Record Your Next Project Here: Riverview Studios

I should preface this by saying by writing this piece I get no free studio time, or sponsorship, or anything like that for telling you to go to this studio. Andrew and Sam were both friends first and I suppose “business” partners for the project in question after that fact. This is merely a representation of the time I spent at Riverview Studios recording the Locals Covering Locals project and why I think that these two are the perfect engineers with the perfect space for recording your next record…

Before going deeper, I guess you need to ask yourself what do you need when you record an album? This is going to be a representation of you that you cannot erase. It will outlive you, it will outlive a “career”, it will be out there for people to hear as is for years and years to come. Capturing the emotion, the mood, the vibe is a hugely important factor of any recorded work. That is something that Andrew and Sam manage to do extremely well at Riverview Studios. Moments after walking in the door you feel like you are more at home than in a traditional recording studio. They have space for you, bandmates, or friends to stretch out, two separate recording rooms and a whole bunch of extra space to hang and just acclimate to your surroundings…plus looking out a giant picture window over the Charles River tends to do a number on stress relief to boot. I don’t think I have ever felt more comfortable playing music than I have at Riverview. It’s like  playing in my living room, except, you know with really nice equipment capturing all the sounds I am making and two pairs of well trained ears making adjustments.

I will be honest, this project was a logistical nightmare. As much as I enjoyed it once we were “in it”, getting musicians rounded up is no small feat. Making sure they show up on time, making sure they actually prepared their arrangements ahead of time, keeping a cool head when things start running behind but also being able to say “ok, we have to cut now…no more takes”. We did have a wonderful group of folks involved in this, but cramming 11 different acts into two 8 hour sessions is not an ideal situation for anyone. I don’t care how great of an engineer, producer, musician handler, whatever, you are. It’s a tough and stressful thing to take on. Andrew and Sam acted with grace and poise, suggesting different mics, having everything ready to roll ahead of time, being one or two steps ahead of the game at all times. I honestly do not know how they did it. But they did. Every curve ball throw at them was reacted to with a power swing for the fences in return. This project is a success and I believe will be well received by the public as a result of everything coming together because of where we recorded and who the engineers were.

Gear? Yeah, sure gear is important. And the guys are fully functional and  facilitated with a number of mics, amps, instruments, outboard stuff I don’t even know what it does. Just a whole lot of goodies hanging around that could bring your recording to the next level. I always felt like they would suggest something that would add to the quality of the tracks if they felt it was right, and they delivered in that respect again and again. Plus, they are both musicians and can add some additional color to your tracks if you want them to put those instruments to good use.

Last and perhaps most importantly, I think that the fellas choose projects that they truly want to see succeed and are excited about. They are passionate about the music that they are recording. From a trust standpoint this is hugely important. You are putting your personal stories and songs into other people’s hands and having faith that they want them to be just as good as you want them to be. I have had recording experiences in the past where the recording process was more of a favor than a passion. I knew the engineer as a friend, but they weren’t particularly excited about the project and the songs for that project. I think that the album suffered greatly as a result of that. When you go to Riverview, you know these guys are going to let you know they are excited about your songs. They love new and different challenges. They will respect you, they will respect your music and vision, but provide insightful suggestions where they fit.

So are you looking to record a new project? I strongly encourage you to choose Riverview Studios. My experiences with them have been an absolute joy and I have been happier than I could imagine with the product and services that they provide.

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