Stacie Rose: On Fearless Songwriting, Sharp Synch Licensing, and her ALTER EGO

RUTHERFORD, NJ: When an insatiable appetite for songwriting collides with a quest for success, artists like Stacie Rose are the result. You could say this career-focused New Jersey native is fast-emerging, except there’s a lot to suggest she’s already arrived.

A young but oft-licensed songstress with a clear ear for hooks, her cuts have already garnered synch uses from clients including MTV’s “The Hills”, VH1′s “Tough Love”, Paste Magazine’s “SONGS FOR HAITI” compilation, amc, FX, ABC, Escada fragrance campaign, American Airlines Radio, and FUSE TV. Those tracks, several off of her Shotgun Daisy! album, are about to get a run for their money from her dual ALTER EGO EP releases of Raw Sugar and Means to an End (Enchanted Records), going first to her Pledge Music supporters on July 20, and then to the big ole’ world on August 17th.

She’s no calculating bean counter, though. Rose’s approach to creativity and collaboration are what keep her energized, as she revealed in the SonicScoop interview. Listen to what she lays out here — we say this is How to Make it in Music, 2010 style.

You’re a pretty prolific writer. How does a song get started for you?

My approach to songwriting varies a little. It generally starts with a lyric, a gut feeling or story that leads to a lyric, or sometimes I just grab the guitar and start strumming, and humming, and then it’s racing around looking for a pen and something to jot ideas on, like junk mail or the back of a magazine, and then my digital recorder to sing into.

Then, it’s Demo One, followed by Demo Two, many versions, verse and chorus — sometimes days in between, then a bridge might emerge.

Maybe that’s more my process: My approach is really capturing the essence of the moment, or concept, I’m writing about. I try to bring my perspective to things, my metaphors, and create a mood, a picture, or emotional landscape. Sometimes I try to teach myself a lesson, work through a  personal challenge, or celebrate an epiphany.

I used to feel very evolved, but I seem to be going through a new phase where I am suddenly tripping upon survival skills, questioning things, reacquainting myself with my inner strength and writing through it all. Sometimes I don’t try to do anything at all, no goals — and the songs/words pour out.

That lines up with the very thing that I’m trying to relearn this week – that change is GOOD. So how does that songwriting approach reflect how you see yourself as an artist?

I view myself as a unique, pop songwriter, both fiery, and feminine. I’m almost always in motion, even when I am still.

I’m not an anarchist, but certainly do not conform to anything or anybody. I don’t follow the pack. I do take my work/songs very seriously, but don’t take myself tooooo seriously. I have dark comedy tendencies and the deepest love of melody and words. I’ve come to accept my own dichotomies. I can rock out pretty well, but can also turn a shy side. I’m part late-night, acoustic singer-songwriter girl, who sometimes likes to mash and trash it up!

That’s multiple personalities! But at SonicScoop, it’s not a disorder. What’s been your approach or strategy for developing your musical career?

My goals are to continue to create music on my terms with people whom I respect, and enjoy sharing the process with. I always want to give myself the room to grow and experiment. It’s important for me to be true to my heart, my vision and to stay in the moment as much as possible, enjoying, or at least feeling the process even when it’s more difficult.

I really make a grand effort to help these songs out into the world, so that they can have a life, and hopefully work their way into people’s homes, hearts, heads, and iPods.

You’ve built up a great track record all ready with synch placements – MTV, VH1, FX, FUSE TV. How did you get started on this track? What role have music-to-picture placements had in your artist development?

The Orchard managed to place my song “Here’s Looking at You” in an ESCADA “Sunset Heat” Webisode. When I saw the footage, it felt really fitting. The song is up tempo and free-spirited. The episode was summery, sexy, & beachy.

I’ve actually had two songs in racy bathroom scenes, which I think is kind of funny and interesting. My good friend and filmmaker, David Kittredge, used my song “Promised Land (remix)” in his award-winning film, “Pornography: A Thriller”. The song pumps in a club as two guys size each other up in the men’s room. Another song of mine called “Back to Life” made it into an episode of the FX show, “The Riches” (with Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard). That song played in a bathroom scene in which Minnie got groped at a neighborhood house party by her husband’s colleague. Good stuff!

