Anyone who knows me can tell you that when I am not recording at the studio or writing something I am typically watching wrestling. I know it's sad but it's true. Well I combined writing and wrestling this week for an article on thephatphree.com called the Top 50 Pro Wrestling Moves Of All-Time . It's got some hilarious footage of Sid Vicious calf bone going in four directions and lots of other classic wrestling footage as well as moves that will just amaze even the biggest haters. Now if I could just write a song about wrestling life would be perfect.

Speaking of songs, lots has been going doing at the Studio, which has been lovingly dubbed "The Brick" these days.

The Red is back! Marco, Tony and Steve are working on a new E.P. that I am producing. It is awesome to be working on new material with them. The last time we did a big project together we were recording an older batch of songs, but this stuff is all brand new so the sessions have been very exciting. Also check out the live video of "G. Nosa Goy" from Genghis Cohen that I did the video mix for.

Milky Soul! That's right, MCs Joe Ward & Mario C. along with my boys Nate Briner and Jim Beatty (formerly of 3D Arson) came back through this month and busted out another 5 tunes to add to the first batch we recorded. We just gotta mix everything we tracked and these boys will have a full album that will be ready to rock the car systems and the clubs. You have to see them live if you get a chance! Check their myspace (http://www.myspace.com/milkysoul) for more info.

New tracks from Alex. Ashkan Tabrizi's band Alex has been recording a batch of new tunes that we are currently mixing at Timares Productions (AKA The Brick). Be sure to check out the first two songs, "Keep Cool" and the Johnny Five co-produced track "Why Try".

Speaking of Johnny Five, forget about Summer. Erase J-Five and Modern Times from your head. The new Dusty White stuff is the best stuff Johnny Kovacs has ever done. The lineup featuring Justin Lewsadder, Matt McClanahan, Kaylan Romero and Andrew Jones is the best incarnation of Johnny's rock side yet. New songs and show dates are up now on their myspace page. Click here to listen.

I can't even describe RHETERIC other than to say he sounds like Kool Keith face fucking the Ramones with Aesop Rock's dick. And if that description is too graphic for you then you definitely don't want to listen to his new material that we are producing at The Brick. Don't click here if you are afraid of Reverse Engineering.


Much Love,

-Justin Harvey
Producer, Engineer, Writer, Madman

ONE TREE HILL

As I mentioned, last week one of Timares Productions favorite bands Fighter Pilot was featured on One Tree Hill. Most of the features songs last week were very melancholly, but Fighter Pilot offered up a more up tempo selection, "Lost In Hollywood". Click here to see the episodes playlist featuring the song produced by Justin Harvey.

YOU HEAR IT FIRST!

Last nights episode of One Tree Hill featured "Lost In Hollywood" by Fighter Pilot, a song that was recorded and produced by Justin Harvey at Timares Productions. One Tree Hill features lots of popular new artists each week as the story lines are set to the music of the MTV generation. Chalk this up as another notch in the belt of the grwoing success of Fighter Pilot who will be on tour throughout the Southwest in February, and has been featured on radio stations around the country as a group to watch in 2006.

They aren't the only bands from Timares Productions getting out there. The Red was featured on an episode of the NBC's The Biggest Loser and 3D Arson was prominently featured in The Strand, a show from the creators of The Blair Witch Project. Also look for songs from Johnny Five and Dusty White to appear in a few as of yet untitled motion pictures.

Former Sick Water bandmates Kaylan and Shad along with actress Camille Solari also stopped by Timares Productions last month to cut two songs to be featured in the major motion picture The Bliss. Justin Harvey was tasked with helping the production take two of Shad's songs and make them work for the band that would be appearing on screen in the film. Both songs, Timmy and Stay Gold, came out great. And you would not believe the superstar singer that came in to lay back up vocals with Justin for Stay Gold. Contracts prohibit us from saying, but let's just say we know she's got soul.

Johnny Five is back from France and cooking up several exciting projects for 2006 that will come through Timares Productions. Not only will his masterpiece album "From Hell With Love" be released later this year on Basement Records, but Johnny & Justin Harvey will also working on producing tracks for Bambu, Dusty White and hopefully Rhetoric too!

The staff of www.thephatphree.com was also in Timares Productions last month. Mike Polk, Charlie DeMarco, Justin Harvey, Andy Stephan, Scott Hofman, and rising comedy superstar Ron Babcock, joined forces in the studio to start working on The Phat Phree's first comedy comedy CD. In hopes of continuing the great comedy legacies of Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, Geroge Carlin, Redd Foxx, and other greats, The Phat Phree hopes to get back to the format that helped keep true comedy alive, the comedy album. The Phat Phree's album will feature a group of interwoven sketches and songs that all tell the story of a night of glorious partying and all the tools that deserved to be targeted observed and ridiculed along the way. Look for a mid summer release of this album from Phamily Business Entertainment.

AW SNAP

Lots going on at the studio these days! Some of my friends from www.thephatphree.com stopped by a few weeks ago to record some comedy jingles for our merchandise arm, Oscar Shitley's. Hysterically fun stuff created by Charlie DeMarco, Scott Hofman, Andy Stephan and myself, Justin Harvey. It has fired up one of our other writers Mike Polk to try to get the group together for a whole comedy album that we will try to record this winter. I also have another article up on this site. Click here to read and please use the email link to send it to your friends.

3D Arson has been busting ass on several new tunes! Some stuff that we recorded at NRG and some stuff that we did at Timares Productions. Right now we are sitting on about 18 awesome tracks. We'll probably do a couple more and then start figuring out which songs to put out together. It is possible you may see more than one record from these monsters of rock in 2006.

Who is Dusty White. We'll all be finding out soon. Check their myspace page for updates. http://www.myspace.com/dustywhite

I am also in the process of writing and producing a couple of tracks that I hope I can get Cassandra Simone to sing. She has an awesome voice with a Mariah like range! Hopefully she will grace some of my tracks with her awesome talent. (Can you tell I'm kissing ass?) I've been wanting to do some more pop/R&B style tracks but just haven't had an artist around to do them with. I think this might be a good combination of talents. Cassie sang the hooks on an upcoming Johnny Five track called So Low '76 that came out great, so hopefully we can twist Johnny's arm to help out some with the production too as well as dropping some more hot tracks for Bambu.

More News Next Week!

CRAZY LIFE

Just finished 3 songs with Lockestar. They are going to post them for a limited time on their myspace page, so check them out before they're gone! http://www.myspace.com/lockestar

Also been working on a little sumthin sumthin with the band 3D Arson (www.3DArson.com) that I produced along with my good friend Dan Certa(www.dancerta.com). We'll drop more info on that one as soon as we can.

Johnny Five is starting a label called Appetite Records that I will be very involved in. We're gonna try to put out a compilation record of stuff from some great artists that we like sometime in spring. Trying to get some hot new tracks going for Bambu to start the ball rolling. Johnny's record From Hell With Love is finished for Basement records and should be out in spring as well. The finished album art is sick!

Kaligo just released the 4 song EP that I mixed for them earlier this year. Check out www.kaligoband.com for more info.

I'm hoping I finally get a chance to work with Cassie Simone, Who Knows, Anna McMurphy, Leigh Jones and my friend Jimmy Paxon this fall as well. They are all awesome performers that everyone must hear. So I hope I can get them each in the studio soon.

