Kevin James Feazey

The Melvins Live

2011-11-15T13:06:00.003Z

Thought i'd share this with you all. What a band, a massive inspiration to my friends and me.

Pro Tools 10

2011-11-11T09:00:00.000Z

Seems like only yesterday I was reading about PT9 coming out. How times change. Pro Tools 10 arrived a couple of weeks ago and it brought with it some interesting questions. Audio regions are now called clips? Export music directly to Soundcloud? The new Avid Channel Strip plugin based on the legendary (?!?) System 5 console?

It appears that Avid are falling in line with a lot of the other DAW manafacturers. The 'pro' side seems to be moving more and more towards film and t.v. post production whilst the audio features are becoming more streamlined for use by the masses. None of this is a bad thing - PT is still my weapon of choice - but it does show that the businesses associated with the record industry are also having to rethink their positions in the market place to survive.

I'm sure there are 101 reasons for these updates and tweaks that we'll never know about but it does seem to be the way things are moving. I spoke to a chap from plugin manafacturer (who shall not be named) who mentioned that if they aimed all their marketing at pro audio engineers they'd never sell anything as most engineers aren't exactly rolling in it and most studios are struggling to keep their doors open. The target for them is the civilians with day jobs and disposable incomes (many of whom are fine engineers by the way) who record/mix/produce music as a serious hobby. Often recording projects for free and often better equipped than a lot of small studios.

Anyone who has read any of my previous blogs will know that i'm not here to shout and scream about the situation, rather that I find it interesting to watch the industry twist and turn to try and find a place to settle. I'm not sure that place will ever exist - hell it may even put me out of a job!

And that concludes todays ramblings,

Kev.

The Heavy Metal Gangs of Wadeye

2011-11-08T11:51:00.003Z

Pretty interesting documentary. Weird but true. Parts 1 & 2

New TFATD recording sessions

2011-11-08T10:51:00.002Z

Exciting times! The Fierce & The Dead are heading into the studio again. Hell yes. It's looking like it's going to be an e.p. - 4 tracks, maybe a few bonuses who knows. Watch this space. Looking like it will be released in February 2011, as will the new single from the other band I play in The Murder Barn. Busy times ahead! Here are the two teaser videos for the releases.

That's the shameless plugging out of the way then.

I'm currently working on a new mix project featuring members of two very cool bands that I can't tell you about. Sorry about that. It's the rules y'know - I don't make them.

And how about this - here's the track Creature by The Duke Spirit that i recorded and mixed (well the drums were recorded in L.A. but everything else was me) for the computer game Arkham Asylum. Finally my nephews respect me.

Creature by The Duke Spirit.

And i've been working the inimitable James from Silvery on more shenanigans. You can read his take on it here.

Till next time,

Ta ra.

Kev.

10 x 10

2011-04-05T08:39:00.001+01:00

Hello all,

As you may or may not know I play in a couple of bands inbetween pointing microphones at things and shouting at computers. The Murder Barn are a 6 piece group and you can hear them here and see them here, but yesterday my other band The Fierce & The Dead released a single into the wild. It's called 10x10 and you can download it from our Bandcamp page. You can pay what you want for it - which basically means if you want to pay nothing you can (although do remember we're poor creative types). And please feel free to spread the word by sharing the bandcamp widget on your own pages, or copying the files for your friends. We want as many people to hear our music as possible. And just like the old days you get a b-side included, the track Foreign Languages. 10x10 is taken from our debut album which will be released in May 2011. I'll be announcing the date for that on here, and it will be posted on the main site, our Twitter feed and Facebook page.
Thanks for reading my shameless plugging - more blog fun to come this week.

<a href="http://thefierceandthedead.bandcamp.com/album/10x10">10x10 by The Fierce And The Dead</a>

Live and the studio

2011-03-07T13:05:00.001Z

Hello all,

I've been in the studio this weekend with Mr Nick Tann recording a live performance that he intends to release 'as is' to the masses. Nick played his songs solo accompanying himself on a 12 string acoustic and had obviously put a lot of care and attention into the preparation for this project. To make sure it was as a live gig we even had a small audience in attendance. As an engineer it's always nice to know that you won't have to worry about 'fixing' things afterwards and that you can enjoy the process of recording without having to force performances out the mix.

This led me to thinking back to a lot of the live studio sessions i've worked on. I believe that it is one of the best ways to record whether you happen to be a solo performer or are part of larger band. If you can overcome the obstacle of finding a space big enough to accommodate you then this is an excellent way of maximising the time you have in a studio. Once you are set up and are ready to go then you can just plug away until you are happy with the takes. I've recorded projects where we have set up completely live in the studio - to the point where the musicians didn't need headphones and in most cases this led to the them concentrating much more on the performance rather than worrying about the recording process, something which is very healthy for creativity. That's not always possible, normally because of vocals or the balance of acoustic instruments versus electric, but it's worth considering if your project could be set up as live as possible. You are more than welcome to overdub to your hearts content afterwards of course but the base tracks when performed live always seem to have a bit of movement not possible from tracking up your songs without a lot of trickery.