Then the placements in MTV’s “The Hills” and VH1’s “Tough Love” got a lot of buzz since those hit shows are such guilty pleasures! I had a song called “Find Your Way” in an amc movie spot, and it was wonderful because it aired just before my last record Shotgun Daisy! was released.

The movies being promoted were stellar and stories within the spot really meshed well with the lyrics and melody. The characters in the movies were in fact “finding their way” A really great spot, and good match! And, amc was super cool and artist-friendly, including an artist/song/label credit, which helped with record sales. The spot is on YouTube and gets a lot of love from fans, and made new people aware of my music.

In general, the licensing is a really great way for artists to earn money and to continue creating. The consistent placements have really helped me to build buzz, gain momentum, and get people’s attention.

Licensing PROPS. So does it get hard NOT to think of synch-ability as you continue to write? Do you find yourself wondering if a song is going to work for picture as you write it?

I usually don’t think about synch when I write. I might just have a knack for finding a universal way to convey things. I like being poetic, and crafty in my writing but I also want people to get it — I believe in the power of a good pop song!

It may sound obvious, but why do you think having an understanding of synch licensing is important for emerging artists?

You want to be able to market yourself and bring your songs to the surface, reaching the masses. You’ve got to know the game if you want to play. People are watching TV, webisodes, and films. They won’t always seek you out, so you need to find ways to bring the music to them.

This is a sneaky and savvy way of getting your music to be heard and felt. It’s quick and painless. And, if they dig it, they might come back for more, seek you out, purchase your music, stalk you, blog about you, etc…

Well put. Switching gears, do you have your own studio in NYC, or do you record at other people’s facilities? Where do you like to work?

I demo all my songs at home on a digital Sony mini recorder. If I’m on the run, with no guitar on hand, I will sing into my iphone(recorder ap). If I mean business and am going for a real recording or even a pristine demo, I will work at Defy Recordings with Robert L. Smith. He gets beautiful sounds. I work on a lot of arrangements with Jeff Allen at his place in the Bronx, and often bounce around to various studios (mostly in NYC) to work on various side projects.

When someone works with a variety of producers like you do, how do you decide who to work with?

I guess I mostly work with the people I love and trust the most because it’s like home. Robert and Jeff have really been constant collaborators. Both of them have introduced me to a myriad of amazing singers, musicians, and writers.

David Patterson and Rob McKeever (both guitar players) have consistently helped me find a voice for my songs through the years, so I often turn to them as I write.

I am really loyal to those who have been on board since the get-go and, at the same time, incredibly open to meeting new artists and melding my music with others. I feel as if I’ve been collecting new friends and building momentum mostly because of the exciting energy that comes from good, soulful, collaborating. It’s the key to my success as an artist.

That’s BIG. Did that work go into your new EPs – two different projects — that are about to come out simultaneously?

I’m about to release the most exciting project of my musical career thus far: The Alter-Ego EPs, officially due on on August 17th. I raised a good portion of the budget for this through PLEDGE MUSIC.  I have been sharing the process, and progress through PLEDGE, Facebook, my website, Twitter, blogs etc…

This is really the first of many concept projects for me. The Alter-Ego EP: MEANS TO AN END is a bit more raw than my other records, and veers off on an edgier, live-ish path.

The sound and approach is mostly influenced by some of my classic rock heroes. Jeff Allen ( the producer of this EP) and I got our dream band together, did two long rehearsals and then went right into the studio and recorded six tracks in one long day, so that the ideas would be slightly rough around the edges and possess that raw, unaffected energy that comes with the initial creation of something.

We recorded with Oliver Straus at Mission Sound in Brooklyn. He got stellar sounds, and the day is one of my favorite memories. Since then I’ve been finishing my vocals, and we’ve been adding a few exiting overdubs –The icing! It’s being mixed right now!

The Alter-Ego EP: RAW SUGAR is pretty dancy. It’s pop at its clubbiest for me and has been really exciting to make.

