Recording Studios Sacramento

'All handshakes, no contracts'

“Let’s dust that one off.” Pat Hills grabs another bottleneck From a box of chilled Coors that rests on the floor in the middle of a big room inside Matt Erich’s EME Recording Studio in Midtown. The spot—a secret gem hidden in a factory’s shadows and dimly lit by a single street lamp—has housed such bands as Deftones, Cake and Hoods over its 20 years.

Today, it’s where Sacramento punk band Bastards of Young practices: a once-a-week, three-hour ritual among four friends, two who happen to be brothers.

The band revitalizes an older song, “Five to Life.” Beads of water slowly trickle down amber-colored windows as the room’s humidity thickens. After a song is done, there’s hardly any discussion about what to play next. Even though it’s practice, these musicians mean business. Sure, they joke around and quote a few comedy movies. But when a song sets in motion, everything falls in line.

“All of us have been playing in the punk-rock scene for years,” explains bassist Sean Hills. “I think we’re more than just a punk-rock band, but we just fit in that niche very comfortably because that’s where we’re from.”

Bastards of Young formed in the summer of 2007 with a simple goal that many bands often take for granted: have fun playing the music you know. These guys know punk rock, but BOY’s style has a definitive pop-feel. Yet the guys don’t write material about chicks, bubble gum or teen angst like other radio-friendly pop-punk counterparts. Their songs have substance.

Vocalist and guitarist Nick Ripley wrote the song “California Redemption” in protest of Proposition 8. He writes most of the band’s lyrics, and the band is an outlet to sort out worldly injustices and past experiences. Sometimes songs share painful memories, such as the unexpected death of his sister when he was just 13, an experience he wrote about in the song “Wooden Benches.”

“Music to me is very personal,” he says. “It’s the most honest expression anyone could have. To me, putting myself into my songs, I don’t take it very lightly. It’s not just, ‘Here’s a song that doesn’t mean anything.’ It’s something I’ve gone through, something I’ve felt. There’s a part of me in the songs that I play.”

And while BOY fits well into punk, the guys say mosh pits and stage dives are not really their scene. The sound is richer, filled with vocal harmonies, melodic pop chords and Ripley’s unrelentingly, raucous vocals, like those of Tom Gabel in Against Me.

Sacramento Press / Behind the scenes at a Sacramento recording studio

Local reggae band Arden Park Roots recently recorded a song called “Under the Sun” at Sanctuary Recording Studio in Sacramento.

The recording session comes on the heels of the band’s recent success: winning the 2010 Your Music Magazine Band Olympics, playing at musical hot spot Ace of Spades and receiving warm reviews from online music blogs  and local media sources  alike.

Arden Park Roots seems to be enjoying its moment in the spotlight, and for Spencer Murphy, the band’s bass player, the road to musical fulfillment is a labor of love.

Said Murphy of the recording process: “I’ll never be content. I could do this all day.”

Studio A, Sanctuary’s largest recording space, is a home away from home for Dustin Brookshire, one of Sanctuary’s recording engineers. He uses a jumbo-sized computer screen to work with Pro Tools, a software program designed for recording music, and two high-quality speakers to listen closely to an artist’s progress.

Recording music professionally is a lesson in patience and persistence for both engineer and artist.

Peter Cole, owner of Sanctuary Studios, estimated that the band would need 15 hours to record an album that will be less than an hour in length.

“There is a lot of back and forth,” said Peter Cole, owner of Sanctuary Studios.

As Murphy recorded the bass track, Brookshire monitored sound levels. Every few minutes, Murphy asked Brookshire to “punch in” to a certain point in the song so that he could re-record it. He did this 10 times for every 30 seconds’ worth of song, saying, “I don’t think you’ll be able to hear the difference, but I’d like to try to sell it more.”

Brookshire, a graduate from Pinnacle College’s Recording Engineer program, has been recording officially for a year and a half, but has recorded as a hobby for four or five years. Those several years of experience are apparent in his ability to almost telepathically cue up the part of the song that Murphy asks for.

"The sound engineer's job is to have a good signal, clear sound and a strong foundation in audio signal routing," Cole explained.

Recording music is a process that requires clear and specific communication between engineer and musician.

While listening back to his work, Murphy heard a chord that sounded too harsh and asked Brookshire if he could “ease the attack.” Brookshire seemed to know immediately what Murphy was referring to and responded that, yes, he could “fade in that note.

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