Bottom-End, Writings and Reviews from Music Producer Pete Strobl

I made the switch from gym rat to studio rat when I realized that breaking fingers on the basketball court didn’t add much to a bass track. So I hung up the old sneakers, grabbed my bass with both hands and took my gym rat mentality with me into any studio with a good espresso machine. What can I say? The things I would forego for a chance to be in the room with the guys and gals is a very short list. And that is why I jumped at the invitation to travel to Holland to work on Traveling Girl with some good friends who also happen to know their way around a recording studio.

I was picked up at Amsterdam’s Schipol airport by the Traveling girl herself, Lille Mulder. As we knew each other only by email, we both did a few laps around the terminal before the process of elimination successfully put us into the car together. The two hour drive to Dick Kemper’s Studio in Doetinchen gave us a chance to tell our life stories and lay the groundwork for the two week’s work ahead.

Dick Kemper

S&K Studio reflected all the know how of the seasoned musician/engineer/producer that is Dick Kemper. Dick toured the world as the bassist of Vandenberg sharing major concert venues with Metallica and Ozzy and that experience combined with the intervening years of recording have served to create a consummate studio pro. I was here to work with Lille  only on the vocal tracks but a quick tour of the studio and a listen to the basic tracks told me that she would have plenty of inspiration to draw upon when it was her turn on the other side of the glass.

As good as Dick is at his job, any engineer or producer will tell you that they are only as good as the talent holding the guitar or bass, or in the case of Nico Groen, hitting things with sticks. And in this department Dick had plenty to work with. The producer of The Traveling Girl is my good pal Casper van Vulpen and Casper started the project off with plenty of wind in his sails by choosing great songs to record and the right combination of players to make the magic happen. This project was truly an international effort as Casper had gathered the forces of a Russian from Poland, a Polish songwriter from England, a British writer from London, an Austrian from Los Angeles, a rhythm section from Holland and one of the best singers I’ve worked with in years. Lock the doors and get the coffee going. This was going to be more fun than a pick up game at the Fourth Street cage in the Village.

The Traveling Girl

Lille was a dream to work with. Many singers can be temperamental, moody or demanding. Lille was all of these but in a very unique way. Where some singer’s moods or demands are driven by insecurity, inability or lack of preparation, Lille took full responsibility and her demands were only of herself. And where some singers might hit the wall of their endurance or storm out of the room blaming it all on the headphone mix or the color of the pop filter, Lille forced every mood directly through the microphone and into her vocal performance for upwards of eight hours at a stretch.

The main focus of my involvement was in creating authentic and sincere vocal performances with a singer in English as a second and sometimes third language. Regrettably, I only know how to say “Goddammit” “Two Beers” and “Screwing in the kitchen” in the Dutch language but Lille and I were able to work together in German as well as English. I find sincerity to be the most attractive element of any vocal performance and this must be based on not only a thorough understanding but also a convincing belief in the lyrical content of a song.

Producer Casper van Vulpen

Whenever studio rats get gather in the temple of sound they follow a timeless ritual. Everyone let’s everyone else know who they know, which new plug-ins they use, choice of recording software, past, present and future drug, alcohol and gambling profile and whatever other factoids seem pertinent to the session. It’s just a bit of canine butt-sniffing really, but it serves to lubricate the initial get-to-know-you period better than passing out resumes. We already knew each other via the internet so the circle sniff was just a bit if handshaking and joke telling. Before I hit the pillow that first night I felt warmly sniffed into the pack.

My second day in Holland Lille and I went to work in earnest. As we went line by line dissecting the finer points of pronunciation we also discussed the inner meaning of every phrase. Sometimes when writers create in a foreign language they might say something that makes perfect literal sense but loses symbolic meaning or poetic value in the translation. There were a few corners to smooth over in this department and we changed a few words or phrases to insure that Lille was portraying the feeling behind the meaning with belief, conviction and precision.

Nico Groen at S&K Studio

I had initially thought to coach Lille into a strictly American pronunciation but her delivery has a certain international charm which we certainly did not want to lose. So we concentrated on clarity and those areas where letter sounds differ between Dutch, German and English while retaining the feel and passion which went into the original demos of the songs. On a technical level, most problems arise when losing the distinction between voiced and un-voiced consonants. Using the word “Love” as an example, the ‘V’ must have pitch. Dutch and German speakers pronounce the word as “Luff” because their ‘V’ is our ‘F’ and so “Live” becomes “Life” and “Very” becomes “Fairy.” Another pitfall is the American ‘TH’ sound which doesn’t exist in many European languages. To make the sound one must extend the tip of the tongue between the teeth and blow out a puff of air. Euros tend to replace the ‘TH’ with either the hard ‘D’ or the sibilants ‘Z’ or ‘S’ as in “Vaht do you Sink about ziss.” And, as the sentence indicates, even our ‘S’ sound has voiced and un-voiced versions as does the ‘TH’…hear the difference between “This” and “Think” “What’s” and “Was.” And then there is our ‘W’ which is their ‘V’…so our “Was” would be pronounced “Vass” two corrections for the price of one on that one.

