Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Ready?
[00:00:03] Speaker B: I am Aaron Nathans.
[00:00:04] Speaker A: I'm Michael G. Ronstadt, and you're listening.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: To the Nathans and Roncast.
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Hey, that's the best one yet.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: Awesome. We're getting there, and we are kind of getting there.
[00:00:16] Speaker A: Second to last episode. And we're figuring out our intro.
That's branding for you.
[00:00:25] Speaker C: It.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: We are doing a song today called $1 Gloves.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Yeah. And this is. We played it last night and it goes down good live, I think.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: I think so.
It's mostly accessible, part weird.
The chorus kind of has a major and then minor, major, minor, which tickles my ears whenever I hear that type of thing. So hopefully there's a musician out there who actually, I've had musicians come up to me and say, oh, I like how you do that section. And the owner of Michael Roncat said that this is the hit of the album, in his opinion. So that's Dave Crittle.
Dave, shout out. You're getting a weird shout out every time because of your cat.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: So anyway, this song has no social redeeming value whatsoever.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: I don't think it does. No. It's about buying your going to the dollar store, getting a pair of gloves because you lost your expensive ones. It's akin to losing your nice sunglasses and the cheap pair just keeps showing up.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: But we do make note of know, was it made in China or India, perhaps by sad, sad worker in a life so very trapped and so obviously we do know that the way things are made is not fair to many humans on this planet. And we're kind of stuck in a strange, unfortunate cycle of production and labor and just general being unfair to our fellow humans a lot of times. And it's tough being. It is in the US, because sometimes that's what you can afford.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: It's tough to be pure if you're going to be a socially conscious consumer.
Everything around you was made somewhere. And that's a little scary to think about how some things get made especially for that cheap. That if you can buy one dollars gloves, I mean, by golly, how much is the person being paid to make those one dollars gloves?
[00:02:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, you go to a farmer's market and you get hand knitted gloves from someone, they might be $20. $20? Yeah. And it's worth it. Absolutely worth it to buy that. But occasionally you're stuck and it's cold and there's a dollar store.
[00:02:57] Speaker B: That is what happened to me.
I misplaced my gloves. I found them, but for a long time, I couldn't find my gloves, and I was cold, and there was the dollar store. So I went in and there were these flat gray gloves that fit perfectly into my coat pocket and just managed to stay there winter after winter after winter. And I never lost them because they were just easy to carry around.
[00:03:25] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what this song is. It's basically that. So we co wrote this. Aaron sent a bunch of verses, I believe. I mostly did the music for it, but I added a yodel in there. You did Yoda Leu. Very not worn straight through. What didn't I do?
Yeah, this has everything. And we have the creepy one dollars. One dollars. One dollars. We multitracked, which makes everyone happy in the broadcast world. Right.
We're going to introduce our guest, Gregory Hugh Brady, who is our.
Basically, who's our co producer.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: Co producer.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: Yeah. He mixed this album and the last one, and he is amazing at what he does. He knows what we want. When you find someone that you can really work well with and they can read your mind. Gregory Hugh Brady comes to mind for what we do as a duo here. So, any words about.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I can't wait to talk to Greg.
He's been our partner in production over these last two records, as well as a few singles. And especially during the pandemic.
We created this album basically during the pandemic. He helped us get through.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: You know, we chip away and bam. Got an album after a year. So welcome, Gregory Hugh Brady.
Hey, everyone. We're here now with Greg Brady, and we're talking about music and all the stuff we've done over two albums, over the disguise of our very Aaron Nathans and Michael Ronstadt style song, $1 gloves. My friend Dave Crittle, who is a strange brain just like me, says it's our hit song. And it might be a hit song in a galaxy far, far away, but in this galaxy, it's just one of my favorites. So, Greg, thank you for being with us. Aaron, thank you for being here, as always. You've been in the same room with me for hours. We've just slaved away at this stuff.
And I commend you for dealing with Michael Ronstadt daily. But, Greg, thank you for dealing with both of us in the recording space.
[00:06:01] Speaker D: You are nothing but a pleasure.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: Always a pleasure. Well, likewise an adventure, too.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: Yes, you made the magic happen.
To call you our engineer would be to damn you with faint praise, because you played a strong production role as well. And you were our guiding force and life coach through the course of the last two albums, which we now know are named Shadow of the Cyclone and hello, world. But we didn't know that at the time that we were working with you. And it just took shape in that second floor studio down the street from where I am now in Chester Heights.
[00:06:44] Speaker D: Yeah. No door jam or Potter Pan went unused.
[00:06:48] Speaker A: Right.
Piano bench, everything.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: So, Greg, can you expand on that for the uninitiated?
[00:06:59] Speaker D: Yeah. So we have a duo here that likes to experiment with sonically using unconventional methods.
I guess in regards to our percussion stuff, we used. Our percussion elements were often delivered to us by way of knocking on door jams or banging on piano benches to simulate a kick drum from a drum kit.
Pots and pans for any kind of percussive element as well.
We used whatever we could, whenever we could when it was deemed necessary.
[00:07:42] Speaker B: It was fun. But did we actually.
I mean, what was your professional opinion about the sound we got out of? Found objects in the studio?
[00:07:51] Speaker D: Oh, it was great.
