专辑简介

The Big Purple Sky was the first attempt to record a full-length CD using digital technology. This resulted in a much clearer sound and a lot less distortion. The record featured many new songs and a few old songs that were re-recorded. "Freedom" was recorded in almost the exact same way as the original. The tape containing the original master of the track was inadvertently destroyed, so the piece was re-recorded on the new digital equipment. The song "Wasting," however, was a complete departure from the original harder-sounding version. This track now was an experiment in trip-hop with the mechanical sounding keyboard and haunting string arrangements. The most notable singles from this CD were "Jeffrey's Refrigerator," a pop punk commentary on things some people will spend their money on and "Make It Shine," a mope-rock ballad with an optimistic shiny center that states that no matter how bad it gets, you can make it better if you try. Interestingly, this particular song inspired the Axis 1 remake, using most of the original instrument tracks and also placed well in the indie charts at the time.

The project was a challenge with learning new software and mastering the technique of online recording. "Everything that could go wrong during these sessions did!" Songwriter Chris Nelson explained at the time of its realease, "First, the software didn't do what I'd intended, next there were problems with getting the levels right, finally I broke a snare head during the last session." There were actually two more songs that were supposed to be included but never were recorded because of the technical difficulties. Even the simplest things, such as final mixdown were radically different from the way things were done in the reel-to-reel environment.

Overall, the project turned out fine and brought a lot of attention to the Fishkill project from the Internet. This CD remains an important contribution to the overall Fishkill story.