SNL Weekend Update with your anchorman Ken Lewis
I turned on the TV long enough to catch Green Day rock out on SNL tonight. Gotta say, I've never been a huge Green Day fan, though always respected them (ANYONE who sells 5 million copies of one album gets my respect and then some), but let me tell you, when they performed live at the Grammy's (i was there) they rocked!!! I thought their performance was one of the highlights of the whole evening. This evening however, they were only a five minute work diversion.
The rest of today and tonight was mostly spent mixing, and though i just finished an all day mix, i'm gonna go do some last minute tweeks on another mix before i call it a night. There's just so much to work on around here. So, I had a great week of mixing with several awesome artists on Jive Records and Atlantic Records and some independent stuff too. This was an all pop rock kinda week mixing mostly full band stuff, live drums, bass, guitars, and even a song with the London Symphony Orchestra. I love mixing bands. Hell, who am i kidding, i love mixing just about anything under the sun. I think one of the things i like best is that the music is perpetually changing. One day i'll be mixing hip hop, the next pop, the next rock, the next something else. It keeps things very fresh and very creative, and when your working long days seven days a week, that is very crucial to avoid burnout. I feel exhausted, but not at all burned out. I've spent all weekend mixing and i'm looking forward to waking up Sunday and mixing some more.
I got five songs in this week to mix for CeCe Winans. I'm excited. I already mixed CeCe's first single on her new album (which i guess is what landed me this gig), and the stuff i got in this week, that i'll be mixing next week, is a live concert performance for DVD release. Kind of in the vein of a VH1 Storytellers thing. Its been a little while since i've mixed to picture. I've done it plenty in the past and its pretty fun. I'm really looking forward to those mixes. Next week I'm also mixing music to be used in a stage play. I wish i could be there to hear my mixes opening night, but the play is not (yet) in New York. Because i mix records so much, Its always fun to stretch to other mediums. I mixed the Boost Mobile cell phone commerical featuring Kanye West, Ludacris and The Game. You'd have to live under a rock not to have seen it, they've been running it for almost a year now on TV. That was a fun one. I've mixed a bunch of TV commercials in the past too, (Coke, Ford, Xerox, Infinity, Rasin Bran :-) but none other than the Boost commercial for a little while now. Working on jingles is like being in the eye of a hurricane. The calm in the center of a stress storm. I could never do it full time, but once a month is a blast. Ad Agency people and jingle house people all run at a stress level of plus 1,000. the Boost commerical was actually a full song mix that we edited down for a 60 second commercial, and a very low stress series of sessions. Most jingle mixes are like making a 60 second mini record in 2 hours, or usually less. You have to mix very fast and very well because millions of people might be "seeing" your work. Its great for your chops. I cope with stress very well, or better, i RARELY get stressed about much of anything. If you ever see me stressed or pissed off, you can believe there's an excellent reason for it. Lets face it, clients dont want to see or hear you stressed out. It makes them stressed out, and it makes them start to worry about their project being in your stressed out hands, which just adds.......yep...... more stress. I make records for a living, geeeezzzz, what is there to be stressed out over?
OK, i think my ears have gotten a good rest now from my last mix. time to go do touch ups on a Small Town Sleeper mix. A new song called "Car Crash" that will be on the new EP (coming soon!!!) and in their shopping package. Its an awesome song, which is part of the reason i'm inspired to finish it up at 4:24am on a Saturday night. Feels like 4 in the afternoon to me when i work on their stuff. (thats like mid morning to most people though i guess, so maybe it feels like 7 in the evening. Yeah, thats better). Anyway. I hope your week was as good as mine. Next week is gonna be an awesome week for me too. I'm really looking forward to it.
- Ken
The rest of today and tonight was mostly spent mixing, and though i just finished an all day mix, i'm gonna go do some last minute tweeks on another mix before i call it a night. There's just so much to work on around here. So, I had a great week of mixing with several awesome artists on Jive Records and Atlantic Records and some independent stuff too. This was an all pop rock kinda week mixing mostly full band stuff, live drums, bass, guitars, and even a song with the London Symphony Orchestra. I love mixing bands. Hell, who am i kidding, i love mixing just about anything under the sun. I think one of the things i like best is that the music is perpetually changing. One day i'll be mixing hip hop, the next pop, the next rock, the next something else. It keeps things very fresh and very creative, and when your working long days seven days a week, that is very crucial to avoid burnout. I feel exhausted, but not at all burned out. I've spent all weekend mixing and i'm looking forward to waking up Sunday and mixing some more.
I got five songs in this week to mix for CeCe Winans. I'm excited. I already mixed CeCe's first single on her new album (which i guess is what landed me this gig), and the stuff i got in this week, that i'll be mixing next week, is a live concert performance for DVD release. Kind of in the vein of a VH1 Storytellers thing. Its been a little while since i've mixed to picture. I've done it plenty in the past and its pretty fun. I'm really looking forward to those mixes. Next week I'm also mixing music to be used in a stage play. I wish i could be there to hear my mixes opening night, but the play is not (yet) in New York. Because i mix records so much, Its always fun to stretch to other mediums. I mixed the Boost Mobile cell phone commerical featuring Kanye West, Ludacris and The Game. You'd have to live under a rock not to have seen it, they've been running it for almost a year now on TV. That was a fun one. I've mixed a bunch of TV commercials in the past too, (Coke, Ford, Xerox, Infinity, Rasin Bran :-) but none other than the Boost commercial for a little while now. Working on jingles is like being in the eye of a hurricane. The calm in the center of a stress storm. I could never do it full time, but once a month is a blast. Ad Agency people and jingle house people all run at a stress level of plus 1,000. the Boost commerical was actually a full song mix that we edited down for a 60 second commercial, and a very low stress series of sessions. Most jingle mixes are like making a 60 second mini record in 2 hours, or usually less. You have to mix very fast and very well because millions of people might be "seeing" your work. Its great for your chops. I cope with stress very well, or better, i RARELY get stressed about much of anything. If you ever see me stressed or pissed off, you can believe there's an excellent reason for it. Lets face it, clients dont want to see or hear you stressed out. It makes them stressed out, and it makes them start to worry about their project being in your stressed out hands, which just adds.......yep...... more stress. I make records for a living, geeeezzzz, what is there to be stressed out over?
OK, i think my ears have gotten a good rest now from my last mix. time to go do touch ups on a Small Town Sleeper mix. A new song called "Car Crash" that will be on the new EP (coming soon!!!) and in their shopping package. Its an awesome song, which is part of the reason i'm inspired to finish it up at 4:24am on a Saturday night. Feels like 4 in the afternoon to me when i work on their stuff. (thats like mid morning to most people though i guess, so maybe it feels like 7 in the evening. Yeah, thats better). Anyway. I hope your week was as good as mine. Next week is gonna be an awesome week for me too. I'm really looking forward to it.
- Ken
posted by Protools Mixing at 3:27 AM
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