Denver Trip

A few months ago, I got a phone call from the band Action Friend from Denver, Colorado. Dale and I had produced their previous album a few years back. They told me that they found a studio there with a great deal, so they wanted me to go to Denver and work with them on their new material. The studio though, did not have enough recording devices, so I decided to drive there with some of my equipment. Since it takes 15 hours to get to Denver from L.A. by car, I wanted to get the most out of my trip while there and asked them to find another band for me to work with. They found me another group within a day, who are called the Skivies. The Skivies were only available though for two weekends worth of recording. So, I had to found some other bands to fill my weekdays up with for work. Action Friend proceeded to find another band for me to record with called Osyluth. Then, to top off things, a friend of mine found me one more band to work with called Tree. So I ended up recording four bands in 15 days!


Three days before I left for Denver, there was some miscommunication between Action Friend and the studio we supposed to work at, and so we canceled our studio time there. I told them to find a place where we can make some loud music. I would then bring my gear, so we wouldn't need to be in a commercial studio. Zahari, the guitar player from the Skivies found a community center in the town where he lives. It was an half hour drive from downtown Denver and was surrounded by woods. I recorded Action Friend and the Skivies there. The results of the recordings were way better than we had expected. It was a beautiful place full of nature and a great place to work. We saw deer and Sean from the Skivies had an encounter with a bear! He was far enough away from the bear so he could run back into the safety of the community center.



For the recording session with the Trees, we used a rehearsal studio of theirs. The guitar player, Justin, has a guitar craft shop, “Hackl Guitar”, right next to the rehearsal studio. I placed my gear in his shop and they played at the rehearsal studio next door. Outside of his guitar shop, there is an empty area surrounded by concrete walls. So we decided to use this ambient space to record some of the drum tracks with. The audio results of that were amazing.

The last band I recorded was Osyluth. We recorded at the drummer, Dan's basement. They are such a good band that they finished their basic tracking in two hours, and we ended up recording two whole songs in one day!




This trip was a great experience for me. I recorded four amazing bands and made a lot of new friends. The hospitality I received from everyone there was superb. I'd like to do it again. Since my return to L.A., I have been mixing all of the songs I recorded in Denver. There are more than 35 of them so a long way to go still.