Sound of Contact Launch!

Yesterday was a BIG day! In the same day we announced the news of our band "Sound of Contact" signing with the progressive rock label "InsideOut" along with the release date for our debut concept album "Dimensionaut" AND we had our very first rehearsals for the upcoming tour featuring the live line up with Simon Collins, myself, Matt Dorsey and John Wesley!

The rehearsals went great. It started off with everybody setting up their gear at my studio called "SR" (SR stands for Sonic Reality... it's not actually the Sonic Reality office but a remote studio in Miami where I engineer and produce various projects and do in-house sampling for popular music software from IK Multimedia and many other companies). It was great for Simon and I to reunite with Matt Dorsey who co-wrote and played on the album with us. Kelly Nordstrom who also played on the album isn't part of the touring line up. But, he's still very much a part of the creative team that has made the music what it is. Joining on for the upcoming tour is John Wesley who has spent many years touring with one of our favorite bands Porcupine Tree (as well as Fish from Marillion and many others). Coming in on Sunday is Jonathan Schang from the band District 97 to assist us with additional drums and keys. Jimmy Keegan of Spock's Beard will be guesting on drums on some of the European dates as well. There are a lot of complex parts on the album and Simon being a singer AND drummer... well... this may sound a little familiar! ;)

Me, Matt and Simon playing together again. 

Matt Dorsey goes over one of the songs with John Wesley

Simon Collins with John Wesley loading in.

Working with these guys on the first day was an absolute BLAST! It really felt great for everybody. We celebrated with a stellar sushi dinner with Wes's friend Chip who was over the moon about it all. A memorable milestone moment. The energy in this project is so high and we're feeling it... just very genuine good vibes and that to me is what it's ALL about. The present moment and the big picture. The balance between those things with the least amount of expectations is a foundation for happiness... and happiness is itself the meaning of success. Today I feel successful because I'm here doing this! That alone is rewarding on so many levels. It's a philosophy we share as a band and that's great. Seeing the potential feels good and everyone at the label is behind us. We're already working closely together to make things happen. Our fans, friends and family are really excited and that gets us pumped. 

It really is exciting to think that in just a few week's time over 2,000 people are going to be hearing our songs performed for the very first time on March 24th at the Marillion Weekend in Montreal! So grateful to Steve Rothery and the whole Marillion family for bringing us on board for that. Gratitude goes around to a lot of people for everything that's happening. 

Today I'm just chilling at Sound of Contact HQ Miami. We have a new apartment near the studio that's our "rock pad" (with a rockin' kitchen... I just told Wes I'm gonna make him seafood gumbo and he nearly lost his mind! He doesn't even know too... I make a mean gumbo! I used to live in New Orleans and I reverse engineered that one). Simon and I are going to go do a little shopping for threads and a flat screen, ping pong table and other "necessities" for a bunch of rock musicians to be as happy as we can be. Making music, hanging out and telling stories, laughing, eating well, enjoying the SoFla weather... life is good! 

The Squids Are Alright!

It's been almost a month since I posted last and that's only because I've been so busy! The good kind of busy. Running a sound company and being in a rock band isn't easy! It's like juggling squirrels that bite while chewing gum and talking on the phone at the same time (while balancing on one leg and hoping across a busy street!!!!). Lots of details... but I won't bore you with that! I'll just give you the highlights!

Sound of Contact - Dimensionaut

Got some cool news coming with regard to the label we've partnered up with for Sound of Contact, the band I'm in with Simon Collins. We've recently announced that John Wesley (touring guitarist for Porcupine Tree, Fish and others) and Jonathan Schang (who is touring with his band District 97 and John Wetton) have joined our touring line up of the band this Spring for some dates in Europe as well as a one off in Montreal opening for the band Marillion. Let me tell you more about how all of that came to be! A cool backstory for anyone who would be interested in reading some obscure blog from a guy named Squids anyway.

When we first started working on the album in 2010 I had made friends with Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree. He was interested in using Sonic Reality and IK Multimedia software and from there we got into some talking about music. He was working on his second solo album "Grace for Drowning" and shared some work in progress tracks with me which I thought was incredibly cool. I ended up playing on a 20+ minute song called Raider II for him. When it came to our material he gave me some really helpful advice with regard to guitar sounds and shared his opinion about various things. What a deluxe sounding board I had! 

