ION INDIE MAGAZINE March 2015, Volume 10 | Page 66

the vision that's your vision. If you turn that song over to a band, the first thing you need to do is get your vision of how it's
supposed to sound out of your head because when other people play it, and interpret it the way they feel, it's going to be
something different that you can't do on your own, and it's not going to be recognizable as your own pure idea that you started
with. That's sort of the whole thing about being in a band--to have that trust to turn your ideas over to someone and things
that you have such a strong feeling about, and let go of it enough for them to find themselves in it. That's the chore of a band-don't let ego in the door. There's no room for that in a band. The beauty of the first KING’S X album was not knowing what
was going to happen. I remember we went in trying to just make ourselves happy, and just record whatever we felt like--no
rules, do whatever you feel. When we finished the album, and we had worked intensely on all these songs, but it wasn't until
we had arranged them in an order, and I put them on the master two-track, and played the album from beginning to end,
sitting there in the studio as a band, I realized all of these things I've been saying to you happened. When I heard the album
back, my first thought was, "Who is this?" (laughs) It was a disconnect of me understanding that we were the ones that
recorded what I was hearing--it was that big of a deal. I've gone into every album trying to keep that attitude--that's the biggest
surprise of doing an album that I really love.
MU: That leads me into asking you about your new DVD, "Almost Live From Alien Beans Studio”. It's not your average live
performance DVD. How did the idea for putting this together come about?
TT: There were several things that came together at the same time. It really wasn't planned at all to do this. It just happened
that plans got changed on us, to where instead of going on tour, we had some down time for a while. I was just kind of
scrambling, trying to think of what I could do to fill the time because we would no longer be touring. I just went to my studio,
and I was in the middle of finishing a JELLY JAM album, and I also already had a solo album in the works that I had gotten a
long way through. I just thought I was going to jump into one of those things. At the same time, I was talking to ORANGE AMPS
about doing some commercial video stuff for them, and I had also recently bought a green screen and some lights for the
studio, just for taking photos and things. I realized I had all the gear to shoot a video, but I thought, "What video?" I got to
thinking that I could write a whole new album and video it--a video for every song, but that would probably take 6-8 months,
and I really needed to replace the income from this tour a little faster. While I was trying to decide what I was going to do, I just
started messing around with videoing, and I recorded a song called "Coma" with me playing all the parts. I did it just for fun
and had no intention of releasing it. It was just while I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. Once I finished it, I liked
it and though it had a different vibe and a different live energy to it than the album--maybe I should just go through my albums
and pick some songs and do them. It wasn’t until I was two or three songs in that I dedicated myself to actually doing a full
DVD. It just kind of happened--one thing led to the next, and before I knew it, I was making a DVD.
MU: Let me ask you about the studio itself, because I find it interesting that you mainly do mastering at the facility. Why did
you choose to focus on that end of things, and what does mastering involve for you?
TT: Well, the mastering, of all the studio processes, is the one stage that is a little bit easier to do than all the stages. I tried
doing some full production work where I brought people in and recorded them, and mix and master and did everything. I just
find that I can’t do something like that unless I do it right, and I need to spend so much time on an album to do it right, that
it's something that I couldn't afford to do. I found that the mastering niche was a good happy medium, because I want to be
in the studio working, and I want to be doing other projects and helping people. With mastering, though, no one has to come
into the studio and I don't have to change setups for recording--it's way less time-consuming and way more to the point. It's
also way more beneficial and helpful to more people in the same amount of time. It just made more sense to focus on that
one area of the studio. This way, I'm mastering a lot of albums all the time and I really get joy from it because it normally ends
with somebody being very thankful and very happy with the improvement to their album.
MU: You mentioned the JELLY JAM project with JOHN MYUNG (DREAM THEATER bassist)