February 2010

January 2010

John Garrison's album Departures was voted the #1 British Album of the Year by Rob Quicke at Britsound Radio.
The review is great, and myself and everyone associated with this album believe completely that it is an amazing work.
We are all so proud, and it is an honor to be listed with bands and albums from 2009 that I enjoy and respect:
Imogen Heap, Athlete, Lilly Allen, Doves, The Enemy, and John Garrison. It's good company to be in!
Looking forward to many more projects with John.

Rounded out 2009 with some great work. I am extremely proud of the music I've made this year. Another amazing Conchords
album and season. A couple projects with close friends, the launch of Masterdisk Indie, and Eleven Audio Design the sound design/installation/consulting
company launched by myself and Kevin Brubaker.

Yusuke's Kickstarter campaign for his Hamacide album has been up for about a month and already passed the 50% mark!
Please continue to support by passing links to his music along to your friends and spread the word.

December 2009

Masterdisk Indie launched with a great kick-off party in December, and Janice and David from SonicScoop were there to capture it all.
They wrote a great piece on the website about the state of the industry and how mastering is changing and the way we are trying to reach out to
a new customer base through Masterdisk Indie's competitive pricing structure.

Yusuke Hama has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds from fans to release his latest solo album
(that I had the honor to mix!) independently. Please click the image below to go listen to an album teaser,
read about the project, and help support original music.



Eleven Audio Design has been busy with sound installations for new Go Figure aerobics studios in Rye, NY. We have also
been doing acoustical treatment and consulting for a private townhouse recording studio in Carroll Gardens Brooklyn.
Currently we are working on a few exciting projects with some exciting clients

The rowdy boys in Holistic have made a new music video for the next single off their album that I mastered.
Check it out!

December has been busy since Thanksgiving. Continued overdubs with Robbers on High Street for their third LP. We spent a weekend overdubbing
keyboard at Carousel Recording. It's an amazing studio owned and operated by Joe McGinty. None of the keyboard used on the album were younger
than 30 years! Stay tuned for some album teasers around the new year.

November 2009

November has brought the release of John Garrison's new album "Departures" and instrumental versions of 3 songs were featured heavily during the
climactic wedding episode of "Keeping up with the Kardashians" on E! Entertainment Television. The clip below features a beautiful section of the song "Go".

John's album is available now on iTunes. Click this button to purchase.

The Cazals EP of remixes I mastered last month was cut to Vinyl at Masterdisk this month, look for that special edition release around the holiday time.
I sequenced and compiled remixes for Kitsune artist, autoKratz, as well as The Hours artist, Dada Life.

I am proud to announce the launch of Eleven Audio Design, a joint venture by myself and Engineer/Designer Kevin Brubaker.
Kevin and I have been designing, servicing, and installing sound installations for bars, clubs, offices, restaurants, residences, and recording studios
all over Manhattan and the Tri-State area for several years now, and this is our new company to head up these projects. We specialize in truly custom,
and easy to operate systems on any budget as well as custom music programming solutions tailored to individual clients' needs.
Click the logo below to head over to our new site and see what we are all about.

Also this month, I've been mixing more remixes by Hamacide. Yusuke produced remixes of songs by Robbers on High Street, Post War Years,
and Flight of the Conchords. Look for these somewhere on the internet in the not too distant future.

October 2009

October blew by and I was busy working with a lot of great artists on some very exciting projects. The beginning of the month I wrapped up mixing on the
debut Toby Dick album, "It's Whatever." Working with Arlen and Lee was a blast. We did premixing and some editing and creative work at my studio
and then holed up in Fluxivity out in Brooklyn for 3 long days and completed mixing of the 7 songs that make up the album.
I also mastered the selections. Look for them later this winter.

Speaking of mastering, October was a busy month for me at Masterdisk. I completed mastering for several different artists. There was an EP of remixes of
U.K. band, Cazals, for The Hours. Remixes by Tiesto and Phatzoo were featured as well as several others. Look for this special release later this fall/winter.
I also completed mastering for independent electronic artit, Zero Chaser.

