December 5th, 2010

At this rate, this will most likely be my last update of 2010. I've gotten bad about it. Or, I've been bad about it for a while now. In September I did a couple weeks of touring with Balmorhea in the U.S., followed by a month in Europe. I did not pick up a guitar during this entire time, but I've been having a great time mixing their shows. I think every tour has gotten better, not only from a performance perspective, but also sonically.

I played 4 shows in 2010. That doesn't sound right at all...that's nothing! But there was an EP released in June, and I've been renting a monthly practice space for the first time ever in Meryll's existence. So things are happening. Or, about to happen. I did just wake up from a dream in which there was a Meryll "matinee" show booked for 5pm on a Sunday. The only opener was scheduled for 1pm, and had already cancelled. I woke up thinking "this show is going to be lame, I gotta cancel that thing." But...it was just a dream. No shows scheduled right now.

During the last week of December I have studio time booked here in Chicago, and plan to record new material. I'm very excited about this, and will give more details when the time is right.

Going back to Texas for Christmas. Makes me think of old times, with old friends. Crazy how much of a role music has played in my life. Going back to Arlington reminds me of working on songs for "You've Got Cousins" and "Happened." And playing Road Rash on N64 with my little bro. That was a great game!

June 3rd, 2010

What would you say if I told you that I never heard Jay-Z until last week? What would you say if I told you that The Blueprint is incredible?

I've been recording new songs. They don't sound anything like The Blueprint. Well, there's some vocals, so they have that in common.

Never underestimate the fun that can be had by doing something on a whim. I saw Voxtrot play at Lincoln Hall last weekend, and we decided that I should drive my car with them up to Appleton, WI the next day for a rousing game of "dandelion basketball" and to mix their show. It was a race to the finish line the next day when we got Jason to the Amtrak with about 5 seconds to spare. I went home and slept a long time.

May 15th, 2010

Enjoying a relaxing, quiet night at home. Listening to the likes of Greg Haines, Goldmund, and Nils Frahm while doing a bit of reading. I thought I would take a break from my book to write a journal update, especially since there are a lot of exciting things going on. Other than a really great tour of Europe with Balmorhea, I have been fairly dormant when it comes to Meryll, especially compared to all the touring that happened from 2005 to 2008. But it looks like that will change in 2010 and beyond. Less than a month ago I packed up, and moved across the country to Chicago. Having grown up in Michigan, I've always had an affinity for the midwest & northern parts of the country. Whenever we came through Illinois & Michigan on tour, I felt right at home, however, I would not have dreamed that I'd be moving here in the manner that I have. I'm working at a great studio in town, and am sharing a rehearsal space with some great bands just a few blocks away from my place. Most mornings I head over there around 9AM, feeling like I have the whole building to myself. It's been a long time since I have had the opportunity and motivation to spend as much time as I'd like to working on new material, and I'm hoping to take full advantage of it.

This week, I finalized the next release, which will be released as a digital download only, at least for now. The album is called Natchitoches, and is a small collection of seven songs that are a bit quieter than the previous records. One difference between this record and the others is that it was recorded sporadically over a long period of time, whereas the others were usually recorded in a fairly continuous manner, even if only on the weekends. Despite the fact that the album isn't even out yet, to be honest, the songs sort of feel a little old to me already. Some of them I played almost every night during the European tour, while others I've been kicking around for over a year now.

Having a practice space here in Chicago has allowed me to begin working on the next album. One thing that's always been strange about Meryll, is that the music can be either very loud, or very quiet. Even when we had a "full band" at a show, the set was sometimes pretty relaxed. When I write songs, it is easy for me to fall into the trap of trying to make it sound a certain way, outside of what is in my head or what comes naturally. I always feel unsatisfied with that approach, so right now I'm just playing the guitar, and accepting whatever comes. Sometimes it means pieces that are a little longer than I would normally think, or long passages without vocals. I would be lying if I said I haven't been somewhat influenced by the musicians I've been spending so much time with, or listening to over the past year; Balmorhea, Nils Frahm, Grouper, Tiny Vipers. And it's always been a raging battle for me as I think about the idea of playing live. Part of me imagines a rock club crowd that would be bored by anything quiet, and part of me imagines a scenario where I am bored by a rock band. We'll see what happens....

April 17th, 2010

In Switzerland tonight. Got lazy and forgot to update this thing! Astounded by the fact that an extremely humble PA can actually sound much better than the fancy pants stuff!

