Highway 61

We have had quite a wide range of music at two pillars lately. Last week we welcomed the bluegrass group Highway 61 into the studio for a five song demo. Bruce and I set up the majority of our mic collection to capture these guys playing in their element; all in one room together. The band consisted of four vocals, mandolin, guitar, banjo, upright bass and fiddle. In about five and a half hours this group kicked out some classic old-timey music and seemed to be thrilled with the end product. I enjoy stepping out of my comfort level to achieve great sounds for various styles and this was no exception. Another feather in the stylistic cap for two pillars.

filled with voices (and bodies!)...

Last week I was working on the Tiny Tree Triumph project and Brian wanted a choir of voices behind one part of the latest song "Flashlight." Several of our friends joined us and including myself we had six people singing. We multiplied our voices on several tracks so it sounded like a larger group than we really were. The background vocals turned out really great and I had to bring my camera in and snap a couple shots seeing as how this was the largest group I'd had in the studio at one time. That is... until yesterday. My partner, Bruce Balgaard, did a favor for his daughter Amanda and her Chamber Singers group and invited them in to the studio to record a whopping 23 a cappella songs. There were at one time eighteen high school students in the tracking room, easily beating the old record of six! It was really a treat to hear and capture the voices of these talented young singers in their element. We captured a beautiful natural reverb by sticking a couple of microphones out in the hallway. It sounded like they were singing in a large church. Nice to know the tracking room is big enough to record a vocal ensemble of eighteen and even nicer to know that the control room can hold the same eighteen for listening to the playback.

beginnings of a great thing

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My good friend Brett Mikkelson came in yesterday and began recording scratch tracks for his CD. Brett is a really gifted singer/songwriter and my soul connects with his music in profound ways. Our songwriting is quite similar making our collaboration on this recording even better. My expectation is that this project will be some of my best work. Check back in a couple of weeks to see the progress!

past projects part one...

This past fall I had the distinct pleasure of co-producing/mixing Roger Flyer's latest musical contribution to the world, "Songs Hidden in Eggs." This was an all-star cast comprised of Peter Ostroushko, Dan Newton (both from from A Prairie Home Companion), Jessy Greene (Wilco), Joel Hanson (PfR), and was co-produced by my friend Ben Kyle (Romantica). The CD was recorded at various studios around town with a vast array of different players and it was my job to take all these sounds and make one cohesive album. You never know if you like your own work until months after it is released and you find yourself popping it into the CD player and actually enjoying it instead of critiquing it!

past projects part two...

Jonathan Rundman and I have become good friends. We toured the midwest together in 2005 for the Monsters of Folk tour. We have also done a bit of studio work together. He came to my studio one day armed with an external hard drive FILLED with old songs recorded and released years and years ago and asked me to re-tool, re-track and mix many of them for a remixed, best-of CD, which was released in 2007. It got great reviews and one of the songs was featured in one of Paste Magazine's CD samplers. Since then Jonathan has been in my studio to track one full band song and has also given me several more oldie-but-goodie songs to remix. It is always a real treat to work with him.

Save the Cookie

For the entire month of August I traveled to Bratislava, Slovakia to write music and lyrics for and co-produce an album for my very good friends who are in a band called Save the Cookie. After returning to the states in September they continued to finish and mix the album. In December they went into a production studio and did some filming for a few of their songs. Listed below is a live, in-studio performance video of the song called "Who I Am," which features my friend Steffon (a.k.a Snoogz) who came into my studio after I returned to record an original rap. I uploaded the file to my iDisk and they inserted it into their session. It is becoming increasingly cool to me that I can record someone in Minneapolis, upload the file and have it placed in the song on the other side of the world on the same day! The other is an actual video for another song called "Great Divide." Both songs (and versions of the songs featured in the videos) are what you can expect to hear on the upcoming album. Enjoy!

Click here for the video for "Who I Am"

Click here for the video for "Great Divide"

Caitlyn Smith on Mtv

I produced an mixed an album last year for the very talented singer/songwriter Caitlyn Smith. I recently found out that one of the songs I produced and mixed, "Come Alive" is going to be featured on the Mtv show Newport Harbor this very evening! My first musical appearance on M-friggin-TV! Congrats to Caitlyn for getting her fine music heard all over this land... and to me too.