Pay the Devil just released their third full-length album, Turn to Gold. This is the third time I’ve recorded with the band, this time playing drums on all of the tracks. I also recorded and mixed the project in my very own living room! We played a radio spot on WMSE in the weeks leading up to the release, and then played an absolutely raucous show on the release day, April 14th, a.k.a., Milwaukee Day, at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn. The full album is up on all major streaming platforms, so take a listen  now!

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Milwaukee’s favorite “shanty-grass” ensemble, the gruff and lovable, Pay the Devil, released their sophomore album, “To Hell Luck” last night at the Walker’s Point Music Hall. Though I don’t play with the group regularly anymore, I actually did contribute bass to all but one track, and played cello on three others.

The band recorded all of their parts at banjo-Ivan’s house (yes, there are two Ivans in the band, one on banjo, one on guitar), usually in a group setting with the vocals added later. I then rented a stand-up bass to lay down the bass tracks in my home studio, where I also recorded the cello parts. Harmonica was layered in all the way from Erie, Pennsylvania, performed by banjo-Ivan’s dad. Once everything was recorded and mixed by Ivan, he headed into my home studio where we sat down to a night of mastering and Thai food. It was a long but enjoyable and collaborative process.

A particularly collaborative song is “Buffalo Bill”, written by a friend of the band, Lucas Riddle. Banjo-Ivan plays guitar and performs lead vocals, I play cello, Ivan’s dad added harmonica, and the band’s new bassist, Jacqueline, provided backup vocals. The track turned out fantastic despite none of the performers actually sitting down to play the tune together!

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Just two weeks after recording with Whiskey Doubles, and in between performing and writing new songs with {ELSE}, I took a Sunday to record my old chums, Pay the Devil. I used the same kind of set up that we used for Whiskey Doubles, running 4 Tascam instrument mics, a large diaphragm condenser for main vocals, and a few additional dynamic Shure SM58s for backup vocals and percussion. With a large semi-circle layout, we were able to achieve pretty clean and separated tracks and with some light mixing and processing, and the end result was fantastic!

The album, tentatively titled “North Avenue Free For All”, will contain about 19 songs and should be available on Spotify, iTunes, and of course in person in a few weeks!

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Pay the Devil made an appearance on MSOE‘s radio station, WMSE, on Friday morning to promote this last week’s show with Of the North. I had already taken the day off of work to get some Christmas shopping and other errands done, so it was great to throw in an extra trip to be on the air. We did some interviews, played 3 songs, talked about the show, and then at the end an Of the North original was played on the air.

Listen to the archive recording (12-13-13), starting at the 52 minute mark »

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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 »

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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 »

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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!

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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 »

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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.

Posted in Pop, Soundtrack | Tagged cello, guitar, of the north, pay the devil, percussion, studio recording | No Comments »

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!

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