@these.guy plays Australian Hagiographic. This was a big one, huge display from down south and local, lucky to engineer and mix what was a long work in progress. Give it a suss on their bandcamp !
Brick Six by @sunrunband , the building and the record. Perpetual memories, some of the best I have. A convergence that felt like both a family gathering and an exercise in listening and learning and trying and sharing and absorbing. And on the other side a hardcore record. Find it via @sore.horse
Talking about @diploidnoise and @headgap and recording and mixing and the fun times you have making records with friends over at @mixdownmagazine . Link to the article in the link section of this page, have a gander! xie xie! 🙏🏽
How it was then to how it is now, 15 years apart.
Someone showed me the former photo today from when I first went full time with this thing. Life was huge back then in a dissimilar way. More all nighters folding record sleeves by hand, printing shirts, communal cook ups, booking tours on an ancient PC, multiple bands rehearsing a night in the next room, multiple sleeping in the other, generally trying to keep drunk people (including me) out of this room during a show. Making records was always intensive and onerous due to not having as firm a grip on the tools then.
Life moves faster now. What used to take a week in the studio, I can do in a few days. The same goes for the world outside these walls in which the level of accessibility and demand has become even more insane. In all the myriad revisions in culture I count myself lucky I get to make records with guts- people in a room moving air and making decisions on the fly.
There is so much of the world I haven’t seen save for this room, but so many worlds have brought themselves here. All the labours that move the needle in life have become contoured into the recording process. Fifteen years of being a mouse in a fictive cage—banal as that sounds. People use a mouse to navigate a screen, but in this chair, I feel like the cursor of some massive analog machine.
I once asked a chess player how they intuited a specific line, they told me they’ve lost a million more games than anyone and thats how you get good. Thats where I feel I’m at with the recording thing, I’ve made copious mistakes not just on the tools, but in many ways I can’t even quantify for the nature of this work. I have no real education and dropped out of high school to play in punk bands. Talent is bullshit, if you just keep doing something forever and ever you will be great at it. You shouldn’t need recognition or awards, if you love it you will go to sleep thinking about your day and how you can improve tomorrow.
To those that have made their own little room, keep at it. I could name a million easier ways to make rent, but few as rewarding.
Some words at @mixdownmagazine via link in bio.
“(Steve) gave himself to everyone that allowed it. He helped people who helped people make records and document meaningful culture whilst never losing grip on his own tools.”
#thankyoustevealbini
