News Sept 2014
Since the end of the Otherwise Project in Las Vegas (which has seen a debut placement of 49 in the Billboard Hot 200, I’ve been keeping busy with both Canadian projects and those more international.. Mixing, mostly in my Mainstation Studio, but some abroad as well.
May I mixed the second project I’ve worked on for a Swedish heavy progressive outfit called Soen. Very talented and hardworking band. Focused on what they want and great players.
Also in May did a few initial mixes for Canadian band The Tea Party on their first record in 5 years. Again, at Mainstation Studio, and this carried on to the rest of the record. Jeff Martin, leader of the band, was happy with the work I had done for him on the first few mixes and decided I was the guy for the project. They have made a strong project with flavours of old Zeppelin with Burroughs channeling Bonham.
This sequeyed straight into a 5.1 surround mix for Canadian institution Rush. From a show in 1997 at the Molson Amphitheatre recorded on, of all things, ADAT’s, some of which were out of sync, but with some heroics from Francois Lamoureux and my crew of support, Mike Monson and Ryan McCambridge, we managed to pull it all together and come up with a great representation of what was I’m sure a great Rush live show.
From there, back to Chicago for another project with the Smashing Pumpkins. This record was a much more concise record. 9 songs, none of which were over 4:30. Dare I say it, a Pumpkins pop record, produced by the very talented Howard Willing. The mix this time was less a performance based mix that was Oceania. That project was comprised of 3 mixing consoles, 2 16 track 2” tape machines and protools all summed into a Helios console with no automation or recall (my favourite mixing project of the last 10 years). This was more of a conventional mix. Protools only into Billy’s new Helios console and actually in a control room, not a live room with several packing blankets hung on mic stands. I really enjoy working with Billy Corgan. He reminds me so much of my time with Peter Gabriel. They are similar in ways no one would expect. They both communicate about music and the emotional response in the same way. They both love distraction and feed of being busy with many projects on the go at the same time.
From there it was off to Helsinki to do a quick record with Finland band Lapko. 2 weeks including Pre Production and recording. We managed 10 songs, 7 of which we got vocals done on and then they continued when I returned to Canada. I await the results.