One of my favourite ways to record live in the studio is to set the instruments up in the same room. You can manage bleed to a large extent depending on the size of the room and what polar patterns you have available in the microphones you are using. What this does from the producers perspective is to put a lot of the pressure back onto the musicians, makes them think about what they are doing and how their parts and the textures they are providing fit into the picture as a whole. All the subtleties in dynamics, tempo and the like have to be considered before you put down a final take as editing and sound manipulation become much more difficult when bleed is involved. When you are in a rehearsal room you have volume on your side but recording is like putting your song under a microscope. With the volume turned right down.

Sometimes though this recording plan isn't an option. I often work on projects where several musicians play their parts on different days due to scheduling, cost, etc and certain styles of music do not lend themselves to live recordings either. And the biggest hurdle is to find a space where you can record live, especially if you want to be loud too.

I guess the point of this blog is that I would like to see more people considering recording live rather than assuming parts must be done seperately to ensure that everything is correct. I've engineered a lot of bands who are worried about their budgets so they see overdubbing from the drums up as a way to ensure that they have a product that is 'correct'. However, if you spend more time in your rehearsal space working on your parts, getting the dynamics right, making sure you know the how to get the sound you want and making sure that sound sits right in the track then there is no reason that a band can't turn out an albums worth of recordings in a few days. You'll find that the pre production will also help the mixing process to be a lot smoother too as the sounds should already be sitting together. So you should hopefully be able to produce a great product that has that extra something without overspending your budget.

Nick getting warmed up at Livingston studios.

Kev.

Location location location.

2011-02-23T13:13:00.001Z

Hello all,

For reasons I won't go into i've just been travelling around Norway for the last 14 days from the north to the south around the coast. Pretty spectacular in places - massive open spaces and enough snow to last me a lifetime. I managed to clock up quite a few miles and have lived in about seven different hotels, which is always fun (?!?!).

As I didn't want to fall behind I brought with me a little mobile PT LE rig so that I could do some editing and arranging at night for several projects i'm working on - primarily for The Fierce & The Dead album (which is nearing completion btw). Invariably when i'm working on a production I tend to immerse myself in it and during the day find my head turning over ideas that I can try out when I get to my rig. Normally i'm rushing about in good old hectic London town but here i've been driving through mountain ranges and crossing fjords on ferries and I've discovered that the landscape and the pace of life here in Norway is having a profound effect on the music i'm working on. This in turn has made me realise how much the environment in London has affected my work in the past, and how much the location in general can change the direction of a project.

It's something that I think a lot of people talk about but very few explore fully. We all know several different ways to record various instruments but how often do we take into account the location. I'm not suggesting that you should jump on a plane and blow all your money travelling to far off exotic lands to get the right vibe for the shaker track, but I do think that there is a lot to be gained from giving as much thought to the where as you do the how. I understand that a lot of people record utilising the home recording technology available these days out of necessity, budgets are virtually non existant whether signed or not and as much as we'd like to spend three months at Air using grade A equipment and instruments sometimes all we have is a laptop, a no name acoustic guitar and a couple of cheap mics. Now consider this, I'm sure where ever you live you will have several locations nearby that would add, if not sonic character, then at least a different slant to your performance. Churches, halls, basements, factories, attics, sheds, hell - even a field may add something beneficial to your recording, put you in a different headspace and hopefully create a unique piece of work. Permission to work in these places isn't always as difficult to get as you might think.

This applies just as much to mixing, creative editing and arranging as it does to recording. If you can't mix at a purpose built studio and you have enough knowledge about acoustics then don't feel locked into working in the bedroom/living room/garage/alcove under the stairs. Setting up your equipment elsewhere can also give a focus to your project as it breaks you out of habits formed from familiarity. Even a different view from a window can be enough to get your creative mojo on.

I have a group of musician friends who used to hire a cottage in Wales for a week, rig up the rooms and spend all week living together and recording whilst being able to wander off into the wilderness whenever they wanted to. The flip side of that comes from an interview I remember reading with Liam Howlett from The Prodigy. In this article he commented that whilst recording one of their albums he had relocated to the idyllic countryside but discovered that the music they were trying to create was at odds with the environment. They returned to the more socially and visually aggresive city, where the music fed from that surrounding. So you see, it's not just about sitting in a field making daisy chains, it could be that you need to place yourself somewhere more uncomfortable to achieve the neccesary results.

The next time you are embarking on a project I hope that you will now consider some of the more esoteric options available to you rather than just heading for the back bedroom again!

A fjord in Norway, a few days ago.

Till next time,

Kev.

Silvery's New Video

2011-02-02T16:19:00.001Z

Didn't realise that they had put this up till just now. Here is the video for Silvery's new single 'Two Halves Of The Same Boy'. For those who don't know the connection - I recorded and mixed the album. And very lovely it turned out too. This track has been playlisted by 6 Music as well so expect to hear it around. Enjoy the video!

Silvery - 'Two Halves Of The Same Boy'

Just in case you're interested

2011-02-01T19:20:00.001Z

Here's a few more pictures from The Fierce & The Dead tracking sessions.