Also, I'm pitching TV shows for the first time in my life. Been taking lots of meetings and it looks like our chances of getting something in development are improving daily. I wish I could blog about some of the crazy pitch meetings I've been in and people we've met with, but let's just say those people don't like news getting out before deals have been made. But as soon as I am at liberty to speak about it I will. I can say that it has been one of the most exciting times I can remember. Everything at the studio and with www.thephatphree.com feels really important and fun right now. Let's hope it lasts and brings in some $ to keep the ball rolling in the right direction.

Much Love for all my Peeps,

Justin Harvey

Hug It Out


The first song for the upcoming Duty White CD is done called No Way Out. Should get posted on www.dustywhitemusic.com after we get it mastered

Kaligo's 4 song EP that was mixed by Justin Harvey at Timares Productions in late spring is being released on August 13th. Visit www.kaligoband.com for more info on the CD Release Party and when you can get a copy.

Dan Certa (www.dancerta.com) and Justin Harvey will be doing some quick pre-production with 3D Arson tomorrow at their rehersal space. Justin heard them do the songs they have planned for their new EP last week and they are phenominal. The band is totally prepared to get in the studio and knock out their best batch of tunes yet. For anyone interested in seeing them drop the new songs live you should check them out at the Viper Room this Saturday night. Tickets are available through their website www.3DArson.com.

New additions to the TImares family, Lockestar will also be playing the Viper Room on Saturday so we strongly urge everyone to come out and support the bands. For those who have never been the Viper Room is one of the best sounding rooms in LA and never fails to please.

Welcome back to Timares good friend, Brandon "Random" Conner! Nice to have you back in this part of the world!

HOT FUN IN THE SUMMERTIME!

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but it's been hella busy around here. Here's the news.

Right now I am knee deep in production on tracks for Dusty White (www.dustywhitemusic.com). They are coming out great! The band has really progressed a lot. Fans of their old demo are gonna be blown away by where the band is headed. I drop an update after the band throws some of the new stuff on their website.

Big things are in the works for 3D Arson (www.3Darson.com) as well. My old partner in crime, Dan Certa (www.dancerta.com), and I will hopefully be co-producing some new songs together for the band. We really hope to catch some of their new material in the studio that has been knocking out their live audienes. The boys are on tour in San Diego this week, but we'll be getting this together as soon as they get back.

Welcome Lockestar (www.lockestar.net) to the Timares family! The four piece rock band will be spending some time in August at the studio with producer Justin Harvey dropping three new demo tracks for their new management company, Hennessy Management Group, to shop around this fall. Look for it soon on their website.

I've also been swamped with my other company Phamily Business Entertainment, LLC which is in the process of selling a book deal and acquiring representation for Film and TV based on the success of our website www.thephatphree.com. You can check out some my stuff by clicking here.

More updates on What happening with Kaligo, The Red, Johnny Five and Fighter Pilot next time.

Puppet of Masters?

Dieter Kommshmacher has just finished up with the masters for the highly anticipated EP from Kaligo that was mixed this spring by Justin Harvey at Timares Studios in North Hollywood. The EP, All Strings Attached, will be released early next month. Be sure to check the bands website www.kaligoband.com for info about how and when you can get a copy. The title track from the EP has already been a huge success on the internet and at college radio, so the final release should definitely have a big impact. Look for the band on tour this summer as well.

Drop It Like Its a Hot Potato

Just finished the last few touches on a remix for Happy Valentine the first single from the up coming Johnny Five record which will now be called "From Hell With Love" instead of classics. The remix is very different from the album version and you'll be able to hear both on the 12" that will be released this summer before the record drops. It'll be the first chance everyone will get to experience the album we have been working on since this time last summer. Unlike many "rap-rock" hybrid records we've really tried to expand both hip hop and alternative rock in new directions. One of my friends said it sounds like Mos Def meets Hot Hot Heat. Another person described it as Del or Eminem crossed with Sublime and James Brown. Any way you cut it, this ain't Limp Bizkit or the Judgement Night Soundtrack. It's definitely something new. I dropped the masters of Happy Valentine off at Die Pig Mastering tonight in Burbank. Dieter Kommschmacher will be putting the final gloss on the masters tomorrow before we hand the single over to Rock at Basement Records for release. I'll post an update when I get a release date.

The Phat Phree

I've been getting phone calls from a lot of people about The Phat Phree being down. We are doing some backend security upgrades at www.thephatphree.com and we will be up and down most of the day. Everything should be back to normal tomorrow.

Big UP!

Just want to drop a thanks to all the people who dropped by to work on Johnny Five last night. Props goes out to Leigh Jones, Bamboo, Cassie Simone, and Sibyl Anna for stopping by to help. The new songs are gonna sound great because of it!

In other news, I am currently attempting to become the most multifacited person in the entire entertainment industry. More on this later, but we have a ton of stuff going on over at www.thephatphree.com that you should definitely be checking out. Even a few projects from the studio may be working their way into the Phat Phree as multimedia clips. I'll let everyone know when this happens. Stay up, rockers.

-Justin Harvey
Owner/Producer Timares Production

Almost done with the new Kaligo stuff! Just a few tweaks left and it'll be right as rain.

For all you budding recordists out there, Guitar center is having one of those rare sales this weekend where recording gear is on sale instead of Squire's and Crate amps.

Artists - I am starting to put together my calendar for the rest of the summer so email me if you are looking for studio time.

Expect many more regular updates from me in the future.

and don't forget to visit The Phat Phree website.

The Future

In an attempt to become more socially active through, of all things, my computer, I have created a my space account. People keep telling me it is the ultimate way to network. We'll see. Now that I have been roped into this thing it only makes sense that I try to get all of my friends to jump on my space, thus building myself a bigger network. Does that really make sense. Anyway, you can out the myspace deal at http://www.myspace.com/timares. And don't forget to add me as your friend. Now I feel really stupid.

I've been getting alot of emails that people are having trouble accessing my story on www.thephatphree.com. Well that's is because the website's NBA all-ugly team artcile was today's featured story on right on top of www.SI.com/scorecard (Sports Illustrated's website) as well as being featured yesterday on ESPN Radio and last night on Fox Sport's The Best Damned Sports Show Period. Our server for the www.thephatphree.com wasn't quite ready to handle the jump from 20,000 hits to a 100,000 hits in one day so the site is obviously running a little slow. I recomend people try the website at night if they can because the traffic will definitely be lower in the evening. I'd like to thank everyonr again for all the support we've gotten for that site and thanks for stopping by here to see what's going on with me. Hopefully Kris Carter will help me get some updates for this site going on this week as well.

Justin Harvey
http://www.thephatphree.com/features.asp?StoryID=342&SectionID=1

Please check out my new article at www.thephatphree.com just click this link below.


http://www.thephatphree.com/features.asp?StoryID=342&SectionID=1

"Get A Free iPod"
by Justin Harvey

The Phat Phree Is Back

I just want to send a quick shout out to everyone who is stopping by because of the ad banner on www.thephatphree.com. My good friend Charlie DeMarco has revived our old comedy zine in a new and improved online version. We've got tons of great writers like Chad Zummock, Jesse Lamovsky, Jef Etters, Mike Polk, Chris Queen, yours truly, Justin Harvey and about 30 other great writers from all over the country. If you're looking for a laugh, make sure you you stop by www.thephatphree.com.

In other news, Dylan and Drew from Kaligo flew out from Cleveland last week to finishing mixing on their upcoming EP. The stuff sounds great! Look for the record to come out sometime next month. Check www.KaligoBand.com for more details.

