RED MONDAY AND THE PROCESS
Red Monday at Octagon Recording
W
est Suburban rockers Red
Monday spent over two years
writing and recording music for
their self-titled debut last month. As veterans of Chicago's music community since
the '80s heyday of The Kind and The
Houndz, it was a labor of love. We spoke
with band founder Jim Miller about the
process leading up to the record release.
Red Monday is a hybrid of the members' previous bands, so Miller had an
abundance of songs "in the can."
"Broken Promises" was written and
recorded over 25 years ago! A few bits and
pieces for several other songs were laying
around on cassettes for years. I had been
collecting new ideas for songs for a few
months when I decided to 'raid the vault'
and dig through some vintage stuff. The
equipment is different now, but my
method remains the same, I usually sing a
melody into some sort of device and jot
down lyrics in notebooks stashed all over
the place. True story: Rick (Harris, vocalist) and I were working on another CD
track "Isn't That The Way" one night. I had
the chorus but no verses. I started remembering a song we used to play back in the
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'80s and started singing that melody,
which fit perfectly into the song.
Songwriting for me is like working on a
puzzle. I'll work on it for awhile, then put
it away and revisit my original ideas. I
keep dozens of ideas on a Boss BR-900, 8
track recorder, it's very basic, but does the
job nicely. When I get close to what I think
is 'finished', I lay down a simple drum
track with a drum machine, play a bare
bones bass part, and sing the main vocal
line with an occasional harmony thrown
in as I hear it. Mike McCarron (drums)
and Rick are masters of harmony parts.
They blow me away with their ability to
harmonize on everything."
After the demos were chosen, Miller
and the band recorded the bulk of the
tracks for Red Monday at OCTAGON
RECORDING.
"Mike owns Octagon in Schaumburg.
He called me out of the blue and I told
him I had written a bunch of songs, he
immediately offered his studio. So, the
process kind of went like this: I recorded
basic ideas on the 8 track at home. I would
then bring those demos to Mike. We
would then start jamming on the songs
and record the parts using real guitars and
Roland V-drums."
"Jeff Kylloe (bassist) also has a project
recording studio. He recorded bass tracks
at his place and send the files to Mike.
Rick would come to my house to work
with me on vocal parts, then we would go
to Octagon and record his lead vocal and
harmony parts. Mike spent in hundreds of
hours compiling tracks for us for review
daily. I can't tell you how many versions
of songs I would get in my email inbox at
4 AM! 95 percent of the album was record-
ed at Octagon, with Mike engineering. We
then enlisted Larry Millas (Ides of March)
at WORLD STAGE STUDIOS to mix, master, and add record pieces as he saw fit.
Larry and I go way back to the late 70's
when I recorded a 7" single at his studio!
Our other connection to World Stage is
Scott May, Ides of March keyboardist who
added some amazing parts to the album.
Larry not only had the job of sorting
through tracks we recorded at Octagon
and getting the best performances down,
but he also played keyboards on a few
tracks as well. He would listen to a song
and say 'I hear piano here”, or 'Hey, an
organ or synth part would be cool there."
Red Monday is Miller's "baby," but he
realizes it takes a team approach to make
the band work. "I'm listed as producer on
the album, but it couldn't have been done
without Mike and Larry. Mike is incredibly talented and hears musical parts I
would never think of. Larry's years of
experience gave us our sound sonically. I
would go to World Stage Studios almost
daily and sit at the console with Larry as
he worked his magic. Pro Tools is definitely his thing. Jim Peterik (Ides, Survivor,
World Stage owner) spares no expense at
his studio, so I really had the advantage of
cutting edge technology and vast experience in making Red Monday."
Hey Studiophiler: To get your studio or
band listed in "Studiophile," just email info
on who you're recording/who's recording
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(note new email), subject line: Studiophile.
Deadline for October 2014 issue is
September 15.