Saint Claire Studio News

Amber Rubarth with Jacquire King and company

2011-03-23T09:37:00.001-07:00

Amber Rubarth Session - Day 2
Originally uploaded by saintclaireflickr

The 2010 NewSong contest was full of incredibly talented and dedicated artists, so it was no surprise to us to learn that the winner was someone as phenomenal as Amber Rubarth. To understand what sort of music she's writing, you need only understand what sort of person she is. She's soft spoken with a great sense of humor and genuinely cares about the people around her. She's not self-centered, but still manages to focus on the things that we all need as individuals; love, companionship, understanding, empathy, healing... To sum it all up, Amber is a wonderful person to be around and the songs she writes are a direct reflection of her.

It was announced months ago that the winner of the contest would get to work with famed producer Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Norah Jones, Tom Waits, etc.). No one could have predicted that he would have been such a perfect match for the winner, though. Amber's simple songs were treated with a degree of integrity and honesty that we've rarely seen here at our studio.

Together, Jacquire and Amber spent the first two days demoing and tweaking her material, changing only a few words and slightly altering the structures to make them flow easier but keeping as much of the original content as possible. The third day brought some incredible musicians to begin the bulk of the actual recording. Adam Levy (Norah Jones) came in for guitar duty, Marco Giovino (Robert Plant) filled the roll of drummer, and Frank Swart (Patty Griffin) held down the bass. For a band assembled in the studio, they sounded as though they'd been playing the material together for years. Amber's voice melted into the arrangements and everything was easily paired down to around 16 tracks on the console. Watching them work was a real lesson in choosing quality over quantity and emotional response over precise playing. In the end, everyone was so jazzed about playing the material that they wound up cutting two songs more than what they had set out to do. The rough mixes already show what an organic, honest collection of songs this is going to be. Everything went so smoothly that they were able to wrap up a couple of days earlier than they'd planed.

The session was a constant atmosphere of relaxed pace, tea, flowers, and candles. It's always a blessing to us to be given the chance to work with such talented and delightfully kind individuals. All of us here at Saint Claire want to wish Amber the very best in what lies ahead and we know that her EP will be an early highlight in her career.

New Albums!

2011-03-09T08:37:00.000-08:00

A couple of albums that were done here came out this week, so we wanted to make sure and let everyone know! Natalia Zukerman's newest, produced by our dear friend Willy Porter, just hit the stands. Links to her iTunes and Amazon.com stores are right on her website's homepage, which you'll find here: http://nataliazukerman.com/ Also out this week is the new project from Peter Kiesewalter, Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestrata. B.R.O. was mixed here by Neil Dorfsman.

Click on either of their album covers to be taken to their respective amazon.com pages.

Check out the new music from these amazingly talented artists and stay tuned for more from Saint Claire!

Something New

2011-02-04T12:52:00.000-08:00

The nature of our business is such that we find ourselves involved in projects of wide and varied degrees of talent, budgets, skills, notoriety, and complexity. The people who come through the doors of our studio range from full bands that leave here and play the Late Show the following week to self-funded solo acts with nothing more than great aspirations to their credit. The most recent project to come through our doors, however, brought with it something new that we hope and expect to see more of in the not too distant future.

Zach McNees, a great up and coming engineer who has brought many projects to us over the years, called to check in towards the end of 2010 to talk about a potential recording he was in the early stages of coordinating. We spoke at length about the usual particulars (how many memebers in the band, what type of music, how long the gig would be, travel plans, rates, etc.) and he revealed that this self-funded project had something very unique going on in the way that it was being financed. The relatively unknown musician, Seth Bible, was gathering the money for his project through a campaign at http://www.kickstarter.com

We've known of Kickstarter.com for some time now and we were aware that there were people out there trying to get funds together for various projects, but this was the first time that our studio actually came into direct contact. The choice to turn talent into a professional endeavor is difficult for anyone, especially when the funding for it has to be generated by the people taking the chance. Like so many other independent artists, Seth and his wife Sarah reached the stage where a critical decision had to be made regarding the level of commitment there were going to make to music. This is where Kickstarter entered the picture for them. Immediately after making the decision to commit to a career in music, Seth launched a campaign to raise money to help make an album, started a blog to chronicle the progress of the project, and sent messages to everyone he knew to let them know what he and Sarah were trying to accomplish. A few short months later, they had exceeded their goal of $11,000 and were in the studio making the dream a reality.

