Studio / Production: Winter Grain, Finding a New Sound

“Two voices with intricate guitar bits” - or some such phrase became the mantra of this project. But the real project became figuring out how to shine a bright and focused light on those voices and guitar bits.

The lovely friends in Winter Grain approached me after being awarded a grant from Project Encore, that gives veterans and their families access to a fund to make new music projects. We were so honored to have this opportunity that we did all we could with a conservative budget.

We hired the effortlessly talented Rob Humphreys (drums); Chris Rolontz (upright bass); and Chris Joyner (keys) to augment the guitars that Secily and I were bringing. Secily’s inimitable guitar riffs are part of the Winter Grain backbone, so we found interesting ways of doubling her lines on other instruments to give them more pop and clarity. The hero of the day was an old dobro I had strung up in Nashville tuning…a glistening compliment to the standard dreadnaught.

Next came the project of capturing the harmonies. We recorded Kate’s lead voice and Secily’s harmony parts separately; and then recorded doubles with the singers both on one microphone. The result is a natural picture of their voices with a natural sounding double that feels more like texture and weight, vs. the phasing chorus sound of normal doubles.