more studio pics

This is one of the guitar amps in an isolation booth, which is actually an old safe with a thick steel door. This allows us to all play together in the same room, because the amps are isolated in other rooms so the sound doesn't bleed through to the drum mics or vice versa. Thus, we can adjust each instrument individually in the mix without screwing up the others, but we still get the performance quality that only comes from playing live.













The console / mixing desk / whatever you want to call it













Bradley and Sasha pondering the mix in the control room

Studio Update #3 (final)

Done mastering. Sounds incredible. Bradley and Sasha left after mixing last night, but since I have a show up here with Dallas tonight I was able to be here for mastering. The five song EP will be available very soon, and we are all excited for you to hear it! Pierre Ferguson and Norm Baker did an amazing job in the studio (www.foundryforsound.com) so we will definitely be back to record a full album very soon. I now have a half day off, which is great because it will give me a chance to head over to Northgate for some Toshi's Teriyaki, which is truly the best. Not like that boiled glue factory waste I had yesterday. Playing with Dallas tonight at 11PM at the Sky Lark in West Seattle. Then I'll drive straight home because it's been 3 days and I miss Klaus.

Studio Update #2

Just ate some crappy teriyaki. Listening to the Ace Man's podcast while we mix, which is process that requires 5 minutes of input for every half hour or so. There's no telling when I will be needed, I just have to be standing by when the time comes. Thank God for laptops!

This project so far has been the most fun and rewarding I've done, as far as studio work is concerned. When I recorded All The Great Aviators Agree with the Slow Drags, it was a much different process. That album was recorded over a 2 year period, and each musician laid down their part separately to a click track. This makes it easier to piece stuff in over the course of a long period of time, but it really loses the cohesiveness you get when the whole band plays in the room at the same time. It's nearly impossible to have all the notes gel together to form a song when they are played at different times.

So this album we tracked "Live". Obviously, we did a few takes of each song picked the best one. We also did "punch in" a few places to fix things. And the vocals / aux percussion were overdubbed. I much prefer this approach. Upon first listen to the first raw track yesterday we knew this was going to be great. It's just a 5 song EP which we are spending a total of 2 days on, so Sgt. Pepper it is not. But it's got a great rock and roll sound. Think 70s Springsteen meets early Oasis.

More to come...

Pics

John Layin down backing vocals













Bradley layin down lead vocals on "Brooklyn"













Me and Norm (co-producer)



















Sasha



















Ludwig

Studio Update #1

We (Bradley Wik & The Charlatans) are sequestered in Seattle at Foundry Studios working on our 5 song EP, tentatively titled Shark Sandwich. Yesterday we knocked out the first two songs in two takes. Needless to say, we started to feel pretty good about ourselves. About the time we started thinking we might finish all of our tracking in one day, well that's when we started to get bogged down in song three. After about ten takes we decided to come back to it. Took a pizza break, then knocked out song four in two takes.

So we're starting off today with song three and the guys are ready for me so I must quit blogging and start rocking.

Seattle

I'll be going into the studio next week with Bradley Wik & The Charlatans in Seattle. The plan is to hammer out around 6 tunes mostly live in the studio, overdub the vocals and maybe some percussion, and get it mix and mastered ASAP. We aim to have the as yet untitled EP available for sale at our Ash St show later this month.

The timing couldn't be better for me, because after we wrap in the studio I am playing a show with Dallas at the Sky Lark. Check out myspace.com/dallasmusicseattle for more info on that show.

The two Winebirds shows last week were an absolute blast. More about them later. Stay tuned I'll post pics and updates from the Seattle session next week.

GO BLAZERS!

New Bands / Shows

Wow it's been a long time since I've updated this. But while I haven't been writing, I have been playing. I'm currently involved in 5 projects.

The Winebirds (myspace.com/thewinebirds) a 6 piece male and female pop-vocal group featuring a spectacular array of vintage amps and keyboards

John O'Mara (myspace.com/fuzzzmonkey) more of an electronic / industrial feel, currently a 3 piece with lots of loops and backing tracks featured in live shows

Dallas (myspace.com/dallasmusicseattle) the most similar sound to my last band, Americana rock from Seattle

Bradley Wik & The Charlatans (myspace.com/bradleywik) a new 3 piece, soon to be 4 piece, fronted by Bradley who just moved here from NYC

The fifth project is as yet unnamed, it's more of a studio collaborative with myself and Ryan Ferris at this point, but we are playing a show at the Cherry City Music Festival so we'll probably have a name and a myspace by then.


This is a pretty diverse set of bands and I am very excited to be involved with each one. I've got three shows this week alone.

Coming soon, a new website with music from all of my projects as well as a complete concert calendar and some other good stuff. Until then, I'll post the show dates here and on facebook / myspace so if you get a chance come out and see some of these new bands.

As a side note, Scotland Barr has a big show coming up next month at the Doug Fir. I went and saw them at the White Eagle a few weeks ago, they have lots of new material which is better than anything and you all owe it to yourselves to see them play. No better venue than the Doug Fir go to www.scotlandbarr.com for more info.