For Saint Claire and for Zach, this project was especially exciting to work on because Seth's material is downright exceptional. He's got great lyrics, catchy tunes that are really well put together, and he hired excellent musicians to play for the recording; a perfect storm in the world of music. It would be remiss of me to gloss over the quality of Seth's talent and ability in the course of this story as that is much more important than their road to financing the project. In fact, I believe that it is because of Seth's music and personality that he was able to make the Kickstarter.com attempt a success. In a time when labels are shrinking, budgets are disappearing, and independent artists are finding it harder to find stability, what Seth and Sarah have accomplished to make their dream a reality heralds a truth that everyone in the music industry is clinging to; the world is still thirsty for good music and there are still ways to make it happen.

Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestrata

2010-11-18T09:31:00.001-08:00

IMG_1155b
Originally uploaded by saintclaireflickr

We love hosting any session with Neil Dorfsman. It's no secret that he's one of our favorite engineers to work with. Not only that, but we can always count on him to bring projects to us that are anything but predictable. This time was no different.

Neil was here in 2008 with Peter Kiesewalter to mix the last East Village Opera Company album, "Olde School". That album was nominated for a Grammy and got plenty of critical acclaim, but the large numbered EVOC crew was in need of a break at the end of their touring schedule. When they went into hiatus, Peter shifted his focus to working on a rock opera version of the classic Rodgers & Hammerstein work, "The Sound Of Music" and formed a new group called the Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestrata (or B.R.O. for short). As he told us, he never expected this project to gain momentum like it has. ...especially when he was served with a cease and desist order directly from the Rodgers and Hammerstein organization!

Initially, the one-off production was going to be a live show to be performed around the holidays. R & H have a vast and very astute team of watchdogs on the prowl for folks attempting to capitalize off the Sound Of Music material. When they found out about Peter's project, they took immediate action to have it shut down. Once Peter explained to them what he was doing with the arrangements, played them early versions of the songs, and told them what his intentions were, not only did R & H give him permission, but they fully endorsed his project! That endorsement marks the first time that they have ever allowed anyone to rework the original arrangements into a new musical arrangement. Once the tracking phase had been completed, Peter decided that the level of excitement around what B.R.O. was doing couldn't be wasted on a low-budget mix. That's when he called up Neil and the plan was hatched to come back to Saint Claire.

The guys came down in the midst of a stretch of perfect weather in late October and stayed with us for two weeks. Walking into the building to hear rocked-out versions of "Do-Re-Mi" and "The Hills Are Alive" made for interesting atmosphere for any given morning's first cup of coffee, but there was never a dull moment and the project wrapped up ahead of schedule. We had a blast hanging with Neil and Peter while they were here and can't wait to see the final product when it rolls out in February of 2011. Be sure to watch for it! It's epic.

Saint Claire teams with NewSong

2010-09-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

We're proud to announce that Saint Claire has teamed up with the fine people who run the Mountain Stage Newsong Contest. This year's winner will accompany Grammy-winning producer/engineer Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Tom Waits, Norah Jones, etc.) to our studio to record an EP. They'll be staying on site and living it up while working on their project.

Here's Jacquire talking about the contest:

Regional winners have been announced and are moving on to the finals. We're eagerly watching to see who will be the lucky winner to come record with us! Good luck to all the talented finalists!

Loveland Music Academy returns!

2010-09-14T10:41:00.001-07:00

Loveland @ Saint Claire, Aug 2010
Originally uploaded by saintclaireflickr

Aaron O'keefe, director of the Loveland Music Academy, called up to tell us that they had such a great experience the first time, they wanted to come back for another round of recordings! This time around they tackled much deeper, more involved tunes, such as "Live and Let Die" and "Revolution Is My Name". I stated it here last time I wrote about the Loveland school, but it bears repeating; these kids can really play! Their collective level of skill is really amazing. Hopefully we'll be seeing some of them again later down the road when they've graduated to become working pros...

