Session Buzz: Who’s Recording In & Around NYC — A Monthly Report
GREATER NYC AREA: Zooming in on some studios around town…this month, we find New York super-group The Gaddabouts – Edie Brickell, Steve Gadd, Andy Fairweather Low and Pino Palladino – finishing up mixing on their new album at Germano Studios. Gadd is producing the album, with Andy Smith (Paul Simon, David Bowie, A Place To Bury Strangers) recording/mixing.
Meanwhile, will.i.am checked into Germano to record new material in Studio 2, and then to produce/engineer on sessions with Jennifer Lopez; Nas recorded with Vernon Mungo engineering in Studio 1; and Earth Wind & Fire recorded with Philip Bailey and Fulton Yard Unltd (Neil Pogue) producing. Germano also hosted writing and recording sessions with Cheryl Cole and producers Alex Da Kidd, Jim Beanz and Ann Yvette; Rhianna with songwriter-producers Sandy Vee and Cri$tyle; and Javier Colon with Ryan Tedder.
Passion Pit
The new album by Passion Pit (Columbia Records) is underway at Gigantic Studios in Tribeca, with Chris Zane (The Walkmen, Asobi Seksu, Friendly Fires) producing and Alex Aldi engineering. Zane also recently mixed an album for synthy indie-pop band Geographer (Modern Art/Warner), and produced/recorded and mixed five new songs for pop singer Ruby Frost (Universal).
And noise-rockers The Big Sleep recorded a long-awaited new album for French Kiss Records at Saltlands Studio in DUMBO with engineer/producer Eli Janney (The Obits, The Soft Pack, Ursula 1000). Janney mixed the album at his own mix room, Blistering Sound, where he’s currently in the midst of mixing an album project for Peter Salett, the singer/songwriter known for his music writing for films such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Role Models.
Janney also mixed the new album for Ursula 1000, recently released on Eighteenth Street Lounge Music, featuring vocals by Fred Schneider of the B-52s, French avant-jazz singer Isabelle Antena, Thievery Corporation chanteuse Natalia Clavier, and Big Mike Geier from Atlanta’s premier big band Kingsized.
Next, over at Fluxivity Recording in Williamsburg, HEM brought in a chorus and overdubbed vocals on tracks for a new album. HEM’s Gary Maurer engineered. Maurer also used Fluxivity’s new edit room, featuring a Neve 10-Channel Kelso console and ATC monitors. Engineer Brian Thorn also recently worked on a Japanese release for Blonde Redhead in this new suite.
In Fluxivity’s main studio: Thorn engineered a session for French artist Daran – remixing songs from the 5.1 surround film Monsieur Papa into the stereo format; Randy Wooten recorded vocals for his new album, engineered by David Schoenwetter, assisted by Ed McEntee; Brooklyn-based singer/composer Maria Neckam mixed her forthcoming album; Lily and The Parlour Tricks mixed for their new album – largely recorded at Daptone Records in Bushwick; and Brazillian-born television star Guto Bittencourt recorded vocals for an upcoming release.
Gary Maurer mixed the new HEM album in Sear Sound Studio A, mixing down to (½” RMGI 900) tape on the Studer C37 2-track machine. This machine and 3 more like it at Sear Sound – as well as a Studer J37 1″ 2 track machine – were all acquired from Abbey Road and converted to 2 track machines by Walter Sear.
Sear Sound also recently hosted Bob Dylan remixing sessions, with Steve Berkowitz producing and Tom Schick mixing on the Neve 8038. And Joss Stone recorded tracks for a new album for S-Curve Records, with Steven Greenwell engineering and co-producing with Steve Greenberg.
Atlas Sound’s “Parallax” comes out in early November via 4AD.
Over in Greenpoint at the Rare Book Room, Nicolas Vernhes (Dirty Projectors & Bjork, Deerhunter, Animal Collective) is mixing Matthew Dear’s new LP for Ghostly International. He also recently mixed the new Bowerbirds LP for Dead Oceans, and has been working on the new Palms record for his own label, Rare Book Room Records.
