Innovation Mike

Today's Session

2007-02-17T15:28:00.000-08:00

I could tell you all about it, but pictures are worth a thousand words. . .

Video at the studio

2007-02-14T21:44:00.000-08:00

Here is a video that Punchline made while recording at Innovation Studios.

It should be law: All Non-Commercial Vehicles Are Motorcycles

2006-10-10T15:58:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about this the other morning as I rode my motorcycle to Pittsburgh. Many problems would be solved by making motorcycles the mandatory vehicle type for non-commercial driving. Many would take to public transportation, reducing the number of vehicles on the road, the amount of oil consumption and pollution. There would be far less accidents because of a) less drivers, and b) bikers who ride a lot of miles (as most would in this case) tend to be very aware, alert motorists who drive defensively. Furthermore, all motorcycles would have to be Harley-style cruisers, not just because they're cool, but for safety reasons as well. Crotch rockets should be banned all together. There's no need to go from 0-60 in 4 seconds. What about babies and kids, you ask? Simple . . . side car with a roof and climate control. And shopping? Order it online and have it delivered. Bad weather or cold temperatures? Simple. There will be removable cold weather pods that attach to the motorcycle frame and enclose your body. Sensors that detect the bike stopping will open hatches for your legs to poke through, allowing you to put your feet down on the pavement and hold the bike upright. Once you start riding, the hatches automatically close. Snow? Either use public transportation or don't go.
Hmm, I think that I'm on to something here.

The 80's

2006-07-13T05:39:00.000-07:00

The year was 1986. I was 14 years old. I'm the guy with the red guitar. I think we knew a Kiss song, and a Van Halen song at that time. It was one of our first jam sessions, though I never played any gigs with these guys.The drummer now plays in a band called Flywheel. They're pretty good.

Beautiful June Evening

2006-06-30T19:10:00.000-07:00

Tonight is one of those perfect air, breezy, summer nights. The air is clear (rare for Steubenville) and dry. I'm sitting on my front porch with our new doggy. Yes, we broke down and got a puppy for Mackenzie's birthday. I managed to snap this picture of the beast before my camera battery died. Her name is Chewy (it was Chewbacca when we thought she was a boy for the first week). She is part German Shepherd and part Black Lab. She is very smart for her age (12 weeks), she is almost house broken after only a month, and she's going to be very large when she grows up. I love the dog, but man, puppies are very hard. They require a TON of patience and attention. It is steadily getting easier as time goes by. Right now, she's eating a firefly.
In the studio, I just finished 3 songs with former Berlin Project singer Jon Belan. I had a great time with these songs, and Jon was a blast to work with. I think he will be posting them soon on his myspace page myspace.com/belan. All three songs are very cool, big guitar rockers, sometimes 80s sounding (perfect for me). It made me wish we were doing a whole album. Maybe someday . . .

Joia Farmer Rocks

2006-06-10T06:22:00.000-07:00

We've been working very hard for the past month on Joia Farmer's new CD. It was our first of many sessions with Erik Kerr on drums. I'm very excited about the unleashing of this CD upon the world. Some pictures:

Edwin Laying it down.

Edwin and I working out some parts to the song "I Would Die For You"

Joia: multitasking

Also just completed: the new Eric Himan CD!! Eric is always a pleasure to work with. He has Gobs of talent, his songs are amazing, and he is a super cool guy. His new album will certainly gain him many new fans. Yes, more pictures:

And finally, a special treat for this post. Here are a few pictures from my birthday.
Can you feel the love?

Righteous B bought a Harley!

2006-04-11T11:01:00.000-07:00

This is actually a picture of my bike. Bob picks his up on Friday.

I took him out today to give him a few riding lessons on my bike. It was a perfect day for riding; the sun is shining and its 72 degrees. He did really well for his first time actually handling a big road bike. It's nice to add him to the growing list of riding buddies I have this summer. Last year it was just Lou and I. We also have Dan the BassMan, and my new friend Ray.
Bob's bike is a 2006 Sportster Custom 883, and I think he said it is pearl white. I'll definitely have pictures to post when we pick it up Friday. I'm very excited for him, and I know he's very pumped about entering the world of motorcycling.
Those who know me also know that motorcycling is my favorite thing in life besides my family and my music. Yes, it is more dangerous than driving in a car, but if you ride safely and defensively, it can minimize the danger. There is no greater feeling of freedom and zen than being on a Harley cruising through rural country, feeling the wind, hitting warm and cool spots through the hills and valleys, smelling all of the foliage, listening to your bike rumble in the trees, leaning the powerful machine effortlessly around corners while the g-force pushes you into your seat rather than side to side, all with a 360 degree unobstructed panorama of the scenery. That's it, I'm going for a ride . . .

