In the spring of 2002, Henning Pauly discovered old tapes of a recording made during a rehearsal with his old band Chain. The band had split up 8 years earlier after having written a full album of music which never left the practice room. It never was recorded properly: they could not find a vocalist and decided to quit.
Henning listened to the tapes and found music that was worth producing. He spend the rest of the year producing Reconstruct by himself, which was intended as a surprise for the old band members back home in Germany.
By December it was time to record vocals, and Henning recruited Matt Cash for the job. They had worked together on Matt's own material, and Henning was confident that Matt would the right man for the job. Two days before Henning's flight home, the record was done, and he presented it to the band over coffee and muffins.
They hadn't seen each other in almost 8 years, and the meeting was a big surprise for the guys. Henning told them he had done something for them as a thank-you for all the things he learned from them back in the days. Without their influence, he would not be working in the music industry today -- and he most certainly would not have been able to write Unweaving the Rainbow.
He handed over the gift and then started playing the album. He was looking at three people who could not believe that the music that had not thought about for years was finally on CD. They set up a "for good ol' times rehearsal" and strengthened old friendships once more.
This was supposed to be it. This was the purpose of producing Reconstruct.
Henning never sent any copies to labels, since getting signed was not the intention. He sent one copy to an internet radio station -- and with this he started a chain of events that no one could foresee.
This station had a label and the label signed Chain. Reviews started to come in and the response was overwhelming. The guys behind the label were in tight with James LaBrie, who had frequently told them to let him know if they heard of a project he might be interested in. They initiated the communication between James and Henning, and several months later, Frameshift was born.
Henning's first idea for a possible project involved rewriting a musical he had written years ago, but after giving the material another listen, he decided that a different approach would be preferable. So he put the musical back on the shelf.
Only days later, Henning received a call from Jody Ashworth, who was the lead vocalist on Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Beethoven's Last Night. Henning's musical Babysteps was written in the style of Savatage and TSO, and with Jody Ashworth in mind. By an amazing coincidence, he was on the line, so Henning pitched Babysteps to him -- and he loved it. Parallel to working on Frameshift, Henning started working on the production of Babysteps, which will be a double CD to be released early 2004.
Henning would like to take to take this opportunity to thank Shawn Gordon and Jerry George from Progrock Records for all their support and for believing in the project. There are many more things to come, and Henning feels very lucky to be associated with a team as professional and dedicated as Progrock Records.