"She plays percussion on `Exhole,'" vocalist Blix says, referencing a track on the group's debut album, "Alligator." "We recorded her scratching."
"She was scratching to the beat, so we set up a microphone," guitarist Normal explains. "She's playing percussion on one of our songs."
"With minimal editing and no auto-tuning," adds drummer Jason Carter.

Cloee's participation may have gone effortlessly but the same cannot be said for the rest of the album. It's a project that's been in development for several years but various setbacks have regularly delayed the CD's release.

The genesis of the band can be traced back to Oslo, Norway, where Normal was recording local artists to showcase for labels in England and the United States. In his spare time, he started working on his own music and brought Blix in to provide the vocals. Their efforts drew label attention and the pair added bassist Silver Sørensen to the group they named Softcore.
Relocating to Los Angeles, the four-piece added Carter and went about pursuing a major label contract, but found labels slow to make decisions in the changing musical environment. A chance meeting one morning finally made the quartet re-evaluate things.

"Kristin and I were in Los Angeles, we'd done some gig there, and we went out to breakfast one morning," Normal recalls. "Daniel Lanois, the producer, was sitting at a table next to us.

"I had met him before, so he ended up coming over to sit down with us. He asked, `Are you sure you really want to sign with a major label? Why don't you do it yourself?' I thought that was surprising, since he produces U2 and Bob Dylan and works with majors all the time. But he said, `I would really think carefully about signing to a major. You might want to do this album yourself or at least do it through an indie label.'"
Deciding that chasing after a major label deal wasn't in the group's best interest, the foursome headed to Salem to record on their own terms. Then a phone call drew them back to California.

Actor Kiefer Sutherland and his friend, singer/songwriter Jude Cole, had decided to launch their own label, Ironworks Music, and they were interested in working with Softcore. Over the course of more than a year, the band worked on the album but found that their focus didn't match with what Ironworks personnel wanted to do.

"Working with the whole Kiefer Sutherland/Jude Cole situation made us realize that the direction that we had was much clearer than the direction that his folks had," Carter says. "It didn't feel right. It wasn't jiving. It wasn't us. It certainly made it easier to make the decision to do it ourselves."

Having spent so much time on an album with which the members weren't content, the four headed back to Salem to begin work on the album in earnest. Delays, however, continued to plague them.
Normal says one of the biggest obstacles for the album was the members' various obligations and other projects. As "working musicians," they frequently worked on projects for other acts.

"This is a case of the cobbler's children having no shoes," Normal says. "Our record has been slowly put together, whenever we've had time."

After adopting the new moniker Guards of Metropolis because "Softcore" had trouble slipping through many e-mail spam filters, the band recorded 40 songs and sent CDs out to its street team for feedback. The input they received helped the four decide which songs should make the final cut.

With the album complete and preparations underway for its release, one more delay came up in the form of alternative icon/ex-Pixies frontman Frank Black.

Black, who was working on his upcoming album "Bluefinger" with Mark Lemhouse, drafted Carter to play on the set. Afterwards, Black decided he wanted to tour Europe in support of the release and invited the drummer along. A second offer went out to Normal and the male half of GOM agreed to the 26-city trek.

"I thought this was a great opportunity to use their ability," Blix says of the offer. "Because they are above a garage band level, which in all fairness Guards Of Metropolis is."

With the tour behind them and plans for a U.S. tour with Black in limbo, the group is focused on finally exposing audiences to the album that has taken so much time and effort to produce. A stateside tour is inevitable and there also are plans to head back to Europe, capitalizing on the fans made on the Black tour and fans they already have cultivated back in Norway.

Even though the process has been so lengthy, Blix talks excitedly about working on a followup album. Before it makes it to shelves, however, the group will be part of another album that sees them team up with Black, Lemhouse and Christian music legend Larry Norman with their mailman, Jerry Albertini, providing narration for the work.

At this time, Cloee's agent has yet to agree to her participation in the project.