Hinge Goes West

In 1998 a young Kanye West and the group he was producing/rapping with, The Go Getters, booked time at Hinge Studios and worked with Craig Bauer, the studio’s engineer and owner. Bauer says the sessions were pretty run-of-the-mill — he remembers West and his crew being nice, decent, normal human beings.

But does he remember seeing the first glimmers of West’s star? “You could see it in his attitude and that’s the only place you could see it because musically speaking, he was a mere shadow of what he is now,” Bauer admits. “From where he started and where he is now you wouldn’t know it’s the same person. It’s kind of funny because the only thing that separated Kanye from anyone else that was producing demos was, frankly, his vibe and attitude.

“He possesses a quality about him that emits that star thing and he had it back then,” Bauer says, chuckling, “whether it was deserved back then or not.”

That star quality has made the rapper a target of criticism; his, uh, confidence has become as much a story as his music at times. Though according to Bauer, it’s that attitude that has helped make Kanye what he is. “I think it’s what allow him to succeed,” he says. “I think to a degree every successful artist has that. Whether you want to call it confidence or arrogance or egotism or narcissism, it’s part of what makes a rock star, part of what makes any kind of star. He has it in spades, and I think some people understand that and other people get offended by it. He is what he is, there is no faking.”

After those initial sessions at Hinge, the studio became West’s primary choice for working on projects. It quickly went from The Go Getters to West acting as a ghost producer on some bigger stuff before he started landing choice gigs making beats for the likes of #Foxy Brown# and #Beanie Sigel#. “I remember thinking ‘O.K., well there’s a step.’ It went from those guys begging for studio time to getting a P.O. [purchase order] from a record label and billing a record label, and I definitely remember that moment in time,” Bauer says.

Even after West moved to New Jersey and became Roc-A-Fella’s in-house hitmaker, (producing some of the best tracks on #Jay-Z#’s *The Blueprint*) he would bring work to Hinge whenever he returned home to Chicago. “I remember thinking ‘Christ, here goes another guy made good disappearing from Chicago,'” Bauer says. “But I don’t think he’d gone two months before he was back here working on something again.”

Much of that work, according to Bauer, was demos for West’s breakout 2004 record *The College Dropout*. Although you won’t find Bauer’s name in the album credits it set the stage for his participation on *Late Registration*, which includes four of Bauer’s mixes.

Originally asked to do one track, Bauer impressed West enough that two days after he finished that initial song, three ProTools discs with more tracks arrived completely unexpected via FedEx.

“For the next two months it was a process of doing a mix, sending it over the Internet, having Kanye call me or send me a laundry list, and he’s extremely particular — some of these mixes we would do 15 to 20 versions of the same song,” Bauer explains. “It would be tiny little changes on occasions and sometimes huge redo’s, not because he wasn’t liking what he was getting just because he has to experiment with every possible option before he can feel comfortable with it. That’s the way he works.

“Learning that at times can be challenging, at times can be frustrating, at times can be unbelievably re-warding, and that’s the thing you get with Kanye. It was really just the experience of learning how he works, how to work with him, and how to make him happy.”

One of those “unbelievably rewarding” moments was certainly “Heard ‘Em Say,” the third single from *Late Registration* and West’s highest initial charting single to date. Of course, the gleam of the single’s success is somewhat tarnished by the fact that it was mistakenly credited to another mixer (Bauer is correctly credited with “Addiction,” “Roses,” and the unnumbered “Late”; the version of “Bring Me Down” that appears on the record is not his, but is credited to him), but despite that mistake, Bauer is enjoying the song’s success.

“It’s a phenomenal feeling; it would feel a lot better had I got the proper credit for it, but you hear it on the radio and the video is going to be on MTV any minute now. I think hearing it on the radio in Chicago is one thing; hearing it in another city or seeing the video on MTV — it might take that to really feel it,” Bauer says. “I’ve had plenty of stuff on the radio so that’s not a totally new feeling, but one that’s sold 2 million copies in two months, that doesn’t happen very often.”