Johnny Five is back in the studio this week. We've decided to add one more track to his upcoming album "Classics". We've worked up a few tracks and now we just need to decide which one will make the cut.

The Red came by early in the month to record two new songs, "dubya" and "More More More". "dubya" will most likely be featured in an upcoming movie from "Super Size Me" director, Morgan Spurlock. More info soon on a possible new release from the Red featuring the tracks. Visit www.thered.com to check out some of their recent material.

SPICE IT UP

Every year on Superbowl Sunday my friend Charlie DeMarco has a Chilli cookoff, and for the 3rd time out of the 4 times I've entered my chilli took the prize for best overall chilli. I have to say it was a darn fine batch this year. The best part about it was that I hadn't even tasted it until the actual judging began because my taste buds had been shot from having a cold last week. Neverless, my recipe came out great. Nothing like beef, beans and peppers to make Superbowl Sunday a special event.

An awesome singer named Anna McMurphy was in the studio this weekend tracking 4 new demos for Universal Japan. She had a hit song placed in a Japanese TV show last year and they want to hear more of her stuff so Jimmy Paxon, Justin Lewsadder and Anna's friend Jamie from Liverpool jumped in the studio this weekend to crank out some killer demos.

Kaligo is busy finishing basic tracks for the upcoming EP in Cleveland and will be heading out here soon to mix at Timares Productions.

The Red is also coming back in soon to work on a few tracks that may be used in an upcoming motion picture. We'll have more informatiuon about this one soon.

3D Arson's official release party for the "Bored of You" 3 song single will be this friday at The Derby. Check www.3darson.com for more info.

The Fighter Pilot single is still rocking on XM radio and is at radio stations all across the country. Be sure to request Fighter Pilot on your favorite station.

BEAM ME UP!

Timares Productions is proud to announce that Fighter Pilot has been accepted as a featured artist on XM satelite radio! The single "Perfect Day" from Fighter Pilot's debut album "Atomic Anthem" will be prominetly featured by the satleite radio provider. The single should be showing up on conventional radio in the coming weeks as well. Be sure to call your favorite radio station and request the song!

WHO IS DUSTY WHITE?

I'm not telling! But Dusty White will be camping out at Timares Productions for the next month or so working on pre-production for 2 upcoming albums. Lots of very creative music and cool guests will happen on this one so stay tuned.

The 3D Arson 3 song advance release from their upcoming record is available now. Visit www.3DArson.com for info on how and where you can recieve a free copy.

The Fighter Pilot album "Atomic Anthem" is also available now through CDBaby and Tower Records online. Visit www.fighterpilotmusic.com for direct links. Also be sure to call you favorite radio station and request the single "Too Much About Me" which is being sent to stations all over the country by Howard Rosen Promotions at the beginning of february.

More exciting news & info coming soon.

THE SITDOWN COMODIAN

Jimmy Paxon is the best drummer in the world or at least among one of the best. If anyone is looking for a guy to really lay it down on the skins, contact me and I'll put you in touch with Jimmy. His rates are good and he can play almost any style. Not only is he one of the funnest musicians in the world to hang out with, he has peformed along side Rod Stewart, Edgar Winters, Allanis Morrisette and countless other top notch performers. To date I've only worked with Jimmy on a few projects, but he has a rehearsal room in the same building as my studio so I get to hang with him all the time. His band the Casualties Of Jazz has an album out called "Kind Of Black" that is all 3 piece (Drums, Bass, Organ) jazzy versions of Black Sabbath songs. It's an absolute masterpiece that every musician should pick up. I believe it's available through Amoeba and iTunes. Regardless, if you ever come across Jimmy or any of his work you won't be let down. He gets my full seal of approval!

THE NEXT YEAR

So another year is gone. No need to recap it's all in the entries below so let's move on to what's happening for 2005.

Johnny Five was back in town for the holidays so he got his band Dusty White together for a few days to start working on new tracks for upcoming releases. Justin Lewsadder and I will be working on finishing the tracks with Sibyl Anna and Andrew Jones until Johnny returns in spring. We'll also probably start working on another Johnny Five record and a few other surprise projects. 2005 should prove to be a big year for all of the projects that Johnny, Justin and I have going on. The J five album has just come out in Europe and should be a big hit. Johnny's American release Classics is scheduled to come out in May.

The Fighter Pilot album "Atomic Anthem" is officially avaible now. Visit www.fighterpilotmusic.com for details on how you can pick up your copy today!

The 3 song advance for the 3D Arson single "Bored Of You" has just gone to duplication and should be available by the middle of February. The disc also features "Settle The Score" and "Never Again", and was mastered by Dieter Kommschmacher. The band will be working at Timares Productions for the next few months finishing tracking for their as of yet untitled full length release. So far the band has about 11 tracks finished and 5 more on the way, which will leave plenty of great material to chose from for this album.

Editing is almost done on the Kaligo EP. The band is anxious to get back into the studio in Cleveland and finish tracking so they can send it out here to be mixed and edited at Timares Productions.

The Red's album "Burn" is avaible for purchase through their website www.thered.com. Lead singer Marco Aiello recently had 4 songs from the album advance to the semi-finals of an international songwriting competition. The song "Don't Help Me" was also featured on the season recap of The Biggest Loser.

2005 is shaping up to be a big year for Timares Productions and all of the artists that have been working here. Please support all of us by picking up copies of these bands releases.

PUMP IT UP!

3DArson was featured last week on the Frank, Heidi and Frosty show on 97.1 FM here in LA. The show gives callers a chance to comment on a few of the bands songs and the hosts and audience get to decide if a band should stay or go. 3D's song "Bored Of You" helped the band solidify a clear cut "stay" vote from the hosts and audience. I just want to congratulate the band and tell them thank you for getting another song produced at Timares Productions played on the radio. If you'd like to know more about the band check out www.3DArson.com. Long time Timares colaborator, Charlie DeMarco is currently helping the band out with some website maintenance and design work as well.

Tim is somewhere in the LA area! As soon as we track him down, Charlie and I are going to put him to work helping us finish a few things for the LA LA Land video. More on that next week.

Don't forget to stop by www.thered.com and pick up a copy of their new album "Burn" which I produced earlier this year. Stay tuned for more information on the release of Fighter Pilot's album "Atomic Anthem" and for more news about Kaligo. Happy Holidays and Buy More Retail!!!!

KEEP ON ROLLING

Dieter just finished the mastering for the Johnny Five album "Classics" and it sounds sweet. I can't wait for this record to be released!

Speaking of releases, last night was the CD Release party for The Red's album "Burn" that I produced earlier this year. Not only did the album turn out great, but the band blew the roof off of the Whatclub with a stellar live show. The Red is not only releasing the record on CD, but is putting a limited edition version of the album on USB flash drive. The Red is the first band to release an album on Flash drive and the band is actively promoting copying the album for friends, hence the title "Burn". For more information or to pick up a copy of the album visit their website www.thered.com and don't forget to download a free MP3 of the first single "Run" from the music link above.

Tis the season for giving. With that in mind I helping two of my best friends out with a little project. Tim Shiles and his group Tunnel Runners released a song called "La La Land" a year ago and Charlie DeMarco has created an animated video for the song in his spare time. Now that the video is finished and Tim is on his way out here from Cleveland for a brief visit, we thought we'd put a serious mix together and do some folley for the video. All the tracks have been transfered form acid to ProTools already and I should be getting the final video cut from charlie this week so that I can mix to picture. When Tim comes out next week I'll have him help me add a few final touches to the mixing process. When it's all done we'll put up a link to the video so everyone can see the awesome job Charlie has done w/ the video.