The key was to make the corrections seem effortless and allow the vocal performance to be driven by Lille’s amazing sense of phrasing. As I got to know her day by day I learned that Lille is fierce when it comes to learning new things. She was hell-bent on mastering whatever I suggested and made notes on the lyric sheets, wrote on the leg of her jeans, pounded the table and repeated the ‘TH’ sound until I had to cover my coffee cup. But I didn’t want her to obsess so the best and most efficient learning came through simple conversation. We decided that when in the studio we would speak only English and I would try to catch and correct every mispronunciation as it happened.

Lille keeping an eye on Roland Franken

There are many structured exercises aimed at engaging the diaphragmatic-intercostal musculature but none is more efficient than uncontrolled laughter. Being among new friends gave me a fresh audience for the jokes that elicit groans from my stateside friends and I took full advantage. Teaching the jokes to Lille was also a way to practice Americanized idiomatic pronunciation. What seemed to be breaks in the work were actually quite useful and her delivery of the songs as well as her complete understanding of the intent behind them improved at a fast clip.

Two weeks later my job was done and Lille dropped me at the airport where she had first found me. We were in the studio every day and the two weeks seemed like one long session. Working with Casper, Kostek, Dick Kemper and especially Lille had made the time go much too quickly and on the Los Angeles bound flight I wished that we had been making a double album. The musicians played their asses off, Lille sang her ass off, Dick engineered his ass off and now my ass was off for home.

Traveling Girl will be  available online and represents the hard work of very talented people from all corners of the globe (yes, I know that the globe doesn’t have corners, just go with me on that one). It was a ton of fun to be involved with the project, the music and, most importantly, the people. I hope you all enjoy it.

As an early and optimistic supporter of Sellaband, I feel confident in saying that I am not alone in wishing a successful and prosperous 2010 to the company and all of my friends, both virtual and physical, associated with the Dutch crowd-sourcing music website. That said, the past year has brought changes in policy and implementation which move me to express concerns of a nature less than positive for the first time since I became a supporter, not only of the concept itself, but of many aspiring artists on the platform.

Phil Sommersby

On a positive note, there are two sub-organizations on the website which I support and admire very much. The Dream Team is a group of individual artists organized under the benevolent mentoring of Phil Sommersby. My good friend Phil offers artists the wisdom gleaned from his years in business outside of the music industry. His “out of the box” thinking has proven to be a valuable resource to up and coming artists mired in the old school solutions to new wave problems. Marketing and promotion in the music industry is changing at light speed and Phil’s common sense solutions, positivity and sense of old fashioned perseverance have built a successful track record as no less than five Dreamteamsters  have secured Sellaband recording budgets during 2009. Regardless of changes in policy, members of The Dream Team continue to use the platform to serve their purposes, maintain a positive outlook and reap the rewards of Phil’s sensible eye over their shoulders.

collaboration proj

The Collaboration Project, under the watchful eye of composer/producer Casper Van Vulpen, is having mixed success in financial terms but if it is indeed “all about the music,” then this project is the Viagra of Sellaband. Most users of the boner-inducing “vitamin V” are not aware that it was first developed for use in treating blood pressure deficiency. In much the same way, The Collaboration Project began as a collaborative effort to raise funding for a compilation album of Sellaband artists but has morphed into a clearing house for side projects which are turning out collaborative songs and productions by artists, writers and producers from all over the ever shrinking virtual world. The latest effort includes songs written by Monica Thomas, Mark Payne, aka Dreb Hacklett of Sheet Metal, Casper Van Vulpen, Kostek Andreev and Lille Mulder and will be available worldwide this spring. Members of The Collaboration Project have joined forces in developing quite an effective production team and it wouldn’t surprise me to see a successful move toward establishing this team as an option for other Sellaband artists who may think that name producers working at a fraction of their normal fees can insure success. These guys are serious.

On the flip side of Sellaband’s 2009, there are three developments which I have found to be potentially disastrous and which only the loyalty of the old guard believers can overcome if Sellaband is to continue to become an important force in the evolution of the music industry. In no order of importance, they are:

1. The look, construction and functionality of the website. The SAB forums document the disaster and subsequent fixes that have resulted in the present incarnation. Many security issues have been satisfactorily addressed and functionality restored but as the proverbial bell cannot be unrung, the damage to Sellaband’s integrity as a commerce site could well be beyond estimation. Navigation through the site is less than intuitive, searching for new music is on a par with browsing through un-alphabetized record bins and buying the music produced by Sellaband is nearly impossible for first time visitors to the site. While Sellaband’s initial priority is to sell parts in future productions, it seems absurd that albums produced by Sellaband artists are nearly invisible and difficult to buy. Yes, there have been answers to these issues but with all due respect to the tech team working hard to make sense of it all, the answers haven’t made complete sense in the real world and Sellaband has not served their own artists as well as they might or should.

