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Chicago’s Shy Technology recently released their fantastic new EP Where We Go From Here. Describing the band’s sound isn’t easy, as they bring something new to the table on each track. Just imagine some delicious stew of Cursive, The Front Bottoms, Modest Mouse, and 90’s alt-rock. Whatever you’d call it, it’s really damn good.
We were lucky enough to catch up with vocalist David Coulson and have him give us a behind-the-scenes look at the recording of the new EP, including photos of the process. Check out David’s thoughts below and stream Where We Go From Here. If you enjoy it as much as we do, head to their Bandcamp page and purchase it.
Shy Technology – Studio Diary, by David Coulson
We walked into the studio February 15th of this year (only because we all knew we would be in the dog house if we started on Valentines Day). This project was approached with a very humbling appreciation of past projects and the opportunity to continue to make music. Nick Stetina is not only the drummer for Shy Tech but he was also the sound engineer for the last Shy Tech project as well as two early projects.
I have worked with Nick since he was sixteen and we meet through a friend of a friend over Myspace. I have come to watch Nick master his craft a little more with each project and I am always thrilled to be around someone who puts such dedication and focus into their craft.
“Where we go from here” was recorded at Invigorate Recordings which was Nick’s new studio build from the ground up inside of his new home. We started with tracking the Drums and Bass together along side a rough guitar and vocal. I would often be standing in the mixing room watching Nick and Phil work out their corresponding addition to each track and would work with them accordingly. Most noticeable part of this first phase was the amount of time it took to organize cords, measure lengths of microphones from symbols. It was two full days before we could begin to add guitar tracks.
Upon moving on to the guitar tracks I was very excited to be playing my new 95 Gibson Les Paul Studio which I had purchased a few months before recording. We double tracked all the rhythm guitars to give it a full body sound and were sure to bump up the drive on much of the tracks, specifically Nautical and Little Bit More.
Lyrics were double tracked as well. I always liked the way Conor Oberst would complete many tracks with a deep tone and track over a brighter more vibrate tone. This was what I really wanted to accomplish for most of the EP and Nick and I would often joke about how deep my voice would go and I would just start singing Anyones Ghost by the National.
Backup vocals is a first for Shy Tech and this was a great opportunity for all of us to begin to understand and getting a better feel for each others styles and tones. I think we really all came together well on the verses of Little Bit More and the four piece harmonies of High Strung.
The most aggravating part of the whole process was after we completed Pat’s lead tracks and found that one of the guitars was not staying in tone. We decided to play it safe and start over with my guitar. I took the Les in to get it reset and the following week we went back to work. I remember noticing the difference immediately. If I could give anyone advice about tracking guitars, get it set before walking into the studio. You’ll save yourself tons of time! Rookie move but you live and you learn.
Jesse Cannon was placed in charge of mixing the EP mainly because as a group we loved his work with All Get Out and wanted to have someone who has worked with a band like ours in the past. He was great! Very responsive to all email request and was able to bring that new ear to Shy Tech’s sound.
The whole project seemed like a huge blur honestly. Between scheduling music videos, album releases, and everyone’s set time to record I was drained by the end of this project. It was a great learning experience for the whole band I believe and we plan on going back in November of this year to finish the second part of this two part release.
On a final note I would like to thank Sarah (Nick’s wife) for letting us take over her home for much of the spring. We had a great year as a band and we wish to continue our momentum.
Shy Technology – Where We Go From Here
