Michigan-based prog-metallers TILES check in with the following update from guitarist Chris Herin:

"We arrived late Friday night after an uneventful, yet pleasant drive across southern Ontario. Canadian Customs was accommodating (meaning we were allowed into the country) and we sampled the latest offering from "Weird Al" along with a variety of Jeff Beck, OSI, and Tiles "works-in- progress" along the way. After a brief review of the recent US elections Terry said goodnight and left us to get settled in - which required a little more effort now that the weather has returned to the same cold temperatures as when we started in February (!).

Mark started setting up his drums bright and early Saturday morning - and he and Terry spent the next few hours getting their "sounds" and experimenting with a few things (I'm not sure what exactly)... Paiste this and Zildjian that... Or is it Sabian? ...or modern trash can lid? As a musician I can't tell much difference between "shrill" or "shriller." Anyway..., they were finally done and we started running through the final song of Tiles 5 - 'Dragons, Dreams, and Daring Deeds' (conveniently abbreviated from now on as 'D4').

I had shamefully neglected to send Mr. Brown an advance demo of 'D4' (it's usually a good idea to let the Producer prepare in advance - but not this time!).

As previously reported, legendary producer Terry Brown (RUSH, FATES WARNING) is working on Tiles followup to 2004's Window Dressing, due out in nearly 2007.