There's success all the way around.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: One of the things I love about working with you is you're not afraid to embrace the chaos. And one of the things that I think is special when you find a great coproducer, producer, engineer, great musician, is that you can kind of pivot. Now, you would have told us, and you did. Sometimes, hey, we need to finish this first before I move on to this, because what you're requesting might require a lot more than you can offer in that little moment. But most of the time, that wasn't necessary for you to tell us that, because I think you were so quick during the whole process of just making it happen. And I remember how savvy and quick you are by how quick you got at going from pro tools to logic and then proceeding to give logic such a try that you knew it so much better than I ever did after using it for a decade. Or can you.
[00:09:15] Speaker B: Can you tell the listeners what logic is?
[00:09:19] Speaker A: Well, Aaron, I thought you'd never ask.
Logic is an age old thing. No, just joking. It's not. Logic was and is a great recording program that was owned before Apple had it. And then when Apple took it over for logic ten, it was given the facade of garageband with all the advanced options turned off, assuming that we just wanted garageband. But I had gone from Logic nine to logic ten, and I was like, oh, it still has everything. And I heard it described as the pro tools killer at one point. But mainly what they provide in the initial program has such good audio results, and all the plugins and everything that are provided are such good quality that you don't have to buy 10,000 other things like pro Tools has. Although pro Tools has been the recording gold standard ever since, digital recording became bigger than life and has continued to be that standard.
It's basically, in short, it's a digital audio.
Yeah, it's a recording program, and everyone has the recording program of choice. It's whichever one floats your boat, essentially. Which one can you move through? My one of choice is logic. And Greg here is so amazing at digging deep. He learned both programs really well. And I remember you telling me that logic, in your opinion, was really good for the writing sessions.
[00:11:06] Speaker D: The creativity, I think it's a matter of horses for courses. So you have the left brain, people that are seeking routing options, and how to facilitate an entire band in a room full of people, as opposed to one person sitting in isolation with a computer, trying to conjure up magic in the way of music. So that would be you as a musician, would benefit greatly by logic. As opposed to pro tools. Pro Tools is not really designed for that endeavor. It's designed for someone who is behind the scenes, facilitating a group of people, as opposed to one person trying to create something that that other person that is facilitating is trying to capture.
[00:11:57] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:11:58] Speaker D: So for me, it was more difficult to look at logic in a sense of, well, how do you do this in a pragmatic way as opposed to a creative way? Because sometimes nothing's really intuitive when it comes to computers. People use that word. I don't really understand how you can use the word intuitive with computers, because it's still a learned behavior. You still have to figure out what is intuitiveness when it comes to touching the screen or whatever, or figuring out what language they're going to use and what paradigm you're in. So logic is fun. I enjoy it, but I enjoy it for different reasons than I do.
[00:12:37] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and one of the things that using a recording program or playing an instrument, or if you think of future man from Bailiffleck and the fleck tones with his little drummatar thing that he designed, like, you go to the old videos, and clearly he made it.
And once your fingers are around a tool, like, I have a recording device that I use for live mixing. It's the Zoom L 20, and I wanted something without an iPad. Well, I sat there for a few hours just working my way around it, and I had a gig last night, and I had some issues pop up. And if I hadn't sat for a few hours just to get my fingers doing the things that need to be done, it's like trying to work on a fretboard.
It's like anything. And once that becomes second nature and you're not thinking about all the technical things you're doing, that intuition shine through. You can speak through. And I think that's one of the things that makes a great studio space, a creative space, because when you're there and you're not thinking about, oh, wait a minute, I've got to arm these tracks or whatever it is, as the artist, as an artist who understands the studio world, because I do a lot of engineering myself.
[00:13:53] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[00:13:55] Speaker A: It's great to know that I'm not thinking about your process. All I know is that you're ahead of me at every turn.
[00:14:04] Speaker D: I hope to be.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: Yeah. You've anticipated every little moment. Everything I'm going to ask for, Aaron. And I will say, oh, we're about to ask for a vocal to be turned down a little bit and you've already done it.
Yeah. So that's kind of matching lucky a couple of times. Yeah. And your guitar work made it onto a lot of the songs. I think you added some stuff to one dollars gloves, I believe.
[00:14:28] Speaker D: Right?
I believe I did. I have to check those liner notes because they're extensive, but we may have.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: Read them already in the introduction.
Oh, good. Okay. We did in this time space continuum called podcast. It's all mixed up. It's jumbled.
Aaron, what were your impressions as? Just.
We've worked with so many people.
[00:14:55] Speaker B: We worked with people and you've worked.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: With me and addicts. And not addicts like addiction, but attics. We've worked in attics and we tracked in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati. I don't know. We probably tracked Florida. Phoenixville. Yeah. So we did track a commercial Kickstarter song in Florida on my phone once. But, you know. That's right.
[00:15:23] Speaker D: Oh, that's cool.
That's very cool.
[00:15:25] Speaker A: Mallory Riley, photography. There you go.
[00:15:28] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: But Aaron. Yeah, tell me. Sorry, I get sidetracked, but, yeah, tell me what your feelings were being in the studio, because you're coming from someone who doesn't do recording engineering every day.
