It's not everyday a band sends you a demo that captivates you.
When the Birmingham-based band Transistor reached out to me about possibly working on some songs, I asked (as I typically do) for some some demos. Patrick Davis, the group's front-man and chief songwriter emailed me two tracks he'd put together in Garageband. I was absolutely floored. I knew I had to get these guys in the studio. Selfishly, I wanted to make sure they worked with ME and nobody else.
Since then, we've been hard at work on their debut EP "Kids", which features five indie-rock gems.
Recording
The band has been a pleasure to work with. Drummer J.T. Ward is tight, in the pocket, and records his parts very quickly. He also brings a lot of neat ideas to the table. On one of my favorite tracks "For A Ride", he suggested we lay a tambourine over the hi-hat for a jangly effect. We tried it and, sure enough, if added a really spirited element to the mix.
The dual guitars of Patrick Davis and Drew Sikes have been fun as well. Both guitarists have already honed into individually unique sounds that play well of each other. It's always nice when musicians in the studio already have an idea of what they want. For guitar amps, we used a Fender 2x12 Hotrod Deville on Drew's and a Vox AC30 on Patrick's.
Vocally, we tried to build on the things we loved about the demos. We double-tracked vocals on most of the songs, which creates a really consistent texture throughout the EP.
We have had some fun sessions, and I'm looking forward to the release of this one!
-Brandon
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