Winter Wallace in print

Notwithstanding the preponderance of dan-gush, this is a great article about a very very deserving young lady with whom I have had the amazing pleasure of working--Winter Wallace.

Winter's music began my intense collaboration with Recording the Beatles co-author, Kevin Ryan, and has continued through the current band lineup led by the amazing Nolan Burke. Check out the article, here.

Sometimes You Just Need To Talk

The Blue Door

Weird. I've started to consider this blog simply a more producerboy-specific version of my Facebook Wall or Twitter post. The world is changing. Again.

Notes:

I went to Maui to attend a Grammy (NARAS) Board of Trustees meeting. Upon my return I found that lightning had hit our power transformer, taking out a bunch of computers and gear, most notably our Neotek Elite console in Studio A. My partner and the studio's designer, Rodney Meyers, pulled it off last night. We got the console up and running on newly delivered power supplies. I have to fix a few of the I/O modules, and a meter driver IC, but that's doable. I was totally out of my depth in battling the Great Power Supply Demon. All hail Rodney!

As a nice counterbalance to that drama swirl, I finished Girl Friday's songs. We mastered with Allen Corneau last Friday (yes,... very apt), and the songs turned out fantastic. Check out Dorothy here. That is the song that caught my imagination the first time I heard it. I unashamedly played all over it, and have no problem reporting to you, dear anonymous reader, that I loved the results.

Equally cool is the fact that I finished mixing Debbie Forrest's song, I'm Still Here, right before Rodney and I went in to do battle with the console. Max Dyer played cello, and Josh Moore played piano. Their performances magically support an impressive and inspired vocal performance by Debbie. I'll be posting that song (always with the artist's permission, I may add) later in the day.

I first heard the song when Debbie was playing around on the piano while we were tracking vocals for another song, You Picked Me. The second I heard it, I hoped that I would have a chance to record it. The song, and Debbie's performance, were already fantastic, and I immediately had a pretty good idea of the presentation and vibe that we should go for. I wanted to set up the tune with the right parts and players, and get the heck out of the way, and I feel like it went well. The gestation time was a bit longer than I thought it would be (we explored putting rock drums and acoustic guitar on it, and it took me FOREVER to mix it), but it was worth the wait.

Now, off to mix Three Kisses, prepare for a cool Halloween novelty song by Craig Squires, and post songs for a session with Trigger (Mike Trigg). Happy Monday, indeed.

Playing with Jandek

I got to check off one of those 'life list' to do's last week. I played a show with Houston-Mysterioso-Avant-Garde legend, Jandek. You can click on the link for the review.

That's me, on the right side of the gigantic 'guy in front of the camera' head.

When you play with Jandek, you have to sign a contract saying that, in essence, it never happened. No credit, no royalty. You are listed as a 'technical advisor' for the show. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done, and it makes me miss playing in experimental/noise bands.

Here's a reprint of Creg Lovett's review from the most excellent Space City Rock website:

Live: Jandek at DiverseWorks

by Creg Lovett

(l to r) Jandek, Craig Hauschildt, & Angela Reed. Photo by Creg Lovett.

DIVERSEWORKS -- 5/3/2009: Jandek surfaced at DiverseWorks last Sunday for an hour and five minutes of improv chamber music. This was as unlike any of his other music as his other music is to everyone else's music. There were no vocals. Jandek remained seated throughout, and may never have looked in the direction of the audience. He sparsely played an electric five-string bass guitar with a pick and slide. To his left was Craig Hauschildt playing gongs using props ranging from buckets of water to brushes and rubber bands. When he removed and serenely threw a cymbal across the room, nobody acted surprised.

At center stage, and featured, was Angela Reed seated with a huge bass clarinet that often dominated the performance. Behind her, James Metcalfe operated several dozen wind chimes, most notably using a Big Gulp-type plastic cup full of water, in which he submerged chimes as he struck them.

(l to r) Craig Hauschildt, Angela Reed, & Dan Workman. Photo by Creg Lovett.

A highlight was the accessible guitar work of Dan Workman, who was seated, wearing all black, with an electric guitar, a very small Casio SK1 keyboard, and a laptop with which he interfaced constantly during the show. Most of the concert was the musical equivalent of a Jackson Pollock painting, but the guitar was often a very familiar shredding that reminded me of one of the 1980s Zappa disciples. It was weird, but not Jandek weird.

The mere sight of Jandek himself is a shock. Honestly, he looks like a star. The players sat below the audience in folding chairs on the floor, while we were on risers. Several large stage lights flooded the band in blue moonlight tones without shadow. This made Jandek, and Jandek only, appear ethereal. Like a gentleman ghost in fine bluesman clothing. END

Live From SugarHill Episode 5, John Ramirez and Los Skarnales

Live From SugarHill Studios - Episode 5 from W. Ross Wells on Vimeo.

