Studio member profile: Kyle Ahlstrom

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Benjie

Kyle AhlstromAt 22, Kyle Ahlstrom has already built a diverse musical resume. Initially a pianist and cellist, he joined post-Hardcore band This is Our Year on his third instrument – guitar – in 2010 and says he “hasn’t looked back since.” The band tours all over the Midwest and opened for the “Leave It To The Suits” tour in 2011, playing for more than 1,000 people at Mojoe’s in Joliet.

Kyle caught the engineering bug in high school, dabbling with a lo-fi microphone and free audio software Audacity. He studied video production at the College of DuPage, then headed to Tribeca Flashpoint where he’s finishing an audio engineering degree.

Kyle currently serves as Backthird Audio’s production manager, maintaining the studio and managing our list of projects and producers.

1. How long have you been a studio member at Backthird?

I became a studio member myself in February 2013, but I’d already been working at Backthird periodically over the past couple of years as an artist and also as an assistant engineer with fellow Backthird member Travis Brown.

2. What are some of your favorite projects you’ve done here?

One of my favorite times was recording Marina City’s acoustic song “Sing You To Sleep” with Travis. Marina City is an incredibly talented band and I think we did some great work with them. Last summer I also assisted with tracking the new The Captain Hates The Sea record. Their single “Catharsis” was just released last month!

3. What’s a typical week like for you?

Right now, my typical week still involves a lot of school! I am at Flashpoint five (often very long) days a week, but I enjoy every single second of it. On the weekends, my band is usually playing a show somewhere around the Midwest. We will leave either Friday night or Saturday morning don’t typically get back until very early Sunday. It’s always a lot of fun being on the road with your friends and getting to play music in front of a new crowd every weekend.

Between all of that, I am still finding time to work as a freelance recording engineer out of Backthird and as a freelance videographer and video editor.

4. What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about life and/or music?

The most important thing that I have learned about life is to follow your passion and do what makes you happy. For me, that is music. I want to be the guy that has “never worked a day in his life” because he loves what he does.

5. Why did you become a Backthird member?

I liked the idea of paying one flat rate a month to have full access to a great recording studio. All you have to do is schedule the dates you want and you’re set. The mic collection is solid and the live room sounds phenomenal. The atmosphere at Backthird is also very relaxed which makes it a great environment for making music. And it’s close to my house so that’s a plus!

Backthird Audio is a collection of freelance musicians and engineers – all sharing a single studio. It’s like coworking for musical creatives. To learn more about studio membership, visit this page.

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Studio member profile: Mark Nelson

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Benjie

Mark NelsonPianist Mark Nelson might just be the ultimate self-employed musician. “I’m a lifelong freelancer,” he says, “so my music resume is eight pages of bullet points.” Those bullet points include touring both regionally and internationally, playing all sorts of rock and pop, big band, jazz, classical, Latin and world music, and sitting in at churches and orchestra pits all over the area. He’s been musical director for a number of wedding/event bands and small ensemble jazz groups, festival bands, indie projects, and musicals.  And he’s worked as a recording engineer, tech director, and private teacher. Mark even tunes pianos.

What’s it like to make music your living as a freelancer? I asked Mark, who lives in Plainfield, to fill us in.

1. How long have you been a studio member at Backthird?

Since November 2012.

2. What are some favorite projects you’ve done here?

I hosted a “Holiday Afterparty” in late December that was a blast – an intimate private concert with some of my favorite local jazz players, doing music we loved and recording live. (I’m working on the “Post-taxes Jam” right now.)

I engineered an opera session for a Backthird client that turned out very well. And I tracked drums for LSquare Music, a church project in Lincoln Square that releases a new song every month.

I do most of my personal projects at home, so I seldom mix at Backthird.  I have also used the studio as a “third space” to hang out and work periodically, but that may be less possible (or at least, less spontaneous) as the studio gets busier.

3. What’s a typical week like for you?

Ha, there is no typical week for a freelancer! Sometimes I’m occupied almost entirely by performances, other times by music preparation or scoring work, mixing, recording, or programming. Usually it’s some incomprehensible combination.  I sleep less than the average person… by a lot.

I try to keep some time set aside for growth-oriented tasks, because otherwise it doesn’t happen, and music is too broad and deep to abide stagnation. So I keep practicing, reading, experimenting, writing/recording in a non-directed way, and incorporating new tools.

