May and June. Arizona and Utah

after finishing a month long project in early May, which was, shall we say, very strange, yes, very strange indeed...so anyway, after finishing that particular project i was off to arizona to record zack lind from jimmy eat world in the band's own tempe studio. zack had agreed to play drums on 3 new songs for benton paul.
the studio was great, the gear was great, zack was great, arizona - not my favorite. seriously, how do you people live there?

setup #1 in the studio

zack, benton and manager ryan wyler

setup #2 in the bands warehouse/storage area

back in utah, benton and scott johnson in for some keyboard overdubs

benton's 3 songs are now done and off to jeff rothschild for mixing. last week saw the start of a hymns record for DB. Libbie Linton, The Mollies, Kyle Henderson, Joshua James, Dustin Christensen, and many others will all be in to add their voices. Here's a photo from when Paul Jacobsen was in -

and finally two weeks ago my "new" u-67s arrived after many attempts to get them to Utah. I had really forgotten how amazing a good 67 can be. These are only 3 serial numbers apart and they are quite minty! They've been put to a lot of good use lately, including all of Benton's vocals.

The 3rd Annual JuniorAudio Awards for Excellance in Studio Accoutrement

Welcome to the 3rd Annual JAAESA's!! Thanks for joining us.

Thanks to a project that gives me ample internet time, the JAAESA's are back again! What? you missed the 1st and 2nd Annual JAAESA's? Hmmm, that's really too bad.

On to the awards!

The Award for Best Confectionery Impersonation of the Many Faces of Elvis Presley goes to...

The newly arrived console-top M&M Elvi!!
In case you are questioning my dedication to the M&Elvis's, when they arrived at the studio in my backpack, they fell out, hit the floor and broke into many many little Elvis parts. At least a few hours and lots of superglue later they were ready to take their place amongst the many studio mascots. Who would've known then that they were destined for JAAESA glory!

The Award for Most Useless Yet Most Constantly Played Instrument goes to...

Blue Mini Strat!

T-Castle-Dogg brought this little gem back for me all the way from Thailand. That's right, this baby is IMPORTED. Man, I wish we had things like this here in the states!
Anyway, without fail, everyone who enters the studio picks this up and lets loose with a sweet riff or two. Of course, it makes no noise and doesnt even have strings. but still...
I'm thinking about dedicating a whole blog entry to photos of each and every client wailing on it.
Congratulations BMS!!!

The Award for Best Studio Drink of April 30th, 2009 goes to...

Lime Diet Coke!!
this one seems fairly self-explanatory



The Award for Biggest Waste of Money Spent at the St George Flying J Truck Stop goes to...

Utah ROCK ON Magnetic Small Fake License Plate Sign!!!
When I bought this sign I hoped that it would inspire those in the studio
to truly rock on.
This award proves that it has.



The Award for Greatest Indicator of Sense of Humor and Occasional Creator of Extreme Awkwardness goes to...

Chuck Norris Facts Books!
another treasure from TCastle. These books while very funny, can often be somewhat sordid. This usually adds up to great reading material and plenty of laughs for most who discover just how boring time in the studio can be. Occasionally however, it can cause great discomfort and make the mood very uncomfortable when those who are "less than relaxed" with their sense of humor think that I am for some reason trying to get them to spend their time reading total smut.


And Finally...Our Last Award of the Evening


The Award for Best Studio Snack goes to....

Wheat Thins!!!!
if it were up to me, I would make wheat thins ad slogan "hey, trust me, they are good!"
or "wheat thins, never forget"
or "just try em already!"
believe me, I would never go to the store and just buy some wheat thins as a snack, at least not before I bought tons of potato chips and tortilla chips, etc etc. but man oh man, we had some of these in the control room today, and they are just delicious.
so "JUST TRY EM ALREADY!"

uh, remember when this post was going to be funny?

nah, me neither. im going home.