Thoughts for Easter

2006-04-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

I wonder how much money Americans spend on Easter candy and baskets. Imagine if every American put that money towards feeding an impoverished nation instead. It would probably save thousands from starving to death.

My career and the Catholic Church

2006-04-02T13:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I returned from Anaheim, CA where I played guitar for a popular Catholic artist at the LA Congress, which is a fairly large Catholic religious education conference. We played for about 8000 Catholic teens. While I was there, I had the privilege of meeting and chatting with some powerful people in the Catholic music business. I met a few fans of my work at the studio, and it was so cool to hear how much people appreciate what I do. I think that its awesome even when people tell me that they love what I'm doing for the Catholic church, though I am not Catholic, and actually not even Christian (I have a Secular Humanist worldview). When I'm at events like this and I chat with people about my faith (or lack thereof), 9 times out of 10 the person I'm talking to will get very nervous, give me a confused look, and then not know what to say. Understandably so. It is very ironic that I, a Secular Humanist, could become one of the most well connected and established names in the Contemporary Catholic Music world. How is something like this possible you might ask? The answer is simple: Geography.
I live in Steubenville, OH, home to Franciscan University, one of the most prominent and well know conservative Catholic universities in the US, maybe even the world. I am also a music lover. I moved to Steubenville in 1994 as a guitarist and music producer because of the connections I made while attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh (Steubenville is only 40 miles from Pittsburgh, and it is a lot cheaper to live there). At the time I moved, I worked part time at a local recording studio where Franciscan University produced a lot of their music tapes. This is how I began to work with artists like Bob Rice and Jim Cowan, and it ultimately led to my involvement with the summer conferences. For those who aren't familiar, Franciscan University hosts conferences every weekend throughout every summer that are attended by tens of thousands of people. To Franciscan University's credit, they have never questioned my faith and I've always been able to maintain a positive working relationship with the organization as a whole. I have made quite a few close friends who are very into their Catholic faith, and my own faith (or lack there of) has never been kept a secret.
My role in Catholic music has always been the same role I play in any music that I work on. That is, the role of musician and recording engineer. There has been one exception to this, and that is when I wrote the theme song for the Franciscan University youth conferences in 2003. I didn't write the song to promote my own agenda, I wrote it because it was a good song for the conference, and it was a work for hire business transaction. Because I've been involved in conferences so much and recorded most of the theme songs from prior years, I understood what the conference staff was looking for, and also what kind of song the attendees would relate to. It didn't matter to the University staff whatsoever whether I was Catholic or not. I think the University sets a great example that way. I provided a service to the conference as a songwriter, and that was it. This confused a few people.
In a conversation I was having this past weekend with a Catholic artist who has become very popular, he told me that he would never participate in Catholic music if he had my worldview. My response to that is: why not? I think that I do good work, and I'm an easy guy to work with most of the time. My role as a professional musician is to perform to my clients' expectations. It makes me happy to be able to make music that affects people in a positive way, whether they're Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist or Atheist. My music career is about music, and when I'm asked to provide music, that is what I bring to the table. I myself, do not want to proselytize my own worldview. I am strictly in it for the universal language of music. If I became acquainted with a Hindu organization and they liked my music, I would definitely offer it to them in the same way. I have the same respect for all of the major religions. We all live together in the same community, breathe the same air, eat the same food, etc.
The thing is, I never imagined that my playing would become so widespread in the Catholic church. There have been some faithful individuals who have criticized me for being deceptive. Just because I don't share faith doesn't mean I can't share musically. Music affects everybody and doesn't discriminate against faith. I have no problem working with anybody who wants to make great music, as long as they're professional about it. Faith doesn't matter. I admit that I've pondered the ethics behind my heavy participation in a faith I don't believe in. I've come to the conclusion that it is totally cool, since it is limited to music. I think that it would be wrong for me to reject the opportunity to make good music based on difference in faith, because then I would be guilty of discrimination and would be missing out on working with so many awesome, creative people. I have also decided to draw the line at playing for Mass, because it is a sacred ritual of the Church and I feel out of place being there "ministering" next to the altar. I don't usually kneel, and I never take communion (obviously). There have been a few times when I was asked to kneel instead of sit, because I was visible to the entire congregation. That is a situation where I'm portraying something different that the real me, and I don't belong up there. There have been, and will continue to be, many Masses without an electric guitar player. I think Mass will be fine without me.
One of the best parts of my job is getting to interact with all kinds of people from different backgrounds. I've learned a lot from working with the Church, and I know there are quite a few people who have learned a lot from me. And that's what its all about; interacting, creating, learning, and growing. That's all good stuff.

