My punk band, Chiseled Lilies, released a four track EP a couple weeks ago. The release titled Mask It or Casket was a good way to keep productive during the pandemic. It’s four fast, loud, and in-your-face punk songs that come in at less than 10 minutes for the whole album.
We actually had most of it recorded back in January. The guitars, bass, and vocals were finished sometime around February. The only thing left was the drums, and our drummer just needed to find the time to sit down and record. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the recordings sat stagnant while everyone tried to adjust to the new normal.
Initially I wanted to wait until we’d be able to have some kind of EP release show. But by mid-June I decided to just finish them up since it didn’t seem like live shows are going to happen anytime soon. I made some final tweaks to the mixes and figured out the song order with Patrick, the bassist.
We decided to call the album Mask It or Casket because it felt fitting for release during the pandemic. With a name like that it needed some great album art. I came across a library of old photos from the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic that were under a Creative Commons license allowing us to use it for commercial purposes. The photo really stands on its own, so the band and album name didn’t need to be anything outstanding.
One final round of mastering to make the tracks sound huge and bring extra life to them, and then I sent it off to all the streaming platforms.
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Dan Hauk 