On a shoestring project, quest to record pun rock band Boneyard Bastards first CD and perform first 100 concerts. On this journey we will learn the ins and outs of music business and share it with you.
This week we saw some solid progress. After moving in to our new rehearsal room, Sebastian getting used to his new drum kit, setting it up and tuning it to his liking, it was time to lay down some tracks. As you might know from past blogs, I had recorded guide tracks ready. So me and Sebastian locked us in to the rehearsal room for few days with my recording equipment.
Thing about recording drums is that it is probably one of the most interesting instruments to record from sound engineers point of view, but one of the toughest to get right as well. Having that many sound sources it is really hard to capture everything evenly. So why not just put a microphone on everything and have done with it? Well go a head, and if you don't know what you are doing, I bet what you get is a bag full of out of phase signals, and a drum kit that just sounds thin and weak. Now here is a bit of a secret for you, try this out. If you record drums, limit your self first to, let’s say four microphones. Two overheads snare and kick. Try to position both overheads in equal distance from the kick and snare, to avoid phasing problems. But if you want to try some thing else, by all means. Just have a good listen to both microphones individually and together. If they sound good individually, but weak together, the chances are you have an out of phase mics. Try moving one of them at a time and listen again, and repeat this until you get desired sound. Snare microphone aiming at the center of the drum from the side as close to it, but out of the drummers way. Also try to get the angle to the drum right. You don't want to be facing the skin from an 90 degree angle. I actually try to get as much of the actual impact of the drum, so couple of inches above the drum facing the middle sounds good to me.
But mess around, try out different set ups. This is how you learn. Any sound engineering course can only teach you the technical stuff, but in the end it's your own ears and experiments that teach you the most! For the kick drum, insert the microphone in it if you are after that rock punch, move it around and listen where it sounds the best. It has become very fashionable to have two microphones on the bass drum, one inside near the skin and another outside some distance from the drum. But I still believe in the old school way. The sound of rock drums have moved more towards natural drum sound (No more gated and overly reverbed 80s drum sounds, or white washed jeans...) and to me the best sound still is the old school jazz way, snare and kick for a bit of a definition and good over all sound from the over heads. Seriously, next time you record drums, I challenge you to try this instead the 16 microphones and bigger than life tom sounds.
So we had the sound sorted. Next thing is the drummer. When you take on the role of sound engineer (even as a musician) It is very important to make sure the musician is comfortable, that they can hear everything OK. First day we had a small head phone issue, but by the second day we got this sorted and Sebastian laid down track after track like a pro that he is. We had a small issue with booming toms, but as we needed a tight sound for the track anyway, nothing that a bit of fabric could not fix;-).
And when you are recording, there is a constant battle between technically perfect take and the “feel”. Personally, yeah I like to hear instruments in tune, and reasonably in time, but it is the takes where you can hear the musician really getting in to it, when it almost has a live feel to it, thats what I am after, and thats what gets me in any good recording. I have recently been listening to a band called the Thousand Watt Stare. They are still recording their first album, but they have few tracks on their Myspace page. This is a great example of some tracks that just have amazing “feel” to them.
