Madison, WI

Posted on July 11, 2008 by Zach

Please note that I have added an additional page, entitled “The Peeps”, to the top menu. It contains a list of all the people who have been involved in some way with my recording project. The list will grow, and grow, and grow. Ideally, it will become long enough to bridge both the Missouri River and the income gap.

Madison! With more restaurants per capita than any other city in the nation, it is a college town to rival all other college towns (and win). I had a great time in Madison, even though I only stayed one day. I arrove Tuesday night and met my host, Tommy Rylander. Also, ‘arrove’ is a word.

He is a great guy, and since I too am a great guy, we had really great times. He brews his own beer, and allowed me to sample one of his brews, which was fantastic. He also sent a bottle of a different brew (“Margawheata”) along with me, which I have yet to sample. He works for a senator in the WI capitol building. If all of this wasn’t enough to commend him, he also took me to an excellent Nepalese restaurant.

We also met up with fellow Couchsurfer Corey Losenegger and his bass-playing friend for a brief jam session, and then it was time to head back and chat a bit before calling it a night. I was so tired I fell asleep on his couch in the middle of checking email.

Next morning, I was over to a dance studio to meet and record Carlos Armacanqui, who is a capoerista. Before A.G. asks, I’ll just answer — a capoerista is a person who plays/performs Capoeira, which is a dance/martial art/music style. Yeah, that’s what I thought — super cool. Check out some vids if you want to familiarize yourself with it a bit.

Carlos had a whole troupe of players assembled for the session, which was awesome — I thought it was just one guy who wanted to record some sounds, but it turned out to be a whole Capoeira group. We set up in the dance studio that Carlos teaches at.

They played through about five songs straight, and then we recorded an intro/outro combo which I will try to use on the project. Finally, Carlos and James recorded some various solo berimbau sounds (that’s the stick/gourd/wire instrument you see them playing) for me.

After this, I spent the remainder of my time in Madison hanging with Carlos and Maria. We caught some lunch at “the carts” which is a pedestrian plaza area in front of the library where there are lots of food carts. I visited the African cart and had some excellent curry with come kind of bubbly sour flatbread that was quite good.

We walked all about State Street, which (like everywhere else evidently) is undergoing construction.

We also snuck into the liberal arts building and played some piano. It turns out that Maria is not only a capoeirista, she is a classical pianist who has evidently played quite the repertoire of songs in her pianistic past. She is also, like me, a piano snob. So, good times. Carlos, being a musician, could not resist the call of the piano and began to learn how to play the piano as well, with two teachers — a classical girl with a good ear and a jazz guy who can read a bit. If only every piano student could be so lucky, right?

All too soon it was time to say goodbye.

I hung out in a coffeeshop for a while and worked on my previous post before heading on to Milwaukee!

NEXT: Milwaukee.

Twin Cities, MN (Part II)

Posted on July 10, 2008 by Zach

Gentlemen and ladies, the rest of my time in the twins (being the twin Cities). These were exceptionally busy days.

Friday, July 4th

Friday the 4th started off with a rehearsal.

“Rehearsal?” asks A.G. “Shouldn’t you rather be recording?”

Well, yes, but somehow I managed to land about four gigs while I was up here, three on drums and one on organ/synth. I played for two bands for the Taste of Minnesota, as well as two churches on each Sunday I was here. It was nice actually making some money when I’d expected only to spend it.

This rehearsal was my personal run-through with Peter for the gigs on Saturday and Sunday, since I had to learn roughly 20 new songs in two days.

After rehearsal, I was off to meet my next host, a very fun girl named Daneen. We went to a fairly crazy party, which at least two people thought was “weird.” But we managed to have good times all. I played some game where you have to flip cups over (after emptying them of course) and also had some fun drum and guitar jam sessions on the porch.

It was not a good night for pets though. Partway through the party, someone’s dog was hit by a car and he had to take it to an emergency animal hospital. Also, Daneen got a call from her mother informing her that the cat that she grew up with had died. A sad night for pet owners. If there were such thing as a musician that didn’t care about other people’s pets, it would have been a good night for that person, though.

Here we are catching some Saturday morning pizza the next day at Green Mill.

