Recording Studio Sweet Spot: Live By the Sword – Bushwick, Brooklyn
Welcome to the jungle.
Gregory Ferreira has the headroom. (All photos by Justin Passavia)
OK, the region of Brooklyn known as Bushwick isn’t exactly the Amazon rainforest, but things are refreshingly primitive at Live By The Sword. That’s where founding engineer/producer Gregory Ferreira lets the artist, their songs, mic placement, and his live room’s 17-foot ceilings do the heavy lifting to achieve an undeniably signature sound.
LBTS has proven to be a safe haven for artists of all genres, from the Latin swing of Consumata Sonidera to the droll hip hop of Jane Doe, the menacing experiments of Keon Nolovelost, and the psychedelic noise rock of Ferreira’s own band, The Bushwick Hotel. Additional recent inhabitants include Lizzie Miller (featured on Fox for her upcoming show “Rebelle Bytes“), The Cholalas, and Marta Botia of Ella Baila Sola.
A Boston native, Ferriera launched the first iteration of Live By The Sword in Williamsburg when he first moved to Brooklyn in 2006 — his indie imagination still fired by the 4-track Tascam Portastudio and RadioShack Unisphere 1 mic that started it at all when he received them as gifts from his father.
Thanks Dad! An immersion in urban guerilla recording would be Greg’s future. For all artists in NYC – and beyond – that want the sonic character of their surroundings to come shining through – those primordial presents are an endowment to us all.
Live By The Sword: Boldly go where your sound can grow.
Facility Name: We are called Live By the Sword Studio, Brooklyn
Website: http://www.facebook.com/LiveByTheSwordStudios, shoutatthebevil@gmail.com
Location: We are located in lovely Industrial Park, Bushwick, Brooklyn
Neighborhood Advantages: I moved to this neighborhood to be alone and away from Williamsburg where I couldn’t concentrate. That advantage is now gone as the neighborhood is blowing up, but in place of the anonymity I originally sought, I now am surrounded by inspiring musicians — and that ain’t that bad.
Date of Birth: Hahaha the original one was a closet-sized room that I lived in as well. My elbows would hit the walls when I would cut drum tracks. This incarnation is almost four years old and it is ever-evolving.
Facility Focus: To be honest I’m open and into doing all aspects which I noticed is traditionally frowned upon. But I come from a family where even if you own the business, you still sweep it before you go home, and that comes from trying all the jobs.
Guitar is Gerriera’s personal angle.
Mission Statement: If I have a mission statement at all, it’s “Dead good music shouldn’t go overlooked just because the music industry collapsed and everybody’s running around chasing pennies.” I’ve always been more interested in making a scene and getting people into music than the commerce of the whole thing.
Clients/Credits: Most recently I scored a trailer that I really enjoyed for an adaptation of a book called Fame Shark by Royal Young. That was serious fun and we did everything in my studio from making the music to tracking the spoken word vocal of him reading the book.
I recently cut a live session with Bugs in the Dark that also really is making it happen for me right now.
There’s a minimal approach to recording that I have — next to some studios I barely have anything. My focus is in the preproduction of getting the sounds on the amps in the room and the drums tuned up nice, maybe a little dash of “everybody learn the song before you show up to the studio,” and presto, all I have to do is make some choices as to what microphones and pre’s I’ll use.
I rely heavily on the room which has 17-foot ceilings and carpet. This is definitely contradictory to the few things I was taught by the few guys who would teach me anything when I was learning recording. Everything was overly compressed, overly limited, and definitely over managed. Recordings, I think, should maintain some wild elements.
Key Personnel: My buddies Rudy, Justin and Matt are always here hanging out at the studio helping me out with various projects in various capacities. It’s kind of a group thing at this place.
System Highlights: I use Logic. I love it and a friend was nice enough to give me a lot of high end plugins, which I delight in scrolling through when I’m bored. I use some different tube pres, including some ART stuff and Electro-Harmonix, but my all-time fave is my Altec summing amp that I use as a mic pre.
You have 17 foot ceilings, and a ton of vintage here to play on, but the thing that I think really makes this place work is the vibe of the musicians that hang around and work here in the feeling of inspiration in the air the comes from that.
He pledges allegiance to the Altec.
The building is on fire, you only have time to grab ONE thing to save, what is it? My black 1976 Les Paul Pro. That is the only thing left of my original music collection from my hometown of Boston, many moons ago.
Rave Reviews: People always comment on the drum sounds, which I spend a lot of time on. But, having these really high ceilings never hurt.
Most Memorable Session Ever: Probably my most memorable session was the band called Consumata Sonidera, who is like a Latin gypsy band. I think it was nine of them, and they were wasted, and they wanted to cut a live record in one day with no prep. So naturally, I did it, and yes it took the occasional slug of whiskey to keep my nerves calm and my hands moving.
Session You’d Like to Forget: The session I’d like to forget, I think I may have already forgotten. I don’t want to name names, but the worst session is always the session that you don’t get paid for. There’s a couple out there: You know who you are.
Dream Session: I was researching finding a medium or clairvoyant so that I could record the new John Lennon solo record. Now that, I would rock.
— Greg Ferriera, Founder, Live By The Sword
Another perspective on LBTS.
Back ‘o the outboard.
Grooving to tubes.
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