Droptone Studio

Samuel Crown “Dream My Way Up” EP

stephen — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:09:51 +0000

Samuel Crown has released a new E.P. “Dream My Way Up,” a collection of 5 songs recorded over the past year. Ranging from electronic, synth-based dance tunes to bare-bones acoustic ballads, Samuel Crown covers a lot of territory.

Toni Adedeji, whose stage name is Samuel Crown, got started recording at Droptone nearly a year ago. Toni plays piano and guitar and is featured on both instruments for this project. Toni is a strong musician and a great songwriter. I had a great time working with him. He brought a lot of great ideas to the studio and together we assembled an EP we both are very proud of.

We started by putting together the basic rhythm guitar track or piano track for each song. We then discussed the direction for each song and slowly pieced in missing elements. We were careful about every detail along the way: the key, the tempo, the right textures, the recording approach. Nothing went undiscussed to make sure every song got the full treatment.

For the drums, we hired Timothy Java to help us out. Tim is a fantastic session drummer and really added an amazing dynamic to these songs. While I did the original programming for all the drum songs, Tim was able to bring the songs to life and add a feel that only a professional drummer is capable of. Toni played piano and guitar in all songs and he invited his friend Joe Frappert for some lead guitar work on “Haunting Me” and “Above It All.” Joe’s lead guitar skills are solid and it was a pleasure to have him add so much color and intensity to those songs. I took care of the bass work and arranged and programmed the strings for “Fairy Tale.” Toni and I both contributed additional synth parts to “I Wish I Never Met You” and “Dream My Way Up.” Toni also invited the talented Ariel Strasser to sing harmonies on a few of his songs. Ari has a beautiful voice that blended well with Toni’s. Make sure to listen to their duet on “Above It All.” I’d also like to mention my intern, Drew Schmalz who helped greatly towards the end of this project with both arrangements and mixes.

To check out more on Samuel Crown, visit his facebook here.

If you’re enjoying the tunes playing right now, be a true music fan and PURCHASE THE MUSIC ON iTUNES.

The Sota Boys – “MistleFlow”

stephen — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 19:27:47 +0000

The Sota Boys are back to follow-up their album “Always Say Always” with a Christmas EP, “MistleFlow”. The EP consists of 5 songs, 4 of which are originals, and one of which is a Sota Boy twist on George Michael’s classic “Last Christmas”. The project includes featured vocals from Jarryd Haag, who has helped produce & write several Sota Boys instrumentals; The DL Show, who bring a uniquely heartfelt swagger to “Last Christmas”; and former American Idol contestant Nels Leafblad, who lends a powerful vocal to the choruses of “Christmas Forever”, “Coming Home”, and “The Christmas Jam”. Altogether, there is a spirit of celebration throughout the album; with plenty of fun Christmas cliches, coupled with moments of tenderness and emotion that bring it back to the real reason they celebrate (“The Reason”). The songs are really catchy and bring a unique flavor to the Christmas genre, and the boys once again had a blast recording it at Droptone. Check it out on iTunes here.

Visit the Sota Boys on Facebook.

The Sota Boys – “Always Say Always”

stephen — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:39:43 +0000

The Sota Boys are a local pop/hip-hop group managed by Droptone intern Drew Schmalz. The group consists of members Brent Haglund, Jesse Johnson, and BJ Skoog, with occasional features from some of their friends. This past summer, we had the privilege of producing their first full-length album, “Always Say Always”. This was their first project since their debut EP back in 2009, so the boys were excited to get to work. The goal of this album was variety. They wanted to stick to their signature sound of clean pop vocals mixed with energetic rap verses, but they also wanted to try some new twists on this project. The result was 13 catchy pop tracks that dip into several genres, including country (“Wanted”), dubstep (“Star Steppin’”), rock (“Spotlight”), dance (“Club Sota”) and more. They also tried to vary the subject matter, from love songs (“Synths I Met You”, “Heartbreaker”) to overcoming haters (“Phazers”) to just plain nonsense (“Do The Monster”). The Sota Boys try to give their all to their music without taking themselves too seriously, and Always Say Always does a good job of capturing this mindset. They had a blast in the studio during their sessions, and have since returned to follow up their album with an EP of original Christmas songs, “MistleFlow”, to be released 12/1/11. They plan to keep writing new music while promoting themselves more and more locally, and hope to continue working with Droptone on future projects. Check out a few of their videos below and make sure to head over to iTunes and pick up your copy today.

