The day we tracked Exit 18’s single, hello u’r mine, we also tracked the title track from their new album – Incantations. We wheeled the (very old) upright piano that lives in Studio B’s lounge into Studio A, installed a light in it, and a 4K Nikon camera (held in place with the lid). Julia Perry proceeded to perform inspiring takes at the piano – presenting acoustic challenges for Chuck who had to contend with the drums and piano in the same space (Rafi wanted the drums in the big room – for a huge rock sound)… Anyway – check out their performance – which is nothing short of mesmerizing. All performed live!
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Coleman Rogers Photography
We’re really pleased to hang Coleman Rogers’ photos in Studio B’s lounge for the next few months. Coleman is a long time music nerd, if you will – he’s an engineer, a tech, a teacher, a photographer, and like the rest of us – a devoted fan. The work that hangs in Studio B’s lounge is a combination of concert photography and art photography. In his own words:
Coleman spent his high-school years near Detroit, working in his darkroom for the school newspaper and yearbook, as well as the theater. The theater is where he learned to love shooting in the dark. After thirty-plus years in and around Boston and New York recording studios, as an engineer and service technician, Coleman retired and spends most of his time photographing shows and experimenting
with film, Polaroid, and digital photo techniques.In his live music photos, he tries to capture the raw energy of the moment by becoming emotionally involved in the music, paying full attention to the interplay between the artists on stage.
His photo experiments grow out of his Guided Chaos process, where randomness and entropy are part of the process. This current body of work represents a release of intention, where his creativity is centered on play for the sake of play, embracing mistakes and eschewing perfection, with no attachment to a specific outcome.
Coleman’s work will hang for the rest of the year (prints are for sale btw!), and we’re planning on hosting an opening at the end of October. While the work is easy to see if you’re working at Q, we’re happy to show it to anyone by appointment. Please drop us a line to schedule a visit!
Le Couteau – Now You’re Nowhere
Last summer we had Le Couteau in for a two-day lockout session in Studio A. At first the goal was just to capture their sound and release it as close to live as possible. But after hearing everything, the band decided to take their time with the process and we are glad they did. Save for a few hours of guitar overdubs in Studio B, the band tracked their whole record in those first two days. Driven primarily by frontman/guitarist, Jean-Francois Blain, the band blends their various influences to make something familiar to shoegaze fans but unique to each of the players in the band. Phil Murray sang backup and played bass, and Faris Albayya played drums.
Q Engineer Terrance Reeves co-produced and recorded. The album was mixed by local friend, Dereck Blackburn (of Quiethouse Recordings).
Count Zero – Live at Q Division
We were incredibly happy to host local icons Count Zero a couple of months ago for a very ambitious project. They wanted to perform their new record “thought so,” AND a bunch of older songs, live with and without an audience, while we multi tracked the show AND filmed with multiple cameras.
This session would require the highest possible quality of recording (including isolation), careful lighting, and multiple cameras and angles, alongside live sound reinforcement for the audience, and in ear monitoring for the band. We spent quite a bit of time getting to know the material and plotting the set up – and working through all the possible technical pitfalls we’d run into. The band booked two days – one entire day was dedicated to set up, then to recording/performing the set once with out an audience. On the second day we ran through the set at least one more time – with costume changes, and then the audience rolled in and they performed the set a final time (two sets, to be exact). We were able to capture a full multi track of the performance, mix the show live for the in house audience, and capture as many as 7-9 cameras of the performance (oh, and we also ran a secret livestream out to close friends and family of the band:).
Chuck Hargreaves engineered the recording, Izaak Biewald assisted and mixed the live sound, Rafi Sofer oversaw the entire production and took care of lights and cameras, with additional help provided by Q interns Kieh Blevins and Lydia Hazzard-Lael.
Peter Moore and Will Ragano (of the band) mixes and edited the resulting videos – check out this one for their song SOUTH.
Check out With A Feather – featuring keyboardist Jude Heichelbech on lead vocals
And here’s Big Wig, featuring Will Ragano on lead vocals (Will also edited all these videos):
And… Tail Bites Dog:
And their hit, Radium Eyes:
And one more…
Bob Bradshaw – Live in Boston
A few months ago Bob Bradshaw brought his band of killer players to Studio A, alongside a very talented video crew, and proceeded to record a live album in a single day!
The band, which plays regularly with Bradshaw in haunts as near as the Lizard Lounge and as far as Tipperary, Ireland, is a finely tuned band. Featuring (the Amazing) Mike Connors on drums, Andrew Stern on guitar, John Sheeran on bass, and special guests James Rohr on piano and Andy Santospago on pedal steel and guitar, this crew pulled no punches during an incredibly long day. They recorded upward of 12 songs! The video crew, helmed by Mark Steele captured multiple cameras with fantastic lighting, and the resulting album will be released soon – the videos have been trickling out in anticipation of this release. Rafi Sofer recorded the band, and Dave Westner mixed it (not at Q:).
Check out this video of the song Albuquerque.