Until next time....

Here come the Holidays!

Big things are happening for the artists of Timares Productions! The Red was prominently featured on last weeks episode of "The Biggest Loser". The song "Don't Help Me" from their forthcoming album entitled "Burn" was produced and mixed at Timares Productions earlier this year and will be released in December.

The Fighter Pilot album "Atomic Anthem" has just finished up in mastering with Dieter Kommschmaker and will also be released this winter. We are getting great reviews from industry insiders about the songs "Too Much About" and "Perfect Day". The "Too Much About Me" single should be hitting radio in a big way in the months to come.

3D Arson has been in tracking their next album over the past month or so at Timares Productions. Several songs are almost done and they are turning out to be phenominal. The three we finished last night "Settle The Score", "Coming Around", and "Godsong" are probably my three favorites right now. The sound heavy and huge. I am definitely pleased with the way this project is turning out.

The first single from Johnny Five "Classics" will probably be released in December. Johnny is planning a rare US performance the day after X-mas for Basement Records annual party and showcase. We'll get more info out about Johnny Five and soon as the record is finished being mastered by Dieter.

We just got the drum tracks from Kaligo for editing. After the basic editing and some preliminary mixing is done on the tracks, we'll ship them back to Dylan and the band back in Ohio to finish overdubs and vocals. Then they'll send all the tracks back to LA for final mixing at Timares Productions. Hopefully this 6 song EP will get some of the interested labels to commit to a full album and a deal for the band. It shouldn't be too hard considering the amount of buzz the band has been building and the huge fan base they have all over the midwest.

It's Gravy Baby!

Finishing feels good. I wrapped up the mixing for Fighter Pilot's forthcoming album tonight. We started out trying to make a 4 song demo about a year ago and 11 months and 10 songs later we finished with a full album that sounds awesome. It looks like the guys are gonna be shopping around the songs "Too Much About Me" and "Perfect Day" so if anyone has any leads for a Modern Power Pop trio drop me a line. You can hear "Perfect Day" on my music page. We'll post an update when Fighter Pilot has their new website up as well.

I worked on an awesome TV show theme this weekend as well. I'll post more if we hear that they're gonna use it. Until then I don't wanna jinx it. Just keep your fingers crossed for us that the network likes it.

Johnny Five "Classics" will wrap this week (at least that's what I'm hoping). Drop me a line if you worked on the record and want to hear the final version of what you did so I can arrange a time for you to come by the studio and check out the songs.

More exciting news soon!!!

Blind Cameo

Johnny is back in France doing publicity for his French release while the other Justin and I are finishing up a few of the mixes and tracks for "Classics". I want to send a big thank you out to Christopher Thorn, who took time out of his extremely busy schedule to cut some lap steele guitar tracks for the song "Dead Man's Sing-A-Long". I played and wrote most of the parts on this track, but we needed that little something extra and Chris was willing to help out. Johnny and Justin, as well as Sibyl Anna and Andrew Jones (formerly of Sick Water), have all been collaborating with With Chris and Brad Smith on their other project Dusty White at Brad and Christopher's studio. The two were the musical force behind Blind Melon and are now two of the hottest modern rock producers in LA. It was awesome to get Chris to come by and hang with us for an evening. In other Johnny Five news, it looks my long time friend and associate, Charlie DeMarco, is going to help with the layout and design of "Classics". He did some awesome work for me on the Sick Water album and I can't wait to see what he comes up with for "Classics". You can check out some of his stuff at www.phat5.com/charlie.

Big Time Publicity!

It's been a good week for the artists of Timares Production. Kris Carter got his tune "Big Radio Song" played on LA's Indie 103.1 yesterday. That's huge! The song was produced last year in the old Timares Productions Studios and is on his Salvation EP available at CDbaby.com. He is also a featured artist this week on www.LAMusicscene.com with his song "Over That" which is also from the same record. The Kristoffer Carter Show was also previously featured on LA's KLOS 95.5. For more info be sure to visit www.kcshow.com.

I just got word from Fighter Pilot that they are hard at work getting tunes from their upcoming album placed on radio and television. We should be finishing up the last few touch ups on the mixes later this week. Expect to hear them everywhere soon.

Johnny Five was mentioned in Entertainment Weekly in an article talking about retro album cover designs. They featured a picture and caption of his album "Summer" which was mixed at Timares Productions earlier this spring. Johnny also recieved an awesome review in YRB (issue#44) for "Summer". His next US release "Classics" is almost finished at Timares and will be released next year on Basement Records (Red Urban/Sony).

Blogs or Clogs?

Thusfar I have tried to keep the blogging in the notes section to a minimum and since clogging is more musical, the wood shoes win. Clogs have a special place in the heart of most musicians for their unique rhythmic clatter. Though many people have asked me to gab about all sorts of random things I think I'll just keep it to the studio related stuff when possible. I don't want to clutter up the important stuff with irrelevant stuff about my life. You can however witness some true blogging in the "guestlist" section as well as adding your own thoughts to the useless comments of The Admiral, The Show, and myself.

So what's happening at the studio? Glad you asked! The past couple of weeks have been spent working on the next Johnny Five record. The first album is getting great reviews (check out YRB issue #44 to see what I mean, as well as a brief mention of the album art in this weeks Entertainment Weekly), but I really believe this record is going to be clearly superior to the first or Johnny's European release (under the name J-Five - prounced zhgee faif). It's a lot darker album in many ways, with a more serious content than Summer. The album focuses it's lyrical lasers on Life, Death, and youthful exhuberance. Of the 18 tracks that will appear on the record (13 or 14 are full songs), I am honestly having trouble picking a favorite. Normally after listening to anything that many times I know exactly what is the best thing to me, but on this album each song is it so unique that it's hard to choose. I also have a personal connection to each song in a different way. Some songs I co-wrote with Johnny and the other Justin, others I'm singing on, or somtimes I'm playing keys or guitar, sometimes I did the beat or just had fun mixing it. Johnny even got me to do a track of rapping in unison with him in the bridge of "Happy Valentine". Surprisingly I didn't play any bass on this album, mostly because the other Justin is a great bass player and already had that handled. To make a long story longer, as a producer, engineer, mixer and musician this has been one of the most fun albums I have ever worked on because I get to do a little of everything and really flex my abilities in the studio. I also want to send a big thanks out to Mike, Emily, Ashkan, Kaylan, Anna, Aaron, and Stephan who contributed a little something to the record as well. A big thanks also goes out to Charlie and Theresa who added lots of insight and productive comments to help me get the production sound that I wanted. I can't wait for everyone to hear this thing.

We had to move the 3D Arson schedule so Craig, the lead singer, and myself can both be available at the same time. I'll have more info about tracking GTRs for their upcoming releases next week. Fighter Pilot will also be in next week and we should be finishing the last few little touch ups to their debut album as soon as Dave gets back from Chicago. Lots more to come.

-Jus

Organic Hip Hop?