Saturday, July 5th

Speaking of the next day, it’s Saturday now in this post. What happens on Saturday? Answer: crazy amounts of music. After the aforementioned morning pizza, I was off to rehearse with the full band for a group called the Global Worship Movement.

They’re all about unifying dance and song in worship music, using a lot of world rhythms and such. Peter’s wife Danelle is a dancer and instructs people in various movements between songs so we get everybody moving. Quite fun. Their regular drummer was out of town for the holiday weekend, so I had the fun job of rhythmically leading a band in songs that they knew well and I had just learned. Exciting!

Following the rehearsal it was off to Taste of MN to drum for the Heart of the City band.

The HotC band doesn’t rehearse, relying instead on high-caliber musicians who learn the tunes well beforehand. These were not simple tunes so I was more than a little nervous to drum for this group, since drums plays such a leadership role, and I just learned the songs.

We had a while to hang in the Tent and grab some food before the gig. I was craving a gyro, but settled on a falafel sandwich instead.

The drumming actually went fine. It was a loud stage, we hadn’t played together before, and the singers kept pushing and pulling me rhythmically (I was on a click, or at least trying to be)… but in spite of all this, the music was fun and sounded pretty awesome. Dan Adler (the founder of HotC) threw some totally new songs at me at the end which was even more fun. I watched Peter for the hits.

Afterwards I got to chill with some dudes in the band at a nice Italian place in St. Paul.

Then I headed to the home of the aforementioned Matt Riley, since I was playing at his church the next morning and he lived nearby.

Sunday, July 6th

Sunday was another busy day of playing out. Started off playing B3/synth for two services at New Hope Church, where Mr. Riley is the instrumental music director. Man, I love a real B3. So much fun. Plus, Peter had given me a crash course in adjusting the drawbars, so I was able to make it sound like I wanted to instead of relying on the previous settings.

After lunch with Matt at Arby’s, it was off to Taste of MN again! Peter drove last time, and I hadn’t paid close attention, so this time it took me roughly 1.5 hours to drive there and find parking. My GPS did a fine job of helping me get to the address I had, but it turned out that address was not correct, so then I was lost.

Finally I was there, this time playing for a group I had actually rehearsed with, so I was definitely less nervous. Things went quite well, other than the fact that I was taking a shower in my shirt the whole time. I don’t know whose bright idea it was that the whole band wear black and denim…

We finished around 4:30 or so, then I headed over to the home of my songwriting partner-in-crime, Jeremy Wilson. Every time I hear this man’s music I want to write songs.

Jeremy and his charming wife Gina have recently popped out some twins (not the Cities this time), who are now toddling around enthusiastically, and thankfully going to bed early so as not to interfere with recording.

Jeremy put down lots of fun vocal tracks. I am a really big fan of his singing (and songwriting for that matter… check his myspace), so I was happy to get his voice on some of these tracks.

After that it was off to Anoka to meet my next hosts, Alex and Syneva (the ‘e’ is long) Barrett. They are a super welcoming couple with an awesome dog and an extensive collection of amazing independent music. I got quite a list of artists from them that I definitely need to check out, but unfortunately didn’t get a picture of them. I did however get a picture of “The Cabin”, which was the cabinesque annex in which I stayed.

Monday, July 7th

Today is Aaron Fabbrini day! We did a 10-to-5 day of recording and got a fair bit of stuff done, including a break for lunch at Taste of Scandinavia (where oddly enough I finally had that gyro… turns out their chef is Greek).

Aaron is a fantastic player with a heaping helping of bassistic part ideas, and an uncanny ability to respond instantly to drummers. Matt Tobias is not exactly Mr. Expectable when it comes to drum fills, but Aaron was all over it, in fact more often than not he matched up on his first time playing through. I was thoroughly impressed.

We recorded a lot of hollow-body bass and a good bit of fretless before calling it a day. I was pretty sad we didn’t have time to get to the upright stuff, but I guess that will have to wait for another player. My challenge now is to find a player good enough to make me not have to come back to Minneapolis to record Aaron again.