[00:15:42] Speaker B: Well, one day, maybe five or six years ago, Michael and I were getting ready to do a show, and he had. I just did a recording session just down the street in Chester Heights, where I live. And it's like, really? There's a studio in Chester Heights? And that's really the wrong reason to choose a studio, is proximity to your house. But these were very busy days in my life, and I wanted to make an album without traveling too much. And I was really just so excited to find that not only was the technical stuff all there, but that the fellow behind the controls was such a mensch.
I think the number one thing you need as an engineer is patience, and you need to be a good listener more than any technical ability that people. Skill is what makes it happen. And being able to make your artists relax, and I think Greg has that in spades.
[00:16:58] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: Made for an easy working relationship, an easy start.
And then we were in a foxhole together for months, maybe even a year, putting that first record together, which then we finished in March of 2020.
[00:17:21] Speaker D: Did we? Yeah, I guess we did.
COVID just hit.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: COVID hit.
And when we put the record out, there was no touring.
[00:17:33] Speaker D: Right?
[00:17:33] Speaker B: So we had nothing to do. So we just kept going. We put on masks and kept going, and that's how we got the second record and the singles that were in the middle.
But it was a very cozy space, and it became my happy place. Getting away from all the rigors of life and all the difficulties that we encountered during the pandemic. It was just a very nice way to spend a couple of hours.
[00:18:06] Speaker D: Yeah, Aaron and I, actually, when I knew I had you on the schedule, Aaron, to come in to do overdubs or something, it was always a good.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: You know, Aaron and I put on VR headsets, and we break into that place these days, and we just walk around and we've designed a whole virtual space, still unoccupied.
[00:18:26] Speaker D: I think you could do that if you want.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: I know.
[00:18:29] Speaker B: Well, I pass it all the time. I mean, it's on the way.
[00:18:31] Speaker D: I don't see any activity over there. I think I still see a for rent.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: Yep. Aaron, you're just ignoring the fact that we have crowbars and we break in every day.
[00:18:42] Speaker D: There is a secret access panel in the back.
The garage door is always open.
[00:18:48] Speaker B: So, I guess. Can you tell us a little bit about.
So you closed up the studio how.
[00:18:55] Speaker D: Many months ago I closed that in.
That must have been April of last year. So 2023. April.
Closed that down and then moved. The majority of 90% of my recording gear was moved down to a friend and partner of mine, Mark down in Middletown, Delaware. So that gear now lives at a studio called Trimungus Studios, and they're a full on video production outfit.
And so I've been helping him with setting that up. And together, we're going to figure out how I can help in any way, whether come down periodically and troubleshoot stuff or help productions or me take stuff down that way, it's about a 45 minutes drive. So not every client that I've had will go for that, but most will.
[00:19:55] Speaker B: So how are you spending most of your time now?
[00:19:59] Speaker D: Now I'm spending most of the time. I have been actively learning in the role of a one and a two in sports television. Essentially have gone back to school.
I have a good friend of mine, Joe, who's been taking me under his wing. I've known Joe for 20 years, or close to 20 years, and he started with me in the studio life and held my hand through that process and now is holding my hand through the sports television broadcast world.
[00:20:32] Speaker B: What is a one and a two?
[00:20:34] Speaker D: So a one would be basically the chief of audio on a production truck. So you have a TV production truck that sits outside of the stadium. You have a home truck, which facilitates the broadcast feed for the home team and the away truck that facilitates the feed for the visiting team. And we do the visiting team. So we're not working for the Sixers. We're working for the Brooklyn Nets or whatever, whoever's coming town, and then go back to the bank, Citizens bank when ball season starts back.
But a one is basically the one that is mixing the sounds and stuff that you hear on the broadcast. If, in this case, it would not be the one you hear locally because that's the home truck doing the Philadelphia market. But we're feeding back to the visiting team studio and they do what they do with that. But also a bigger part of that job, which I did not quite understand until recently, was that a one is in charge of comms, the communications for everybody on the production team. So that's a big part of that. And the routing and all the connectivity and such.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: Nice.
Do you enjoy doing sports work?
[00:21:57] Speaker D: I love it. Yeah, it's great. Yeah. Looking forward to many years of doing that.
[00:22:05] Speaker B: This is not your first job in sports, is it, before you were an audio engineer?
[00:22:14] Speaker D: Well, I was involved in golf. I did golf for a good bit of time. So I had a country club back home that I worked with, and then.
[00:22:21] Speaker B: I moved to Myrtle beach, where was back home?
[00:22:23] Speaker D: Tawbrough, North Carolina.
So there was a small club there. It was the second oldest nine hole golf course in the country at the time.
It no longer exists.
But then I moved and worked for a gentleman, a long drive champion in Myrtle beach, through a mutual friend of ours, who set it up and worked at Myrtle Beach national and such, and three or four, five different golf courses in Myrtle beach and North Myrtle beach.
And then I met my wife and I moved up.
[00:22:59] Speaker B: What. How did you get into audio production? How do you make the transition from golf?
[00:23:06] Speaker D: It must have began. Yeah, well, I think it began early with.
My dad was working a lot.
