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Bruce Fugett
For my 3rd lesson with Mark at Fastback Studios, I was able to sit in on a recording session with Mark's friend Trevor Boone. Over the past year or so, Trevor has been working on songs for a CD, and he was going into the studio that night to record some of his ideas for new songs. The recording wasn't meant to be a finished product, just more of a way to get his ideas "down on paper."
Watching Mark "set the levels" was an interesting part of the evening. An equivalent of a "sound check", it's the producer/engineer's job to make sure that before recording, the sound of each instrument gets translated into Pro Tools correctly. This means making sure that the volume of each instrument is not too high or too low, and that each the artist gets the desired tone for each instrument on each song. Trevor played a left-handed Custom Pin Up guitar and sang, and joining him was his friend Andrew, who played the 1953 Hammond B-3 through a beautiful Leslie Speaker, the Wurlitzer Electric Piano, and his Moog Synthesizer. Also playing with Trevor and Andrew was Fastback Studio's Chief Engineer and Producer Jason, who played the drums.
The three musicians had an amazing musical chemistry together. Jason's drumming laid down the perfect canvas for Trevor's tight guitars and Andrew's ethereal keys. And Trevor's melodic, yet artfully unrefined vocals were one of the overall defining elements of his tunes. The music that they made that night was what I would consider Indie Rock/Pop, with really catchy hooks and an upbeat rhythm. Trevor is a talented songwriter, and one of his songs has even been stuck in my head for the past 5 days.
Overall, I'm really grateful for the chance to sit in on their session. I feel like I've taken a lot from it, and it was really good to see some of the more theoretical elements of music recording being put into a real world application. I can't wait for the next time that I get to observe another session at Fastback Studios.