Robert L. Smith has produced this EP with me. It’s been intensely collaborative, constantly evolving and there are so many exciting people involved. It’s a departure for me in a way, but feels totally natural. I’ve worked with Robert to corral and empower the various producers, mixers, programmers and singers involved, to help shape, and make these songs a sensation.

In doing so, I have felt new sides of myself emerge. I see neon, champagne, and many costume changes in my future. So, I guess I would describe the overall project as gritty and pretty, pop and pow, sugary and savory, thunder and lightning. They go together but are totally different.

On another musical side of you — you introduced me to a really interesting project involving the Beatles and some ukuleles…

Well I’m sort of late to the party, but happy to have been invited nonetheless.  This whole thing happened pretty organically. I had the good fortune to have been introduced to the amazing singer-songwriter/vocal producer Mike Harvey. My friend/producer/collaborator Robert L. Smith hooked us up for the ALTER-EP project I am currently working on.

Mike’s soulful voice has become a key ingredient in the dance/pop songs. He introduced me to David Barratt who founded the high-concept art project THE BEATLES COMPLETE ON UKULELE with Roger Greenawalt. It’s like “Where’s Waldo?”, but with ukulele. You’ve got these amazing, intricate, arrangements, and exciting incarnations of beloved Beatles songs, and somewhere within each track there is a UKULELE! How fun is that?!!!

Sometimes the instrument plays a large roll, sometimes it’s a bit more discreet, but it’s the common thread that binds this project together. I loved having the opportunity to pick the song I wanted to approach in my own way. When I got the list of available songs, my eyes raced down the page, searching for I ME MINE (written by George Harrison)… it was free! It was MINE! once I declared it so, David built the most gorgeous, hypnotic track for me to sing to and the rest is history. The track should make its way into the world this summer!  It’s quite a unique and exiting project, with so many amazing artists lending their voices.

The track we heard was indeed awesome — although the latest post (July 2) on the blog makes note of “irreconcilable differences” between Roger and Dave. Intrigue! Anyway, so you’re off to a good start: What advice do you have for songwriters/artists who are just getting started now? And in that vein, what do you know now that you wished you had known a few years ago as you were getting started?

WOW — I wish I had known so many things when I got started and I really knew nothing. It was a blessing in many ways because it taught me to be resourceful, organized and creative.

I made countless mistakes, and made astonishing waves by being fearless, and stepping up to things. I always acted like I had it going on, and this confidence seemed to draw others into my orbit.  Sometimes I wish I possessed the same brand of moxie now.  Ignorance is bliss, to a point. Knowledge is power, always–and some place in between that–if you can remain open, stay focused. learn from mistakes, trials and errors, and hold onto that raw, gutsy, mojo… that’s magic!

I would also tell a newbie, to do things on your own terms. There’s no fast track, no tricks, and no finite way to make or promote music today. Find what works for you. Define your own sense of success. It’s ok if you don’t have all the answers, but you have to be willing to learn, ask, and try.

You don’t know? Draw from your heroes and influences but always try to be unique, authentic and GOOD! Persistence often pays off. Put good energy out into the world, treat others as you wish to be treated, seriously, and don’t do it if you don’t love it and burn for it.

Thanks for some inspirational insights. Lastly, why do this in NYC and not LA, Nashville or Nairobi?

Because NYC is still the best place in the world, with the best pulse, the hottest vibe, and an intangible energy force-field! There will always be a certain artistic history, and edge about NYC that reminds you that you’re alive and that anything is possible. There’s both a toughness and friendliness about it.  There’s an infinite amount of inspiration, beauty and grit, swirling about to draw from!

It might be the BIG apple, but when you’ve done the circuit for a bit and start to see how small certain circles really are, it’s quite a cozy, comfy place to be writing, recording and performing music. And that street cred thing about making it in NYC is still something to shoot for.

– David Weiss

We Are Scientists: Birthing “Barbara” At Mission Sound & Beyond

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN: Barbara. What does this mystical word evoke in your imagination? For We Are Scientists, this isn’t just a likely moniker for the hairdresser down the block. No no: It’s the title of their infectiously delicious new album. It’s a woman you want to get to know.

