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Issue #18
by L. Swift and Jeff McQ
The Recording Connection recently announced a new partnership with Studio Prodigy Master Class Series, which brings in some of the biggest names in the recording industry for special workshops in intimate settings at some of LA’s most renowned recording studios.
As part of this exciting new partnership, we’re proud to be a sponsor for the upcoming session “The Eddie Kramer Experience,” at East/West Studio One on June 21-22. Producer/engineer Eddie Kramer has worked with some of the biggest names in rock & roll over the past five decades, including The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Joe Cocker, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, KISS and many others. This two-day master class will cover advanced recording and mixing techniques with practical application as Eddie actually records a band in the studio!
This is a limited availability session for advanced audio students. For all the details and to apply for admission to the master class, click here!
By the time she was 18 years old, Film Connection apprentice Ashley Price had already completed a full length feature script and film all on her own. For The Day the Duck Derby Died, which Ashley describes as a drama, she went out and bought a camera and brought together friends from her church group to film the movie. With the help of her mother Tanya, Ashley was able to put together her entire film! Ashley also happens to be a professional harpist, and even got some time in front of the camera playing the harp during another production when someone noticed her wearing an “I play harp” pin.
Ashley is currently wrapping up her apprenticeship with mentor Steve Carmichael at Radiant 3 Productions in Atlanta, GA. Both Ashley and her parents agree that there couldn’t have been a better fit and Steve has helped her every step of the way. Congratulations, Ashley!
San Antonio-based guitarist, producer, engineer and Recording Connection graduate Dominic Cerna has wasted no time getting his career off the ground. His electro-rock band The Taking was recently signed by manager T.J. Sagen (Disturbed, Device, Art of Dying, WERM) of JBM Management in Chicago!
The journey to national management began when Dominic visited Los Angeles with The Taking last year to record some demos with producers Jeff Blue (Linkin Park, Korn, Macy Gray), Mike Gonsolin (Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg) and Nick Nitolli at Trend Def Studios in West Hollywood. About a month and a half ago, while he was rehearsing with the band in their hometown of San Antonio, TX, Dominic got a call from the Creative Services Department of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs, who wanted to used some of the band’s music after hearing some of the tunes they had posted online. “They wanted to use our totally self-produced single titled ‘Anywhere’ in the Spurs’ arena (AT&T Center) and for other promotional media during the Spurs’ 2014 playoff run,” says Dominic. “Of course, we were stoked.”
About that same time, the band’s single, “The Bitter End” was played on KLOS-95.5 FM in Los Angeles during the Heidi and Frank Morning Show. Moments after the song aired, a well-known manager by the name of T.J. Sagen received a phone call from his brother, who just happened to be listening, to tell him about The Taking. T.J. contacted the band, and soon after, The Taking showcased for him in San Antonio. He liked what he saw and heard, and a management agreement was reached.
“We worked our asses off to get here, but now the real work begins,” says Dominic. “Having a manager like T.J. really brings us to a new level of professionalism even though we’ve always set the standards pretty high for ourselves. We’re going above and beyond with him.”
Dominic credits his mentor Mark Sinko for much of his success. “Big thanks to Mark at Salmon Peak Studios and Recording Connection for helping me get prepared for this amazing new venture with our new management, JBM,” he says. “The other guys in the band are engineers as well so we have many useful weapons firing at all times in our main studio and at our home studios.” Congrats to Dominic and The Taking!
Follow The Taking & Dominic Cerna on twitter @TheTakingBand and @TheTakingDom for updates, and find them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/thetakingband. You can also hear “The Bitter End,” the single that brought this dream to reality, in the “Apprentices and Mentor Media” section below!
Radio Connection apprentice Cordell Woodland (Washington, DC) recently found work at ESPN Sports Radio. Near the end of his radio apprenticeship with Luke Stewart at WPFW Jazz FM, Cordell began an internship at ESPN in time for football season, where he eventually moved into board operations, and finally to reporting live from the locker room. Way to go! 
This week’s Mystery Supporter for you to guess: _______________ is a world renowned audio engineer and music producer who lives in Los Angeles and has worked on 3 very different records: one for Lady Gaga, one with the legendary Johnny Cash and one for The Red Hot Chili Peppers. And on one of these he won a Grammy.
He is one of the most sought after engineers and producers in the business and he is a full supporter of the Recording Connection and the way we teach – one on one inside real recording studios.
RRF: So what was it like working with D.One? Did you guys work together?
Inspectah: We didn’t work together, he sent me the track through the email. For the most part, the brother’s real professional, he emailed back on time, he said what he was gonna do and he did it…so respect gets respect, you know?
RRF: Would you say things have really changed in the business between how things are now and how they were then?