Then I met up with my old friend Darla Potter and a person who I knew of but never officially met before, Pamela Breit. Darla was sometimes mistaken for my girlfriend at NCU simply because she is Korean, and NCU is, oh… 96% white. Seriously, someone came up to her and asked how I was doing and she didn’t even know me yet. Very amusing to me. Also amusing is my memory of her coming over to our apartment once and eating all of our bread. On that note, here they are after eating.

After a really funny excursion which perhaps I will recount later if someone asks me to in the comments, it was off to Dan Lawonn’s apartment to set things up and get a start on tomorrow’s recording.

Tuesday, July 8th

Today I recorded amazing musician Dan Lawonn, a terrific cellist, guitarist, songwriter, and arranger. He was super into the spirit of the project and contributed some excellent cello tracks. I believe we have reason to expect further contributions from him down the road as well, via the marvels of modern communication.

Also, I haven’t gotten any mic stands yet.

Then, it was off to Madison!

NEXT: Madison.

Twin Cities, MN (Part I)

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Zach

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to announce: a highly productive three days in MN!

Note: this was written on the night of July 3rd, not on the actual publish date. I’ll bring you up to speed on the remaining days in MN next time.

Tuesday, July 1st

I had the pleasure to record with electric guitarist and college friend Adam Brown. Due to his connections, we did the recording at Real Life Church in Roseville (it probably also helped that I’d drummed for them on Sunday). This church has an amazing auditorium; acoustics was obviously a major design element. Not “church hall” type acoustics, more like “controlled sound” — it’s obvious it’s a big space, but you get no echo at all. Perfect for recording big guitar sounds.

Adam delivered some big guitar sounds. Here he is, just delivering big guitar sounds:

Adam was also my guinea pig for the mobile recording studio. I’ve already become much faster at setting up everything compared to my session with Adam. I’ve also discovered a few things I need to buy (mostly extensions for things).

Adam was great to work with, and we managed to also somehow have lots of fun during the whole session. He had some fantastic ideas for some of my tunes, ideas which I would never have had if I’d spent a year thinking of ideas just for those tunes. After recording with him, I became even more excited for the rest of the Tour. If I record 100 people and they all have at least one awesome idea like that, my songs will end up so awesome they will need permits. You know, awesomeness permits.

Policeman: “Excuse me sir, but your songs are not allowed to be that awesome.”
Me: “It’s OK officer, they have permits.”
Policeman: “Oh, nevermind then.”

Like that.

I also recorded another old college friend (meaning from a good while ago, not that she’s old… she’s younger than me) by the name of Fritha Schedgick. She’s that rare vioinist who can improvise in a variety of styles. She really enjoyed some of the parts I had for her already, and she also put in some great parts of her own. I absolutely loved the textures and feelings we recorded, and the amazingness that they contributed to the songs.

Her brand-new apartment (she just moved in two days prior) had just suffered a power outage, so we were unable to turn on the fan, which was unfortunate because even when she has power, she does not have air conditioning. So we were fairly well roasting. Look how shiny our faces got:

Anyway, by the time Fritha and I finished, it was time to drive to my next host.

“Who is that?” asks the attractive girl.

Seriously, attractive girl… why don’t you just change into some old wise dude? Your existence is kind of frustrating me since you’re only a narrative device.

“That’s simple — I will help you attract more readers due to my attractiveness!”

Oh… great! So, readers, more Attractive Girl coming up soon! For now, let me tell you about my next host.

I stayed with a wonderful couple named Atila and Raj Pegan, and their three young whippersnappers. Other than having a beer with Atila the night I arrived and chatting with Raj before I left two days later, I didn’t have much opportunity to hang out with them, but from what I can see they live a really wholesome life, eating all kinds of good-for-you homegrown foods, working as massage therapists from their home, excercising… a life of wellness. I was pleased to be a part of their healthy life, even if only for a bit.

I’m doing my part though… in addition to hauling gear all over the place, I’m also mostly forgoing pop (that’s soda or Coke to some of you, or cola or cider or huanta if you’re Korean… in the future perhaps I’ll just use “Pepsi”) on the Tour.

“I award you a Point!” says Attractive Girl.

