If These Walls Could Sing...

Catharine Wood on the Neve 8078

Last month I had the great pleasure of going into the studio with the über talented, Soultone Cymbals Artist + HipTrix endorsed, Paloma Estevez to track drums for six original songs on my upcoming EP, releasing this Spring. The studio: Threshold Sound + Vision in Santa Monica, CA, owned by veteran engineer and producer, Peter A. Barker (and partner, Marc Schrobilgen). I've engineered a number of times at Threshold for other artists...but it was a thrill to have the opportunity to go in for my own music. At the start of this blog I promised to *not* talk about Things-Tech...at the risk of boring the reader blind...HOWEVER...this studio is too cool to not gush about...so...for those of you who enjoy historic gear trivia...

Paloma Estevez at Threshold Sound+Vision

The board: a very rare Neve 8078 from Sony Music Studios (where Peter A. Barker was Director of Engineering for Sony Music...in the era of Fiona Apple's smash success, triple platinum, Grammy winning, debut album, "Tidal"...in the entry at Threshold hangs a signed poster that reads; "Hey SONY studio, Thank you for putting a roof over my misery for a while." -Fiona Apple)...tracking the kit with 13 mics...on Pro Tools HD 8...Threshold Engineer, Todd Bergman, got us beautifully dialed into the board and I flew the session. It was an easy-going day of recording -- 6 songs very close to my heart...which now have a heartbeat with Paloma's incredible playing...and I greatly look forward to their commercial release this Spring.

In recent months, Threshold has seen Matt Chamberlain (who also played on Fiona Apple's "Tidal") in to track drums for Amy Kuney's upcoming album...which I'm not at liberty to say anything more about other than I may be nearly as excited about the new material on Amy's album as I am my own upcoming release, if that's even possible...Alas, I digress.

If these walls could sing...they'd hum Elvis Costello, Marcus Miller, Herbie Hancock...with echos of Elton John and Fiona Apple from the incredible Yamaha C7 Disklavier...Cat Stevens, Kanye West, Amy Kuney, and now: Catharine Wood...with Paloma Estevez on drums.