We were living close to a radio station that didn't play a huge role, but it did play some role. My dad, I know, had real to real machines and such, so I had an interest in that. That became a thing. And then a good friend of mine, and through high school, we bought DJ equipment and we bought tons of records and we djed parties and such. And then coming out of that, got more into playing, recording that, and then wanting, and just basically, there's a lot of people that end up going to studios that realize that they may could do better. So they tried. If they were a little bit overconfident, maybe. I don't know, maybe I was one of those guys that was like, oh, I could do this better. And then that became a thing. And then before you knew it, I hooked up with gentleman on the music store and he wanted to open a recording studio, and I helped him start that, and that became the thing.
[00:24:19] Speaker B: That wasn't the Smith Bridge studio, right?
[00:24:23] Speaker D: No, that was Springfield music.
[00:24:25] Speaker B: Oh, right.
[00:24:26] Speaker D: Baltimore pike. Yeah.
[00:24:28] Speaker B: Okay.
How'd you end up with the studio?
[00:24:36] Speaker D: The first place I heard was in was 1311, and that was on. Well, the address was 1311 McDade Boulevard. Oh, wow. Which was down the street from my house, because the owner of the building, I guess I didn't think of much about it at the time, but the owner, she's told me that it might be easier just to piggyback off the name, either the address or the name of the establishment that she owned within that building. So I just decided to use the address because I didn't want to be associated with a bar, because it was a bar that she owned above me. So I just used the address and that was. That sounded good. It was three ones and a three in there. And somehow it made sense to me, and there was no symmetry, but it was threes, and threes are a good thing, I guess. So 1311 became the name, and then when I moved that studio to the location that you're accustomed to, Chester Heights, I think I just piggybacked again off of the name of the address. Smith Bridge Road.
That sounded good.
[00:25:51] Speaker B: It wasn't.
[00:25:56] Speaker D: No. But Smith Bridge Road sounded classy.
[00:26:01] Speaker B: It is classy.
It was a beautiful site. It was in a carriage house.
[00:26:08] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:26:08] Speaker B: The second floor.
[00:26:10] Speaker D: Yeah. Second floor of a carriage house.
[00:26:15] Speaker B: Michael, how did you find Greg?
[00:26:18] Speaker A: How did I find Greg?
Through you. Me? Yeah. Because you had said, hey, there's a studio down the think.
[00:26:27] Speaker B: No, I think it was the other way around.
[00:26:29] Speaker D: No, you came in for.
And, um.
[00:26:32] Speaker A: Oh, that's right. That was. Okay. Okay.
But I feel like Aaron, did we find Greg separately and then I might.
[00:26:43] Speaker B: Have heard something kind of in the wind and just.
But, uh. But I think you're the one that actually turned me on to the studio there.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: That's fascinating. Yeah. Because that. Fascinating how? I don't remember because time has passed so much. But just in the recording world as a studio musician, you get names passed around. And so Stacey Weathers, who I know through little spiders, have big dreams recording studio with Ernie Toquet, which is where.
[00:27:17] Speaker B: We did our first album and some of the second one, too.
[00:27:20] Speaker A: Yeah. And she's a tastemaker. Banjo player. Just provides that foundational machine underneath people's music. But it's a variable machine. It's great.
[00:27:32] Speaker B: The banjo.
[00:27:33] Speaker A: The banjo. She sings it. Yes. I thought I said that, Aaron. I'm going to do a take three. I did say banjo. Yeah.
So I met Greg via Stacey Weathers, who is an amazing banjo player that works with Ernie toket at the Little Spiders have big Dreams recording studios.
[00:27:56] Speaker B: And that studio is one album.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: Yeah. And that studio is one where we recorded our first two albums with Ernie at that space, because I lived above there in the apartment. And so one of the things I could do was walk downstairs and record.
And Stacey is an amazing banjo player who's worked with everyone, and she happened to be working on a project with you. And somehow they brought me in for that. And I don't know if I did. I think I did that one in person with you, didn't I?
[00:28:30] Speaker D: You did. You came in, it was Stacey, Jay Popkey and will painter. I believe it was the project they deemed the cornerstones, or I think that's what it was.
[00:28:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:42] Speaker D: And you came in and we had a very nice, successful session, and then we had a nice talk afterwards, you and I.
Yeah. And doing.
[00:28:52] Speaker A: Oh, definitely. And it happened to be down the street from where Aaron lives. And somehow, Aaron, you had asked about it, or we had talked about it, and history is fuzzy.
[00:29:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:10] Speaker A: In hopes of not being a revisionist history writer here in this situation, safe to say that the fates led us to you, Greg, and it was a good thing. And there's a walk in the street, so that doesn't hurt.
Yeah. And I think one of the things I loved about working with you is just. It's so relaxed and it has the quality, had the quality of and still does, wherever you're at now, I'm sure, but has the quality of a large studio.
[00:29:52] Speaker D: But, oh, cool.
[00:29:53] Speaker A: We don't have to feel like small.
[00:29:55] Speaker D: Footprint, but yeah, it's supposed to be comfortable. Yeah, that was the goal.
And to maintain momentum. That was the whole underlying force behind everything, was just to keep things moving.
[00:30:16] Speaker B: Well, Michael, I think that you have an obsession and it isn't healthy, but you like to make albums, and not just our albums.
[00:30:29] Speaker A: I knew you'd bring it up.
