down," which was originally planned for Tantric III, the band rerecorded it as their second single for a November 4, 2008 radio and iTunes release. With this, they also announced a re-release of The End Begins including the said song as a bonus track
Bonus track
In terms of recorded music, a bonus track is a piece of music which has been included on specific releases or reissues of an album. This is most often done as a promotional device, either as an incentive to customers to purchase albums they might otherwise not, or to repurchase albums they already...
. The "Digital Deluxe" edition, available January 13, 2009, also features an acoustic version of "Down & Out" but is evidently only available in download form.
Track listing
All lyrics written by Hugo FerreiraHugo Ferreira
Hugo Ferreira is a Portuguese-American African-born rock musician and singer-songwriter for the band Tantric.-Biography:...
.
Personnel
- Hugo FerreiraHugo FerreiraHugo Ferreira is a Portuguese-American African-born rock musician and singer-songwriter for the band Tantric.-Biography:...
- vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - Kevin Miller - drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
- Joe Pessia - guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
- Erik Leonhardt - bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
- Marcus Ratzenboeck - electric violinElectric violinAn electric violin is a violin equipped with an electronic output of its sound. The term most properly refers to an instrument purposely made to be electrified with built-in pickups, usually with a solid body...
- Kevin Martin - vocals on "The One"
- Toby WrightToby WrightToby Wright is a record producer and mixing engineer who has worked with artists such as Alice in Chains, Metallica, Sevendust and Korn. He is currently in Nashville, Tennessee working on Kara Clark's latest Ep.-Producer:...
- producer and mixing - James Musshorn - mix assistant
- Carlos Ferreira/Sketchtank - graphic designGraphic designGraphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
and packaging photography