Album research - the OFC Nashville thread, Part Three
A Thousand Different Ways to make an album, final part
It's June now in the Nashville thread. Who knows whether any of this information will tell us any more about the actual album than anything we've found so far? The one thing that strikes me is that there is precious little in this or any other part of the archive to indicate the presence of covers of sleepy love song ballads on the album.
Nyama's archive continues....
Part 3.
Remember ... much of this may not be pertinent any longer to the final version of the CD we're getting!
43dudleyvillas wrote (June 4, 2006):
I was surfing around the 'Net on a bit of whim, and came across this http://www.bkentertainmentgroup.com, which lists credits for a Producer/Mixer/Engineer/Arranger named Steven Miller. His credits indicate that he was involved in the mixing and recording of 3 tracks for Clay's upcoming album. Given Miller's previous work, I think it's likely that John Fields produced/is producing the 3 tracks recorded and mixed by Miller (Miller is the engineer with whom Switchfoot recorded the Fields-produced Nothing Is Sound; Miller also says he mixed and recorded 2 tracks from the Backstreet Boys' Never Gone -- Fields produced "Crawling Back To You" and "Lose It All" on that album; moreover, Miller mixed Delta Goodrem's "Disorientated," which Fields also produced).
Some disclaimers apply. For one thing, I don't know how frequently Miller's credits are updated. I haven't gone through all the albums listed to determine when they were released (because that would narrow down the timeframe for when the page could have last been updated). But all of the albums that Miller lists as "upcoming" are yet to be released. And off the top of my head, the Switchfoot album was released last September (OK, I checked...13 September 2005), so it looks like the page was definitely updated after that. By way of another disclaimer, I've no idea whether this guy would know whether the tracks that he recorded with Clay can be expected to make Clay's album.
So, really, this doesn't tell us much. But I still enjoyed seeing that a guy who has worked with people like Dar Williams, Glen Phillips (whose Winter Pays For Summer Fields also produced)/Toad the Wet Sprocket and Patty Griffin has also worked with Clay.
more from 43dudleyvillas:
Well, I own Phillips' Winter Pays For Summer and Williams' End of the Summer, both of which Miller mixed and recorded (Miller also is the producer and arranger credited on End of the Summer). I can't pretend to be an expert on mixing, but I will say that both records have a really accessible hooky and folky pop sound to them -- the sound is slick and clean, but not overly so the way so much of mainstream pop is today. And I think the vocals are showcased and complemented very well on both records. I can't speak to Miller/Field's work with the BSB and Delta Goodrem...I've heard the BSBs' "Crawling Back To You" a couple of times, but didn't pay close enough to attention to form an opinion on whether the mix/production differed substantially from "Incomplete" or any other track on the album. And then, there's Switchfoot's Nothing Is Sound, of which I've only heard a few tracks. I'd say the sound is clean and accessible. Overall, Miller's work suggests to me that he would be a good guy to showcase Clay's vocals in a way that might showcase their personality and also to capture the purity of Clay's vocal tone but also a bit of the rawness of a live vocal performance. Having said all that, I'm really not an expert on this kind of thing. I can't really speak to one person necessarily being a better mixer than another, but what I'm trying to say is that I think Miller's work has, well, worked as a showcase of some pop/folk/rock artists whom I really like.
smittenlilpup wrote (June 6, 2006):
another mention of clay in regards to a recording studio engineer -
link to article re: a sound studio in lawrence, kansas, i think....not sure.
http://www.lawrence.com/news/2006/jun/05/mixtape_media/
austinclaymate wrote (June 7, 2006):
Okay, so I found a link to Kyle Jacobs' myspace where it says "Other artists whom have recorded Kyle's songs include Lee Brice, Plumb, Clay Aiken and Joy Williams." So I sent him a message asking about Clay and he responded!! Here's my message, and then his:
I wrote:
Kyle wrote:
link to Taken lyrics
Sample 30 sec. from Yahoo music : music.yahoo.com
jmh123 wrote (June 7, 2006):
Plumb's album Chaotic Resolve was produced by Matt Bronleewe. www.finelinemusic.com/:
Kyle Jacobs' myspace:
Notacanuck wrote (July 3, 2006):
I found a Clay mention in a MySpace blog:
Here's the link for Avatar Studios, NYC. A check of "Who's Been In" does not have Clay's or David Foster's names listed (and it appears to be current to May 2006). I'm assuming that if this intern ran into Clay it would be at Avatar.