Oh yeah, and let me just say this: I spent two days listening Sebastian play the tracks through, just the drums. And this is another reason every one in a band should do some recording. When you play together, you do hear them, but you don't get to appreciate the finer points of them until you hear them on their own. Now I know much better what he plays on the tracks, and this will improve my playing in the band. Also let me just say this without blowing our own trumpet, Sebastian is a sonic genius on the drums ;-)
Next we are recording the bass and as I write this I am waiting Tomek to arrive and get started on recording on his brand new Thunderbird! (Photo) This is a real rocker. But more on the bass next week :-)
If I would tell you that this blog is about “the state of the music business”, You would probably scream. “Not again! We have heard enough about the non existent record sales, illegal downloads etc”. But bear with me for a second here. Let me talk about another side of it all. Lately I have been thinking about music a lot. Well, being a musician you would expect it anyway, but lately it has been much more. And of course big part of it has to do with this project. I have been listening music, all kinds of music. Lots of it, some great stuff, some not so great... And it got me thinking what has happened musically and sonically in the music business in the past 20 years. I remember not too long after I started to use my first Cubase, a DJ friend of mine told me it was great software, that you could make music with it, without actually knowing anything about music. His way of thinking really was a sign of where music was going. Things had come long way in popular music since Elvis recorded “That’s all right” in 1954, in the legendary sun studios, live and on to a single track. Now we were talking about virtual synths... And already in the 80's popular music became sonically polished. Drum tracks would go through gates to separate them and get rid of spill. All the natural ambiance of the instrument was taken away, for some reason it was considered a bad thing. Guitar amps got bigger, and soon rock bands would have a wall of Marshalls and bang! Ten years later we have a guitar amp modelling that fits in to your gig bag. And in 1997 Antares brings out Auto-Tune... So the record companies were armed with a tool that could fix a vocal performance. If a note was out of tune, it would pull it back in tune. This was another milestone for manufactured pop.
But with all this technology came also the digital download. And it was just too easy to spread online. Music piracy became rampant, record companies went on a war path. In the past few months I started to think, maybe the record companies were not the only ones being taken for a fool, and maybe the industry heads had bigger part of the blame. I mean, popular music has always been a mixed bag. Artists come and go, and manufactured pop has been there since the beginning of rock music. But did they just take it that bit too far? Did they take the audience for a granted? Did they insult the Joe publics intelligence? Did they for a while think they could sale almost anything?
Then we have bands that might be signed to a major label, but have always done their own thing. Lets take Iron Maiden here as an example, an institution in heavy rock. Not to every ones taste, but that’s not the point here ( I do quite like them). The point is: over 85million records sold with out hardly any mainstream media support. Their latest album “The Final frontier”, released 2010 reached #1 in 38 countries!
Let’s dig bit deeper, so you say CD is dead? Not in the world of rockers. In 2010 Rock, alternative and heavy metal music sold estimated 188 million CD albums. And according to SoundScan rock music had a 27% slice of the download sales pie. And it has always been a known fact that merchandise sales in this field has been and still is extremely strong. So could it be possible that the mainstream music market and media is looking in the wrong direction with their overly polished pop stars with their perfectly auto tuned voices? What do you think? Oh yeah, and the DJ friend of mine? He got a day job and quit music.
Anyhow, what have we been up to? As mentioned in last weeks blog, this week we moved to a new rehearsal room. And may I say, it is a great room :-) Mark in the Volt studios really takes a good care of us. The room is still bit bare, so if you have any posters to spare, send them in;-) More guitar tracks have been recorded in my home studio/office and Sebastian is taking some time off his work to record some drums :-). We are also working on a design of a logo, that Tomek’s brother drawing very hard at the moment. The first sketches look great, and we'll get the final version up soon. I also got an interesting offer from an old friend of mine that I need to look into a bit more, before I make it public, but thought to just tease you a bit ;-). Anyway, that’s all for now, and I'll talk to you more next week. Keep on rocking!
It is Sunday night (more like Monday morning) and I'm just back from the Porterhouse, where I was playing with Sliotar. The Temple bar trad festival was on this weekend, and It was great to see the place buzzing again after January. As I am sure any musician knows, It is almost impossible to fall a sleep after a concert. Your pumped full of adrenalin, ears are ringing and the brain is buzzing. The world around you slows down and falls a sleep, but you are still wide a wake. Fingers might be sore, body might be tired, but the mind is wide a wake. But some times this can be a creative time. Many of my song lyrics have been written in the middle of the night, or even a blog;-). I do live in the center of Dublin, and it can sometimes get bit noisy here, but Sunday nights the town stops much earlier. There is something magical when the city goes quiet and the week finally comes to an end. I always feel somehow hopeful on Monday mornings. I am not a big sleeper, and I am up most weekdays around half six. And Monday is always when I make a plan for the week. If you are your own boss, you do need to have certain amount of discipline, but also positive attitude is very important. And you need to start to see the positive side of Monday mornings.