Then, when I went to see Wilson's band Porcupine Tree perform at Radio City Music Hall in NYC I met John "Wes Dearth" Wesley. He was incredible in the show and a really nice guy. I eventually worked with Wes with my project "Sonic Elements" and he sang and played guitar on tracks like "Tom Sawyer" which featured the drums of Neil Peart via his sample library with my company called "Neil Peart Drums by Sonic Reality". Ironically, Wes is friends with Neil but he's never played music with him until this "virtual session". Here's the song if you want to hear it! It also features Billy Sherwood (Yes, Circa) on bass, me on keys (and I took the liberty of doing a keyboard solo at the end! haha). 

Wes is also friends with the guys from Marillion. He used to tour with Fish and he's worked with all those guys in different capacities over the years. But, that's not the only reason behind us opening for them on their Marillion Weekend event in Montreal. I met Steven Rothery, Marillion's guitarist, on Facebook after working with Hannah Stobart who was a guest vocalist on our album (and Hannah was previously in a project called "The Wishing Tree" with Rothery). Confused yet? So, that was a few years ago and we talked about the possibility of us playing at a Marillion Weekend event then. However, we weren't ready to release our album and tour yet. Now we are and I reached out to Steve again thinking maybe we could join them on some gigs later this year. After talking it over with his band he came back to me offering an open slot at the Montreal event. That's coming up soon! March 24th. Fortunately we'll all be in North America this month rehearsing (down in Miami) so it seemed to work out great! What a cool gig to kick off Sound of Contact live! We're all really excited about it and I've been getting into their new album and digging back into their back catalog lately. A true honor to be part of their special event... and I look forward to watching their show the night before! 

I had a nice email chat with Nick Davis, who has produced/engineered bands like Genesis, XTC and also Marillion. He mixed our album and was pleased to hear all the good news from the album's imminent release to us opening for Marillion at the end of the month. We might mix some bonus tracks over in the UK at Genesis' studio The Farm. Something to be released later in the year... we have a handful of tunes that didn't make it on the album. 

Also joining us on the tour is Jonathan Schang from District 97 who I met on a music forum called Progressive Ears. He was already touring with his band and special guest John Wetton (King Crimson, UK, Asia) the same time we were going to Europe to tour with Spock's Beard and Beardfish. So, we've got him joining us for a week on drums then he plays with D97 and Wetton and then on the 18th of May we all play at the same venue in Zoetermeer. Pretty crazy! Crazy in a cool way. It's going to be an adventure... and certainly worthy of some Squids Travel Blog posts so expect more out of me as we go here! 

The Dark Squids of the Moon!

Hello! Squids here reporting from the Dark Side of Miami. Digging into some Rush music this week and some exciting new things with Neil Peart Drums and other sample libraries from Sonic Reality. This past week I've been working on an interesting version of a Pink Floyd tune with Fernando Perdomo that's a mind melting saucerful of secrets. Some interesting things going on with the McBroom sisters as well... nothing I can talk about yet though. It's okay if there's a little bit of mystery around here!

Sporting a new look to the blog finally. Hope you like it!

Things are moving forward with Sound of Contact, my original music project with Simon Collins.

Somehow this month I need to get Nick D'Virgilio over here in the studio since he's here until the end of the month with Cirque. I'm also working with Martin Levac on a few things who is up in Canada. Lots of on-going stuff with Francis Dunnery (plus he's like the older brother I never had giving me all sorts of advice when I need it). We're working on something new for EpiK DrumS with producer/engineer Ken Scott and drummer Terry Bozzio... that's all just scratching the surface too! It's a whirlwind of music and sounds around here. Plus lots of gear... and wires...

I bought a few knobs and parts from "Wine Country-Sequential" for my Prophets which I love. 

It's alive! 

I just finished putting together my main midi rack set up of synths... I've kind of drifted away from midi sequencing of external hardware synths. I either tend to use software synths - some of which I make the sounds for - or I just PLAY the actual hardware synth and don't even bother sequencing it. But... I have nothing against midi sequencing of hardware synths either so it's making a comeback with lots of style and flavor available... that in addition to just playing the hardware and using software samplers and synths in whichever DAW I'm using... ProTools but also getting more into Logic now as well.

Traveling back home!

So, the NAMM show is over. That went by fast. Some great things happened. I got some approvals on a few new Sonic Reality products that involve some partnership cooperation. Very efficient to have a face to face when it comes to being on the same page. Emails and phone calls are fine but it's not the same as the good old "analog" version. Haha. We got a lot done in the studio before and in part during NAMM weekend... even if some of us got slightly under the weather and overly tired. No one got the flu so it could have been worse (burning the candle at both ends). All in all it was a productive eventful trip!

