north... er, greycoats rather

The other album I am producing right now is a band called greycoats. Formerly known as North, the band called me up looking for someone to produce their project. They had recorded this album in it's entirety at another studio on their own and decided (after restructuring many of the songs) to take it again, this time with a producer. Since they are long time acquaintances of mine and have used me to record/mix other projects they have worked on it seemed to be a natural fit. Greycoats also found themselves in need of a bass player and I decided it was a good time in my life to step into a more serious performing group. The drums, Rhodes and piano were recorded back in January at a studio just four blocks from Two Pillars called Fur Seal. Back at Two Pillars Jon, the singer/guitarist has been tracking guitar and vocals, I tracked all the bass, their keyboard player, Titus came in and sorted through all the keyboard parts he laid down at Fur Seal and the drummer, Mike came in to play shakers, tambourine, and jingle bells. They have a song called "Spiritual," which needed some interesting rhythm tracks. We decided to record these tracks outside since it fit the feel of the song. Mike recorded the stamping of his feet on the pavement, banging a hammer on a metal pipe and dropping a handful of heavy chains on the ground in rhythm to the song. Since they had recorded many parts for the album already and wanted to utilize some of those tracks, Jon brought in a media disc filled with cello parts, marching bass drum, bells, accordion, clarinet and er-hu. The only problem was that the tempo changed on a couple of the songs. Since it was only off by 2-3 beats per minute I was able to time stretch the audio without changing the pitch and line them up. I am still surprised at how good it sounds after taking such an audio beating as time-stretching. Greycoats has more of a brit-rock feel. Imagine Morrisey singing Coldplay songs with the back up band of Sigur Ros, with the overall musical direction by Thom Yorke.

Tim Lemmens

I am in the process of producing two full records by two local artists. The first is a veteran of the Twin Cities music scene. His name is Tim Lemmens and his sound is inspired by the likes of Dave Matthews, John Mayer and Maroon5. We have been feverishly tracking everything part by part, which has allowed us to be quite picky about each musical moment that passes. His drummer Aaron and guitarist Mike both did a fantastic job. I laid down all the bass tracks and between Tim and myself we are adding various keyboard parts. I have these new API pre's that sound amazing especially combined with my two Distressors. I am finding it difficult to go to my other top notch pre's because the API's sound so pristine. The newness will undoubtedly wear off and I will give some time back to the other slightly jealous preamps. We have all the bed tracks laid and are currently and simultaneously doing Tim's vocals and adding other ear candy moments like synth, Wurlitzer electric piano, rhythmic loops, Rhodes, Hammond organ, pump organ, Casio keyboard drum beats, thumb piano, etc. Once these things are done we will focus on background vocals and the album will be ready to mix. The key ingredient to the recording success of this project is the monstrous upgrade to HD3. Good bye LE. You have run a good race but the inevitable has finally come to fruition.