April 1st, 2010

Back for more with Balmorhea in Europe! I won't be playing any shows this time around but I've had lots of requests that I include updates anyway (never mind that all of those were from Marmie).

The spirit of John Hughes is alive and well on American Airlines. On the flight from Dallas to Frankfurt, Germany confusion ensued when a Japanese-speaking young man and an English-speaking lady in in her 60's were left holding what, at first, appeared to be boarding passes for the same seat. After a heated game of Tetris in the overhead bin, a representative from the airline intervened, took one look at the man's ticket, and promptly informed him that his flight to Miami was set to depart without him unless he high-tailed it over to the correct plane. To add injury to insult (at least to an older fella across the aisle), the contents in the overhead bin had already "shifted slightly" and when the frazzled traveler retrieved his bag, another piece of luggage presumably packed with bowling balls found rest on the other gentleman's head. For this reason I cut him some slack when, later, he was on the brink of scolding me for risking the crushing of his glasses; hey, it's my overhead bin, too.

The first show was last night in Hannover. It was a packed house, where the constant threat of a sudden surge from within the crowd seemed capable of levelling the mixing desk and any unfortunate individual who happened to be working behind it. A good problem to have when it comes to door receipts. Great audience, friendly staff, night one a success!

After 36 hours on, and then eight off, my body has formally requested more rest, so I think I'll try to get some more shut-eye until the others wake up.

October 23rd, 2009

Well after a handful of shows in Spain, we finally had to say goodbye. It was nice being in a place where I could speak at least a little bit of the language. Madrid was one of my favorite crowds, and Zaragoza was fun because I had time to visit a great museum that had a lot of Goya's work.

October 19th, 2009

I have gotten a little lazy about updating, and for that I am sorry. I guess we've been too busy having a good 'ole time! The crowds have been great, and it is so cool to see how Balmorhea's music excites people so far from our home.

One highlight for me on this tour was having the pleasure of hearing them in a huge theater in Portugal. I barely had to push much of anything through the PA because everything carried so well naturally.

I have had the chance to try out some new songs that should be on the next album. I'm not sure when recording will begin, but I'd love to release something next year. We'll see.

Andrew

October 11th, 2009

I think everyone in the van is sad to be leaving Dudingen. We met a lot of very nice people at Bad Bonn last night! William Tyler opened the show with one of my favorite songs of the tour! By himself, he played a great melodic finger-picking style that is right up my alley. His friend Volker joined him on cello for some more experimental ambient songs. They play in Lambchop and Calexico respectively, and are both very talented guys.

Now we are on our way to Italy, driving through the Swiss alps and listening to William's album. Signing out for now,

Andrew

October 9th, 2009

I got the night off tonight for Meryll, but I will be doing sound for Balmorhea tonight. We are in Geneva, Switzerland in a huge building that is (at least?) two venues in one. Outside by the river there are two water tanks setup where there is supposed to be some sort of dance performed.

We have eaten lots of bread and drank lots of sparkling water. That's all for now...

Andrew

October 8th, 2009

I'm about to take the stage in Switzerland! So far the shows have been great. Last night Mike Bell from Balmorhea came up and backed me up on drums for a couple of songs, even though he had never heard them before! He caught on just fine.

Tonight we will be sleeping above the venue, which we're all happy about. Ok, time for me to go to work.

Andrew

October 4th, 2009

I never imagined I'd say this, but tomorrow morning I'm flying to Germany for my first international tour! I'll be running sound for Balmorhea, and opening up many of the shows with a solo set. I'm not sure what to expect, especially in the countries where I don't know a single word of the language (Germany, France, Italy...yikes!). It's about time that I got out on the road and promoted "Rimziate." It's been over a year since the last tour, and this couldn't be any more different than that last one. I will say, however, that Marshall and I still talk about the "Parks & Rec" tour in disbelief that we actually did it!

I won't have my computer with me, but I'm hoping to find ways to write as much as possible. I've packed my camera, but it's a 35mm, so I probably won't be posting any pictures until I get home.

I am really excited to be touring with Balmorhea. With all the Meryll tours over the years, I've never had the opportunity to tour with another band, not to mention one with whom I am very close. I've spent a lot of time with Balm in the studio, having engineered and mixed their last 3 albums. Knowing their songs gives me a leg up when it comes to running FOH for them. I'm curious as to how much driving I'll have to do, since I've only put in about 30 minutes on a manual transmission with my Dad over Thanksgiving last year. I think it would be fun to just wing it, and see what they say. Hopefully they don't read this.

