Took another couple trips down to Jackpot! Studios down in Portland, OR to mix this wonderful record with Peter from Forest Ray. This album hit me in a different way than a lot of his older material that we’ve collaborated on. It’s more sentimental, more heartfelt, and more reflective than his older albums and I think it goes a long way in showcasing his growing maturity as a songwriter and as a musician. This is a delightful album for lovers of classic rock, country, psych rock, and music theory. All mixing was done from 2” 24-track tape down to 1/4” 2-track through Jackpot’s Neve summing console with me and Peter riding the faders all the way. Pure analog spontaneity.
Forest Ray - Wait Any Longer
I mixed and mastered this Single off an upcoming album for Seattle psych-rock band Forest Ray. As with nearly all of their music, this song was tracked and mixed completely analog from 2” 24-track tape down to 1/4” 2-track. We mixed this album at Jackpot! Recording Studio in Portland, OR over the course of 6 long days.
Forest Ray - Hard to Quit (Banjira)
Partially engineered, mixed, and mastered this song for Seattle-based psych-pop-rock band Forest Ray. Had a real fun time on this one tracking in their basement studio and mixing at Jackpot! in Portland; all completely analog. Had to figure out how to use varispeed on the tape machine to tune the banjira from 432Hz to standard 440Hz tuning!
The Sheen - Holocene Rolodex
Recorded, mixed, and mastered this album for Bellingham psych noise band The Sheen. Tracked live at Champion Street Sound Studios with the assistance of some of my students. Mixed and mastered back here at the home studio.
Mount Saturn - O' Great Moon
Mount Saturn is a band I worked with back in 2017 and 2018 recording a little demo for them and then the Kiss the Ring EP. We had stayed in touch over the years (even jammed with me on drums a few times!) and I was absolutely thrilled when they asked me to work on an upcoming record with them in 2019. Then the pandemic hit and everything got put on pause. In 2021 when vaccines started to allow us to get out and start playing music again they hit me up again about finally recording the songs they’d been working on. So we set to work tracking the band mostly live playing all together using Pro Tools at the Anacortes Unknown Recording Studio in the Fall of 2021. Unfortunately due to poor intonation (get your guitars setup before recording folks!) we had to scrap a lot of guitar tracks, but a lot of what you hear here is the result of the band playing together in a big ass old church in a sleepy Washington seaside town. Everything we weren’t able to finish at the Unknown that weekend we recorded either at Champion Street Sound Studios or at my home studio in Bellingham. Lots of reamping loud ass guitar tracks through various Sunn, ENGL, Fender, and Orange amps here too for those big doomy guitar tones. Everything was mixed at my home studio here in Bellingham too, then we sent off the tracks to James Plotkin for mastering and final touches.
Overall, I think this album showcases some huge growth for both myself and the band. We all pulled out all the stops here and created something that we’re all very proud of and happy with. Mount Saturn rules live too, so go see them if you get a chance.