Erik Norlander and I are putting together a really cool tribute to Bob Moog soon. I'll explain more about that in the coming weeks here. 

Now I'm traveling back to Miami to mix the Rush tribute album I'm doing with Sonic Elements (my Sonic Reality Progressive Rock project). The album features Neil Peart on drums via his "Neil Peart Drums" sample library with Sonic Reality. We used his live performed drum tracks I recorded with Nick Raskulinecz (Rush's producer) and then, just as an end user of his library could, we built up tracks around it. We did both covers and some originals as well all infused with his distinct sound and drum patterns. I'll get into all sorts of detail about that when we're closer to release. The album, made up of guest musicians, includes myself on keys, Billy Sherwood (Yes, Circa) on guitar and bass, John Wesley (Porcupine Tree) on guitar and vocals, Randy McStine (Lo-Fi Resistance) on guitar and vocals, Rik Emmett (Triumph) on guitar and vocals, Steve Hackett (Genesis) on guitar, Keith Emerson (ELP) on keys, Erik Norlander (Asia FJP) on keys, Colin Edwin (Porcupine Tree) on bass, John Payne (Asia FJP) on bass and vocals, Fernando Perdomo (Dreaming in Stereo) on guitar, Francis Dunnery (It Bites) on guitar, Alastair Greene (Alan Parsons Live Project) on guitar, Mike Keneally ALSO on guitar and... wow, what a line up of incredible musicians all paying homage and loving respect to Rush, Neil and Sonic Reality sounds on this album. I'm exciting to get it all done!

Other than that I'm turning in a huge batch of sounds for SampleTank 3 which is getting closer to reality (in more ways than one). That's a virtual instrument software product from IK Multimedia, a company I work closely with and have provided most of the sounds for over the years. Time for some NEW sounds! 

That's all. Not really though. There's always more going on than I say. 

Incessant NAMM Dropping

Saturday, Jan 26, 2013 - The NAMM show is still going on. As I was strumming my new (old) Silvertone acoustic guitar this morning I couldn't help but think how un-technologically advanced it was. A sort of ironic new acquisition around a time where everyone gets together to see the latest greatest musical instruments, recording equipment etc. It got me thinking about what the best "quality" of music is. It's the spirit of it. The emotion behind it. Everything else is icing on the cake, the bells and whistles... and it isn't that that's not nice too. But, to me music still has to have that core otherwise it can be an empty shell of contrived "going through the motions" stuff without having any authentic feeling behind it.

So, while I LOVE new technology and quality recording/performance gear I think it is so important not to get lost in it and forget that great music has more to do with the people writing and performing it and what they are sending/receiving than the exterior equipment they use. However, if you have that as a foundation and you add great gear to help produce it then there is an opportunity for both to work together to create fantastic results. So it was a good reminder... not that I really forgot. Anyway, besides seeing the latest gear another fun aspect of NAMM are the musicians, producers and engineers you run into. Here's a NAMM report with a whole lotta name dropping... you have been warned!

Alastair Greene, Alan Parsons, me, David Pack in the Aphex booth

Always nice to see Alan Parsons who I've been working with on various "projects". Alastair, his guitarist vocalist from APLP (which I will be seeing live soon in South Florida) and Alan's long time friend David Pack from Ambrosia who I will be working with on something soon.

With Gavin and Ross

It was great running into Gavin Lurssen and Ross Hogarth. I've known Gavin for years and he used to be my roommate when I lived in LA. He's a prominent mastering engineer (always winning Grammys... it's actually annoying. Just kidding!). Ross is a great engineer and he does some great stuff so it's interesting to hear what he's up to. I think last NAMM it was mixing Van Halen. I think the NAMM before that it was the Doobie Brothers. I can't say what it was this year yet but it sounded cool and he was happy. We've talked about working together on something for years so maybe one of these days we will do that. We definitely like a lot of the same music and have worked with a lot of the same people in different capacities. 

Me with Tom Brislin

Tom Brislin can be found demonstrating in the Casio booth. He's been a writer for Keyboard magazine for years and has played keys in a number of interesting projects such as the band Renaissance and also with Francis Dunnery who I've been working with a lot. 

Fellow Sound of Contact bandmate Matt Dorsey at the show.

With engineer Richard Chycki (Rush, Dream Theater)

The incredibly talented Lyle Workman. He composes a lot of the popular comedy films these days.