Our guys, Tim Price and Cailon Williams, handled the session, which lasted from 8 am until nearly midnight. It was a long day of recording and yielded some incredible results. Videos of the day should be up sometime in the near future. We'll be sure to post them when they're available.

ABC WTVQ at Saint Claire Recording Company

2010-09-10T10:48:00.001-07:00

ABC WTVQ at Saint Claire Recording Company
Originally uploaded by saintclaireflickr

Steve Broderson, a local musician and jingle writer who has worked countless times at Saint Claire, brought our local ABC affiliate to us to produce a new station promo. Steve wrote and recorded a large portion of the music at home, then brought his tracks to our studio to record drums, vocals, and a few other odds and ends. While he was here working on the music, a representative from ABC came out to capture footage of the session to be used in the piece. Tim Price recorded and mixed the music, assisted by Cailon Williams. The station promo should start running on WTVQ 36 in the upcoming weeks.

Anwar Sadat @ Saint Claire Recording Company

2010-09-10T09:36:00.001-07:00

Anwar Sadat @ Saint Claire Recording Company
Originally uploaded by saintclaireflickr

The newly emerging Louisville band, Anwar Sadat, came to Saint Claire in August to record the first two tracks for their forthcoming EP. The music they perform rides the line between post-punk and aggressive indie-rock (mixed with elements of electronic instruments, hip-hop style lyrical performances, and.... well, let's just say they're hard to describe...).

They've got tons of energy and the songs they sing are fueled by an antagonistic view towards the state of the world as they see it. Despite that fiery source of inspiration, they deliver opinions on some heavy issues with tongue-in-cheek humor and cynical comparisons. Seem hard to grasp? That's because this is one of those bands that's difficult to categorize. More sessions are planned for the near future to finish out the EP (which, in true indie fashion, is intended to be pressed to 7" vinyl).

Natalia Zukerman and company

2010-04-20T10:40:00.001-07:00

IMG_0254.JPG
Originally uploaded by saintclaireflickr

Willy Porter brought his album, "Available Light", to mix here back in 2006. Since then, we've stayed in contact and seen him play shows when he comes through the area. It's an understatement to say that Willy is one of our favorite people. A few months back when we caught up with him after a show in Lexington, he told us that he had been working with someone from New York named Natalia and that he was very excited about her music. Not long after that conversation, Willy was on the phone booking time to record her next album.

Once we were up and running, Natalia and her fellow musicians (David Shoepke on drums, Brian Mir on bass, and, of course, Willy Porter) more than lived up to the hype that Willy had provided. It was great to see a session come through the building that was mostly straight-forward in approach. Everything was tracked at the same time in full passes. You can see more photos of the setup and the session by clicking on the image in this post.

Natalia's songs are strongly based in the "acoustic guitar and vocals" school, but they have so much feeling and attitude that they match perfectly with richer sound of a full band. And, as a testament to their collective talents, the group managed to knock out the basics for a full length album in just a little over two days. That's a lot of music in a short time!

Keep an eye out for Natalia's upcoming release. It's going to be a good one!

CRICKETS ALL OVER THE BUILDING!

2010-04-05T12:45:00.001-07:00

cricketpress_001.JPG
Originally uploaded by saintclaireflickr

No, we're not New York City. We're not Chicago, L.A., or even Atlanta. For not being a major metropolitan area, however, Lexington has no shortage of incredible talent. We've got great local bands and awesome venues for them to perform at, lots of traveling acts through town because we're situated on two major highways, tons of great local restaurants, and a thriving art community. I think Lexingtonians get sick of being compared to Austin, TX for the climate of our growing entertainment and artist scenes, but the comparison is a valid one. We're not a huge city, but we're still home to some truly world-class talent.

A shining example of Lexington's hidden gems is Cricket Press. The husband-wife duo of Brian and Sara is making some of the most incredible rock-posters you've ever seen. They're making posters for local events and local establishments right alongside gig posters for seriously cool indie bands. Their repertoire includes people like Mogwai, Murder By Death, Fleet Foxes, The Decemberists, Animal Collective, They Might Be Giants... The list goes on and on. And now, thanks to the kindness of these two wonderful artists, Saint Claire is proudly displaying 18 of their gig posters in our building! Since their love of music rivals even our own, teaming up was a no-brainer. We're thrilled to be able to partner up with local talent that thinks as big as we do.

