BRAD DOLLAR

  Just last weekend we wrapped one of our best shows to date-The National with Bob Weir as the front man. The band came in with 2 sets worth of Grateful Dead & Bobby classics rehearsed to the teeth. Between the sounds they dialed in, their dedication to the tunes and Bob Weir leading the charge, it felt like an early 70’s Dead record at full-tilt. Myself & Rick Vargas engineered the broadcast live to over 200,000 people thru Yahoo.com, with Mike McGinn helping steer the ship as well. 
  With a band this large that included 2 drummers and a Bosendorfer 9ft Imperial Grande Piano, it was imperative to spend a considerable amount of time getting not only the band’s volume at a level that really works off of each other, but also making wise microphone choices. We love using tube condensers, so more directional choices like Telefunken m260’s and c12’s play a huge role in us getting a great studio sound, but with a minimum of bleed and washy phase issues. Introducing floor wedges and a monitor mix is another big variable to toss in as well. That said, we embrace rolling without much isolation at all and love building our mix around it.  Its amazing how a few well placed mics can paint such a colorful picture. 
 I’d like to leave you with a few shots from the show, including one of our very own Chief crowded around a single u47 in omni in the middle of an intimate 150 person audience. All the gear in the world can’t beat a great group of musicians gathered around a single microphone, balancing themselves, playing their hearts out. 

Got pretty STONED at the studio this weekend…

 The Mayans may have been right about this whole 2012 [re]awakening / enlightenment thing. More has changed in the last six months than I could have ever imagined. I can see that clear as day in the volume of tremendous music being made all over the world and in the projects I’ve been asked to be a part of. I’ll and try and relay as much as possible here about this massive creativity boom as of late. 
 Since early January, I’ve been working on a record with a band called Ghost & Gale. I spent a weekend in Sebastopol with my friends Brodie & David [and our videographer Jenn Dorn] making a record in Brodie’s folks’ farm house, as eerie, catchy and beautiful as we can get it. The sounds were spectacular and the vibe was captivating.  We start overdubs in the next couple of weeks and cannot wait to show everyone. In the meantime, I’m putting some photos in the post from the session, as well as a shot from a soon-to-be-disclosed video of an impromptu session at Ocean Beach [rain, wind, waves, sand, tape and all].
 Down at TRI, we’ve been working on refining our look/feel/vibe, but most of all trying to take live studio recording to the next level. We’ve been working on some recordings with my friends in Loudtalkers, Marley’s Ghost, Lukas Nelson & Bob Weir, as well as live webcasts with Alphabet Soup [classic Oakland experimental hip-hop] and Ratdog. Pancho Tomaselli & C4 and Repeater Pan have been there as of late, helping us sink our teeth deeper in the strange and exotic. All in stereo hi-fidelity of course. [A scholarly round of applause for Team TRI, please!].  
 Can’t wait to show everyone more of what I’ve been up to in the weeks to come. Stay tuned! 

[Music Libraries, Part II]

 It’s late Fall/early Winter and that means only one thing: time to start making more records! I’m coming up on the mix stage of the new Repeater Pan full-length. We cut it L-I-V-E on 2” tape at Tiny Telephone in SF. We’re really excited about the sounds and the overall vibes. Thank you VERY much Jay Pellicci & John Vanderslice for making that very possible.
  I encourage all you folks to check out what we’ve been doing over at TRI Studios! Just wrapped a DVD mix for Slightly Stoopid, as well as webcasts for Matthew & the Atlas and Planet of the Abts. More updates and new stuff coming from there soon! [psst-the Studer A820s are spinning…] 
  I’ve got two more EPs in the works, new stuff from Bird by Bird, and plenty of stuff to start hashing out as the chilly ideas blow in from the cold, looking for a warm VU meter or op-amp to crawl into. If something of YOURS needs to be heard, email me! 
  That’s all folks! I leave you with a gorgeous shot of Seattle via Kerry Park.  

 Summertime! Its an excellent time to work on music. Whether you’re writing it, playing it or recording it. So far this summer I’ve managed to get a few things done, or at least started. 

 After several months of long nights and loud guitars with my pal Jon Devoto, we wrapped up production on Bird by Bird’s While You Sleep. Though this is their first full-length, its more than stellar with hooks for days and enough gooey vibe that you could pour the record over a dish of ice cream. I’m really proud of this album. One of the singles, “Don’t Wake Me,” is now up on the player. Check it out!

 I also finished mixes for my good friends in Maiden Lane. No idea on a release date for the record, but one of the tunes [and a great song] “Fool’s Errand” is now up on my player for you to fit into your daily listening activities.

 Things at the studio [TRI] are also buzzing right along! New tunes with Bob, Slightly Stoopid next month and a few more exciting things coming soon after. I’m also gearing up for a session with my buddy Dylan DiMartini and his band Repeater Pan. We’re lining up the studio right now and are planning to do this with tape wherever possible.

Keep you posted on lots more to come !

Hello amigos! Popping in briefly to update this page with some recent happenings.

