Oh do I have something sweet for you guys today.
Over a couple days in July and August, I had some special guests in the studio laying down a couple tracks. The band in question: Velvet Bison, a three piece stoner rock band from good old Peterborough. And these guys, were absolutely fantastic. With a rather esoteric yet tastefully built drumkit, Danny came in and rocked out the two songs we tracked using nothing to reference but a metronome. After maybe two hours, all the drums were laid out and songs were ready to build.
Thomas came in next, threw down some scratch guitar tracks, then let his powerful voice fly high and tracked most of the vocals in just a couple hours. Already my normal order of operations in the studio has been completely thrown aside, and all for the better. About a week later the band came back in with Rick, who laid down some dirty bass grooves with the help of his rather nice amp (the name of which is escaping me currently). At this point, I have to say this was one of the first projects I’ve done in which I kept the bass amp in the mix. It was just so gnarly, I couldn’t not.
At this point, my favorite bit of recording came up: the guitars. Thomas brought his amp, something called an AIMS I think. Never heard of it before but that thing pushed some thick and heavy tones out easily. Probably partly due to the 15″ bass cab we were micing up with it. After doing a bunch of tracking with the AIMS and the bass cab, I swapped in my Marshall 1936 Lead 2×12 in it’s place for the second layer. Brighter sounding but still very mid heavy, which was just what we were looking for. After a few more runs on the guitar, it all came down to redoing some vocals, and adding a bit of flair.
Now for what we’ve been leading up to, check out the two songs in their full glory below!
The guys are currently getting these songs printed onto some 7″ LPs, but in the mean time go connect with these guys on Facebook to keep up with their music!