Inspectah: I look at things a couple of ways. Outside of hip-hop, I look at how the world’s changed from then till now. …You know, everybody is so politically correct you can’t even say what you want to say without someone losing sleep over it, you know, celebrities with their public apologies, it’s like, say what you mean and mean what you say. Everybody is b**chy, everybody is upset, but on the flip side, you have the right to destroy and ridicule and do whatever you want to a person over the social network, you know? Back in the day, you had to see that person, like the person that said something about you—eventually you bumped into them, whether it was somebody at a label, working the industry, because the circuit was so tight…Nowadays, people have the luxury of hiding behind a computer. It tampers with everything, because now your best friend won’t even call you. He’ll text you or hit you through Instagram or something like that. It messes up the communication…people used to go outside and interact and mingle, you know. As a kid, I was outside every day, I had that mother that told you, “Get out of the house, go enjoy the day.” I couldn’t play a lot of video games…Nowadays, kids 12 years old, they got a PS4, iphone, ipad, they’re texting Mom from the next room. [laughter] I think the advancement of society and technology and everything kind of set humanity back.
RRF: Do you think that’s changed the way hip-hop is done nowadays, as opposed to back then?
Inspectah: It’s not nearly as good now, because when I first got in the studio with RZA, we had to sit there in front of a big 48-track SSL board, we had to lug our keyboards and everything we wanted to bring into the studio, manually connect things with these wires and all that. But now, there’s a lot of software, there’s a lot of programs that you can recreate a lot of the sounds we had to search for, you know…It’s so easy, you can walk into Wal-Mart and buy some type of Casio machine and you can plug that into the studio and amp it up, and it sounds like you have this big expensive studio. You can plug your iPhone in with apps on the iPhone and do drums and piano and bass—you can make a beat with you phone nowadays.
Jimmy Martignetti: I think sometimes that’s a problem, that some people have such easy access to all these industry tools, and the market gets flooded with all this garbage, and it drives me nuts.
Inspectah: That’s exactly what’s going on, man, and it drives me nuts, too, because now–right now, I can make a beat, write a rhyme, record myself, mix it down, master it, all on the same laptop without even moving, upload it to hundreds of sites, blog it, iTunes, and it’s out there tomorrow with a video. And all that’s just in one day. I’m from the era where we took 2, 3, 4, 5 days to film a video, and it took another two weeks to edit it, another week to service it and get it around to all the proper markets…You had to give yourself at least 2 months, 3 months of promotion and marketing time—you know, dudes can drop an album tomorrow and start advertising today. It’s like you said, these kids—I call them young kids, but it’s not just the young ones—they have access to these amateur tools, and they get on them and act professional. You know, your beats got two sounds, three sounds in ‘em, they’re not full, they’re not composed, they’re not musical.
RRF: You’ve been in this industry a long time, you’ve got all these connections, you’ve worked with so many studios, you’ve gone on tour, you’ve had the whole experience—what would you say for a beginner, the most important thing about having these connections and building a network for yourself?
Inspectah: You know, what I’m gonna say to the beginners—be careful what you wish for. That’s my biggest jewel to them now, because there was a time when I sat there with the same dream…And you dream and you picture yourself there, and you say, you know, if I get on, I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do that, and then one day, you wake up and you’re there. All these people, all these connections, all this press, all this money’s coming your way. And when you get to that level and you see all the fakeness coming out, people trying to use you and exploit you for their own agendas, and you realize that the money is the cause of a lot of this confusion…I know sometimes I’ve sat there and I’ve said, Man, despite being able to take care of my family, the money, the fame and all that, I think my life was easier—I won’t say better—but I definitely feel like I felt better, I felt good when I was that super-hungry guy, and it seemed like this was out of arm’s reach. You know, it’s like I had more fun with it, and it meant more. Now, to me, this is a job, you know, I feed my children with it. You have to be a businessman, it’s not just about rap, especially in 2014. You have to understand the business, understand the paperwork and the language…Understand what you want and what you’re getting into it for…You get yourself in a bad deal, and they’ll put you out there, they’ll have you on TV and your songs on the radio, but you’re not getting publishing, you’re not getting the correct mechanicals because you sold yourself to somebody…[and] they got their hands in your pockets all the way around. Just really know what you want. 
Champion Entertainment has been producing films and TV programs since 1993, including serving as the executive producing team for the feature film Jacob. “The digital revolution is allowing filmmakers to take advantage of the marketplace,” says Bob. “Keeping budgets low almost assures the film’s success. Champion Entertainment is aware of what it takes to make a successful film and has built relationships with major outlets to maximize a projects potential.”
Ryan Koral, Tell
www.gototell.com
Tell is a unique video production company in Detroit that focuses on helping business and nonprofit organizations tell their stories through film and video. From their “About” page:
“We are in this for the long haul. Creating meaningful and lasting relationships has been one of the key motivators for this business and it continues to drive who we are and what we’re about. We do not want to be a cookie-cutter studio. We always want to be pushing each other to become better storytellers while encouraging our clients to do the same. The people we serve deserve our best.”
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