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LONG, BORING STORY:
One of the guys in the band, Eric, interned at a studio many many years ago under a fellow named Al Sutton, who is a very accomplished and now ultra-commercially successful engineer/producer from Detroit thanks to his early partnership with the loathsome Kid Rock. He typically travels and works out of other locations for his big gigs, but he maintains a studio (Rust Belt) in Royal Oak.
Having self-recorded all previous Bright Nights and several other projects' material in band member Eric's old farmhouse studio, we decided to go for it and free ourselves of the massive time sink and endless dick-aroundery of self-recording and spend some time elsewhere. The approach was to do it quick and keep a raw feel with minimal post-production. We made use of the space and printed all natural reverb for vocals, drums, and guitars. The only things to receive any treatments were my synth parts, but I insisted on playing them all live to retain the human element and not using any MIDI programming like we'd done previously.
The equipment was, of course, absolutely insane -- a mic collection worth more than a house, an impressive amp collection, a massive API desk, and a ton of outboard gear. Al also has a line of handmade gear under the Acme Audio moniker, which I spent some time checking out in his workshop.
As the band's only super-duper gear nerd I don't normally have an excuse to verbally jack off at great length, and it turns out Al is not only on top of recording gear but also has an impressive amount of knowledge about guitars and amplifiers. It was comforting to receive validation by someone with the same afflication, but who is able to succumb and purchase things at will.
There were all sorts of great people in and out during our time there, including Dr. Ed Wolfrum -- a true legend and winner of several Emmys and Grammys who worked at Motown, United Sound, and Golden World studios. He's also the fucking inventor of the direct box, and by extension, the Motown bass sound. I could've listened to his stories for hours, and I did. Thankfully he didn't ask to listen to our atrocious, ear-routing noise.
I regard the experience as one of the best I've ever had musically.
ONE PHOTO:
Somehow we ended up an all-Orange bunch of assholes. Running my AD30HTC into that crusty '70s formerly-white-tolexed Marshall 4x12 with Greenbacks made me never want to return to my 2x12 V30 cab. Utterly amazing breakup.
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