April 14th, 2009

Due to the fact that I am a recording engineer by trade, it is inevitable that a lot of this "write-up" will delve into the technical aspects of recording the album. Many of you might get bored quickly. I understand, and am OK with that.

Last July, after returning home from the Parks & Rec Tour, I stumbled across a website for Jason's recording services. He has been engineering and producing for a number of years, but only at that moment did I realize that he had gone public with his freelance recording services. I sent him an email, starting with the all-too-familiar "...you probably don't remember me, but my band opened for you at The Parish back in 2006." I told him we were planning to make our 3rd album for Esotype records, and that I was running a studio where we could make the album. A few days later, I excitedly read his email saying that we might be able to make something work. We talked about starting in January of '09, but due to a scheduling conflict, things got bumped up to November of '08. I knew that I had to buckle down and work hard to finish the pre-production demos if I was to have all the songs completed in time.

Since Meryll first started in 2003, I have been using the same setup to do demos. I have an Edirol UA-1000, whatever mic is close by (usually an AT3035), and a couple of programs (Fruity Loops & Tracktion). I used this setup to do the demo recordings for "You've Got Cousins," "Happened," and "Rimziate." It is quick to setup, and gets the job done.

For "Rimziate," three of the songs were written in the winter of 2007 ("Cheyenne," "Danielle In Time," and "Cass, Ark"). Kyle and I worked out some of the kinks by playing them live on a tour we did in January of 2008.

One of the songs was written in July of 2008 while travelling on the Parks & Rec tour ("Katillus"). The rest were written in August after booking the studio time with Jason ("Packed Sand Punk," "Rimziate," and "The Drummer Man"). "Everywhere" is an exception, as it is a Polaris cover song.

We made "Rimziate" on a 2" 24-track analog tape machine (MCI JH-16), recording at 30 inches per second. This effectively gave us about 15 minutes of recording time on a single reel of tape. I've always wanted to make a Meryll album on tape. "Happened" was mixed to 1/2" tape, but all our previous recordings had been done in Pro Tools. If you've never seen a 2" tape machine in person, it is easy to find an image on Google. That being said, the photo I have posted above is what the machine looks like whenever it breaks down. It usually involves a bad 2N3055, or...well, that is a story for another day.

It really is satisfying to do an entire album on tape. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not in the anti-digital camp. I work in Pro Tools on a daily basis.) Other than the drum loops, there is essentially no "editing" on this album. Any tracks that needed fixing were simply punched in (meaning that we erased over a part until we got it right). It's nice to not have to sit at the console and spend hours sifting through take-after-take of vocals to find the parts that we felt were satisfactory.

We used 3 reels for this album, with room to spare since it's a relatively short album. The image above is a list that documents which songs were recorded on which reels, and at which point on the reel they appear. A list like this makes it easier to find each song during the sessions. For example, if we wanted to pull up "Packed Sand Punk" and add a tambourine overdub, we wouldn't need to search through all the reels blindly re-winding until we found the take.

I'll never forget that the first song we started with was "Katillus." We loaded my drum loops onto the tape, did a couple things to beef them up a bit, and put down a rythym track with my nylon string guitar that I bought in Waterloo, Iowa. We doubled that with an old Gibson acoustic, and put down the bass track. The electric guitars that begin the song seemed to be jumping out of the speakers! It was a real thrill to be standing there tracking these guitar parts with Jason at the helm. I had the same level of excitement as if I were 12 years old, and enrolled in a Baseball fantasy camp playing catch with the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field.

Below, I have attached a track-sheet for "Katillus." When working on tape, it is vital to keep good notes documenting which instrument is recorded on which track, since there is no computer screen to look at. Otherwise, things start getting accidentally erased very quickly! Each box usually has information about the musician, the guitar or amp, the microphone, as well as any other outboard gear in the chain including compressors and/or equalizers. It's also helpful to notate that a particular track only comes in at a certain point in the song, or that it is a double of another track.

If anyone reading this intends to make a record on analog tape, but also plans to use drum loops from a sequencing program, do yourself a favor and learn about the magic of SMPTE time-code. By "striping" the tape with time-code, one is able to sync up software such as Pro Tools with the analog tape machine. Why would you want to do this? Let's say you commit a drum loop to tape, and overdub all your guitars and vocals, only to realize that the 3rd verse would be much better if the drums went away, and instead you used a new drum loop that you came up with. If you tried to play-back your new loop, while recording on the tape machine, you would find that it would be completely hit-or-miss in terms of getting it all to sync up at just the right time. It would be a mess. SMPTE makes it possible...

