I found out that ever since I'm on FaceBook, I completely forget to share my work here on my website. Sorry guys! If you want to follow everything I do closer, I suggest you add me on Facebook since I post there more regular than on this site.
That being said; here's a list of what I've been upto the last 13 months!
Album for Van Dik Hout (recording / production / mixing). We recorded a lot in Berlin! [pics here]
The Lorrainville project is starting to get really really nice! Please follow it on the Lorrainville site (I'm sorry there's no English version yet). I'm almost done selecting the songs; I will pick 14 (out of the 81 entries) for the recording sessions. Anneke van Giersbergen will be one of the featured singers for the album, and she will probably be accompanied by 2 male singers.
A song that I recorded, produced and mixed for famous dutch band 3J's ("Je vecht nooit alleen") won the national songfestival!
This means that they will go to the European songfestival with this song.
Mission completed! (well, it would be nice to get a good result in Europe, but that seems to be a lottery...)
I mixed a great single for new born stars The Medics. The song is called "City". Radiostation 3FM declared the band "Serious Talent".
Another Serious Talent band is Colossa. You might remember that I recorded, mixed and produced their debut album "Born to make a Sound". This smashing rock record is very well received by the press, and the single "Darling (I want you)" is getting a lot of airplay by rock-dj Eric Corton. (And populair dj Giel Beelen also played Colossa tracks at his night show) Last weekend the band did 3 cd-presentation shows across the country. Please check out their ass-kickin' album (on Spotify) is you are into bands like Triggerfinger, Dead Weather, Soundgarden, Foo Fighters, QOTSA, Raconteurs, Brant Bjork and the Bros, etc etc
The album "Spreadin Around" that I made with The Veldman Brothers is highly acclaimed by the blues press. So I think we did a nice job in the studio :)
Sorry it took me so long to update this news-section!
Here's what I have been doing lately:
I mixed some livetracks for former Krezip singer Jacqueline Govaert. The songs were recorded live at Paradiso, Amsterdam and prove that Jacqueline is still going strong.
Recorded, mixed & produced a cool single for Latvian superstar Linda Leen.
It's sort of a duet with one of our biggest artists: Alain Clark. The song is called "Wild & Free" and will be released in a couple of countries.
It's a very catchy track written by the both of them together.
I first recorded the instruments with some great dutch musicians, after that Linda flew over to record her vocals together with Alain at GieSound.
And I mixed it the day after. So everything went down in just a couple of days; very cool experience! (more on this later?)
Recorded & mixed the second album of blues(rock) band The Veldman Brothers. This time the recordings took place at Legacy Studio in a live setting. So without any overdubs! (we only re-did some vocals at my studio).
The album will show the true quality of these sublime blues guys. They know how to deliver excellent blues with an electrifying and dynamic performance.
Here's a 'making of video' I shot with my iPhone to give you an idea of the studio setting @ Legacy:
Releasedate: january 15th. Check your recordstore, Bol.com or iTunes. The album will also be released in the USA!
I am producing 2 songs for the (Eurovision) Songfestival for the 3J's. We did the major part of recordings at the famous ICP studio's in Brussels (I just love that place!).
After Brussels we did some additional recordings at the Votown studio and at GieSound.
I will be mixing these powerfull songs pretty soon. You will be surprised!
Just finished a single-mix for Ilanois. It was produced by Simon Gogerly (U2, No Doubt) so I was honored that they asked me to do the single-version. "Starin' into Mine" is a stunning song that starts real quiet, and has a dramatic buildup wich leads to a big wall of sound.
Very challenging track to mix :)
It will be released by record label PIAS. Ilanois has been selected by radiostation 3FM as "Serious Talent".
Also did an ass kickin' single-mix for brand new recording artist (&producer) Bryan Bourne. Bryan is a very cool singer! I would describe his music as a nice blend of N*E*R*D, Michael Jackson, Timbaland and a snif of Techno ;)
We are going to find him a record company now (or maybe that's oldfashioned?)
Very very short update, because I have been working my a$$ of lately ;-)
-mixed the new Anneke van Giersbergen & Agua de Annique album. And it is a f#cking briljant album. It has everything I would be looking for in an album; catchy tunes, different moods, layered songs and also stripped ones. And she sings beautifully! This album is gonna impress a lot of people I can assure you!
The album will be released in 10 countries all over the world.
-recorded/mixed/produced an album by a brand new band called Polarskin. It's a band with layered & atmospheric songs with a great singer. Their style is difficult to pin down, since I don't know a band that does what they do. The best I can come up with (to describe their original sound) is a combination of bands. So elements of; Coldplay (intense), Snow Patrol (dynamic), Starsailor (emotion) with Editors (verb guitars). We just got the final master of all 15 songs we recorded. Now we will start looking for a label that will pick their favorites (12?) and release that as an album.
