Thursday, February 28, 2013

Recording at June Audio!

This past Tuesday evening, the 26th, I wrapped up production for a song that has been a couple of years in the works and 6 months in the making production-wise. Last August I took a couple of buddies and some freakishly talented studio musicians to the studio to lay the groundwork for what is going to be the single for my upcoming EP! 

"Size Up" is its name and Motown/Soul is its game. Wait, Motown/Soul? What's that? Where did that come from? Why is little white boy Chase even trying to take a swing at something like that. Well, it all started when I had a dream of Marvin Gaye coming to me dressed in a white suit and sang me the melody to that song and upon finishing, put his hand on my shoulder and said "Go. Create this song, I am just a representation of your true identity."

I'm SERIOUS!!! It was AWESOME!!

Yeah that didn't happen. But really, Marvin Gaye came to me in a dream. 

No, he didn't. I should stop.

But if he did, and if he heard the song in it's finished form now, I would hope that he would smile and laugh, and then walk away. Which would really confuse me. But for super serious, I was raised on Oldies and Motown! My parents fed me that stuff as a kid and I love it.

So anyways, this song actually started out as a song about not being good enough for this girl I had dated for like a week over two years ago. I never finished writing it. But then Rox came along and made me happy so I was like "hmmm, let's change some of these depressing break-up lyrics into happy love lyrics that talk about her being the bomb and I'm trying OK?"

Wait, when did this post become a post about the song? What about the studio time? ADD much?

SO Tuesday night, I went in to finish recording the song. Back in August we recorded bass, drums, guitar, keys, saxophone, and organ. After that I met up with the ridiculously talented Catherine Papworth (check out her blog by clicking here) for back-up vocals and I went to my buddy Collin Sellers' house to record a guitar solo a couple of months later. Tuesday night I added the lead vocal track, Brandon Cummings (drums) added some tambourine tracks, and Austie Robinson, a fantastic trumpet player, added some delicious trumpet.

SO, six months later, it's finally time to git this tune DONE. 

I'm pretty sure I intended to ONLY talk about the studio for this post, but yet again, I get distracted. Here we go:

June Audio is probably the coolest place on the planet. The masterful Scott Wiley runs this beautiful recording space, filled with TONS of amazing recording gear; microphones, signal processors, guitars, amps, keyboards, all with an amazing space to mix whatever gets recorded. Oh, and here's a few great bands/artists who have recorded here before: Neon Trees, Fictionist, Mindy Gledhill, and many more. Needless to say, I had to empty my head out afterwards because everything melted.

What? You are curious about the song? Well it's done, but it's not ready to be released yet. Why? I'll share more about that very soon. You'll have to stay tuned my friends. I can't wait to show you! 

I will say this: This won't be the last time I'll be in this studio this year. Not even CLOSE!

Here are some pics snapped by my amazing, awesome, fantastic, gorgeous, talented, glowing, pregnant wife, Roxana. 

Excited.

Waiting. Nervous.

It was plaid shirt day.
Listening to the final mix. Mind = Blown


Amps amps amps amps amps amps amps amps amps amps amps amps.

You guys are the best you know?

 I didn't actually need three microphones. We were just testing which ones made me sound Stevie Wonder.

What a freaking awesome time! Again, I can't WAIT to show you guys what I have in my magic music hat. Stay tuned y'all. 



Chase

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