When pressed to point out places on the map known for contributing recognized, high-end recording studios, Orland Park probably fails to make the short list. Yet, tucked within the vast span of suburbia, complete with Bar Louie chains and Borders and Barnes & Noble vying with each other for the same pool of book browsing, latte-deprived customers, is Passionworks Studio.
South Side drummer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Anthony (Sgt. Roxx, Raddaka, Pamela Moore) worked on his solo project called Gagorder13 at BAREFOOT STUDIO in Beecher with David Knuth. Gabriel finished drum tracks in March and plans to track all guitars, bass, and vocals through the spring and summer for a fall/winter release.
Ten years on the road with blues great Lonnie Brooks helped drummer Patrick Doody hone his chops as a professional musician before dabbling in recording. It was actually Brooks who spurred Doody to broaden his career aspirations when he toyed with the idea of retiring back in 2000 and told his fun-loving drummer to start seriously thinking about taking care of himself professionally. “It was the best piece of advice probably I ever got in my life, because as opposed to hanging on his coattails for another 10 years, I’ve been able to develop my own career,” Doody says.
At ELABS MULTIMEDIA in Madison, Wisconsin, Nonpoint mixed a live acoustic radio performance, recorded by Elab’s remote truck. Randy Hawk and Jack LeTourneau produced . . . New York pop rock group Locksley mixed an upcoming Japanese release for Fab Tone Records that was engineered by Sam Bair . . . Arrival Records artist Bascom Hill, 30-piece horn punk group Mucca Pazza, rapper Rhymefest, and Hero Envy mixed tracks for the “Big Fish Little Fish” television pilot. Randy Boeche produced . . . Producer Sean Michael Dargan recorded The Kissers‘ new CD . . . John Chimes recorded, mixed, and mastered his new release with co-producer LeTourneau . . . Rock group Atomic Blue tracked for the CW television network . . . Bobby Bryan worked with LeTourneau . . . R&B group Smoke N worked on new material for a spring release.
Spending a year and a half on the road with George Clinton – recording all the funkmeister’s live gigs and producing a bevy of tracks – and employed as Snoop Dogg’s personal engineer for three years, Nate Oberman has witnessed the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle from an up-close-and-personal vantage. His working relationship with The Doggfather led to stints twiddling the knobs on projects by R. Kelly, Mariah Carey, and The Pussycat Dolls, among others, but the Madison, Wisconsin native is bringing it all back home – or, at least, closer to home than the palm tree-lined streets of Los Angeles.
Backyard finished their second CD, American Dream, which was recorded at WULI RECORDS in Chicago. The band shoot a video for the song “Mercy” December 15th at Little Big Horn in Mundelein.
Bible Of The Devil entered SEMAPHORE RECORDING STUDIO in Chicago and began recording the follow-up to 2006’s The Diabolic Procession with producer Sanford Parker (Minsk, Pelican, Yakuza). The band also recently cut tracks for forthcoming split releases with both Winterhawk and Valkyrie.
At ENERGY COMMAND STUDIOS in Park Ridge, A Better Place To Be finished their five-song, self-titled CD. Amery (Amo) Schmeisser did ProTools editing and mixed two tracks. Schmeisser and Dave Banks engineered the sessions, and Banks produced the CD . . . Rapper Young Eighty (Darius McGee) recorded and released his latest CD, Madison Square. Art Garceau engineered and mixed most the tracks. The CD was produced by Banks and McGee . . . Singer-songwriter Kim Wilkens layed down a piano-and-vocal demo track called “Sleepy Town” . . . Nozzle Nibbler started work on their first demo with sessions engineered and produced by Schmeisser . . . Simmering is back in the studio.
Michael Kolar recently took one of the biggest leaps in his five years of owning Soundscape Studios: moving from a hidden space within a factory on Fulton Street to a bustling building in the recently revitalized near South Side. Sitting in the deluxe, custom-designed Red Room of his new studio on South Wabash, the engineer admits losing two months in the moving process has been taxing. “You lose a lot of momentum,” he explains. But amid the move, Kolar held onto all of his original clientele, which includes everyone from rocker Jonny Radtke of Kill Hannah to a Grammy-winning MC, Rhymefest. Moreover, his home on Wabash has opened a whole new world of business possibilities for Soundscape.
At BLUE ROOM STUDIO in Chicago, producer/engineer Edgars Legzdins finished his band Plane’s new record, I See Love In The Future; the release date is set for October 9th . . . Legzdins also recorded a song with the Musical Outfits for their new album and worked with Pretty Good Dance Moves, techno/experimental/pop tunes that involve an array of Chicago artists
Great things happen at the annual South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas. Between the bands on every street corner and the consumption of Lone Star beer, networking on a massive scale takes place and big ideas are born (usually within the vicinity of a bar). During such a BBQ-drenched night, a few Miami Of Ohio graduates cosmically ran into each other and turned their indie rock obsession into an aurally lucrative venture.
At CLEANCUT RECORDING STUDIO in Palatine, How Bright The Sky recorded a single entitled “Typewriter” that was produced by Tony D. . . . Pow! Right In The Kisser worked on their full length, Knuckle Up, with Tony D. . . . Men Dream Of Flying worked on pre-production.
Taking a cue from legendary Sun Studio in Memphis, Chicago’s Handwritten Recording allows artists to come in for as little as 30 minutes to lay down tracks. Open since April, the Belmont storefront studio caters to musicians who find the “normal” studio setting intimidating.
At ARS STUDIOS in Alsip, local rockers Hunting The Rabbit mastered their album, This Just In, with Larry Schara . . . Gary Cobb has been restoring Stan Kenton masters for re-release on Tantara Productions.
Saying analog recording is becoming a lost art is no longer even a debatable subject. Heck, just a few years ago it seemed the technique was on the verge of extinction when Quantegy Inc., the last company to manufacture reel-to-reel tape, abruptly shut its factory doors and filed for bankruptcy, putting studios in a tizzy and scrambling to snatch whatever tape they could.
At CLEAN CUT RECORDING STUDIO in Palatine, Chicago rock band Chevelle recorded and mixed bonus tracks with engineer Jeff Moll and assistant Tony Doppke.