I apologize to the world for inundating it with new sounds that you may or may not want or knew you wanted or knew you didn't want.
[00:30:40] Speaker B: Tell us about these projects.
[00:30:42] Speaker A: I'm going to tell you about five different albums.
I have a project with.
It's across the pond with my friend Charlie Renardine. And we have an album called Transatlasticity. And soon we're going to put out transatlasticity part two. It took me a long time to learn that word because it's not a word.
[00:31:05] Speaker B: Isn't that a song by the police?
[00:31:08] Speaker A: Maybe, but we've been co writing for years and years, and you get albums slowly. I put out a solo album a few years ago called nine Stories. You can find it on Bandcamp and all the different places. I don't have it on all the digital locations except for Bandcamp, so check it out. It's called nine stories. Michael G. Ronstadt, a lot of instrumental stuff. If you are a fan of Suzuki method. I do a bossa version of Moon over Ruined Castle, which is actually a song from 1901, a traditional japanese tune. It's really a beautiful melody. I have a solo album live at Common Ground on the Hill 2016.
You can find that on my website, michaelronstadt.com.
[00:31:56] Speaker B: But wait, there's more.
[00:31:57] Speaker A: But there's more. Ronstadt Brothers is a continuation of ronstadt generations. When my dad, Michael J. Ronstadt, passed away, Petey and I decided to turn it to Ronstadt Brothers, just like Mario Brothers. You can find Ronstadt Brothers music on the interwebs. There's an album called the Road part one. Go to ronstadtrecords.com.
And finally, finally, the secret life of have mimes. Mimes? No mind.
Yeah, of course. I like titles that are hard to say. But David Trotta and I have been working together a long time. He owns the Cafe wealth cafe in Jersey City. They have a grand reopening as of July 21, and I'll be playing that grand reopening but Trotta and I recorded live in the Catskill Mountains, this album called the Secret Life of Minds. And you can find that on all the places you can find digital music. Back to the program, back to the.
[00:32:58] Speaker D: Show.
[00:33:03] Speaker A: When we have been creating. One of the things that you did in the studio is that, well, I guess from my perspective, I always feel like I should listen to Aaron Nathan's ideas and suggested changes because they will be unexpectedly amazing in the end. And I don't know if, Greg, you felt that way too with Aaron, because we all listen from different perspectives. But I always, of course, have told people I appreciate Aaron's perspective because he comes at it from just a slightly different musical angle than I do. And it's part of what makes it work. But maybe you could talk about that because you.
[00:33:53] Speaker D: The adventurous spirit and the approach that Aaron. We're all adventurous in our own way, Aaron always takes unapologetically, comes at it from a sense of an everyman's approach. I guess just looking at it the way that we would consume it as consumers. I've always enjoyed Aaron's approach. We all have a different angle and a different way of viewing things. We have sometimes arterial motives. We need to show that, or maybe even flex a muscle every now and again from where we come from, technically, musically or whatever. But Aaron's approach is always that of a consumer who's listening to enjoy it for himself when he plays it and he wants to deliver it and will do that right in front of you, as opposed to needing the time to go back and think of this beforehand. He will do it right in front of you. And again, it's unapologetic. It's just. This is what it is. This is what I hear. This is how it. And you guys can expand on it if you like, but this is what I hear, and I've always enjoyed that.
[00:35:08] Speaker B: Thank you.
Yeah, I'm able to say kind of.
I don't know how to put it, but sometimes I feel like my unfamiliarity with the technical stuff can be a little bit of a.
Sometimes I feel like it's better to know less just because I try not to micromanage you in terms of working.
This is the sound I'm going for.
You tell us how to get there.
[00:35:57] Speaker D: Yeah, it's like I hear a melody, I'm going to whistle it for you and you can go from there. We can figure it out.
[00:36:03] Speaker B: That being said, when it comes time to diy it, to do a demo, it's really hard for me, a garage band is still very tedious, have the basic stuff, but I really need to put in the time. And that's just, you know, what it's like Parenthood.
These two albums hit during the thick of parenthood for me. And my kids are now twelve and 17.
[00:36:37] Speaker D: Right.
[00:36:38] Speaker B: I think I might be a little bit over the hump now in terms of the heart of it, but it's hard to be an artist who is being productive during those years and still trying to be present. You have to really pick your battles. And one of the battles that I decided that I'm not going to be a technical whiz. I'm going to rely on people like you, Greg, and you, Michael, to really pull it out. And then I'm just going to work on the art. And that's what made this work so well, was that you allowed us to focus on the artistic element.
[00:37:29] Speaker D: I'm glad. I'm happy for that. Thank you.
[00:37:31] Speaker B: And you brought our vision to life.
[00:37:36] Speaker D: Very fun.
[00:37:37] Speaker A: Greg, what are you working on in the musical world? Because if you've set the studio stuff to the side a little bit, or how do you view it? Like, have you set the studio stuff to the side? Are you mixing and mastering?
[00:37:54] Speaker D: Quite a bit of work here at the house. So I do a lot of still. I have three or four clients, actually five or six that I still do.
There is a lot of remote recording done by a good number of these artists where they do. I've helped them.
