bored

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

sarah sample returns

it's nearly 4am christmas eve, i guess technically it's christmas day now, and i'm currently lying on the floor in the room of my two sons, making sure they dont walk downstairs and catch santa doing his work. don't ask how it got this late, lets just say these boys are having a hard time sleeping, so it's been a long night.

anyway, seems like as good a time as any to go ahead and give you the rundown of last weeks amazing sessions.

sarah sample, whom ive been lucky enough to make one album with, called a few months back to find out about recording an ep. problem was, the budget was pretty small. so how could we make it work. obviously, things had to be done fast, with as few musicians as possible.

but before we settled on a super stripped-down, acoustic guitar/vocal ep, we figured we may as well ask around to see who might be willing to lend a hand as cheap as possible.

i gave sarah my musician wish list -

dustin christensen - piano, guitar, vocals

paul jacobsen - guitar, mandolin, vocals

ryan tanner - guitar, keyboards, vocals

pat campbell - drums, percussion

brian hardy - keyboards

ryan tilby - bass, anything else with strings, vocals

dylan schorer - guitar, dobro, lap and pedal steel

then, in addition, i could fill in on bass, keyboards, guitar or whatever might need to be done and we would have sarah on guitar and vocals.

we hoped we might get one or two guys to come down. the amazing part - they all said yes, and they all said they would come for free!

what a tremendous group this was. we set everyone up in the studio a at june audio. all in one room, and for the most part, no headphones. there was gear everywhere, mics everywhere, and in the end, bleed everywhere. and it turned out amazing.

the setup took most of the morning, 7:30 am until 11:30am or so. but once we got rolling, it was one of those experiences with music that makes you realize just why you do it, and how great it can be. everyone working together to make sarah's songs the best they could be. no ego, people playing whatever instrument was needed, or sitting out if need be. on one song, pat, paul, brian and I all just stomped and clapped while we sang background vocals. everything was live, no overdubs, no punch-ins.

ryan tanner, dylan schorer, ryan tilby and dustin christensen

paul jacobsen, ryan tanner and ryan tilby

pat campbell's view

ryan tilby and pat campbell

ryan tanner, sarah sample and dylan schorer

me - filling in on bass

mr patrick campbell

ryan tilby on the upright bass

dustin christensen

sarah and last minute bonus musician nate pyfer of code hero

nate on the accordian

given that the studio was set up, and available the following day, we decided to see who wanted to return for a second day and record some songs of dustin christensen and paul jacobsen. we were lucky to have everyone return except for pat campbell, who apparantly values work and providing for his family more than hanging out, recording for free and eating diegos.

paul jacobsen

brian hardy, paul jacobsen and ryan tanner

nate pyfer at the piano

ryan tilby on the j-45

another bonus musician-darin lesueur stopped by to help out with some percussion, and vocals on the amazing christmas song (you can listen to that below)

Merry Christmas from junioraudio

a very merry Christmas to you and yours from all these guys -

ring ding a dong

and in case you missed last year's song -
christmas vacation

(this is what happens when you have some free time at the end of a long day of recording)

past studios

after many conversations with friends who do what i do for a living i have come to one conclusion - there really wasnt any chance we/i would/could do anything else. you have to be part geek to be way into the gear, part nerd to be way into the science behind sound and electronics, part artist to be into the music, part slacker/hipster to be in with musicians, and part super workaholic to meet the deadlines and come through for clients. as an added bonus for my clients i add in part super sarcastic and occasionally humerous, part moody with occasional post 10pm grumpiness, and part ultra dedicated to their projects.

hmmm, im rambling. the point was/is that ive wanted to do this for as long as i can remember, and frankly never considered doing anything else.

so to celebrate the purchase of my new photo scanner, i present to you a history of my studio spaces.