2. The new terms and conditions which allow for customized budgetary goals. It used to be a simple plan for artists…post some demos, bring your homegrown support system to the site to get things rolling, sell 5000 parts and boom, you’re in a real studio to live out your dream of making an album with the support of experts in the field. It seems that Sellaband has caved in to artists who believe it can all be done otherwise. Of course it is possible to produce something that sounds relatively like an album for a fraction of what once was a recording budget. But that isn’t the point. The original point of it all was to put unknown or inexperienced artists in contact with people who had made records and were in a position to mentor and develop artists in the ways of producing music on a scale superior to the bedroom studio. But rather than hold fast to the idea of educating and developing talent, Sellaband now allows artists to produce music on the same scale and with the same inevitable results of the typical myspace offerings.

With a budget of $50,000 on the line, there is an understandable expectation of recording quality of even second tier songs. Under the current terms believers are asked to accept well-recorded but underdeveloped material, possible hits recorded in Garageband at Home Studio Inc. and everything between. While it is accepted that there are talented artists who can record great material at a high standard for a fraction of $50,000, it must also be understood that these are exceptions and perhaps Sellaband is not the place for them. Obliterating the original budgetary goal perhaps serves the purposes of a handful of artists but it is a mistake that lowers the standards for what can be expected by those who invest in artists they don’t personally know. And this brings me to what may be the biggest disappointment of 2009…

Maitreya

3. The ambassadorship of Chuck D. What was originally touted by Sellaband as a significant promotional inroad to the U.S. music buying public is fast turning into a public relations comedy of errors. One can almost hear the pies hitting the side of the building as Public Enemy’s ship floats motionless in the doldrums of believer apathy. Many thought that whistling Chuck D. on board would signal a turning point for artists like New Zealand Hip-Hopper Maitreya, Sellaband’s most viable artist of the genre to date. But instead of using the influence of a successful career and notoriety to help Sellaband or its artists, Chuck and Public enemy elbowed themselves up to the trough to get their own…establishing a goal five times the budget at the time and at a buy-in price of 250% the norm.

This tactic may have seemed like just the braggadocio needed to pique the interest of the American public but coinciding with the financial disaster that has befallen first America and then every international economy sucking at the teat of the U.S. financial industry, the direction taken by Public Enemy and sanctioned by Sellaband has done damage that will not be undone easily. When Babe Ruth pointed to the cheap seats and declared that the next pitch was ending up there, well, that’s exactly where the next pitch ended up and the episode served to further cement his legendary status. Unfortunately I don’t think that Public Enemy’s plan of attack nor Sellaband’s approval of it will do the same.

And so 2010 begins with unanswered questions, high hopes and hopefully some hard-earned lessons. To all the individuals who share my continued optimism in the promise Sellaband offers, I wish continued success, a hit song and many healthy, prosperous returns of the day. For those who disagree with my assessment, drop me a comment. and to those who have all the answers…get up off your asses and make something good happen. Happy New Year!

When I was in my twenties I worshiped at the altar of funk. James Brown, Tower Of Power, Ohio Players…you get the picture. If they marketed action figures of funk musicians my toy box would have looked like the line-up at an Oakland barbeque and funk fest. From my perspective, country music was completely of, by and  for sequined, cowboy-hatted shit-kickers who lived in trailers with two cars parked on cement blocks in the front yard. If anyone had told me that The Ohio Players’ wardrobe was  as ridiculous as Porter Wagoner’s there would have been trouble.

But as a musician who earned the daily bread by making club crowds of many persuasions happy, I found myself in playing situations that didn’t always correspond with my personal tastes. That didn’t prevent me from being a smart ass and when a customer would request a country song, my witty answer would be, “Sure, what country?” Thankfully I grew out of my bias to discover that there was crappy music to be ridiculed in every genre and, as I gained further wisdom, great music to be cherished as well.

Over the years and during the time I managed The Band’s old haunt, Shangri La, I had the pleasure of getting to know and appreciate the work of some great rock musicians who had one foot planted firmly in a cowboy boot at some time in their career. I can also say that standing on the stage of the Grand Old Opry and playing to the 4,000 fans who fill the concert hall was one of the big thrills and chills of my playing career. Patsy Cline, Hank Williams and Johnny Cash have become as firmly ensconced in my iPod as my erstwhile funk gods and I feel no sense of disloyalty shuffling between What Is Hip and Your Cheating Heart.

Katie Thompson

There is an up and coming young country artist on Sellaband who answers my “Sure, what country?” dumb-ass question with a vengeance. Katie Thompson is a classic country singer/song writer from what is probably Nashville’s most remote satellite, New Zealand. Katie exhibits her own sense of style, opting for cocktail dresses over blue jeans as she leads her accomplished band through a repertoire of classic country tempered by her Kiwi upbringing.