ETA:
This person posted this blog entry today and says that she's been working in NYC for just over a month and the "sightings" is with the mention of her internship with Avatar, so I think she saw/met him recently at the studio.
nyama wrote (July 3, 2006):
I just went there and found Clay listed twice (in the "about us" section). He is on their "artist" list: http://www.avatarstudios.net/aboutus/index.html
and he is also listed under "live performances." (???) http://www.avatarstudios.net/aboutus/location.html
Doesn't say when as far as I can see.
(Sure looks like a nice studio, though!)
trapsmv15 wrote (July 4, 2006):
I went through my Clay CD's and couldn't find a mention of this guy:
http://www.usc.edu/schools/music/private/faculty/jasonmgo.php
Again, the ties to Foster.
ETA: It's dated Feb. 2nd, 2004, but it could be of other relevance:
Matt Zarley -
http://www.playbill.com/celebritybuzz/article/84154.html
trapsmv15 wrote (July 8, 2006):
Well, in my mind, it's official. John Fields has to be producing the whole thing! Ross Hogarth served as Engineer for Fields in recording Clay's new CD.
Add to this the rumors of Clay being in Sweden to work with Max Martin, and, now, we are truly looking at a Pop/Alternative frenzy! EEE! http://www.hoaxproductions.com/discography.html
(I'm aware that, to my knowledge, the J Records listing is an error. Clive runs the show of them all, basically, but I still believe he's under the RCA wing.)
jmh123 wrote (July 8, 2006):
I searched here and a couple of other boards to find out if he had been mentioned before, and found a post by moonhead at CV on April 28 that quoted his main page thusly:
None of this is on the main page anymore; the Moore album is also listed under discography, also with Fields as producer. Five projects are listed for 2006, including producing/engineering/mixing for Ziggy Marley's album, "Love is My Religion". Marley in his album PR indicates three tracks are co-produced by Hogarth. Hogarth's website seems somewhat up to date, and has been updated since moonhead's post in late April. It's not totally up to date, because on his main page he says Marley's album was "recently finished" and "due in early summer", but it was released July 2.
So traps, from the way things are listed, it isn't clear whether this listing represents the whole album or a few tracks, it isn't clear whether more recording was done after last summer or whether the album will contain these tracks that were recorded "before fall", or if these tracks are even still on the album. I would think so, or I think the listing would have been removed when the updates were made.
I asked 43dudleyvillas for her opinion on the Hogarth situation. She had posted about Steven Miller about a month ago. Notice that the Miller link she posted, www.bkentertainmentgroup.com no longer lists Clay. Today she said:
It is, I think, old info. I was poking around the 'Net about a month ago, and found this link to Hogarth's credits -- didn't post it because moonhead had already pointed out his name before, but it confirms that Clay recorded with Hogarth last year. Clay is also listed in the collective credits of Joe D'Ambrosio Management talent, but not in Hogarth's bio on the site (yet Clay is listed among Hogarth's credits, as mentioned before).
I can't figure out how the various listings bear on the likelihood that the songs that Clay recorded with Hogarth will make Clay's album, honestly. But Steven Miller, another engineer connected to John Fields who said he had recorded 3 songs with Clay for his upcoming album, no longer lists Clay among his credits. I don't know whether that suggests that he knows the tracks he worked on won't make it or just that he shouldn't have listed Clay without knowing for sure his work will make the album. The picture I'm getting -- assuming, of course, that Hogarth and Miller were working on different tracks (which may not be the case) -- is that John Fields was the studio producer for many, if not all, of the songs that Clay found with Jaymes Foster last year.
Given that Clay's April album blog indicated that one of the challenges that he had met was matching the right producers to the right covers, I'm thinking that his album will feature several different studio producers, instead of just one (like John Fields). I still think we're likely to see some Fields-produced tracks on the album. It'll be interesting to see the eventual mix of talent on Clay's album -- I can't wait to see the credits!
