Memorabilia and Music Machines

Sonic Ranch has a lot of other cool memorabilia in addition to the all of the guitars, amps and soundboards!

Yup, those are authentic Beatles autographs! And you can get even closer…

Ian tracked some clean guitar parts in the large room in studio B. Every effort was made to chose the best amp, guitar, and room for each particular guitar part. Here’s a chain of a few amps:

Ian recorded some heavier distorted guitar tones, along with his guitar solos, next door in studio A, primarily with larger cabinet-style amps (seen below) instead of the classic combos shown above.

We are eagerly looking forward to releasing this music- we will announce a release date soon!

A bird’s eye view walk around the studio! Ian & Chivo explore some of the guitars, amps, and drums in the tracking room of Studio B. (Note: the amp mentioned was owned by Ministry, not Mudvayne)

That Motown Sound!

Work on our new music began in Studio B. Studio B’s control room, shown here, is equipped with a vintage console that was owned and used by Motown Studios in LA! The console looks into the drum and guitar room next door.

The original Motown console, up close and personal. To think of some of the legends that have played through this board before! (Lionel Richie, The Funk Brothers, Rick James-just to name a few). 

After drums were completed down below (see first post for pictures), Chivo recorded his bass from the control room here in Studio B.

Ian at the Motown console

Piano was also recorded in studio B, along with some of Ian’s first guitar parts.

More to come soon!

Creating in a Beautiful Place

Although we were working long hard days, there were some moments we got to take in the beauty of the 10,000 acre ranch we were recording at.

And here are some pictures I took on a bike ride one day across the ranch.

Our engineer Manny took us for a drive to the border of Mexico, where we stared in awe of the border fence. Couldn’t snap a picture there, my phone was going crazy claiming I had went to Mexico.

Evening was also beautiful at the Ranch. The air was fresh (and much warmer than WI no doubt!) and the moonlight silhouetted the treeline.

Cheers

Ian

Rock stars at the Ranch

Recording at Sonic Ranch was exciting for me & Chivo not only because of the vintage, historical gear there, but also because of the inspirational artists who come through to work at the studio. Maybe one of your favorite bands has recorded at Sonic Ranch-you can check out a list of artists here:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_Ranch

Chivo and I were happy to meet several of the members of Good Charlotte, who were busy recording in the next studio over. Benji in particular took interest in what we were doing in Ian & The Dream, and encouraged us to keep working hard.

Ian with Benji Madden of Good Charlotte

Chivo with Benji

Paul Leary of the Butthole Surfers was also working at the ranch along with engineer Stuart Sullivan. They were both very friendly and funny gentleman, and they worked on some of me and Chivo’s favorite records. We had breakfast with them some mornings before getting down to work, and they were kind enough to invite us to sit in and see them work their magic on a session.

We worked long days, usually 14 hours and only breaking for meals, so it was very rewarding to spend meal breaks with accomplished, inspiring artists. We are grateful to be working with a producer who is helping us get to where we want to be.

Stay tuned, more to come soon!

-Ian

Vintage & Classy Guitars

Sonic Ranch has the world’s largest guitar and amplifier collection. While we were working there, we got to try all kinds of guitars that were once owned or used by guitar legends.

This guitar was owned by Stevie Ray Vaughan, and it made its way on to several of the new songs we recorded!

Sparta also gave a guitar to the studio.

Ian picked through racks upon racks of guitars, trying them for different feel, tone, and other characteristics. Each guitar has a unique story behind it, and each one is extraordinary in some way, whether it was once owned by a guitar legend, or is one of a very limited quantity or rare model.

Just one of several racks Ian rummaged through!

Ultimately, several guitars were mixed together on every track. Instead of doubling parts with the same guitar, a guitar with complimentary features was chosen carefully to suit the mood and atmosphere of the song.

Stay tuned as we continue to share more about our recording experience at Sonic Ranch!

First Post

Thanks for checking out the Ian & The Dream blog! We set this up to keep you informed about some of the more interesting things we’re up to these days.

First of all, we have NEW MUSIC coming out soon! We were busy in December recording at Sonic Ranch studios, a beautiful facility just outside of El Paso, TX. We’re beginning to archive the recording process by posting pictures, video, and writing about our time there- so check back frequently to hear about all of the inspiring people, gear, and more that we got in touch with during our time there.

And of course, we’ll be keeping you updated about when this music (which we recorded with a grammy-award winning producer) will be released!

Here are some pictures from Day 1 in the studio: setting up drums, trying out instruments and acquainting ourselves with the wonders of Sonic Ranch studios.

We used about 40 microphones to record Ian’s drums!

Chivo smiles as he tries out a vintage bass guitar


More to come soon, please tell your friends to check back!