I have been mixing a really cool project for Brooklyn based band, Grub Animal. It is a concept album revolving around
Eskimo mythology. There are 17 tracks ranging from raw thrashing to delicate textural pieces and folky acoustic numbers.

October is CMJ music fest month in NYC and I was busy this year with the festival, both mixing bands and seeing bands.
I mixed Robbers on High Street at the Bell House in Brooklyn which was a blast. I mixed Robbers there on the opening night
a little over a year ago and the staff has made great improvements. The Room sounds really sweet. The crowd was mellow but
the guys put on a killer show. Several days later, I entered Saltlands Recording with Robbers and we spent 6 days tracking
basics for what will be their 3rd LP. We are recording the entire album analog on a Tascam MS-16 track 1" tape machine.
We'll be doing the bulk of the work at Saltlands and eventually will keep it all analog and put it down to Vinyl and maintain our pre workflow.

It's an amazing feeling again to smell the tape, relax while it rewinds, and most of all listen to the music without staring at waveforms on a monitor.

Prior to CMJ, John Garrison spent a week here doing press for the upcoming release of Departures on November 10.
He played a great show at Rockwood Music Hall and afterword, he and I sat down with Janice Brown from SonicScoop.com
and spoke about the making of his upcoming album.

September 2009

August rolled right into September and a lot has been going on. The end of August saw the beginning of an excited new venture for me.
I am one of several engineers involved in Masterdisk's new indie service, Masterdisk Indie. I have had the pleasure to master several
remixes for The Hours' artist, Via Tania. She's an amazing talent and the remixes were top-notch.

I completed several masters for SoundVise artist, Arlen Hart and his duo Toby Dick. Look for these tracks later this fall.

I am really excited about the first 2 singles from a new Akeal album that I recently mastered for the boys at Masterdisk.
The rates are insanely reasonable for the highest level of quality, service, and results. Email me here to discuss your project

I was honored to be interviewed for Pro Sound News and for a new upstart website for Sound/Music professionals, SonicScoop.com.
Both articles are great. The Pro Sound News one focuses more on the tour. Ryan Pickett, who was FOH engineer for the recent
Flight of the Conchords tour and I sat down to discuss all the craziness that ensued.

Later this month I will be completing the bulk of the tracking for the upcoming Robbers on High Street release as well as
mixing an album for a really cool rock band called, Grub Animal.

I am very excited about working at an amazing new facility, Great City Productions, in NYC. I've been doing some engineering for Producer Britt Myers
on several albums he is working on in his beautiful new studio. My first work on an SSL Duality and it is an amazing desk for sure.

Looking forward to more projects with Britt at Great City.

August 2009

I recently was trying to find some art for a project I worked on and stumbled across this video for a track I worked on for Robbers on High Street.
I rerecorded drums and vocals with Ben at Saltlands in Brooklyn and then mixed the track at my Walkup Studios.
5It was used in a compilation for winter of 2008/9 by REI for the Go Playlists. Here's a video for the track

Diverted Traffic, the latest album by UK Based Nigerian Reggae artist, Ben Okafor, was released on Roadsweeper Records this month.
Harvey Jones produced this album and brought me in to mix. Mixing took place earlier in the year at One East Recording.
Fred Kevorkian mastered the disc and it came out beautifully. Harvey is producing the second album of his music duo, Sex & Sorrow
with partner DB Leonard. I tracked drums with Joe Bonadio and am doing some more vocal tracking and edits before mixing later this year.

Ian Dudley released his latest project entitled, The EP Logue.
Click the cover to download the tunes for free and make a donation in the name of art.

I have also pasted an amazing video he and his bandmates created for their first release.


More tracking with Robbers on High Street for their third album. Final mix tweaks to Hamacide's new album.

In other big news, I have been offered access to one of the amazing rooms at Masterdisk where I am bringing in my own clients for mastering at
significant discounts compared to what major labels charge. Plans are in place to master Toby Dick, Hamacide, and Taka's albums there this month.

