Had the fantastic NYC-based band The Rooks come out to Fortune this past weekend for the first half of tracking their stellar debut EP. These guys are stupidly tight players and soulful songwriters. We’ll be working together again this week to complete tracking, and then I’ll start mixing ASAP.
The band’s production notes were all relating to D’Angelo and Erykah Baduh … Thus I’ve been doing some serious homework on the great Russ Elevado, who I had the immense pleasure of second-assisting at Avatar Studios a few years ago for about a week. Voodoo and Mama’s Gun have become my bread and butter. I’m going for bold, dry, crisp sounds across the board, with very stripped down miking techniques and arrangements. I may not have a 24-track 2″ tape machine … but I’ma get these joints as vibey as possible. The Rooks did all their basic tracking live in the beautiful Fortune Hall, where we’ll continue to work this week for overdubs. Very much looking forward to continuing work with this amazing crew.
Below are some photos courtesy of the talented Kelsey Grousbeck who dropped by the studio for an afternoon. Our friend Melissa McClung is also producing a short film doc about the band’s process, which will be released around the time the EP drops. More on that soon!
Andrew Oedel 