Awesome! (By the way, you too can win Points from Attractive Girl by living healthy.)

Wednesday, July 2nd

Wednesday started off bright and early with a drive up to North Central University to record Gabe Hagen, good drummer and friend. We put down some sweet drum tracks (one of them inspired by Adam’s guitar part from yesterday). He also brought a bunch of fun percussion objects so we recorded some paneira (sp?) and some timbales.

Good times. Gabe is a practice freak (why is it that the guys who practice a ton are the guys who don’t need to?) so his chops and playing were definitely up to speed. He was super fun and easy to work with too. So far the only ego issues I’ve had have been arguments with Attractive Girl. We fight sometimes about whether or not it’s possible to imaginarily date her without being “super weird.”

After recording Gabe, I headed over to Maplewood to record trombone player extraordinaire, Jeff Rinear. Jeff is a first-rate teacher, arranger, composer, and player, and was my instructor for my first year in Jazz Workshop.

I was in a hurry to get to a rehearsal afterwards so I was in and out with Jeff, but we were able to briefly catch up with each other while working. We recorded an awesomely skanky growling trombone solo, a few other little bits, and then we were done. He also showed me his ribbon speakers!! They’re like giant flat panels that magically make sound. Or if this helps, they’re like ribbon microphones, except reversed. They sounded positively amazing. If I hadn’t been drinking some delicious tea, I would have been drooling.

After recording Jeff, it was off to New Hope Church for a rehearsal. I’m filling in on B3/keys for them this week, at the request of my good old buddy-turned-music-director Matt Riley! Matt accompanied me on my super crazy road trip from Minneapolis to St. Louis for one day. We had good memories of going off the road and getting stuck in a ditch, running out of gas, and freezing to death trying to get to a gas station. Two of those events woke one of us up too. Yeah… great times.

Here is Matt smiling vigorously in front of his office!

Yeah man, I remember when you were just a little guy, and now look at you, with an office! I’m so proud. Matt is like my acolyte.

Thursday, July 3rd

Thursday started off with a drive up to Peter Shu’s house.

“Who is-”

I know, you want to know who Peter Shu is. He is a great player for all things keyboard, in particular jazz and Latin stuff. We used to play together for a long time when he was music director at Christ Church, as well as various coffeeshop jazz gigs. He was also in charge of Jazz Workshop for several years after Jeff. I got used to him mixing up the genres when I drummed for him. I almost never drummed a basic beat with him, which was of course very fun for me. We would do funk, Latin, R&B, jazz, Caribbean styles… you name it.

Pete also has a handful of keyboards, as well as a Yamaha C3 (grand piano) in his living room. So we did a couple tunes of recording piano. It sounded beautiful, and Pete had lots of great ideas to contribute. His chord voicings are thicker and more interesting than mine, so it was really fun to hear the different take on tunes I’d played before. We also laid down a track of him playing organ.

After that we had a rehearsal with tasty bass player, Justin Smith, in preparation for the upcoming Taste of MN gigs.

I finished up with a trip over to St. Paul to record my old friend Melody Olson (she’s not old either), whose name is no mistake. However, she can also sing harmonies quite well (perhaps it’s her middle name, but I doubt it). So that’s what she did: sing quite well. Yay!

It was at Melody’s apartment when I realized that I really need to get a mic stand. Check this out:

Yeah, that’s a mic hanging from a water pipe. We actually ended up recording that way. Amazing.

Melody learns parts super fast and has a lot of singing (and recording) experience so she was super easy to record. Her parts sound great and I was just sad we didn’t have more time to record more, but it was already pushing midnight by the time we finished up two songs. (Getting that mic hanging just right was not easy). But it was super fun to hang out with Melody and catch up.

And that’s a recap of the last couple days. Right now I’m sitting in a 24-hour cafe called Mickey’s Diner, where I’ve been writing this update. It’s so totally American-road-trippy. Feeling awesome.

Things I’m learning:

Collaboration is awesome! 1 + 1 = 3.
Recording goes way faster once you know what you want to record.
People are great, and they have great ideas! Always listen for it and never reject anything out of hand.
Waiting for functional A/C is worth it.

Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of: Zach Records America!