Over the summer, Vernhes co-produced/engineered/mixed Atlas Sound’s Parallax for 4AD, and he also recently mixed the new Light Pollution LP for Carpark, and co-produced/mixed Lia Ices’ cover of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” for Mojo. Bon Iver and Josh Ritter also recorded at the Rare Book Room, in separate live sessions with Tom Gloady.
Back in Manhattan, a 65-piece children’s choir recorded on the stage in Manhattan Center Studio’s Grand Ballroom in a session shot by Spike Lee for State Farm Insurance, and engineered by Jonathan Duckett.
Manhattan Center also recorded an 85-piece orchestra for the Universal Studios film Tower Heist, starring Eddie Murphy and Matthew Broderick, directed by Brett Ratner. The music was composed by Christophe Beck and engineered by Casey Stone. The facility also hosted a 24-hour shoot in the Grand Ballroom for “24 Hour Climate Change” featuring Al Gore, which was webcast all over the world – with feeds coming in from all over the world. The shoot was produced by Suite Spot.
And TV1 at Manhattan Center is now up and running – with its first show currently in production: “Would You Rather” with Graham Norton, produced by So TV.
Down at The Lodge Mastering…The Lodge’s Emily Lazar and Joe LaPorta have been busy working on several late summer/fall releases including: Neutral Milk Hotel‘s highly anticipated massive vinyl box set, Matt & Kim’s track “I’m A Goner” featuring Soulja Boy & Andrew WK for Converse, Icelandic folk artist Ólöf Arnalds cover album, “Ólöf Sings,” (One little Indian), power-pop songstress Katie Herzig’s new album “The Waking Sleep” (Downtown Records) – mixed by Justin Gerrish and produced by Cason Cooley – Tiësto’s latest Kanye West remix of “Lost in the World”, and The Raveonettes “Bsides & Rarities” album featuring 28 unreleased tracks.
Emmanuelle Seigner at Stratosphere Sound
Over on the West Side, at Stratosphere Sound, the Brooklyn-based indie rock band Folding Legs (whose members hail from Stockholm, New York, Vienna & São Paulo) spent two weeks tracking their new album with producers Craig Roseberry and Rudyard Lee Cullers. Cullers engineered, with Adam Tilzer assisting.
French actress/model/singer Emmanuelle Seigner was also at Stratosphere working on her upcoming album with songwriter/producer Adam Schlesinger, and Arjun Agerwala engineering.
In Times Square, the Broadway Cares Foundation checked into Premier Studios for multiple days of tracking with all the top casts from the major Broadway shows, including Jersey Boys, Addams Family, Sister Act, The Lion King, Godspell, Mamma Mia, Billy Elliot and more. For Premier, this means a diverse schedule of sessions, including everything from tracking large string and horn sections, to large choir and ensemble performance recordings.
The upcoming Broadway Cares release is being produced by Lynn Pinto for Rocket Science Records, with tracking and mixing engineered by Andros Rodriguez, and assisted by Sam Giannelli.
Also in-session recently at Premier: boy band Big Time Rush (Columbia) recorded vocals, with producer/engineer Chris Rojas; Trey Songz (Atlantic Records) produced music for his new album, with engineer Anthony Daniel, assisted by Colin Rivers; Bluey Robinson (Sony UK) recorded vocals with Pawel Szarejko engineering; The Roots tracked music for a series of Captain Morgan commercials, with Robert “L.B.” Dorsey engineering; and Estelle (Atlantic) tracked vocals, with engineer Anthony Daniel.