Maybe I knew this was going to happen years ago, but I've always tried to help. Well, actually, the pandemic probably started it, but one client in particular, three or four, maybe five years ago, we moved into more of the area where I provided him with the right equipment and helped him figure out how to record at home so he could remotely send over what he needed, vocally, guitar stuff, whatever he wanted to.
And then we would then handle it at the studio when he had a chance to come in. If he did have a chance. If he didn't, then we could handle it remotely. But I have four or five clients now that I do most of that work with, still mixing recording parts here for them, for their stuff.
And I have done three projects in the past four months on location where I've gone to the place and we've set up the entire studio and made records that way.
And then there's live sound that I do as well.
[00:39:16] Speaker A: So for concerts and stuff, there's a lot of famous records made by famous engineers on location, and that is what they do they bring all their gear custom made?
Maybe they have custom made preamps, and they bring the board and they drive wherever, show up for a week. And it's all about establishing a vibe and energy.
[00:39:47] Speaker D: I think that's the cool part, because you have a studio guy, has the same environment, and I've learned this more than ever. Being on a TV production truck is that you're basically building up and tearing down a multimillion dollar recording studio every time you go to a sporting event and set this truck up. And that truck does not stay overnight. It goes to another place in the country. So now you have to strike this entire thing, and those guys are tearing this thing apart, and then the next day they're coming back in and building another one. So studio guys are very accustomed to being in the same environment. Everything's patched the same. It's been patched that way for 1516 years or whatever it was in my case, and nothing was ever touched unless it had to be fixed. But if it wasn't fixed, it wasn't broken, you didn't fix it. So the element of moving, having a set of gear that you can take with you in road cases, first of all, I love road cases on wheels. Proper road cases for equipment. There's nothing. I've always kept them in the studio, even though it was never going to move. I just like the look of it, the aesthetic of it. So moving that gear on wheels into a place that none of us live in or go into very often, maybe it's a place that's completely new to all of us, and then we go into, we all have that fresh vibe of a new environment, as opposed to like, you come into my studio and even though you're not in it, you're in it enough, you're still not in it every day like I am. So it's still that element of that newness of a new environment and you having to get over that hurdle and get onto business.
And so for all of us, it seems to be, for me, more enjoyable. And we're all experiencing that same intangible feeling of, it's not awkwardness, but it's like, how do you now just become what you want to do and just do it in this space you're not in every single day and don't know how it's going to work out, if that makes sense.
[00:41:57] Speaker A: Yeah, makes a lot of sense.
Especially as a recording engineer, you're problem solving from the point you arrive unloading, you set up record, you're planning for mixing when you're packing up, everything is a coordination thing, and it's to serve the music. So you have two brains going on at the same time. You're just both firing. And I always feel like I'm bouncing back and forth. I'm like, what would my music side say? What would my engineer side say? And I'm coordinating large projects sometimes at the studio I work with, or I'm recording a lot of live stuff and then mixing it later. And it's really cool to conceive of something from beginning to end like that, or a know. And one of the things that I think Aaron and I have tried to do in all our live concerts is we're trying to provide a moment, a snapshot, a set list that's going to take people on a journey, tell a story. We try to do that with our albums. Aaron, you are the quintessential storyteller. I am the quintessential wannabe fake storyteller that tries to live up to.
And one of the things that I know, Greg, you are. You are also a storyteller with your songwriting and everything. So I'm curious if this is allowing you more time to be creative, whether it be in pro tools or logic, and actually, as an engineer, finish and release your own things that you probably.
[00:43:39] Speaker D: No, I have not touched it. I think my outlet has been currently playing with a group of guys I've known for years, since 2001, 2002, so 20 years.
And now we go out and we play six or seven or eight dates a year, and we practice, try to practice once a week now. So that's fun. I get a chance to play music.
So that is called the collective, and it features will painter.
So we have that group, and to me, it's just. I don't really even think about recording.
We actually rehearse at Rob's house. The drummer, it's great for me. I have no connection. I'm not hosting, just really thoroughly enjoying it, because it's not that I don't want to be responsible, it's just that I want to just enjoy it from the musician side, as opposed to, how do you set up the space? Because a studio is not just a recording studio. It's a place for people to relax. And you're trying to provide that space, but I want that space provided for me. So I'm just taking my chance here to enjoy it.
[00:44:56] Speaker A: That's great.
Whatever brings that joy and feeds the soul, that's what matters.
I love the live space because you do it and you're done.
It felt good.
[00:45:11] Speaker D: You're as good as your last note.
[00:45:13] Speaker A: Yeah. And I've been recording some live stuff lately and mixing it later and going, oh, that was a pretty cool moment, and I like reliving it, but when I don't hit the record button, I almost enjoy that.
[00:45:25] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:45:26] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:45:27] Speaker B: Greg, what's it like to have someone like Michael in your space? I mean, he's got so much.
It's like bringing another engineer into the studio, only now he's the client.
He's able to.
[00:45:41] Speaker D: I'm intimidated sometimes. Michael has a depth of knowledge of music that I don't currently possess.
[00:45:47] Speaker B: A few of us do.
