COAST RECORDS
ANNUAL REVIEW - 2018 -
letter from the producer
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elcome to the first ever Coast Records annual review. The purpose of this is to look back on the projects that have come through the studio over the past year and to tell some stories you may not know about in regards to the recording process behind the albums, EPs and singles recorded here this year. If you’re reading this, you’ve either had the unfortunate pleasure of working with me this past year, or are just simply interested in what’s been going on in the studio. 2018 has been a very fruitful year, and has yielded some amazing records from the artists I’m fortunate enough to work with (Rare Creatures excluded). I’m very grateful to get to do this every day and will continue to work to bring you the best music I can. 2019 is already looking bright. I want to give a special thank you to Jess Spence who designed the zine and without her, this wouldn’t exist. Much love, Matt Zutell
photography
Paul Chelmis Jess Marie Spence Dries Vandenberg Everett Zuraw Mia Al-Taher print production
Indie Grits Lab design
Jess Marie Spence editor
Aaron Utterback special thanks to
Brad Creger, Brian Compton, Jason Caughman, Matthew Garber, Aaron Utterback, Mark Bryan, Tim Nielsen, Dries Vandenberg, Thompson Faulk, Paul Chelmis, John Kenney and the Royal American staff, Jay Kramer, the Renatus Wood crew, and everyone who has shown their love and support for Coast Records and the artists in these pages. We couldn’t have had all those late night dance parties without you.
www.coast-records.com 2
Albums
human resources champagne “I never had faith in God, and I make my money the hard way Forget about what you’re taught They’ll build you up, just to fade away.” Casually
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he writing and recording of this album started over a year prior to its release. At the time, Aaron (bassist/vocalist) and I were roommates, and Coast Records “studio” was still the repurposed living room of our apartment in downtown Charleston. Aaron would record demos of hooks or other ideas, usually when I was out of the house, and show me if he felt like he was onto something. This often lead to visibility into earlier stages of pre-production on songs than I might have on other projects. Once we both agreed to pursue one of the ideas further, I’d help arrange and flesh out more robust demos until they were ready to bring to the band. Dries (guitarist/vocalist) also contributed 3 songs to Champagne. At the time of
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writing and recording (and still currently) he lived in the apartment directly upstairs, so the process in building out his songs took a similar route. The process of making this album was particularly interesting. While most of it was worked on little by little over the course of a year in Charleston, 2 of the songs, “Sylvia” and “Caught Up,” were recorded over 3 days in Los Angeles with former Rooney guitarist, Taylor Locke, at his studio, the Velveteen Laboratory. Taylor’s manager reached out after they stumbled upon one of our tracks on Spotify and ~6 months later we flew out to LA. Recording with Taylor was an excellent experience. He introduced subtle ideas to the songs that made a good chorus into a great chorus. Personally, it was fun to “just be a drummer” in the studio and get to enjoy making a song with my band without also having to handle all of the
engineering and mixing. Taylor definitely got what we were going for, so the vibe and workflow were there from the start. Once everything was tracked for the album, I mixed the remaining nine songs over the course of a week and sent it to mastering. We released Champagne on June 1st with a sold-out show at The Royal American (naturally). human resources is
Aaron Utterback, Bass/Vocals Dries Vandenberg, Guitar/Vocals Paul Chelmis, Keys Matt Zutell, Drums featuring
Justin Osborn & Keon Masters production/engineering by
Taylor Locke on “Sylvia” & “Caught Up” Kyle Fredrickson on “Sylvia” & Caught Up” 5
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thompson faulk edge of the usa
“We grew up slow with really nothing to say, in a little horse town on the edge of the USA.” Blink of an Eye
dge of the USA” is the second project I’ve done with Tommy, and we knew we wanted to up the energy on this one. Thompson and I met a few years ago through a mutual friend and I knew he was a hidden gem of sorts as a songwriter. He’s a full time working man with a wife and a baby, so the recording process sort of adapts to his lifestyle. Sessions usually take place in the evenings and start with scratch acoustic guitar and vocals, and then we build the band around his lyrically driven direction. This also lends to most instruments being recorded in sequence, and often on different days. In order to get the energy up out of the gate, I’ll program drums to the scratch track so the band is playing along with a little more purpose, like you would find in a live session. We’ll start layering with bass and guitar, then move on to keys and textures before adding final vocals. On this particular album, the live drums were one of the last things tracked. By the time we had built out the beds adding the real drums really elevated the sound of the album to what we were looking for. credited on the album