To be continued, in the entry called Updates, until we get some real information....... If anyone would like their board name removed from a quote, or the quote itself removed, please let me know. Thanks to everyone involved for the diligence and effort. -jmh123
Technorati tags: Clay Aiken Clay Aiken new album A Thousand Different Ways songwriters Nashville Jaymes Foster
It's June now in the Nashville thread. Who knows whether any of this information will tell us any more about the actual album than anything we've found so far? The one thing that strikes me is that there is precious little in this or any other part of the archive to indicate the presence of covers of sleepy love song ballads on the album.
Nyama's archive continues....
Remember ... much of this may not be pertinent any longer to the final version of the CD we're getting!
43dudleyvillas wrote (June 4, 2006):
I was surfing around the 'Net on a bit of whim, and came across this http://www.bkentertainmentgroup.com, which lists credits for a Producer/Mixer/Engineer/Arranger named Steven Miller. His credits indicate that he was involved in the mixing and recording of 3 tracks for Clay's upcoming album. Given Miller's previous work, I think it's likely that John Fields produced/is producing the 3 tracks recorded and mixed by Miller (Miller is the engineer with whom Switchfoot recorded the Fields-produced Nothing Is Sound; Miller also says he mixed and recorded 2 tracks from the Backstreet Boys' Never Gone -- Fields produced "Crawling Back To You" and "Lose It All" on that album; moreover, Miller mixed Delta Goodrem's "Disorientated," which Fields also produced).
Some disclaimers apply. For one thing, I don't know how frequently Miller's credits are updated. I haven't gone through all the albums listed to determine when they were released (because that would narrow down the timeframe for when the page could have last been updated). But all of the albums that Miller lists as "upcoming" are yet to be released. And off the top of my head, the Switchfoot album was released last September (OK, I checked...13 September 2005), so it looks like the page was definitely updated after that. By way of another disclaimer, I've no idea whether this guy would know whether the tracks that he recorded with Clay can be expected to make Clay's album.
So, really, this doesn't tell us much. But I still enjoyed seeing that a guy who has worked with people like Dar Williams, Glen Phillips (whose Winter Pays For Summer Fields also produced)/Toad the Wet Sprocket and Patty Griffin has also worked with Clay.
more from 43dudleyvillas:
Well, I own Phillips' Winter Pays For Summer and Williams' End of the Summer, both of which Miller mixed and recorded (Miller also is the producer and arranger credited on End of the Summer). I can't pretend to be an expert on mixing, but I will say that both records have a really accessible hooky and folky pop sound to them -- the sound is slick and clean, but not overly so the way so much of mainstream pop is today. And I think the vocals are showcased and complemented very well on both records. I can't speak to Miller/Field's work with the BSB and Delta Goodrem...I've heard the BSBs' "Crawling Back To You" a couple of times, but didn't pay close enough to attention to form an opinion on whether the mix/production differed substantially from "Incomplete" or any other track on the album. And then, there's Switchfoot's Nothing Is Sound, of which I've only heard a few tracks. I'd say the sound is clean and accessible. Overall, Miller's work suggests to me that he would be a good guy to showcase Clay's vocals in a way that might showcase their personality and also to capture the purity of Clay's vocal tone but also a bit of the rawness of a live vocal performance. Having said all that, I'm really not an expert on this kind of thing. I can't really speak to one person necessarily being a better mixer than another, but what I'm trying to say is that I think Miller's work has, well, worked as a showcase of some pop/folk/rock artists whom I really like.
smittenlilpup wrote (June 6, 2006):
another mention of clay in regards to a recording studio engineer -
Mixdown
The task of making local bands sound professional, however, will chiefly fall to Mixtape Engineer Ben Jackson.
The lanky 24-year-old audiophile recently relocated from Dallas, where he spent two years as a staff engineer for Maximedia. At that $1,000-a-day studio, Jackson refined his art in the company of high-profile clients like The Polyphonic Spree, Vanilla Ice and Clay Aiken.
“There was a long period when I was pretty much the only staff member around and I had to do all of it,” he says. “Some moments are birth-by-fire, but you get through them and you’re better for it.”