4. What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about life and/or music?

First things come first.  Worship and family time are non-negotiable for me. I can be busier in seasons, but I fiercely protect my time with my family, and by extension, my students. ”You’ll often disappoint someone, just make sure it’s not always your kids.”

Also, I can’t be genuinely creative without time for exploration or “play.” Since I’m generally getting hired to BE creative, when I’m at my busiest I have to schedule that investment time. (Sometimes that even works!)

5. Why did you become a Backthird member?

I already have a dedicated recording space/rig/etc., so most of my motivation for becoming a member was to use the space for recitals and events.  It also gives me the availability for a larger live room, which helps when tracking drums and whole bands. An unexpected benefit has been getting paid to engineer occasional sessions for Backthird, and using B3 as a third space to hang out and work in (piano, kitchen, and my laptop!).  “Just stop by” may not last as the studio gets busier, but it has been great. Also, I like the people at Backthird. That’s a rare privilege.

Backthird Audio is a collection of freelance musicians and engineers – all sharing a single studio. It’s like coworking for musical creatives. To learn more about studio membership, visit this page.

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Project Lasagna Progress Report: the focus group results are in!

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Benjie

You may not see it yet, but there’s a lot of excitement bubbling behind the scenes for Project Lasagna. That’s the development name for the music-community project Backthird Audio is exploring in partnership with Kiss the Sky, everybody’s favorite local record store, and Batavia Enterprises, who own and developed the property Water Street Studios now calls home. We’ve been meeting regularly with consultants from the Fox Valley Entrepreneurship Center, crunching numbers and crafting a business plan for a community that will actually work – and that will increase opportunities dramatically for local musicians.

At its heart, the question we’ve been asking is this: What would it take to get everyone in Fox Valley Music to the same place – literally? What would it take to concentrate the talent – and the audiences – in local music so that we could grow the excitement, create a bigger market for music and develop a sort of incubator for local artists? What if – in short – talented local musicians didn’t have to go it alone?

If you haven’t seen our full vision yet, take some time to check out the video on this page. I won’t repeat the vision here. But I want to sum up the progress we’ve made so far.

Focus Groups

At the end of February, at total of about 60 local musicians, engineers and music patrons met at Backthird Audio over the course of two Sunday afternoons for focus groups. We split into discussion groups of 6 or 7 people each, and I posed some important questions to every group.

I won’t repeat all those questions here, but in essence our goal was to describe the sort of music community we’re imagining – and to find out from you what elements you considered to be most important to that vision. What things are make-or-break, and what things don’t matter? And – since we’ll need paying members to fund our community and keep our doors open – what aspects of music community would you and would you not be willing to actually pay for?

The discussions were great! Your answers really breathed new life into our business plan and the research we’re doing.

As I’ve said many times, the magic of this project will come when we’re all together in a single space. When a producer who’s mixing in his private studio can step into a hall to stretch her legs, bump into a band taking a break from rehearsal, head down the hall for lunch in our restaurant with a room full of music fans – and then stop off for a quick consult with our in-house music marketing expert… When all those things are happening at once, the opportunities created and the creativity generated will be HUGE. But none of that can happen without a business model that works to keep our doors open!

Here’s what we’ve learned so far…

The Good, the Bad, and the “Meh”

click to enlarge

We surveyed everyone at our focus groups – musicians and patrons alike – to find out what parts of our community would mattered most. The results were clear: a live music venue, a bar/nightclub, and a recording studio were all key to having an ongoing music community.


We asked you what would bring you into our facility every month, and the venue and networking events seemed most important.


We asked what would bring you in every week, and food, drinks and music lessons were the clear winners there.

So what didn’t matter? A clothing/merch store and a music gear store were both relatively uninteresting to most people. There wasn’t much interest in apartments for artists either. There was also fairly low interest in band practice space, at least in the short term.

By the way, it’s not too late to weigh in on our survey yourself! Click here to take the survey. We’d love to have your input too!

How a venue should work

In our conversations about how our live music venue should work, you told us:

  • Don’t serve food in the venue while acts are playing! Let us focus on the music.
  • Book an eclectic mix of music! We don’t just want rock or blues – give us classical, folk, zydeco… Surprise us!
  • But at the same time… schedule nights according to genre, so I can buy a subscription membership and know that there will be some music types I like.
  • You want to pay $5-10 to see a local act. You’d pay about three times that for a national touring act.