Katie’s three original tracks on her Sellaband profile page indicate that she has the potential of becoming a household name not only in New Zealand but anywhere that hosts “Electric Slide” night. When she reaches the budgetary goal of $50,000 Katie will have the opportunity to go into the studio with the right people and the right toys to create an album worthy of her honest approach to writing and singing. Her vocal delivery is intimate in the vein of classic story tellers like Emmy Lou Harris and Patsy Cline. Katie doesn’t deal in pyrotechnics or phony gospel riffing. She just tells a story as if she were talking over the back fence and her fresh sincerity is her most engaging quality.

Tall Poppy is written and sung with the voice of a typical young person battling the slings and arrows of peer pressure as she develops a sense of self worth in a cruel world. The story, while common to anyone who hasn’t been raised by wolves, is nevertheless a persecution unique to each individual. Everyone coming of age in the world of schoolyard, fashion, teen dances and the required accoutrements associated with being “cool” has moments when they feel themselves too tall, too short, too skinny, too fat, too stupid or too smart to be considered acceptable by their peers. Katie’s angst laden lyrics ride over a deceptively cheerful rhythmic track but the darkness of the chord progression brings clearly into focus the pain of wanting to be accepted . The guitar playing on this as well as all three of Katie’s Sellaband tracks is not only well executed but tasteful and most importantly, relevant to the song.

Tall Poppy

Monteiths On Tap is a bit of fun and could very well be the hook that lands the big fish for Katie. One can quibble about product placement or the political correctness of glorifying the imbibement ( I think I just invented a word) all the way to the steps of their favorite house of worship, but what is a good old country song if not a paean of praise for either fast cars, faster trucks, loyal dogs and good beer? New Zealand’s Monteiths Brewery has stepped up to the plate in supporting Katie’s Sellaband journey and well they should. Who can say how many Monteiths empties land in the recycling bin the morning after one of Katie’s appearances at a pub pouring the “liquid gold?” Wonderful resonator guitar work on this track, while the feel of the rhythm section never strays from the “sawdust on the floor” vibe that just begs for another round.

The third track on Katie’s Sellaband profile is an introspectively dark recitativo of bittersweet goodbyes. The emotion of the song, as in the case of Tall Poppy, is one to which any listener can easily relate. I don’t like to repeat myself but here again the guitar work provides a perfect sense of yearning to Katie’s wrenching story. Katie’s song writing skills, while well down the path of becoming memorable, could do with a bit of soul searching here. She has great instincts and her topic choice is right on the money. But some of her lyrics, while not being brazenly cliche, could be more intimately powerful with a tweak here and there.

Song writing is an exercise in telling a story or conveying an emotion that can be related to by the broadest possible cross section of an audience. This is what makes a song popular, and why bother to put music before the public if popularity is not the desired result.The magic of masterful song writing lies in the ability of the writer to say something in a way that is familiar yet original. When Bob Dylan sings “The answer is blowin’ in the wind” we say to ourselves “Well of course it is. Who didn’t know that!” But inside we all know that we could never have come up with such a simple way to state the obvious. Economy and eloquence are bought and paid for in currency represented by reams of discarded lyric sheets.

Katie Thompson is deep in the process of honing her craft and this can be a critical phase in the development of a young writer. Staring at a page of lyrics with the unbiased eye of a supreme court justice and knowing what will go on an album and what will better serve as kindling for the grill is not a skill that comes easily. That process marks the difference between great songs that remain relevant for generations and about a gazillion MP3s on Myspace.

When Katie reaches her $50,000 budget on Sellaband, New Zealand, with a population of 4.3 million, will have cornered what might be the highest degree of success per capita on the internet crowd sourcing platform.  Katie Thompson’s success combined with Sellaband Hip-Hopper Maitreya will have made a strong showing for New Zealanders.  And with Katie’s Sellaband release, I’ll no longer be asking “Sure, what country?”

It’s a new year and Sellaband artist Daniel Ward-Murphy is hitting the ground running. His debut album, Until The Morning Light,  produced in London by studio veteran Tony Platt, is receiving rave reviews from the Sellaband community. I recently cornered Daniel in the men’s room of the home office and forced him to grant an interview on threat of denying him the last available stall…okay, okay! So I emailed him…but the time we spent together at our keyboards gave me the inside scoop on Daniel’s quest to bring his music to the public, his unique band line-up and working with a legendary producer. Enjoy!

Bottom-End: Producer Tony Platt has had a hand in many great recordings by a variety of artists spanning thirty some years and across many genres. How were you able to secure Tony’s services?

Daniel Ward Murphy: “I was lucky enough to be introduced to Tony in the summer of 2006, with a mind to potentially working together. It was a great compliment that after we had chatted through the sound I was looking to achieve and he had heard some of my repertoire he wanted to record a few songs with me.  These three songs were partly responsible for propelling me toward $50,000 on Sellaband and kind of felt like the beginning of a journey rather than the end.  We went on to record Songs from Soho (a live audience attended recording session) together, so when the time came I just wanted to continue this journey and luckily for me he wanted to do the same.”

