Recording studio, audio training, bands and DJs - Aurora, Illinois

Tiny Candle is coming together....

 Last night's rehearsal for Tiny Candle was the first one where I experienced genuine excitement. I've been getting together with Zach, Andrea, Mandy, Ben and David since October - but when you start pulling together something of this magnitude, it never feels like it's actually going to happen until the weeks before.

It's going to happen.

In fact, we've upped the ante a little bit this year in terms of ambition. I don't want to give any surprises away, so I'll just put it this way: scores have been written.

That, and the fact that if you look closely at this photo from last night you'll see that we've been setting up glasses in the background again. Add the right amount of water and they almost sound in tune...

If you don't have tickets yet for next weekend, get them here.

Holiday wrapping (up)

 I'm wrapping up mixes this week with sisters in song Shawn Christopher and Shuree Rivera, who took advantage of our holiday specials to lay down a quick - but fully rendered - holiday EP. What a blast it's been tracking with these two talented, upbeat and uplifting women! The pair brought in a killer band a couple weeks ago to track contemporary takes on songs like "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "What Child is This." I think we'll all be proud of the results.

And the longest-running artist award goes to...

 Kyle spent the morning with one of our oldest - and youngest - clients. Steve Strong's done a Christmas recording every year with us for the last four years - starting when he was 8 years old. Now 12, Steve's still one of our youngest clients. I love seeing him and his family; it means it's holiday time again.

This year I had the treat of singing with Steve on the Chris Rice tune "Welcome to Our World" - which is how I made the photo although Kyle did the engineering this time 'round.

Please sing before using restroom.

Last night's Guild meeting inspired me as a bandleader - and intrigued me as a student of my fellow human beings. We spent some time with music therapist Katie Suddarth, learning about the biological and psychological mysteries of music.

"The way our brains process music, it actually goes right past logical thinking and decision making and goes straight to the center of your brain," Katie told us. For therapists, this means myriad opportunities for bridge-building and recovery using music.

Take speech therapy, for example. "I worked with a gentleman who'd had a stroke - his life was a game of charades," Katie said. "I'd take phrases he needed to be able to say and put them into a familiar song." A patient who couldn't say "I need to go to the bathroom" was able to sing it - to the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean."

As you can see from the picture above, we also spent some time making music together and noticing the physical and relational results of playing in a drum circle. By the end of the night I had a whole new perspective on the power and possibilities of the music I make. 

If you were with us at the Guild, what did you take away?

Something's a little Fishippie in here

What do you get when you combine 60's and 70's rock covers with 5 lead singers from Aurora and Nebraska? I call it recording and mixing chaos, but the band calls themselves The Fishippies No matter what you call it, we had a lot of fun recording 4 songs on Thursday night. The Fishippies have a unique vocal style. In the recording world we call it "gang vocals" where there is no "lead singer" everyone gets to sing! It also provided opportunity for great harmonies, but mostly just a lot of fun. Sing on Fishippies!