My first encounter with The Wartime Blues was when I was standing outside “The Church” ,where we do most of our shows, getting ready for our show with Adam Arcuragi. Three summertime-looking fellows walked up to me and asked me about the show. I mentioned that Adam Arcuragi was a folk artist from Philidelphia and that the opening band, Wartime Blues, was a folk-rock band from Missoula. That was about all I knew at the time, as Keith had booked them to open up for Adam fairly close to the show’s date. That’s when they corrected me. “Actually I’m from Idaho, and go to school in Missoula”, answered Ben. A little embarrassed, we shook hands, and I asked them about their set. They explained that they were a roots band, led by Canadian Nate... read more >
Adam and I had kept in touch over the past year, both hoping that our worlds would collide again for a full-length session. I knew in a matter of minutes the last time around that we would work well together in the studio. Adam stood well above his peers in the paradoxical simplicity of his lyrics; much like Bruce Springsteen could turn a pair blue jeans and a plain-white T into the uniform for a guilt-ridden war hero.
Adam’s aversion to digital sounds was also exciting for me, as it required for more creative workarounds that usually led to unique sounds. Both of us liked the organic approach to recording, using mic techniques and room treatments to achieve the desired results. We continued talking about a recording session of gran... read more >
I hadn't heard all that much about Victory Smokes outside of a few friends who mentioned them as being one of Missoula's premier modern rock bands, among a sea of folk and jam bands. We've never really looked to Missoula for anything really cutting edge, as the population there seemed to be content on trading their ‘off the board’ mixes of Grateful Dead shows (of which I am definitely guilty of owning a few). But after finding out that Mike (Victory's singer/rhythm guitarist) was also promoting some pretty cool rock shows down there, I became intrigued. I got the demo, and yes, it was rough, but the songs were there. I knew that we could work together to really polish them into great songs.
To be continued...
read more >Check out a documentary from current about Death Cab for Cutie, featuring footage of the session that I got to engineer in Seattle a few weeks ago:
read more >When Dan Keech and Bob Jones made the mid-tour, out-of-the-way trek from Missoula last fall to see the studio, I was intrigued. They had heard about us through mutual friends, Dan Deacon and Graham Hill (Roman Ruins), and wanted to come take a look for themselves. They came with CDs in hand to play on our control room setup and were not disappointed. After the back and forth comparing of notes on our music production styles, Height and Jones chopping up samples in Reason and using the hip hop standard issue Akai MPC, and me dealing mostly with rock music, we agreed that this project may be a unique meeting of the minds. We both had a mound of respect for each other’s craft, be it recording in the traditional sense, or gathering sample... read more >