Lying

2006-03-23T08:35:00.000-08:00

Why do we tell our children not to lie, and also tell them that there is a tooth fairy, Easter bunny and Santa Clause? We can sugar coat it and dismiss these as a fun, innocent fairy tales, or tradition, or whatever. It boils down to the simple fact that we are lying to our kids. What is the worse of the two evils, depriving our children of these myths, or teaching them that it is ok to lie under certain circumstances?

Mackenzie has a few loose teeth. Kate and I will be creative, and we will not lie.

Happy Vernal Equinox

2006-03-21T09:53:00.000-08:00

Spring is coming. That is a good thing.

New blog overdue, Ryan Meyers fiasco, & more!

2006-03-20T07:16:00.000-08:00

I've been beyond ridiculous about keeping the blog updated. Yes, I've been busy, but it is no excuse. So my promise to you, the reader, is that I will provide interesting nuggets of information for you to ingest on a fairly regular basis. By fairly regular, I mean once a week. There is so much to say and it has been so long that its hard to know where to start.
First of all, obviously the blog has migrated over to this new site. The whopping 2 postings below were copied from the Live Journal blog that I started back in friggin October (now its March). I think blogger.com has a much better setup.
The last time I posted, I was beaming about how awesome the tune Quiet Cities sounded on the Ryan Meyers project. Funny story. . .after that post, I proceeded to clean off my recording hard drive without having the song properly backed up! Yes, we had to retrack the entire tune from scratch. Ryan was a great sport, although when I told him about it I could tell he wanted to reach his hand through the phone and smack me. So, after re-hiring Joe and Dan to come back, we actually ended up with a tighter track. Then it was time to pack some gear in the Mini and start the 15 hour trek to Mississippi (Ryan's work schedule wouldn't allow for him to return to the studio, plus it was my mistake so I took the burden of inconvenience).

All the stuff waiting to get packed in the car.

The remote studio

Ryan Meyers

Kate and I arrived in Hattiesburg and set up shop in a Hampton Inn. Ryan came over and banged out his parts in record time. It took him about two hours to do what took two days back in Steubenville. He was probably more comfortable, and the weather was definitely better. When it was all said and done, we ended up with a better track than the one we lost, so it was all good.
So, the ride back to Ohio brought Kate and I from the Gulf coast all the way to Lake Erie to pick up Mackenzie, and then back down to Steubenville. 20 hours straight in a car, another record. She is an angel for many reasons, and going on that trip with me certainly added to the list. The most insane part of the trip was that I was pulled over 19 hours and 50 minutes into the trip, and only three miles from home! I pleaded with the officer for mercy after the insanity of the previous three days. He was cool and let me go.
We received the final master of Ryan's project in the mail last week, and it is a very nice album, certainly one of our best.
The last few months have seen a lot of cool happenings. We recorded a few projects with my good friend Steve Soboslai from the band Punchline taking the role of Producer, and we actually make a great team. The two bands that Steve brought in are The Drama Summer from Toledo, OH (myspace.com/thedramasummer) and Fiction City from Toronto, Canada(myspace.com/fictioncity). Both bands recorded just a few songs each. From what I understand, The Drama Summer are now signing with an indie label and will be back to record a full length. Great for them and us! Fiction City have been getting rave reviews from their fans about their new music, and are planning a return to the studio for a full length as well. They made two separate trips to the studio so far, all the way from Canada (about 9 hours one way), at a great expense and inconvenience. For them to be willing to do that is very flattering and it tells me that we must be doing something right!
Other projects currently in the works: Peacefield (myspace.com/peacefield). Jeff Glatz came all the way from Texas to record a few new songs for a Peacefield EP. These songs are almost completed and sound amazing.
Righteous B is almost finished mixing his new album.
Bob Rice is continuing work on his Bluegrass album.
Joia Farmer is slated to begin her album in late April.
Finding Windemere (myspace.com/findingwindemere) are coming to track vocals with Steve Soboslai producing.
Eric Himan (www.erichiman.com) will be starting his new album in May
Chris Padgett's new album should be finished within the next month.

I love music.