Tony Platt

B-E: What made Tony Platt the right producer for your new album?

DWM: “Tony simply knows how to record sound and I was looking for someone to capture sound and performances rather than synthesising the right sounds.  There are people such as Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams/Ray Lamontagne) and Charlie Fink (Laura Marling) whose great production has really caught my attention but before, during and after the recording, in my mind Tony was always the right man for this album.”
B-E: The lyrical content of Until The Morning Light is very personal and much of the album takes a one-on-one approach. You seem to be singing either to or about specific individuals as opposed to abstract concepts. To what degree do you write from personal experience?

DWM: “This question has really forced me to think (!) as writing lyrics is quite a natural process for me.  Some of my lyrics are about individuals past and present but some of them I personalise and put  in the first person. For example, the characters in Soldier’s Song are not me (nor are they all my observations) but I sing ‘I’ and ‘you’ throughout.  Empathy is a big part of my writing and I suppose my whole outlook.  I write about beauty, I write about human spirit and I find the romantic in the tragic.  I tend to not stay in the present, I write about the past, present and the future; I write about the real and the unreal and use plenty of metaphors.  I try to avoid any lyrics that sound pious and I try to avoid huge chunks of lyrics that are about domesticity and everyday feelings.  There are a few artists whose music I like but the lyrics are completely heart-on-sleeve and talk about love and living with their wife/husband and children.  It may sound harsh, but whilst that is very nice I think they are personal feelings and they kind of bore me.  Give them a backpack, a few notes in their pocket and a travel ticket to somewhere and they could write killer songs with something to say rather than personal diary entries.  I know that sounds a bit opinionated but I think if artists take their work outside of the house they should have something to say other than what goes on in their house!”

B-E: The band roster is rather unique in comparison to most contemporary pop recordings. Violinist/violist Helen Twomey and cellist Milo Bird play parts traditionally covered by keyboard and bass instruments. How did you arrive at the idea of casting string instruments as an integral part of the rhythm section?

DWM: “When I took the decision to ‘go solo’ a few years ago, I knew didn’t want to simply join the army of stripped-down singer/songwriters out there.  I still wanted a full band around me to give the dynamics and the instrumentation and musicians around me to best showcase my songs.  Strong melodies are always prevalent in my song-writing but I suppose the non-vocal ones are always a bit more subtle and the violin has been great for carrying these.  Helen is great at switching between playing music that is at the forefront of songs and more gentle background accompaniment.  There are three songs on the album that we decided to supplement the cello with bass guitar but generally, due to Milo’s great rhythm, it provides the required bass element and allows us to feature Milo’s excellent musicianship and playing at the same time.  It is a core part of the sound and important to me – I am trying to clone him as we speak – stay still Milo or this won’t work…!”

B-E: Is this instrumentation specific to this body of work?

DWM: “This sound was not established just for an album project so this core instrumentation will continue with hopefully the addition of some guitar/keyboard/piano in places if success dictates and I manage to find the right person.”

B-E: Again, in reference to your band, do you write specifically with this line-up in mind and has the sonic palette had an effect on your evolution as a songwriter? Did you experience either limitations or greater freedom in framing your lyrics with this instrumentation?

DWM: “I am a bit of a chameleon when it comes to writing as I tend to write for the musicians I have around me.  When I was in my traditional 4-piece band I wrote songs that suited bass/electric guitar and when I occasionally came up with something that didn’t I tended to try and leave it alone and put it in storage.  The reverse happens every now and again now and I have songs that may suit a 4-piece arrangement better, but generally I am really comfortable writing for my current line-up.”

Pravin Mukhi

B-E: Drummer Pravin Mukhi lays down solid grooves while never stepping outside the organic quality that defines Until The Morning Light. How did you approach the recording of basic tracks?

DWM: “Pravin is a really sensitive drummer who gets a kick out of playing most kinds of music.  It is one thing having rhythm and being good at hitting things and another to give the songs what they need and provide the right dynamics.  Before a drum was hit we talked about how we wanted the drums to have real earthy, supporting, percussive style and then in album rehearsals we really put each section under the microscope.  Pravin is a natural player though and has great awareness of the song and what everyone else is playing.”

B-E: Were you able to play and record together or did you build the tracks individually?

DWM: “One of the great things about working with Tony was that we weren’t starting from square one and he knew 75% of the material – so we were able to sit down and talk about how we wanted to record the songs.  We thought that 3 of the 11 songs (I Think I Made You Smile, The Genius of Myra and Under The Wire) were best recorded by capturing my solo performance and then adding accompaniment around it and most of the others were attacked by getting Pravin and Milo’s groove down first, with me playing an as-live-performance guide guitar/vocals, so we could re-create some of that live magic!”

B-E: Vocalist Jennifer Delaney’s contribution to the album is a prominent one. The sections you sing together feel very spontaneous. Did you sing together in the studio or overdub her parts after the fact?