This week marks the release of disc #4 from WAS, and it’s a musical milestone worth noting. The Brooklyn-based duo of Keith Murray and Chris Cain rock melodic all across the 10 songs here, energized by the punch of new drummer Andy Burrows and fully focused on a tighter sound.

Working with producer/engineer Ariel Rechtshaid, We Are Scientists hopped from NYC to LA to London to bring Barbara into the world, in all her glory. Once you dig into these hooks, we dare you to forget them. Wait! Make that a DOUBLE DOG DARE.

The new album sounds terrific. What was the recording philosophy
 going in?

Our starting point, before we even got going with any songwriting, was 
the desire to return to being a three-piece on stage. We spent the last 
album cycle (2008’s Brain Thrust Mastery) touring with a fourth man on keys and second guitar.

While it was a lot of fun, and the songs on that album — with all their four 
and five-piece arrangements — remain some of our favorites, two years of 
that left us yearning for the excitement and simplicity of the trio: 
three instruments, three voices, as much noise as possible.

So we wrote songs for three pieces, and when we went into the studio to record them,
 we wanted to make sure the end result sounded like just three people,
 that reproducing the songs live would be feasible for a three-piece.

That’s logical. How did that affect your choice of studios, which spanned NYC, London and L.A.? Where did you record in each city, and why?

I’d say our studio choice was a balance of financial responsibility,
 logistical requirements, and the knowledge that the record needed to
 sound decent or people would make fun of us.

We’re putting this album out on our own label, Masterswan Recordings, which despite an
 association with glamorous peregrinations and flagrant excess is actually just Keith and my laptops and bank accounts, so our sensitivity to recording costs was fairly high.

Luckily, these days, when you cut money from the studio budget, that tends to mean the lounge isn’t full of brand new furniture, or the TV in the lounge isn’t 3D, or one of the
 controllers for the XBOX is missing. Thanks to the state of technology, even very inexpensive studios have everything necessary to record top-notch sounds. 

The logistical concerns arose from our decision to record with a drummer who lives in London and a producer who lives in LA. So all of us did some traveling once or twice, and we ended up doing sessions in London, NYC, and LA (at Strongroom, Mission Studios, and Sunset Lodge, respectively).

It’s the global village! Tell us more about what led you to Mission Sound in Brooklyn. What made it the right place for you to work, and which songs from Barbara were recorded there?

We discovered Mission Studios because Arctic Monkeys used it for some of their last record, and we dropped by a few times to fray power cables, pour laxative into the coffee pot, and generally do whatever we could to slow that monolithic band’s steady ascension into the western musical canon.

While our focus was sabotage, we couldn’t help noticing the homey splendor of Mission Studios. When it came time to book something in New York, we were surprised and delighted to find that this place was within our budget. We ended up recording drums and bass for “Nice Guys,” “Foreign Kicks,” “You Should Learn,” and b-sides “Pound for Pound” and “Down the Hall,” all in a fairly intense two-day session engineered by local maestro Chris Coady.

Let us inside your Scientist™ brains: What are one or two new recording tips that you learned recording Barbara?
I learned that, at least with our recording approach, the actual bass guitar you’re using is much more important than amps, pedals, mics, etc., in getting a good bass sound.

In LA we had access to a rental place with an amazing range of instruments that they let us take back to the studio and pay for only if we ended up using them on the record. So 
I blew through about six classic basses before striking gold with a ’76 Gibson Ripper. We spent nearly a day fiddling with an old Ampeg set-up that belongs to our producer to get the sound that we used throughout the first guitar’s session. It sounded great, but it was no accident.

After that session, I spent a week hunting down a nearly-identical Ripper to eventually take on tour. And the nifty thing was that when we did the final drum work at Mission Studios, we went ahead and recorded scratch bass using my new Ripper through a D.I., and it sounded so good afterward that it went on the album.

For an example of the bass 
recorded through the arduously tweaked Ampeg, see “Rules Don’t Stop” or “Break It Up”; for the bass through a D.I., see “Foreign Kicks.”
 
Sorry, that was a long, nerdy story. I can’t even re-read it, and it’s my story.

Nah, we love nerdy gear stories! Moving on to the mix, who mixed the album and where? And what was different about having your new drummer, Andy Burrows’, drums in the mix? What other factors affected how “Barbara” was constructed differently?

