Mastering

August 13th, 2013

I’ve been learning a bit about the mastering process with the recent Else and Pay the Devil recordings. It occurred to me while I was listening to the Else demo at work that it sounded better through iTunes than it did online. I attributed this to the EQ settings within iTunes and then thought,”Well, if this EQ sounds better, why don’t I just apply that to the track?”

So I did. Read the rest of this entry »

Pay the Devil – Money for Old Rope

August 6th, 2013

Pay the Devil has released their first studio recording! We recorded reference tracks in late June and each band member then recorded solo tracks to the best of the reference tracks. After a few rounds of re-recordings and mixing, it was released to Bandcamp. Take a listen »

Else Shows

July 21st, 2013

Else played last night at the Whammy Bar, has another show next weekend in Madison, and two shows set up in August now. We’re really settling into a groove with our setlists and having a great time playing. We’ve met some fantastic bands along the way and are going to look to set up more shows with them in the upcoming months. For complete details, check out Else’s calendar ».

Read the rest of this entry »

Classical Guitar Recordings

June 29th, 2013

After owning my finger-style guitar for nearly 3 years I finally sat down and recording some material with it. I rerecorded an old finger-style favorite that previously had only been recording on an electric guitar. I also recorded two “new” songs, meaning they’re new recordings but one song was written nearly 7 years ago.

Read the rest of this entry »

Recording with Pay the Devil

June 29th, 2013

Inspired by doing some clean recordings during the 48 Hour Film Fest, Pay the Devil has decided to do some multi-track recordings on a handful of originals and a few traditional tunes. We’re starting by extending the short cut of “Johnny” recorded with Of the North into a full song. That’ll serve as the “bonus track” listed last on the EP. We’re kicking things off with group recordings this afternoon and we’ll get as much individual tracking done as possible afterwards. Hopefully things are wrapped up in just a few weeks!

Tooth and Nail

June 24th, 2013

Two weekends ago I acted as Music Supervisor and Composer for a film entered into the 48 Hour Film Fest.

For those of you not familiar with the Film Fest, it’s a competition that happens in cities across the world. Film teams draw a genre from a hat, and then are given a character and a line that must be incorporated into their 4-7 minute film. Each team has only 48 hours from finding out their genre and line to turning in a final product. Read the rest of this entry »

48 Hour Film Fest

June 17th, 2013

This last weekend I acted as music supervisor, recording engineer, composer, and performer for a film entered into the 48 Hour Film Fest. The genre we drew was Western so I partnered with my friends in Pay the Devil and Of the North, using some originals from each band as well as new music written for the short film. The writing and recording was a blast and everything turned out well. I’m incredibly proud of how the music integrates into the film, and I really think the film crew, writers, actors, directors, did an amazing job.

The film, “Tooth and Nail” premieres this Thursday at the Oriental Theater at 7 pm. You can see it and the rest of the entries for $10.

Getting Busy

May 31st, 2013

I’m setting myself up for a delightfully busy summer by scheduling gigs with Else, Pay the Devil, and Of the North. I’ve created a calendar page so that you guys can keep track of me!

Playing with Pay the Devil

May 15th, 2013

This summer I’ll be playing with Pay the Devil as their drummer, kid you not, is biking across the country. Pay the Devil is a Milwaukee-based bluegrass band featuring banjo, mandolin, and guitar, and I’ve played a few shows alongside them with Of the North. I’ll be playing spoons, snare, tambourine, and my improvised accordion case bass drum. They’ve got A LOT of material for me to learn, but thankfully spoons is just a tad easier than cello, so I’m picking things up quickly.

Alongside the first few shows with Else and Of the North starting to rehearse and perform again, I’m going to have a busy summer.

Else is Rocking

March 29th, 2013

With a full band finally, Else is writing, recording, and looking for gigs. We’ve produced two at-home recordings at uploaded them to our new website and Bandcamp page. We’re recording more this weekend and we’re hoping to have our first show soon.