I've recorded with both Geoff Michael of Big Sky and Jim Roll of Backseat. Nice to read that the Ann Arbor studio scene is doing well.
What's the studio scene like where you make music?
A guy I work with only bar tends one day a week so he can take a day off from the studio. When he has work he works 10-16 hour days non-stop for weeks on end sometimes. He has a small personal studio that he can fit a band in but his studio is in the same building as a friends larger and more well appointed studio that he can use when he wants or when he has been hired out by the lager studio for work. Both the larger studio and his own studio pay the bills with commercial work. TV, radio some movie scores and odd ball jobs like making music for defense contractor videos and stuff like that. They only record bands that they want to record. They all seem to think that recording bands you don't like is worse than knocking out a day of hamburger helper commercials (they just got a hamburger helper commercial last night). The biggest act that I know they have recorded is Peter Buck in the larger studio for an all vinyl release. I know another guy in town who just got admitted to the Oregon rock and roll hall of fame. He recorded some of the Dandy Warhols stuff and I think Pink Martini, I don't' know what else but I know he always has work.
Hamburger Helper -That stuff is still around?They all seem to think that recording bands you don't like is worse than knocking out a day of hamburger helper commercials (they just got a hamburger helper commercial last night).
-This doesn't surprise me at all. I'm not much of an engineer, in fact compared to your pal I'd wager that I really suck. But there are always people that have no idea how to do it that ask if I'd help them record a song etc. I always find a way to say no politely. But if someone who's music I loved asked me, I'd be excited and extremely nervous. Nobody who's music I respect would ever ask though, I'm that bad.