Thompson Faulk, Acoustic/Vocals Dries Vandenberg, Guitar Aaron Utterback, Bass Paul Chelmis, Keyboards Matt Zutell, Drums & Percussion Charlie Thompson, Dobro
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R rare creatures
self-titled debut
“I never claimed to be the son of virtue, and I’m innocent of anything that hurts you. If blame was a mountain, I’d climb to the top. I’m no son of virtue anymore.” Son of Virtue
rare creatures is
Coleman Sawyer, Guitar/Vocals/Violin Aaron Reece, Guitar Hugh Camp, Bass/Synth Logan Crank, Drums on the album
Keller James, Guitar Henry Alexander, Drums Matt Zutell, Drums and Percussion 8
are Creatures’ self-titled album was a very ambitious debut project for the band, so it made sense that it would be the first album almost entirely recorded in the new studio. Coleman and I didn’t know each other super well before making the album, and after spending months together making it, I regret every moment of it. Coleman handled the majority of the preproduction, demoing out songs ahead of time at his home studio in Mt. Pleasant. Having the parts mapped out allowed us to get into tracking drums right away. After getting the drums down, we marathoned the bulk of the remaining tracking over two straight weeks, living on Dellz wraps and Tequila. Aaron Reece joined the band halfway through tracking (slacker), and although I would never say it to his face, he brought a cool sound to the band that really elevated the record. A lot of the interesting “synthy” guitar sounds and atmospheric elements were his contribution. We also explored some unconventional recording techniques on this project. The ominous tone you hear on the “intro” track actually came from placing a mic at the bottom of a commercial exhaust vent while Coleman played a single staccato acoustic guitar note near the opening at the top, all while kicking the giant metal cylinder. After we finished tracking, we mixed through the spring, and had the album ready for a summer release. We held a listening party at the studio where we invited a bunch of friends to listen to the album start to finish in the same place where it was recorded. I hooked a bunch of monitors together so you could listen in every room, there was a 4’ x 4’ poster of the album cover that everyone colored in, and Coleman may or may not have roundhouse kicked the control room door off its hinges in excitement.
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T bill wilson stand up! “If you ever need me, I’m just a phone call away. I can send a morse code if you need. I even got the can and string, baby. Just call me.” You Can Count On Me
credited on the album:
Bill Wilson, Vocals JT Rollerson, Drums Tony Cobin, Bass Ross Bogan, Keys Jonathan Lovett, Keys Thomas Kenney, Guitar Paul Quattlebaum, Guitar Matt Zutell, Drums Kanika Moore, Vocals Aisha Kenyetta, Vocals Jenny Lee Ford, Vocals 10
his album was, is, (and potentially will always be) one of the most inspiring projects I’ve ever been a part of. Bill is a 76 year-old soul singer that was born and raised in Charleston, SC. This is his debut album. This album would not exist without its Executive Producer, Brian Compton. Brian met Bill in a local cover band and ended up jamming on a few of Bill’s originals after rehearsal one night, and he knew immediately he had to get this guy in the studio. The songs were there, the story was there, Brian just needed the studio and the band. After my initial meeting with Brian, I called Thomas Kenney, who fronts a hip/hop fusion act in town called Terraphonics and rolls deep with the jazz/soul/r&b crowd, and asked him for help building the baddest band we could. We ended up bringing together ten musicians over two days and rented out another local studio, Rialto Row, to accommodate a full live session. We went in with a goal of four songs but ended up with ten! The energy and chemistry between the band and Bill was undeniable. I literally jumped up and down in the control room at one point while listening to the band cut “When You Look.” I’ve never done that. Bill was soaring. Some of the tracks on the record are the very first take. Some were entirely improvised. Some started as simple chord progressions that Brian charted out and the band ran with. All of Bill’s vocal are entirely live. After two days of tracking, we had so much gold to work with. Ryan “Wolfgang” packaged up the files from Rialto, and Compton and I started mining. Once we sorted through the stems and picked the
takes we wanted, we added some light percussion and female background vocals at Coast before Compton and I finished out the mixing process. 11
chris wilcox songs for myself “Y’all aren’t gonna make me spell anything, are ya?”
