aRt of The StiKman
On Faun Fables:” Light of a Vaster Dark” : The Stikman plays Harmonica on two pieces : “Parade” and “Violet” he also consulted with the group helping set up their home Digital Audio Workstation. Much of ” Light of a Vaster Dark” was tracked at their home.
The Stikman also did the final mixes, filling in for lifelong friend, Dan Rathbun. “…the mixes, were fairly well along and mostly near completion. Having worked with Dan for nearly three decades I found it easy to understand where he was going with the mixes.” As the final mix engineer I began to level down and out some of my own playing in “Violet”. Dawn and Nils urged me to “leave it in”. ‘They were right.” Said The StiKman, “It sounds quite good.“ In the review at allmusic.com by Thom Jurek he describes “..the near pastoral dreamscape "Violet," with its lovely harmonica swells by The StiKman underscoring McCarthy's lyrics…” ‘Dawn and Nls had a vision that my harmonica would work in this context,” mused the StiKman, “Most folks wouldn’t cast a harmonica in this role. It presented to me, a unique opportunity and I’m very proud of the results.“
"Just Don't Make No Sense" from “Ghetto Gothic”
The StiKman played harmonica and co-produced and mixed the track: "Just Don't Make No Sense"
Bass player, Harley White Jr. had gotten a gig remixing a Melvin Van Peebles track. Harley asked me to help him produce the track. We received some stems containing perfunctory midi tracks and his lead vocal. We replaced the tracks with a real horns, etc. I added my harmonica, which plays the bus driver in the song’s story, similar to the way you hear a trumpet stand-in for adult voices on peanuts cartoons.
I mixed the track at San Francisco’s “Different Fur” on their nice SSL board. I brought the tracks up and tweaked for about 45 minutes and Melvin said “That’s it, that’s a wrap, let’s print it!” I had been expecting to mix for another couple hours. Melvin was boss. I was “done”.
I put this edit together recently as an exclusive for “The StiKman Sightings”.