"No Photos--Please"

Random:

I drove to Austin yesterday to attend a meeting of the Texas Board of Governors for the Recording Academy. That's a long drive for a mouth full of a meeting. The day was really beautiful, the meeting went well and a few smaller meetings parked around the main meeting were really excellent. I'm preparing for my second Board of Trustees meeting in Hawaii (Maui) in a couple of weeks. The thrill of being in Hawaii is somewhat offset by the weighty nature of being on the national B.o.T.o.t.R.Academy (another keyboard-full). I think I'm as prepared as I'm going to be.

Right before I left town, I met with Heather Wagner (Juice Consulting) and Joe Stallone (Bracewell & Giuliani) about forming a new company to provide production, promotion and legal services to artists--filling the hole left by the major labels in their race to extinction. Heather is at the top of her game having served as Beyonce's product manager for 4 years, and Joe is a sharp, honest attorney with a big heart. Quite a combination. I already have worked with them both. Joe is doing legal for Ross Wells' and my non-profit, The Houston Sound. This could be very cool. More Will Be Revealed on that front.

I was just in Austin for South By Southwest a few weeks ago. This year the weather was the best I can remember for the festival. The highlight for me was the Tape Op party, sitting at the table with Maureen Droney, George Massenburg, Ed Chereney, John Spencer, and Bob Ludwig. I won't even bother to hyperlink these gods and goddess of the industry. You either already know them, or you will be fine taking my word for it. These are the folks occupying the headiest realms in pro audio, and I was squealing like a schoolgirl inside as George, Ed, Maureen, John, and Bob called me by my first name and mentioned SugarHill.

Time to go to work. I will be playing guitar parts on Lisa Serice's project, and working on an arrangement for David Enriquez, and starting to mix 3 songs for 3 Kisses (or their side project, Six Mules for Sister Sarah).

Ok, maybe one photo: The Kaitlyn Knippers Production Team, Tyson Sheth (drums), Kaitlyn, Rich Whiting, Chris Longwood, and moi, producerboy. Not pictured: JJ Worthen.

Girl Friday

Yesterday I cut basic tracks in SugarHill's Studio A for Girl Friday. The session was incredibly fun and worth an update. GF brought food which included an astonishingly good chocolate chip cookie (one of the giant pizza pan sized ones). It was amazing because it was cooked just right--about one minute past the raw cookie dough stage (danger!), but before the next chewy cook stage. She also brought each of us a chocolate easter bunny... along with Perrier, wine, banannas, veg tray, chips, picante' sauce,....

We did do more than eat. We got basics for two great songs, Storm, and Dorthy . Eric Jarvis played bass, Falcon Valdez was on the drums and percussion, and Josh Moore played piano and accordion. Steve Christensen engineered, and SugarHill Uber Intern Kevin assisted. This was the first time I worked with Josh, and I was suitably impressed. It was also the first time for me to work with this particular cutting crew. Eric, Steve and I have tons of hours logged in the studio together, and Falcon and Josh fit right in. As a matter of fact, the vibe on this session may have been one of the sweetest I have ever experienced, even though we were put to the test before the session even started. Andy Bradley's emergency mix session did not end until a few minutes after our slated start time. That was no problem at all for us as we all sat around the 'horn o' plenty' of snacks in the break room table. Way to go Girl Friday!

The highlight of the session was Falcon coming up with some great arrangement and percussion ideas. No. Wait a sec,... the highlight of the session was GF going into an unabashed girl-cry during the first take of the first song we tracked. She had warned me that it would happen, and U.I. Kevin was ready with the tissues. She was just so pumped to hear her song being realized by such generous and talented guys. I actually had some contact-cry emotions when I saw her break down. She was experiencing the joy that motivated us to work in the studio in the first place. It's always an honor to lead someone through the rite of passage of their first session working with magical players. The music was great, the vibe was beautiful, and the fellowship was wonderful. A really good day at the office. Now I get to play my parts!

Southern Backtones new video: Slumber Party

The Southern Backtones (no strangers to this blog), just released their second video, Slumber Party. This is another mad collaboration between zenfilm's braintrust, Ross Wells, and SBT's lead singer, Hank Schyma.

The song was engineered and mixed by Steve Christensen, and I produced, sang backing vocals and played mucho SK-1. The song is a psycho-ballad about,... well,... sex. Ok. I know that this probably comes as a great surprise, and I apologize in advance for the subject matter.

The video is PG-13, however, and features a few fleeting glimpses of moi, producerboy, hammering it out on the SK-1.

Ross and Hank have made their (now usual) genius moves. I think that you will enjoy.


Southern Backtones "Slumber Party" Music Video from W. Ross Wells on Vimeo.