Most people think that there is no such thing, but when you're talking about Johnny 5 there is. He has taken time out of his busy European tour schedule to come back to the states and track and mix his upcoming American release "Classics" at Timares Productions. The album, which will be release on Basement Records (Red Urban/Sony) next May, is being produced by Johnny, his good friend Justin Lousatter and myself. We are going for a very non-traditional type of hip hop production that will showcase all of our musical influences and not just modern urban music. We are definitely still using some electronic elements like drum programing and keyboards, as well as loops, but we are adding tons of live tracked instruments and alternative rock type vocals. Hopefully the sound will be something accessible to the underground hip hop heads as well as fans of indie and modern rock. As soon as we get label approval we'll try to get a sample of one of the songs posted on the music page. Until then check out Johnny 5's first album summer that was mixed here at Timares Production and is available at record stores everywhere as well as Amazon.com.

Don't forget to drop by the Guest List and tell us you were here. We love to hear from all the people that visit the site. Feel free to blog away or just to say hi to let us know you came by. More on Johnny 5, Ari Kaplan, 3d Arson, The Red, Kaligo and Fighter Pilot next week.

Knock it out of the park!

3DArson spent the past weekend at the studio with me recording drums for several upcoming releases. The band was able to knock out bass and drums to an unprecedented 16 songs! The drummer, Jim and the bass player, Andy, came fully prepared to lay down some serious, tight tracks for a wide variety of songs. Jim says he hasn't recorded to a click in over six years, but you would never know by how easy he made it look this weekend. The main reason for the ease of recording 3D Arson was the obvious amount of pre-production time the band put in.

There is a good lesson to be learned by this for all bands. If you want to save yourself time and money in the studio, do solid pre-production. Don't just practice the song that you wrote, start imagining what you want it to sound like as a recording. Get the producer and engineer involved as early as possible also so they can see your vision and vice versa, before you're in the studio with the clock running. Even if you have to pay the producer for a couple of hours to come to a rehearsal, the time you save in the studio by being on the same page can be a lifesaver. Good pre-production will also cut down on the amount of band arguments over parts and ideas. The worst thing a band can do in the studio is stop the flow of recording to argue about a decision that could have been made weeks earlier. This is made worse by the fact that some producer and/or engineer is getting paid to watch you argue. Though Jim was able to pull it off easily, I would highly recomend that bands have their drummer play to a click a few times before the first day in the studio. This will speed the process up because the artist will already know what tempo to give the producer instead of spending a half an hour trying to figure it out. It can also be very difficult for drummers to play their natural feel with an annoying woodblock in their headphones if they haven't practiced it.

The other thing to take into consideration is whether or not the recorded version of your song should be the same as the live version. Some things that work in front of an audience will not work on a recording. It's also your last chance to change your arrangement before it becomes immortalized on recorded media. Keep in mind what audience you are trying to reach and don't be a fraid to experiment with some changes during pre-production. You can always change it back if you don't like it. Many times the producer is going to recomend some pretty large changes also, so the more you are prepared with alternate ideas, or reasons you are doing your way, the more chance you have of the song being the way you imagined it. If a label is involved, I can guarantee that you will have to make some changes if you aren't prepared to fully explain why you did something a certain way. Again, the moral of the story is that pre-production is an opportunity to make your song ready for you to play, ready for the producer and engineer to record, and ready for the world to hear.

It's All Good in the Hood.

I'm back from a much needed and well deserved trip to the beautiful shores of Friendship, Maine and now it's time t get back to work.

I got three words for you... Kaligo, Kaligo, Kaligo. This group of guys from my old stomping grounds of Kent, Ohio, are set to make a big splash with their next release. I've been kind of helping out from a far, but now it's time to get down a dirty in the modern world of recording. The band has been working in Cubase and is going to send some files out for me to work on in ProTools. So, I'll finally get to see first hand how OMF session transfers work. I won't get into the technical details, but the geek in me is excited about the idea of working hand in hand with a band that is 2 thousand miles away, using a different audio program and doing it on a PC when I use a Mac. If this works as smoothly as my engineer friends tell me it will, I will be a true beliver in the power of modern day recording. Regardless the band is a very cool, heavy band that I have seen grow a lot over the last few years and I really believe they'll get signed within the next few years to come. Check out their website http://www.kaligoband.com if you want to know more.

Speaking of heavy bands... I'm still trying to get the schedules lined up, but 3d Arson will be coming into the studio soon to crank out a new batch of songs. My former bandmate from Sick Water, Nate "Howie" Giles has just joined the band and I'm stoked that we'll get to work together again on something. They have a big show coming up at the El Rey on Saturday Sept 18th that I highly recomend everyone attend. If that's too long for you to wait you can also check them out at the Old Town Pub in Pasedena next friday along side another gret band I have been producing, Fighter Pilot. Two Timares band in one night, you can't beat that! Fighter Pilot will also be back in this week to work on the last 3 songs for the upcoming debut album. More on that soon.

A note of thanks goes out to Marco and the Red, especially after reading their note of thanks. The band gave me a two page letter thanking me for my close involvement with their project over the last year and I have to say it's one of the best feelings I've ever had. I think everyone involved with their album "Burn" is ecstatic about the final product and can't wait to get it released for the whole world. We really did bust our collective asses to make it the best album possible. Even with a bigger budget and more time I don't think there are many things I would ever change about the album or the way we did it. It was a long a difficult process but I believe we captured all of the best elements of the band and their songs and made them into a definitive picture of the band and a phenominal sounding record. The last step is having Dan "The Admiral" Certa bust out his grade A mastering skills, then it's off to the presses (or maybe not since Marco has some interesting alternate distribution ideas in the works... more about that top secret project later).

Speaking of the Admiral... He's over at my studio right now working on "Happy Little Life", a new song he is producing for the Kristoffer Carter Show. From what I heard when I left it sounds great. They were laying down some snappy acoustic GTRs as I was walking out the door. In other KC Show news, I'll probably be sitting in with Kris on a few songs at his birthday bash show on Friday, September 3rd at Highland Grounds. Hope everyone can make it out. More from the battlefield of Rock next week..

What Makes A Hit?

I could tell you, but the consequences for both of us would be grave. So without getting into all of the gory details the answer is, the hook and the emotion. If the song sounds good, speaks to something inside of people and can be remembered 2 days after hearing it, chances are it could be a hit. The other things that make a hit are marketing and placement. For a song to be considered a hit, people have to have heard it. Whether it's on TV, or Radio, or CDs, it has to be out there for the world to hear. There are lots of bands that have great songs, but if no one ever hears it, it is not a hit. So, if you think you have a great song, do whatever it takes to get it in front of people. Give it away at first if you need to or try to get local radio play. Several bands I am working with right now are trying to get their songs placed in TV shows. It doesn't pay a lot for an unsigned band, but the exposure for a good song can be priceless.


In other studio news...

The Red's new album, "Burn" is done! We have been slowly working on crafting the best album possible for over a year now and the final results were well worth it. Schedules can be difficult for up and coming bands that still have to have their day jobs, but a little patience and a lot of hard work can really pay off. I wish we could have just gotten in the studio and worked on it for 2 months straight instead of spreading that time over a year, but having the time between sessions gave us the abillity to get everything exactly the way we wanted without having to rush decisions. We also added another song towards the end of the process that may be the first single from the album. This is probably one of the best albums I have ever produced so as soon as it gets mastered and released I really hope everyone will pick up a copy. Several songs will probably be made available for free.

Fighter Pilot has also been back in this past week. I want to send a big thank you out to Tiago, who let us borrow some awesome gear to get some new and interesting guitar sounds. He sent over a Royer ribbon mic, vintage fender and vox amps, and a 1962 Fender Stratocaster. The moral of the story the guitars sound good. We are working on the last 3 songs to complete a full album for fighter pilot. Look for the album in fall.

