When Octave’s executive producer, Jessica Carson came to us pitching the idea of recording the indie rock and roll band Augustus she wanted to make sure our audience would like their music: a combination of soulful ballad tracks peppered with cuts of loud guitars, bang-it-out drums, and crank-it-up volume.
“Hell yes!” was the answer.
A good many of us were raised on exactly that kind of music: Led Zepplin, the Allman Brothers, Hendrix, ZZ Top.
On a personal note, I have long been fascinated with the idea of perfectly capturing distortion. By that comment, I mean reproducing without affectation the purposefully over modulated, fuzz-toned, distorted output of a Sears Silvertone guitar amp and speaker. Not only was this a wonderful challenge, but it’s rarely done. Most bands playing this kind of music work hard at furthering the distortion by overdriving the mix console or slamming the track in your face. I hear this quite often on modern rock recordings and it turns my purist’s stomach.
When Octave recording engineer Jay Elliott, himself an amazing drummer, took on this challenge it was with crossed fingers we waited for the results. The music was so good, but would this young band be able and willing to work in a completely new way of perfectly capturing their music?
Thankfully, yes. Go here to get a taste of what I mean. The last track sample, James Dean is one of my favorites. It goes from hard-driving foot-tapping classic rock to loud and raunchy. Amazing.
If you’re like me and love this kind of music then this is a great album to grab.
Here’s a link to a video we put together about the album and its recording.