With Will Alexander and Geoff Downes of Asia and Yes

Erik Norlander (from the other Asia) with part of his massive Moog "Wall of Doom"

Erik Norlander of Asia FJP (and SR) had his "Wall of Doom" Moog Modular on display in the Moog Foundation booth. We took a picture with Michelle Moog-Koussa here and I've got something cool in Moog-land from SR this year to share that I'm excited about. 

Epic Session and It's NAMM time!

Louise Goffin, Lorelei McBroom, me, Durga McBroom-Hudson

Guy Pratt of Pink Floyd and Toy Matinee fame

The other day on the 23rd of January 2013 we had quite the epic session over at my friend Simeon's studio called "Blue Forest" in Sherman Oaks. It started off with sampling a Warwick bass and a '62 Fender P-Bass with Guy Pratt of Pink Floyd for his upcoming Sonic Reality bass library. We're also recording bass parts for a song Guy wrote with Durga that we're cutting as well. Fernando Perdomo from the previous day's session worked up a guitar and drum track for that. All part of the LA music machine thing I've got going on which is working out fantastically I have to say! What incredible resources for any producer to have and I've realized that just being around long enough in music you accumulate through experience these compatible elements to whatever it is you're wanting to do... people that specialize in one area or another and you know what to expect if you hand them a task for a project. 

So, after we finished up with Guy we went on to do some vocal sampling with the McBroom sisters. Lots of oohs and aahs with soul! After that we did vocals for a cool Pink Floyd song. I won't say what it is yet (gotta leave some surprises) but joining them on vocals for it was their long time friend Louise Goffin. She sounded great and was a lot of fun! It was wild to find out that we had probably met before or at least were standing right next to each other backstage at a concert because she used to play guitar with Tears for Fears when Nick D'Virgilio played drums for them. Kevin Gilbert and I went to go see Nick play with TFF in LA at the Wiltern and she was there! Louise has been doing all sorts of interesting things in the music world for years. Currently she's nominated for a Grammy for producing her mother Carole King!!!! So congrats to her for that. I hope she wins but it's an honor just to be recognized (and an honor to have done it in the first place). Cool to meet and work with the sons and daughters of rock legends! Haha. I joke with Simon (Phil Collins' son) about my family all having absolutely nothing to do with music whatsoever. Even my brother who manages IK Multimedia's US office doesn't actually play a note. He's pure business. I can only imagine the dynamics of what it must be like having a musical family let alone a parent who is a music icon. But, like anything, I'm sure it has its double edged sword (people compare you etc.). It is nice to see something like Louise producing her mother's album. That's really cool. It was also great to not only see but co-write and play on the one song Simon recorded with his father called "The Big Bang". 

Squids at NAMM

So now today, the 25th of January is the second day of the annual Winter NAMM show. I've been going to this NAMM show every year since 1989. I go because I'm a gear head, I see tons of people I know, I do business there for my company Sonic Reality (and before that I did sound design for the major keyboard manufactures like Alesis, Yamaha, Roland etc.) and I just go! From 1997 to I think 2009 we had a Sonic Reality booth there. But, from 2010 to now I've been booth free (apart from my second home at IK's booth) and it's a lot more enjoyable that way for me. I've dialed back the sort of corporate approach to my company and treat it more like a production company. Our job is to do the sound development for our own products and license them for other company products whether it's IK Multimedia, Cakewalk, Propellerheads, Camel Audio, NI, Yamaha, Steinberg... and we can do that with any appropriate combination of people in any studio around the world. I can assemble a team of people whether they are ex-employees of SR or just engineers, editors or musicians I know that have the skills and resources to do what needs to get done. I have my core team back home handling the nuts and bolts of day to day business but a world-wide scalable team of talent to do all sorts of fantastic products AND music! Oh yeah... music!!!!! ALMOST forgot about that a decade ago. Now I'm happy to say there's a good balance of both sounds AND music going on (as you can see in this blog!). 

Now, if you've been following my posts on Facebook or reading this blog you know that I'm all about discovering cool instruments so you can expect a "NAMM report" blog post from me at some point. I will probably do it at the end or maybe in a few parts along the way. Fellow gear heads and the sonically curious can look forward to some cool pics and videos. I'm having a great time doing things I love to do and there isn't a moment I'm not grateful for it. Onward we go!

Did you know, did you know...?