Kev

Matt

Stuart

Matt again

How hard can it be????

2011-01-31T13:42:00.001Z

Seriously.

How hard can it be to find someone who can play a recorder to a reasonable level?? Jessica Grace and myself have been searching for months for someone to track a recorder part for one of her songs. We have heard of someone through a couple of friends but can't quite pin him down yet. Any ideas anyone??

Looks like I may be doing some more mixing for The Fierce & The Dead this week too. Hurrah!

And in sad news, another irreplaceable talent has left us. John Barry R.I.P. So many iconic pieces of music from one man.

Kev.

State of play

2011-01-31T00:46:00.001Z

Hello all,

In general news i've been keeping myself busy by moving house, recording overdubs for Jess Grace's album, mixing tracks for The Duke Spirit, mastering tracks for The What?, recording madness with Matt Stevens, playing gigs and tweaking mixes with The Murder Barn and finally getting a new track released for The Fierce & The Dead (the instrumental band I play in). That track is called 'Flint' and you can hear it on Matt Steven's podcast series 'Sunday Free Noodle'. It's taken from our forthcoming album which is in the final tweaking stages so not too long now. Here's a picture from the tracking sessions for the album.

Oh, my car died and I had to get a new one. I've ended up with an estate car which makes me feel terribly grown up. I've also just done a complete redesign on my site kevinfeazey.com. CSS is fun, but occasionally you hit a snag. Unordered lists in multiple vertical columns anyone??

All good fun,

Kev.

The Murder Barn

2010-12-06T14:28:00.001Z

Hello all,

As i'm sure a lot of you are aware i've been playing bass with The Fierce & The Dead, alongside Matt Stevens and Stuart Marshall. And i'm sure a lot of you are aware that our debut album is in the works. It's been a real slog with this album - not because of the music but because of 'incidents' that have delayed the work. When the album is out I might tell the story in full but so far one, all or some of us have faced (and dealt/ are dealing with) being homeless, having babies, a best friend dying suddenly, severe mental illness (not ours), unemployment, slipped discs, various other severe illnesses and a laptop blowing up. To say it's been a bit out of control is an understatement.

Things seem on a more even keel now so it looks like the album will be released early next year. Thanks to everyone who has kept harassing us for updates! It helps, it honestly does. Nice to know that people are sticking with us. Oh, and it sounds fricking awesome.

Some of you may be unaware that i'm also the bass player in a 6 piece band called The Murder Barn (website on it's way, only a facebook page at the moment). I recorded the album for them and became good friends so when they ended up a bass player short I was asked to step in. It's been a very enjoyable experience and continues to be so. The album should be released shortly and gigs have been booked. Exciting times. We're playing at the Bull & Gate in Kentish Town this coming Saturday (December 11th 2010) and it's the first time i've been on stage for a loooooong time. I'll be fine though right? If you want to know what you'd be getting involved in then have a listen here or on the player below.

Stone Cold Heart by The Murder Barn

I have to say that i'm really enjoying being a musician again. Whilst I love the process of making records and getting to be involved in the creative process of other peoples projects you really can't beat the feeling of playing in a good band with good people.

Hope some of you can make it to the gig. I'll be the one in a cheap suit with a massive beard.

I'm also quite chuffed to be mixing a few live tracks for The Duke Spirit in the next few weeks. Lovely people and they've got some cracking new tracks. I'll let you know when there's something to hear.

Kev.

Been a looooong time.

2010-11-12T15:50:00.001Z

Hey all, been too long I know.

I'm getting it together again so more ramblings to come soon. New website soon too. How exciting.
Here's a picture of a job I did with Darius to tide you over. My life gets weirder and weirder.

From the pen of
Kevin James Feazey.

Filler

2010-03-19T23:41:00.001Z

Hello all,

I was hoping to get part 2 of 'The making of The Fierce & The Dead' up on the blog tonight (you can still read part 1 here) but as always other stuff came up so I thought i'd just fill you in on what has been happening at my end. If you don't know what i'm talking about then go have a look here.

A couple of weeks ago I found myself at The Royal Festival Hall on Londons Southbank recording a concert being performed by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. They were playing music composed by Azerbaijani composers, of which there are many. It was an evening organised and paid for by some hyper rich Azerbaijani fellow who was doing this to promote his countrys culture. I thought most of these guys blew it all on hookers and blow, but I guess I was wrong. I have to say, far from it being a vanity project the quality of the compositions was excellent and there are far more respected composers from there than I ever knew about. I recommend checking out Gara Garayev. Bloody good stuff. Here's a little clip of what went on.

Oh and i've just started up my own youtube channel so go subscribe and you'll get to see some of the exciting things I get to do. And share my pain with some of the less exciting things I get to do. Have a look here.

Also i've found a really nice forest near my home in South London. It's kinda cool in a huge adventure playground way. I miss the countryside sometimes.

And finally - don't lose your iPhone as they are bloody pain to replace. That's this weeks top tip.

Ta ra,

Kev.