The Sota Boys on Facebook

The Sota Boys on iTunes

Vision The Kid – Lost Summer

stephen — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:05:22 +0000

Over the last several months we’ve been fortunate enough to track and mix Vision The Kid’s upcoming album “Lost Summer”. Together with Producer Ryan Tru Truax, making this album has been an amazingly eclectic adventure. Our pristine signal chain met its match with Vision’s lyrics and incredibly syncopated delivery. A master of minimal takes, his gift to rip through verses made the whole recording experience feel more like having a box seat in the front row of a concert. We our very proud of this album for its content, sound, and the talent these guys showcased in our studio. The release party and performance is tonight at Honey. Come down and celebrate with Vision, Tru, Droptone and all the fans.

But first, download your album here. Visit Vision The Kid’s webiste.

Watch Vision’s first music video/single off the Lost Summer album:

Check out this funny promotional video shot at Droptone:

Nikki records debut with Droptone

stephen — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 18:33:52 +0000

New artist Nikki (Nicole Rodriguez) recorded her first 3 singles at Droptone Studio over the last few months. All 3 songs were a collaboration between Nikki and I. Nikki supplied the lyrics and I layed down the tracks. Nikki was fantastic to work with and made huge strides in her musical abilities.
Nikki is currently working with Oryon Media Artists in Minneapolis. She has recorded a still unreleased music video for her song “Space.” It was a pleasure working with Nikki – she gave me lots of artistic freedom to create songs that I thought would work for her, but also contributed many ideas. I truly believe we capitalized on her talents, but I look forward to seeing how far Nikki will progress in the near future. Keep your eyes and ears open for this new and upcoming artist.

For more information about Nikki, check out her Myspace.

Parallax Records 2nd Live Album at Droptone – “Nice 2″

stephen — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 22:21:48 +0000

Parallax made their way back to Droptone in early August to record their second live album, “Nice 2.” This project is a collaboration among some of the state’s finest artists including Big Zach (of Kanser), St Paul Slim, Jellyfish and Corey (of More Than Lights), Colin Hodges (of Know Breaks), Mario Morales (of Los Nativos), DJ Gabe Garcia, Rellium Prime, and Sean Anonymous (of Wide Eyes), and Alicia Steele. Parallax released “Nice 2″ on October 1st, at the Cabooze. Give your ears a treat and listen to some fine Minnesota music.

Parallax invited a handful of their closest friends out for the day to help them make this second album. We packed everyone in, got the gear set-up, and started tracking. Parallax was fantastic to work with and everything ran smoothly all day. We highly encourage you to check out Parallax’s website for more info.

*Nice 2 was recorded at Droptone Studio by David Kellogg, Stephen Helvig, and Bryan Mengy. It was then mixed by Bryan Mengy at AudiOrganics, and mastered by Greg Reierson at Rare Form Mastering.

Big thanks to sound engineer Bryan Mengy for his contribution to this project.

Wanna know more about the guests? Click below.

Corby Pelto releases new album “Merry-Go-Round”

stephen — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 06:21:16 +0000

The summer of 2010 has come and gone, but on September 1st one full length album remained. Corby Pelto recorded his debut album “Merry-Go-Round” over the last 3 months here at Droptone and it’s out now. corbypeltomusic.com

Corby is a new artist and is clearly devoted to his craft. His songwriting skills are well developed and his musicality is not afraid to roam. He’s never short of ideas and is quick with words. I sincerely hope that this album is the beginning to many more.

