The world is going nuts, good thing I’ve got new music coming soon.
With the recent developments of BREXIT, the upcoming election that feels like its being brought to us by Parker Brothers ala monopoly, and two police shootings that are at best point blank executions, plus the DOJ putting the nails in the coffin for songwriters, there’s no doubt that it feels like we’re coming apart at the seems. Despite all the nuttiness in the world, I’ve been hard at work creating new music.
New Music To Release
My next single will be released on your favorite streaming service and will be called Thump Thump Thump. Spotify is my go to streaming service. Go follow me on Spotify!
New Music On TV
My Nightwatch Theme is still fronting Nightwatch New Orleans for Season 3 starting this fall. Plus there is more music that I created that shall be heard in episodes of Season 3. Hear Midnight Romp on Spotify!
There’s another new TV show coming this fall with more of my music. Hard Corps is the name of the show and its being backed by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Pretty excited to see Hard Corps air!
New Music On The Web
If you’re a fan of Top Golf, you know, the awesome location not far from you where you can smash golf balls with friends, enjoy a drink and some food. Then you might want to trip by their website: http://topgolf.com Why? Well, to watch the opening video of course. Yours truly along with my good buddy Chris Hellstrom wrote all the music in commercial.
In Other News
Been making some amazing changes in the studio. I’ve picked up some amazing plugins from Universal Audio. Immediately following the new plugins I was recording a song with my co-writer Johnny Elkins. I sent him the mix of the song. He called me back to tell me his wife came to tears with the song and the recording. While the improvements are possibly subtle to most people, its those tiny differences that make all the difference to getting a performance to translate at a deeper level. Thank you Universal Audio!
As per the image that precedes this post you can see that I have new signature picks from Dunlop. There are several new types and the most awesome part about them is that the printing on them lasts much longer. Thank you Jim Dunlop! I especially like the new white ones.
I picked up a couple of new microphones as well. The M-80 and the M-81 from Telefunken. Put them both to good use recording music for the aforementioned TV shows. You’ll also see them on stage with me as they’re going to be my live vocal mics.
In Closing
I’m creating some fun playlists on Spotify. Every week I’m adding a song to Throwing Back Thursdays and Funky Fridays. <– Follow them and send me your suggestions. Oh, then there’s this playlist dedicated to shredding guitarists Shred Masters of Guitar. Did I leave your favorite shredder out?
I’m knee deep in recreating my entire catalog of released music into my new live guitar rig. My HIVE system is completed, now I’m updating all my guitar sounds and saving them in the HIVE (MacBook Pro, MainStage, Line 6, Studio Devil, RedWirez, Universal Audio, HIVE foot pedal). Its a bit of a process but oh what fun its been to rethink how I’ll play my songs and how you’ll perceive them live. Its like being a kid in a candy store again.
Have a great weekend!
I’m usually a hermit in the studio, but I’ve opened up a little and had a little episode of backseat producing that led to a discussion that involved Manolo Blahnik shoes. In the past, I rarely let people in the studio while I’d be singing. Hence the reason why I’d produce them myself. I’m changing things around. Especially since I’ve been having George Leger III producing vocals for me.
Another first happened during the vocal recording session of American Mayhem. I allowed my buddy Greg Nicholson and his girlfriend to sit in while I was recording vocals with George at Utopia Parkway studio. Greg and I have written songs in the past. But he’s never sat in on recording with me as the artist. George has one rule – which quickly gets reminded to Greg as he offers up some advice.
While waiting for George we get into a discussion about the Apollo by Universal Audio and shoes by Manolo Blahnik. All of this prior to Greg and his girlfriend are about to go watch the World Cup football (soccer) between USA and Portugal. See, he’s for USA and she’s for Portugal. I’m sure that was an interesting match for the two of them. As we all now know, that was a moving match.
Backseat Producing And Manolo Blahnik
Transcription:
Are you’re P’s coming out okay?
