JOSö debut album

 I'm really excited to write about this project. Back in January when I first took over Ryan Dahle's old studio in the Song City music studio complex I began working with Johanna Sö. Johanna is a virtuoso violinists, classically trained, graduate of Carnegie Mellon, touring violinist with the West Coast Celtic band The Town Pants and now a singer songwriter.

Back in December of 2020 during the dark winter months of Covid 19 lockdowns and social isolation Johanna approached me about recording some of her music. Initially I thought it would be a violin album with one or two vocal songs. When January rolled around however she showed up at the studio with 6 complete songs and a backpocket full of other ideas. We set out with an intention to record the songs with a central focus on the violin as that was her primary instrument. However those first intentions were not even remotely as encompassing as the final record has proven to be. 

Co-producing this album with me is Duane Keogh. Duane is one half of the core members to The Town Pants. I have worked with Dave and Duane on almost every The Town Pants album they've made since 1997 so Duane and I have a long history and friendship between us. With his help we approached the task of capturing Johanna's ideas. 

I'm extremely proud of the work we've all done on this record. The final scope of the music is so immense and beautiful that it still makes me smile a bit when I listen to certain sections. We took 8 songs and crafted them into 8 unique journeys, all held together around the violin and Johanna's voice but each branching out with their own melodic intentions. From the more direct approach to songs like These Scares or You're Lovable, to the quirky jazzlike Purple Piano and ending with the epic 7 minute Breathe we covered a lot of ground sonically. Throughout, the playing is superb: with shout outs to the brilliant drumming of Terence F Clark and the outstanding basswork from Hugh McMillan, the vibrant cello of Cara Fox all complimenting Johanna's violin work. It would be an understatement to say the musical results are some of the best music I've ever recorded. 

In the following weeks I would like to go into some detail surrounding this music, digging into the multitrack to expose some of the lush layers we created with vocals and violin stacks. There are countless exceptional auditory segments that still surprise me when I solo them up in a mix. The writing and playing on this album are great and deserve to be written about in detail! 

More to come!

Thanks for reading. 

Mark

Last Days of Mushroom Studio

A great venerable recording studio in Canada is closing it's doors this week.  Hipposonic (more popularly remembered as Mushroom Studio) has been sold and this country's equivalent to Abbey Road is shutting its doors forever.  It is with both regret and some selfish excitement that I can announce that we'll be in there tomorrow evening to record a new Guilty About Girls song with Jordy Birch and Lucas T Poth.   These last day sessions are part of owner Rob Darch's desire to offer something memorable and historic to the audio community before we witness the departure of his great sounding studio.   Tomorrow should prove an emotional day, but I'm excited to be a part of one last sessions before it transforms into an office space.

An additional note for posterity is that we've asked John Webster to help record our session.  Way back in the late eighties John once produced Jordy and Todd Simko's first band After All.  Even though Todd is no longer with us I think it's a rather pleasant way to say goodbye to one of my favorite studios anywhere in the world, and rather poetic for Jordy to retrace a few old steps from his past.

Please stay tuned for the reveal of the song Riot Riot  a moody piece that I'm suspecting many old fans of Pure might be pleasantly surprised to hear.  Another great song from Mr. Birch.

Thanks for reading,
Mark Henning

Hidden Treasures: Gilles Zolty "Horny Astronaut"

Gilles Zolty - Horny Astronaut

A while back, and I mean over a decade now, I had the pleasure of working on a fantastic album by Gilles Zolty, his end of the millenium opus Horny Astronaut.  Gilles had approached me to do a little mastering on his home recorded album.   We spent a few hours working on things and in the end I gave it my best shot but really thought there was a great deal of potential that was being missed in the mixes.   Gilles walked away that afternoon with a new cd-r and a few things to think about.

Over the summer of 1999 we got to speaking and decided to attempt upgrading his sonics by leaving his home basement studio and going into Studio 55 in N. Vancouver, where I'd been working for a few years at that point.  The differences were quite noticeable and we were both rather pleased with the results.  I thought I'd finished my work and was later surprised to learn that Gilles had been in communication with an English producer named Paul Schroeder (Stone Roses, The Verve).  By late September we'd booked more studio time because Paul was flying over to help finish the album.  I confess I was a bit surprised by this latest news as I'd considered our work done.  However from the moment Paul stepped into the studio I discovered there was in fact a great many things to do!

We worked around the clock for two weeks straight.  The first week was spent on editing, arrangements, additional parts, re-recording bits, replacing vocals, tweaking keyboard parts, replaying basslines, adding guitar parts: essentially what everybody does in the course of making an album.  It was a hectic week of tracking but we achieved a tonne of things and felt extremely excited about the project by the end of our labours.

Next came another solid week of 15-20 hour days where we mixed 11 of the 12 songs on the album.  Paul and I ended up tag teaming on a couple of the mixes as we were running out of time before Paul had to return to the UK.  In the end we got it done, with Paul literally putting the final touches on a mix right before picking  up his bags and jumping in a cab taking him straight to the airport!  A brilliant couple of weeks for sure.

My memory is filled with the fun and enthusiasm that surrounded this album.   Both Gilles and Paul are outstanding people, the former a bold talent, the latter a fearless visionary.  I learned a great deal about art, music, recording, producing and simply being a better person from each of them.  Over the years I later went to the UK and worked with Paul on several different records for groups such as The Upper Room, The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster and My Red Cell amongst others.  Gilles moved to London for several years, where we met up and did more recordings, some of which appear on his follow up album "Gilles Zolty".

The sound of Horny Astronaut is a wonderful blend of the acoustic and the electronic, a folk noir sound, at once both primitive and ethereal.  The album never really got a full release, it came close on several occasions, but has remained a hidden treasure for years now.  Please have a listen, and if you enjoy it, grab a copy from his music site.

Mark Henning