DWM: “When I went solo I set about building a band and a sound that as an audience member I would enjoy listening to.  Variety is important to me and one of the things that make us different to most acts is the male/female vocal blend and the fact Jennifer takes the microphone for big chunks of the set.  I have been singing with Jen for many years now and I think the hundreds of rehearsals and gigs show in the recordings.

DWM & Jennifer Delaney

For the actual sessions we didn’t sing at the same time though hopefully it might sound like we are in the same room.  We wanted to take the pressure off and let Jen concentrate on the performance but in the album rehearsals where most of the defining takes place, we obviously sang together and worked on the delivery of certain lines.  In Flame for example, the lyrics in the verse are quite conversational and the delivery almost needs to be acted, so to get across the right meanings we faced each other throughout and made eye contact to get that closeness and interaction.  This gets locked in and then the studio can be more about capturing the fruits of this work as well as those bits of inspiration that make the difference.”

B-E: In your album credits you acknowledge Sellaband A&R Head Adam Sieff with the comment, “I hope I did you and your guitar justice.” Can you shed some light on this for those who may not know Adam as a musician.

DWM: “I was introduced to Adam a few months prior to Sellaband’s launch in 2006. He is a very talented guitarist who has played with all kinds of wonderful artists but I haven’t actually ever played with him before.  What struck me about him was his enthusiasm for music in general and he has been very complimentary and supportive of my music since he first heard it.  He first introduced me to Tony Platt and unfortunately, your potential for success is often tied to which musicians, artists, producers and industry professionals you happen to know, so I have a lot to be thankful for. This support culminated in the loan of a gorgeous Fender Telecaster for one of the sessions which I really enjoyed playing on a few parts of the album which obviously led to the comment on the album sleeve notes.”

B-E: Recording a studio album with a producer of Tony Platt’s stature is a dream that will remain unfulfilled for most aspiring artists. As you scratch this from of your “to do” list, what’s next for Daniel Ward-Murphy?

DWM: “It was a privilege and a great creative time. We all enjoyed that experience but I think it becomes even more appreciated if this album goes on to do well.  So the now is about doing what I can to promote the album and then after that hopefully I will get the opportunity to make a second album, play some big shows and have a lengthy career.”

B-E: How badly do you want to get back into the studio for round two and what can fans expect from you as far as live performances?

DWM: “The recording process was so enjoyable and stress-free that a month after the final session I was ready to do it all again. Since the recording I have written and introduced The Liberation of the Female Kind to the live set and I have another one nearly all ready to go that I am excited about so this desire to record gets bigger, but I know I will only get to do that if this album is a success – so that is the focus.  Keep rehearsing, gigging, do interviews, stay in touch with fans, let as many people as possible know about the album and try to inspire others to spread the message!”

Until The Morning Light is a thoughtful collection of words and music from a thoughtful young Englishman with a lot on his mind. The new album is available to preview and buy on Sellaband, Amazon and BOL.

Here in the states we are smack in between our two “holidays of excess.” The true meaning of Thanksgiving and Christmas can be lost in the flurry of culinary activity and the season is given over to trotting out old family recipes heavily laden with spices and ingredients that sit in food warehouses all year like prisoners awaiting parole. Can you see yourself rushing to the store at midnight any other time of year just because you have a craving for those glistening day-glo fruitbits that Aunt Tilly pawns off as the secret of her fruitcake? Jesus! The sugar-and-spice combo can keep you tossing like a worm on a blistering sidewalk straight through til New Year’s Day.

Superbowl Sunday is a day of extreme gastric excess as well but the ample fare is more nap-inducing because it leans in the direction of comfort food. The five fundamental ingredients, meat, cheese, dough, potatoes and salt, are laid out in all their permutations and serve to lay us out just in time to miss the 4th quarter. I prefer Superbowl fare to Christmas and it’s not because I don’t appreciate Aunt Tilly’s fruitcake. The last eight year’s worth have given me a good start on a garden wall. I just prefer to taste what the food is made of rather than what it is made with.

Melodie Jones

The Akibas are comfort food for the ears. Here and there you get a hint of rosemary or a tinge of peppercorns but meat and potatoes are front and center and the longer you chew the better it tastes. The best porterhouse follows a straight path from hoof to plate, stopping only for a little salt, pepper and heat. This seems to be The Akibas’ recipe for music crafted from the basic ingredients of guitar, bass, drums, organ and vocals. With all the production toys available today it can be easy to make recordings that would be impossible to recreate live, and fans are often disappointed by the chasm that can exist between a recording and a live show. The Akibas give the impression that this would be a great band to see live.

Stylistically, The Akibas land somewhere in the midst of some very recognizable influences. The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Neil Young loom large but I catch a whiff of American Beauty era Grateful Dead along with a charm akin to White Bird by 60’s bay area band It’s A Beautiful Day. The well thought out introductions and less-is-more approach to chord progressions lead the ear directly to the heart of the song. When the progressions are simple, the arrangement makes them sound sophisticated and when the progression is more sophisticated the arrangement sounds deceptively simple. The tracks, although demonstrating a high level of musicianship, are tasteful and never make the listener feel like he’s being left out of some deep musical secret.

