Make Peace

I just put the opening track from TRUCE (the new Bill Mike record) up on my myspace page. Go check it out, and make plans to be at the Cedar Cultural Center this Friday for the TRUCE release show.

The coolest home studio in the world…

I spent the afternoon in another session today, this time at an amazing studio in Farmington, MN called “Skyland.” It’s state of the art, and from just sitting in the studio you would never know that it’s in my friend Darren Rust’s basement. It’s got a driveway and entrance separate from the rest of the home, separate heating and cooling, tons of square footage, and an amazing design.

Darren is in the Twin Cities acapella group called The Blenders, and we did live drums on some of the backing tracks for their upcoming Christmas shows. But seriously. Check out the pics on the Skyland website and tell me this isn’t the coolest home studio you’ve ever seen.

Album of the Week, #13

In honor of the record I’m working on this week with Nate Sabin, I think the feature album for this time around should be one that he’s produced. My favorite in that category is a Minneapolis native named Michael Olson’s debut album called Long Arm Of Love. Overall, the record is definitely a Nashville, “Contemporary Christian” vibe, and yet there’s an artistic integrity that most CCM records don’t quite capture.

First of all, Olson has a killer voice. If you like a great vocal performance, then this is the record for you. After that, the songwriting is wonderful. Great arrangements, thoughtful lyrics, and catchy melodies. But like I said, the real draw to this record for me is the production, which is just dripping with cool tones and ideas. Odd time bars that still feel good, unorthodox instrumentation and parts, and lots of smart but abrupt left turns make the record feel at once like a great pop album AND an art concept.

All that being said, the real reason that I first listened this album was the drummer. Steve Brewster has been an A-list studio guy in Nashville for decades, and his playing on this album is SO GREAT. His sounds, his feel, his ideas… they are all top notch and very inspiring. I learn something every time I listen to his playing on this record. In fact, the Brewster’s performance on this record is what prompted me to write the post about the “less is more” concept. See… he plays a lot of notes, but it doesn’t FEEL like he plays a lot of notes, and how those two things coexist is amazing to me. His patterns often take strange turns and his fills are very big and full, yet you would never accuse him of overplaying.  Awesome.

Also, I should note that I learned something really important from Steve Brewster… via my friend Aaron Fabbrini. Aaron was sitting in on a Brewster drum session down at Dark Horse studios in Nashville. He came back and told me that Brewster always uses some kind of sock (or washcloth or something) on the hihats. Yep, just drapes it across the hats and then hits on top of it. The towel dampens a little of the brash high end that make the hihat every engineer’s bitter enemy. Hats will normally bleed into all the other drum mics and make it difficult to mix levels properly, but the towel decreases that effect quite a bit. I’ve been using a towel on my hats in the studio for about a year now, and it works great. All you drummers… try it for yourself.

So, check out Michael Olson’s Long Arm Of Love and I promise you’ll like it. (Actually, click that link and also check out the new website I found with VERY cheap prices on discs.)

Truce

Some time ago I posted some pics of the studio sessions for the new Bill Mike Band record, Truce. That album is due out in a couple weeks here, and we booked a release show at the Cedar Cultural Center on Nov 14. There’s a bunch of eclectic stuff happening at the show that night, and it’s sponsored in part by the Surly Brewing Company. Should be a ton of fun. Check out the flyer, and there’s a review of the record in Rift Magazine.

So mark it in the calendar: Nov 14 at the Cedar. New Bill Mike record. Booya.

Fuzzy Slippers

I’m doing some session work again this week… and it’s at another studio that I’ve not been in before. Fuzzy Slippers in lowertown St. Paul is a super cool room with all kinds of vibe. I’m working on a record for an artist named Jay Asplin. This is another project produced by my friend Nate Sabin, and I am enjoying the opportunity to work with him again.

The coolest part of these sessions is the other studio musicians I’m playing with. Aaron Fabbrini is on bass with Ben Gowell on guitar, like the last session I did with Nate, and both of those guys always bring tons of creativity and great playing to the table. The new faces are… a killer engineer Todd Robbins, and the great multi-instrumentalist Phil Madeira. They are both from Nashville and very well-known (click Phil’s name for a link to his wikipedia page… SERIOUS credits on that guy’s resume).

I am definitely feeling out of my league on these sessions, and I’m excited about that… which brings me to the main topic of this post…

The challenge of playing music with people who are better than me is cool on so many levels. First off, I get to see how they work, glean some wisdom from them, and grow a little in my craft. Then, I find myself being pushed to perform on a higher level than I would normally push myself to, which also helps me to improve my ability. I also love the feeling of being the underdog – knowing that I’m the “young new guy” in the room and learning how to rise above the intimidation that comes with that.

Anyway, this should be a good week. I’m thankful for the opportunity to be making music with these guys. If you look real close at the picture above, on my floor tom you’ll see a container of wafer cookies that we used as a shaker on the tune we just tracked.

My Girls

I have a wife of six years named Kristyn, and we have a 3-year-old named Betty.  Man, those girls are something else.

Last weekend I was playing a gig in NYC with my friend Mark L. Johnson.  The two of us flew out there on Friday and back on Saturday.  Betty and I made a video for Mark the night before we left since it had been a while since Mark had seen her.

I’m obviously biased… but Betty has to at least be in the running for cutest kid ever.  I mean, c’mon…

Masters Studios

I’m in the new Masters Studios today, doing some tracks for a friend of mine named Jason Miller. Masters is “new” in the sense that it’s recently changed ownership. Formerly known as Flyte Tyme and owned/operated by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, it’s now owned by the great Tom Tucker, who moved on from IPR to start a new recording school here.

This facility is incredible. They’ve got 5 super nice studios, a lot of classroom and office space, a very pro rehearsal studio, and some great lounge/kitchen spaces. A ton of major pop records were done here over the last couple decades: Janet Jackson, Usher, Boys II Men, TLC, Mary J. Blige… just to name a few. Actually, the mono room mic on my kit right now was the vocal mic used by Janet and Michael Jackson in that duet from the 90’s they did called “Scream.” Needless to say I’m feeling pretty cool to be tracking in here today.

UPDATE:  I just did the first track.  I didn’t know what the stuff was going to be for today, and it turned out to be an Indian pop artist named Shaqib, who I am told is kind of a big deal in Bangladesh.  All the vocals for the tune were in Bengali!  That’s new to me… for sure.