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hris and I have been recording music together for quite some time now. We met in a music industry class in college and started making demos of his songs soon after. Even though he now lives in Nashville, he’s somehow managed to continue recording with me after all these years. The “Songs for Myself” E.P. is a collection of songs we’ve worked on over the course of a year or so. Chris usually comes down to Charleston for a few days to record… a process which usually starts by partying way too hard the first night. Then after a slow morning of getting our act together, we get going in the studio. This project was particularly interesting as parts of it were recorded in so many different places, ranging from my apartment, a storage unit I temporarily rented in Charleston, Chris’ house in Nashville, to the new Coast studio. credited on songs for myself
Chris Wilcox, Vocals & Acoustic Aaron Utterback, Bass Dries Vandenberg, Guitar Paul Chelmis, Keys Matt Zutell, Drums & Percussion Thomas Kenney, Guitar Steve Dawson, Lap Steel & Guitar Jeff Spirko, Violin Clay White, Trumpet 12
chris wilcox & the boys
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hereas “Songs for Myself” features a wide range of musicians who were brought in to play a part here or there, the Chris Wilcox & The Boys project was tracked almost entirely live with Chris “Chis” Wilcox’s well worn touring band. “The Boys” are Peter Clark (guitar), Paul Chelmis (keys), Aaron Utterback (bass), and me, Matt Zutell (drums). These sessions are exciting in that we get to play off of each other in the studio. The sessions start with Chris playing a few new songs on the acoustic guitar for the band, and one will jump out as the favorite to track next. Then we’ll walk over into the live room, put our headphones on, and start looking for the vibe of the song. Once we’ve got the structure worked out, I’ll start recording in case we hit the magic take. A lot of times there’s a sweet spot right between having learned a song just well enough to nail it, but not so well
that you’re bored of it and just going through the motions. That’s where some of the strongest emotion lies. The culmination of these sessions will be compiled into an album with a release date TBD.
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youngster rosa’s cantina
“Strippin’ your clothes away, Tossing them into the sand Amongst the crowd, four thousand people, How do they know they got the right man? They don’t.” Freedom
hat will soon become Youngster’s debut full length LP has been one of most persistent projects I’ve ever worked on. I first met Blake and Dan a few years ago after running sound for them at Royal and we connected on shared interest in The Strokes and Phoenix. Aaron (Human Resources) and I eventually ended up sitting in on bass and drums for a number of gigs, and developing what would become a large chunk of Rosa’s Cantina before the Youngster boys decided to bring the project to Coast. After almost a year of fleshing the songs out on stage, Aaron and I were able to quickly track the rhythm section which freed up Blake and Dan to take their time building the beds into a really cool body of work. Over an on again/off again year of exploring and incorporating different influences, and bringing in Dylan Dawkins (Persona La Ave) to add his characteristically unique keyboard and synth parts, Youngster is finally ready to drop Rosa’s Cantina with a release date set for early next year. youngster is
Blake Ratliffe, Guitar/Vocals Dan Truncillito. Guitar credited on the album
Aaron Utterback, Bass Matt Zutell, Drums Dylan Dawkins, Keys Frances Louis, Vocals
Singles
DRIVIN’ N CRYIN’ I
’ve had the pleasure of working with Drivin’ N Cryin’ a decent amount this year. Our recording relationship started in January when I went to Ocean Industries on James Island to engineer and mix a few of their songs for use in a Baja racing documentary. DNC had been recording their new album in Nashville but ended up using the Charleston version of one of their new songs for the record. They also released a couple of the other songs from that session on a special edition ‘45 vinyl. A day before their July show at the Windjammer, the band came to Coast Records to record the title track of the album live. It was an insane experience watching these guys cut a song live together in the studio. It was such a new song, they had never even played it
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together. I heard from their manager that Kevin had written it in a soundcheck earlier that week. After running through the song a couple times, they all had it down perfectly. After years in Sturgill Simpson’s band, Laur Joamets aka “Little Joe,” is now playing lead guitar in DNC. Man, what a monster of a guitarist. I don’t think that guy has ever played a wrong note in his life. After tracking this song, we spent the rest of the session, and part of the next day, tracking overdubs and some of Kevin’s vocals for other songs on the album. In various sessions over the next couple months, Tim, who lives in Charleston, and I recorded a lot of his parts for the album that I would then send to their engineer in Nashville to incorporate into the album.