The making of The Fierce And The Dead: The Recording.

2010-03-08T13:08:00.001Z

Hello all,

I've been getting quite a few requests by the various species of geeks out there asking how The Fierce & The Dead e.p. was recorded. Well i'm not one for secrets so i'll tell all. By the way - if you don't know what The Fierce & The Dead is, it's a new band project i'm involved in along with Matt Stevens and Stuart Marshall. You can see our website at www.fierceandthedead.com.

So i'll start with where it was recorded. It was in the live room of Pinna Studios in an evening session last November (2009). Pinna Studios was the room based at the Fortress studio complex in Old Street, London and I ran it as a commercial facility for 4 years with the one the only Sonny. We moved out of there in December and TFATD was one of the last band projects we did there. The room was always strangely great sounding considering that it had fairly low ceilings and was a bit of a box. We never questioned it though as we adhered to my Audio Engineer Rule#2 - If it isn't broken don't try to fix it. It's something that many people fall foul of. Rather than listening first and then deciding what to do, they fall in comfortable habits or just follow what someone else in a book/magazine/website has told them they should do. My Audio Engineering Rule#1 is - Listen!!! If you want to hear more of that particular rooms sound then you should get Polar Bears new album Peepers, which was recorded live in the room. Viva la spill!!

Anyways, I digress.

So we had Stuart with his back facing a corner and the kit facing the opposite corner off the room. Baffles behind him and to his left and right, but not closed in. They were to focus the sound going forward from the kit and elimante reflections from the corner and the window to his left. The kit was our standard house kit - a 4 piece Pearl Export, with Stuarts patented cheap shitty no name snare that sounds like a biscuit tin in the room but sounds great through a mic. Cymbal wise he only ever uses one crash and a ride. Simplicity breeds invention in his case I think. The kit was miked in fairly standard minimal set up - nothing too fancy. Can't remember all the mics but there would have been a Sennheiser E602 on the kick front, a Shure Beta 57 on the snare, and probably straight 57s or some cheap Superlux mics on the toms. Can't be sure on that as it was a while ago. Overheads were SE Electronics SE1s. There was a 57 on the hi hats and a trashy £20 Shure mic i've had for years on the ride. I think we had a vintage RCA ribbon mic up as a front of kit mic about 4 or 5 feet away. So a nice cheap 'n' nasty set up.

The bass was a 70's Fender Precision borrowed from Mr. Dan Wilson going through an old Torque amp that belongs to Sonny. That was close miked with a Beyer Dynamic Opus I think. We also took a di from the bass as well. The amp was set up just behind the baffle to Stuarts left.

Matt was playing his Mexican Fender Tele through the Line 6 DL4 delay and then into a Fender Princeton set on clean. We also took a di post delay from his guitar. The reason for taking it post delay was that we agreed his use of delay would be part of his performance and so shouldn't be edited in the mix. Miked the amp with a straight 57. That amp was set up on a chair facing 90 degrees to the drums just behind the baffles to Stuarts right.

We decided to not to use headphones and set the amp volumes in the room for our needs and then dealt with the recording levels afterwards. It was all going straight into our Soundcraft Ghost desk, with a bit of eq here. I allowed the kick and snare channels to drive the desk a little as well. I have to say that for a lo/mid range desk the Soundcraft is a great workhorse. Clean preamps, usable eq, what more do you want! It's better than a Mackie that's for sure!

No compression was used at the record stage, which is something I tend to do most of the time. I find that unless you are very familiar with a track then compression can take away some of the natural dynamics if not set correctly. So, especially in the case TFATD, I thought it would be better to leave it off.

And all of that came out of the Ghost into Apogee convertors and then into our Pro Tools HD2 rig. Lovely.

So that's the recording side of things. If you're still interested i'll write next week about the mixing.

Ta ra,

Kev.

The Fierce & The Dead - Part 1.

2010-03-02T01:38:00.001Z

Hello all.

So my new project The Fierce & The Dead has finally released our first track. And when I say track I mean it's 18 minutes long. What the hell eh. If you'd like to hear what Matt Stevens, Stuart Marshall and myself get up to when we think no one is looking then you can listen, download and buy here. The site is almost finished, but most of the important stuff is up so you can have a look at that here.

We will hopefully be going into the studio in about a months time to start recording tracks for an album which should be out mid summer if all goes well. Some gigs are getting lined up to so exciting times are ahead.

Till next time,

Kev.

People power

2009-10-22T00:49:00.001+01:00

A bit off topic today, but I wanted to bring this to the attention of those who didn't know and those who snub social networks as gimmicks.

My faith in humanity has been restored a little after the two real world situations that Twitter users affected last week. I'm not going to go over what happened as it's now been told a million times but you can find out about the Trafigura incident here and the Jan Moir talking shite incident here.

Has Twitter finally found it's niche as a open forum to express opinions en masse? The Trafigura story broke and was finished with in a matter of hours. In the old days there would have been a petition and maybe a demonstration or the like, which would have taken days, weeks or even months to organise and execute. Now the same effect can be achieved within a day. Love it.

