Recording studio, audio training, bands and DJs - Aurora, Illinois

The people have spoken!

Tuesday night marked another fantastic Songwriter Showcase in our recording studio. Listeners were treated to original music from eight great artists, capped off with a beautiful performance from the Todd Kessler trio. Todd, accompanied by Chris Bauler on cello and Elana Hiller on violin, created some amazing moments - and a few lucky listeners went home with the recording.

Songwriters voted this month's favorite - by a long shot - to be Andrea Dawn. I'm thrilled to have Andrea lined up to play a more filled-out featured artist set at next month's showcase, Tuesday, August 4. (Songwriters and Guests can register here).

As if a great night of performing, a live recording and great feedback from other songwriters wasn't enough, we added something else this month - Guest feedback. Every listener provided feedback on our musicians' performances and songwriting, and we compiled the results according to age and gender. This is giving some very interesting and useful results: Showcase winner Andrea, for example, was a huge hit among the 18-25 set, but less popular with the under-18 and over-50 crowds.

In other words, our Showcases just became focus groups. Advertisers spend thousands to find out what kinds of people like what they do - we offer the service to songwriters for $25. Pretty cool.

Two tunesters, four formats!

Last night's Sound Foundations studio class kicked off with a bang - and a whole lot of microphones. We recorded a simple two-guitar acoustic performance on four different systems - from a one-track tape recorder to the full ProTools monty. It's always fantastic to hear the differences between formats.

Interested in learning audio? I'll be running Sound Foundations live and studio classes again in the Fall - watch the newsletter for details, or send me an e-mail if you're interested.

Acoustic Alternatives

Kyle finished a new demo with Acoustic Alternatives last night. I've known Jack, Sherry and Kathleen for ages and it was a treat to finally get 'em in here for some tracking. Looking for another cover band that's not another cover band? They're your trio.

Come together right now...

Monkey business aside, we got the comeraderie flowing at last night's Guild meeting with a longer-than-usual conversation on projects and ideas and collaborations. I asked you to share things you were doing - or would like to do - to enhance our communities, spread the music and improve life. Here's what you brought to the table:

1. Church Songs, Stories and Q&A. Eli Suddarth, who leads music (and lots of other stuff) at River Valley Community Church, told us about an event he's cooking up for Nov. 7 teaming songwriter Scott Phillips with author Matthew Paul Turner. The goal is engaging a mixed audience of "churchy" and "non-churchy" types in thought and conversation on the ups and downs of Christian church and culture. Eli needs the (non-church) Aurora venue for a crowd of 200 or so, plus help from anyone who'd like to get involved in spreading the word. Click here if you'd like to drop Eli a line.

2. Songwriters United. Scott McNeil brought up an idea we've discussed before - how can we as songwriters and artists work together to do shows? For solo artists especially, it gets lonely setting up and playing on your own month after month. But colloaboration might also make us a more attractive package to venues and a bigger draw for audiences. What will it take to make this happen? A first step might be simply agreeing to call one another for opening-act spots more often. Eventually, though, it be nice to plan shows based around a family or artists instead of a single headliner. 

For a sense of how others are trying this, check out the Square Peg Alliance or the Chicago Songwriters Collective. I would LOVE to see something similar develop here at (or around) Backthird Audio. If anyone out there feels inspired to take leadership in this, let me know - and let me know how I can help!

We decided we'd make a start by starting a thread on the Backthird Facebook page where interested artists can leave their contact info. I've started a discussion thread for that - if you want in, click here to post!

3. The ADAM Project. Finally, architect Randall Coy shared his vision for ADAM - Architects, Designers, Artists and Musicians in collaboration to creatively impact community and culture. Our group was flush with ideas to infuse music more into Aurora, spreading joy and beauty all over. But ideas are one thing - if you're genuinely excited, Randall could use your help in bringing these ideas into reality! Click here and drop him a line if you'd like.

I've said this before, but I'm hoping next month will be our panel of booking agents - so stay tuned for an informative Guild meeting on Monday, July 27!

Harp on!

Kyle spent a long Saturday with the Naperville Chamber Players, who polished off sixteen (!) tracks - and gave him a chance to brush up on his harp-recording technique. Group leaders Dorothy Deen and Marie Bennett appreciated the sunshine and organic vibe of our live room - and we appreciated their incredible level of professionalism. Looking forward to next time.

