December 21, 1997
s," says Richardson, on the phone from the studio. "It's a very small place, five square feet, and we're doing it all on 16-track, basically live off the floor. "How it will be taken by the fans, I really don't know," he adds. "(The band) just didn't want to make the same record every time."54.40 manager Allen Moy, confirms the album with be "a little bit of a change up," for the 17-year old band, particularly because many of the songs are based around piano. "Usually the method is guitar-based, " he says. "So you have Phil (Comparelli) playing a lot more piano on this recording. The whole preproduction, he probably played as much piano as he has guitar, which is an interesting approach for a 54.40 record. But it's a real piano, a big old upright, so there's a vibe with that as well."

Of the songs on the new album -- whose titles are also not written in stone -- Moy says, "there's a song that's kind of a waltz, with a great melody, called `The Greatest Mistake'; there's a sort of chant one called `Less People On Earth' and there's one that's really classic sounding -- it could be the single, but it's too early to tell -- called `Since When'."

What's unusual about this particular 54.40 recording session is the band have invited photographer David Anthony (Trent Reznor, Sarah McLachlan) and Sony Canada video production manager Marc Lastraco to shoot away in the studio while the four-piece works, in order to built up stock material for the album artwork, videos and other promotional items.

"Our approach on this record, from start to finish, is we do everything at once, during the making of the record," says Moy. "That's where everybody's focus and energy is, during the time the album's being recorded."

The album is tentatively scheduled for release in April on Sony Music Canada.