Showing posts with label Moog Foundation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Moog Foundation. Show all posts

Tuesday

Asheville Gems: Moog, Toubab Krewe and Echo Mountain Recording Studio

I have once again been blessed by the Moog Foundation. This time in the form of an invitation to Echo Mountain Recording Studio to capture images of Toubab Krewe's finishing touches on their new album. Toubab Krewe has been a big supporter of Moog Music and the Bob Moog Foundation throughout their wonderful career. 2 of the members are Asheville locals and have known Bob Moog since they were young and have been using Moog equipment for almost as long. 
The guys in the band were kind enough to grant the Moog Foundation access to their recording sessions so that they could capture Toubab using Moog equipment on their album. In addition, Drew Heller, guitarist for Toubab, gave an interview with the Moog Foundation about how Moog insturments have influenced him and how he uses them to get the sounds he wants.
During all this, I got to be a fly on the wall, taking pictures and hanging out, in, what is one of the most amazing spaces I have had the opportunity to be in... Echo Mountain Recording Studios. 
No detail was left undone in the building of Echo's second space. The opportunity to record an instrument lies in every corner and crevice of the building, including the bathrooms. And when I saw that, I had the thought: "Why not! Even my singing sounds pretty good in the shower!" From the lighting to the choices of wood for the baffles, to the amenities, to the control room, to the lounge, Echo has it all. Balconies over looking downtown Asheville, roof access to get a breath of air, video editing... it's all right there. Another wonderful feather in the cap of Asheville, N.C.. 
So big thanks to Moog for the invite. Big props to Toubab for the upcoming album, which is rockin' if I do say so! And many thanks to Echo for allowing all of us in to document this wonderful occasion. 
I love this town!






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Recording in the bathroom, Luke said it sounds like the home his teacher lives in, being constructed from stone and corrugated metal. **Note the Zildian cymbal light fixture.

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Holdin' down the rhythm in the back.

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Giving the low end some flavor.

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Toubab uses a lot of unique instruments accumulated form their extensive travels... check out the cigar box guitar. Mix that with a bank of Mooger Foogers and you have Toubab Krewe.

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Drew upstairs in Echo laying down the guitar tracks. He had the whole room to himself. It was amazing to be in that space with him while he communicated with the band and laid down the various tracks and sounds for the new album.

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David feels the beat as he works the Rickenbacker.

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Drums and bass keep the beat moving along.

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This is one of my favorites. This is the space Drew sat in as he recorded. What a gorgeous room, the light coming in through the windows, mixed with the wood floors and red curtains, and the solitary light on Drew... to cool! I love Drew's shadow on the floor as well.

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The setup for the interview with Drew.

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Drew talking with Meg from Moog Foundation.

Soundtrack to my youth

Allow me to take you for a ride in my time machine...
Go back... the year is 1986... High School is about to begin, I'm out of school for the summer, riding my bike around town on Long Island. A few miles to the west, 3 Jewish kids have put together a new album that breaks through the walls of what hip-hop is, and I love it. The album is License to Ill and the Beasite Boys just became a household name and the heroes of NYC. I play the album until I wear it out. I sing all the lyrics, my parents hate it... so I love it all the more.
Now it is 1998, I am a sophomore in High School, boarding school to be exact, in upstate NY. I am in my dorm room, headphones on, blasting Paul's Boutique, learning the lyrics and throwing my arms in the air, mimicking the movements of the boys from Brooklyn. I love "High Plains Drifter", who samples a shot gun cocking? The Beastie Boys, that's who.
Fast forward to 1992...college, I live in Charlotte NC now, mostly known for being a yankee on campus, driving to fast and playing the stereo too loud and Check Your Head is the album that most people hear as I drive by. It's played at parties, in dorms, in the clubs,it is everywhere, it is college to so many people my age. 1994 brings Ill Communication and "Sabotage". My friends and I bang our heads, jump up and slam into each other, having our summer highlighted by the Lollapalooza tour at BlockBuster Pavillion in Charlotte and headlined by the Beastie Boys themselves!
I gaduate college and look for my place in the world, and I am listening to Hello Nasty more than anything else as I try to figure out life after school. It is a cd that I reguraly wear out, swapping it from car to house, to walkman and back again.
The twin towers, symbols of my youth, a place I went on field trips every year in grade school are removed from the landscape of lower Manhattan in 2001. My Mom passes is 2003 and my relationship with NYC comes to a close... enter To the 5 Boroughs and with it my pride of being a New Yorker returns.
This is how the Beastie Boys have been with me all these years. They are a huge part of the soundtrack of my youth, of my life. Thanks to Michelle Moog and the Moog Fondation I had a rare opportunity to hang out with the boys from Brooklyn, shoot images of them in a casual setting with about 10 other people and go to their sold out show in front of a mere 900 people at the Orange Peel. The BBoys agreed to do a ribbon cutting ceremony for the mini-Moogseum installment at the Orange Peel as they are avid Moog equipment users and all around cool guys.
I could go on about the ties I have to these guys and how their music was playing during so many monumental moments in my life...but I wil save you the details. I think you get it.

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Money Mark, MCA, Ad Rock, Mike D

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Ribbon cutting

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The BBoys get their learn on about new Moog equipment

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Ad Rock listens to all the fly sounds of the new Moog Guitar

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A little style to round out the shoot!

Brooklyn in the House!