2012
July was a busy month, and a hot one in NYC! I spent a fair amount of time mastering projects at Masterdisk this month. I did an album for Orrin Bolton
I spent a day at Flux Studios on 2nd street tracking drums with Chris Bennelli for singer/songwriter Ross Dackow’s new project. The tracks sound sweet
and I look forward to more overdubs with Ross and mixing in the fall.
Eleven Audio Design has really been taking off. Kevin and I have been working on preliminary designs for a penthouse apartment on the Upper West Side
as well as hanging speakers in a SoHo sushi spot we are designing and installing. Eleven Audio has also been repairing and rewiring the sound system at the
lounge/bar Vlada in Hell’s Kitchen. We are prepping a design and sound proofing consult on the old Allen & Delancey restaurant/bar space for the current
owners of another client of ours, Highlands Bar & Restaurant in the West Village.
A private studio owner client has added a couple custom patch bays and some more outboard gear to his place in Brooklyn.
Plans also include an HD Logic rig upgrade and more outboard pieces in the fall
Eleven Audio Design was called in to do an emergency service call and redesign at the
flagship location of Soul Cycle in Tribeca. We worked overnight to install all new JBL main speakers,
and more than double the amplifier power in their main studio. We are going to be their sound service company as well as working on designs
for upcoming new locations.
I spent a day doing backline tech monitor mixing for KT Tunstall on some promo and press gigs in NYC.
It was great to meet her and work with her. Big thanks to Rebecca Travis, our UK/Europe FoTC tour manager, for bringing me onto the gig.
Been doing some mixing for new NYC band, The Rassle, These guys are great. Really cool songwriting and textural guitars and keyboards.
Hopefully there’ll be more production/mixing down the line with these guys. The Rassle definitely has a lot of potential
to be a really great band and burst on the scene this fall.
California surf punk band, Gantez Warrior, played the launch party for the Warriors of Radness x Saturdays Surf Shop
collaboration at Saturdays Surf Shop in SoHo. It was a great party and the rain stayed away.
I had fun putting together a small PA and setting up the band and DJ setup, as well as of course mixing
these guys. Check out their music produced/mixed by Mickey Petralia. Sounds great!
I spent a day at Fluxivity setting up Joe Blaney’s mix session. He was mixing a band from south america and the tracks were coming off 2″.
They sounded great! Also did a day of 2″ analog transfers for Nat and Joe at Fluxivity. Did a few live mixing dates in town including
Robbers on High Street at Mercury Lounge. I was really happy to catch John Garrison’s set at the new Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2.
John debuted some new tunes we are going to record towards the end of the year. Beautiful stirring ballads and a couple moody pop numbers!
Looking forward to it very much!
June 2010
June started out with a week of Dan Black dates in California including the Roxy in LA, as well as shows in San Diego, Fresno, Costa Mesa and the
BFD festival in San Francisco and a private event in Chicago.
I return to New York City after the Dan Black tour and will be mixing an EP for the band Hollertown. This is another batch of tunes from the same
sessions I mixed from a few years back. After that, Eleven Audio has quite a few projects in the works. Several restaurants and 2 high end multilevel
townhouse system designs/installations coming up soon.
May 2010
May brought around the Flight of the Conchords world tour from May 1 – May 31.
I went on tour with the band as the monitor engineer, as well as backline/stage tech, and many other “odd jobs” as Jemaine commonly
referred to my work during shows. FOTC played shows in the UK, Holland, Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and in Las Vegas,
San Francisco and Los Angeles in the U.S. Some notable shows included 4 in London (2 at the Hammersmith and 2 at Wembley Arena!),
a sold out Berkeley California Greek Theater and an almost sold out Hollywood Bowl attended by over 15,000 people.
After the tour wraps in LA on the 31st of May, I have a few days off before starting a week of club/festival dates with Dan Black.
April 2010
March wrapped up with a short promo tour for Dan Black as well as a trip down to Miami for Ultra Fest.
The gig was on the headlining stage, but due to rain right as soundchecks and doors were supposed to open the skies opened up and it poured. I fashioned
this sweet poncho so we could keep working and then the skies cleared and it was showtime!
We played a sold out show at Schubas’s in Chicago and a few radio gigs in Canton, New Haven and Albany. There was a great show in Toronto and a great
festival for cd101 in Columbus, OH for over 2000 people.
April has been a very busy month. Eleven Audio Design completed the sound system installation for the restaurant/lounge at
The Strand Hotel on 37th Street. The space is still under construction and we will be doing some room tuning adjustments prior to opening
but the system is installed and fully operational. It is a very cool space with another large outdoor patio in the back past the fireplace.
The Strand’s roof top bar was voted #1 roof bar in NYC for this year by NY Mag, and Kevin and I did the sound system up there.
When back in New York, I have been busy mixing and mastering out of Masterdisk and my home studio. I completed an album for Jay Legaspi
and recent mastering clients include: Bochan, Jay Legaspi, Ashley Hancock, and Bearface. The Bearface project was very cool because the
band hired me to do 2 separate masters; 1 for digital release and downloads, and one for vinyl.
The latest Robbers on High Street album is mixed and in the can. We did 2 songs for Engine Room Recordings. They are putting out a digital single and limited edition
7″ of “Face in the Fog” and “Electric Eye” Look for this to be available early June as the band has a release party/concert scheduled at Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory.
The single and the rest of the album were mixed over 6 days at Dunham Studios in Brooklyn. Really cool place with a classic vibe. We mixed from 1″ 16 track through
through a 16 channel MCI desk from the 70s with the help of some chandler eqs and compression as well as analog reverbs and delays down to 1/4″ 2 track.