How a recording studio should work

  • Recording and mixing music is a weekly habit for most of us musicians. Those of us who call ourselves engineers mix something almost every day!
  • Ideally, we’d split our recording time 50/50 between recording/mixing at home and recording/mixing in a “pro” studio. (Hmm… Since I don’t see most of you at Backthird every other week, I’m guessing this is not how you actually work – just how you wish you did!)
  • Artists want to pay for a studio by the day, or by the half day, or by the hour… Yeah, we couldn’t decide. (That’s what makes us artists.) Most of us wanted a studio with a quality engineer and quality gear, or we may as well stay home.
  • Engineers are the opposite! We want to pay by the month instead of by the hour so we can feel like the studio is “our” studio, not some place we’re renting, when we bring our own clients in. We want a great-sounding room and a comfortable, impressive control room – but we would rather pay less and bring our own gear to the studio than pay more money to have gear we might not need.

Other focus group findings

  • There’s a lot of interest in administrative services for musicians. If you could pay somebody to handle your bookkeeping, juggle contracts and do other legwork for you while you focused on playing more music, you would seriously consider it.
  • Some of you would be interested in having access to a shared conference room for meetings or semi-private workspace where you could bring your laptop and be part of the “scene” even when you don’t have an instrument in your hands.
  • Most of you would NOT be interested in your own private office or mixing studio – but a few of you would be VERY interested in it!

Whew! That’s a lot of info – and that’s just scratching the surface. Thanks to everybody who participated in our focus groups – you gave us some great answers, and raised some great questions as well. We’re currently looking at properties up and down the Fox Valley, and re-visiting our business plan with your feedback in mind.

What do you think of our findings? Do you agree with the above? Do you have additional thoughts to add? Leave your comments on the blog using the box below – or e-mail me directly by clicking here. You can also take our survey and add your feedback to our results by following this link – it takes just a couple of minutes to complete.

If you’re not on the Project Lasagna e-mail list, make sure you sign up on this page. I’ll keep you in the loop as things continue to progress. Music falters without an audience – we need your input to make this dream a reality!

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Studio member profile: Travis Brown

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Benjie

Travis BrownAt 33, Travis Brown has already lived at least one musical lifetime. As lead singer and bassist with power pop trio Split Habit, he spent almost a decade recording and touring. The band did a five-summer stint on the Warped Tour in the early 2000s and licensed songs for TV shows, including Smallville, Supernatural and Laguna Beach, before calling it quits in 2006.

Today, Travis manages the small record label Stayposi in addition to recording and producing area musicians. “I wanted to help develop the next generation of artists,” he says. “So many people helped me out – it’s my turn to give back.” Travis lives in Aurora.

1. How long have you been a studio member at Backthird?

I joined in June 2012 – I was the first!

2. What are some of your favorite projects you’ve done here?

I’ll includes video links so you can check out the results of some of our work. There are really too many to name!

Recording Marina City was a great time. Fue was a fun session as well – they did a video shoot here to accompany their single. I made a great friend working with Gabe Perez. And finally, my friends The Captain Hates The Sea tracked their debut full-length with me at Backthird – it comes out this Spring.

3. What’s a typical week like for you now?

I work a 9-to-5 as Inside Sales Manager at an electronics rep firm in Chicago. Fridays are my day off, so I use my studio membership then and on nights and weekends. I typically take a voice lesson on Monday nights – the rest of the time I spend writing music and recording!

I try to balance writing and recording evenly. When I’m starting a new EP or full-length for a band I’m producing, my days can become 12 hours of just working non-stop. But I’ve also written about 100 songs in the last 2 years. The key to great writing is to keep writing and keep rewriting. Most of my personal music endeavors are strictly for music licensing, so I never go out and perform.

4. What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about life and music?

The most important thing I have learned is that “perfect” is boring. We all have a distinct way of playing and our own unique fingerprint musically. Some of my favorite parts of songs and records are actually mistakes, accidents that got left in. Music has become rather stale and sterile without those.

This also applies to life! A “perfect” life is boring – making mistakes and learning is so much more fulfilling. The journey to the top of the mountain is much more fun than just standing on top looking down.

5. Why did you become a Backthird member?

I became a studio member to get out of the bedroom and into a space that allows me to maximize my creativity and detach from home. It’s a great place to work, and I can be proud to bring clients here. There is great value in breaking out of what is comfortable and into a professional environment.

Backthird Audio is a collection of freelance musicians and engineers – all sharing a single studio. It’s like coworking for musical creatives. To learn more about studio membership, visit this page.

