End of Summer and Beginning of New Music

Its the end of the summer in a few weeks here and I'm marking the occasion (only by coincidence) with the release of a new song.





This one is the product of several late nights that stretched into the early morning. I wrote and recorded the entire thing in three sittings, all of them somewhere between midnight and 5:00 am.

Natasha was my writing inspiration and consultant. I borrowed a lot of the ideas and styles that she always reads about, common themes from spirituality aka the books you see in the ghosts, astrology and spiritual section of the library. I took those themes and meshed them with a lot of my own more stark concepts to build a new character that could live in the world I was imagining in the song.  She helped fine tune my lyrics once I actually got into the studio again to record them. It was great to have someone to bounce ideas off of. The end result almost feels like a presentation of a different perspective on my own thoughts, like an alternate reality of myself.

Theremin Full Circle

A few years ago when I was still in school in Florida I built a small light based theremin to pass the time on a couple afternoons, you can see an overview of the project HERE.

It was fun at the time, but it didn't serve much purpose, mostly because I never got around to mounting it in anything or providing a way to record it (besides just putting a microphone up to it which would sound awful since its only way of projecting sound was a 50 cent speaker I bought had a local parts store in Orlando).

Back in November 2013, I finally got around to mounting it inside of a cigar box that I had bought in Florida and modding it to have a direct output so I could just plug it straight into any interface and record it. I sat away in my basement drilling holes in the wood, glueing the pieces in place and finally the whole thing came together.

Bottom right: Photo Cells, Bottom Left: Speaker Holes, Top Left: Volume knob

Direct output and power switch

The tangled mess

Unfortunately after all this work, the tool still just wasn't very practical in sound so I ended up shelving it for a few more months... Until one day the most obvious idea occurred to me. I built the theremin with a 1/4" output because thats all I had for an adapter at the time and it seemed to make sense, but what this unknowingly allowed me to do was plug the instrument directly into my guitar pedal board (DUH!).

With a few effects stacked on top that I could control live in front of me, I had turned my theremin into a full fledged synth, and I was pretty surprised by some of the sound I could get from it with relative ease. So I had finally found a use for the instrument (besides annoying my girlfriend) and wrote this cool song with it! Check it out:

And so after several years, the theremin project was finally finished. That is until I build a real theremin....

2013 Music Wrap Up

2013 was a good year chuck full of music and I just want to get on here for a minute and recap and share a few things. I started working at Vaughan Music Studios in January last year and I've had an awesome opportunity to work with many local Columbus musicians throughout the year.

Though a large portion of the projects I worked on this last year are either still in progress or are unavailable online, here's a couple that are available online to share:

Far Away Strays
"The Heart is a Howler"
Assistant Engineer

One of the first big projects I got to work on at VMS. A folk rock group in Columbus that are a bunch of cool dudes with a lot of passion! Mark Abrams did all the heavy lifting on this one (including a sick mix), but I got to come along for the ride and I learned a lot!

Iminoff
"Party Insomnia", "Own the Night", "Crown Seven Mafia"
Engineered, Mixed and Mastered

A hiphop project I worked on a couple singles for in the fall of 2013. A rapper from Russia with a huge EDM influence in his music and a lot of potential in his work. A few of his beats were created by my co worker Andy Miller, a super talented writer who also works at VMS.

Mosik
Gritty Women of God EP
"Set the World on Fire"
Engineered
"I Hate Poverty", "Better Days"
Engineered, Mixed, Mastered

An EP and a few singles I worked on with Moses Garcia, a hip hop artist with a lot of soul and heart. I really like working with Moses because of the heart and purpose in his music. He did the Gritty Women of God EP for a women empowerment conference in Columbus, which I think is really great.

Carlin Guthrie
The Rust Belt EP
Engineered, Mixed and Mastered

This was a rock project I worked on during the summer of 2013. A short two song EP with a ton of energy! Definitely one of the high lights of the year, Carlin is an amazing musician and a blast to work with. It even got onto the local radio for a few weeks!
Though technically a 2014 project, we just wrapped up his second EP, Chaser, in the first week of January 2014 and it hits the world in a few weeks on February 4th.


Here's the first single off of the Chaser EP...

                                              You Know

Here's a few other artists I worked with last year that you should keep an eye out for in the coming year...


Meechie Nelson

A super talented rap/hip hop artist with a lot of creative energy. I can't say a lot about the project as its  largely still in progress but his flow and talent are great. You can check out some of his older pre-VMS stuff at his Facebook.


Under the Sun

A retro rock band that's currently working on a full length album at VMS. I assisted Mark Abrams with the full band tracking process and engineered a lot of the overdubs and vocal sessions. I can't wait to hear the complete product!

Playing to Vapors

These guys are an amazing indie math rock group currently working on a few singles that are being mixed and produced by their guitarist, Darren DiSabato. I had the fortunate opportunity to track the drums for a couple of their songs over the summer. Really excited about what these guys are putting out! Check out their latest single here: "A New Direction"


Mike Robinson

An incredibly talented high school student that I worked with during the summer and fall. He wrote and produced an entire EP including one song with a full string quartet arrangement! Super awesome!


The Archive

An acoustic duo that recently started working with me on a very ambitious project. The project as a whole has a very unique sound, Think Bon Iver and Sigur Ros had a child.  I'm very excited to see how this unfolds going into 2014!







Also...

   



Columbus Indie Music Underground

Lets not forget CIMU! I worked on a couple dozen episodes of CIMU this last year wearing many hats including miking, running cameras, and organizing set design.

Here's a couple of my favorite episodes from last year:



















Lastly a more personal project...


Two good friends of mine, Ian Bentley and Conor Breen, came out from Connecticut over the summer and we worked on a single together that my friend Ian had been working on for a while. It was really fun to get into the studio with some of my old friends and it definitely threw me off a bit to be on the other side of the studio glass for once.

You can check out the single here: "Lauren"

And with all that said, Cheers to a new year!


-Matt