Matt Patrick Production: The New Standards (and more...)

I know what it is like, you have a bookmark folder full of blogs that you like to read. But there is this one individual who seems to have slowed... to... a... stop. Well, I am no longer that guy. Honestly, the only reason for such a long hiatus is simply because the Library has never been busier.

Annie Fitzgerald's album, "In Good Time" was mastered in July, I have worked on several mixes for Jonathan Rundman, am just getting going on mixes for a band called "A Thousand Falls," I have been deep into the tracking for a southern rock/country project for Chris Harms and an EP for Erin Kate. Another artist you will soon see me blogging about is Heatherlyn. We are rounding the corner to the last set of tunes for preproduction before heading into tracking.

I also had the distinct privilege of capturing the bed tracks for the forth-coming album by the New Standards. This is what I will focus on for this post.

Directly across the hall from the Library is the rehearsal space of Dave Salmela and John Munson. Dave plays piano for the Twilight Hours and also helps create and perform the music for Electric Arc Radio. John Munson has been a member of a couple of Minneapolis bands with critical acclaim; Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic. These days John is playing upright bass for the band The New Standards with another Minneapolis music icon, Chan Poling of the Suburbs on piano and Steve Roehm a virtuosic vibraphone player (who also plays drums for the Twilight Hours).

We had talked a couple months ago about what it might look like to have them record at the Library. John has a Steinway baby grand piano across the hall in their space and I had mentioned that it wouldn't be terribly difficult to run several long microphone cables and headphone extension all the way across the hall so that Chan could play in there. It worked out great as there was absolutely no cross-instrument bleed into the piano mic's, which is often the case. We tracked the upright bass in my piano/organ room and put the vibraphone out in the big room, that is until another local heavy-hitter, Ken Chastain, arrived to play drums. The vibraphone moved into the vocal booth and the drums took the main room for a small handful of tunes.

Three days later a full album of bedtracks were tracked. They are finishing up the rest on their own but am delighted to have played such a significant role in the making of this album.

Here are some photos from the session...