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Christmas Jazz Session recorded live in the studio

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Katie

Studio member Travis Brown got a dose of holiday cheer last Saturday when jazz guitarist Mark Randolph brought four fellow seasoned jazz musicians into the studio for a Christmas improv session. This year, they did four familiar carols using sax, percussion, bass and piano

The percussionist brought a whole bag of tricks, including congas, chimes, and an instrument that made the sound of a gobbling turkey! The sax player, Glen West, brought in a Ewi, which is not a Star Wars character but a half electronic-half wind instrument.

Although they had never played any of the songs together, the session was a breeze. Using only the sheet music they had learned on their own, “They would run one… discuss… run another… and so on,” Travis told me. “They were really good!”

We’ve recorded so many holiday albums here at Backthird, it’s always a blast to have some festive tunes this time of year!

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6 things you need to develop as a recording artist

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Benjie

Frank “on location” in a mix truck

In an era of weak record labels, who’s going to develop new recording artists?

I’ve been chatting a lot this month with mixing engineer Frank Pappalardo as we get things in order for the “Secrets of the Mix” seminar he’ll give at Backthird Audio this Saturday, November 3. Frank’s lent his audio talents to hundreds of A-level artists, from classics (John Fogerty, Tom Petty, Robert Plant) to more modern acts (Lifehouse and The Fray, All American Rejects). What I didn’t know until recently, though, is that Frank’s also pretty involved in developing new artists.

Even though Frank’s a recording engineer, the last thing he does when he comes across a new act with a lot of promise is to rush into the studio. Instead, he often spends a year or more working with them on vocal skills, musicianship and songwriting.

“What I’m doing with these people is what record companies used to do,” Frank said. “Now they don’t have the time or the money. Record labels want a train that’s shooting down the tracks – not one that’s just leaving the station.”

Frank says he gets a lot of calls from would-be recording artists. “I wish I had a dime for every parent I meet whose kid has a great voice,” he said. “But if I’m going to work with someone, there are 5 things I need to see. They have to sing. They have to write songs. They have to be decently attractive. They have to be likeable. And the fifth – and most important – thing is that they have to have a real level of commitment.”

That’s because developing as an artist takes time, energy – and resources. In fact, it takes enough resources that Frank added a sixth key ingredient most artists need.

“They have to have an investor,” he said. “Even if it’s just their grandma.”

Where does recording fit into this? Demos and studio experience are part of the process of developing as an artist. They’re also the key ingredient in promoting your music and attracting listeners.

“It used to be that you went on tour to sell your record and make money,” Frank told me. “Now, you give your record away at first so that you’ll be able to make money when you go on tour. That’s weird – because it takes what we do as engineers and gives it away, but we still have to be paid for it.”

If you’d like to invest a little in yourself, don’t miss Frank’s “Secrets of the Mix” seminar at Backthird Audio this Saturday. He’ll be sharing tips and insights gleaned from 30 years in the recording business to help you get better recordings today – whether you’re an engineer or a musician.

What do YOU think is the right approach for developing new artists?

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Why every Chicago sound engineer should mix live and in a recording studio

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Benjie

Frank at WTTW for “Soundstage” filming

As I was chatting with Frank Pappalardo this week about his upcoming “Secrets of the Mix” seminar at Backthird, he made an interesting claim: Every studio engineer should do some live sound, and every live mixer should do some studio work.

Frank’s an incredibly experienced engineer; he’s worked on projects featuring everyone from Bon Jovi to Sugarland. So when he talks audio, I just want to keep him talking – and see what I can learn.

The relationship between live and recorded sound has certainly been important to my own experience as a studio owner – I often tell people that I never really understood how to use EQ until somebody taught me how to do it in “real time,” on a live mixer. In talking it through with Frank, here are two key lessons we found that live and studio engineers need to learn from each other.

1. Studio engineers should mix live to learn how instruments really sound.

Live performances are all about dynamics – the difference between loud and soft is so much greater than on most recordings, and great performers know how to use that power to touch listeners’ emotions. Studio engineers should, too.

There’s also the challenge of placing each instrument in context. “When I mix, I have an image in my mind of the band on stage,” Frank said. “And then I try to mix it that way.”

2. Live sound engineers should mix in the studio to learn how to serve the song.

The sound at many Chicago bars and clubs has strange priorities. “I’ve seen engineers spend 20 minutes working on drums, then just push up the lead vocal at the end,” Frank said. “But nobody leaves their house and says, ‘I really want to hear a kick drum tonight!’ When I mix live, I spend most of my time taking low end out of the PA when I start. People come up and shake my hand afterward – because now they can hear the vocal.”