first up - basement tapes recording version 1

for my middle school graduation my parents bought me a little fostex 4-track cassette machine. later, in 10th grade i think, i upgraded to a fostex open reel 8 track and a 12 channel fostex console. at first i set it up in chris peterson's living room. i'm not sure how long we had it there, but we made some recordings. they weren't good. i won't post them here.
at some point i moved all the gear into my family's basement. my sister especially enjoyed this arrangement as the two small rooms were right beneath her room.

this is our first setup. very professional


once the desk was built things definitely improved


this is brian holmes recording a vocal in a box during the making of the poke kick touch album-1992
there is no way that box made it sound better


drums for thom moore's first band in the basement studio

next - off to usc. although i spent many, many, many hours in this studio, i only have about 2 pictures of me there. here is one of them. i am glad not to have to ever go in that studio again.

levi nunez, me, and brian holmes recording some early wobble shop stuff

600 miles northest - basement tapes recording version 2. graduated from usc, bought some more gear (tascam 3500 console, 3 adats, etc), and moved to provo utah. i had a little money saved and i moved into a very rundown storefront downtown. i planned on staying for 4 months.
i dont know how big this place was, but it was fairly large. it was previously vintage clothing store called truman edsels, although it didnt seem that anyone had set foot in there for 10 years before i moved in. the rent was $250/month, which somehow actually seemed high.
there was of course, no shower, and the bathroom had to be completely rebuilt, in addition to new carpet and paint needed in every room.

in the control room


the studio at truman edsels. the really classy part of this studio was the shower i built. it, along with a sinki put in, were located just to the left of the frame. so you could record and shower at the same time. although no one ever did.

2 doors north - after a few years a space just 2 doors away opened up and it was so much larger, yet only $100/month more. thats right, $350/month for what must have been 1500-2000 square feet or so. at this point i think i had managed to save up about $2500 or so, and this was really all the money i had in the world. not questioning why the rental company would only give me a month to month lease, i dove into this place, sinking my massive savings into the renovation.

i'm fairly sure that our sound insulating material was not up to code. not being able to afford doubling up the sheetrock, or having the walls filled by an insulation company, we found old couches, cut the foam up and stuffed it into the walls!.

the new control room

this is the drum setup for the one and only session that happened in this studio. why only one you ask??

yep, within 2 weeks of actually finishing the studio, i was informed that the entire block of buildings was to be torn down. that pile of rubble on the left was the new studio, while the door on the right was the back door of truman edsels.

off to orem - after losing my amassed fortune, sarah and i, newly married, rented a house in orem, utah. most of my time was spent working at larger studios in salt lake, but we did some work to turn the bottom floor of the house into a studio. i must have recorded at least 6 or 7 albums in this studio

dan reneer and i model our newly created bass traps


the studio room at the orem house

back to downtown provo - so orem was so boring. i suspect it may still be. regardless, our landlord found out we had the studio downstairs and didnt want us there anymore, so we had to find a new place to live. continuing my tradition of building studios in old clothing stores, we moved into 39 west. this house was the best. the rooms just seemed to encourage you to make music. it really was such a great place.
in the beginning sarah and i lived upstairs, which the studio took up most of the downstairs, with the control room at the back of the house in a screened porch turned addition.

george brunt and chris peterson during the recording of sunfall festival's monday 23 album


craig poole, jay lawrence and rich dixon

the control room at 39 west. i have no idea who these guys are


at some point, we made an offer, bought the 39 west property and decided to do a full-blown renovation. this picture comes from sessions for an album by the baho quartet. this room had been torn apart, the ceiling was gone, the roofers had the roof completely torn off and you could see the sky clearly from this room. but we needed another space so we put the drums in there, and it sounded great. the only down side was a little rain on the drums.

june audio - after the remodel, this became one of the coolest studios ive worked in. it sounded great, had a great vibe and the location was great too. things could get a little small once we loaded a lot of gear in, but it was a hard space to beat for album work.

after 4 years or so we sold the place and it later was moved to the new building, which is where i rent a room now. the gear is still great, the room isnt as good, the location isnt as good, but there are way more lame alarm salesmen around.

so, yes, i realize this might be the most boring blog post ever.