I'll be on the other side country in Friendship, Maine for a couple weeks taking some time off from the hustle and bustle of smog filled LA. Maybe I'll finally read Bill Clinton's book. Then again maybe I'll just take a week long nap. I'll be working with Kaligo, 3D Arson, Who Knows, and more Fighter Pilot stuff when I get back so look for some new music updates next month.

Big congratulations goes out to Kris and Gayle Carter on the birth of their daughter Elliot Rose Carter! More news in a couple weeks.

Tech Talk! (The Admiral will be so proud)

Yesterday was a busy day over at Timares Productions. After some uneventful morning meetings Kris and I got together to start working on finishing up some songs that we started earlier this summer. We originally recorded the songs in my Mac based ProTools 24 MixPlus rig and then Kris took the sessions home to do some work on his PC based ProTools LE rig. It hasn't exactly been fun figuring out how best to go back and forth between the two, but I think we've got it down now.

For anyone who is curious here is the technical plan we have found to work the best. Stop reading and skip to the next section if you don't want to read computer tech stuff. In the Mac "force PC compatibilty" must be turned on when you create the session. You have to use either AIFF or Wav files to be cross platform compatible. I basically have the full sessions in my computer and then I give Kris a session with a 2-track bounce down of the drums so he can have more tracks to work with in his machine. Then he can record and edit overdubs and ideas. When he brings it back all I have to do is chose import tracks from the file menu for just the tracks I need to use in the final session. It brings his ProTools tracks with edits, timing, plug ins and automation right into my session. Done deal! Our biggest problem right now is that my mac won't read the partitions on his drive so he has to store the sessions in a particular folder or I can't see them.


After all of the computer stuff it was time to actually record some music! Kris said that he was having problems getting good acoustic guitar sounds, so that was gonna be our main focus. I've have found a couple good techniques for getting good sounds. The first thing is to use at least 2 microphones, preferably different mics. I typically use a large diaphram tube mic on the body about 2 fists away from the sound hole and a small diaphram condenser on the neck about 4 fingers away pointed directly at the 12th fret. By blending these 2 sounds you can usually get almost any sound that your looking for from an acoustic. The mics I used yesterday were a Neuman M147 and an AKG c1000. The stuff sounds great. We also did a couple of DI tracks of Acoustic through the Avalon DI box. They also sound good but I prefer to use mic tracks as the main rhythm tracks and DI tracks for overdubs. Yet get more warmth that way.

After a few hours of guitars with Kris, Andy "Merlot" Stephan came by to help me design a mixed sound for the saxaphones he is playing on The Red's album, "Burn". Then Marco also showed up and we did some serious tweeking to the mix for "I Will Never Leave You". The process involved lots of envelope automation. In ProTools you can switch to volume, pan, send or autmation view that will give you a line that you can create and drag points on. To me it's a lot more precise than the old method of writing automation to "moving" faders. I still takes time though and a lot of patient listening to make sure the moves that are created are working. By the end of the night I can definitely say the song sounded a lot better. More later.

Life moves fast sometimes.

Here's what's going on this week. My good friend Vince is temporarily living in LA and working at Fox. He has expressed some interest in possibly sharing the studio space with me. Vince was the chief engineer on the first album I ever produced, so I'm hoping that we'll be able to keep him in the mix out here in LA LA Land and never let him go back to Ohio. He sat in on a mix session for The Red's upcoming album "Burn" and had some very insightful comments. It's always nice to have another engineer in the room who knows what they're talking about to bounce ideas off of.

Speaking of other engineers in the room... "The Admiral" Dan Certa also stopped by last week and sat in on one of my mix sessions with The Red. But Dan didn't just sit in, he's also contributing a mix to the album. MFDC brought his golden touch to the song "I Don't Love You". Dan and I also go back a few years. He was the chief engineer on the Stankfut album that I produced a few years back and we both broke in to the business together at NRG Recording Services. It's always an awesome feeling when you can get people you know and trust involved with the projects you are working on.

So what's coming up for Timares Studios?

Who Knows. No seriously. Who Knows is a hip hop / R&B hybrid project created by my friend Ashkan (who sings alot of vocals on the Johnny 5 "Summer" album). We met last week to talk about doing his solo album. We're gonna start laying some tracks real soon, so look out for it.

Speaking of which as soon as Johnny 5 sets foot back on American soil we're gonna put some finishing touches on his second American release for Basement Records, "Clasics". Hopefully that album will be released in early winter. "Summer" is now in wide release, so look for it at your favorite record store or online retailer.

Fighter Pilot is also coming back in to crank out another batch of songs in the near future. Hopefully by early fall we'll have a whole record done for those guys. The last batch of tunes came out great. And the next batch just might take the cake.

3D Arson is literally hunting me down to get some work done on some new tracks for then. Looks like we'll start putting something together for them in Mid september.

The Kristoffer Carter Show is always on the move. Not only have I recently played bass with the Show, but somehow Kris has found time to write a new batch of songs with drummer Fran Scaglione, score porn with the afforementioned Admiral, and be just about ten seconds from being a daddy. Anyway, as soon as schedules allign we're gonna track some more rock n roll songs for the peeps.

Also be on the lookout for more Kaligo stuff and hopefully LoJo and Joe Russo will be swinging through the studio for a couple days next month to do a few more tracks.

In non-studio related news. I'd like to say congratulations to my good friends Charlie DeMarco and Beth Fuger. They just got engaged! (Bout time Chuck). Also Happy B-Day to Saxaphonist extrordinare, Andy "Merlot" Stephan. I think he just turned 23. LOL. I also wanted to send big hugs to my dear friend Cassandra Woods who was in town for the weekend. It is always a good feeling to spend time with quality friends that you haven't seen in while. That's it for now. Peace and Chicken grease.

Let me preface this post by saying this is one of the rare times when I will write about something that has nothing to do with music.

That being said, I just saw Farrenheit 9/11 and the overwhelming thought on my mind is that I feel dirty. I feel mislead, used, lied to, and thouroughly manipulated. And not just by Geroge W. Bush, but also by Michael Moore. Politically I am an independant. I have voted for Liberatarians, Republicans, Democrats and even the Green Party. So I can say that my opinion here is not based on political affiliation. I will also state that I voted for Al Gore and that I have a strong dislike of the current administration. I was however a fan of George Sr. Regardless, here's how I feel about Moore's film.

How can you call that a documentary. Maybe I could call it an editorial documentary, but it was definitely not an unbiased look at the current state of affairs. After seeing the film I would call it more of a political snuff film. I'm surprised Moore didn't insert footage of G.W. flying a plane directly into the World Trade Center. It seemed that a large portion of the film was dedicated to the point that the war in Iraq was largely motivated by oil profits. And maybe it was. But where do Moore's profits go? Are all of the proceeds going to families of soldiers killed in the line of duty? Are they going to jobs programs in Moore's former home of Flynt Michigan? Are that going to the 9/11 fund? Is he sending money to help rebuild Iraq or bury the victims of our atrocities. Is he funding independant investigations into 9/11 and the war on terror. Or is he just helping Bob and Harvey Weinstein buy more houses? Is he just trying to get his liberal buddies elected so that they'll scratch back? Maybe he is doing something good with the profits from his movie that exposes the horrors of modern politics, business and war, but to me it doesn't matter. Even though I agree with 70% of his editorial comments the film is still at best artistic propaganda. Gore lost. On a technicality, but still a loss nonetheless. Move on.