“It’s always about the vocal first,” Frank said. “If you get that lead vocal right and sounding even, everything else falls into place.”

That’s easier said than done.

“One of the hardest things for me to learn was how to perfectly place a lead vocal in a mix,” Frank says. “It’s actually counterintuitive. At this seminar, I’ll be sharing some secrets that took me years to learn.”

“Secrets of the Mix” runs from 9:30am to 4pm on Saturday, November 3 at Backthird Audio. Frank’s offering a personal mix evaluation for everyone who registers before October 26. Get details on this page.

Whats YOUR biggest frustration with live – or recorded – mixes?

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Mixing Tip No. 1: be “Mr. No Problem”

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Benjie

at Oceanway in Los Angeles to work with the Beach Boys

Frank Pappalardo is one of the most successful music engineers I know. His 30-year career has brought him chances to work on productions for a huge and diverse list of artists, from Alison Krauss to Yes. When he first paid a casual visit to Backthird Audio in 2008, he told us what it was like to meet Robert Plant for the first time – and about running cable across a field so he could record Dave Matthews Band at Red Rocks. Frank’s skill as an engineer has brought him some incredible experiences.

Since he’ll be sharing those skills with us in an exclusive one-day seminar at Backthird on November 3, I thought it’d be worth asking Frank about his own path to success. What did he do to get this far?

He says it’s relationships, not resume, that keep you working.

Like most engineers, Frank was a performing musician first. He played his first guitar concert in second grade and his first band show in the fifth grade. By high school, he was gigging regularly with a band called Rampage. “We were popular,” he said. “So popular that if I went to a shopping mall, people would stop me and say, ‘You’re in Rampage, right?’”

The band lasted through college and a three-year tour. But there was another passion – recording – that Frank had been developing since he first got his hands on a 4-track at age 12. Eventually he went back to a studio where he’d recorded as an artist – a place called Tanglewood in Brookfield, Illinois – to ask if he could learn from them.

“I hung out there for 4 months for free,” he said. “And then I made $2 an hour.”

Frank honed his craft for years, recording jingle after jingle and local band after local band. He says his “jump to big time” was working on the live Styx album “Return to Paradise Theater” – an opportunity that came because he’d met Styx guitarist James Young while at Tanglewood.

Live recordings have since become something of a specialty for Frank, whose work on the PBS documentary Soundstage kept him busy for more than 12 years. He’s honed his mixing skills to an incredible level, and I can’t wait to learn from him in a few weeks. But he’s quick to point out that in the music business, social skills can be just as important.

“You have to be easy to be around,” he told us in 2008. “I’m Mr. No Problem. I’m like, you want me to stand on my head while I mix this? Great, I’ll stand on my head.”

If you’d like Frank to personally review one of your mixes and offer his feedback, make sure to register for his seminar, “Secrets of the Mix,” before October 26.

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The Captain Hates The Sea in the recording studio with Member Travis Brown

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Katie

The band The Captain Hates the Sea has been in the studio for the past few weeks with engineer and Backthird Studio Member Travis Brown recording an album.

The challenge Travis experienced in the control room was balancing the different influences and skills each member of the band brought to the table. The band’s ultimate sound is a combination of several genres into one: Metal, Dubstep, House, Trance, and Rock.

The group is very selective about their arrangements and prefers to stay away from programmed drums, which are very popular in this specific genre. They avoided using the same sounds as every other record in the genre, sticking with real drums to set them apart.

Check out their video recording with Travis: The Captain Hates The Sea – Week Two: Guitars.



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Bass recording tips from a Chicago-area pro

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Benjie

I spent Thursday morning with freelance bassist (and longtime friend of Backthird) Zach Goforth. We were tracking upright bass for an Americana project from father/son team Dave and Matthew Skirmont. Zach showed me a great new bass recording technique I just had to share.

The mic on the f-hole provided most of the warmth and tone for our tracks, but mixing in a bit of the bridge mic gave me more attack from the bass. I’ll be using this technique again for sure.Wrap a small-diaphragm condenser mic in something soft (Zach brought a lovely purple scarf), and jam it between the bridge and the body of the upright bass. The mic should be pointing down, between the bridge and the bass body. Then mic the f-hole of the bass as well (I used an Electrovoice RE-20 for this).

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