The incomparable Dave Schiffman mixed the album at his home desk in Los Angeles. I never even saw the set-up. Dave would just send us test mixes to listen to and we’d email back comments. He was fast and effective as hell.

Andy’s the best combination of “expressive” and “tight” that I’ve ever seen in a rock drummer. I think from a production/mixing standpoint he’s kind of a dream to work with because when you record him, his instincts are so good.

It’s always worth pushing Andy for an extra fill idea because nearly every one he spits out is useable and awesome. His beats are very creative but in a way very conservative in that they always, always serve the song, not the drummer’s much-mythologized desire to lay down beats that grab your attention. So I think we and Ariel and Dave — producer and mixer respectively — had an unusually clean set of drum recordings, and also an unusually rich, coherent set of options, when putting together the final tracks.

Other than that, the big difference with Barbara was the staggered recording sessions. In the past we’ve always gone in for a couple weeks and banged out the album. This time we had several multi-week breaks, which could’ve hurt momentum, I guess, but instead gave us plenty of time to let ideas marinate and to make sure everything sounded the way we wanted it to.

There was an opportunity to live with choices for a while, and then to change them if we wanted to. In short, we were able to fix all of the problems that would otherwise have made it to press, resulting in an indisputably perfect record. Trust me!

The proof is in the listening: We can’t get “Jack and Ginger” out of our heads. Tell us 
something surprising about how this song was written or recorded.

I can tell you that the synth line in the verse, which is a pretty big hook, was kind of an afterthought — the song was written with no keyboards (actually, there was originally an organ filling out the mix, but no lead synths). We were working in Ariel’s guest house/studio after all of the recording was done, just getting rough mixes together, and he
 started fiddling with a lead synth line that immediately engaged all three of us.

We spent five or ten minutes honing the exact melody to where it is on the record, and suddenly realized with some horror that we had broken the Prime Directive for this record: we had added a fourth fucking instrument to a track. It really tortured us, actually, the decision of whether to leave that synth line on there or not. In the end we decided that the song would still sound good live without the synth – it would just be different.

And there’s no rule that says the live version has to accord perfectly with the record. Over the course of the few shows we’ve done thus far on Barbara, though, we’ve always had one idle friend or another come out and play that part whenever an idle friend was to be found.

Honing in on the homeland, what borough/neighborhood of NYC are you based out of? After having traveled the planet over, why do you still think NYC is the place to be?

I’d say we’re based out of Brooklyn. Since we moved here back in 2001,
 I’ve lived in Manhattan and Keith has lived in Brooklyn, but we’ve always practiced in Brooklyn, and that seems like the musical seat of the band. I guess?

Maybe we’re pan-New York. I suppose I wouldn’t call us an intrinsic part of “the Brooklyn scene” the way maybe a Dirty Projectors or a Grizzly Bear are. Let’s say we’re pan-New York with a Brooklyn bent.

New York City is the place to be because the number of top-notch restaurants is staggering; the people are (contrary to legend) very approachable; the people are serious about accomplishing their goals, and act like it; the people are fucking good looking; the city is fucking good looking; the city is easier and cheaper to navigate than any competing metropolis; and the city (in keeping with legend) has everything you could possibly want to watch, listen to, taste, interview, photograph, fuck, read, or record.  

— David Weiss

Gig Alert: Andrew Rose Gregory and The Color Red Band Present The Song of Songs at The Living Room (5/27)

On Thursday (5/27) night, singer/songwriter Andrew Rose Gregory — of Brooklyn indie-soul family band, The Gregory Brothers and Auto-Tune The News — will present his yet-unreleased country-klezmer concept album, based on The Song of Songs at The Living Room, 8PM.

Gregory will perform The Song of Songs with the Color Red Band, a 7-piece ensemble featuring musicians who’ve worked with Sufjan Stevens, Danielson, Welcome Wagon, Diane Birch and Sarah & the Stanleys.

