It’s pretty normal to think of a gate as something that opens and closes, allowing things to pass in and out. Well, in the audio world, this is exactly what a gate does.

Let me sum it up really easily for you. Everyone knows the badass drum part on “In The Air Tonight”. DO DO, DO DO, do do, do do, do, do. That spotlighted the use of gates (more accurately gated reverb) on drums.

And Phil Collins was, and still is, the god of using gates.

“In The Air Tonight” was not the only place the gate was used, Phil took it a step further to include it on many mellow songs in his extensive catalog. Why? I guess he just loved the sound.

Let’s take “Another Day In Paradise” for example. There’s no need for the “snare’ to be cut so short by the gate. But he did it and you probably have never even thought twice about it. It’s basically a way to take something that should be acoustic, reverberant sounding, and making it electronic and huge for a brief second. (definitely an 80’s thing) Have a listen. It won’t take long to hear what I’m talking about.

Another Day In Paradise

Can you hear the opening and closing of the gate? The “snare” should normally ring out more. It shouldn’t be cut short like it is. But when Phil is behind the boards, that’s what he wanted. I’m not sure what kind of impact it’s supposed to have, but the man definitely created a unique sound.

Here’s a visual representation of what a gate does: (via Wikipedia)
Notice the input and output level. The input level is the sound you would normally hear from the drums if Phil didn’t decide to gate them. But also notice the sharp drop offs to and from the output level. That’s what our ears are hearing when we listen to the songs. The output level is at zero. This image shows that you can modify how fast the gate kicks in and how you want it to release.

I’ll leave you with this. Pull out some records from the 80’s and give them a closer listen, hopefully understanding a bit more what a gate is. And when you hear it, know that Phil Collins was the pioneer behind it all.

I’ve ranted on and on—in many posts—about my admiration for Mr. Brion. This post is a little different. I want to take a song from his only solo record “Meaningless” and break it apart—provide a little background into the admiration I’ve grown for the song writing and production genius of Jon Brion.

From a guy who has lived in Boston for almost a decade. this song has a close place to my heart. “Her Ghost” is a track from “Meaningless” written while he was a Boston resident. I can create an amazing mental picture of him in a Boston apartment pouring his heart out over his thoughts of this woman he sings of.

“Her Ghost” is no doubt a love song. What kind of a love song is entirely up for debate. (Just about everything I’ll say about these lyrics is of course subjective, but none the less strong thoughts on them.)
Jon Brion – Her Ghost

Lyrics

Here’s how I would lyrically sum up the song.

Jon is a guy who lives in an apartment building with a girl he knows. How well? I don’t know, but it’s enough that he has strong feelings for. She could be a neighbor of which he has grown close. She could be his reason for living. Never quite been able to make that part out. Either way, she has this guy in her life. But this guy is not up to the standards of Jon or his muse. But he’s there, and Jon makes it really clear he’s not going away.

Jon is hurt by the amount of power this guy has over her life. He really wants to step in to do something about what is clearly unhealthy and he desperately wants to change that.

“And every where I turn, I tend to learn that she’s got memories that never burn. And this is of concern and I prepare to go. ‘Cause this I know, that though he’s out sight, he’s in her mind and in my hair. I’m tiring of this fight. Besides, it’s getting me nowhere.”

I imagine Jon watching silently in the halls as this man fights with his neighbor. I can see him imagining all her pain. He feels like he’s invisible to this guy, hidden away in the dark shadows of the building’s halls and hates that feeling.

“Her ghost is propped up in the hall. He speaks no evil there. He doesn’t notice me at all, I find it a bit unfair.”

There’s no happy ending or closure to the story he tells. We’re left with the sad state of Jon knowing that as long as this guy is in her life, “He’ll be the death of me”. (which happens to lead into a perfect transition into “The Same Mistakes”)

Production

Jon Brion exhibits amazing songwriting ability on “Meaningless”, but nothing falls short of his production genius.

The song kicks off with a Chamberlain/Mellotron pad that is definitely a distinctive sound for a Brion production. Besides the drums, bass, vocals, and piano, the Chamberlain/Mellotron makes up most of its beauty. Jon really wanted to get a full orchestra to due this track justice, but luckily his brother pushed him to include it on the record.

The best way I can describe the groove is “chunky”. Every instrument chunks along while these pads are held out over it until they decide to add perfect accents on top of the chunking groove.

As the song goes on, perfect breaks in the instrumentation are brilliantly placed to drop out and emphasize lyrics or give you that space to breath and regroup on the impact of the importance of what he’s saying.

At about 2:45 in the song you get to an unusually climactic build. The bass holds strong yet everything starts to build up around it. The payoff isn’t grand; the payoff is a dropped out, small, filtered sound of Jon’s voice. It pans to the right speaker delivering the line “Memories that never burn”.

It’s full from top to bottom but his vocals cut through (probably why the lyrics grabbed me so much). The overall sound of the song is full, spacious, warm, and distinctly Jon Brion.

