Phase 1 of album tracking begins this weekend.

Kevin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:29:50 +0000

If you’ve been following my twitter feed, you’ve probably seen references to me sending demo songs to @springclock. For the past few months, I’ve been demoing out my entire album and sending them to Ian Baird, in order that he may have enough time to learn the tunes. This weekend, he will be traveling here to the metropolis of Traverse City Michigan to lay down all the drum tracks. He will be joined by longtime college friend Joel Gragg, who will be providing the Pro Tools rig, some highend preamps, clocking, and mics, as well as the rockstar engineering skillz needed for such an operation. Between the 3 of us, we have over 15 mics to choose from. I’ve chosen to cut the drums in my parent’s living room. It’s a huge expanse with hard woods, a fireplace, tall vaulted ceilings, and all 45 degree angles. I prefer cutting drums in untreated spaces, because drums need a large special place to resonate in. I spent some time in Nashville in studios with treated drum rooms, and I came away feeling like the drums were cold and stale. However, wherever I would track drums in a space that was not meant for recording, they always seemed to sound vibrant and alive. Look. If Zeplin can cut drums in an empty swimming pool, all bets are off. Therefore, I’ve chosen my parent’s place as a prime recording spot. It’s open, spacious, isolated, and full of vibe. It’s gonna be a whirlwind 2 days of recording, but I hope that it will be filled with creative chemistry that sparks some performances that are completely alive. They will be arriving tomorrow evening. The countdown begins.

A Remix Competition for charity.

Kevin — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:22:42 +0000

A little over a month ago, I received an excited phone call from my friend and collaborative partner Julie Sparks. She had written a song called “Out of the Blue” and had this awesome vision to record it and sell it on iTunes, with proceeds going to the Northern Illinois Food Bank. This organization serves more than 10 counties in the Chicago Land area. The next day, she was on a plane to Nashville, and we set to work recording a rough demo.
Throughout the next month, we lined up some players, a studio, and Grammy winning producer Glenn Rosenstein. On Friday March 13th, we laid down the real tracks. By Sunday night, we had mixes and were ready to move into the next phase. But during the weekend, our vision began to increase. We wanted to maximize our leverage and be able to sell more than just 2 edits of the same song. What if we included a bunch of remixes and called it a maxi single? I located 4 remixer/artists that I knew could do top quality work. They agreed to get on board. But we needed more. Here’s where you come in. We’ve decided that we want 3 more remixes, for a total of about 10 tracks on the maxi single. We’re opening this thing up to the general public to give 3 folks a chance to be on a national release that is currently garnering interest from companies and organizations such as Northern Illinois Food Bank Harley Davidson, Jewel-Osco grocery stores, and Farm Aid, just to name a few. We are currently accepting submissions until midnight Sunday Apr 12 2009. The top 3 remixes will be featured on the Maxi single available on CD, iTunes, and possibly other digital distribution sites. Your name and link to your site will be featured in the digital booklet and any other materials relating to the single. All other remixes will be featured on the project’s official website. If you want to lend a hand for charity, while promoting your artistry, we invite you to download the remix files here.

In these trying economic times, Julie wanted to write a song that might be an anthem for those in need, and a battle cry for those willing to help. We hope that you would be willing to help, and we look forward to hearing your remixes.

Sincerely,

Julie Sparks and Kevin Reeves

Kevin Reeves Official Site » News

Phase 1 of album tracking begins this weekend.

A Remix Competition for charity.