stop light observations 2young producer & engineer
For SLO’s new single, “2young,” John-Keith, the primary songwriter, keyboardist, guitarist, and budding producer in his own right, built the demo of the track in Ableton prior to bringing it into our session. Once we had the base tracks loaded into the session at Coast, we started recording the vocals and other analog instruments for the song. We tracked real drums and bass, a classical acoustic guitar, electric guitars, some auxiliary keys, and all of Will’s vocals. I put together a rough mix and sent that along with the stems to Jon Gilbert, a hip-hop engineer in Atlanta for final mixing. Soon after its release, “2young” was featured on the University of Alabama football team’s instagram as an official hype song.
jump castle riot for you producer, engineer, mixing
JCR is one of Charleston’s most well-known, up and coming bands. They are fronted by two ladies, Jay and Nina, and they already have a strong start getting their name out there in the scene. When they approached me to work on a song and I listened to some of their older material, I knew they had some solid musicians to work with. On “For You” the band came in with a rough demo of the song and we started piecing the structure together. We settled on a BPM and Jay and Nina laid down scratch takes. I played drums to the scratch take and we built from there. We added a few organ parts to beef things up a bit but made sure to keep it true to their live sound. JCR is a live rock band, so we knew we wanted to capture that vibe.
tom mackell hannah mixing
Tom recorded this song at Saxman Studio in Nashville, TN and sent it to me to mix. I always love mixing the songs from this studio because everything is recorded so well, and the musicians that play on the tracks are insanely tasteful players. 19
supatight underneath mixing & mastering
Supatight is a funk band based in Asheville, NC. I met those guys in college when our bands would share bar gigs. We used to play a place called Murphy’s in Boone, NC where there was no PA and a support pillar in the middle of the stage. Regardless of the limitations Supatight always put on a killer show. Their guitarist Mikey Domanico has followed along with everything HR and Coast since we graduated and reached out to have me mix this single which they recorded themselves. It was one of their first self-produced tracks and it sounded really solid coming in.
dead swells by the c producer, engineer, mixing
“By the C” was the first single recorded in the new Coast Records studio and it was a great way to break in the space. Paul is a pro and recording was seamless. He had the song pretty much fleshed out and a concrete vision for what we needed to do to bring it home. We went through his demo basically track by track, recut his demo parts, added inflections here and there, as well as real drums. Dead Swells jumped out to me from the first listen, and it’s always awesome to get in on the ground floor with a new band. I’ve also started working on solo material for some of the other band members but we’ll save that for next year.
tyler boone feat. finnegan bell hallelujah - producer, engineer, mixing
Staying relatively true to the stripped down, acoustic version of the classic Leonard Cohen song, this recording came together in a fairly short amount of time. The acoustic guitars were performed live together by Warren & Shane of Finnegan Bell as well as a significant amount of the vocals. Tyler is featured on electric guitar, singing the first verse, and harmonies throughout. We brought in Charlie Thompson to play lap steel on this one as well. He has this pedal that makes his steel sound like a church organ which was a really cool and appropriate texture for the “holy” nature of this song. 20
the give and the take mercy producer, engineer, mixing
The Give and the Take is a special project to me as it’s made up of people I’ve known since I was really young. Two of the members, Jay Kramer and Andrew “T” Tolbert, were in a high school pop punk band with my older brother so I always looked up to them when I was getting my start as a musician. Even though “Mercy” looks like it might be the last we hear from TGATT, it’s one of their strongest. Charlotte (vocals & piano) initially brought the song to the band during rehearsals and it had been a part of their live repertoire for sometime. While a band might come in knowing exactly where they want to take the recorded version, in this case we explored a lot. We started by basically laying down the live version, then tinkered with the structure and added new parts. Aaron and I were still living together, and he had been filling in as their live bassist, so we would add little things we thought would be cool and showed the band later. We went back and forth on the length of the intro and T added some really interesting guitar melodies in the chorus before we eventually went into mixing. Jay is a really sharp guy, and his ear and professionalism was crucial to landing on the final mix.
