Michael Peters – New Album Out
March 14th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
This summer I had the privilege of working with this fine bearded-fellow, Mr Michael Peters. Julian was in the studio one day I think laying down some bass line for a cover tune, and he mentioned that he’d like his friend to come down and chat about a recording. I don’t do a lot of engineering gigs these days, but I liked the idea of tracking some real players in a real room, and also got to really delve into dynamic mic technique. Gotta love the dynamics. Keith Price produced with Michael, and I actually think he managed to avoid playing anything… ah yes, he hummed a few bars on mic. Oh, and the whale noises! The combination of the two, both probers, meant long and fascinating conversations between the two about where the tunes could go. I’m prone to leap out of my chair and not eat or sleep till the song’s done, once I get an idea in my head, and this was quite refreshing sitting back and dialoging instead of pulling all-nighters. There’s a lesson in there for me, somewhere…. oh well time to finish another idea….
Anyhow, good times were had by all. I think Michael has written one of the saddest songs of all, “Ain’t None But Jesus”. He tells the story, in classic fashion, and we accept it as fatalistically as it’s told. These are the moments I look for in music; they touch something I can’t explain, and therein lies their virtue. If the message penetrates and garners a reaction before I can even finish lyrics, and by the time I do I realize what’s happening, well, that’s just great storytelling: Michael’s magic. A varied setlist, and not every song/lyric will be everyone’s cup of tea, but a man who cares about what he says.
Lots of good stories and shenanigans, including the infamous whammy-bar-tuning-infinity-loop, the double-pick solo, and my favorite phrase over the sessions, “Ya now that we’ve recorded it I have a great idea for the arrangement.” Classic!
Beds were done with all 3 players, Curtis Nowosad on drums, Michael on various instruments and vocals for the scratch guitars, and Julian Bradford on a few basses. Overdubs were guitars, vocals, pianos, percussion etc… I think mostly dynamics on everything, maybe U67′s on overheads and vocals. The solo ballads, we’d create an array of mics around Michael at various distances, and let him do his thing. I’m pretty sure we didn’t even take the cover off the piano… Michael was partial to Fury guitars, brought some neat pedals, and I think Mr Carl Strempler loaned us his pedalboard for an afternoon as well. Which was good, because it took us the whole afternoon to figure out the thing!
If he ever manages to get the thing onto iTunes, I’ll post a link. Until then, try here for more info.
Thanks for the fun, Michael!
