a finished product that they're ready to
distribute the music or "put their emblem"
on it. So we're coming with our best material to make sure her demo is the best it can
be. Her songwriting skills and voice are
just tremendous, so we're very excited
about her future in the business.
IE: You mentioned you've been working
with bands recording and mastering their
music so they can license their songs for
films and TV shows?
Robert: Yes, there's real growth in synclicensing. Some of our in-house projects
like AVM have had our music used for
these companies. Depending on the project, bands and artists can get paid anywhere from $10, $100, even $1000, and
have a song used in a TV show or film, so
it can be a good growth area for these people. Like anything they're some real sharks
in the business taking peoples money, but
there are legitimate companies doing some
great sync licensing. It's exciting.
WINTER TRACKING
Songwerks Multimedia Staff - L to R: Brandon Mackey, Robert Mackey, Greg Warnecke, Kyle Brauch
R
obert Mackey of SONGWERKS
MULTIMEDIA in Addison and their
staff engineers/producers Kyle
Brauch and Brandon Mackey have started
the year off with a bang assembling demos
and co-writing music for local songwriter/vocalist Amanda Brommel. Brauch
and Allen, part of modern rock/EDM duo
Midwave have also remixed tracks for OK
Go and Susan Vega.
IE sat down with both Mackey and
Brauch to discuss their recent work.
IE: You mentioned you've been co-writing
with Amanda Brommel?
Robert Mackey: Yes, we've been shopping
her with several major labels, and there is
real interest in her music. The music industry has changed in the past five years and
the labels really want your music ready as
album over the internet. We sent him the
stems and he really did a great job with it.
IE: What was the time frame remixing for
OK Go?
Kyle: From the time we received the stems
from Dan, it took about 2 months to track
everything, then about 6 weeks to remix
everything.
Brandon: It actually took a little longer to
track everything because we wanted the
music to be analog. We didn't want to just
go on the computer and do a typical remix.
Kyle: We like to record real music as a
band when we do the remix. We get the
vocal stems and come up with new music
that will work with the vocals. It really
important for us not not be some computer band. Both Brandon and I grew up in
live bands and studios, so that's where
we're coming from. We value playing with
real instruments and that kind of stuff. It's
still has a groove and dance, but it's not
just keyboards all the way through.
IE: Tell us about working with OK Go?
Kyle Brauch: Their drummer (Dan
Konopka) actually produced and mastered
five of the songs on our album (Midwave).
He also remixed a track as well. So getting
him involved kind of opened up the door
for us. We actually did a remix for an OK
Go side project called Pyramids. The band
really liked that so we got the opportunity
to work on their most recent single ("I
Won't Let You Down"). He's been back to
Chicago several times (OK Go formed in
Chicago in 1998), but most of the production was done over the internet.
Brandon Mackey: Mike's in L.A. now, but
he did the drum tracks on our Midwave
IE: Did you guys use Pro Tools?
Kyle: We do use Pro Tools...
Brandon: We're actually "Team Logic." Alot
our pre-production, we use Logic.
IE: How did the Suzanne Vega remix
come together?
Kyle: We emailed with her management
about remixing "I Never Wear White,"
which is a great, great song.
Brandon: We approached it the same way
as our other remixes, added live instruments to the vocal stems. We think it came
out well. All those remixes we've done for
OK Go, Midwave and Vega are up on
Soundcloud, You Tube and our Facebook.
NW SIDE RECORDING
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46 illinoisentertainer.com march 2015
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