youth model outside threat producer, engineer, mixing
Recording Youth Model’s latest single, “Outside Threat” was one of the most efficient and seamless sessions I’ve ever done. We recorded the song, mixed it, and had the master back in a matter of about four days. Randy and Matt did their pre-production homework, which is a huge part of efficiency in the studio. They came in with their parts more or less ready to go, and by the end of the first day, we had the entire song tracked and a really solid rough mix. We met back up the next day to add an organ and finish the mix. Randy, Matt, and myself listened to it outside of the studio - gave it the ol’ car test and what not. After one round of mix revisions, it was ready for mastering. All of my work is mastered by Matthew Garber of For The Record Mastering. It was inspiring to see a song go from start to finish in such a short amount of time - not to say we were hasty in the process, but it was a testament to a band knowing their parts, being an efficient engineer, and a good vibe and workflow. The song has a late 90s/early 2000s vibe which is a sound I’ll always love. It’s a sound I grew up on.
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little stranger styles & dynamics ep engineer & mixing
Little Stranger is probably one of my favorite groups to work with on and off the stage. Complete producers in their own right, working with them in the studio is a breeze. John records their songs mostly himself, and also works in Logic X, so importing their sessions onto my computer is a piece of cake. I’ll pull the session up on my computer and start working off John’s rough mix. Basically my role is to help bring the production and mixes to the finish line. For this EP, I had the opportunity to help engineer a few elements of several songs throughout the EP and mix “Every Woman”.
human stranger later love producer, engineer, mixing
HR & Little Stranger were planning a collaboration for a while, and eventually carved out a day when we were all in town. We came into the studio early with bagels and coffee from North Central Deli. I set up the live room and we started exploring a few ideas. Dries played a chord progression which eventually became “Later Love.” We built the song like a hip-hop beat, building a stack of short loops, then arranging all the pieces. Once we had a structure, we moved on to vocals. It was also Dries who landed on the first verse. Once we got through that it was basically cutting five choruses back to back. We left some bars for Kevin to write and record at home. He sent his verse a few weeks later, I dropped it into the track, finished the mix, and we released the track on the SceneSC sampler shortly thereafter. Now we’re all in a Gorillaz cover band together (Bananaz).
one kool blow learned the hard way producer, engineer, mixing
One Kool Blow often performs as a guitar/vocal duo with a residency at Cocktail Club on Sunday nights. While that gig typically revolves around playing covers, they also write their own material. “Learned The Hard Way” is one of their originals, and has a classic, motown-esque vibe to it. For this song we tracked drums and bass live together, added some guitar, organ and tambourine overdubs, and brought Zandrina Dunning in to add some killer female background vocals on the track. 22
Live Recordings
CALL TO ADVENTURE PODCAST
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SECRET GUEST
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s Secret Guest was coming to an end as a band, they decided to go out with a two night banger at The Royal American, and record both nights. Night one they stayed relatively sober to try and make sure they got some usable takes and night two they just unfurled the sails and let loose. If you’ve ever seen a SG show, you know it’s always the perfect shit storm. It was Brett Nash’s (guitarist/vocalist) idea to set up a crowd mic that I kept on the edge of the sound booth. This mic wasn’t wasn’t heard through the sound system, but was being recorded the entire time both nights. This allowed Secret Guest fans to come up to the mic and anonymously (or not) say anything they wanted to throughout the night, only to be heard later once we went back and listened to it. Let me tell you, there was some hilarious shit said those nights.
