Summer Solstice

It’s June 21st, the summer solstice. It’s so uncharacteristically hot in the Bay Area that I have shut down all my gear and am sequestered in my shady living room with an iced coffee.

My current studio lacks proper HVAC and gets unbearably hot on these rare scorchers. But that is all about to change! Permits are on the horizon, which means I’ll break ground on building my mastering studio by the end of the summer. The construction industry is notoriously complicated and costly around here, and it’s taken me nearly two years to get to this point. I am absolutely dreading the process of tearing down, packing up, and moving my studio to my temporary digs (which I’m thrilled to share with vinyl cutting engineer Anne Marie Suenram and film and audio preservationist Peter Conheim), only to have to do it in reverse in less than a year. But, when it’s done, it’s going to be beautiful, it’s going to sound amazing, it’s going to have proper HVAC, and it’s going to be mine all mine. I will do my best to document the process on my Instagram.

I love my job. Love it! And one of my favorite things about being a mastering and restoration engineer is the sheer breadth of recordings and sounds and media types that come through my studio. In addition to digitizing open reel tapes and cassettes for the Arhoolie Foundation, for the 924 Gilman archives, and for radio producers the Kitchen Sisters, I’ve gotten to master so much amazing music lately. A few choice projects:

Lalin St. Juste’s Vertulie is a haunting sonic exploration of identity and memory, recorded and mixed at Women’s Audio Mission and mastered by me.

Lollise’s Unborn bridges Afro-Futurism and synth-pop and will for sure get you on your feet. Mixed by Morgan Greenstreet and mastered by me. I highly recommend you all watch her video for The Booty.

French double bassist and composer Florent Ghys released two albums of post-minimalist electro-chamber music (I really don’t know how else to describe it!) - Ritournelle and Mosaïques. Check out this gorgeous video for Lisboa.

The handsome and talented Davey Harris released a video for So Predictable and dropped a catchy single - Penguin Dance - in support of penguin conservation efforts. That song should really be a TikTok viral dance sensation.

Brooklyn-based indie pop singer songwriter Dru Cutler’s luscious single Vibrate also got the video treatment.

Nothing gives me greater joy than developing a long and fruitful working relationship with musicians. I first mastered Mylo Choy Sutton’s music back in 2017, and it was a total pleasure to work on their new music Summer Project (Part 1), which was released in June. This one was produced and recorded by Mylo and another longtime friend and colleague, Matt Werden, who also mixed it.

I have to wrap this up and get ready for a board meeting. After serving as President of the San Francisco Chapter of the Recording Academy for the past two years, I’m gratefully taking a step back and will continue to serve in the role of Governor. Lots of work to be done! Happy Summer, y’all!

And then it was April...

Just know that the less frequently I manage to update this, the busier I am in the studio. So with that, I’ll get to it.

In early April, I went to the GRAMMYs in Las Vegas, representing the San Francisco chapter of the Recording Academy as President. After nearly two years with minimal socializing and hardly any live music, this was whiplash. Highlights: Billy Porter bringing the room to tears at the Musicares tribute to Joni Mitchell. Meeting my fellow chapter Presidents. A blinking, rotating, edible GRAMMY dessert. The incredible uplifting vibes at the Black Music Collective celebration. Cocktails with the Archeophone folks, who were nominated in Best Historical and Best Album Notes categories. I didn’t gamble a single dollar, wore comfortable heels, hugged so many colleagues, and soaked in all the joy and all the music.

I’ve been busy with mastering & preservation projects galore! A few highlights: Pachyman dropped a new 7” with two songs mastered by me. If you have not seen this man on tour yet, get thee to a venue!

The fine folks at Aloha Got Soul have reissued Kalapana’s self-titled debut on vinyl for the first time since it was released in 1975. This is luscious music, featuring Mackey Feary (whose album was one of my favorites from last year). Don’t miss their cover of Hall & Oates “When The Morning Comes.”

I have a soft spot for cassettes, and working on the reissue of Cabaret du Ciel’s Raintears - a project from Andrea Desidera and Gian Luigi Morosin - was challenging and musically mind-melting.