Past week has been a very busy one for me, and next one is going to be that as well. I have got some good solid guitar tracks down, and can't wait to get the drums going. And as I mentioned in last weeks Blog about my new Telecaster and the Blackstar amp, I thought I could share with you a sound snippet here again. So the Blackstar got my "closet treatment". I place it at the bottom of a closet facing upwards, position Shure beta 57 on the cone of the speaker, and Akg perception 220 about a meter away from the speaker. And once again we split them to left and right, just to beef up things. So this is an intro from a song called “Right out of here” New tele sample by jpkallio
The file once again is hosted by Soundcloud.com, and how ever they compress the files, the sound quality is just so much better than myspace!
This week we are moving rehearsal room, which should be the last puzzle in place for the recording. The Volt studios have been great to us, and I am glad to be staying there. And also we are looking in to possible venues in Dublin at the moment for our first concert. We are looking for somewhere intimate enough, but at the same time big enough that a rock band can make some noise in. We have few ideas about the promotion as well. These days you really need to think out side the box. Obviously all these social media tools are very powerful and can't be ignored, and if you know me at all, you know I never would. But still there is place for an old fashioned posters and flyers. I personally see music as a bit of a cross over art form, especially for independent artists, and it does help if you have a good eye for graphics. And if you don't, find some one who does. The music should speak for it self, but good visual graphic is a powerful tool and it can draw people in to the music, whether it is a CD cover, gig poster or flyer.
And actually, I just got an perfect opportunity to try out some of these ideas in action. I've have the great pleasure to play this Thursday, the 3rd of February 2011 with some great musicians in a group called the Barbers & Butchers in bar here in Dublin called The Old Storehouse. The music is Irish traditional tunes mixed with folk and contemporary songs. As a musician you need to spread your wings wide, to make the ends meet. And the fellow musicians in this group are such high level, that it will most certainly be a great night of music. If you are around, come along. It is free in and the music starts at 9pm. And for this concert, we will put up some posters, as well as a social media campaign that is already in full swing:-). These kind of things are great opportunities to try out what works and what does not. If with every concert you try to do some promotion, soon enough you'll get good and fast at it. I'm still bit slow;-)
This is a good example how everything in music business is somehow linked, and also how it is a constant learning curve. To be honest with you, still every day I learn something new, and come across something new I need to learn. If you are in a similar situation and there is anything special you would like me to cover in this blog, don't hesitate to contact me.
But for now, enough of my sleep deprived ramblings. I'm off to bed, and will continue next week:-)
I'm standing in a middle of a rehearsal room filled with guitar amps, 4x12 cabs, two drum kits, flight cases, guitars and all sorts of random stuff. I'm holding on to my guitar, fingers are aching and I'm starting to feel a bit of a strain in my voice. There is a smell of winter, mixed with burning dust from a small blow heater that keeps the room warm. The sound system has developed a serious hiss, and my ears are ringing from the noise of a rock band squashed in a small room. We have been here since 9.30am and now it is getting closer to 3pm. There has been no mercy in this rehearsal. We have played all 14 songs through and many of them several times, dissecting them, reworking parts, ironing out mistakes. I look a round, Sebastian is staring in to space with an empty look in his eyes, sitting behind the drum kit. Tomek is sitting on his bass amp and holding his shoulder that has started to complain from the weight of the bass. I think it's time for a well deserved coffee break. Lazy bastards, you might think, but let me ensure you, there had been nothing lazy about this morning! It is a little bit of hope that makes you push yourself harder, and friend of Tomeks back in Poland showed some interest in organizing concerts for us later on in the year. So the race is on, we need a demo and pretty soon! So the extra hours, blood sweat and tears is what is called for. Album is one thing, but the live performance is what most musicians very much live for. And the knowledge of possibly bringing our music out of the rehearsal room in to front of a live audience just makes my fingers tingle with excitement. Even though this will be long time from now, and we will most certainly do our best to try to organize a concert in Dublin long before that. At the same time, I have been doing this long enough to know that most of the concerts that people try to organize, never happen due to the absolutely over whelming work load that goes in to organizing a successful concert. But Tomeks friend has the infrastructure and contacts in place, so I have a good feeling about this :-) And it is a solid piece of hope, and never underestimates the power of hope.