Have a listen to the original demo of the song and prepare to be blown away by how little changed between it and the final product that made it to the record. And dear lord, if you don’t have this album, get on it now!
Jon Brion – Her Ghost Demo

Purchase “Meaningless” on CD Baby

Photo Credit: Robert Gauthier/LA Times

photo by Michael Murray from the calcutta blog

Bands like Interpol, The National, Frightened Rabbit, The Twilight Sad, Fanfarlo, Mates of State have all become widely known, recognized, and loved amongst the music scene. They’re all great musicians who write great songs.

But there is one strong glue that holds all these bands together and has helped put them into our line of vision (or ears). That man is Peter Katis of Tarquin Studios. And guess what, he does it out of the comfort of his home.

I’m a sucker for the man behind the scenes because my entrance into music was known that if I was lucky, I would be the man credited in the liner notes. This is the life of a record producer/engineer who does it not for the money, but for the love of his craft.

I really wish I could remember the first time I learned of Peter Katis. I knew of his records before I knew of him. And that’s slightly rare for me because when I find an album I love, the first thing I do is dig into the liner notes to find out who worked on it. But I can certainly remember the first time I spoke with him…

I had just moved away from NYC and was trying to figure out what to do next. At this point I was very aware of him and his work. Also knew that he was living my dream. He has a KICK ASS recording studio in his home. I knew I wanted to have a studio in my home. And I do now, except my dog takes up half of the space…

So I reached out to him. And what did he do? Spend an hour on the phone (plus many many emails) with me driving back from a mastering session he had just left in Boston telling me what it takes to setup a studio like his. WHO IS THIS GUY?? I am approaching him as a rival studio owner/producer trying to copy exactly what he has done. And he tells me everything I need to know about doing it.

This is just phase 1 of why Peter Katis is the man. The reason we all know of him is because of his ability to take artists and show their best side. ‘Turn on the Bright Lights’ – ‘Antics’ – ‘Alligator’ – ‘Boxer’ – ‘Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters’ – ‘Re-Arrange Us’ – ‘Reservoir’ Do I even need to go on?? These albums are all ones we have put on repeat time and time again. Every time I hear ‘Fake Empire’ I can’t help but to listen to the rest of ‘Boxer’. It has the same impact as an alcoholic who has been away from booze for years but takes one tiny sip and he’s right back into it.

Phase 2 is because he has the ability to make these albums THE go to albums for each of the bands. Is it his incredible drum sounds? Is it the fact that he still uses tape? Is it the fact that he has an amazing studio to record in? Nope. It’s because of all those things. But more importantly he gets music and artists. He pulls the absolute best out of them and puts that down onto tape. And these are the records that turn bands careers into what they are.

If it were up to me? Every time you went to see one of these bands perform live you would see Peter sitting on a stool soaking it in on the corner of the stage. But would he want that? Probably not. Because he chose his path we as music listeners can only benefit from the work he does. And god DAMN does he do great work.

And simply for your listening pleasure:

Interpol – NYC

The National – Fake Empire

Frightened Rabbit – The Modern Leper

Mates of State – The Re-Arranger

Jay is one of the most unassuming musicians you will ever meet. He sits down at a piano and instead of playing one of his songs (which he almost refuses to do if there is an audience) he will serenade you with Disney songs, video game scores, and my personal favorite, Jurassic Park scores.

So unfortunately, Jay has moved on from making any records since the last one we put out (purchase if you like!! or send me an email and I will just give a link to download…)

He has currently been mixing his musical ability with his shockingly good acting ability in an online tv series that is doing very well in Toronto. Check it out: nirvanathebandtheshow.com

But the point of this post stems from the fact that I decided to check out SoundCloud today. And my first upload (more to come) happened to be my favorite song I’ve ever recorded.

‘Still I Hope’ was a song Jay wrote in one night and I was in control of the board (also got to stretch out my percussion chops on it). It was pure magic. I worked out the piano and ukulele loop played by Jesse Parmet while Jay sat in the corner of my studio (doubles as a bedroom) frantically scribbling out lyrics. He never sang a note until I placed the mic up to him and hit record. One take was all we needed.

We started at 7 at night and finished up around 4 in the morning. Beers were flowing and by the end of it we had a song. Mix and all. (and I haven’t touched the mix since) Honestly? I’ve just been scared to…

Here is the song below thanks to the great abilities of SoundCloud to provide a great listening experience. Hopefully this isn’t my biased opinion, but it doesn’t take a fancy studio and days of thought to produce a great song.

I’d love to know what you all think of it.

The average music listener will pick up an album, listen to it, and say yey or ney pretty quickly within the first track or two. And I KNOW this has a lot to do with what the engineer has done to it.

People love lo-fi (me being one) and people also love polished, pristine sounding albums (Steely Dan’s Aja anyone?).

Both have their charms but one band comes to mind who has suffered from this greatly as of recently. Tigercity is a band I put on repeat when I heard their first EP ‘Pretend Not To Love‘. This album was pristine as pristine can be. I could listen to it cranked to 11 or on 2 and it still would sound amazing. (which is an almost impossible accomplishment for an engineer.)