I also love the fact that people with power seem to take the internet seriously, and in some cases are even intimidated by it. Not exactly why that is yet, but it could be because the net is such an open playing field. Once a dirty secret is laid out in a secluded corner of the net it can spread within hours to be a global talking point and those involved are often forced to respond. This is a powerful tool, and unbelievably it's still in it's infancy. It's inspiring and scary all at the same time.

In other news, I somehow was talked into running the live sound for an awards show at Alexandra Palace. It was for inventors and whilst I had no idea what most of the things did, the Korean guy who won invention of the year had a pretty amazing product. It's a synthetic bonelike material that can be used to hold breaks together. The idea being that if you break your arm you can be out of hospital in a couple of hours and have no need for a plaster cast. That's got to be worth an award at least!

See you soon,

Kev.

New Day Rising

2009-10-10T12:10:00.001+01:00

It's quite possible to create a good recording anywhere with the equipment available these days but the one point that people seem to miss out is that you have to have the experience to be able to get the most out of it. For example - Waves have just released a series of 'Signature' plug-ins from such luminaries as Tony Maserati and Eddie Kramer. You can have a look at them here. Now what each these units actually are is a group of various plug-ins (compression, eq, stereo imaging, FX, etc) controlled by one GUI. Each of these units settings have been designed by the aforementioned 'Signature' artist, the idea being that you can now EQ your kick drum in the same way Eddie Kramer would.

I haven't tried these plug-ins yet and am actually looking forward to seeing what they do, but I do do have one huge problem with them - the way they are being marketed! I'm sure they sound great and do a good job, but they will not sound great on everything. On some things they will be bang on and exactly what you're looking for, and on other things they may be not so great or even make things worse. There's nothing wrong with that, as the same can be said for almost every bit of kit out there, from Neve to Behringer. Ok maybe not Behringer but you get my point.

Waves have chosen to market this as if it's the same thing as having Eddie Kramer come round to your house and mix it for you, and I think that's incredibly misleading. Most professionals and knowledgeable amateurs will know the score and if they choose to purchase, they will do for the right reasons - because they like what they do. However I think there will be a lot of people without the experience buying these thinking they will be the magic wand they've been looking for. If you put to much bass on something it doesn't matter that Eddie Kramer or Tony Maserati designed the plug-in, it'll still be too bassy! The same goes for too much compression, over (or under) use of effects, bad stereo imaging - the list goes on.

The greatest example of this technological quicksand is what i call 'The Beatles Fallacy'. Ever since the advent of the Tascam Portastudio, salesman and the misguided have been keen to point out that the home recording set up du jour is technically better than what The Beatles had available to them. I couldn't agree more.

But!!!!!

A) You're not The Beatles.
B) You're not in Abbey Road.
C) You don't have George Martin around.
D) You don't have have some of the most inventive engineers of their time helping out.

I could go on.

There was a interview I read once that I swear was with Brian May though my memery of it is a little cloudy. Anyway, whoever it was supported Jimi Hendrix one night, and for one reason or another ended up using Jimi's guitar rig. They said that all it just continously produced feed back and a sounded bloody awful, yet when Jimi got up and played through exactly the same set up it sounded like Jimi Hendrix! The point being that having the same kit doesn't somehow allow you to absorb someone elses talent or instincts.

So in conclusion, be careful - don't believe the hype! Buy something because you've tried it and you like what it can do, not what you hope it can do!!!

Kev.

Brave New World?

2009-09-29T22:17:00.000+01:00

How are we all? Everyone ok? Good.

I'm the proud owner of an iPhone which has become an intrinsic part of my life in the last few months. Indeed, I'm actually writing this blog on it! Amazing bits of kit. A couple of weeks ago I downloaded the Spotify app for the iPhone and also signed up for a premium account with them. I'm sure you all know about Spotify and if you don't then you should.

Anyways, the app only works if you have a premium account, which costs about £10 a month, and as I'm the adventurous type I thought I'd give it a go. The main feature for me is it's ability to cache up to about 3000 songs for a month, meaning that you can have your playlists available off line if you need it (on the underground, on a plane, up a mountain, etc, etc). For me that is definitely worth £10 a month and more importantly Spotify itself may offer a glimpse of the music industries future. Sure it's not perfect and I know there's some controversy about artist payments but as a starting point it is definitely worth taking seriously.

The thing about it that compelled me to write this blog is the customer review section for the app on iTunes. There are plenty of people singing it's praises but there seems to be just as many who are complaining about the 'rip off' pricing of Spotifys premium account without which the app will not work. The ferocity and venom that some of these reviews have really shocked me.

It seems to be indicating that there are a lot of people out there who believe that they deserve this service for free. Not would like it for free, but rather expect it for free. Are these people a minority? Has the the wonderful inclusive and liberal nature of Web 2.0 backfired and created a mindset where music as a commodity is worth less than ever?