First, we used Pro Tools to generate SMPTE time-code and recorded it onto a dedicated track on the tape machine. Once that was done, we hooked up the output of that track into the "LTC In" of the Pro Tools hardware and "told" Pro Tools to look for incoming time-code. Essentially, Pro Tools is thinking, "OK, I am going to play-back & record at whatever speed the tape machine is running at, because I am going to keep track of how fast I see the time-code going by." On its own, the tape machine runs at a very stable 30 inches per second. But relative to a digital device which does not have actual motors and other moving parts, it tends to "drift" over a certain amount of time. The first time you play a song off the tape, it might take 2 minutes, 59 seconds, and 4 one-hundredths of a second, while if you were to play back the exact same section of tape again, it might take 2 minutes, 59 seconds, and 24 one-hundredths of a second.

We took full advantage of the SMPTE on the song "The Drummer Man." On the demo version, I had recorded 2 lead synth parts with a Roland JX-3P. When I tried to re-record the synth part to tape in the studio, I was unable to get the keyboard to produce the same sound that I was so pleased with on the demo version. Fortunately, we happened to use the exact same tempo/key as the demo, so we were able to load the isolated synth parts from the demo into Pro Tools, and then transfer those tracks to the analog master tape. Everything was locked up perfectly thanks to the SMPTE time-code.

Let me take a moment to talk about the DW Fearn VT-1 tube microphone preamplifier. Back in the Fall of 2002, I emailed James Paul Wisner asking him about some of the equipment that he used to record some of my favorite albums at the time (Further Seems Forever's "The Moon Is Down," and Twothirtyeight's "You Should Be Living"). In his reply, he told me that he used the Crane Song Spider, and the DW Fearn preamp, among other things. Ever since that conversation, I would go to Mercenary about once a month and just stare at hi-resolution pictures of the DW Fearn equipment.

We used the same chain on on all the acoustic guitars, and vocals:

Vocals: U47 > DW Fearn VT1 > Distressor > API 550 EQ
Acoustic guitars: U67 > DW Fearn VT1 > Distressor > API 550 EQ

Below is a photo of me tracking acoustic guitars on "Danielle in Time." If you look closely, you can see Jason in the control room getting levels on the tape machine.

We recorded & mixed the entire record in 5 days, which is fast compared to a lot of the albums I have engineered for my clients. Going into the sessions, we had set aside plenty of time to ensure that the album would be fully tracked during the week that Jason was in Austin. I didn't want to rush myself, or rush Jason's workflow, so I figured that 5 days would be sufficient for tracking, and planned to mix at a later date.

On the last day, we pulled up each song and listened back in order to decide if there were any additional overdubs needed. We usually spent about 30 minutes making adjustments to the balance, and would then look at each other and say,"Man, this is really rocking...let's print it before we do too much and something starts sounding lame." Needless to say, we ended up using almost all those mixes that we put together on the last day because we thought there was a real energy to the tracks. There was one song that I re-mixed ("Cheyenne") because there was something weird going on with the panning of the doubled vocals in the choruses.

For those interested, we mixed through a 70's era Quad Eight Coronado console. Previously, this particular console was in service in Germany and Canada over the years. If you're really, and I mean really, curious you can read up about Quad Eight's history here. Most of the reverb you hear on the vocals (especially on "The Drummer Man") is a custom-built reverb chamber.

Here is a photo of Jason and I after having completed the album. On the left are the master reels, and behind us is the wall of guitar amps that we borrowed (thanks to Bill Baldwin from King Air, and Kevin McKinney).

I've got a closet-full of Meryll CD's that are piling up with each release, so with this album we've decided to release it in vinyl/mp3 format only. I could be wrong, but it seems like at this point people either love buying vinyl, or they buy a CD just to throw it onto their mp3 player. Is there anyone out there that honestly loves putting on a CD??? Maybe I sound bitter...in any case, this is what we're doing for this album.

We hired Jason Ward at Chicago Mastering Service to cut the vinyl master lacquer. From there it was sent to Mastercraft for the plating, and to A&R Record Pressing in Dallas.

I hope you all enjoy the record!

-Andrew