Project In Progress: The Flood/Back To Sleep

I just finished mixing of a short term project, "Back to Sleep" by the Flood(http://www.myspace.com/thefloodinc) from Austin, Texas. You can hear some of their new tracks at their myspace. I went Austin to record the band, and used a studio called Wire Recordings(http://www.wirerecording.com/), helped by its house engineer, Joey Benjamin. We spent three days for recording and overdubbing and I spent few days for some overdubbing and mixing at my home studio. Getting the airplane was hectic, but when I got Austin, everything went smooth and I had a great time. Those guys wrote great new songs, way different from their last album for sure. By the way, those guys are frequently thought of as some kind of angry mob. But they are not like that. They are way sweeter than you would expect. The studio and Joey's workmanship were simply stunning. The album will be mastered by John Golden Mastering soon. Take a listen, you might like their tunes.



I'm also working on some other projects, such as Big Business and "F vs J"(it's a secret project, ha!). I will keep posting about them soon.

Mixing the Flood

Just finished mixing songs by the Flood form Austin Texas, they are on their way to John Golden Mastering to get mastered. Two songs which are not final mixes are just added on their Myspace. Check them out!

みらい党(Mirai-tou) Master CD

Just got a mastered CD from John Golden mastering studio who has been mastering hundreds of rock albums like Black Flag, Flipper, Primus, Sonic Youth and so on. Also a band called the Melvins with whom I'm not really familiar has been using the studio for years. The mastered CD is for a fresh, vigorous, punk band from Japan, called みらい党(Mirai-tou). Dale Crover and I produced them last May. There were several reasons why there was a long period to mix for this album. Dale had been very busy with Melvins. I had been working for some other bands in studios as well...etc... Nevertheless, finally we made it. John Golden and his son, JJ did a great job as usual. I'm so happy with the result of the sound of this album. To tell the truth, this was the lowest budget session we ever had. It recorded in two days at WestBeach Recorders in Hollywood, assisted by Ian Peterson, and mixed at the Nephew's Closet. We were not sure we could do it, but we did it, yes, we did it good.

Now it's time to shop it around to the labels for release. One of the biggest reasons why it took a long time to finsh this album was that we were waiting for responses from some labels by sending rough mixes. Before we would spend more money for mixing, we wanted to make sure some labels would like their music, and some have shown interest. We are trying to send the final product to even more record companies. Anyone knows any labels we can take a shot for, let us know. Here are songs of Mirai-tou, you can listen samples at:

http://www.myspace.com/miraitou

Hope you will like those songs and sounds.

M ｘ ４: Mastering

７月１８日

レコーディング,ミックスは終えたものの音源処理の最終段階のマスタリングをVentura Countyにあり,馴染みのエンジニア,John Goldenのスタジオにメンバーとともに向かった｡VenturaはLAから北に50分ばかり車で走った所にある小さな町｡綺麗な田舎町といった所で自 分も時々和みに来る場所である｡そんな場所にあるJohnのスタジオは低予算で出来,Johnは自分勝手に作業を進めずあくまでも客が望んでいる事を聞い て,それ以上の結果を出してくれる自分の最も信用しているマスタリングエンジニアである｡

いつも変わった事をするMelvinsに慣れているJohnは｢今回は何をやったのだ?｣と言われる前に聞いてくる｡するとDaleが新しい二人 を紹介し｢ドラムが二つなんだ｣と言うと｢ちょっと待ってくれ,レコード(12インチの丸い物に溝が彫ってあり,その溝に針を当てて聴くCDの前にカセッ トともに市場に出回っていたもの)を作るって言わないでくれよ｣とドラムが二つでは溝を作り難い事を十数分話始める｡レコードを作るかは現時点では不明｡

当初は11曲の予定だったが1曲減らし10曲をJohnに渡す｡ちなみにその除かれた1曲は次のアルバムへ移行されると聞き,自分の名前が自動的 に次回作に載ることを知り嬉しく思った｡初めてフルアブムを今回使ったスタジオ,WestBeachでミックスしたため自分は100%の自信はなかった｡ が,Johnは｢Toshi,いつもどうりいい音で出来ている｡いい仕事してきたな｣と声をかけてくれる｡それを聞き後は彼に任せ仕事はどんどん進んでい く｡約5時間半で仕事は片付き出来上がったCDをもってLAに向かう｡


一旦,そのCDをコピーするため部屋に戻る｡そのついでにメールを確認しているとノルウェーのMelvinsファンで友人の者から連絡が入り,このアルバムのことについての記事が載ったサイトのリンクをもらった｡http://www.roadrunnerworld.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=55257
発売日が載っている｡自分も知らなかったが本当かどうかは定かではない｡そのCDをもってDaleの家に向かう｡ビール片手にBBQを食べながら聴く出来上がったCD｡顔はにやけているのだが安堵からか急に疲れが出てくる｡よく眠れそうだ｡