John Garrison has confirmed a release date for his sophomore solo effort, "Departures," that I produced. Here is a great video about the making of this album:

July 2009

Began production on the third Robbers on High Street album. Tracking on their 8 track tascam reel to reel machine in their
rehearsal space and doing overdubs at Brooklyn's Saltlands Studios. Songs have a great 60s pop vibe. Can not wait to get them fleshed out more.

Mixed two songs for the Bay Area's Toby Dick at Saltlands recently for an upcoming Double A-side Maxi Single.

Mixing Hamacide's new album at Walkup Studios. Hamacide is the producer half of the band, Leyode, also known as Yusuke Hama.
The Brooklyn based artist and I have collaborated before on a couple different singles as well as his Leyode instrumental remix project.

Mixing 8 songs for a new album by electronic artist, Taka, at Walkup Studios.

June 2009

Back in New York City for the summer. FOTCtour was an amazing experience. Back in my studio this month finalizing the new album for John Garrison.
We wrapped up mixing back before tour at Fluxivity Studios in Brooklyn. The album was mastered by Richard Flack in London, and sounds great.
Richard also did a new mix of the album opener, "Let's Run." I could not be prouder of this album, I am very excited for everyone to hear it.
Hopefully someone with some influence will want to give this album the wide release it deserves.

Looks like the final running order and album will be as follows:
"Departures" by John Garrison
Produced/Engineered/Mixed by Matt Shane
1. Let's Run
2. I Leave On Friday
3. So Close
4. Footprints
5. Alexander & Annabel
6. Once Around The Block
7. Rendezvous
8. Lost
9. Cold Coffee
10. I Want You
11. Go
12. Second For The First Time

April-May 2009

All of April and May I am out on a US and Canada tour with Flight of the Conchords. We are playing 42 shows in 36 cities.
I played drums on "Business Time" at Red Rocks Amphitheater in front of 10,000 people and at the Greek Theater in LA

and Santa Barbara Bowl:
5
We recorded a handful of shows towards the end of the tour, but no one knows if they'll ever see the light of day.
We stopped into Chung King for some final mixing during our day off in New York,
and also did some mix tweaks to a couple album tracks on a day off in LA while on the road. Even recorded a couple vocal overdubs in their
dressing room prior to shows. The album "Flight of the Conchords" went silver in the UK surpassing sales of 60,000 units.

March 2009

Mixed the remaining 7 tracks for John Garrison's new album, "Departures," at Fluxivity Studios in Brooklyn, NY. The tracks came out amazing and
the album should be out late summer or early fall.

Recording and Mixing for Ian Dudley's The Woods project. The Woods are working on a new EP with contributions from musicians all over the country.
I played drums and recorded all the vocals and guitars. Mixing and mastering took place at my studio, Walkup Studios.

Mixed 3 songs for the band, The Glad Hearts, at One East Studios. Check out their new album, "The Oak and the Acorn" online.

Had a great live show with Milton up in Larchmont, NY at the Watercolor Cafe. Great food, gig, and crowd.

More live sound gigs with Robbers on High Street at Union Pool in Brooklyn and I mixed Cazals at The Studio at Webster Hall. Robbers on High Street
showcased a couple new tunes which will hopefully make it on their third album I am slated to produce later this summer.

Went to Shelter Island Sound and tracked Joe Bonadio on drums for Michael Hewett's new album. Amazing instrumental pieces and
Joe absolutely nailed it. Look for that album later this year. Joe is one my top choices for session drummers, he is really something special.
Over at Mission Sound in Brooklyn, I tracked him playing drums on a Dan Zweben tune called "Waiting for the Sun" early one morning before
jumping into more Flight of the Conchords.

Spent a bit of time at my place, Walkup Studios, finalizing mixes and premastering on a new album by Lori Scacco & Eva Puyuelo.
The album features 8 beautiful songs full of rich organic textures. Lori and Eva are true talents.

Holistic recruited me to master their new album "Technicolor" and it cranks. Izzy and Iron Sheik's raw production style really jumps out of the stereo.