Meanwhile, at KMA Studios in The Brill Building: “rockjazz” pianist/songwriter ELEW (Eric Lewis) was producing and composing music for an upcoming ballet production, as well as an independent film with Harry Lennix called Mr. Sophistication; rapper/producer J. Cole dropped in for a session; rapper Wale rolled through for a listening session for his forthcoming album; and Akai hosted a preview/consultation with the next generation MPC with a pretty killer focus group that included Q-Tip, 88 Keys, Prince Paul, Sean C and LV, Salaam Remi, KG of Naughty by Nature, and DJ Marly Marl.
Producer/musician Joe Darone and recording engineer Chris “Noz” Marinaccio during Suit of Lights sessions at Big Blue Meenie
Across the river, at Big Blue Meenie in Jersey City – “indie rock manifestation” Suit of Lights tracked and mixed the follow-up to their last studio record, Bacteria, with producer Joe Darone (The Fiendz), recording engineer Chris “Noz” Marinaccio and mixers Tim “Rumblefish” Gilles & Matt “Dasher” Messenger.
According to a BBM insider, the new Suit of Lights album has a creepy carnival feel to it with Beatlesque vox and superb guitar playing from Dan McGowan (The Tea Club) and always amazing Roy Van Tassel (Ghost Orgy) on Drums. The album will also feature Trevor Dunn (Mr Bungle, John Zorn, Secret Chiefs III) on bass.
NYC punk band The Dead Tricks also recently recorded and mixed their debut EP at Big Blue Meenie with Mike Gallo (Agnostic Front and Stigma bassist) producing, Marinaccio engineering, and Messenger mixing. The album is currently being mastered at West West Side Music by Alan Douches.
NJ pop-rock band Catch Wild also finished their debut album at Big Blue Meenie.
Andy VanDette recently mastered the new live Rush album – Time Machine 2011 Live in Cleveland – at Masterdisk. The album was mixed by Richard Chycki and recorded by Chycki and Joel Singer (of Music Mix Mobile). Also at Masterdisk, Vlado Meller mastered the new Lou Reed / Metallica collaboration – Lulu. Producers on the project were Reed, Metallica, Hal Wilner and Greg Fidelman, who also mixed the record. As on the recent Red Hot Chili Peppers album Meller recently mastered, there was a unique iTunes-optimized master created for this album.
Warner will release the “Lulu” (Lou Reed / Metallica) album November 1
Meller also recently mastered Susan Boyle’s latest Someone To Watch Over Me for Syco/Sony – produced by Steve Mac, mixed by Ren Swann.
Back in Williamsburg, at Grand Street Recording…Charlene Kaye just started pre-production on her new project, Animal Love, with Tomek Miernowski producing and engineering. Grand Street’s Ken Rich has been mixing a new album for Nancy Magarill, produced by Daniel Mintseris. The album was tracked over the summer at Grand Street with Thad DeBrock on guitars, Yuvall Lion on drums, and Christopher Kuffner on bass, Dave Eggar on cello, and Rachel Gollub on violin.
Eben D’Amico (from Saves The Day) produced a new song for hip-hop artist XV at Grand Street featuring Charlie Z on drums and Jesse Fischer on keyboards. Miernowski played guitar and engineered. Noe Venable is in the process of tracking her new record with Ken Rich,Todd Sickafoose on bass and piano, Mathias Kunzli on percussion. And Ohio rocker JP Olsen is wrapping up tracking his record with fellow Ohio-ans Mark Stepro, and Aaron Lee Tasjan of the Madison Square Gardeners producing / Miernowski engineering.
And finally up North at The Wild Arctic, Dean Baltulonis is producing an EP for the band w/o (without), featuring members of The Hold Steady and Primitive Weapons, and co-writing/producing new songs for UK singer/songwriter Rosie Vanier with James Wells of The Gay Blades. And Tad Kubler, guitarist in The Hold Steady, has also worked out of The Wild Arctic on some original composition for advertising campaigns by The Martin Agency and McGarry Bowen.
And we know there’s so much more going on out there! If you’d like to be featured in “Session Buzz,” please submit your studio news to submissions@sonicscoop.com.
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