5th November 05, from Live Journal

2006-03-20T07:12:00.000-08:00

10:16am: Gigantic-ness
We've been chugging along with the Ryan Meyers project. I'm anticipating project completion to be around Thanksgiving. We should be finished with vocals by the end of next week. We have been alternating recording of vocals and guitars to let Ryan's voice rest between takes.
Yesterday we tracked the electric guitars and bass for the song "Quiet Cities". Man, this tune is sounding huge! The guitars sound akin to the smashing of old rusty 50 gallon drums against telephone pole wires. They're so ugly that they're gorgeous. We achieved this using Bob Rice's Fender Deluxe amp and cranked the clean channel almost all the way after the amp was left on for several hours, so the tubes were nice and hot. The distortion sound is probably a combination of hot tubes and speakers crapping out. (BTW thanks Bob for letting us borrow your amp.) The guitar is tuned to an interesting open tuning which I can't remember the details at the moment, but the low strings are down to a Eb and the pickups switched to the 4th position middle/neck combo. We combined this track with a shimmering clean double track, and then added two tracks of guitar rig (plugin) in the choruses. Dan played the bass line on his p-bass with the signal split between an overdriven sansamp and an Avalon, also tuned down. I'm quite excited about the sound and the vibe of this track.

Actual picture of Dan recording his bassline.

Comment on this

29th October 2005

10:03pm: NCYC comes to and end
Unexpectedly I ended up at NCYC, and I write this from Atlanta, GA. My friend Gene Monterastelli (of Apex fame)called a few weeks ago and asked if I would play for Joia Farmer (Gene being her executive producer / manager). I instantly agreed, since I am a big fan of Joia's, it was a privledge for me to have the opportunity to play. I also played with Ryan Meyers, Chris Padgett, and half a set with Ben Walther. What a rockin weekend! I met so many cool people and had a lot of fun.

Ben Walther with band, plus John Flynn

Righteous B's merch table

20th October 2005

2006-03-20T07:07:00.000-08:00

9:15am: New blog! & Ryan Meyers day 1
Here I am, delving into the world of blogging. I've wanted to start one of these for a while, and thought that the beginning of a big studio project would be a great way to kick it off. So, this is the morning of day 2 of the new Ryan Meyers album production. Disclaimer: My spelling and grammar skills are rusty, so with that I will begin . . .
Ryan arrived at the studio about 11:30 Tuesday night, after driving all the way from St. Louis and as of the time I’m writing this its already been a very eventful session. Upon his arrival we spent some time relaxing, socializing and talking about the album production over a few shots of whiskey. Dan the man was present for the occasion as well. There were some minor concerns from the record company about some of Ryans lyrics, and the lack of blatant "God" reference, and we discussed some options to try to please everyone. After a good night of sleep (thanks in part to Mr. Beam) we awoke to a pleasant phone call from the record company guy that erased all of our concerns. One of the great things about Ryan’s lyrics, especially on this new album, is that he leaves room for interpretation and it gives the listener a more subjective experience. I would have been disappointed to see that compromised. Ultimately it was decided between Ryan and the record company that some descriptive liner notes would suffice. This solution is better than changing his songs, but will still take away from the listener’s experience of the song if he/she chooses to read the notes (in my humble opinion). This has always been a big criticism of mine with most of the Christian music that’s produced these days (especially Catholic). The lyrics are often too literal and repetitive.
Wednesday was spent on click tracks, scratch tracks and arrangements. I am very impressed with this batch of songs. Ryan has grown a lot since his last project with his songwriting abilities and confidence with his vocals. Listening to the scratch tracks made me very inspired, and production ideas are flowing effortlessly.
Through the course of the day, my main studio computer caught some kind of strange virus. Every time I would open an explorer window, the calculator would pop up, and this was the only symptom. Ryan and I spent a few hours at the end of the day trying to track down this problem to no avail. So, the day ended with a little concern about how we would fix the problem. Ryan installed about 51 antivirus and anti-spyware programs on the system, and this morning, the problem was found by one of said programs after it downloaded new definitions. These viruses and spyware are out of control! I can’t believe the amount of crap that’s out there. Having my studio computer connected to the internet is a no-no, but I like to live dangerously. Plus, checking email between takes is convenient.
Other cool things about this morning: My lovely partner in life and in the studio, Kate, surprised me with a package that arrived via UPS red. She knew that I loved the sound of the old Mellotron synths, so she ordered M-Audio’s m-tron soft synth, basically a software emulation of the classic. She rocks! And, I’m very excited to try it on this project.
As I write this journal entry, we (Dan, Ryan and I) are in the car on the way to the airport to pick up Josh the drummer. Lou Contumelio (of Aardvark productions) was kind enough to let us use his Pearl drum kit for the session. On the way back from the airport we will be stopping at Guitar Center to pick up Tascam Gigastudio and a new hard drive. An updated version of Native Instruments Guitar Rig has been ordered and is on its way to the studio.
Today, Josh will be recording for the first time in his life. It will be a great day.
I will do my best to update daily, so stay tuned!

Josh at the airport