Hinge is located at 320 W. Ohio in Chicago. For more info call (312) 337-0008 or visit www.hingestudios.com.

At UP ON THE ROOF in Lombard, owner/engineer Mark Blas recorded an album for blues/country artist Larry Bryant along with side players and good friends Mitch And The Polecats . . . Singer Cammi Edminson (Cammi’s NRG) tracked vocals for the Blas-penned “The Way You Are” for his publishing endeavors . . . Jennifer Lloyd finished her ballad “Cassady” (also a Blas co-write/production), featuring sax player Brian McCawley.

At CAVE AUDIO in Elmhurst, the band Magro finished recording and mastering their eight-song album . . . Ryan Glover recorded and mastered five new hip-hop tracks . . . Cave also provided sound reinforcement and live recording for Blackout at The Cantina in Yorkville.

At CHICAGO RECORDING CO. in Chicago, Recessive Gene Records artist Katherine Schell just released her debut album produced at CRC. Schell and her band The Emergency spent a good portion of the summer in Studio 4 recording and mixing Emptier Streets. CRC engineer Mathieu Lejeune and Emergency guitarist Stefan Clark produced; Sean Geyer, Mike Pierce, Grayson Taylor, and John Maschoff assisted . . . Ron Lowe recorded and mixed an album for jazz singer Erin McDougald in Studio 5. The sessions were produced by Los Angeles producer Steven-Stewart Short, and Dave Rieley assisted . . . Chris Shepard, Stuart Holverson, and Todd Fitch packed up the mobile rig and drove to Texas to record and mix the Austin City Limits festival, recording Blues Traveler, The Black Keys, The Walkmen, and Thievery Corporation to name a few . . . Chris Steinmetz continued his work with New York big band leader King David in Studio 5 with Taylor assisting . . . Jeff Lane worked with Atlantic artist Bump J as well as continued work on Majic‘s upcoming album . . . Dennis Tousana recorded a jazz combo led by local musician Jim Massoth in Studio 5 with Geyer assisting.

At STUDIO VMR in Brookfield, Blue Plate Special recorded and mixed their new 14-song CD with Don Griffin engineering . . . Griffin mixed and mastered a live show by rockers Foundry . . . Producer Donovan Price finished a project with R&B vocalist Charlie; Griffin engineered.

Forty Piece Choir mastered three new songs (“Blue Guitar,” “Sign Of The Times ~ King Buzzo,” and “Different Point Of Day”) with Mike Hagler at KING SIZE SOUND LABS in Chicago for their fourth CD, due in 2006.

At GRAVITY STUDIOS in Chicago, Plain White T’s (Fearless) mixed a track with Sean O’Keefe in Studio A . . . Store Bought Rebels recorded their debut album with producer Doug McBride. Aidas Narbutaitis and George Balogi engineerined with McBride . . . Fluid Minds recorded and mixed new tracks with Mark Berlin . . . Heart Set Self Destruct just completed six songs with Balogi engineering and mixing. Additional engineering was done by Narbutaitis; McBride mastered . . . Oh My God‘s Billy O’Neill and Easy Tiger‘s Dan Wean finished their new collaboration, the You Are Beautiful EP. Wean, Balogi, Manny Sanchez, and Adam Newman engineered while O’Keefe and Wean mixed; McBride mastered . . . Run Logan worked on some new tunes with Berlin behind the controls . . . Shred Eagle‘s long-awaited full-length, Axis Of Eagle, is finished. The album was engineered by Paul Long, Berlin, and Sanchez while Long and Berlin mixed and McBride mastered.

Producer/engineer and Solidwave Records founder Steve B. Isaac is working with Chicago reggae artist Zen. His album is slated to be released in summer 2006.

Hey Studiophilers: To get your studio or band listed in “Studiophile,” just email info on who you’re recording or who’s recording you to ieeditors@aol.com, subject Studiophile, or fax (312) 922-9369. We reserve the right to edit or omit submissions for space. Deadline for our January issue is December 5th.

— Trevor Fisher

Category: Monthly, Studiophile