Ed. Note: CBC Radio 3 producer Chris Kelly is currently
in residence with his band Analog Bell Service at the Banff Centre
When we first arrived at the Banff Centre early Sunday
morning I heard it described as a “stationary cruise ship in the middle of the
mountains”. We are now four days in and I am starting to understand why they
refer to it like that – everywhere you look you are met with stunning panoramas
of the Rockies; there are rock climbing walls, a pool, squash courts; and every
meal you nestle into these eight person round tables and invariably end up
chatting with the rest of your “shipmates”. But instead of retired bankers from
Boca Raton you eat meals with painters from Germany, sound designers from
Iceland, and sit-com creators from Los Angeles (and their entourage).
The only thing that differs from being on a cruise ship is
how busy you are at the Banff Centre – no one stops! As a musician, if you are not in the state of the art studio
recording, you are practicing in your very own rehearsal hut. These tiny cabins
are clustered together throughout the woods behind the Centre and accessible to
artists 24-hours of the day – so at any given point you can stroll through the
forest and hear a cellist doing scales, a piano player pounding away or the
sweet voice of Basia Bulat writing new material. Our hut is right next to hers
so we hear that lovely voice a lot.
Already in the span these past four days – Montreal band The
Witchies, and my band Analog Bell Service have each recorded and mixed a full
song each with producer Husky Höskulds.
Mark Hamilton of Woodpigeon has been keeping himself busy by writing a 30 verse
epic song, writing a tune that all four indie bands in residency can record
next week and recording and releasing new material on his website. In fact… by the time this blog post is
live Basia Bulat will have finished recording and mixing with the legendary
Steve Albini who just arrived.
Upon arriving Mr. Albini gave the entire Music Department,
which consists of the indie bands, studio technicians in training, and the
classical musicians, a two-hour talk about his philosophies on recording music.
It’s a philosophy which seems to permeate his whole existence from why he
charges every musician the same rate to record with him to why he doesn’t use
digital recording methods. Steve is also a very funny guy and at points drew
analogies about what it means to be a recording engineer that involved
gynecology, a grizzly bear in a dress, and tap shoes. I believe the Banff
Centre will be posting a video of the talk soon so keep an eye open on their
website.
That’s it for now but coming up… our session with Steve
Albini, everyone writing a recording new material with Hotel2Tango’s Howard
Bilerman, and our first gig in Banff.