Make sure you zip over to www.cricket-press.com to look at all of the amazing work that they have on display. And, if you're planning a big show or trying to promote an event, think about having them design posters for you! I guarantee you'll grab people's attention with artwork from these guys.

Loveland Music Academy, 2010

2010-03-12T12:03:00.001-08:00

Loveland Music Academy, 2010
Originally uploaded by saintclaireflickr

Loveland Music Academy is not just another music school teaching worn-out approaches to becoming a musician. Quite the opposite, actually. Situated just outside of Cincinnati, OH, this group is teaching young musicians real-world applications of musical skills. They've got a nice facility where they teach everything from guitar to piano, drums to vocals, and even acting. One of the more exciting things they work into their curriculum is the regular trip to an actual recording studio where the students get to experience the process of tracking the songs they've been rehearsing. The academy's co-owner, Aaron O'Keefe (who also happens to be one of the instructors), contacted us to see about bringing their students into Saint Claire for a day-long session. It was quite an experience for everyone. They kicked off their day with an ambitious arrangement of Pantera's "Cowboys From Hell". You won't believe how it came out... These kids can seriously rip it up.

Whatever it is that they're doing with their kids, it's working! Even Phil Anselmo (former frontman of Pantera) agrees. He posted a comment on their previous endeavor done at Chicago Recording Co. on his band's webpage. http://down-nola.com/index.cfm/pk/view/cd/NAA/cdid/422246/pid/400042

Keep it up, guys! You're doing great things!!!

Alejandro Escovedo and the Sensitive Boys

2010-02-22T11:07:00.001-08:00

Alejandro Escovedo and the Sensitive Boys
Originally uploaded by saintclaireflickr

Alejandro Escovedo teamed up with producer Tony Visconti and came to us in late 2008 to record his album, Real Animal. One morning while we were having coffee in the lounge, Al turned to me and remarked, "This place is fantastic for us. If I have my way, I want to record all of my albums here from now on." Since then, the band's lineup changed, Alejandro's management changed, and so did the label he was signed to. True to his word, though, when it came time to record again, I got a phone call and Alejandro brought his new album to us to track.

Tony Visconti produced Alejandro's last album here and it was clear that he was a perfect fit for the band. They hired him to produce again and this time around, he requested that our very own Tim Price be given the role of engineer for the project. The band hit the road and toured for weeks on the new material before they came to the studio. They ended their run of dates at Headliner's in Louisville (an hour away from here). When we saw them play that night, it was clear that the band was at the top of their game and the songs were well polished. The day after the show, the band rolled into the studio, Tony flew in from London, and everybody took a while to get re-acquainted with The Claire. After loading in and a good night's rest, the next day kicked off a whirlwind of activity that lasted for the next two weeks.

Without giving too much away, I can honestly say that this album is unabashedly straight-forward. Alejandro even explained to me on the phone months before they showed up that he was taking a simpler approach to his music, and that was no understatement. That certainly doesn't mean that the material is any less powerful. In fact, the songs are so packed full of imagery and emotion that bigger arrangements would have only gotten in the way. Most of the songs are traditional rock guitar/bass/drums and they made it a point to do minimal overdubs during the process of recording.

The band was so incredibly tight and the material was so well rehearsed that we ran through the basics at an unprecedented rate. Everyone was in such high spirits about working together, about the music they were producing, and about being here in our studio, it was hard to part ways when the session was over. We were admittedly a little sad that we don't get to host the mixing of the album here, but knowing that the tracks left our building to go into the capable hands of Bob Clearmountain kinda took the edge off. This session is going to go down in our books as one of the best experiences any of us could have and that none of us will ever forget.

Watch for the album due out early this summer! It's going to be crazy-good!

(Lots more photos of the session to be seen here.)