Zach Is Hit!

Posted on June 28, 2008 by Zach

I’ve been hit! It’s true, yesterday I got rear-ended. Just what I needed at the beginning of a nationwide roadtrip, eh? It was raining and Minneapolis is pretty much a war zone, with the amount of construction that is going on. Seriously, I think they had to recruit extra help in the factories, to manufacture enough orange barrels to meet demand.

Back to our story. So I was on the detour around 35W (they’re getting close to repairing the bridge that collapsed from that earthquake a while back), and some young guy was probably gawking at the bridge construction progress, when he suddenly realized that a Lovemobile was stopped in front of him. Brake. Slide. Bang! Slide. Bang!

Two slide-bangs? Yeah, the impact sent me skidding into the rear bumper of the car in front of me. I felt like a domino in the Domino Rally of life. (Anyone remember Domino Rally?)

I realize you are probably highly concerned, and wondering if my car is ok. Well, mostly everything looks fine, but the rear bumper is pushed in a ways on the lower half. (Again, I’ll post a picture once I’m able to connect to the internet using Lappie.) I didn’t see anything wrong with the front, thankfully.

Of course, friends and family and all those who know me more intimately are probably even more concerned about all my expensive recording equipment. Allow me to reassure you that when I used all my stuff today, it all worked fine — even the interface, which had been in the trunk.

Also, other than a stiff and sore neck, I’m doing fine too.

I’ll call my agent Monday and figure out what I should do about the bumper/neck/etc. I could probably sue for damages and get rich! But I would feel like a jerk, so I don’t really consider that an option.

In recording news: My first two days have been highly unproductive as far as recording stuff, but highly productive in terms of meeting old friends and setting things up. I’ve got loads of sessions coming up, and, oddly enough, loads of gigs. I’ll be playing for several churches, and drumming for several events at Taste of Minnesota. Exciting!

I suppose getting hit was just reaping what I sow, after hitting the road so enthusiastically in my previous post. Those of you who believe in karma no doubt are nodding knowingly. Those of you who don’t believe in anthropomorphizing roads, however, probably think that’s a bunch of baloney.

Until next time, I’m Zach Bardon, and enjoy our Wild America.

The Road Is Hit!

Posted on June 26, 2008 by Zach

And we’re off!

I am pleased to report a successful beginning of my Recording Tour of Love! Right now, I am safely in the middle of the Twin Cities.

I am writing this from my host’s computer, so it probably won’t be lengthy enough to satisfy your curiosity… why are you so curious, anyway?

“Wait, what about the next post being about the carputer??” says the attractive girl from before. “I wasn’t kidding, I really want to know about it.”

Unfortunately for you, attractive girl, I forgot to transfer the pictures of the carputer install from my Korean phone before I left on the first Leaf. (I had planned on using my Korean phone as my camera, but last minute my sister offered me the use of her vastly superior digital camera. Thanks Stephi!) This means you will not be able to see all the exciting details of my carputer install until after the first Leaf is complete. You will, however, be able to see it in action. My GPS mapping software worked like a top all the way up here, directing me on all sorts of unpopulated state highways (instead of interstates) that ended up being more efficient, as well as faster. Yay GPS!

Speaking of my host, my first host on the Tour is longtime friend and draft dodger, Laura Dittmer. So far we’ve had great times. (I’ve talked with her for all of 10 minutes so far.)

Minneapolis! Home of the Twins, warzone-esque road construction, and thousands of light-haired Nordic denizens, it also happens to be the home of my alma mater, North Central University, and the home of many excellent musicians. To record in Minneapolis:

an amazing bassist
several fantastic jazz/pop/gospel keys players
a handful of tasty guitarists
lots of delicious vocalists
some great horn players
if I’m lucky, a legendary trombonist
you! If you live in MSP and want to be on my albums, hit me up!

The next week or so I plan to busy recording all of the above, seeing old friends, and making new ones!

An auspicious beginning?

The Touroflovemobile

Posted on June 20, 2008 by Zach

a.k.a. my car, a.k.a. a major reason I haven’t left yet. It really does need a cool name, though. It’s a Crown Victoria, so the ideal name would have something about Vic, and of course Love. But the name can’t be “The Love Vic” because that’s just stupid. It also seems like some kind of pun about “vehicle” could be done, but I’m drawing a blank. Any suggestions?