As always we have big plans, and we are putting them in to action. Only time is bit limited with our other work, so bare with us. We are working hard on some full band tracks and some video as soon as possible to share with you guys. And as soon as we have them up you will find them here on this blog, on the website www.jpkallio.com and on all the social media sites. To make sure you won't miss anything, I once again urge you to sign up to our Emailing list. It is run through fanbridge.com. They provide a great service, reliable and safe. You will only get Emails from me, written by me, no junk and that’s a promise. So if you have not yet signed up, you can do so here.
Also I have been busy songwriting again. Poor guys in the band, as soon as we are getting on top of the songs we have at the moment, in walks J.P. with a new song... And back in the square one ;-). I do have constant need to keep the music fresh. I have few fellow song writers that only sit down once a while (sometimes not even once a year...) and decide to write a song. For me this is completely bizarre. Every time I pick up the guitar, potentially I can come up with an idea, guitar lick or chord progression that leads to a song. My mind always works on some sort of an idea. And for every song that I bring to the band practice, several others never get finished. It’s the strong ones from the crop that stand out and evolve in to finished songs.
And here's another thing. Being a full time musician you need to get pretty smart with your finances (Sometimes I wonder how I managed this far...). And things like updating your equipment can be very expensive. I have become pretty resourceful in terms of fixing guitars. So the obvious way for me is to look in to good quality second hand equipment, especially when it comes to guitars. And I have found here in Ireland websites like www.gumtree.ie and www.adverts.ie are a great source. During the week I exchanged some equipment, no cash involved, just a direct swap. So now I have a lovely new Telecaster (can't have too many telecasters) that I can't put down. It just sings! Also in the deal I got an Blackstar HT-5, a nice small, but surprisingly loud amp. In fact it is so loud I haven't been able to try it out properly yet. But the next rehearsals should sort that out;-). I'll let you know, how I get on, or maybe even a sound bite.
So that’s all for now. Have a great week and pop back for more next week.
It’s ten to nine on Monday morning, Gaslight anthem playing on the background. Coffee wakes me up slowly even when I've been functioning already for few hours. New week, new tricks. Last weeks problems with the rehearsal room seem to be sorted. The Volt studios where we have been rehearsing found us another room that was just about in our non existent budget. This really is a great relief. I had this in the back of my mind constantly for the past few weeks. The thought of not being able to rehearse was just unthinkable. But this will be a nice room. Once again we will be sharing with two other bands, but it’s a big room so this shouldn't be any problem.
I have also started recording some guitar parts. I know this is not very traditional format to start with, but we need the scrap tracks for recording anyway, so I thought to make them as good as possible. And if I end up redoing them, so be it. But for now I try to do them the best I can. I had this idea of recording electric guitar, and I decided to put it in practice. Basically as I live in city centre apartment, neighbours are a consideration every time I record something bit louder. So I put my guitar amp (Fender blues junior) in to closet, facing up. I had one microphone (Sure beta 57) right on the speaker cone, and then a condenser microphone (Akg perception 220) further up in the closet. On the mix I pan them left and right. It gives the guitar a bit of a stereo feel, more space.
Here is a small snippet of a take, just to give you an idea what it sounds like. Let me know what you think. Tele P90 sample by jpkallio
Oh yeah, and the other reason (part from the rehearsal room trouble) I did not start the recording with the drums, was that Sebastian (more on him and Tomek bit later;-)) just purchased him self a snazzy new drum kit, and it is only fare that he can set it up nice, new skins and tune it the way he wants before we start on the drums. But I thought to share you a picture the proud new owner sent me ;-)
I'll get you a picture of the full new set when we get to it.