Lee Allen at Saint Claire

2010-01-22T09:48:00.000-08:00

Ian and Lee
Originally uploaded by saintclaireflickr

Engineer Ian D'Souza and his crew from KLM Distribution have made a few trips up to our place in the recent past, working on new stuff from the up and coming artist Lee Allen. Their first trip up was a tracking and overdub date, followed up by a few mix dates. Lee is kicking off this new material with a huge push including a nationwide radio tour and plenty of shows. They've been getting some great reactions over the single, "Settle Down". You can read all about what people are saying over at Lee's blog.
Lee Allen's Website

Also, make sure to check out some photos from the session at our Flickr page! Lee Allen @ Saint Claire

Be Inspiring

2010-01-21T10:37:00.000-08:00

The Cre8tive Group is a design/marketing/production firm out of Wilmore, KY and they do some really great work. Not only do they do great work in their field, but they also do amazing things for creative minds in the area by hosting an annual event they've labeled "Be Inspiring". This event they hold brings in professionals from all sorts of different fields. For their most recent installment, they found Peter Lehman. Peter is a sound engineer and composer in the film/themepark/entertainment industry. He's done sound for some 60+ feature films including Braveheart, Jerry McGuire, and Spiderman. He's also one of the guys who designs all those amazing sounds you hear on rides at theme parks such as Walt Disney World and Universal. Since Peter deals primarily with audio, Saint Claire was a perfect choice of venue for the presentation.

The crew from Cre8tive brought out a stage, a screen, projector, tons of local food catered by Wallace Station, and our neighbors provided parking for the crowd. We packed about 75 people into the live room and Peter gave a wonderful presentation on the importance and the placement of sound in film. The crowd was very eclectic and represented a diverse sampling of local talent and socialites from all walks of life. It was the first time we've ever hosted a group that large for anything other than a recording session. The evening was a complete success and we hope that maybe we can do more in the future.

For more about Peter Lehman and Cre8tive Group's "Be Inspiring" event, check out what one of our local papers had to say.

Some Good Things

2009-08-05T17:34:00.000-07:00

Rosco here.

We've been working a lot on the indie circuit lately. A couple of really cool projects have rolled through in recent days and I thought it was time that we shared a little bit about what's been happening.

Local blues afficionados The Tall Boys came through our doors and teamed up with our resident engineer, Tim Price, to put together a new full length disk. That band never sounds anything except excellent. Tim also spent some quality time working with the new Lexington-based group, Latin Heat. That album is in the que to be mixed, but even the raw materials sound huge. Somewhere in the melee, the former Lexington native, Reese Richardson, came down from NYC to record a 5-song EP with us. His was an incredible session, full of amazing discoveries and some stunning musicianship. The final product was mixed by Zach McNees and mastered by Ricardo Gutierrez in New York. It was truly inspiring to be a part of that project.

Lots more has happened and lots more is on the way, but that's all the sneak previews for now. More to come soon!

Let's Dust This Thing Off...

2008-11-07T10:46:00.000-08:00

Wow. It's been a while since we put anything up here, huh?

Lots has happened here at the studio since our last post went up. We've hosted a smattering of projects and, as usual, lots of wonderful new faces. EA Sports sent Tom Hammond to us to record all of the commentary for the new Madded NFL '09. Local gospel songwriter Judy Reynolds and her group, From The House, recorded their first full-length album with us in June/July. Another session with the advertising firm Cornett-IMS brought a spot for Applebee's to us. Neil Dorfsman has been here to mix three separate projects; first with East Village Opera Company, then again late in the summer for both a second Manolo Garcia project and with independant singer/songwriter Jason Valesio. So far, this has been a good year for us. We've met lots of great people and worked on some fantastic music.

Also, I'd like to proudly mention that Saint Claire has found it's first gold-status album! Congratulations to Manolo Garcia and Neil Dorfsman on Manolo's new album, Saldremos a la lluvia. Our studio even made it into the music video! Check it out for shots of the studio, the entry gate, and our toaster!

No english title - video powered by Metacafe

Now it's November and we're inching close the end of 2008. We have a new president (FINALLY), and we're looking with great hope for the future.

As always, thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more in the future!

February comes to a close

2008-02-29T09:59:00.000-08:00

Continuing the trend, we've been incredibly busy these past few months. 2008 is really shaping up to be a great year for us.