Aside from the desire to run his own studio, Jackson says he also split Dallas because he was becoming frustrated with the cutthroat music scene.
“Dallas has a ton of bad hip-hop,” he says. “They’re not there because they want to make music; they’re there because they want to look cool and throw some money around. It was just a very different mindset than what I found up here.”
What Jackson has unearthed during his eight months in Lawrence, he says, is a supportive community of bands that root for each other to succeed.
“I’m amazed at the quality of hip-hop in Kansas,” he says, citing groups like ID and Sleeper, Archetype and SoundsGood. “It’s such a nice change to walk down the street and hear bands at every other bar.”
link to article re: a sound studio in lawrence, kansas, i think....not sure.
http://www.lawrence.com/news/2006/jun/05/mixtape_media/
austinclaymate wrote (June 7, 2006):
Okay, so I found a link to Kyle Jacobs' myspace where it says "Other artists whom have recorded Kyle's songs include Lee Brice, Plumb, Clay Aiken and Joy Williams." So I sent him a message asking about Clay and he responded!! Here's my message, and then his:
I wrote:
On your profile it says you've recorded with Clay Aiken--is that for his new CD coming out? What songs have you recorded with him? Thanks! Your songs are great!!
Lizzy
Kyle wrote:
hey lizzers...clay did cut one of my songs, "Taken"...i am not sure if it will make his new album, but we will see...you can hear the song if you itunes the band "Plumb"...it is on her "Beautiful Lumps of Coal" album...the clay version is very different but i think it is equally as cool...it is a very personal song to me...
thank you for your interest in my music...which song is your favorite on my profile...?
just wonderin'
kj
link to Taken lyrics
Sample 30 sec. from Yahoo music : music.yahoo.com
jmh123 wrote (June 7, 2006):
Plumb's album Chaotic Resolve was produced by Matt Bronleewe. www.finelinemusic.com/:
Recorded in Nashville, with sweeping, orchestral strings recorded in Prague, Chaotic Resolve is lush and luminous with the intuitive production talents of Matt Bronleewe.
Kyle Jacobs' myspace:
Kyle Jacobs hails from Minneapolis, MN and moved to Nashville in 2000. He achieved pop success in 2003 with American Idol finalist Kimberley Lockes Top 10 single 8th World Wonder. Kyle writes on a regular basis with producer Shaun Shankel (Destinys Child, Hillary Duff) and collaborates with many of the industrys top songwriters including Doug Johnson, Kylie Sackley, Melissa Pierce, Nicole Witt, and Dennis Matkosky. Other artists whom have recorded Kyles songs include Lee Brice, Plumb, Clay Aiken and Joy Williams.
Notacanuck wrote (July 3, 2006):
I found a Clay mention in a MySpace blog:
My internship at Avatar is awesome, although I do miss producing and engineering. But I pretty much get into the studios more than the regular interns there because I have to repair and make sure the studios are working properly, so I guess it all works out. So far, I've run into John Mayer, Harry Connick Jr, Clay Aiken, David Foster, Joshua Redman, Branford Marselis, and Arif Marden (RIP) while working.
Here's the link for Avatar Studios, NYC. A check of "Who's Been In" does not have Clay's or David Foster's names listed (and it appears to be current to May 2006). I'm assuming that if this intern ran into Clay it would be at Avatar.
ETA:
This person posted this blog entry today and says that she's been working in NYC for just over a month and the "sightings" is with the mention of her internship with Avatar, so I think she saw/met him recently at the studio.
nyama wrote (July 3, 2006):
I just went there and found Clay listed twice (in the "about us" section). He is on their "artist" list: http://www.avatarstudios.net/aboutus/index.html
and he is also listed under "live performances." (???) http://www.avatarstudios.net/aboutus/location.html
Doesn't say when as far as I can see.
(Sure looks like a nice studio, though!)
trapsmv15 wrote (July 4, 2006):
I went through my Clay CD's and couldn't find a mention of this guy:
Jason Goldman has gained prominence as a saxophonist, composer and arranger in the fields of jazz and popular music... Mr. Goldman has arranged for multi-Grammy winning producer David Foster, Michael Bublé and American Idol contestant Clay Aiken.
http://www.usc.edu/schools/music/private/faculty/jasonmgo.php
Again, the ties to Foster.
