Sep 2, 2009
The pre-tour backlog begins
Sean Donovan + mb, in the studio with Les Americains. Photo by Robert Erfurd.
It seems to happen every time I’m about to leave for a tour: work starts piling up, days seem to become shorter, and I find myself writing a lot of emails that say, “Sorry! It will be just a couple more days until your project is done.” Part of this is my own procrastination, part of is just bad timing. Either way, as stressful as it is, I’m getting to work on some pretty great projects these days, so I can’t complain.
The Tre Orsi LP is finally done. I can’t believe it, really, but I was able to knock out the last few overdubs and get the guys together to go over final mixes. No release date yet, but I’ll be using a day off from the David Bazan tour to master it with Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service.
I spent last weekend tracking 8 songs with the Dallas band, Les Americains. Sean Donovan, formerly of Calla, was along as producer. He helped out immensely, guiding the session and keeping an eye on performances, and allowing me to concentrate on the engineering. It was a ton of fun, and we’ll be back in a couple of weeks to mix.
Other stuff: I mixed two shows for the Swedish band, Dungen, in Austin and Dallas. I wasn’t too familiar with them before these shows, but they really blew me away. Incredible players, and very charming, warm-hearted folks. I would drop everything in a second to do a tour with them.
There’s also a backlog of mastering stuff waiting for free studio time: Little Birds (Justin from Fishboy’s band), three 7″s for The Uptown Bums, a new Polar record, a Daily Beat EP, and probably a few other things I’m forgetting.