I know this cultural battle is far from over but I do belive that sides are becoming more clear cut than before. I understand the pirate reasoning for doing what they do, but I do not condone it. On the flip side to that I think the mainstream industry has been desperately hanging onto the past when they should be the innovators. Maybe it's too late to turn this round or maybe it's just a cultural shift that will balance out in the end. I don't know what the outcome will be or most importantly what this means for the musicians who are valiantly sending their work into the ether in the hope of some reward, but I do know that when the smoke clears it will definitely be a very different world.

Keep on keeping on.

2009-09-17T19:00:00.000+01:00

Hello world,

How are we today?
I've been trucking away in the studio with quite a selection of jobs this last week and a bit. We've had in Darling Bones, Nimmo And The Gauntlets, Jessica Grace and Alex Vald (a.k.a. Lextrical). I've also been getting the scissors out for a radio edit of Wild Palms forthcoming single. The engineering legend that is Tom Morris took the reins for a quick and dirty session with the band Deep Shit (yes that's really their name), and Pinna is currently accomodating producer/engineering team Weller Hill tracking drums for a band whose name I don't know.
Add to that a couple of voice over sessions and a bit of avant garde electronic noise sculpture for Dan Wilsons latest film project and there you have it.
Currently I'm enjoying a couple of rare days off, but no rest for the wicked as you can expect to see a new Pinna website very very soon. How exciting!
Also today I made a stand for common decency. Some 'youngsters' on the bus sitting behind me kept playing bad hip hop from their phone as loud as they could. So annoying. So I played Frank Sinatra on my phone as loud as I could. They stopped their music and I won a small, petty victory. Still tasted sweet though.

Till next time,

Kev.

From the pen of
Kevin James Feazey.

Back in the saddle

2009-09-05T19:10:00.001+01:00

Hey all,

Today I spent the afternoon working on a song for a new band project I've started up. I've been threatening to do this for years, and never quite had enough time. Or at least that was my excuse. Then about two months ago I started getting the itch real bad. Apart from a few bits of session work I haven't played in a full band since 2005 (I think). I've had a few attempts at writing some songs but nothing ever clicked, everything seemed a bit weak.
So today I got together with my friend Steve and we bashed out the structure for a new song and I can't believe how much I enjoyed it! As an engineer/producer I've worked with many different artists and many different genres and always thought that I was satisfying my creative needs but I realise now that I was kidding myself. I became an engineer through being a musician not the other way round and today I started to see all the creative possibilities that my studio has to offer. Even though I use this equipment every day it was only when I started thinking about the kit relative to my own music that I regained a lot of my enthusiasm for recording that i didn't even realise that I'd lost!
So I guess todays He Man morality lesson is to make sure you keep doing your own thing as well as your other work. Here's a picture of Steve to prove it all happened.

Ta ra then,

Kev.

Posted from the future.

Uuuuughhhh.

2009-09-01T22:02:00.002+01:00

Today I was ill And not in the Beastie Boys sense of the word. Think i had eaten something dodgy. Haven't been ill for quite some time and it's not something I see myself picking up as a hobby. Anyway, feeling much better now so all good.
Been looking at the new Z Vex pedals, especially the Mastotron. If Zachary's demo video is anything to go by then this could be the pedal of my dreams. I'm so fed up off guitarists turning up at the studio with Boss Metalzones or Digitech Grunge pedals. Or even worse the dreaded multi-fx board!!! I'm sure all those products have their place it's just that I've never found it. Why would you want to sound like an angry wasp? Thank god for people like Mr. Vex and also Mr. Matthews over at Electro Harmonix who are still producing pedals that are interesting and don't take their selves too seriously. Ok, rant over.
Tomorrow I've managed to get a car for the day and am going to get the hell out of the city. The plan is to head for the sea and go from there. Feels like years since I was out of London. Am really looking forward to it as I haven't had an adventure in quite some time.
I only get one day away as Thursday is Silvery mixing day!!! Something I genuinely look forward to. The new album has a few more twists and turns than the last one. And flutes. Lots of flutes.
Oh and today I saw the smallest patio in the world.

Till next time,
Kev.

Posted from the future.

It's official!

2009-08-29T00:32:00.000+01:00

That's right - I am officially the worst blogger in the world. I try to write something every week but it just ain't happening. So new tactic, I'll just write whenever I feel like it. Sometimes essays and sometimes mindless ramblings. Sound good? Ok.

Lots of love,

Kev.
Posted from the future.

Testing testing

2009-07-19T01:01:00.001+01:00

Just testing to see if I can blog from my iPhone.

-- Post From My iPhone

How to get your sound

2009-06-30T11:57:00.002+01:00

Hello one and all. Sorry for being a bit late with this, I am trying!

This week I’d like to talk a little about a subject that is often overlooked and ignored by musicians (and often engineers) in the recording process and leads to a lot of wasted time in the mix and worse, a lot of unnecessary compromises. I’m referring to the art of knowing what you sound like. Before any session I talk to the band I’ll be working with and discuss what direction and overall sound they want to aim for. Invariably they will have a strong, definite vision of who they would like to sound like, but when they actually start loading the kit in it becomes obvious that they have no idea how to achieve that goal. The guitarist will want to sound like Hetfield but will only have a Strat and a Fender Princeton amp, and the keyboard player will want to sound like he’s playing a Steinway with a £30 Casio.

