Take a listen to the newest album from Seattle songwriter/singer/keyboardist (and friend) Ryan Shea Smith. We tracked the basics for the record at Bear Creek studios in Woodinville, WA and completed the rest of the recording over three more days — five days of recording total!

The rule for this record was that if any element could be removed and the song still worked, then that element stayed gone. We didn’t want any fluff or excess production. We tried to work fast and not think too much, only fixing the things that jumped out at us and not stressing over “perfection”. I think it lets the songs and the performances shine through while still sounding rich and organic.

Take a listen and let me know what you think!

Check out this allaboutjazz.com review of keyboardist Ryan Burns’ new CD “Birds” (recorded in my basement):

Keyboardist Ryan Burns possesses a distinctive artistry... A fine pianist, Burns is virtuosic and always adventurous on the electric side of the keyboard spectrum…

Nice!

Seattle Jazz quartet Industrial Revelation has released their debut album, “Unreal Reality”.  We mixed the record last year in my basement studio.

The group features: D’Vonne Lewis - Drums, Ahamefule J. Oluo -Trumpet, Evan Flory-Barnes -Double Bass, and  Josh Rawlings - Fender Rhodes.

The group (and it’s members) are already getting a ton of recognition in the local jazz scene, including multiple Earshot Jazz awards.

You can hear the album here!

This weekend I hosted the Ryan Burns trio in my ultra-swanky home studio.  Ryan setup up a bunch of vintage Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Moog and other keyboards — there’s nothing like the real thing, that’s for sure.

We tracked everything live to ProTools with a few choice Space Echo-ed overdubs afterward.  One day of recording, one day of mixing and we have a completed Jazz record.  It was fun to record live musicians and not obsess over minute details, and layers and layers of overdubs.

Ryan is a great keyboardist who also plays in some really interesting bands.  Check them out: HarryBu McCage, The Black Vinyl All-Stars and with his own band.

In addition to recording and producing bands, I also work as a freelance Audio Engineer and ProTools Editor. Last year, I had the honor of spending a few weeks of my life helping edit and mix the soundtrack to Microsoft’s new Xbox title Halo Wars.

The soundtrack features a full orchestra and choir, recorded in Prague, blended with composer Stephen Rippy’s collection of analong and modern synthesizers.

You can buy it from Amazon or read Stephen’s blog about the writing and recording of The Music of Halo Wars.

It’s been over a year in the making — Black Swedes have released their full-length debut, “Tempest”.

We started it as live acoustic demos in my basement, but the performances were so great that we decided to stop calling them demos and just make the record instead!

After finishing the 10 songs, we took the tracks to composer (and good friend) Katie Freeze, who wrote six beautiful string quartet arrangements for the Black Swede songs. We recorded the string quartet live at Studio X featuring members of the Seattle Symphony and Metropolitan String Quartet.

Check it out, and buy it on iTunes.

Brand Upon the Brain! has just been released on DVD by the Criterion Collection! I mixed composer Jason Staczek’s score for the DVD and CD soundtrack.

Brand Upon the Brain! is a “silent” movie that features only music, sound fx and narration (by Isabella Rossellini, Laurie Anderson, John Ashbery, Guy Maddin, Louis Negin, and Eli Wallach).

This release is a double thrill for me because of the respect and quality of the Criterion Collection label, and since it’s a silent film, the music is upfront and loud!

The Michael Williams Band’s new album “King of the Dead” is pressed up and ready for you! Just click on the “music player” link at the right to hear some of the album and check out their website for more info.

This weekend I recorded basics for a new album with Seattle “spazz” rockers The Limbs.

Reviewers have used terms like “girlish yelp, “awkward/eccentric” and “prepubescent school-yard bully yelling at the kid with the stuttering problem to speak up” to describe them — which sounds about right to me! Check out their Myspace, and click here for photos of the session.

The Epochs are one step closer to total world domination. They just debuted the video for “Love Complete” on AOL Spinner. It’s from the album that we recorded last year. They are releasing the album nationally next month and are building up quite the East Coast buzz.