Inspired while reading the Song of Songs on tour, as well as by modern works by Sam Amidon, Tom Waits (Alice) and Sufjan Stevens, Gregory wrote his Song of Songs album over 2008-09. He recorded it last summer at Mission Sound in Williamsburg with engineer Zach McNees (Bjork, John Legend, The Pixies).

The album was recorded live in three days, except for the vocals, many of which are sung in duet with Gregory’s singer/songwriter sister-in-law Sarah Fullen Gregory, of Sarah & the Stanleys. Those were overdubbed later. Players on the record include Evan Mazunik (piano, organs, accordions), Alex Foote (guitars), Jay Foote (bass), Justin Keller (winds).

Listen to some of the Song of Songs tracks in the music player here.

Andrew Rose Gregory & The Color Red Band will perform The Song of Songs at 8PM on Thursday at The Living Room, followed by Kelley McRae at 9PM.

Mike Posner, Paper Tongues, Kevin Hammond Recording at Mission Sound

The NYC-based pop songwriting/production duo Sam Hollander and Dave Katz — aka S*A*M and Sluggo (Cobra Starship, Katy Perry, Gym Class Heroes) — has been working with J Records artist Mike Posner at Mission Sound in Williamsburg.

Posner has been recording new material with Oliver Straus engineering the sessions.

Straus produced and engineered an acoustic EP for Paper Tongues at Mission for A&M/Octone Records. Jon Kaplan mixed the EP.

Straus also produced and engineered new material by Ferni Cordoba and the Funk on Me.

And another A&M/Octone artist, singer/songwriter Kevin Hammond, is cutting tracks at Mission with Jon Kaplan producing and Straus engineering.

For more information on Mission, visit www.missionsoundrecording.com.

Electric Touch, We Are Scientists Recording At Mission

Austin-based dancey pop/rock band Electric Touch recorded at Mission Sound in Williamsburg last week. Mission’s Oliver Straus engineered as the band cut seven new tracks for an upcoming Universal/Def Jam release, with Norwegian production/songwriting duo Espionage.

Now based in NYC, Espen Lind and Amund Bjorklund, aka Espionage, have co-written/produced for Beyonce, Chris Brown, Ne-Yo, Jennifer Hudson and Jordin Spark.

NYC indie-rock band We Are Scientists are tracking new material at Mission this week with producer/engineer Chris Coady engineering. Coady (…Trail of Dead, Beach House, Marissa Nadler) worked with We Are Scientists on their last record on Virgin, Brain Thrust Mastery.

For more information on Mission Sound, with its spacious live room, Neve 8026 w/ 1073 mic pre/EQs and Pro Tools HD3, ETC. setup, check out the studio website.

On The Road With Flight of the Conchords

New York, NY — Fans of the HBO series Flight of the Conchords might have a hard time imagining slacker-heroes Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement racing between the show’s stage in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and recording studios city-wide to get all of the show music fully written and produced and albums of it recorded and mixed. But, that’s exactly what they did during both seasons of the award-winning series.

Their second full-length record, I Told You I Was Freaky, comes out on Sub Pop in October, produced by Mickey Petralia and recorded by NYC-based engineer Matt Shane: the production team responsible for capturing all of FoTC’s musical antics for TV. It’s a compilation of songs from season two — including the R. Kelly-inspired “We’re Both In Love With A Sexy Lady” and club anthem “Too Many Dicks (On the Dance Floor)” written/produced during the show’s production.

Shane describes, “As opposed to season one, most of the songs for season two hadn’t been performed live, so instead of starting out with two guitars, we were starting out with these full-up beats they worked up in the studio with Mickey, and then they’d add elements later to make it fit or change genres. The guys would do 12-hour days shooting during the week and then we’d be in the studio at nights and on the weekends. We split the work between a handful of studios — Mission Sound and Metrosonic in Williamsburg, One East, Looking Glass and Chung King in Manhattan, and Bloody Good Record in Long Island City.”

