Here’s an interview Ryan did over the phone during our last recording sessions. He talks about writing, recording, distribution, touring and of course, starving children.

It’s a great interview, but I thought I would point out that I completely disagree with him when he says “I know that anytime I try to raise my voice in any capacity to yell, I sound like I’m telling my dog to get off the couch.” There were a few times in the recording sessions when he would start to get really loud, and I thought, “this is what was missing from the last record.” I’m really glad we got some of that recorded.

It was a scary but rewarding process. I’m not rushing into the custom drum-making business, so I don’t know when I’ll make another drum, but for a $40 DVD, I saved hundreds from ordering a custom drum.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The daily routine was something like this: Wake up, breakfast, record, lunch, record, dinner, relax, reflect, retire, repeat. It seemed like a schedule I would have if I had enough clients to do this full-time. It was a lot of fun, and I could see myself working like this every week, but I definitely need a break for now.

Anyway, this experience prompted me to write a post about the difference between the role of a producer and the role an engineer, and how to work one-on-one with a songwriter. I will put this up soon.

P.S. A quick technical note of reflection: in mixing, I realized how much I prefer Drumagog over Sound Replacer. Especially the large amount of velocity layers and being able to automate parameters like sensitivity/threshold – fun stuff.