“Don’t Be Shy” starts off with a Stonesy guitar intro but the track quickly settles in to frame Melodie Jones’ vocal in an elegant way. That’s not at all to say that the the oomph is lost as there is plenty of impact in the rhythm section. The guitar parts created by Joe Holroyd and Huw Akiba-Jones are classic examples of what can be done with a good guitar, a tube amp and some taste. Going to fours on the bridge is also a nice touch and really launches the solo.

The Akibas

“Can’t Deny” is a relentless eight bar chord progression the simplicity of which allows the song to morph between major and minor modes with a minimum of trickery. It is a minor progression but the “majorness” hangs over the entire song like a veil of optimism over the poignant lyrics. I especially love the simplicity of the bass in doing nothing more than providing a simple foundation. Playing each note as if it were the last note on earth is a sign of maturity. It would be so tempting to wank along with whatever was the latest lick in the guitar mags but I have an image of The Akibas’ aptly named bassist Clanger rolling up his sleeves and squeezing off every note with both hands while smiling at his bandmates as if to say “It all starts here baby and you’re nothing without THIS.”

The Akibas set a nice table and offer a great opportunity for the Sellaband community to be part of a classic album.  My one criticism of what is offered on their Sellaband profile is that the vocals could be much more prominent in the mix. They are well written, well sung and shouldn’t have to fight through the tracks to be understood. But I have to think that this is a symptom of exactly how a decent recording budget would benefit this music. With the proper resources the vocals could be placed prominently without losing the impact and excitement of the track.

The Akibas Kitchen

All that’s missing here is the size and breadth that a first class studio recording would certainly provide. That, and perhaps the collaboration of a like-minded producer smart enough to massage these musicians into the performance of their lives without interfering with the creative spirit evident on the recordings thus far. Recording at a higher resolution and mixing in a professional environment could certainly place The Akibas before the most discerning audience with no apologies whatsoever. The bottom-end on this band is that they are a winner waiting to happen.

In the meantime it’s back to the holiday fare and Pepto-bismol.  I’m looking forward to Aunt Tilly’s package arriving. She’s not a Pink Floyd fan but once a year she unwittingly pays tribute and puts another brick in the wall. Happy Holidays!

The invention and marketing of the electric bass represents the dawn of modern recorded music. Giving the event the weight it deserves moves me to declare that we are now living in the year 59 F.E. or “Fender Era.” The amplified solid-body bass holds a special double-faceted place in modern music. First developed as a way for bassists to compete with amplified guitars, the increase in stage volume eventually caused guitar players to turn up their own amplifiers to the point of distortion thereby becoming the pivotal influence in creating a rich soundscape with equipment tortured beyond previously acceptable limits.

The electric bass is a mule combining the strength and firm footing of a donkey with the sleek lines of a thoroughbred. Recording this beast can be as challenging as you want to make it but keeping the function of the bass in mind will ensure that you don’t go astray. To put it into pugilistic terms, leave the jabs and uppercuts to the guitars. Bass notes are the “low blows” of any good track. All’s fair in love, war and rock and nothing says it better than a size 15 boot to the balls. The bass has such influence on a track that even a light tap to the right spot will get the listeners attention.

My Outboard Rig

As to the proper equipment, simplicity is the key. After trying all of the amazing toys dedicated to bass amplification I’ve found that nothing will make a crap bass sound acceptable while there is an abundance of tinkertoys that can fuck up a great sounding instrument. So let’s begin at the beginning and make some decisions as to which instrument should get the gig. The vast majority of bass tracks we hold in special reverence were recorded on Fender basses. The Precision and later, the Jazz bass were so prevalent in recording studios that many professionally copied charts were designated “Fender Bass” in the upper left hand corner. The sound of the instrument was usually captured by direct injection (DI) to the recording console and if an amp was used it was usually a low wattage Ampeg B-15 or something equally as portable.

Ampeg B-15

During the past 30 years I’ve had every bass imaginable in my hands and I recognize the attraction of having a lot of pretty things hanging on the studio wall. But it seems that the dominating feature most often associated with high end basses is that it “gets that old Fender sound.” I have a revelation for you, so do the new Fenders…even the cheap ones! I played a $200 Squire recently that sounded more like an “old Fender” than many basses with 10 times the price tag. Think about it, what is an electric bass? A flat piece of cheap wood bolted to a long piece of hardwood, some strings and a primitive magnetic coil like we used to make in science class out of wire and a 16 penny nail. Like the string bass before it, the electric bass is a physical instrument that responds best when man-handled and all the gizmos that make it easier to play can sometimes emasculate a track.