Our second Showcase winner...

The results are in, and the favorite Songwriter at Tuesday's Showcase is Todd Kessler. Todd plans to perform with violin and cello accompaniment as Featured Artist at our next Showcase, July 7. Register online now before space fills up!

Los Músicos del Norte

Kyle spent all day Saturday with Firme, a newly formed Norteño group we've been seeing a lot of lately. The quintet tracked and mixed three songs top to bottom - and left us this to remember them by. For me it was a welcome change to trade the guitar amps in for sax and bajo sexto. Thanks, gents - looking forward to next time.

And the winner is...

Not that it's about picking winners, of course. Friday's kickoff to our Summer season of Songwriters' Showcases was a rousing success. A full roster of 9 songwriters performed for our studio audience, enjoying what's become a rare thing - a perfectly attentive room. We heard some great piano- and guitar-based songs in a variety of genres, and every artist walked out the door with a recording of their work. Featured Artist Vanagon wrapped up the night, with a set that can only be described as - well, just bounce over to the studio page and hear for yourself.

I've been telling people that while the Guild is about relationships, our Showcases are all about craft. But that didn't stop you guys from networking - from all the feedback I've gotten, the chance to connect with other serious songwriters after the Showcase was appreciated almost as much as the music itself. That tends to happen when you really take the time to listen to someone's creations, I suppose - you want to know the artist too.

Participating songwriters agreed to provide feedback for one another in the interests of growing better songs. I compiled that feedback and sent out the results to artists today. There were a lot of great comments, but David Yeager was the clear favorite. David and his band will be performing a half-hour acoustic set as our Featured Artist at the June 2 showcase. This also puts David in the running for the grand prize - an hour consultation with an EMI creative director at our Songwriting Conference in September.

Want to be in the running yourself - or just wish you were here to listen? We're currently registering Songwriters and Guests for the June 2 showcase right here. With three weeks until that Showcase, songwriter registration is already more than half full - so if you want to play, don't delay!

For more photos from Friday, cruise over to the studio's Facebook page.

Agent secrets, man!

Ok, bad news first. Our booking panel at last night's meeting of The Guild wound up a little thin - unexpected emergencies meant three of our four scheduled booking agents had to excuse themselves at the last minute. Welcome to the music world! I've issued temporary pardons only, though - expect a rescheduled panel sometime over the summer. If you're not on the studio e-mail list, stick your address in the box to the top-right of this page and be the first one to know when that happens.

Meanwhile, we soldiered on and had a great meeting nonetheless. Close to 50 of us packed into the studio lounge to hear Gina Moga, who books Downtown Alive! for the city of Aurora, fill us in on the world of festival booking. Gina gave us the straight talk on what festival promoters are looking for - do people know your music? Can you sell beer? And - above all - do you have a name that will bring people downtown?

For most of us local axe-grinders, of course, the answer's no. But there's more to a fest than a headliner. Here are a couple moves we touched on that might make you more attractive if you're a local band looking to work your way into opening local festivals:

• Play local. If you've got a following here, you're proven already. And fest organizers probably subscribe to the mailing lists of the local clubs - if you're playing there, they know your name already.
• Play covers. In case your momma forgot to tell you, everything's not about you. Fest audiences want to hear stuff they can sing along to. Give them some points of access.
• Consider Sonicbids. Some festivals insist on EPKs, while others - like Downtown Alive! - are willing to consider a variety of submissions. 
• Hit a conference. The Illinois Special Events Network does a convention every year - last year's was in February, but they're moving the next one up to November 2009. If you want to get yourself in front of 150 festival planners from all over Illinois, you can get a table on the expo floor for surprisingly cheap. Even better, 8 lucky acts get to perform at a conference showcase. Submissions for the showcase are taken only through - you guessed it - Sonicbids.

Chase away your blues...

Call them the Plastic Band. Last weekend we had the pleasure of tracking with a crew of vocalists, guitarists and one mean blues-harp player to record an original ditty for Chase Card Services. That's songwriter Gary Schmidt's atrocious pun in the heading of this post, not mine. And I'm pretty sure he's proud of it.

The Chase gang is taking their hard work back to the office this week, to shoot a video for their blues song that's all about working for Chase. It'll premiere at at a company convention in the near future.