Alright, alright!!!...
I have been tardy in posting lately, but I'm back in the saddle and ready to report.
First off, the motorcycle journey to Eurika Springs, Arkansas was incredible. One big highlight was finding a recording studio in the microscopic burg of Kirby, Arkansas. This town was so small it had one gas station, one cafe, and one recording studio. There was a big, handpainted wooden sign out on the highway announcing: "T and T" Recording Studio, $10.00 a Song. It had a red arrow pointing down the road, and a phone number. We didn't check it out, but I did get a picture. When John Powell gets my picture diary up on the site, I will post the image. Maybe I can go cut some vocals there for a 'local color' vibe. (At $10.00 a song, how can we go wrong?)
Right before I left, Mark Ellis and I created live performance submixes for Mark Needs A Chick. The initial report is that the mixes need some tweeking, but I have to hand it to the guys for trying this out. I first made live performance tracks (things like backing vocals and unusual instrumental parts to play along with during live shows) for ZZ Top's live show. It is not easy to get sync'd up and blend with prerecorded material, but when you do, it sounds very impressive. Today's audiences do not give a second thought to pre-recorded material being used in a show, (been to a rap show lately?), but back in the day, we hid the tape decks at the monitor position console during ZZ's show so nobody would snap to the fact that not all of the parts were being played live. My how the times do change.
News Flash: Hollywood records are checking out Pale and Mark Needs a Chick. Not that we're holding our breath or anything, but they have been more and more interested in Houston lately. On a side note, Steve Christensen's work on Silvertrip's demo looks to be very instrumental in their being signed by Capitol Records. Stay tuned for more on this.
Sarah Sharp is back from her UK tour, and it sounds like it was a raving success!! She was the darling of a BBC radio show, and was featured in several front page paper articles. Way to go. She and I will be meeting on Monday to discuss the details of her upcoming production. I have never been more ready to do a job.
Kevin Ryan and I have been working pretty hard with Courtney Powers on a three song deal. This has been a very pleasant surprise in that Courtney has risen to every challenge so far. Kevin has done a great job, as usual, on the arrangements, and Courtney has passed her first vocal pre production tests with flying colors. I had a really great time with her last night grooming her vocals on one song, (tentativly titled 'Stay'). We tried out some backing vocal ideas at the end of the night that really got me excited. We cut vocals and final instruments at SugarHill next week. Another cool part of our work together is that I got to write the lyrics to a song for Courtney titled, 'You Lose'. Despite the title's implication, this is a empowerment song(!)
Finally, both Eilleen Faxas, and Craig Byrnes are waiting in the wings to get productions started. All this and I may be engineering some big band stuff for Maria Williams. LIFE IS GREAT. I am also eager to hear from Jason Jordan and Jeff about the MiracleVersesMan tour. They should be home by now, (so call if you are reading, Jason).
thelove,
Dan
I have been tardy in posting lately, but I'm back in the saddle and ready to report.
First off, the motorcycle journey to Eurika Springs, Arkansas was incredible. One big highlight was finding a recording studio in the microscopic burg of Kirby, Arkansas. This town was so small it had one gas station, one cafe, and one recording studio. There was a big, handpainted wooden sign out on the highway announcing: "T and T" Recording Studio, $10.00 a Song. It had a red arrow pointing down the road, and a phone number. We didn't check it out, but I did get a picture. When John Powell gets my picture diary up on the site, I will post the image. Maybe I can go cut some vocals there for a 'local color' vibe. (At $10.00 a song, how can we go wrong?)
Right before I left, Mark Ellis and I created live performance submixes for Mark Needs A Chick. The initial report is that the mixes need some tweeking, but I have to hand it to the guys for trying this out. I first made live performance tracks (things like backing vocals and unusual instrumental parts to play along with during live shows) for ZZ Top's live show. It is not easy to get sync'd up and blend with prerecorded material, but when you do, it sounds very impressive. Today's audiences do not give a second thought to pre-recorded material being used in a show, (been to a rap show lately?), but back in the day, we hid the tape decks at the monitor position console during ZZ's show so nobody would snap to the fact that not all of the parts were being played live. My how the times do change.
News Flash: Hollywood records are checking out Pale and Mark Needs a Chick. Not that we're holding our breath or anything, but they have been more and more interested in Houston lately. On a side note, Steve Christensen's work on Silvertrip's demo looks to be very instrumental in their being signed by Capitol Records. Stay tuned for more on this.
Sarah Sharp is back from her UK tour, and it sounds like it was a raving success!! She was the darling of a BBC radio show, and was featured in several front page paper articles. Way to go. She and I will be meeting on Monday to discuss the details of her upcoming production. I have never been more ready to do a job.
Kevin Ryan and I have been working pretty hard with Courtney Powers on a three song deal. This has been a very pleasant surprise in that Courtney has risen to every challenge so far. Kevin has done a great job, as usual, on the arrangements, and Courtney has passed her first vocal pre production tests with flying colors. I had a really great time with her last night grooming her vocals on one song, (tentativly titled 'Stay'). We tried out some backing vocal ideas at the end of the night that really got me excited. We cut vocals and final instruments at SugarHill next week. Another cool part of our work together is that I got to write the lyrics to a song for Courtney titled, 'You Lose'. Despite the title's implication, this is a empowerment song(!)
Finally, both Eilleen Faxas, and Craig Byrnes are waiting in the wings to get productions started. All this and I may be engineering some big band stuff for Maria Williams. LIFE IS GREAT. I am also eager to hear from Jason Jordan and Jeff about the MiracleVersesMan tour. They should be home by now, (so call if you are reading, Jason).
thelove,
Dan
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