It’s been over a month now since I packed up my studio computer, every hard drive I could, a couple guitars and basses, and got ready to evacuate our home and studio if necessary. We were lucky - we stayed just outside the evac zone. The whole world is aware that many were not so lucky, just a mile from here.

Regardless of if you stayed or went, lost your home or not, everyone in the Pasadena area was affected, both mentally, physically, and work-wise too. Not only did patronage decrease around the area, but it was hard to focus on work too.

On my song Canyonlands I built a custom and very unique reverb/delay/modulation effect that acts like a magical cloud behind the main acoustic guitar.

Often you want your verb or delays to be pretty transparent, and not call any attention to themselves. This is a case where I was seeking personality and a stand-out quality, and just a stock verb wasn’t gonna impart the right vibe…

Just handed off final mixes on Alex Bortnichak’s new Eating Club album to mastering! Always a great feeling, but always bittersweet cuz ya just get used to living inside an album while you’re working on it - and in this case we started tracking in March.

But… exciting to know that I’ll still get to…

They say you only see the fruit of the labor and not all the work that went into it - and that’s certainly true here. 6 years ago Kasriel Spector showed up at my door wanting to work on original music that he had put off recording for a long time.

I produced and mixed the debut single from Chicago-based singer/pianist/songwriter Helen Huff. Read about the process and hear the song now.

JC Gafford left a musical legacy when he passed unexpectedly in September. Let’s revisit a track he was particularly proud of.

A look at “War Story” from Lose This Parade by Eating Club. I played rhythm acoustic guitar but also tried my hand at the infamous Whammy Pedal for the end solo.