…since I posted on here. I’ve been busy with a few projects. Mike Five and I gave my friend Matt Green an Impossible Gardens’ track for his Lester Martin produced Big Meadow video. Matt’s a really talented artist and his Five Miles From Times Square project videos are giving his audience an intimate glimpse of the artist at work/play.
I’ve started mixing the new Blank Pages record with Greg Potter. We’re continuing that process tonight, as a matter of fact. Also finishing up the final masters for the debut younglionapprentice record next week. And…recording another band from the ground up this weekend. More on that project soon!
I’ve decided to blow the cobwebs off of some old instrumentals and release them as a mini-EP on Bandcamp. These songs were recorded at home between 2003 and 2006. These were just sketches with the exception of “A Bouquet of Ghosts” which was written and recorded as the theme for a student film called “The Other Side”.
Congratulations to Jim and Nancy and the band! The CW network used “Recognize” from Draw Blood! Undead @ Stella Blueon last Monday’s episode of Life Unexpected! I spent some of last August assembling and mastering the live record from DAT recordings done at Stella Blue in Asheville, NC back in 2002.
I have to share this EP with everyone who knows me. Mike Kuehn is a Toronto-based recording engineer and multi-instrumentalist songwriter who has worked with The Most Serene Republic, Born Ruffians, and many, many more. I only know Mike from the Tape Op Message Board, where he’s contributed a lot of great recording experience and info over the years. I absolutely love this EP and it was one of my favorite releases of 2009.
You can stream his I’m Getting Pretty Good At Giving Up EP (released May 2009) and read and interview with Mike here on CBC’s Radio 3 website. And you can pick up his EP here as “pay your own price” MP3s.
Wednesday night I’ll be picking up some mixes from my friend Dave Hartley, who plays bass in The War On Drugs, BC Camplight, and the Lindsey Buckingham Appreciation Society. Dave has recorded a really beautiful solo record during the last year, and I was flattered that he asked me to help out recording some drums tracks last fall. I am psyched that he has asked me to mix a few of tunes on the record. It’ll be a lot of fun. Really looking forward to this.
Later Wednesday evening I’ll be finishing up small mixing tweaks on the Young Lion Apprentice full-lengthSave The Soundtracks. I’ll then be mastering that record over the next few weeks.
During my free time this week I’ll be working on analog transfers for the new Sad Iron full-length, and starting the mastering process. I met Jason through the Tape Op Messageboard (TOMB). He’s a really talented songwriter (and singer, player, etc) currently residing in Iowa City, Iowa. I am really excited about this mastering project. Can’t get his songs out of my head since I first heard them last week.
Sunday I’ll be tracking lead vocals with Greg of the Blank Pages at his home studio in South Jersey. Their new record is getting close to being completely recorded. We’ll start mixing it in March or April.
Thanks to Jeremy and Mary for getting this piano over to my place this morning. It is either from the 1920’s or 1930’s and was manufactured in New York City by the Cambridge Piano Company. It needs to be tuned up and refinished (fire engine red?), but I plan on having this for a long time. It fits great in the big room. I’m going to keep a set of tacks around for it. Really excited to have this here and can’t wait to get it tuned up!
Spent the afternoon and early evening tracking bass and keys (and some loops) with Adam and Dave of The War On Drugs. I’ve been asked to hang out and help out with some overdubs over at Adam’s place here in Philly, and since I am such a huge fan of this band this whole adventure is a real treat.
We worked on a few songs (which are in various states of amazing). Tracked Dave’s bass both direct (DI through my Sytek) and through a Fender Bassman 4×10. The Bassman was miked with my Shure SM7b through my 1970’s Yamaha PM-1000 preamp. Adam laid down some passes of his new ARP Omni 2 (which I almost bought last week but finally abstained from gear lust). We went DI through the Sytek. Everything was recorded to Tascam MS-16 1″ analog tape…the good stuff. Oh the smell of oxide! Preamps XLR’d right into the back of it.
Between songs we transferred tape into Digital Performer through the Black Lion Audio MOTU 828mk2 (it has the old analog and clock modification from 2006…more on this to come in a later post). I exported everything as WAV files so Adam can drag and drop into PTLE to continue the madness.
Looking forward to getting together next week for more tracking, reamping, and burritos!