During my college DJ days, I would have absolutely flipped out knowing future me would remaster Coil’s The New Backwards with never before heard bonus tracks for Infinite Fog.

You all know Awesome Tapes From Africa and I go way back. (I’ve mastered everything they’ve released!) Here’s release #029, Papé Nziengui’s Kadi Yombo, stunningly complex and intricate Tsogho music from Gabon.

During the pandemic, Art Schop revisited songs he’d recorded for Starguide (also mastered by me), and recorded this gorgeous, simple acoustic album, Out In Space.

Golden Age Ensembled dropped Feed The Feed in December, a wild sonic ride mixed by Robert Kirby and mastered by me.

Last summer, while still in the fog of the pandemic, I restored and remastered a collection of demos and studio recordings by an artist whose songs pierced my soul. Norma Tanega was a brilliant, pointed, and delicate songwriter, a rip roaring guitar player, a wit, a poet, an artist. This collection, I’m the Sky: Studio and Demo Recordings, 1964–1971 comes out on Mexican Summer in May, and I’m so honored I got to spend so much time listening to her music during the remastering process.

Her song “Maggie My Dog” hits even harder, because I lost my beloved dog Eddie to canine lymphoma last week. He was my best bud in the studio, quiet, chill, never chewed stuff. He loved napping in the sun, walking around the neighborhood, snatching street food whenever he could scavenge it. He was a sweet little ding dong, and I miss him terribly.

In between mastering projects, I’ve been digitizing reels, cassettes and DATs for the Kitchen Sisters, whose collection has been acquired by the Library of Congress, for the Arhoolie Foundation, including some killer blues sets by Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb, and for 924 Gilman Street, including tracks that landed on this compilation, The Thing That Ate Floyd. I never stop appreciating the range of recordings that come through my studio.

Wrapping it up with a few pictures of Eddie, may he enjoy unlimited street shrimp on the other side of the rainbow bridge.

Almost September...

Autumn is my favorite season. I like cardigans and warm beverages, changing leaves, falling leaves, leaves that crunch under my feet. Even though I haven’t been in school in over a decade, I still love that back-to-school vibe. So, the teacher’s pet in me says it’s time for an update. On the mastering front:

We did the math, and it turns out I’ve been working with Ken Urban and his band Occurrence for over 8 years. Their most recent album I Have So Much Love To Give (produced by the band, mixed by Daniel Kluger) is smart, dark, weird, danceable, and so much more.

Matthew McNeal has a new album on the way, so for a preview of this hotness, check out the first two singles, “Texas Heat” and “The Spark.” These were recorded by Andre Black at Matte Black Sound and mixed by Ted Young.

I first heard of the Grassy Knoll when I played their records while DJ-ing at my college radio station. Many years later, I had the pleasure of revisiting and remastering Short Stories Redux.

I cannot get enough of multi-instrumentalist Pachyman’s The Return Of…, truly a joyous and genius record. For more on Pachy, check out this piece about his record on NPR.

I mastered all the music for Desert In, an astonishingly moving and rather racy eight episode opera mini-series, created by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Reid, playwright christopher oscar peña, and director James Darrah, commissioned by the Boston Lyric Opera. Desert In is streaming exclusively on operabox.tv.

Awesome Tapes is releasing two records this fall that came through my studio: Ephat Mujuru & the Spirit of the People’s delicate yet electrifying mbira record Mbavaira and Native Soul’s Teenage Dreams. Listen and read more about both on their Bandcamp pages.

Aloha Got Soul dropped some total knockouts this summer, Eddie Suzuki’s blissful High Tide, Arthur Lyman’s last recorded album, the dreamy Island Vibes, and a record that really hit my soul, Mackey Fearey Band’s 1978 self-titled LP. All three of these records are worth diving into for repeated listens.

I’ve always got a backlog of tapes to digitize, including some deep cuts from the Lookout! Records catalog and live recordings from the Freight & Salvage. My new custom-made 1/4” / 1/4-track / 1/2-track / full track mono head assembly is serving me well.

This is a little taste of what I’ve been working on. I’m always grateful to collaborate on records both new and old. In fact, I’d better get to work on this next one. Until next time…!