I’ve been squandered away in the Classroom working on the new Bird by Bird record “While You Sleep”. We’ve spent all of the year so far doing drums, bass, guitars, vocals, and glockenspiel on a set of 12 tunes. Jonathan Devoto & Ross Traver have pulled out all the stops and will be delivering one of the best breakout indie rock/pop records of the last ten years. We’ve taken an organic approach to the record, avoiding at all costs sample replacement, auto-tuning and over editing. Not that any of us condemn that sort of production, it just isn’t something that would work for the nature of this record. We finished two of the songs as a teaser just last week. They’re currently available as a free download at birdbybird.bandcamp.com. I encourage fans of Young the Giant, Dr. Dog, U2, The Matches, Tom Petty and/or Kings of Leon to give it a shot.  

Just this last weekend, I headed up to the Site to work with new friends the Stone Foxes. We cut their version of “I’m a King Bee’ [originally by Slim Harpo] for a new Jack Daniel’s promo campaign. The directive was to make it as gritty, grimey and crunchy as it could be. As if we dug a ditch in the Delta, plugged some microphones into the dirt and let Tom Waits & the Black Keys produce it. It came out incredible and it was a BLAST. The ads will be up soon, and eventually, you can hear the mastered version [thanks John Greenham] on my player. 

Finally, down at the studio [tristudios.com], we’ve been gearing up for our first webcast as well as digging into symphony land as the Chief [Bob Weir] gets ready to perform with the Marin Symphony Orchestra early next month. Things have finally started to pickup as the saucer gets ready to launch. Really excited to see what’s next!

Hope everyone is well! Drop me a line or something. Let me know how things are in YOUR world. Take care. And good luck to the extra-dimensional beings floating around in the ether. 

 August 24th was my last post on this site. Wow. Either I’ve actually been busy, or have been indulging in yet another distraction to avoid any real work. Regardless, good things have been happening!

 The first of those is that the new studio [TRI] is ALMOST up and running. We’re finishing up all of the wiring, gear installation and the general “getting things online” process. Things are looking really neat, sounding great and overall getting the whole gang completely excited. I’ll get some before and after pictures up when everything settles down. For now, see below for an “after” picture of the main control room.

 Beyond getting the creation station rolling, I’ve been finishing mixes on the new Maiden Lane record. The mix revision process just got going, but so far so good. I’m really happy with how they’re turning out, especially given that its the first thing I’ve worked on at the new home studio [the aptly named Classroom]. I’m sure I’ll have an update regarding its release in the near future.

 Finally, before the end of the year my dear friend Jon Devoto & I are venturing back into recording land to start/continue work on the new Bird by Bird full length with drumming lumberjack Ross Traver. We’re headed up to the Site, new location of my mentor/hero Stephen Hart. Its this large format recording facility built on top of a hillside in a beautiful, swanky, HUGE house out in Lucas Valley. We’re all really stoked to be doing this up there and can’t wait to see what becomes of it.

 With that said, go buy some records [vinyl or otherwise] and brace yourself for an exciting, but chilly end of the year. :)

 Greetings! I’m really excited for today. Two fabulous records I’ve worked on over the last year are being released. My great friend Jon Devoto [ex-Matches] is releasing his solo record with his band Bird by Bird entitled “Albatross.” It definitely ranks in top 5 of my favorite projects to date. If you’re into Tom Petty, Kings of Leon and good rock/pop music in general then it is totally up your alley.

Also being released is the debut record by new friends in Blue Light River. Its a really great, well executed folk/rock record that is uniquely American. The title is ” The Revelry Inn” and comes complete with 5 original tunes.

Both can be downloaded via iTunes as of today. Just search for both band names. Support great music, support great people!

 After several months of sitting on it, it has finally been decided to let the world know about the final A Class Act record and its availability. For those of you reading this who don’t know, A Class Act is/was a ska punk band I co-founded [with a few other great dudes] and played guitar in for about 5 years. We had a fantastic time as a band, got to meet a ton of great people and played all over the country. Sadly, becoming adults and getting busy brought a slow end to the band. This record marks our last effort as a band, as well as the last bit of material to be written. Thankfully, it is our best to date.

 I recorded and mixed this over a few months between late January and May of this year. It was the last record I got to work on at my old studio, Bay Area Sound Studios. Being one of the conspirators of a musical endeavor and being on this level of production is both a privilege and a huge undertaking. On one hand, I’m able to experiment and try things at free will in a way that I don’t feel like I can on a paying client’s material. However, it also sends one down the path of constant tweaking and retweaking in an attempt to realize whatever “vision” you may have had going into the project.

 I’m quite proud to say that I’m extremely excited about the results of all of this hard work and look forward to sharing it with the world for years to come. The link attached will take you to the record where you can pay as much or as little [ie-free] for the whole EP. Please enjoy, pass it on and make sure you’re creating something of your own while you’re at it!

http://aclassact.bandcamp.com

[Enjoy this picture, taken the morning we left for an Arizona/So Cal “tour.” Our good friend Danny Stark guest stars in the background].