Pah. I don’t know.
‘Cause you had a lot of P’s. So I was just wondering how.
Oh yeah, they’re not popping in the mic.
Ok. Cause sometimes I have to like turn my head just a little bit when I’m singing a P even with a pop filter.
Shhhhh.
Sorry.
Shhhhh.
Ha ha ha.
You’re a guest. Not a producer.
No side, no backseat driving.
Exactly. Please. We have work to do. Okay, here we go again. Ready?
Yes.
Mumbo jumbo. It makes people go really?
Really?
Really?
In other words…
Why do you need this?
It’s like so when you start updating your studio and she’s living with you at some point in the future. I’m projecting here. And Greg’s like “I need to buy this.” and you’ll be like “Really? Really?”
Remember, that’s what George and Jody said.
This stuff does make a difference.
Do I get a pair of Manolo Blahnik’s?
Of what?
Manolo Blahnik’s.
I don’t know what that is.
Really nice shoes.
Oh. Okay.
I don’t even know what the hell that is. But like, Okay.
A pair of nice shoes is that what that is?
Yeah. They cost quite a bit.
Alright. So, you get the toys in the audio gear. She gets the toys in the shoes.
That’s only fair.
Right.
I believe in this. I believe in being fair.
But here’s a question. How much are those shoes?
Between $300 and $500.
Oh yeah.
Whew.
Alright.
That’s totally fair.
Per pair. How much is what you want to get?
The Apollo? How much is that Apollo? About $2500?
That one? $2799 plus tax. No. $2500 plus tax.
I was thinking between somewhere between $2500 and $3000. Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.
I was like, we already shook, we already negotiated this deal.
I did not know how much that cost!
I don’t know how much your shoes are, but I’m thinking my thing is 10x of what we just negotiated.
Dammit!
ha ha ha ha.
Fair trade. Fair trade.
Well, now I have to get the most expensive pair of Manolo Blahnik’s now.
No I think it’s only fair that you would get at least a dress.
Ha ha ha.
To go with the shoes.
Okay.
Yes.
Alright.
That’s only fair.
Come with me as we give the Universal Audio Apollo a shootout at Utopia Parkway studio. My Avalon 737 was at the factory so we decided to give George’s Apollo a shot at being the mic pre of choice. We set up a couple of different channel strips to see which input path would give us the best signal for my Telefunken C-12 and my voice on my song “Thump Thump Thump”. It was down to a Neve with an LA2A and a 610 with an 1176.
[sarcasm]It’s riveting. So riveting. Especially if you’ve never been in a recording studio.[/sarcasm] Recording isn’t always the fun and games that people think it is. We do actually spend time figuring out exactly what the best course of recording a sound is. Time consuming comes to mind. Office managers determining a project’s work path is probably the best analogy. After that the real work begins. Laying down the musical parts.
Universal Audio Apollo Mic Pre
Thump Thump Thump recording
Testing mic pre’s.
Testing the Apollo mic pre. Okay Universal Audio.
I lie awake in the middle of the night.
Channel strip two. Well it’s actually one, but I flipped them around.
Well… we’re. It’s the second take on the channel strip on the Apollo.
There’s a push and a pull.
I lie awake in the middle of the night
There’s a push and a pull. As the gears begin to grind.
You know what? That, the 610 sounds more… rock-and-roll. If I was to put a… it has more “ah! to it” more ah.
There’s more meat to it.
That how, that’s how I would describe it.
It’s got more protein, more girth to it. Okay whereas the neve LA2A has a bit more of a refined thin thing.
Yes it’s interesting, I guess there’s a difference in the models. Cause it’s basically the same mic going through 2 different model emulations and they do sound different. Yeah. They are so hard core. I mean really truly. More hard core than most companies are. They want their stuff to be right. and they just really won’t stop until they are.
It’s the 610 76 that wins.
Okay, to give us the meat.
To get the song to ether.