SnowGhost Music

My first conversation with Chad, drummer for Friday Mile, was an ambitious one. Chad was not shy. Friday Mile was actively seeking out a producer to help them get to the next level. We talked about our working styles and agreed that SnowGhost could be a good fit. They were an easy-going, yet motivated group of individuals from different parts of the country, converging on Seattle to find their place in the music scene. My first face to face encounter with Friday Mile was earlier that summer, as they were celebrating the 4th of July, floating on rafts in Whitefish Lake, coozies and cheap beer in hand. We were just getting ready to record Get Him Eat Him when Jace and Jake stopped by the studio to see if what they heard was true. Jace, being exactly one-half the Montana native element of Friday Mile, was surprised when he saw a studio like ours in his home state. We were delighted to be working with some hometown heroes, besides the fact that they were the most accessible band that we had worked with. Combining great songwriting, rhythmic and melodic elements, rich harmonies, and a great live show to boot, Friday Mile would prove to be a treat to work with.

Just the way things worked out, Friday Mile would arrive on a Saturday night, and play their show first. We didn’t usually work that way, but I was excited about actually seeing one our artists perform live first. This would not only give me a chance to see how they moved as a unit in front of people, but also allow me to get used to their sounds, as I am also the live sound engineer for SnowGhost as well. From the live show, I gathered that Jace and Hannah were out in front, representing the very human element of the band, while Jake and Chad held down the pulsing rhythm section. I would do my best to set them up like this in the studio the studio, and in my mixes.

First things first, Chad and I spent an hour or so tuning our drums to his liking. He really liked the sweetness that our kit possessed and agreed that we wanted to have a pretty coherent sound, so the decay of the individual drums should be shorter. So we tightened up the top head a bit, and matched the bottom head. Then we added some weather-stripping to the bottom head to help with the added resonance, from tuning the top and bottom head in unison. After we got the sound we wanted we moved to miking the kit in Studio A, as the band all wanted to be in the same room. On the snare, I went with my usual 451/SM57 combination, taping them together and pointing the duo towards the center, about 2 inches off the head. On the toms I angled RE-20s much like I did on the snare. The RE-20s had become my choice mic on toms, for their very warm and low-end accentuating sound. Not straying from tradition, I went with the D112 just inside rim of kick, and got that round thump I love so much. All of these mics when through SSL mic pres, EQs, and compressors. Because Chad was a fairly light player, I did two things that would push him a bit more in the mix. First I used the very bright Sanken CU-44, which is usually a no-go with drummers that like to beat the shit out of the cymbals; Good luck trying to EQ the piercing highs out of the drum mix. In situations like this one, the CU-44s sound fantastic as spaced overheads for the snare and toms. Even the kick got a nice overhead treatment from these mics. I ran these through our Manley Slam with a considerable amount of Elop and an touch of FET for the ‘oh shit’ overs. There would be any overs with Chad at the helm. Finally, I placed a Schoeps XY stereo mic in the center of the room, about 10 ft back, as something to blend in later to give the drums a more uniform, less over-produced, sound.

To be continued...