Fernando Perdomo, Durga McBroom-Hudson, Lorelei McBroom, Dave Kerzner, Randy McStine

January 23, 2013 - I arrived in LA yesterday and immediately went to Fernando Perdomo's studio to get to work on a Sonic Elements Pink Floyd tribute project featuring the McBroom sisters (former backing vocalists for Pink Floyd). We had to work up quite a few tracks to experiment so I got a team of musicians to help me get it all done. Fernando and Randy are both talented multi-instrumentalists. I worked extensively with Randy on his project Lo-Fi Resistance's album "Chalk Lines". Fernando I've known for years but only started working with him recently on the song "Digital Man" by Rush. He was great! In addition to Randy and Fern I got Billy Sherwood, former producer and member of the band Yes who is also a multi-instrumentalist, to work up some skeleton tracks for us to work with. Basically, I was coming out here to go to a trade show called "NAMM" (National Association of Music Merchants) which I do every year for my company Sonic Reality. Whenever I go to LA I try to get some music work done because I know so many great people and places here for doing that. This time the two McBroom sisters who are normally on two different sides of the country or touring the world were together in LA so we decided to make the most of the limited time we had and get as much recorded as we could. So far we've gotten as much done as is humanly possible!

Fernando recording Randy McStine (Lo-Fi Resistance) playing some Gilmour-esque guitar

Me laying down a vintage-Floyd style Wurly part

This is Fernando's upright piano. It has a great haunting quality to it... and we're going to sample it! "Dreaming in Stereo" is Fern's "prog band project". They have two albums that are really good and I told him that if he does another one I'd love to do something on it. So we'll see! 

It's an interesting type of tribute album that we do with Sonic Elements. The approach in some ways is similar to how Steve Hackett did his Genesis Revisited 2 album where it's centered around an original member of the band but it's still covers and there are guests joining him. In the case of some of these Sonic Elements tribute albums I center it around iconic drummers that Sonic Reality has sampled for a sound library/music software product we're putting out. So, for instance, with the Rush tribute we're doing we have Neil Peart playing all the drums via his sampled drum library with Sonic Reality called Neil Peart Drums. So, for the Floyd tribute we have soon to be released sample library collections done with not only Nick Mason, long time drummer of Pink Floyd but also with Alan Parsons (of Alan Parsons Project and the engineer who recorded Dark Side of the Moon), Guy Pratt (bass player for Pink Floyd and also Toy Matinee, Kevin Gilbert's band previous to Thud) and the McBroom Sisters. What that means is that many of the sounds you'd hear on this tribute are also available as playable samples you can buy if you're a musician. So if you TOO want a certain Floydy drum sound or a really cool fretless bass sound or "ooohhhhwaaahhhh" to play from the keyboard you'll soon be able to do that (taking liberties with the word "soon" there... I mean some time this year). But, of course, if you're not a musician then you can enjoy the music created with these sounds... and an interesting mix of the "elements". 

Some of those elements can be the musicians with their particular style and sound. I've had the chance to mix some unlikely combinations of musicians together in a song. The most recent one that I've been working on features Keith Emerson (ELP), Steve Hackett (Genesis), Billy Sherwood (Yes), Francis Dunnery (It Bites), Neil Peart Drums (Rush) and myself (Squidttthhhh!). I've mentioned it already but I'm still excited about that the more I work with it. It's also interesting that it spans two songs that relate to each other. More will be revealed about that soon. 

Alright so that's it for now. I have to either get back to work or catch some Zzzz's so I have energy tomorrow for another mega session this time at another studio in the Valley. We'll have Guy Pratt in the early afternoon and then some major sampling with the McBroom Sisters. Then in the evening a vocal session with Louise Goffin (Carol King's daughter). That should be fun! After that I head on down to Anaheim for the NAMM show... but somehow I am going to try to do some sessions here and there too because if you haven't noticed I'm a bit of a work-o-holic! No, seriously, it's all about people's schedules and when you have a slot open you gotta take it especially if you're producing an album on a budget. Nothing beats being in the same place at the same time. Plus some musicians are autonomous with their own studios (like Billy or Fern). You give them a track and they add their part in their studio and send it in. We did that when we played on Steve Hackett's album and he did that when he played on this. Other musicians you need to book a studio and have someone be there to direct and/or engineer it... and sometimes that someone has to be you (or you leave to much up to chance). 

Anyway, I'll leave you with this video interview with Steve Hackett and Roger King talking about how we sent in tracks for them to use along with guys like Steven Wilson, Mikael Akerfeldt, Neil Morse, Steve Rothery, Nad Sylvan and many other people who guested on that album from around the world. Gives you an idea if you're curious of how that's done these days.