DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

In late August, my bassist friend Andrew (of Groove95 fame) went into the studio to mix down the first six songs for his upcoming solo CD. I was astounded when I heard the results — having heard most of these songs in every conceivable incarnation, from scratchy cassette demos to low-fi solo bass+click MP3s to my own questionable rough mixes, I never imagined they could shine. But, wow.

I’d played drum tracks for three of these songs in 2000. Drew and I actually rehearsed them in person once, but of course this was back before the internets. And we got together to track the drums, which were engineered by a mutual friend, now the proprietor of Creamy Sonic Studios in Dublin, who came to my old rehearsal studio to record me. We tracked six songs that day — a feat that blows my mind now, i.e. lately it takes me two months to record six songs.

So anyway, three of those tunes from 2000, plus Groove95, the drums for which I tracked here last Fall, were among the six tunes that have just been mixed down. Listening to them is the aural equivalent of picking up a dusty stone and rubbing it a few times to reveal a thousand-dollar hunk of opal. The production is first-rate — the mix engineer, Evan Rodaniche of Cage9, worked some kind of magic I don’t understand. The contributions of the other players are all extremely happening. These songs, especially the one-off pop/punk tune that still makes me laugh every time I hear it, belong on the radio. But I have to admit to a small amount of bias.

Needless to say, I will be shipping Evan my stillborn mixes from last Fall very soon. One song is ready to go, and the other will be in about 48 hours. I’ll post the final mixes here.

By the way, Andrew’s pending CD release also means I’m about to get my first engineering credit. Excuse me, I think that’s Bob Ludwig calling!