How I found my producer:

About two years ago, after finishing up summer touring for my 2nd album, I started looking for a producer for the next one. I wanted my 3rd album to be something incredibly professional. Over the next 18 months, I met and worked a number of producers, flew around the country meeting with them and doing demo songs. However, with each producer, we'd work together for a short while then realize we had different visions of what the album would sound like I spent a few months in Nashville writing and doing songwriting events last fall, then again this past spring. I met with a few more producers and was starting to feel like, I really needed to just get it done and that maybe it didn't matter so much if I had an exact fit. I met with three people and the last producer I met at 8am before I left. I walked into his studio and it was like "ahhhh." The studio was very artsy and the producer, Mitch, was perfect. Soft-spoken, great musician, experienced, professional, artistic, and within my price range (at least for an EP). I had only met with him for 20 minutes and I said, "Let's do it," and we picked a date. It was only on my long drive that afternoon, I was like, "OMG. What did I just do??". I had only met him for half an hour and I didn't know anything about him. That was in April of '09 and we set the dates for June '09.

 

Funding The Album:

While I live an interesting life, it is very much feast or famine, and hand to mouth. The album total came out to be around $13,000 after all was the production and fees were paid. I did not have that much, so I teamed up with a nonprofit organization called Fractured Altas and they sponsored my project, enabling me to launch a sponsorship campaign where the donations were tax-deductible for my sponsors. My goal was to raise $10,000. I didn't quite make it, but I did reach $9,650 which covered a majority of expenses. It was quite an undertaking. Not only is it not easy asking for money, there was a ton of paperwork. If you would like to read more about the campaign, visit www.bilscomusic.com.

 

Choosing songs for the album:

I had spent the last two years writing so i had more than enough songs for the EP. I spent from April to June before recording, emailing Mitch songs and nixing dozens of them I liked but didn't love. I emailed my fan base and had them rate the songs they liked best. In addition to the ones finished, there were a handful that I had started by not finished. Although I'd really wanted to finish them, I didn't have enough time. So I spent the two months, working on my existing songs and getting ready to record.

 

Finding a Place in Nashville While Recording:

Normally when I've spent time in Nashville, I've spent the weeks or months with friends that have an extra bedroom or couch. I have been really lucky to have friends like these, but this time I wanted a place where I wasn't a guest. So I started looking one of my favorite websites, Craig's List. I put an ad and said what I was looking for and got 5-6 responses. I ended up renting a room in an adorable house in Green Hills. I stayed with a woman who was very wholistic, energentic, would went dancing all the time, and took me on a few occasions. It was absolutely perfect.

 

In the Studio Recording:

This was the first time that I'd worked with a seasoned producer and there were some big differences. We recorded for a little over two weeks and then mixed a bit after that. In the past, I've been in the studio with engineers that have spent a lot of time troubleshooting their equipment and frankly, it is a signal that they don't quite have a handle on producing. With Mitch, there were very few times where the gear and tecnology took time away from recording. If I didn't like an vocal effect or riff, he always had another option and knew right where it was on the program. He had a ton of gear, but when you work with a lot of people, you start to realize it's not what fancy gear you have, but how you use it. You also end up learning probably about yourself than the process in a situation like this. For instance, I am incredibly picky. I kind of knew I was picky, but after this experience, I KNOW I'm picky. With a different producer, he/she might have gotten annoyed or exasperated by that, but Mitch was always cool and easy going. A lot of times, things that bothered me didn't bother him (he's a naturalist), but he was always like, "sure I'll change it"-not all producers are like that. Not all people are like that. I've worked with a lot of people who say stop working at "it's good enough." I'm not like that and thankfully he wasn't either.

 

Click for some Videos from The Studio

Click for some Candid Photos from the Album shoot