Catchup Bloggin

I've been traveling and working and NOT blogging, so time to share the love about what's been going on.

My collaboration with Maggie Walters has gone long distance. She and I are trading song files back and forth between Houston and Austin. I'm going to post a song that we did on the Soundboard today that is just a rough mix but has a wonderful vibe called, "Captain".

Speaking of long distance, I spent last week at the Tape Op Conference in Tucson Arizona. It was hot (but it was a dry heat...) Where did that joke come from? For those that are unfamiliar, Tape Op is a recording magazine that began as a fanzine for home recordists. Now EVERYONE is a home recordist, so the magazine is at the epicenter of the industry. I was on one of the discussion panels this year: 'Survival Skills'. No. The panel was not about partying. We did discuss what the future of the industry looks like for dedicated recording studios. Tune in to this web page next year to see if we're still here!! (I'm hedging our bets that the answer will be yes--we're still here).



Allen Corneau acting silly (as usual). We had a blast.


This last shot is from the audio trade show. I'm with a famous singer songwriter (you get $5 if you can tell me who----screw that,... it's Ian Moore), and on the left, Aspen Pittman, the world's greatest authority on tube amps and in general, all things tube.


Back home, I started my mix project with Christine Wu. I'm mixing her solo project, and I want to post one of her songs, but I forgot to ask permission. Here we are in a creative pose:


In other news, Eric Jarvis and I are continuing to have a ball working with Anne Loo. yesterday, we went over to Anne's tres' cool pad to do pre production on some more tunes. Here's a few of the moments captured on my low-res camera phone:





My appearance at the Apple store was really cool. We had a smallish turnout, but my lecture/demo of how I use Macs to do my business, organize my life, and do my music was a lot of fun. I've been asked back to do it at the Galleria and Memorial City Apple Stores too!






Finally, I started preproduction with Melissa Fair and Maria Lau. Here's a shot from our pre-pro session in Austin.

Anne Loo & Old Time Hammer

We spent two wonderful days in SugarHill's Studio A doing vocals and ancillary overdubs on Anne Loo's project. Eric Jarvis layered slabs of strings, and some mighty electric guitar. New production intern Joyce, was amazing as well, but we all turned around the axis of the project, Ms. Loo herself. Anne consistantly surprised us with the ease in which she got her vocal parts. Anne's ability to sing comes from a natural skill set that includes a feel for the music as well as the mechanics of pitch and timing. Rare indeed! As you can see, we had fun as well, mentally and verbally kayaking down a swift river of 'schtick' as we worked. I have rarely had so much many laughs while such good work got done. BRAVO!




Another amazing win this week was my tracking sessions with Old Time Hammer. Colin, Elise, Jordan, and Scott took every lesson from our extensive rehearsal very, very seriously. s a result, sounded transendent. I am so proud of the way they worked. We played and sang for two eight hour days, and no one complained until the last hour of the last day. Elise and Colin sang way above their previous best, and the band gave a generous and inspired performance in front of the microphones. I dare say that they gave their best show ever to Steve, myself, and the tape deck (well, computer!). We mix in July which seems a long way away, but will be here before we know it.

Check it out: