Author Archives: Markus Warde

What Makes Music? – SoundHouse

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It takes a lot of work to make music. Well, I guess I’m assuming it does, I’ve never made one myself but I have known some musicians and none of them are going “Oh yeah, easiest part of my day really. It goes breathing, blinking, then music. Simple as.” But one of the key parts of making music is the studio its recorded in, and the engineers who make you sound good. Now there is no shortage of musicians around Vancouver, so where do they all go? Well, there’s one spot with enough room for everyone. Not everyone but a lot of people, you get my point.

Soundhouse studios, which does sound like a Chuck Norris movie where he is a karate master drummer, is right here in Vancouver. And they have NINE rooms for people to record in. 7 standard rooms, one premium room, and one mini room. And its not like the standard rooms are cramped tiny spaces either, there’s enough room for 8 people in there. Then with 16 people in the premium room and 2 in the mini, that works out to a max capacity of 74 people!

Now its mostly a rehearsal space, not necessarily a recording studio, but they do have music producers on staff. Now you may be wondering “Hey what’s the point of a producer if there’s nothing to produce?” and I’ll tell you, its not for the seasoned musicians.

Well, I’m sure if they asked one would come by, but actually its for the team building they offer! Yeah! I don’t know if you’d ever thought about that, I sure didn’t but they actually do team building events where they provide instruments, and a producer and let people loose in the studio. And that’s a really awesome idea. It requires you to work at a place with a bunch of musically inclined people, which is probably the hardest part, but if you have that then go for it!

https://pixabay.com/photos/microphone-study-radio-live-radio-1562354/

Imagine instead of awkward karaoke nights (I don’t know I haven’t worked a real job) or hot wing eating competitions (That one’s real, my dad told me about doing that once), you could get together with a bunch of people who you kind of tolerate at most, and just jam. I don’t know, maybe I’m a hippie but that sounds like a blast.

So if you have a bunch of people who you want to make some noise with, check out Soundhouse, and rock on!

What Makes Music? – Monarch Studios

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Queen really is a great name for a band huh? One word, just jumps out at you, its got a hard sound, and it brings to mind images of, well, the Queen. That last bit there, I think the use of the readers imagination is a really underrated part of the name. Even if you don’t really think about it, your brain conjures up the image of the powerful royal just by reading it, and by extent, you apply those feelings to the band. Before, of course, they shatter that illusiona dn show you who they are.

But there’s a studio in Vancouver that uses that same logic, and they absolutely deserve the title. I’m talking about Monarch studios. Though technically taking its name from the Monarch butterfly come on, work with me here.

Anywho, the studio itself is pristine. Sharp interior design, nice easy colour palettes, and a brick wall! It’s like looking at everything any music studio wants to be. It’s like if It’s a Small World didn’t have that creepy clock face. It’s really an amazing looking building. But what can it do?

They have rooms for every part of a band. The main tracking room has a custom ceiling to make the room sound even bigger than it is, which I can’t imagine how that works. Is it a fake ceiling that sound passes through, meaning the room is bigger than it is? I don’t know but whatever it is, it works and I’ll get into that later. But even if you only took your drummer and put him there you’d be fine. Monarch has an amp room and a vocal room so everyone can sound great. It even has a piano room!

That’s enough of me telling you how great the space is, how about who’s used it? Well they have a long list of clients, but I found one I want to share with you. It’s these guys called Lazy Ghost. They’re now an Australian surf-punk band but initially started as a band from Whistler before relocating! Isn’t that cool? Anywho, I checked out their album “Snacks” and I definitely liked what I listened to. When you think Surf Rock, who do you think? I’d bet good money you came up with the Beach Boys, well throw them right out the window! Don’t actually the Beach Boys are great, but these guys are completely different. I honestly don’t know what to compare them to, I’ve never heard anything like them, do yourself a favour and check them out. The song Hotdog Citizen on Snacks was my favourite of the ones I listened to.

But they wouldn’t sound half as good, if they didn’t have a solid studio behind them. Which Monarch definitely is, and they’ve got the talent to boot. I mean with 7 in house engineers, they’ve got what you need.

What Makes Music? – GGRP Sound

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Did you know Vancouver has an Abbey Road? Not the road itself but a recording studio of that size. And with some of the prestige as well! I want to introduce you to GGRP Sound, in this exciting entry of What Makes Music?

So, back in the late 60’s a bunch of self proclaimed “out of work musicians” came together to produce jingles for companies. And immediately struck gold when they made a jingle for Rice-a-roni, which I believe I was able to find online, however, it was completely indecipherable. But what little bits of melody and lyrics I was able to pick out, were pretty catchy, and that quality would not go unnoticed. Well, it would go unnoticed by Rice-a-Roni who stiffed them on payment, but that’s besides the point.

In the 70’s they built Little Mountain Sound, a recording studio. This was the Abbey Road and a host of famous bands made some fantastic albums here. Aerosmith made Get A Grip, Motley Crue released Dr. Feelgood, and our very own Bryan Adams made Reckless. I mean come on! That’s awesome! Stars upon stars came through here, and did great work on their way through. But that’s not the end of the story here. GGRP continued advertising in the background. Well technically the foreground. Advertising was what Little Mountain was all about, the music was just because they had extra space, and a reputation for good acoustics.

But one of the most lasting impacts Little Mountain made, was the iconic three tone chime from the Skytrain. They had made such a splash that the hot new travel of the future went to them to create the sound that would haunt the dreams of generations of commuters.

But enough about the history, although its fascinating, at least to me and hopefully to you. But lets talk about the space. The studio doesn’t do as much music making as they used to. But still work on commercials and podcasts and the like. As well as jingles! So even after losing the studio in a game of Texas hold’em, (I mean its more likely that the Texas hold’em was more a “formality” than anything but its more exciting to pretend) they retained their identity and continued to make commercial jingles. And hey, they’re catchy, they do a good job.

 

What Makes Music? – Demitone Studio

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You know, recording studios are always interesting to me, what about you? One thing that always sticks out to me is their size. I always thought they all had to be gigantic, to accommodate entire bands, their isntruments, speakers, amps, and the like. But I saw that documentary a few years ago, Get Back, about the Beatles, you know it? But it in you can see that Abbey Road is really not that big of a place, and when the 5th Beatle, Billy Preston showed up, the space got downright cramped, now wonder they performed on the roof.

But as small studios go, there’s one I found that’s right here in Vancouver, and its amazing what they can pull off in such a small space. Demitone Studio is not a large space. It’s got low lighting too, it feels like a little indie bookstore almost. Picture one of those ones you would’ve gone to as a kid for something that wasn’t available at chapters. With the random islands in the middle of the store basically stacked to the ceiling. Demitone is like that, but music. How they do band tracking is beyond me, but somehow they make it work. Because it’s a small space, they really put time into making it look great, it’s well furnished, lit well as mentioned before, and has got this really great vibe, like its somewhere great music comes from.

Which it is, one of the groups that came through is called Slow Rage. They recorded the album “…Until it Happens to You” there and I really enjoyed what I listened to. They have a song on there called BONES which feels like Craig Northey sings Metallica. But the rest of the album is completely different, its got this great just “indie band” quality, Craig Northey wasn’t just a flippant reference they really remind me of classic Odds at some points, but with a more modern edge. Check it out if you have the time even if usually you don’t listen to alt-rock, there’s something there for you.

Speaking of Odds, their drummer Pat Steward is another of the clients Demitones has worked with, he didn’t record any albums there, but he did prep sessions there. If a Vancouver rock institution like Odds signs off on your place, I think you gotta be doing something right.

What Makes Music? – Barnside Sound

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What’s with music and the name Barnside? There’s the Barnside Harvest festival every year, which if you haven’t been, you gotta go. It’s an amazing time, and they always break out the stars. But, that’s not the Barnside I’m talking about, I want to talk about Barnside Sound, a recording studio on Vancouver island.

Before I dive into the studio itself, I want to talk about the two guys who make it work. To start the lead engineer is Justin LaPointe. This guy has mixed and mastered over 300 songs at the studio since its opening in 2019. I mean the guy owns the place, it’d make sense that he’s y’know fairly involved. But there’s another guy there, an intern. His name is Ellis Frank, hes been making music his whole life, which hasn’t been that long. Guy’s like 21 or something, barely old enough to rent a car, but he’s already a member of the musicians union. But I mean he’s had a leg up this whole time, his dad was a member of Spirit of the West! He got to sit in on recording sessions! I mean can you imagine what it would’ve been like in there? I’ll leave it there because I don’t want to get too far off track. But these two dudes are definitely capable, and anyone who records here is in good hands.

Speaking of, who records here? They’ve got a few featured artists on their website, and they all sound great, of course partially due to the work done by Barnside, but also because they are talented musicians.

To focus in on one of them, Glisha is an RnB artist, and when listening to some of her stuff, I realized that I do not know what RnB is. I always thought of RnB as stuff like the Blues Brothers, which yeah, is a white guy thing to say I admit that. But the Blues Brothers are great and I’ll hear nothing otherwise. But Glisha’s music sounds to me like standing outside in the rain. Just absolutely soaked, but if that’s your thing, you wouldn’t trade it for the world.

That’s enough waxing poetic, Barnside Sound has everything you’d need to record what you want. And the studio is in this wide open room, with windows and it just looks gorgeous. I’d love to check it out one day, even if I don’t have a musical bone in my body.

What Makes Music? – Armoury Studios

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Jim Vallance, known to some as Bryan Adams writing partner, others as the founder of Armoury Studios and others as the subject and main author of Jimvallance.com. But I want to zero in on that Armoury Studios notch on his belt. In 1983 he built the studio, which was then purchased from him by Bruce Fairbairn for an undisclosed amount of money. And however much it was, it was not enough for the calibre of client that would later come through.

I mean, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Loverboy, Bon Jovi, and who can forget Gorky Park. What’s that you say? You’ve never heard of Gorky Park? They’re a hard rock band out of Russia in the late 80’s. Now I’m not saying that the musical power of rock n’ roll was an integral force in dropping the Berlin wall, but I’m also not not saying that.

Anywho, back on topic, Fairbairn was the guy who made that happen. These aren’t even close to all the bands he worked for, in and out of Armoury, I mean he’s beyond accomplished.

But what about the room where the magic happened? Picture a mixing room in your head. That’s what it looks like at Armoury. Hey no need to reinvent the wheel right? I mean it’s just got the look. But what I found cool was the room where musicians play. Its wide open, like a church almost. Which makes sense, churches do have good acoustics. But at the church of Rock n’ Roll, there are no scriptures, only records. And the main lobby is lined with them. There are frames upon frames of albums from musicians who recorded there.

Speaking of those artists, if you have the chance, scroll through the testimonials page, its just legend after legend after legend. There’s the obvious of Jim Vallance, the guy who built the place, down to smaller recording artists, listed just as recording artists, to writers, producers, players, singers, everyone loves Armoury. And of course they do! They’ve been dedicated to their craft for 40 years, if you do something for 40 straight years and you’re still lousy at it, you might want to consider a career change.

Even just poking around the online history here, you get the feeling that this is a very grand place, with a rich history. If you have some time, and an appreciation for music history, take a look at the website, poke around, see what secrets lie within, and if you find something really cool I didn’t? Keep it to yourself, please don’t hurt my feelings.

Eh Eh Eh, Ehhehehh (Roughly translates to, Undertale Symphony)

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Welcome to the underground! That is to say the Undertale Symphony is coming to town this weekend. Now you may or may not be familiar with Undertale, its an RPG that came out about 10 years ago, with a really impactful storyline that makes every choice you make count. But something that you can’t talk about Undertale without talking about, is the music.

Indie games with soundtracks so good you’d be shocked they come from games, is not a new phenomenon. Undertale, Stardew Valley, Payday, Minecraft, the list goes on. But having their music play in a symphony is something of a recent thing. I mean the game awards usually has an orchestra play some of the hits from that year but Undertale Symphony is different. Its entirely focused on the one game. Stardew Valley, the game I mentioned earlier? It does the same thing, but with its music. Both concerts take large bands and play the music from the games while footage from the game is overlayed. The difference between Stardew and Undertale is that Stardew is non linear. The game goes where you take it. However long it takes for you to reach the top is the time it takes, you are your character, but that’s more the conduit to the world. Undertale on the other hand, takes you where it wants to go. It knows where the story ends and it takes you along for the ride.

It’s a very intentional game, and that’s reflected in the music. I’m sure you’ve heard Megalovania, the frantic, fast paced, “final boss” track. Check out the game if you want to know why I put quotes there. But beyond Megalovania, the game is full of tracks the perfectly compliment the story. There’s one that plays called “It’s Raining Somewhere Else” which just puts me at peace. Should it? Who knows! But it sounds exactly like the title implies, but with a little more energy than you would expect. It’s nothing crazy but really, go listen, it’ll break any preconceived notion of what video game music can and should be.

You might be able to tell, but I really like video game music, does that make me a giant nerd? “Yes!”. Ouch, rude, I write you a nice article and this is how you repay me? Whatever, anyway, really, check out the Undertale Symphony if you have the chance, symphonies are amazing, Undertale’s music is amazing, The Queen Elizabeth theatre, where this is happening on the 10th is amazing. Seriously, do yourself a favour, and get yourself the tickets.

Not A Scientific Theory

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I was never much of a scientist, I don’t know about you. I mean you can probably tell I’m not given that I’m writing articles about music instead of, mixing chemicals or dropping eggs? High school is all I’m running with. There is one theory I am familiar with however, and that’s Vancouver based band Theory of A Deadman! They’ve just released a new EP about a month ago, called part 1: Funeral Songs. Which implies at least a part 2. And I’m gonna tell you why you should get excited for that.

Now, in case you don’t know who these guys are, a little backstory. They were the first band to sign to Chad Kroeger’s record label back in 2002. And they’ve been rocking since. They aren’t quite rock, not quite metal, not quite grunge, but exist in the intersection of those three, along with some southern rock grit. They’ve got a really unique sound because it’s a mash up of so many different kinds of music. Its easy to go “Oh another rock band from BC, what’s next, country from Alberta?” but you’d be doing yourself a disservice to write these guys off.