This film should not win awards. If you want to see a good Michael Moore film go rent "Roger and Me" or his tv show "The Awful Truth". This film is mostly cut together from footage other people shot. I know most of it is public news archives, but again, putting your opinions over news footage is not brilliant film making. There were some great Moore moments like following around the recruters and trying to get congressmen to sign their kids up to fight in Iraq, but a montage of powerful world leaders shaking hands with other powerful leaders while a voice over speculates as to the reason for such meetings is not great documentary film making. Maybe Moore rushed things a bit to get the movie out in time to sway potential voters, but I don't think many will change their minds. I for one will not. I will still vote for Kerry / Edwards, because I think an administration change is the only way to regain some of the global support our country has lost in the last few years. most people who loved the movie already hated G.W. The one thing I will say is that this film may succeed in mobilizing some of the youth vote and that is never a bad thing. I saw two guys come out of the movie having a conversation about different ways they could register to vote on the internet. That was by far the most redeeming moment of the whole film for me.

So here's my editorial opinion. Don't let Micahel Moore make up your mind for you. Don't trust Sean Hannity, or Bill Mauer, or Bill O'Reilly make up your mind. Get as many real facts from as many unbiased resources as you can and make up your own mind. That movie could have been a true documentary without any speculation and still been as damaging to Bush, maybe even more, only using real historical facts. In November I encourage everyone to vote, and to vote for who they they think is the best person for the job, not against the person who has had the most dirt flung at them by the far left or right.

Next time I'll talk about music again.

-Jus

LA is a weird town sometimes. I've been out here for over half a decade now and it never seems to get any more regular. The past week has been a big one for Timares Productions. We put on a giant show at the Derby last Thursday that will hopefully have people talking for the rest of the week (which is all you can hope for in this town). It was awesome to get most of our friends in the same place at the same time. XE LA was amazing! Wil and Alx are great friends of mine from Cleveland who have been playing music in different bands together since we were all in high school back in Cleveland. They were always two of my favorite musicians and it was a trully good feeling to sit next to my friend Charlie and watch those guys play again. It felt like 1996 at the Europe Gyro except the sound system was better and so were the bands. The crowd seemed stoked to see The Kristoffer Carter Show unveiled in it's full rock form w/ Fran slapping the drums around like a hooker who forgot her pimps money and me taking the bass back a time when playing tasty bass meant playing tastefully. Fighter Pilot definitely has a hit on their hands. My friends "in the know" caught it immediately, as most will when they hear it. Their whole set rocked, but "Perfect Day" is guaranteed to take these boys somewhere. Fran's bro Johnny brought the goods in his set too. Guys like Johnny make me realize how important it is to convey real emotion as well as good song writing to the crowd. He really makes it look a lot easier than it is.

As good as all four of those acts were the most special part of the evening was our opening act, Terri Ann Lipiro. From what I understand she has not played a show with her guitar in almost 4 or 5 years! Not only did she have a huge early draw, but her presence on stage was mezmorizing. She captured every single person's attention from the moment she took the stage (and it wasn't just because she's hot). Something about her candid nature of sharing every moment with the crowd really made everyone pay attention. You couldn't feel like you were just watching a performer you felt like you were up on stage having a conversation with her. Even the moments that weren't perfect had the crowd smiling with delight instead of whincing. I try to tell all of the artists I work with to connect with the audience. That you want the audience to participate with you not just look at you and listen to you. You want them to be a part of your performance and not just spectators to your spectacle. Terri Ann did that with out even trying. We can only hope that she'll start playing more shows and give us all a chance to dance with her amazing talent.

The show was also a rare chance for me to catch up with friends, old and new. Thanks to everyone who came out, especially Gayle, Grandy, Andy & Yin, Annie, Shannon, Dan, Charlie & Beth, Nate, Anna, & Johnny. With my busy schedule it is important to acknowledge how much it means when I get a chance to hang with my friends.

The following night was equally as cool for me musically and socially. XE LA played another show at Molly Malone's in the big room. Once again they seriously tore it up. In the middle of their set they broke into a five part concept piece called "Cartoonopolis". You rarely see bands in this town perform anything that ambitious or artistic. But XE LA just laid it on the line with no concerns about anything but their art. It might not sell a million records, but it entertained the hell out of every person in the room. It also turned out to be Joe Russo's birthday that night. He was their to see his old band play after XE LA. The band also featured MP who has played drums with Kris and I before and who worked with Joe, his sister and myself on a song called "I'm Sorry". I've spoke with both Joe and his sister LoJo and hopefully we'll all be able to get together and lay a few more tracks down in the near future (maybe that was just the huge shot of Jameson that I bought Joe that was talking though). My friends Wil Sperdute, Pat O'Connor and Vince Tennant have got to be some of the most entertaining guys in the world to have conversations with, especially in an Irish pub. I can't tell you what all we talked about, but most of it was funny. Regardless, there are times when LA is much smaller than you think. I thought I was going to just sit and watch a band by myself, but by the end of the night I was surrounded by good friends, good music and good times. You just can't beat that. It's those moments that make every minute of struggle in this town worth it.

In other Timares Productions news... Johnny Five did an in store at Basement Records last Wednesday to celebrate the release (or rather official re-release) of his debut album summer that I mixed. Instead of just rapping over recordings of his beats he got together some of our favorite cronies (Andrew Jones, formerly of SIck Water, Sibyl Anna & Justin Lewsadder) and put on a rock show. Amazing stuff. He's back from France for a little while so we're gonna try to get some more stuff done for the follow up album "Classics". Also The Red's record, tentatively called "Burn" is almost done. My old partner in crime Dan "The Admiral" Certa might alos be getting involved in a little of the mixing process. This one is gonna be good. So keep your eyes on the audio page to see when we get something up. I may also have projects in the works with Jimmy Paxon, Kaligo, Fighter Pilot, Ashkan and more Kristoffer Carter Show in the future so stay tuned.


I'm done for now. Kris is working on getting up some audio in the next few days so be sure to check it all out when it's done. I know a lot of you probably have no idea who all of these people are or what the hell a Europe Gyro is, but just know that they are all things that are important to me and my life in music. (Dave, this is what happens when you tell me to post an update. You realize that most people were snoring before I even finished talking about our show last week. I blame this post entirely on you. PS I want to meet Victoria! Hook a brother up. LOL.)

Big Show Just Announced!

It's time for the first annual "Timares Entertainment Summer Music Festival". We've reserved the whole night at the Derby over in Silverlake, CA and we've put together an awesome bill for the night including a few bands Timares has worked with in the past and a few new faces as well. The night will celebrate the 5th year of Timares Productions on the West Coast.

First we'll kick off the evening with Terri Ann. She has a tremendous voice and has worked with Kris in the past singing backup vocals with both Stankfut and The Kristoffer Carter Show. She's gonna break out some of her solo stuff to get the night started in style. Then a friend of Kris' is going to debut his new band Pause. I've been hearing great things about these talented guys and can't wait to see what they've put together for the live show. The third act of the evening is Fighter Pilot, a band I have been working very closely with in the studio over the past few months. They are guaranteed to tear the roof off with a set full of modern rock power pop. After that Kris, Fran and I will take the stage as The Kristoffer Carter Show. I've played bass live with Kris a few times in the past, but this will be our first gig as a full band. We've put together a rocking set that is sure to surprise fans of Kris' solo show. For the final act of the night we're flying in some good friends of mine from Cleveland that perform under the name XE LA. They are gonna lay down some melodic art rock to close out our spectacular innaugural night.


