SXSW: KaiL Baxley, Andrew Collberg & Tucson Music

I'll be heading to SXSW this year, looking forward to the usual good times and great music in Austin - lots of both! I'll be playing guitar with up and coming singer/songwriter KaiL Baxley, whose deep southern soul is working it's way across the airwaves. Check out the video above. His new double EP comes out March 19, pre order it here: Heatstroke / The Wind and the War.

I'm also looking forward to seeing Andrew Collberg, who has a new record coming out that yours truly co-produced. Andrew will be playing with a host of Tucson bands including long time friends Giant Sand at a special Tucson Night show! Austin here we come!

Engineering at Skylab Studio

I am excited to be joining the engineering staff at Skylab Studio! Skylab is a professional project recording studio in Los Angeles. Started  in 2001 by Tommy Dietrick (Sky Parade, The Brian Jonestown Massacre), Skylab has become the go to studio for discerning LA bands, musicians and recording artists who appreciate quality sound and dedicated engineers. Skylab is currently expanding to include a brand new control room, a welcome addition to the already impressive space and gear. I've been busy learning the system and have already enjoyed making some great music with some awesome bands. For more information and booking check out Skylab Studio.


Tommy Dietricks's credits include:
Sky Parade
Robby Krieger (The Doors)
Glen Matlock (The Sex Pistols)
KRS One (Hip Hop Legend)
Courtney Taylor and Zia McCabe (The Dandy Warhols)
Reeves Gabrels (David Bowie/Tin Machine)
Clem Burke (Blondie)
Dizzy Reed (Guns and Roses)
Mark Gardener (Ride)
Derek Forbes (Simple Minds)
James Greer (Guided By Voices)
John “Twink” Alder (The Pretty Things)
Pete Kember (Spacemen 3)
Nick Jago (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club)
Ziggy Sigmund (Econoline Crush)
Jay Aston (Gene Loves Jezebel)
James Stevenson (Gene Loves Jezebel, Sisters Of Mercy)
Nate Ryan (The Black Angels)
Bob Schutz (Brazillian Jazz)
Nick Schutz (Masanga)
Robert Kyle (renown saxophone artist)
Scott Martin (Tito Puente)

Keyboards on Iron and Wine Vinyl

I played keyboards on this Iron and Wine session back in 2011 for the Morning Becomes Eclectic Radio Show on KCRW in LA. The session was taped at The Village Recording Studio and they decided to make a vinyl only album for record store day. Good stuff!

New Monkey Studio on The Voice

NBC's The Voice stopped by New Monkey Studio recently and filmed a segment featuring singer Dia Frampton, I was tapped to engineer for the song portion. Our usually quiet back alley and parking lot was transformed into a movie set as the trucks rolled in and the crew went busily to work. They decided to light the studio and used a giant mirror in the back alley to reflect the sun right into the studio back door, down the hallway and into the control room. It lit up the rooms bright as day! Probably a common filming trick, but pretty cool for us musicians. As you can see the footage came out great, especially the wall of amps, the Neumann U48 and the Trident A-Range mixing board. Thanks to The Voice and Dia for stopping by!

Fuzz.com is cool!

Fuzz.com is an awesome new radio-style website that I have been really enjoying lately. Creator Jeff Yesuda wanted to make a music recommendation site, but instead of recommendations coming from algorithms (like Pandora), he felt humans could do a better job and so created Fuzz.com. Their tagline is "People Powered Radio". It's really simple, you can click on various stations to listen and you can even make your own station(s) by uploading songs form your library. The rights have been cleared and this is totally legit, check out their FAQ. Nice thing is you can discover new music by streaming personalized playlists and if you like the DJ you can follow them or give them "props" (similar to Facebook "likes"). The stations also allow DJs and listeners to comment on songs. Great way to discover new music!

One of my stations, Lightronica World, is featured this week - thanks Fuzz.com!

D. on Darox and The Melody Joy Bakers

This week at New Monkey Studio I had the pleasure of recording D. on Darox and The Melody Joy Bakers. This rag tag ensemble plays a cornucopia of old-timey sounding musics: jazz, blues, latin, Americana and various popular song forms. Leader D.on has a strong gravelly voice that can whoop into a holler or come down low and slow. The Melody Joy Bakers play various instruments including accordion, guitars, drums, upright bass, piano, banjo, trumpet, theremin, washboard, and xylophone.

It's nice to record a band that has lots of material that they have been performing live for years, but make no mistake the sound is loose and all about the feeling. They came into the studio, set up all together in the room and we cut every song live, then spent the next day picking the best tunes and mixing. Two days for a whole record, folks - that's the way it's done! In the meantime they'll be gigging around, trying to raise more money to master the album and make CDs and/or records to sell to their loyal fans. Probably have it released in the next few months, so keep an eye out for this one!

John Doe Show Aug 11

I'll be playing keyboards and guitar with John Doe (of X) and his fabulous band this Saturday. It's been a while since I rocked with John and I'm really looking forward to playing some great music. This free show is at Pershing Square in Downtown LA - always a fun event and a great place to enjoy some Rock and Roll under the glow of the city lights.

John Doe
Saturday August 11
8PM - 11PM
Pershing Square, Downtown LA
FREE!!!
w/ Gram Rabbit