Anyway, here he is:

1987 Ford Crown Victoria. The last year of this body style (and my personal favorite body style for this model ever). Some call them “grandpa cars,” some call them “boats”, and a friend once aptly called it “a couch with a V8.” Well, let me tell you something about grandpas: they know what’s up. I got this one from a grandpa — the original owner — with only 114K miles. (On the car, not the grandpa. He had much more.) He kept it garaged, gave it regular maintenance, and pretty much just drove it to the grocery store, so it’s in great shape.

“If it’s in great shape, what’s the holdup?” asks a nearby attractive girl. Well, attractive girl, my answer is “Where did you come from? May I date you?”

“No,” she replies. “I’m here as a narrative device.”

“Oh. I’ll answer your question then.”

My car, awesome as it is, has a few quirks which need to be unquirked. Also, in accordance with my Master Vehicular Plan, there are a few enhancements which need to be… er, enhanced.

Quirks to be Unquirked

Top on the list: the A/C doesn’t work. No way am I driving through Arizona in August with no A/C. The car is in the shop as we speak. Yes, I know we’re not actually speaking.
The cruise control is non-operational. It’s a broken cable. Sadly, shops are unable to procure this cable anymore. Looks like a trip to a junkyard is in order. Sadly, it looks like it is in order after my first Leaf.
That’s it! Thank you, previous-owner-grandpa, for keeping this car in such great shape.

Enhancements According to the Master Vehicular Plan

A CARPUTER.
Car = cool.
Car + computer = DRIVING EXCITEMENT.
But seriously, why? Hmmm… I feel a sublist coming on!
- The current sound system is a Clarion ARX-7170 system with a 12-disc changer in the trunk, and a 9-band programmable EQ/DSP under the front seat. But man, 12 CDs is totally not enough selection for a nationwide road trip. How about… 90GB of mp3’s? Yeah, that’s more like it.
- What if I get lost? What if I miss a turn but don’t know it until I’ve driven half an hour in the wrong direction? (This has happened to me before, in Iowa.) How about… GPS navigation? Yeah!
- How can I quickly and conveniently access the internet on the road? How about… a wireless a/b/g card with external antenna? Allowing you to access the internet from the touchscreen in your dash? In turn allowing you to access the weather, cheapest nearby gas stations, and check your IMAP email? Friggin’ sweet.
Those are the main reasons for a carputer. Of course there are many more; for example, 1) it’s cool, 2) it’s awesome, and 3) it’s friggin’ sweet.
A component sound system.
With a carputer, it doesn’t make much sense to use a head unit, particularly when you’re putting the touchscreen where the head unit goes. So, I figured I’d get an amp to take the signal from the carputer and drive the speakers. But I wasn’t going to buy any old crappy amp, and then I realized I couldn’t run a nice amp into the stock 1987 speakers. Sigh.

Current dequirking progress: 15%. Probably jump up to 50% tomorrow when the shop calls and says “Hello? Is this Zach Brandon?” and then I say “Yes, that’s me” because it’s not worth it to correct him, and then he says “We have fixed your air conditioning for only $10!” and I say “Awesome!” And that will be that. Cruise cable has to wait.

Current carputer progress: 90%. Parts acquired. Computer assembled and tested on my dining room table. Power run from battery to under the seat. Head unit removed, climate controls relocated, screen mostly mounted. Left to do: install the computer itself. Wire everything together. Enjoy.

Current stereo system progress: 40%. Parts ordered. So far, other than the wires, only the amp has come in. And what a great amp it is.

“I want to know more about the awesome carputer and stereo stuff!” says the attractive girl. “I want to see pictures!”

“I could say the same about you,” I reply, winking.

Oh yeah, narrative device, right. I have deliberately not given many details about these things because they are awesome and deserve their own post.

NEXT POST: Carputer install, Part I.

For now, give me suggestions on the nickname of my car.

Hit the Road, Zach

Being a recounting of Zach's Recording Tour of Love