Corby brought his song ideas to me and let me run wild with them. He had basic recordings of melodic ideas over a simple one-note progression with lyrics. From the start I really liked Corby’s songwriting and it was a pleasure to work with him on his songs. Corby was very open to my ideas and allowed for my all of creative input. Together we mapped out the songs and developed scratch tracks to use as framework to begin recording.

I started by hiring Jeremy Anderson as a session drummer. He’s a fantastic drummer. Always prepared and fun to work with, Jeremy got this album off to a great start. Once drums were in place, I used the next several weeks to record rhythm guitar and bass parts, program piano and string sections, try out vocal harmonies, and experiment with overall song arrangements. After those elements were done, we hired a few more musicians to add their touch.

Joe Savage contributed pedal steel to two tracks. Check out “Minnesota Road” above and you’ll understand how incredibly talented Joe Savage is. To hear more of Savage’s work, check out “I’ll Take You There” on iTunes.

After tracking Corby’s lead vocals and my background vocals, I had Dax Young provide extra harmony on “Avalon.” Adam Teeter also contributed lead guitar to the song “I’m on Fire.”

This project had notable contribution from our studio intern, Nick Schmidt. Nick was integral to the rhythm guitar tracking and also wrote and performed a bass line for “Avalon.” He helped track drums, edit vocals, and aided with other miscellaneous tasks.

Corby is currently promoting and marketing “Merry-Go-Round.” For more information about Corby and this project, you can visit his website. If you’re still listening to the music up above, then I highly suggest purchasing a copy on iTunes, or picking up a hard copy on his website.

New reggae vibes continue at Droptone with Mukama Morandi

stephen — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:12:03 +0000

We just just finished a killer one drop track “Turn Back Time” for African based lyricist and singer Mukama Morandi. He had a great time performing his first studio vocal session and the track came out really strong. We are just starting to work on his second track. The song caught the ear of L.A based video directer/producer Corrin Hodgson, who invited Mukama out for a video session. After seeing Mukama’s performance in this video, we think he may need to seriously consider a career in acting.

New mixes for grunge-pop band LICKER.

stephen — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 07:16:04 +0000

Chicago based songwriter, Gordon Vanguard and his grunge-pop band Licker recently did some mix work at Droptone. The band recorded a handful of new songs a few months back at local recording school, IPR. With bare mixes in hand, they asked me to polish them up. I really enjoyed working on Gordon’s songs, and I know you’ll enjoy listening to them. After a bit more editing than planned, Gordon and I dug into the tunes and started mixing. We spent 2 days in the studio equalizing, compressing, tuning, limiting, balancing, and adding reverb, delays, and other effects. Although I wish I had the opportunity to record this band myself and spend more time with the mixes, I’m very proud of how far these tracks came along. Take a listen to the tracks below and I’m sure you’ll be rockin right out of your chair before you know it.

If you’d like to hear more or join the ranks of fandom, check out http://www.listentolicker.com

Dancer/Model Dani Gassmann chooses Droptone for first single.

stephen — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 02:25:09 +0000

Dancer and model, Dani Gassmann has just released her single, “Can’t Take It Anymore” on iTunes.

Dani came to Droptone with a notebook full of lyrics and a few melodies in her head, but wasn’t sure where to start with her first song. After talking about a stylistic direction, Dani and I dug in and started getting creative. Before we knew it, we had a rough sketch of a song. We met again soon after and continued to mold the tune into something better and better. Once we were both satisfied with the chord progression, melody, and lyrics, I got to work on the music.

I started with a piano-only version of the song. This gave Dani something to practice with for a few weeks. During that time, I experimented with drums, piano, bass, and guitar. After deciding on tempo and key, I started recording all the elements. Once my parts were in, I asked my partner in crime, David Kellogg, to play additional guitars on the track. Dave added an amazing dynamic to the song and we were ready to add Dani.

Dani’s first vocal session on the mic was painless. She has great natural ability and is quickly developing her vocal skill. After Dani’s vocal was added, I sung a supportive harmony and finished the mix. Greg Reierson polished the track with a great mastering job at his studio, Rare Form Mastering.

Listen to Can’t Take It Anymore below:

To contact Dani or to learn more about her career, check out her website.