The Derby is located at
4500 Los Feliz Blvd.
Los Angeles
323-663-8979
Directions and club info at http://www.the-derby.com
for advanced tickets email justin@timaresproductions.com

Doors Open at 7:30PM
Show Starts at 8:00

When it sounds good, leave it alone! When it doesn't sound good change it.

I'm talking about two common things that I notice with artists. The first is what I call the "perfect pill". An artist or producer gets in their head that they must have one little thing sound one particular way, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It is very important to make sure that songs sound the way you want them to sound. But here's the problem... Sometimes in the process of trying to find that perfect sound you pass over even better and more creative ideas. Or worse yet, you spend all of your time on that one little thing and forget to make the rest of the song as good as it should be. A lot of times those little things change in the mixing process anyway. It is very important to prioritize your time in the studio to make sure that you are getting the best overall product you can for your time and money. Stay focused on the big picture first then tweak the details to perfection as you have time. The reason I call this scenario the "perfect pill" is because there is no one pill that can cure every problem. It takes time and patience to make every little thing sound exactly the way you, and it doesn't happen all at once. Just like taking care of your body, for instance. There isn't one vitamin that will put you in perfect health. It takes exercise and a good diet also. Sometimes you focus on one particular thing to make an improvement in one area, but the overall health is the most important thing. The overall health of of a song is the most important thing as well. There is no "perfect pill" only time and attention to detail will make a song sound it's very best.

The other scenario is what is very commonly referred to as "Demoitis". This happens when a producer or artist gets to attached to something from an older version of as song, whether it be a pre-production recording, a demo, a ruff mix, or a someone else's mix. Sometimes people just get used to a sound instead of making sure that it is the best sound or part for the song. One of the big problems here can be trying to recreate that "magic moment", but in trying to do so you can over think the process and lose the magic altogether. The best thing to do if you think someone is attached to a part or sound because of "Demoitis" is to play the song for someone who hasn't heard it as many times as you. Ask them what their initial reaction to the thing in question is. That way you'll know what a regular listener thinks of it. Sometimes after hours of listening to the same thing there is no possible way for the artist and producer to keep their perspective realistic. The general idea in my opinion is always do what is best for the song, regardless of what was good about previous versions or what you think is good for one small thing.

Johnny 5 is coming back to town this week which means it almost time to finish production on his second album "Classics". The first album, "Summer" will hit stores in a couple of weeks. Only 2 of the tracks we worked on for his French release made the album, which is fine. It'll just mean we have more to pick from for "Classics". We'll all have more control over what makes it on to the US record anyway. Our production team tha Raja, which consists of Johnny, Justin Lousatter, and myself is looking forward to dropping some nice surprises with all of these records.

In other news, I think Fighter Pilot has a hit song on their hands. "Perfect Day" sounds like a million bucks, in more ways than one. I'll try to get a version of it up on the site after we get the whole audio thing going on. Speaking of audio, you can check out a couple of my solo electronic tracks that just went up on Download.com. Just go to http://www.download.com/jus. More additions coming to the site soon as well. Check out the new studio page.

Old songs really make you remember who you are sometimes. I listened to a bunch of old tunes yesterday that gave me a wonderful insight into what got me into to this whole business in the first place. "Tell Me Something Good" by Rufus and Chaka Kahn has the moving bassline and textured rhythms that just get to me everytime I hear it and Roger Troutman with Zapp doing their version of "Heard It Through The Grapevine" still makes electronic music sound inovative and new to me. The Cure and the Smiths reminded me of the way the emotion can sell an idea even better than production or hooks. And Elvis Costello, the Beastie Boys and De La Soul reminded me of how much fun good lyrics can be. I mean, I still remember every word from "Watching The Detectives", "Shake Your Rump", and "Tread Water". There is new stuff out there that really inspire's me too, like Aesop Rock, Interpol and even Justin Timberlake (I don't care what anyone says, "Justified" is "Off The Wall" for a new generation). The best part is taking all of the feelings and inspiration that come from listening to great artists and songs and trying to create completely new things from it. Not copying the sounds and styles of other artists, but using the emotion music makes you feel to create something completely new yourself. Music is about emotion, regardless of whether the emotion is good or bad, simple or complex, and if you are gonna create music you have to put emotion behind it. When it's all said and done music is a common thread of people sharing and is one of the most inspiring things that can be created or experienced by the audience or the artist.

I got new active nearfeild monitors this week. The two Samson 65a's are a sweet addition to the studio. They sound like a cross between Yamaha NS 10's and Genelecs which are two of my favorite speakers. This is gonna make mixing the projects I am working on a pleasure. They also have a really cool indigo light to indicate when they are on which matches the light on the Avalon DI. This might not sound like a very important feature, but as any audio professional will tell you, "It's all about the flashy lights". I'm also thinking about picking up the matching sub that goes with the speakers so I can blow the walls off the place when I need to.

It's been a good couple of weeks. I finished up the J-Five stuff and it sounds great. We are just waiting to see which songs the label approves to be on the album. We did about 9 songs at my studio and they did 7 or 8 in France, but there is only room for 13 or so on the album, so it will be interesting to see what makes it. The label also has to get some of the sample cleared, so the ones that are tough to clear may not make the record even if the label loves them. That's just how the business works though. Hopefully I'll have some music samples up soon.

I finally sat in with the Kristoffer Carter Show last week. It's been since the Stankfut CD release party since Kris and I shared the stage. I sat in on When No Ones Home, Anything New, & Good Morning. The drummer that played on the song I recorded for LoJo Russo, MP, also sat in for a few songs. It's strange that he met Kris through completely different channels. Kris didn't even know that I knew MP when he asked me to sit in. THis town gets smaller and smaller the longer you're in it I guess.

I other studio news... I've started a couple more tunes with Sons Of Mrs. Miller who have officially changed their name to Fighter Pilot. We are working on 3 more songs to add to the 4 we recorded last fall and then we'll probably add 3 or 4 more later this summer to complete a full album. It's nice working in chunks like this though so we can focus on making each song great. Hopefully we'll have some clips of this stuff up soon.

Looks like there are lots of great projects coming up soon also. I recently did a 3 song demo for Sarge which is a combination of Nate and Andrew from my old band Sick Water and Nate, Andy and Jim from 3D Arson. Hopefully I'll get a chance to record some tracks with 3D Arson in the near future as well. Also, former Random Justice memebers Brandon, David, Matt & JP have fomed a new band called Craving The Seamstress that will be recording with me in the near future. Kris and I are also working on some new studios tracks with our freind Fran playing drums and my buddy Dan helping out some too. Look for those songs this summer as well as a few other top secret projects and possibly another collaboration with the Cleveland hardcore band Kaligo, that are still in the works. More website stuff coming really soon.

Kris is working hard on the website. I'm working hard on J-Five's European release and soon there will be many more things on this page. Here's a link to the J-Five music video. Though I didn't have anything to do with this song, it happens to be the number one song in France and number 6 in the rest of Europe. Johnny came back to his home of North Hollywood to record some more tracks for his European album w/ his friends back here. So we all piled in the studio for a couple of weeks to write, and record his record. Music clips will be up soon.