But they have just recently released a new album titled ‘Ancient Lover‘. I have been witness to many of these songs live, and as much as I love the group, I have to say, this album suffers from good engineering. The track ‘James Iha’ has been one of my favorites live but MAN does it suffer from poor mixing or mastering. (actually I think the whole album suffers from both but this is the prime example).  How does a band who is growing at an extremely rapid rate of popularity suffer from poor engineering on their first full length release?? This clearly blows my mind.

But my honest apologies to Tigercity. I love them as a band and will still support all they do. But what happened with the studio work on ‘Ancient Lover’? One day I hope to get a solid answer that will allow me to rest easy at night.

sorry I hate links to myspace but this is where their main hub is surrounded

Not many people understand the art of mixing music. When you tell most people that your are working on mixing an album they think you are a DJ. Not. The. Case.

Mixing an album in professional recording terms can mean a million different things. I can only type so much…

For me, mixing an album means the players have gathered, played all of their instruments that will make up a song, and then I am given files to mix together to make it sound like what the listeners are used to hearing on CD or radio (without the mastering part thrown in). And if I am ACTUALLY allowed to do my job I can add new elements to the song to make it even better than the musicians ever thought of. If engineers didn’t mix songs there would be a million and a half complaints about every album ever recorded that they ‘couldn’t hear the vocals’ or the ‘bass was weak’ or ‘the guitar was way too loud’. These are common complaints even after a song HAS been mixed.

Again, I can only type so much…( and I could probably right a book about this) but people of the musical listening world. Please. Read up on what goes into a mix. Half of the time you hate a song you may not even realize that it is solely the doings of a bad mix. Why do people love Top 40 radio so much? It is because thousands and thousands of dollars were spent on the mix. It is pleasing to the ears. Plain and simple.

Mixing is the butter to your lobster. THAT. right there sums it all up. Try eating a good lobster without butter. I’m pretty sure you will enjoy it. But then take that same delicious lobster and let it soak in butter for a little while. Let me know if you feel the same about it then. I can guarantee (unless you’re watching your calories) you will take the lobster with the butter any day of the week.

All that I know for sure, is that I was exposed to some of the most amazing musicians and musical minds I will ever meet. One very underrated musician at that school was Jesse Parmet. A great friend of mine and all around amazing guy. He was soft spoken but the passion he had for making great music is unsurpassed in my eyes. If Motown ever came back around and needed a session guitarist, Jesse would be the creamy white center of the Oreo guitar section Berry Gordy assembled. (put ‘Standing in the Shadows of Motown’ on your Netflix list if you missed that reference)

Now you’re wondering “What the hell does this have to do with a Fender Rhodes??” Keep your panties on, I’ll explain. Jesse lived a few doors down from me and we experimented with recording his group ‘Mo County’ doing many many apartment recording sessions the old fashioned way, setting up everyone in the same room and having them play live recording onto analog tape. What a a concept! He was old fashioned in the way he made and listened to music and had an analog 8-track sitting in his closet that was apparently busted. (turns out it was far from busted and worked like a dream) He also was the proud owner of a Fender Rhodes. After a long session that we all didn’t feel like breaking down from, that Rhodes sat in my apartment for a few weeks. When the time to return it came around I was devastated. So imagine having this amazing piece of equipment that can make the most beautiful sounds you’ve ever heard yanked out of your hands. Well, that day I decided I needed my own. And that turned out to be one of the best days of my life.

The Fender Rhodes has to be one of the most versatile intruments ever created. Basically, combine an electric guitar (ever heard of one of those?) with a piano (heard of that one either?) You get the best of both worlds with this instrument. You can play it like a piano, yet instead of hammers hitting strings like a piano, the hammers hit pieces of metal that can then be amplified in the same way an electric guitar is. So what you get is an instrument that plays like a piano but can plugged into a guitar amp and run through all the same fun pedals and toys an electric guitar can. Herbie Hancock can be noted for bringing this instrument to the forefront but listen close and you will probably hear this on at least half of the albums you own and love. Sade took it to the smooth level. Herbie made it funk. We made it whatever it could be. So Jesse, I love and hate you for bringing the Rhodes into my life.

I have been fortunate to have some amazing recording experiences in my life. One that will always stay with me is the week I spent with Japhy Ryder recording their album ‘No Consequence’.

We took over an abandoned house on a lake, setup a mobile studio, and traveled by canoe/paddleboat to get to the studio most of the week. It was a long trip down the mountain from the studio to find a convenience store to supply us with enough beer, but in the end we walked away with an amazing album that we were all proud of. Not because of the final product, but more for the experience of making it happen. When you can setup by a fire in a large wood paneled room and capture musicians playing their hearts out, you walk away feeling amazing.

There is a lot to be said about going into a professional studio and making an amazing sounding record, but there is also a lot to be said for being ‘at home’ during the whole process. So I am forever seeking out ways to make albums that accomodate both. This one came out of the previous where you can end a tracking session, grab a beer, hit the docks and watch meteor showers listening to Moose calls while you reflect on a solid days work of recording. Needless to say, we all are happy with the final product but what will stick in our minds more is the actual process of putting this music down onto tape.