So I think it would be only fare to let you know little more about my two partners in crime ;-) So as far as I can remember, roughly about 3 years ago while I was playing a gig in the Porterhouse a friend introduced me to their friend from Poland who played bass, it was a busy night in the Porterhouse, I was playing with Sliotar and he was with a big group of friends so we didn't talk too much. But over the following months we pumped in to each other more an more. And the more we talked (and shared beers, yes there were many of them) we realised our musical tastes were very similar, we both listened to same bands over the years, and it seemed it was the same things that musically got us exited. From the get go we wanted to do something. We wanted to play music together. But as so often, life just gets in the way. But about six months ago I felt the time was right for this project, and I knew Tomek Jastrzebski was the first man to talk to.
And as a daughter of a good friend of mines girlfriend said “If you don't have soul, you can't rock n' roll”. And soul was what I was looking for. Tomek had it, bags full of it. He's an old school punk rocker, and a mighty bass player. Also Tomek is what I call a get goer; with him around you nothing is impossible. Even though I am a very positive person, sometimes there are tasks or goals that just seems too far, but for Tomek it’s just another problem that we need to find a solution to. And as I mentioned in the past the importance of a good team, he is the kind of personality that you need around you. So then we had a problem together, we needed a drummer, who was mad enough to join a band with no guarantee of nothing else but early mornings and hard work. Tomek had met once long time back, in a party I think a fellow Polish musician, they had exchanged phone numbers and both told each other that they are looking a band to play in. So it was time to see if he was still around, interested, suitable and all that. So we had our first full band rehearsal in the beginning of October, and with in a half an hour the music just started flowing and by the end of our rehearsal we knew Sebastian Bachowski was going to be our drummer!
So what else can I tell you about these guys? Well I thought they could tell you more about them selves through these five questions:
Who is your biggest influence?
Tomek: “Les Cleypool, Pearl Jam, Polish punk rock from 80's and 90's”
Sebastian: “Music has been with me from very early on, I remember sitting with older friends on a hot summer night listening them play guitar. Around about that time I came across a Polish company "Defile" that manufactures guitars. And bands like AC/DC, METALLICA, IRON MAIDEN, SLAYER, LED ZEPPELIN, and many others whose music I consumed extensively:)
I would say the biggest influence on me was Miroslaw Musicant (Musician, composer and most of all, a great drummer). Under his guidance I learned to play the drums.
Then I discovered Progressive Rock and Jazz Music. Bands like GENESIS, TRANSATLANTIC, SPOCK'S BEARD and Drummers like GARY NOVAK, DENIS CHAMBERS, VINNIE COLAIUTA, DAVE WECKL, GREGG BISSONETTE, changed my life forever ;)”
What is your favorite food?
Tomek: “Ruskie pierogi (dumplings)”
Sebastian: Nothing can compare with my Mother's and my Girlfriend’s cooking. Enough said in this subject.”
What is your ideal day like?
Tomek: “Wake up beside my girlfriend, scrambled eggs and coffee, relax relax relax, Long walk with my girlfriend and after the walk, play bass.”
Sebastian: “Every day is perfect for me to do something good (except when I have migraine), and try the best to survive it :) “
What is your favorite drink?
Tomek: “Beer"
Sebastian: “Beer of course :-)”
What would you bring with you to Desert Island?
Tomek: “MacGyver tools, and a box of bees”
Sebastian: “I would bring good friends, nothing is possible with them beside me.”