After a short break for the holidays, we picked up a day doing demos with the Louisville, KY based Villebillies. Then, it was on to the mix of the Shake Anderson project that has seen two previous tracking sessions here. Joe Alexander flew out from the west coast to join Shake, Zach, and a revolving door of other members to mix for a little over a week. Mixing was a shared effort between Joe and Zach and everyone was quite pleased with the final result. The album went to Nashville for mastering soon after the end of the session and the album is due to release soon.

Later on in January, Tony Visconti, Mario McNulty, and Alejandro Escovedo came back in January to mix the album they tracked here in December. Man, what a great sounding collection of songs! It went to mastering earlier this week and should be released on June 10. Alejandro's new album is only the second project that we've had both tracked and mixed entirely here at our facility. We all had a great time working together and we were sad to see them leave.

No sooner had they left the building, though, than Neil Dorfsman was arriving to mix a new album by Spanish artist, Manolo Garcia. Zach McNees is playing assistant on this one. The two of them braved ice storms and snow to drive down from New York and we're all relieved that they made it here safely. A day later, they were joined by Manolo and his recording engineer, Jordi Sole. They're in the middle of their mix right now. Hopefully we'll make some time for photos soon; Neil brought LOTS of gear down with him and the control room is really a sight to behold right now. Manolo and Jordi are really a lot of fun to be around and I think we'll be going out to do some sight-seeing before they have to return to Spain.

As always, more to come! Stay tuned.

December already?

2007-12-03T08:20:00.001-08:00

Wow. It's already December! Where does all the time go? Gotta do some catching up here on the blog!!!

October and November were full of activity here at Saint Claire. Anti-Flag's crew kept us occupied for about three weeks for the mix of their forthcoming album. The mixes on those tracks were fantastic to witness. We're all eager to see the final product when it gets released in '08 (supposedly around the Feb./Mar. timeframe). In the meanwhile, a truckload of photos from the making of the album are now up for viewing in a set on our Flickr account. Also, don't miss their appearance in the January '08 edition of Alternative Press Magazine (pg. 122).

Shortly after the Anti-Flag guys vacated the building, Shake Anderson's session resumed tracking for an additional week. Week two was every bit as incredible as the first round. Zach McNees flew down from NYC to play the part of engineer again. The session went fantastically and near the end, Shake treated us all to an overwhelming meal of home-cooked soul food. That man can cook! And he's not a bad musician, either. All of the tracking for Shake's album is now complete and they're presently anticipating coming back to St. Claire to mix in early '08. There are lots of photos that have been added to the Shake photo set on Flickr as well.

After Shake and company left us, we had a couple of days to put things back in order before a british rock band called Saint Jude took over the studio. Dave Hadlin, a local producer, has teamed up with the London-based Chris Kimsey (read: Rolling Stones, Peter Frampton, Duran Duran, INXS, etc, etc.) and they chose to come over here to record Saint Jude's album. We, of course, were honored to have them; there is some serious talent in that band and, with Chris driving the boat, it was truly wonderful to be a part of. Such great music and genuinely delightful people to be around... We were sad to see them go when the session was over. Photos of that session are still on the way. Keep an eye out for them.

That's all for now! More activity is scheduled to start here very soon, so stay tuned!

September Session

2007-09-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

Saint Claire was blessed with a fantastic session in September. Shake Anderson (who we've known for quite some time, but simply haven't had a chance to work with until now) brought his solo project to us. He's a very talented guy with lots of talented friends. He and a whole crew of his pals came in to record some fantastic music here. Zach McNees came down from Brooklyn to take on the engineering duties. Shake played bass and produced the arrangements, J.D. Blair played drums, Darrell Tibbs was on percussion, Tim Krekel and Mark Hamilton handled guitar, Thomas Cain came up from Nashville to play piano, and a whole handful of other talented individuals came in at different times to add to the mix. Watching that team of top-notch musicians knock out entire passes in one or two takes was simply amazing.

Mixing will happen on round two of this session (which will be very soon). For now, though, enjoy the pics from what's happened so far!

~rosco.

Small Update...