-mixed a live TVperformance of Bertolf @ Pauw & Witteman. And also the "rooftop set" he did for that same program. (Besides that also some other Radio/Tv gigs of Miss Montreal & Bertolf, including sets&sessions at Lowlands)
Here's
Bertolf in the P&W show:
And here a part of the "rooftop set" in memory of the Beatles:
-mixed a live record by bluesband The Veldman Bros.
This limited edition cd proves that VB is the best Blues band in this country right now. Loads of energy, atmosphere and steamy performances!
Besides that I also did some pre-production with acts that I might record with real soon & I did 2 projects for a publishing company.
And.... I might get my own personal mixing&overdub room!! Looking into options right now. It has to be a room that is build around the combination of Pro Tools HD together with an excellent analogue mixing desk & all my analogue outboard.
Looking into several locations at the moment.
yeah, yeah, I know... it has been a long time ;-) Finally a news update, and I don't know where to begin since I worked on so many projects. So I won't mention everything.
First of all: Jeremy's (aka THE Jeremy's). After scoring a hit with 'Saturday' and being nominated for a TMF Award the band had been talking to different record company's. Finally they teamed up with PIAS for the album release. It's out now, and called 'O Yeah Aha Oh' featuring 16 high energy punkpop songs that kick your butt. They also just finished shooting a video for the second single 'I want a Girl' wich will be released soon. The first album reviews are all great (even in OOR magazine!). It seems that a lot of people catch the adrenaline vibe. (in case you did not know ;-) I mixed & mastered the album, and I also co-produced it and recorded a lot).
Shooting stars Dolorous Daze are signing a record deal with APR/CNR any minute now. A year ago I mixed a lot of songs they had been recording at home. Last month we went into the studio to record an additional 4 songs. All super catchy! The band produces richly arranged, meloncollic pop/rock. Their music is enriched with additional vocals, strings, hammond, rhodes, piano and mellotron. They will use everything that helps to make their songs more colourful. Bas (vocals/guitar) has a very unique voice and he is very good in controlling it. He's an amazing singer and reached all those high notes without autotune or everything. The three other members (Dani and the bros. Thierry & Caesar) are also very talented and multi-instrumentalists. I completed mixing the new songs so we are all set for mastering the album this weekend at Wisseloord. I will keep you posted on the release date of the first single and the album.
Talking about young talented bands with catchy tunes: For Goomah Music I mixed a 5-track EP of I Kissed Charles. (not released yet) Charlotte, the singer is only 16! This young band sounds like the are from the UK, and that's meant as a compliment. On their MySpace-page you can check out 2 songs. And remember where you first heard of this band! ;-)
The Veldman Brothers scored 3 (!) number one positions in 3 different "Blues Album of the Year "-charts!!
You might remember that I was going to mix a metal record? Well... I did! The band is called The Monolith Deatcult and they used to make speedy and brutal death metal, but for their 3rd album they choose a different approach. I would say: 'bombastic Death Metal with a lot of orchestral and industrial elements as well as fast sections making it a genuinely colossal album'. The mixes were very complex since some songs contained around 100 tracks! The album is comming out worldwide(!) real soon, but a lot of reviews are already in. All outstanding so far; I mean 6 out of 6 stars and 95 out of 100 points. Stuff like that. I think the worst review gave them 8 out of 10 ;-) All reviews are praising their new epic sound. These guys don't mind a little self glorification BTW, so be aware when you visit their site ;-)
Talking about great reviews: the debut cd on Goomah Music from Cool Genius (wich I mixed, and did some recordings on) is also getting good reviews. And again; also from OOR.
More news from our 'young-talents-department' ;-) Pioneers of Love had to play at the prestigious Eurosonic festival and wanted to have a new demo to present to all the bizz-people out there. So we hit the studio (guerilla-style) to quickly record & mix a couple of songs. All of wich can be heard on their MySpace-page of course. They received a lot of good reactions on the demo, and it got them more gigs. This four-piece band puts a distinctive dancable and pumping synthesizer-sound at the centre, suffused with melancholical guitar-riffs the band creates a surprisingly typical atmosphere. Its own musical identity gets strengthened by the intense hitsensitive songs.
I told you earlier about an album I made with Jeremy's guitarist Fokko. It is a side-project with Dutch songs. (Well... he sings in Dutch... allright). The band is called WantWant and there is a lot of interest from different labels and record-company's to sign this band. Fokko teamed up with publisher Wim Kwakman (PFH) to talk to all the enthousiastic hotshots. WantWant also has a MySpace page wich features some of the songs we did.
That's all 4 now. As always; I'll keep you posted!
Both Wilsum & The Veldman Brothers are in the Lowlands top 25 (that's an album chart). The Veldman Brothers are on top of the list, for the second week in a row now, and Wilsum is number 3 in the list.
So; that's 2 albums I recorded & mixed in the top3. Not bad ;-)
Great news: the debut album I recorded and mixed for The Veldman Brothers is also going to be released in the United States of America by the US company DWM Music.
