Tuesday, June 28, 2005

John Evans Band Banner

I came in this morning and found two surprises. First was a big, odd-shaped Fed Ex box. Second; Devon was here early.

Devon couldn't sleep & came to work, (bless her heart). The banner was from Lone Star to use at John Evan'sshows since they are sponsoring John. Woot!

Saturday, June 25, 2005

TAPE OP, JJ WORTHEN, STRING THEORY

A large crew from SugarHill Studios went to the Tape Op Magazine convention in New Orleans a few weeks ago. Steve Christensen, John Griffin, Heba Kadry, Leigh Crain, and Allen Corneau joined our good friend, Jason McKee, and I, and headed towards the Big Easy in a rented van (thanks, John).

Tape Op Con is a unique convention in the pro audio world. It is geeky without the high level entertainment industry politics. No 'dick rulers' are allowed, and as a result, you meet tons of people who are happy to be carving out a career in audio recording and production. This is the second time we have 'gone as a family' and I love it. Check out these pictures:

IF this picture had been in focus you would see Danny Kadar (New Orleans engineer/producer), moi, Chris Bell (of Luminous Sound in Dallas & the president of the Recording Academy Texas Chapter), and Steph Jorgl who is the Chair of the Academy's Producer & Engineer Wing)


Here I am with Aspen Pittman, president & founder of the Groove Tubes company. Aspen is legendary in the guitar amp and pro audio world as being one of the few true authorities on tube amplification. I first met Aspen when I was working for Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. Then, Aspen gave me a signed first edition of his authoritative "Tube Amp Book". Here we are some 20 years later where he is gifting me with the latest version, signed yet again! I am so honored!


Our Leigh expressed 'an interest' in meeting legendary Nirvana engineer, Steve Albini. Here she is playing poker with SugarHill's Steve Christensen, another annoying girl, and Steve Albini:










Here are some general fellowshipping pictures. I love my crew!!!!








Here is John Griffin and Steve Christensen with my good friend, Dan-O Deckleman from Snake Oil Studio. I met Dan-O at last years Tape Op and we have become friends. We often share mixes with each other.


The first night of the conference was a cool party hosted by the famous Piety Street Studios in New Orleans. The owner, John John Fischbach, produced Stevie Wonder's 'Songs in the Key of Life' Here I am with John:



I kept screwing up John's name, to his face, all the time we talked. Logan would have been so pissed at me if she had been there.

The highlight of the show was getting to talk to Rupert Neve. Rupert is the world's most famous audio equipment designer. He's in his eighties and just keeps on going with a new series of gear and a new company. I am truly blessed to have met him (twice!).




Back at home, things are popping, but it has been slow for me. I got spoiled working with Joyce Pierce and Carolina Bedetta. While working with Yamisse, three songs just came and went so fast. Now I am working on single songs for three different artists; Erika Anderson, Jacque Jones, and Winter Roberts.

I'm also composing with Ms. Christine Wu and we were in SugarHill's Studio A laying down two of the five parts of our music for the performance art show; "String Theory". Christine is my favorite new collaborator, and has a cool new Royer 122 mic to boot! John Griffin was nice enough to donate an evening to the cause, and as a result, we got fat, solid tracks.

Here's Christine getting up for the game in Studio A:


Finally, SugarHill and Dan Workman Music donated the grand prize to last year's winner of KPRC's Gimme the Mic talent contest. The winner is a young man named JJ Worthen. I donated my time to produce two songs for JJ. When time came for us to get started, I was amazed at how talented he is. He can write as well as he sings and plays. I'll be writing more about JJ's project later, but here we are doing pre production in Studio B. JJ: I can't wait to record the first session!


I'll probably post again soon. It is rough catching up.

thelove,
Dan

Friday, June 24, 2005

DAN WORKMAN MISSING IN ACTION

It has been pointed out by loyal readers, that I'm not posting much lately (duh). I'll be back with a doosey on Saturday, 6/24. In the meantime, peruse the site, and read some archives!

the absentee love,

Dan