Cameron Rafati-week 2, The Madison Arm

hello again

the cameron rafati album marches in to week 2. while this has not been the easiest project, things are going well and i'm happy to report that things are sounding great. cameron pushes for certain sounds more than other clients, and while that can be somewhat overwhelming at times, it has added up to more unique and interesting sounds overall.

todd sorensen stopped by to play on a few songs.
he played massive snare drums and tiny bass drums.

then one of my favorite guys ever - scott johnson - stopped in for day one of his keyboard attack. grand and upright piano and hammond b3 were the instruments for this day. next week we get into an ample amount of wurli, rhodes, field organ and synth stuff

one note of interest to no one but me - cameron was looking for a specific piano sound which we eventually found by laying felt over the strings and closing the lid entirely with the mics - neumann 87s - on the outside.

intern pat has been enlisted by cameron as session videographer, which has not interfered with his intern duties, which consist of watching while eating candy, whatsoever

cameron on the ukulele
picture not available:
craig poole stopped in to play bass on two tracks, while rob honey came in to play upright bass on two tracks and electric bass on still another.

in other non-studio news paul jacobsen and the madison arm (myself included) played over at velour on the friday night. yes, i know, you were busy. the show went well and thanks to good friend jed wells, we even have some documentation. here are some of my favorites.


pat campbell - less than 2 weeks after dislocating his shoulder

me - less than 2 hours since eating a taco

ryan tanner

and finally, here i am proving my theory that i am the
shortest person in my entire circle of friends.

ps if you were interested in hearing any of the sarah sample ep documented here, i put a few tracks up on my audio samples site. just click on the "my work" link you will find over there on the right side of this page.
pps dont steal those tracks and sell them
ppps dont tell sarah i put them up here

finally a new album

wednesday saw the start of an album project for cameron rafati. finally a project to really dig into again. thursday and friday aaron anderson from fictionist lent his drum talents.
thanks to a ton of compression and distortion the sounds were amazing, and we had enough drums available for 4 drummers.
monday we will begin to build the songs with the help of craig poole, scott johnson and who knows who else.
wow, this is quite a blog entry.
in related news-on friday march 6th you have the oppurtunity to hear paul jacobsen and the madison arm as well as the aforementioned fictionist. just come to velour in provo.


in unrelated news - tonight i watched nick and norah's infinite playlist. this is not a good movie. if you liked this movie you are a) 14 years old and b) not my friend anymore.

sick, slow, busy, sick

i'm afraid there isnt a whole lot to report as of late. things were rather slow after christmas and for the first few weeks of 09, prompting me to once again believe that i would never work again.

the efy album continues to move along slow as can be. we should be wrapping it all up in time for efy 2020, all the songs are about robots and time travel though, so at least we are prepared.

code hero stopped in the studio for a few days.

atherton stopped in for a 3 day session, but i got so sick that we had to cancel - here i am a week later still sick as can be.

neon trees also came by to knock out some demos of new songs.

lots of things on the horizon, now if only i can get my head to stop feeling like its going to explode.

nate pyfer

ryan tanner

the orange ad15 reminds me once again why i shouldnt sell it

the paul jacobsen and the madison arm show you should have attended

other notes -

lately i've been reminded just how great the glyn johns mic technique can be.
the wunder cm7 continues to amaze.
after nearly moving out to find another studio space, it seems i may stick around for a while.
a new pro tools rig is in the works
i am currently working on an interior redesign of my small space, i'm getting bored of it's current look.
apx alarm continues in its role as home to the highest concentration of super-bros in the world, the amount of trucks with two wheels up on something (snow, curbs, dirt, grass) as of late has been astounding.
good luck finding a 15' dvi extension cable to hook up your new 30" display anywhere in utah.
i'm really starting to think i might have outgrown my ns-10s.

get out of the house

ok, i dont usually do this, but cmon, you need to get out. what's that? you dont know what to do or where to go?


saturday night, the 17th. come to velour in provo at 8pm. mr tanner, mr campbell, mr jacobsen and i will be playing. it will be a great show. and we will even have a very special guest - all the way from spokane washington, mr george brunt. really, can you resist? see you there.

bored

today i was so bored that i made miis of paul jacobsen and the madison arm.