ETA: It's dated Feb. 2nd, 2004, but it could be of other relevance:
Matt Zarley -
It’s been so gratifying to hear other people singing my material. My producer [Andy Zulla] has worked with Kelly Clarkson and Heather Headley, and now he wants to pitch my songs to Clay Aiken.
http://www.playbill.com/celebritybuzz/article/84154.html
trapsmv15 wrote (July 8, 2006):
Well, in my mind, it's official. John Fields has to be producing the whole thing! Ross Hogarth served as Engineer for Fields in recording Clay's new CD.
Add to this the rumors of Clay being in Sweden to work with Max Martin, and, now, we are truly looking at a Pop/Alternative frenzy! EEE! http://www.hoaxproductions.com/discography.html
(I'm aware that, to my knowledge, the J Records listing is an error. Clive runs the show of them all, basically, but I still believe he's under the RCA wing.)
jmh123 wrote (July 8, 2006):
I searched here and a couple of other boards to find out if he had been mentioned before, and found a post by moonhead at CV on April 28 that quoted his main page thusly:
Ross was in the studio in the fall, cutting tracks for Canadian rock band, Oliver Black for T.V.T. Records and tracking the hot young rock/punk band, The Bronx (Island) with producer Michael Beinhorn.
Ross was just prior with producer John Fields tracking for Mandy Moore (Warner Bros.), BackStreet Boys (Jive), Eric James (Puretone Music) and Clay Aiken (J records).
None of this is on the main page anymore; the Moore album is also listed under discography, also with Fields as producer. Five projects are listed for 2006, including producing/engineering/mixing for Ziggy Marley's album, "Love is My Religion". Marley in his album PR indicates three tracks are co-produced by Hogarth. Hogarth's website seems somewhat up to date, and has been updated since moonhead's post in late April. It's not totally up to date, because on his main page he says Marley's album was "recently finished" and "due in early summer", but it was released July 2.
So traps, from the way things are listed, it isn't clear whether this listing represents the whole album or a few tracks, it isn't clear whether more recording was done after last summer or whether the album will contain these tracks that were recorded "before fall", or if these tracks are even still on the album. I would think so, or I think the listing would have been removed when the updates were made.
I asked 43dudleyvillas for her opinion on the Hogarth situation. She had posted about Steven Miller about a month ago. Notice that the Miller link she posted, www.bkentertainmentgroup.com no longer lists Clay. Today she said:
It is, I think, old info. I was poking around the 'Net about a month ago, and found this link to Hogarth's credits -- didn't post it because moonhead had already pointed out his name before, but it confirms that Clay recorded with Hogarth last year. Clay is also listed in the collective credits of Joe D'Ambrosio Management talent, but not in Hogarth's bio on the site (yet Clay is listed among Hogarth's credits, as mentioned before).
I can't figure out how the various listings bear on the likelihood that the songs that Clay recorded with Hogarth will make Clay's album, honestly. But Steven Miller, another engineer connected to John Fields who said he had recorded 3 songs with Clay for his upcoming album, no longer lists Clay among his credits. I don't know whether that suggests that he knows the tracks he worked on won't make it or just that he shouldn't have listed Clay without knowing for sure his work will make the album. The picture I'm getting -- assuming, of course, that Hogarth and Miller were working on different tracks (which may not be the case) -- is that John Fields was the studio producer for many, if not all, of the songs that Clay found with Jaymes Foster last year.
Given that Clay's April album blog indicated that one of the challenges that he had met was matching the right producers to the right covers, I'm thinking that his album will feature several different studio producers, instead of just one (like John Fields). I still think we're likely to see some Fields-produced tracks on the album. It'll be interesting to see the eventual mix of talent on Clay's album -- I can't wait to see the credits!
To be continued, in the entry called Updates, until we get some real information....... If anyone would like their board name removed from a quote, or the quote itself removed, please let me know. Thanks to everyone involved for the diligence and effort. -jmh123
Technorati tags: Clay Aiken Clay Aiken new album A Thousand Different Ways songwriters Nashville Jaymes Foster
posted by Idle-wandering | 7/19/2006 01:42:00 AM
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