Today we are recording two tracks with local, up-and-coming Indy rock group, “The Blank Slates.” (Troy Lawton is lead engineering, with Jonathon Wong as assistant engineer.  All of the interns have been helping out this week and rotating responsibilities.) Featuring Andrea Iacopini on guitar and vocals, they produce a high-intensity, earthy nuance with a forward drive. According to Andrea, “The Blank Slates” is a “concept of ever-changing sound, where each song has space to develop into its own without allowing the band itself to be easily categorized.”

Andrea was joined by drummer Cochrane McMillan in January of this year, with bassist Martin Fowler adding to the mix later that month. Not only are they solid musicians, but their tracks are chock full of well-blended harmonies and tight fills.

In “My Only Regret,” Cochrane takes the lead on drums and has been playing solid all day, with Turkish hand-hammered cymbals adding nice texture and shimmer.  Martin has a solid ear in this tune with dead-on rhythm and innovative fills. Andrea is a natural songwriter, and struck gold with his addictive opening guitar and bass lines.

www.myspace.com/theblankslates

The goal of today’s session is to create the majority of a demo for distribution to local radio stations.

Good energy, good times, good clean fun.

-Emily Hendricks

Christopher Willits was the featured artist in the studio today, and was accompanied on the Drums by Gabriel Coan, a very experienced and versatile drummer. Chris has released several albums through his labels 12K, and Ghostly International. After observing him in the studio and hearing his music I would categorize his style as Experimental Pop. Although Chris is mainly a guitarist, he incorporates other instruments and noise to create the perfect sound. He uses unique computer processing to disguise and color the sound of the guitar but still keeps the rhythmic structure. Some say Chris has truly redefined the sound a guitar can make!

Today Chris created 2 new tracks, on the 1st track, he played a single note for 7 minutes straight, and layered it at least 4 times to create a variety of harmonic tones. Gabriel Coan joined us for the afternoon to contribute to Chris’s second piece. Chris and Gabriel have collaborated several times in the past and today, continue share their musical ideas. When Gabriel arrived, he had no idea what the track sounded like, and basically free-styled his performance. It totally blew me away!

Until recently, Gabriel was part of a San Francisco based band by the name of Continental, that’s been around since 1998. According to U-Dot Music, “Continental has a reputation for making smart, cinematic music.” I look forward to some of the new projects that Gabriel is working on.

For more information about Christopher Willits and Gabriel Coan, checkout:

www.christopherwillits.com
www.myspace.com/christopherwillits

www.myspace.com/goodadvices

If you would like to hear some of the stuff we’ve created today, the 1st track – THE TONE MONSTER! will be added to our compilation CD of all the artists who recorded at Sound Arts during Sponsorship week and the 2nd track will be featured in his upcoming album through 12K and Ghostly international.

- Priscilla Fallas