To highlight this, I want to talk about their latest showing, the aforementioned Funeral Songs. Which includes the heavy rock name track, Funeral Song. If you played this song at a funeral, the dead would rise up I’m certain.

It feels like a track that would play during a zombie killing montage in an action movie. It’s full of energy and has that rocking edge that takes it over the top. You know the band Kreeps? They wrote a song for the Red Dead Redemption zombie DLC called Bad Voodoo, and that’s a similar vibe to this. That one has more of an almost surf like quality, like its made for a Halloween movie, but crank up the intensity and you have Funeral Song. But if you’re more of a metalhead, Barricade might be for you. It’s got a harsher edge than the other stuff in there, but doesn’t turn into death metal quite yet. It’s impossible to not bang your head as you listen, check it out when you can, the EP is great.

I for one, am pumped for Part 2 whenever that may be, and I hope you are too.

Not As Obscene as The Name Suggests

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When was the last time you heard the name, The New Pornographers? For me it’s been years. I honestly thought they were a defunct band that fell apart in the mid 2000’s but they still make music! And if you have no idea who they are, or what I’m talking about, let me fill you in.

The New Pornographers, are not new anymore, they’re coming up on 30 years of making music. Just next year actually! But they formed in 1997, in Vancouver as a spinoff of, Destroyer, The Evaporators, Superconductor, Zumpano, Maow, The Corn Sisters, Cub, and Thee Crusaders. I have to be completely honest with you, I only know Cub. But the New Pornographers are beyond their makeup, they’re great, and they’ve stood the test of time.

They have this almost jangly quality to some of their older stuff, like Mass Romantic, off the album of the same name. But it rocks, its way happier than a lot of alt bands without becoming overly cheery or syrupy. And they still have some of that y’know sadness built in. On a song like The Bleeding Heart Show, which is not surprising, nothing with bleeding heart in the title has ever been anything close to cheery. But what I want to talk about, and the reason for bringing them up, is that they released a new album this year.

Back in march, The Former Site Of released and it’s a shift from what I was telling you about before. It’s almost folk-y in its execution, like a mature version of what they’ve been doing. It’s really cool. There’s a song on there, its called Votive. It’s kind of like a celestial Gordon Lightfoot, if you get what I mean. It feels like you’re floating in space as you listen, but its got a grounding quality. Like walking in Australia, barely hanging on to gravity. I think. They use harnesses down there right?

Anywho, There’s something about Canadian bands that just age well, especially ones from BC, and the New Pornographers are no exception. They keep things fresh, without forgetting who they are and how they got there.

Steven’s Turns Another Page

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It’s beeeen one week since the album reveal, okay technically 5 days but it didn’t fit the reference. Steven Page, the now clothed lady, is releasing a holiday album this year on November 13th, just a few weeks before he hits the stage in BC. His album is called “Steven’s Greetings”. I’ll just let that speak for itself.

Now, I haven’t seen Steven’s solo shows, or more accurately, his trio shows. He performs as part of the Steven Page Trio which has him, Craig Northey from Odds, and Kevin Fox. But, what I have seen, is him coming on stage at the end of an Odds concert, as well as at the Trans Canada Highwaymen show back in July. And he is an amazing entertainer.

Starting with the Odds concert. The Odds came on stage for their encore and I turned to my dad because there was suddenly another guy with them. And all I said was “Is that?” and he said “I think it is.” But any doubt as to who he was was crushed immediately as they launched into It’s All Been Done, followed shortly thereafter by The Old Apartment, and Jane. It was like a mini show within a show. And same for TCH, but with some of “their songs” thrown in. I say that because they’re sort of a cover band, playing old Canadian hits.

But back to the holiday album, and I keep saying holiday because it is not a Christmas album. At least not entirely. There’s songs like Christmas in Toronto, which is, well, a Christmas song, I’m sure you put that together. But there are lots of songs about Hanukkah as well. Like the Barenaked ladies hit Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah. Which although I am not Jewish, I can recognize a banger when I hear one. Christmas in Toronto is a solo song of his he released last year. And it’s about how much Christmas in Toronto sucks, followed by saying “Im spending Christmas in toronto, and I wouldn’t want it any other way”. Truly an Ontarian way of thinking, lousy good for nothings.

But something that’s really funny about the West Vancouver show, is that tickets are 65 standard, 75 for premium, but if you are under 35, tickets are 29 bucks. Its amazing, I got three tickets for under a hundred bucks. Really screaming deal. But tickets are going fast, so if you want to go, get them now! Either for the show in Vancouver, or the ones on the Island. And once you’ve seen the show, you’ll be able to say ‘It’s all been done.”