Probably the coolest aspect of this whole album was that if you purchase the vinyl version of either the album or Engine Room single,
there is not a single digital part of any of it. Completely analog from first take straight through to final master tape.
The lacquers are being cut straight from the 1/4″ mix masters. We haven’t looked at a single waveform this entire project, and
I could not be more excited or proud of what the band and I produced. Can not wait for everyone to hear it.
When I was not mixing the Robbers on High Street I was in Fluxivity studios for a day mixing a great pop track for Dan Sage, and 2 days
with Gordon Minette and Mark Grandfield mixing 5 songs for their project, which takes standards like “Blackbird” and “Wee Small Hours,” and puts a dark and sinister twist on them.
Some amazing players in the band included Gordon Minette, Tony Garnier, Marc Ribot, and Danny Kortchmar. Grandfield’s vocals were superb and haunting. I look forward to more mixing with these two
when I return from Europe in June.
Next update will come from somewhere in Europe as I am spending all of May abroad mixing monitors for Flight of the Conchords
March 2010
I spent the middle of March at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas mixing shows for Dan Black. We had 6 shows in 4 days. Stay tuned to Sonic Scoop
for a piece on my time down there.
Here’s a link to the MTVu video promo shoot we did. Look for the video clip of "Symphonies" in April and to run all the
the way to SXSW 2011. Photos are here.
Here’s a YouTube clip of Dan performing at SXSW and the amazing official video for “Symphonies”…
I mastered some Via Tania remixes for The Hours, here’s a link to the Juan MacLean remix of “Fields” by Via Tania on Xl8tr Magazine’s website
And here’s another link to Fader Magazine’s post of the Via Tania Lemonade remix of "Fields."
John Garrison came back to New York for a gig at the Living Room before heading up to Canada for Canadian Music Week.
It was great to catch up and spend a couple days hanging out. John played me some new demos and starting discussing ideas for the next project.
Hopefully we can get something underway while I’m in Europe touring with Flight of the Conchords in May.
I ended February mixing a track called “16” for Bochan in San Francisco at Talking Head Productions.
It’s an amazing facility with beautiful equipment and an SSL 9000K
from the Hit Factory. I brought the track
back to New York and mastered “16” and another track called “Desires” at Masterdisk.
First part of March has been busy with mixing. I am mixing an album for singer/songwriter Jay Legaspi.
There will be some more small revisions and sequencing but the songs are great and producer
John Valencia did a great job.
Hamacide decided to add another track to his LP mixed by me in late 2009, so I mixed this new track at my studio.
I’ve also been busy mastering a lot as of late. Chicago based Misery Loves Company hired me to master their
Toy Block Music compilation which features adult productions of classic children’s songs like “Wheels on the Bus”
and “Oh Susannah.” Look for this album in the upcoming months.
Michael Hewett completed mixing on two songs for his upcoming album. I tracked Joe Bonadio on drums back in 2009
and have been consulting on the mixes with Michael recently. I mastered the two songs at Masterdisk and look forward
to doing the rest of the album in the next few months.
February 2010
You can now follow me and eleven audio on twitter. Click the icons below:
I mastered a 3 song EP for NYC band, Admiral Halsey. A good friend and engineer, Adam Thompson mixed the album and it sounds great.
Full and lush, big harmonies and hooks. Other mastering work lately has included a song for Chicago based, Toy Block Music.
The last half of February I’ve been on the road with UK Artist Dan Black. His album, ((UN)), came out this month and features the song “Symphonies.”
I actually sequenced the US version of the album adding several bonus tracks and the new version of “Symphonies” that features rapper, Kid Cudi.
We did a few days of Rehearsals in NYC and kicked off the tour with a great show at Mercury Lounge in NYC. The tour took us to Montreal,
Toronto, then on to the west coast to do shows in San Diego, LA, and San Francisco.
After wrapping up the spring tour, I stayed in San Francisco to mix a track for Arlen G. of Toby Dick and Cambodian artist, Bochan.
The John Garrison track, “Let’s Run,” was recently featured on an episode of MTV’s The Real World.
February is only a few days old and already it’s been a busy month. Eleven Audio Design is officially an LLC now, got approval from
NY State for the name etc. We are working on some exciting projects including a SoHo loft buildout and Tribeca Penthouse gut renovation.
Also in the works is another Go Figure studio in Connecticut, . Eleven Audio Design also recently completed a system upgrade and
augmentation at Wicked Willy’s in NYC’s Greenwich Village, a video projection and live sound system for Tanteo Spirits, lighting
installation at Midtown’s Zanzibar and Dopo Teatro, as well as mixing the live sound for the “Bye Bye Birdie” closing night party in the basement
space of Dopo Teatro. The sound system there was an Eleven Audio Design concept and installation completed back in November. Fashion label
Jason Wu opened up shop in Chelsea and tapped Eleven Audio Design to install, program, and tune the system in their offices/showroom.
The beginning of February saw the completion of the recording phase of the Robbers on High Street‘s third LP.
I will be mixing several songs for a maxi single/album teaser soon. It came out sounding great. We put 14 tracks down in total.
Probably 12 on the album and 2 more for a single/b-side.
HAMACIDE’s kickstarter campaign was a success, he raised over $4000 in 2 months. Be on the lookout for this album that I mixed later this year.
Ian Dudley’s The Woods EP received a great review from Music Cookie. The EP is available free as a download. It is definitely worth checking out.
I really enjoyed working with Ian, playing drums and mixing his album.
January 2010
Arlen and Lee from Toby Dick have unleashed the first official video for their debut SoundVise Records EP, “It’s Whatever.”
I mixed this album at Fluxivity studios in Brooklyn and mastered it at Masterdisk in Studio 1.
Check it out here:
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.