I believe that a lot of this comes from a lack of understanding of what The Studio is for. Yes, most studios will have an array of preamps, equalisers, compressors and the like with which you can beat your particular sound waves until they submit to your will, but wouldn’t it be better to use said tools to enhance your sound rather than mangle it into something it didn’t want to be? I’m starting the movement now - getting your sound at source is the new black!!!

For now I’m just going to be talking about electric instruments, as I think setting up acoustic instruments for your individual needs is something to be talked about separately another day.

The problem that I see most is when a musician wants a sound he’s heard produced by a hugely expensive pro rig. Invariably the penniless musician will only have the instruments and amps that he can afford, and usually these are nothing like what is required to get the aforementioned ‘expensive’ sound. What I propose is that you (the musician) should give in to fate, accept the equipment you have and it’s limitations and use it to your advantage. Sure you may never sound like The Edge or Jack White, but you will hopefully start to carve out something that sounds like you and nobody else!

The most important thing here is to not get frustrated. Frustration will lead to gear lust which will lead to spending money on kit you can’t afford, debts, jobs delivering pizza, and broken marriages, all to chase a sound that belongs to someone else. What you need to do is to sit down with the equipment you have and learn how to use it! I cannot stress this enough. Learn the sounds that your rig is capable of.
Guitarists - go through each pick up setting on your guitar. Roll the tone pot back and then up again. Roll the volume pot back and then up again. Try different combinations and take note what effect each change of setting has. Set the equaliser on your amp to zero and listen to what each knob does as you turn it up. Then try different combinations of eq, more bass less treble, more treble less bass. Crank the gain up, see how distorted a signal you can get from the amp. Is there a sweet spot for the gain? Listen loud, and (very important) listen quietly. What sounds good loud might sounds terrible quiet and vice versa.
You are now learning what your rig can do, what it is capable of. Forget what anyone else sounds like; just keep experimenting until you get something that you like. Certain combinations of settings will sound better to you than others and this will be the beginnings of your very own sound produced by your very own rig.
Keyboard players – learn what every setting on your keyboard does. Read the damn manual!!! Synthesisers often have hundreds of settings and you are going to have to learn them all. Sorry. What do the filters do? What do the oscillators do? Can you set the portamento rate? Can you assign settings to the mod wheel? Can you turn effects on and off quickly? If you are using a sampling keyboard do you know how assign and edit new samples? Most will have a display with menu functions, so learn what is buried within each sub menu of this. What does the sine wave sound like? The square wave? The sawtooth?

So now you should have a pretty good idea of what you can do with your rig, and what you sound like playing through it. Hopefully you will also have found a unique combination of settings that you feel good about. This, my friend, is what you sound like!
And as you now have an expert knowledge of what each component of your equipment does tweaking it should be a breeze. Does your guitar amp sound a bit dull in a particular room? You should know whether it’s the treble or the presence knob that needs turning up right? Are your synths oscillators slightly out of tune with the track? That’s ok because you know how to alter the tuning right?

All of this hard work will make your life so much easier both in the studio and live. You will be able to adapt your unique sound quickly and easily to fit in with other instruments and to be heard in a mix without having to be kicked through with a steel toe capped boot. And now all of the dark arts of the studio can be used to make you sound as good as you possibly can. No longer will microphones be placed with damage limitation in mind, they will now capture every facet of your dynamic performance! Equalisers will be used to sweeten rather than chop huge chunks of offending frequencies out. And compressors will help you to bounce along in the mix instead of keeping you in your place with a sledge hammer. Happy days and good times for all!

Kev.

Getting it together

2009-06-18T11:55:00.001+01:00

Hello world!

Haven't been on here for a while,which is mainly due to my inability to organise my life properly. But all that is in the past now, and I have a new system worked out that will help me to blog more regularly. I call it a 'Calendar'. That's right folks i've invented the 'Calendar'. Once i've ironed out the bugs I might let other people have a go on it.

So from now on you should expect to see a new blog every week on either Wednesday or Thursday. If I slack off please feel free to shout at me. I highly reccommend subscribing via the RSS feed so that you don't miss out on my spectacular ramblings. And if you want to follow me on Twitter you can do so here. And there's more!!! Have you often said to yourself, "I wish I could actually see what Kev gets up to, ideally in 12 second bursts"? Well fret no more! Get your self over to my 12seconds channel and your wish will be granted! For those of you who don't know what 12seconds is, just go there and have a look as it sounds really dumb when you try to describe it.

So that's enough self promotion for now I think.

In other news i've been working with Lydia Lunch again. Her new band is now officially called Big Sexy Noise and you can get hold of the first e.p. here. It's only available on vinyl but i'm guessing when the full album is released there will be other formats. I'll let you know when it's all done and dusted, we're mixing it in July so should be out fairly soon after one would hope.

Polar Bear have been back in to finish of the new album sessions. You should check out my amigo Sonny's blog for more on that as it was his gig and I was just helping out. Bloody good stuff though, it was a joy to listen to. Not sure when it's going to be out, but keep you eyes open people!

