‘Run from the Gun’ is off of the Darlings’ debut album ‘Ooh La La’ which was recorded and mixed here at Kilo. This track was a lot of fun to create, with its layers of vocals, guitars, and the live tuba we decided to put on it. There are 3 distinct vocal parts from 3 different people. Jason Ewers, singing the lead verse parts, has 3 layers of vocals: one layer through a tiny megaphone, another through a guitar amp, and a clean layer on top. These are all doubled, for a total of 6 vocal parts from Jason. Emmi Chen sings the main chorus vocal, and the texture of her voice is heavily distorted through guitar amps with a clean take on top for definition, all doubled for size. Stephen Paul Smoker lends his bass and his voice, belting out that he’s “got soul” toward the beginning of the track. His vocals were recorded relatively clean, with a room microphone and close microphone.

This is a great song with an immense driving rhythm section that double-dares you not to dance and aural decorations that keep it on your favorite playlist. Check out the video and keep an ear open for the EP, which will soon be available.

Let’s Record.

-Mitchell

I absolutely love audio recording. The process of capturing disturbances in the air, transforming them into electricity, and then storing them, magnetically, on metal coated plastic fascinates me. It’s almost magical, in a way. The same could be said of other media, of course, but nothing can move me the way sound does. No photograph, painting, film, or other visual stimulus can affect me the way something like Chopin’s Nocturne in E Flat Major, Andante, can. Or Mayonaise by The Smashing Pumpkins. Or… well, you get the idea. This is not to say that I can’t appreciate or find value in those other things, of course. Let’s not start on the wrong foot, here.

The purpose of this blog, this website, and even Kilo as a whole, is to help bring creative things into the world. Whether it is directly, maybe by recording an amazing album with a phenomenal band, or indirectly by, say, inspiring said band to use the information from these posts to create its own recording, bringing these things to fruition is the goal, I will be sharing my thoughts on a range of things and all of my writing can be lumped into some sort of categories, perhaps something like:

Reviews of gear, bands, album production/recording

Experiences in the studio

Gear modification

Personal rants and raves

Hello, Chicago. Hello, internet. Hello, world. I hope our friendship grows into something unique.

Let’s record.

-Mitchell

Let’s record. Shall we?

Kilo Studios