In appropriate contrast to their TV persona, Flight of the Conchords is a highly active band, releasing singles via iTunes during the seasons, albums post-season (including a Grammy-winner) and touring in support of all. For their U.S. tour last Spring, the Conchords tapped Shane and My Morning Jacket FOH engineer Ryan Pickett to help them take the show on the road

BIGGER SHOWS, BIGGER PRODUCTION

“We were going to be doing way bigger houses than we did on their first, smaller tour last year, so they stepped up the production as well,” explains Shane. “They share management with My Morning Jacket, who happened to not be on the road at that time, so Ryan and Marc (Janowitz), MMJ’s lighting designer, were available to get involved.”

Being so familiar with the material, having recorded all the music, Shane took on monitor duties on the road. Orientation took place at Soundcheck in Nashville, where the crew staged the show and Shane and Pickett put their heads together on how to best present this unique act, live.

FoTC enlisted fellow kiwi and multi-instrumentalist Nigel Collins to fill in musically on cello, background vocals, keyboards and percussion. “The second season had just finished airing and the songs had been created in the studio and never played live,” says Shane.  “With only a few days of rehearsal, the guys used the first couple weeks of the show, during sound-checks and even the actual concerts, to sort of reverse-engineer some of these fully produced tracks and bring it back down to two guitars and vocals.”

Technology helped them genre-hop and do their best Prince falsetto or T-Pain croon. “They use a lot of effects in some of their songs — like in hip-hop tunes where they copy the AutoTune effect, and they wanted to be able to do that, live,” says Shane. “So, we researched and found the new ElectroHarmonix Voicebox, a vocal synth processor pedal that matches whatever reference signal you send to it. With that, they were able to do all kinds of things — harmonies, vocoder, etc.”

RULE ONE OF COMEDY CONCERT: EVERYTHING IS MATERIAL

Though rehearsal got everyone in gear, the FOTC shows were largely dictated by band-audience interplay and therefore quite unpredictable. “It was very common that songs would not be done the same way twice,” explains Shane. “Jemaine would play an Omnichord on a song in sound-check and then during the show, he’d stay on guitar for that song.”

Pickett adds, “I’ve never had to be on my toes quite so much; for having such few musicians on stage, it was pretty intense.  I never knew where they might go, because of dark-outs and things like that, which kept it fun.”

The variable set-list became a joke with the crew. “It was just a list of 30 songs, but they hardly ever went in order and rarely played them in the same order twice,” describes Shane. “That improvisation added to the comedy routine. So, if Marc didn’t bring the lights up or didn’t change the colors in time for a sad song, they’d ask, ‘Can you make it look like we’re inside a tear?’ They’d make us part of the show. I’d become part of the bit if I had to run out and fix something. Everything is material.”

RULE TWO: THEREFORE, EVERYTHING HAS TO BE HEARD

Allowing for audience interaction in large halls, Pickett had the band on wedges. “In-ears just wouldn’t have worked for this show, since every song came out so different each night, in terms of tempo and instrumentation,” he explains. “And sometimes one of the guys would lay out and then come back in — if they were on in-ears and the levels were locked in, and there were no ambient levels or they couldn’t hear the other guy’s wedge or bleed, etc. they’d be alone, out in space.”

Diction and comic timing were key show elements that needed to come across as much as the music in these large halls. “I’ve done a few acoustic arrangements, but the whole comedy factor of this show really adds a whole new element to what we’re doing,” adds Pickett. “Every little corner of the room needs to hear what’s being said, and their accent is a bit of an obstacle for the audience to begin with, so you really had to be on your mark.”

Shane elaborates, “It took a lot of tricky microphone placement and EQ to give us the most headroom before feedback possible. We never knew where they were going to go during any given song, so we had a lot of mics open all the time and since they were on wedges, there was a lot of foldback that Ryan had to deal with.”

Never a dull moment during this tour, Shane also ran sessions with the guys on days off to finish the next album. “We’d be doing vocal overdubs in dressing rooms so that we could send stuff off to Mickey who was re-mixing the songs for the record.”

Look out for the Flight of the Conchords’ record, I Told You I Was Freaky, in October.

Matt Shane lives and works in NYC and is currently working on a new record by Robbers On High Street and on mixes for Hamacide and The Woods. Get in touch with him via www.mshane.com.

A live sound and recording engineer based in North Carolina, Ryan Pickett is often on the road, mixing FOH for My Morning Jacket and, most recently, The Decemberists.