2007-07-11T11:16:00.001-07:00

Well, Chiodos have come and gone and we had a great session. Now, they're out on the road and Casey Bates has returned to Seattle to mix. More big things are brewing in the not-too-distant horizon for Saint Claire and we're very excited about some changes going on here at the studio... more about that will come in subsequent posts, though.

For now, I just wanted to post something geeky. Our vintage LA3A's were sent out to master tech/magician Dave Hecht to have them gone through and modded with the classic "Evans Mod" (sometimes called the Clearmountain Mod...). They're back in the rack and clean as a whistle now. Love that.

Thanks, Dave.

FIELD DAY!

2007-06-21T11:36:00.001-07:00

MTV2 held a contest for two lucky fans to win a day at the studio with Chiodos. An executive decision called for a day off from recording and turned the day into a celebration. Everybody had a great time. The winners were flown out to Lexington and driven out to meet the band. We all chilled outside and enjoyed the beautiful summer weather. A fantastic lunch was catered by Tony Roma's and everyone enjoyed a few rounds of basketball, then we all headed in to give a quick tour of the studio. After the tour, everyone headed to the control room where the two lucky contestants got the privilege of being the first to hear the new album in its still somewhat formative stages. Needless to say, they weren't disappointed.

Everyone had a great time; great food, games, slip-n-slide, and just chillin' out behind the studio. It was a perfect day to be outside, enjoying the open air. Later that evening (one and a half kegs later...), we broke out the fireworks and shot some impromptu portraits as well. For photographic evidence of the fantastic day, click the photo in this post to head to our flickr.com account.

Quick Chiodos Update

2007-06-14T12:14:00.000-07:00

Nick Martin, vocalist for Underminded, flew in to do some guest vocals on a couple of tracks. Everyone was stoked to have him here and he really nailed the takes. Really cool guy. He was nice enough to let me snap a couple shots of him in the booth...

Now we're off to the airport to send him home. Safe travels, man. Thanks for coming down.

Chiodos Conquer the Claire

2007-06-13T10:54:00.000-07:00

Rosco here with more news about what's happening at Saint Claire....

We've been invaded.

The Michigan based hardcore band Chiodos
has taken over the building. They're here for a little over a month, tracking new songs for their upcoming release. There is quite a bit of buzz around this band lately and the excitement is infectious. We've already been tracking for a couple of weeks now and so far, the stuff these guys are pumping out is fantastic. (click on the photo for more shots of the session)

Engineer/producer Casey Bates has traveled down all the way from Seattle to spearhead the session and our very own Tim is handling the assisting duties. This session is exactly what our facility was designed for. Pretty much every square inch of our building is being used. It's nice to see such a crowd of people here for such an extended stay, even if it does mean an awful lot of laundry and dishes!

MTV2 has taken a strong interest in these guys, as well as AP Magazine. MTV even held a contest for one lucky fan to come spend a day with the band while they record. They're also sponsoring a "field day" here at the studio towards the end of the session and everyone is anticipating a killer party. Shortly after the session ends, the band heads out on the road as one of the top acts of the Warped Tour. We're really excited for them and glad that they chose to come here to record their new album.

Speaking of which, the new album (titled Bone Palace Ballet) is due to hit on September 4th. Be sure and check their MySpace page and the Chiodos.net website for more info. Also, it bears mentioning that Chiodos are on the cover of Substream magazine this month. Look for it.

Christmas at The Claire!

2007-05-18T11:26:00.001-07:00

Big box,
originally uploaded by saintclaire.

Just recently, a big box of new toys showed up here at St. Claire. We're very excited about our new additions to the already massive collection of gear. Zach McNees was down here when everything showed up, so he helped us open all the presents.

Among the things we received are a pair of e609 mics, a new Bryston 4BSST power amp, a new case for floating rack-gear, a new Korg rack mount tuner, some 10db pads for our Schoeps mics, a Countryman DI, a Yamaha SubKick, a SM7, a PCM42, a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier and a Marshall 4x12 cab to go with it. We also upgraded our ProTools rig to 7.3 and added a faster hard drive to the ol' G5. LOTS of nice upgrades to an already stellar collection!

Some fun photos from the deliver are HERE.

Mmmmhmm!

First post

2007-04-16T07:55:00.001-07:00

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