[00:45:49] Speaker D: But, jeez, to me, it's the humility of it. It's like Michael comes in and he's always very complimentary of me, and I appreciate it. I'm not sure where sometimes where it comes from, but I always appreciate it. And I've always loved listening to him. I'm in awe of his talent, his ability to bring a different approach, because it's not so much.
It's an earnest approach, it's an approach that evokes emotion, as opposed to trying to be.
[00:46:28] Speaker C: I don't.
[00:46:28] Speaker D: Trying to use my words. Careful here. Technically, it's proficient. Obviously. Musically, it's magical, but it's the approach, it's the adventure and the spirit that goes with that, and it's the willingness to sit with someone and figure out the right path to take to get there.
[00:46:53] Speaker B: We worked with a click track on our first album, and, yes, by the time we got to you, we were mainly working without it. What's it like to. We were kind of working without Annette, in a way.
What was it like to have Michael? I mean, he was basically between the two of us, we were kind of looking at each other through a window.
[00:47:18] Speaker A: A french door, I think.
[00:47:19] Speaker B: Right, french door. We were isolated. Yeah.
How did that work out on your end? Did that make it work out great?
[00:47:29] Speaker D: I think the records sound good. I think they sound like they were recorded by two humans that were enjoying the time and space together. And I think that was a tangible aspect that we were looking for, as opposed to, like, a grid, very rigid feel. Not that you can't do that with click tracks, but we don't spend enough time with click tracks and tempo tracks to. At least, I don't. I don't know about you guys, but I don't spend my time listening to click tracks. I spend my time listening to music that breathes and ebbs and flows and has a chance to move me in. A way that is not so rigid.
[00:48:13] Speaker A: Yeah. As a classically trained musician, I'm very familiar with the metronome in the practice space and then in the studio, we become, as studio musicians, familiar with the click track, the metronome. I put quotes and you can all see that, of course. But basically I'll sometimes with my students say, oh yeah, just practice with the click. And they'll be like, what's that?
I was like, oh yeah, that's in the studio.
[00:48:44] Speaker D: Sorry, metronome.
[00:48:45] Speaker A: Exactly. Same thing.
But one of the things is that there is a lot of flexibility with the click track. But it takes years of getting used to being able to push and pull with the click track.
[00:48:58] Speaker D: It's a skill set to learn how to use a metronome in a click track.
[00:49:02] Speaker A: And some songs want it like we did sinner's bible two albums ago. Right, right. And that wanted a four on the floor kick.
We wanted it so even. And I was like, there's no way our human pea brains were going to do that. So whatever.
Okay, so with just 1 minute. Sorry. We recorded a song called just 1 Minute. And it had a very electronic ish feel. I recorded one of my dad's songs years ago called Mountains of Japan. And he recorded that on a vintage 80s keyboard. And he was trying to call home from a vacation in Japan. And in the 80s, it was really tough.
[00:49:53] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:49:54] Speaker A: Imagine that was recorded on a DX seven. And I was imagining this sound of a boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom thing. But you had an organ, you had a Hammond or some sort of organ in there.
[00:50:08] Speaker D: It was a Hammond.
[00:50:10] Speaker A: So I was like, can I play the Hammond? And so I get in there and I said, turn on the click track. And I just recorded this octave thing going forever with some held chords and then built out something backwards, which if I was teaching production, I'd say, don't do this. But in the studio, sometimes you just do things because that feels right in the moment.
But I think you probably had these moments where when we're trying to sit and utilize a certain sound and when we wanted to use the click track to build something up backwards, that kind of highlights the benefit of having something that keeps you rhythmically in line.
[00:51:00] Speaker D: Right.
[00:51:00] Speaker A: Because you can realize a dream that isn't humanly reproducible, at least with two people in a single take yet. And sometimes we would make that the foundation and then play along.
So, Aaron, I don't know how that felt to you, but if what I'm talking about, if you recall it, the same.
[00:51:24] Speaker B: We almost all the songs were done without a click track. I remember we did Dr. Jolson's bag with a click track. And I'm trying to remember because we knew there would be some percussion that we brought in a percussionist to do that. I'm trying to remember why we decided to do that song.
Why the precision, why the grid felt right for that tune.
[00:51:48] Speaker D: Yeah, I could pull up the session and look at it. See?
I have no idea. Yeah, we used it. We had to use. At the time, we weren't adamantly opposed to anything. It was just whatever got us. That's kind of the whole point to any of it. It's just momentum. You just want to facilitate. So you guys were facilitating the job ahead of us, which was to coax something out of each other. Right? That was the point.
[00:52:17] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:52:17] Speaker D: If a click track, if a metronome works and facilitates. And that's what you use.
[00:52:21] Speaker B: I think part of what worked here was that we're kind of three type B, type B plus people.
There's not a type a type among us.
[00:52:32] Speaker D: No.
[00:52:33] Speaker B: We're all kind of gentle souls in our way. Although as long as agreeable people. As long as you don't make us angry.
[00:52:43] Speaker D: Right.
[00:52:43] Speaker B: We're very gentle.
I think that sort of. We were always kind of deferring to each other. I think if, God forbid, the three of us should encounter a closed door, one of us would have to go first.
[00:52:58] Speaker D: And I don't know that we would.
[00:53:01] Speaker B: Ever make it through that door while we were waiting for the other to go. But somehow we managed.