he Call to Adventure podcast is a onehour conversation hosted by Alex Opoulos and John Duckworth, interspersed with musical selections from each guest. The underlying ethos of the show is inspired by Joseph Campbell’s idea of the Monomyth or the Hero’s Journey. Each of us on our personal journey encounters moments where we are drawn into stepping out of our comfort zones to explore the unknown. If heeded, the moment of departure is prefaced by what Joseph Campbell refers to as the Call to Adventure - a moment that either illuminates a new path, forces a challenging decision, inspires courage over fear, or kindles fresh discipline - something that ultimately gives new purpose, meaning, and direction to our lives. From this vantage point, Alex and John engage each guest in a conversation about those moments in their lives that in hindsight proved pivotal, providing growth and transformation along the journey. I’ve had the pleasure of producing the audio for the podcast this past year. With guests such as Benjamin Starr, Chris Jordan, Kathryn Budig, Robert Lange, Brendan James, and more, each episode told a story of eyeopening experiences. It’s refreshing to be engaged in conversations and topics that dive much deeper than typical every day chit-chat. This podcast really pulls out the realness and raw emotion of the human condition, which is nice to spend a little time actually considering every once in a while. 27
BENNY STARR A WATER ALBUM
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enjamin Starr held one of the most culturally significant music events Charleston has ever witnessed this past September. With Rodrick Cliche’s “420s” band backing him, Benjamin Starr performed his new record “A Water Album” in its entirety at the Charleston Music Hall. The performance featured several of Charleston’s best MCs and vocalists such as Matt Monday, Shaniqua McCants, and Poppy Native. I truly feel honored to be trusted to mix and produce the audio for this live record. It’s one of the most powerful projects I’ve been a part of. The performance from that night is damn near perfect, and has an energy that would be impossible to recreate. The album is going to be pressed and released on vinyl soon.
Gear
IN THE STUDIO
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his past year was the year of the microphone for me. I picked up a Telefunken CU-29 Copperhead Tube Mic, a Neumann TLM 103, a Warm Audio U87, a stereo pair of Fathead Cascade Microphones and a pair of Sennheiser 421s. For years I recorded almost everything with the Bluebird condenser mic, which has a great sound for the price. It wasn’t until I got a bunch of mics with different sonic qualities that I realized how important the choice can be, especially with vocals. When starting vocals for the Human Resources, Rare Creatures, and Thompson Faulk albums, I had each vocalist audition the Telefunken, Neumann, and Warm Audio 87 mics to see which fit their voice best. I ended up using a different mic with each vocalist. I 30
used the Telefunken for Aaron’s voice in Human Resources, the Neumann for Coleman in Rare Creatures, and the 87 for Thompson Faulk. I also started incorporating the use of more analog outboard gear in the studio this past year. My favorite piece that I bought is the Universal Audio LA-610 tube preamp & compressor. This piece of gear is great for adding warmth and
character to any source that runs through it. I use it all the time on vocals and bass.
RECORDING TECHNIQUES I had a lot of fun experimenting with different drum micing techniques on projects this year. While my typical “goto” micing would involve close micing every drum, with a stereo pair of ribbon mics as the overheads and putting up a room mic or two, I actually got some of my favorite drum sounds using super minimal micing. There’s something so natural and real about only using a mic on the kick and snare, and a mono overhead. For a Beatles tribute band sizzle reel session, I utilized the “Glenn Johns” mic technique, which only uses four mics. One on the kick, one on snare, one a few feet above the kit in the center, and the fourth by the floor tom facing the hi hat. I ran the drums through a ton of tape
machine emulation and saturation, and panned the drums hard left (like some of the old Beatles recordings). It sounded super authentic, like you were actually listening to someone playing drums in a room. The fun part of recording is that every project can call for a different approach, from the way things are recorded, to the mic placement, to the number of mics used. Part of the process is experimenting with different processes and set ups to see what feels best for the song or the artist’s vibe. It’s been my goal over the past year to have enough gear in the studio to track a full band live together. This means having enough mics to cover every instrument and vocal sufficiently (and having the right mics for the right instruments), enough preamps or compressors, headphones, cables, processing power in the computer, and more. While some projects call for tracking each instrument separately and building the track one instrument at a time, some bands have an energy of playing together that simply has to be captured live.
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