The Barn is our refuge, our USS Enterprise, our safe house. It is where we come to work, to rehearse, to relax, and to write and record. The barn was moved to its current location by Micah's Grandfather Lester in the 60's. It was a barn that originally resided in downtown Ojai, and at time housed sheep, goats, horses and vintage farming equipment before becoming the home of Shades of Day.

For the first two or so years playing together, the band jumped from office space to garage to living room in search of a place to rehearse and record music. We were lucky enough to be offered the Barn as a home to all things music, and we got right to work renovating.

We started by removing the current residents of the barn, a ton of rust covered, spider ridden, medieval looking farming equipment, huge boulders, and wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of dirt and rocks. After that we poured concrete for the floor, framed up a room inside of the barn shell, put up 6 layers of wall, built an entry way/isolation booth, and framed up what would later become the control room. The whole process took about two years, as the band gigged regularly to pay for the materials and dealt with the day to day things that are of course, inevitable.

The goal of this project was to have a place to work, record, play, hang out, and just be a band. We didn't want to have any outside pressure. We knew it would be a place where we could take our time and craft our album at our own pace, and ultimately it proved to be just that. With beautiful mountain scenery all around, it was to be a place of inspiration and good vibes.

In October of 2004 we celebrated it's completion and prepared for the next step: Recording! The inside of the Barn consists of three rooms. The first is the vocal booth or isolation booth. Most of the vocals are recorded in here, along with guitars, percussion, and anything else that needs the type of sound this room provides. The main room is used as both a rehearsal room for the band, and a home for all the live instruments. The control room contains the recording console, all the outboard recording gear we used to create MAYDAY!, and a comfortable couch. We spent many a day/night in here listening, twiddling knobs, and having deep discussions about the mysteries of aural excitement, among other things...

The Barn has been such a rock for us, and continues to be important to us and our work. It's become such a part of us and our history, someday it will probably be referred to as our "fifth member". MAYDAY! is just the beginning for this magical structure. Many more records will surely emerge from it's red walls by Shades of Day, along with many other bands and artists throughout the years. It's become a huge part of this band's history, and we're looking forward to the music and good times that will surely happen inside.