A handful of records I mastered each month, the ones that stuck with me. Some for the songs, some for the people behind them, some just because the mix hit right.
Jack Kays - Call It What You Want
Jack Kays' new album was recorded live at 38 North Studio in Falls Church, Virginia, all twelve songs in eight days. The vocals were tracked live too, with no overdubs, which is a feat worth noting. There's no acoustic guitar anywhere on it, a big change for a songwriter best known for his acoustic songs. Instead it's alternative rock leaning into pop-punk, with heavier, 90s-style doubled guitars and more upfront drums than ever before. Brandon Breazeale and Kays produced and Breazeale mixed. Sean Russell engineered, and capturing a sound this big live is no small thing, so big props to him. I didn't want to get in the way of these songs. The snare is the center point of the mix, and I left it right where it was.
Available on CD, vinyl, and digital. Get it here.
Maddie Ettrich - Mermaid
Bubble grunge is the genre here: pop melodies carried by heavily distorted guitars. Canadian-born, Nashville-based songwriter Maddie Ettrich wrote "Mermaid" with Jared Corder, who also produced and mixed it, and it was recorded at Polychrome Ranch with Kristofer Jedd assisting. It's self-released and getting rotation on Lightning 100 in Nashville. I've worked with Maddie since 2023, and it always comes back to the vocal, so I kept that the priority and made sure the guitars stayed focused, punchy and gooey.
Boris Uran - Iceflowers (PSI Music)
The Carinthia-based Austrian singer-songwriter Boris Uran introduces his album Close to Love with this piece for voice, guitar, and cello. Uran wrote it with guitarist Primus Sitter, a jazz player from Carinthia who also recorded it at Mary Got the Blues Studios, and Jana Thomaschütz plays cello. Ina Riegler made the cover art. The record is basically a trio, so everything is exposed. That, plus the unorthodox instrumentation, made it a very cool one to work on. My intern, Nick Butkiewicz, sequenced the masters.
You can buy the record on Bandcamp.