The Veldman Brothers features the two brothers Bennie (on Hammond + Mouthharp) and Gerrit (on guitar). Most songs are sung by Gerrit, but Bennie is also featured on leadvocals for two songs. They play their own material and an occasional cover.
BTW: all songs are recorded live in the studio, so you might hear an occasional mistake, but you will also get a lot of pure energy and atmosphere! We all thought the 'feel' of these blues-songs is the most important thing to catch on tape. Check out their MySpace-page to preview 2 songs.
Go to my photo-section, if you want to check out pictures of these sessions.
Let me start off by giving you an update on Jeremy's; a very talented punkrock band with a pop-flavour. As you might know I did most of the recordings and mixed all songs for their debut-cd. They are still talking to severel labels as we speak, but there has been a lot of development. First of all: trendsetting 3FM DJ Giel Beelen is very enthousiastic about the band. He not only ranked them as "Most Promissing act" in Hitkrant magazine, but also invited the band to come play live at his populair morning-show. Second: Other 3FM DJ's are also playing "Saturday" and they also performed that song live in the show that's hosted by Barbara (forgot the name). 3FM added Jeremy's to their "Serious Talent project".
Third: MTV invited the band to come over and have a chat. They want Jeremy's in their "Kweekvijver" ;-) Fourth: there are already plans for the first video. Fifth: there is also interest to release the album overseas.
So that's what I call a lot of good news! Check out their MySpace-page to preview 2 songs.
Other bands I mixed at the end of 2006 are also going strong. Both Heavens Devils and Dolorous Daze are talking with labels after A&R's responded positively to their music. Check out their MySpace-pages (by clicking on their names) to listen to their music.
Together with engineer Frank Mathijssen and assisting engineer Frank van Kleef I recorded a Fratellis live show. Brit-award-winning band The Fratellis is from Glasgow and scored a big hit with "Chelsea Dagger". We recorded the concert they gave in Haarlem and they showed that they are a promising act. Let's see if they can forfill that promise this summer playing the Pinkpop festival.
Almost forgot to mention one of the biggest highlights of the last few weeks: recording a live show from The Decemberists. They are a five-piece indie pop band from Portland, Oregon, fronted by singer/songwriter Colin Meloy. Their fourth full-length album "The Crane Wife" is their first appearance on a major label and also their first official European release. The band gave a tremendous concert at the Paradiso in Amsterdam at wich they showed, that not only they have got some excellent songs, but they also know how to perform them live and create their own unique atmosphere. At times: breathtaking.
I also finished recording The Veldman Brothers. This bluesband features the two brothers Bennie (on Hammond and Mouthharp) and Gerrit (on guitar). Most songs are sung by Gerrit, but Bennie is also featured on leadvocals for two songs. Inspired by the Blues and Rhythm & Blues they play their own material and an occasional cover. All in wich the Hammond, guitar and blues harp play important roles. Some of you might know Gerrit because he used to play in The Prodigal Sons. Or you saw him on the successful tour with a band called Nexperienced for a Jimi Hendrix Tribute. Thts band even played in the Heineken Music Hall during 'the Night of the Guitar', where Gerrit shared the stage with names like Steve Vai, Steve Lukather and Eric Sardinas.
I just finished mixing the album and the band will try to find a label that will release their debut-cd. BTW: all songs are recorded live in the studio, so you might hear an occasional mistake, but you will also get a lot of pure energy and atmosphere! We all thought the 'feel' of these blues-songs is the most important thing to catch on tape. Check out their MySpace-page to preview 2 songs.
A lot of people have asked me to make some pictures in the studio while recording. I finally did! Click here to go to my photo-section, and check out these pictures.
I also just finished the recordings and mix-sessions with retro-rockband Wilsum. A band that combines The Who / Grand Funk Railroad / Led Zeppelin / Black Sabbath (and more) into a great groovin cocktail. These guys are really into vintage equipment, that's why we also used a lot of old techniques, equipment and microphones to capture their sound. So don't expect a smashed-to-death-modern-rock-sound, because that's NOT what you are going to get. What DO you get? Groovy guitar, ramblin'bass, angular drums and screaming vocals combined for a high energy, kick a$$, dynamic, rock&roll overdrive!
All sessions were highly rock&roll, to give you an example: we had pasta that was cooked in a few liters of Bacardi! We also recorded a V8 engine blasting from 0 to 200 it a couple of seconds, wich will feature in one of the songs.
Check their MySpace page. I will keep you posted on any news regarding the release of this album. (On CD and Vinyl!) ;-)
I also made recordings on the last episode of London Calling festival in Paradiso. So maybe I will shine a light on those two days and 22 bands(!) later on...
Please keep rockin'! Guido aka Gie aka GieSound aka MuteMaster G aka Der MuteMeister ;-)
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