Talking of which we managed to catch Acoustic Ladyland (whos share two members with Polar Bear) live at the Southbank centre last Sunday. They too have a album coming out and from the new songs I heard in the live set I would say that it will be well worth taking a punt on it!

And on that note, good bye!

Testing mobile updates.

2009-04-22T13:32:00.000+01:00

1, 2. 1, 2.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Ovi Mail: Get mail on your mobile or the web
http://mail.ovi.com

Testing twitter feed.

2009-04-22T12:34:00.001+01:00

Is this thing on?

Multimedia message

2009-04-22T09:23:00.000+01:00

Hello. This is a quick test to see if i can post from my mobile. It's like living in the future this!

Snow Fun!!

2009-02-06T12:43:00.001Z

What a crazy week! I've had three sessions canceled because of the damn snow. They couldn't get to the studio which you can't blame them for as the transport system in and around London shuts down at the sight of the first flake. It's just mad to think that the UK can't handle some snow. I know we don't get much but it really shouldn't be this much of a shock when it happens.

Anyway, rant over. This week I should have been recording rhythm tracks for Massimo and doing some more editing on Rachels vocals for Rory Forsyth but alas that wasn't to be. I did manage to finish the mixes for Lydia Lunch which was really enjoyable. Lydia had returned to Barcelona so it was just the other guys (James, Terry and Ian from Gallon Drunk who are acting as her backing band) and me. Nice and raw, and a great lesson in resisting the temptation to overmix.

Finished off the vocals for Steve from datapuddles solo outing. Really good stuff. Very cool bluegrass track as well which was good fun.

Last weekend I had the mighty Silvery back in tracking three more songs. A bit more straight pop this time, well as straight pop as these guys get!! They should be huge by now so go check them out and buy the album . I'm not on points so don't think i'm trying to hard sell it:)

Right, that's it from me today. Short and sweet. I'll be back with more when the snow stops and the clients can get in:)

Where the hell are they?!?!?

2009-01-26T23:35:00.001Z

This is one for all you studio owners out there. Where do you find your customers? This is something i've been mulling over the past few days. When Sonny and me set up Pinna we went the traditional route of website, print ads, web ads and flyers. The print ads had absolutely no impact at all, and neither did the web ads. None. Nada. Zilch. The website was getting some hits from Google but it was always low double figures at most.
Then we started to think - where is our customer base? We are not a shop front where people casually wonder past and pop in for quick bit of recording time. People do not browse through a music magazine and suddenly decide to record because of an advert. Putting an ad in a music tech magazine just advertises your services to other studios and engineers. We do not sell a particular item. We sell a niche service.
So I cast my mind back to my days as a musician and how we used to find studios then. The internet wasn't as big a part of peoples live as it is now so that didn't have as much relevance. We used the Yellow pages. So Pinna signed up with Yell.com and sure enough enquiries started to come in. The other way we used to look for studios to record in was simple word of mouth. Now that's not quite as easy in a town like London, there are so many scenes going on and so many musicians it's hard keep track of. How to put the word out then? Well like I said we placed fliers all over Camden, Denmark Street, Central London and loads of venues and rehearsal rooms. We had a few hits from this but again not loads.
So how to contact a hugely disparate demographic? The internet is the obvious answer hence a lot of our time is spent optimizing our website, twittering and rambling on our blogs. This is pretty good fun, but still - is it enough. Web 2.0 doesn't work if people aren't looking for you in the first place!
Pinna is now at a stage where word of mouth has kicked in and most of our clients are either regulars or we've been recommended to them by one of our regulars but we are still keen to kick things up a gear.
We want to make great records for great artists, and we want to let everyone know! So how to do it??????

Answers on a postcard.

Or just comment below:)

Cameras, Lunch and Puddles of Data.

2009-01-24T21:50:00.001Z

Out of the blue I ended up recording a session with the inimitable Lydia Lunch yesterday. Should have got some photos but as usual I completely forgot. Very cool session - Lydia and a three piece band all recorded live, 6 tracks in 6 hours including set up. This is why I like to record live, once you get everything rigged the band can do their thing. Quick and definitely more vibey. Should be mixing it next week.
Datapuddle were in last week for a couple of songwriting sessions which are always fun. Lots of improvisation and strange noises. Very nice. And I did remember to take some photos!
If you want to have a look then you can visit my new flickr page here. I'm trying to take as many pictures as I can these days so if you want to check in now and again please do.

No shows suck!

2009-01-11T20:54:00.001Z

I was booked for a session today in the studio and guess what? The client never showed up! I went in on a Sunday for nothing. Man that sucks. But on the upside it was booked through a third party who I can still invoice, so I still get paid. Nice. Just sucked that I wasted a day. Grrrrr.

New Year, New Website

2009-01-09T17:12:00.001Z

Well hello and Happy New Year to you all. Just a quick one today to let you know that my new website www.kevinfeazey.com is up and running. I'll be adding more bells and whistles in the coming weeks. Enjoy!