[00:53:07] Speaker D: The heat's on.
[00:53:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:10] Speaker A: Together. One, two, three, go.
[00:53:14] Speaker B: Somehow we managed to get stuff done, and that's really, at the end of the day, you were very patient with me. I know that I could be rather particular about my vocals, rather self.
What's the word I'm looking for? Hard on myself. When it came to yourself, yes, but somehow you managed to get me to stop doing that at a certain point every session.
How do you deal with people like that who are very self critical?
[00:53:53] Speaker D: I don't know if I think about it that way. I don't know if I have that.
To me, the ultimate goal is to keep things moving. I know I've used that today a couple of times. Momentum is a driving force, not. No pun intended, but that is what gets me to do everything else. I don't think about if someone's having a hard time or why they're having a hard time. If I can get that person in a space that is creative and makes them feel comfortable enough to be creative, then that's what we will do. We will just keep throwing everything at it until that happens.
It's not a conscious thought. It's just, how can we all get comfortable enough? It's like when you first move into your neighborhood, you really just wish you and your neighbors could just get past the awkward phase of being new neighbors and just get on to the point where you're unapologetic, you burped, you did whatever you said, you're sorry. You said, excuse me, and you move on, and you have dinner.
I just want to get to that point faster. That's my whole goal.
Well, we did.
[00:55:08] Speaker B: It worked out beautifully. And I think if you listen to the music we made together, the progression of it, I think you can kind of sense the trust that we built as you move along from that first album to the singles to the hello world songs.
[00:55:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:55:28] Speaker D: I'm very proud of that album. Very proud of working with you guys in that space in that time.
[00:55:34] Speaker B: Thank you for everything you did to bring out the best in us.
[00:55:37] Speaker A: Yeah, thank you.
[00:55:39] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:55:48] Speaker A: Well, thank you, Gregory.
[00:55:49] Speaker B: Thank you, Greg.
[00:55:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I want to say his full name, but thank you, Greg, for we call you Greg. We don't say Gregory Hugh Brady every time we say, hey, Gregory Hugh Brady. Can you add know it takes a long time to say your name, but, yeah. Thank you, Greg.
[00:56:04] Speaker B: Here's the song.
[00:56:05] Speaker A: Here's the song.
[00:56:06] Speaker C: I lost those fancy gloves you bought me lined with text of gore shivering, I wandered to my local dollar store. I found them on the bottom shelf next to off brand glue. They kind of sort of fit my hand, so I said, this will do. $1 gloves, I'm not sure what they're made of. $1 gloves, I'm happy I won't freeze. $1 gloves, they slip into my coat pocket. $1 gloves, they are all I need. Were they made in China, India perhaps by a sad, sad worker in a.
[00:56:49] Speaker A: Life so very trapped.
[00:56:52] Speaker C: They're a little too small, they are not that thick, but my hands are warm enough. I think they'll do the trick. $1 glove, a bit torn at the fingertips. $1 glove, they must have gotten key.
$1 glove, total satisfaction $1 glove, they are all I need.
You're delay, you're late, you're not one straight one day $1 $1 $1 gloves $1 $1 $1 gloves $1 $1 $1 clothes $1 $1 $1 close. The seasons fly by the wind. So few things endure I've broken cars and dishes. They closed my favorite store. Not what I intended. Not what I'd expect. They somehow passed the test of time through benign neglect. $1 glove. Gimpy constitution. $1 love. Mighty slender read. $1 glove. They're nothing much to look at. $1 love.
They are all I need.
You're delay.
You're delay.
God wants to.
To what?
$1 $1 $1 gloves. $1 $1 $1 gloves. $1 $1 $1 gloves. $1 $1 $1 gloves.
You it.
[00:59:41] Speaker B: That was fun.
[00:59:42] Speaker A: That's good. Good. Aaron.
[00:59:44] Speaker B: Michael.
[00:59:45] Speaker A: You rock. You rock. What's your word of the day?
[00:59:48] Speaker B: Polyester.
[00:59:50] Speaker A: Ooh.
[00:59:51] Speaker B: What's yours?
[00:59:52] Speaker A: Kevlar.
[00:59:54] Speaker B: Un. You know, I actually wrote the obituary of the woman who created Kevlar.
[00:59:58] Speaker D: You did?
[00:59:59] Speaker B: Stephanie qualic of Dupont.
[01:00:01] Speaker A: See, this is why.
[01:00:02] Speaker B: Oh, my God. We didn't even plan this.
[01:00:04] Speaker A: Oh, my God. See, you learned something. I learned something new. You all learned something new. Aaron, you may have learned something new about yourself.
[01:00:10] Speaker B: You know it's bulletproof anyway.
[01:00:12] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. My cello case is carbon fiber Kevlar. And I always say, if I robbed a bank, I could run away with my cello behind me, and it's bulletproof and I'd be protected like a turtle that's planning ahead. Yeah. There you go. Okay. I'm not going to rob a bank. Don't rob banks. Our lawyer, Basil says the dog don't rob a bank. Yeah.
So, yeah, if you need some services done. Basil and Basil company. Based out of Jamaica plain, Boston. Yes, you've been listening to the Nathan's and Roncast.
[01:00:46] Speaker B: Peace it.