Bass tracks are not just low notes and there is a fine line between punch and definition. It can be difficult to make out precisely what notes James Jamerson was playing on his early electric recordings, but there was no lack of bottom end punch. Many modern basses and bass rigs offer much wider frequency ranges than were available to early electric players, but it was the physical act of pulling sound out of a primitive instrument that made recordings by guys like Jamerson, Tommy Cogbill, Joe Osborn and Donald “Duck” Dunn have the punch that made a generation dance. The tools to make that happen are still here and are not hard to find.

The first step for any aspiring bassist should always be to learn to play the damned thing. Find a decent bass and don’t plug it in. Play for hours until you can hear and feel the instrument with a minimum of non musical noises. See how long you can get low notes to last.  I remember my first lesson with Monty Budwig. He had me play a low ‘F’ and then pressed my finger down into the fingerboard with both of his thumbs and had me play it again. The sound was twice as big and he said, “That’s the way a bass sounds. Don’t ever forget that it’s a physical instrument.” Once you’ve got the physical aspect of the bass under your belt you can proceed to get your rig together. But always remember that the sound and feel must come from you and the plank, not the gear. Half-assed playing through great amplification is just louder half-assed playing.

A bit of sponge

Older basses were fitted with sponge mutes. I’m not a nazi about keeping every detail of an instrument intact and the bridge cover holding the mute was usually the first thing to end up lost in a drawer. But they do have a very useful purpose and I frequently wedge a piece of sponge under the strings at the bridge. Without the mute, the bass will have more high frequency ring and sustain. But these frequencies and overtones also have a way of smudging areas in the soundscape that may need to be left available for other instruments. While the un-muted sound may be more pleasing on its own, it may not work as well in the mix in combination with the kick drum. Much of what you hear without the mute will never be audible in the mix so experiment and don’t be afraid to sacrifice ring in the interests of more thud.

One of the iconic bass sounds is that made by the Höfner Beatle bass and Club bass. It is interesting to note that these are not fitted with mutes and the string saddles are actually bits of fret wire set into a wooden bridge. The classic sound has a full bottom end attack initially and does not sustain as much as one would think given the construction of the bass. I discovered the reason when I loosened the strings on an old Höfner to clean it. As soon as the strings were slack, they were drawn to the pick-up magnets with a great deal of force. These magnets were seriously powerful. When you attack the string, the powerful magnetic field is disturbed creating a huge initial impact. But because the magnets are so powerful, they actually stop the string vibration and don’t allow sustain. It is the power of the pick-up that gives the Höfner its Tuba-like characteristic punch and short sustain.

Playing a muted bass with the fingers is a great way to learn just how much you need to lean into the strings to get a good sound. Many early electric players were string bass converts and brought their right hand chops with them. Try stroking the string with the whole fingertip of the index finger or even the bone of the first joint and you will be surprised at how much bigger the sound can be. Then there is also the great sound of a muted bass played with a pick. The pick will give definition to the attack and as you move the picking hand from the bridge toward the neck you will find a wide range of usable sounds that no amount of knob twisting will give you.

Polytone Mini-brute

When it comes to getting the bass on tape or, better said, into the hard drive, less is always more. Mic’ing an amp can be fun but not always possible. The most desirable recording amp I can think of is the old Ampeg B-15. Another great amp if you can find one is the Polytone Minibrute. It’s a little solid-state combo just big enough to hold a 15″ speaker. Yeah, I know…it’s not a tube amp. But it is one of the most versatile little bastards on the planet. It gives you exactly what you put into it so the only reason not to love it is if you have a shitty sounding bass. I’ve also used a Trace Elliot tube pre-amp and sent the signal direct from the XLR output with good results. I spent a lot of time convincing myself that the PODxt bass models were pretty good…and they are fine to a point. But 90% of the time I find that plugging the bass into a cheap passive direct box gives me the most cluck for my buck. I’m lucky to have great sounding basses and it seems that the less I put between my fingers and the screen tends to result in the most sincere playing. With no sound sculpting toys helping you along, you are forced to come up with a convincing part based on your playing. And a well played fat-assed track can always be diddled with later.

To summarize:

Don’t get hung up on a high end bass unless you have a specific reason (or you have loot to burn).

Go to the source. Plug into a small amp, set everything flat and try to play like the great players that you admire.

Get physical. Watch Ray Brown use his right index finger to pull the sound out of his instrument.

Experiment with a sponge mute and a pick…go ahead, nobody’s looking.

If you mic an amp, don’t think you need to go broke. A low wattage amp that lets your bass sound like your bass will do. If you are working in a home studio you’ll do fine with a relatively inexpensive Shure SM7 or even an SM57. An expensive condenser mic can sound great, but it might also hear things that have nothing to do with your song…like refrigerator motors, traffic noises and helicoptors. The SM7 will only hear what’s right in front of it.

Get a cheap passive direct box and leave all the toys for your live gigs where they might impress someone.

And most importantly, realize that the electric bass is a bastard instrument without a hard and fast pedagogy as to playing or recording the thing. Don’t become a disciple of one method to the exclusion of others. Play it with your fingers, a pick or a can opener…but play it with intent and record it as honestly as possible.