So thats all for this week, thanks for stopping by. You can sign up to our mailing list here, and leave comments, we like them:-)
I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but blog number 20! How time flies. As with most musical projects, when I first started, I thought by now we would be further in the recording. But these things take time, and putting a strict time schedule in to a creative process just does not work. At the best of times it is only a guide line. So now we have a bit of a rehearsal room problem... meaning by the end of the month we need to find a new rehearsal space. We were sharing a room with two other bands, but now all the amps and drums of three bands just won't fit in to one room anymore, and as we were the new band in the room it is only fare that we'll go. So now I need to shop around all the possible rehearsal rooms around Dublin, or any other suitable space (with very understanding neighbours...). Unfortunately this will once again delay the recording somewhat, especially the drums, but never the less I will get on recording guide tracks and some guitar parts.
In the mean while I will continue on the subject of the basic recording set up. The week before last we talked about the computer, if you missed it check out the week 18 blog, and in last weeks blog we talked about the audio interface. So the next thing you need is a microphone. And once again there is overwhelming selection in the market. I have rambled on about microphones in the past blogs, put I'll just go through the basics quickly here. First of all there are two basic types of microphone (actually three, but I will exclude ribbon microphones here), dynamic and condenser. Surprisingly lot of detail goes in to the inner workings of a microphone, but the basics are as follows: Microphone converts sound pressure (your voice) in to an electrical current. Dynamic microphone, Shure SM58 probably being the most common example here, are rugged work horses that take more abuse, can handle moisture and can produce pretty loud sound before feedback becomes a problem. Condenser microphones have higher out put and the frequency response is in general much better. But also because of this they are pretty sensitive to feedback in live situations, so mostly used in studio environment. Most Condencer microphones require phantom power from the mixing desk, or from your audio interface. The general rule would be to use Condencer microphone in studio, when you need anything with lot of detail, like Vocals, Acoustic guitar, Drum overheads and also I like mixing Condenser and Dynamic microphones when I record electric guitar amps. Dynamic microphones are used when the sound source is loud and moves lots of air, like drums. I was told about month and a half ago in certain music shop in Dublin, that my trusted Shure beta 57 is not really recording microphone and that it is only really good for live sound... Just proves the point that you should not always just take advice from a music shop sales person, who just wants to sell you a product. I actually listen to them some times and just let them go on and I just pretend to know nothing. I know weird, but it keeps me entertained ;-)
If you can afford to spend the money on condenser microphone, go for it. And the price of them has come down a lot in the past ten years or so. But if you are stuck and you have a dynamic microphone already, don't let this stop you recording. There are some very famous singers that prefer to record their vocals with dynamic microphones. It might just require bit more careful microphone technique, but despite what our friend in the music store says, it can be done ;-). As to what microphone you should buy, again you need to go out try few, see what you like. I wrote a short review of the AKG perception 220 on week 14 blog, and I like it. Rodes are great for the money as well. On dynamic microphones, I am a big fan of Shures microphones. But as I said, go out and try few and see what you like.
So that is your basic recording set up. On top of this, some studio monitors or headphones are a must, preferably both, but the basics are here.
Next I’m moving to something completely different. I just finished reading Keith Richards book “Life” and I must say I was really positively surprised. He goes in to a lot of detail of the song writing process and recording of many of the Rolling Stones albums. This is a good read for any songwriter, let alone a Keith Richards fan ;-)
Anyway, what's in the plans for this week? Lucky enough we still have few weeks in our old rehearsal room. So back rehearsing this week after the holiday break. Can't wait :-)
But mess around, try out different set ups. This is how you learn. Any sound engineering course can only teach you the technical stuff, but in the end it's your own ears and experiments that teach you the most! For the kick drum, insert the microphone in it if you are after that rock punch, move it around and listen where it sounds the best. It has become very fashionable to have two microphones on the bass drum, one inside near the skin and another outside some distance from the drum. But I still believe in the old school way. The sound of rock drums have moved more towards natural drum sound (No more gated and overly reverbed 80s drum sounds, or white washed jeans...) and to me the best sound still is the old school jazz way, snare and kick for a bit of a definition and good over all sound from the over heads. Seriously, next time you record drums, I challenge you to try this instead the 16 microphones and bigger than life tom sounds.
