The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

[J Moose]

Right then. Somehow I got myself wrapped into this since Zerb was attacked by zombies and otherwise fell off the planet…

Gnarly.

A quick intro & background check… I’ve been playing guitar for geez, about 20 years now? Covered everything from big-band jazz to thrash metal but I love ‘rock’ and roots rock. There's currently 14 or so planks and 6 or 7 amps in the arsenal; ’73 strat & EJ; Lesters; Teles; Hamer superstrat with a Floyd; 5-string Melody Maker; modded JCM800; ’61 blonde Bandmaster head; an AC30 w/BlueBacks… almost three dozen pedals…

Then there’s the production thing. Recording. If I wasn’t doing that I’d probably be swinging a hammer or flipping burgers somewhere. I got into it full-time when I was 18… totally hooked. I dropped out of college and was interning at a studio that had/was hosting sessions with cats like Henry Rollins & White Zombie and even Luther Vandross, but that last one kinda sucked. I also learned a LOT from the producers who came through like Joe Baressi who’s since made records with Tool, Queens of the Stone Age & the Melvins… and Andy Wallace who’s mixed just about everything from Rage & Nirvana, System of a Down etc. There have also been a ton of hours logged in the brutal world of live production… mixing monitors for Living Colour, getting drunk with Dickey Betts & mixing a million bands that you've never heard of… good times.

I owned a commercial studio in East Rutherford NJ (9 miles from NYC) for several years and closed up shop in 2004 to "reset" myself after years of wedding band demos & even hosting informercials took their toll. These days I have a small mix room and do production work for original artists (mostly independent) & book studios for the big noise but have also been known to move a full-rig with $15,000 of microphones into a guest house.

Beyond that… I dig good beer & great vodka; sci-fi & horror movies; going a few hours with any of the Grand Theft Auto games and reading books. Currently have the "Slash" to get through after I finish the Dali Lama text I'm on now. I used to skateboard but haven't touched one in almost a dozen years. Been getting more into photography recently & yeah, even getting out of the cave to go hiking and enjoy that thing called the “outdoors” that I had heard so much about!

Let ‘er rip!

 

[Rainmaker]

Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

Thanks for the intro, J. No doubt you have a killer gig and countless stories to share!

Here are my questions... as with everything, you may choose not to answer.

Have you read Michael Stavrou's 'Mixing With Your Mind'? What's your take on it?

What are your two most embarrasing moments?

Do you still get the same highs from skating as compared to when you just started?

What's your favourite main course meal?

What's your favourite desert?​

 

[Hoss]

Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

how old of a guy are ya?

is vernon reid as awesome live as i think he would be!? he is the first guitar player that made me really "listen" to the guitar in music and start thinking about the music itself instead of just hearing it as something that's just on the radio and primarily listening to the vocals and lyrics...now don't get me wrong...once i was mesmerized by vernon...i listened even more intently to every part of the song/songs!

 

[Curly]

Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

what's your take on high tech vs. Old School recording gear & methods?

 

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

Tell us about the last time you felt truly, completely and utterly discouraged. How did you manage to get through it? Did you manage to get through it?

- Keith

 

[Tor]

Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

All right, time for my two favorite questions:

Can you name one single band or artist that you think is obligatory listening for us kiddies?

and

Can you elaborate on an experience you've gained in your lifetime, that you think others could benefit from hearing about too?

 

[J Moose]

Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

Thanks for the intro, J. No doubt you have a killer gig and countless stories to share!

Here are my questions... as with everything, you may choose not to answer.

Thank YOU!

I'm gonna try to answer all questiongs even if it's just a no comment 'cause I don't have an answer...

Have you read Michael Stavrou's 'Mixing With Your Mind'? What's your take on it?

What are your two most embarrasing moments?

Do you still get the same highs from skating as compared to when you just started?

What's your favourite main course meal?

What's your favourite desert?​

A) Nope. I haven't read the book. I firmly believe in the theory behind it though. You have to have it in your head to get it out. But like anything else there's also no substitute for experience... The studio is no different then learning how to play any other instrument.

B) Embarrassing moments... I knew this was coming! Can't say I've ever had one that I can share w/o violating the board policies (heh heh heh) but I've had a few awkward & strange ones... I'll come back to this when I have something good that isn't a novel.

C) I haven't touched a board in a long long while. Last time, or at least one of the last was right around when I graduated high school. I had already been accepted to music school and took a spill, couldn't play for a couple three weeks and decided that maybe it wasn't such a great idea to be a music major & skate... But yeah. I loved it. Never got old. Every once in a while I think about getting a deck again...

D) Fav meal? Hmmm... I'm a sucker for fried seafood and don't eat it all that often so I do enjoy it when I have it. Catfish, shrimp, alligator etc. Love good mexican food too. Anything spicy & hot. I've been known to send wings back because they weren't hot enough!

E) Not a big dessert or even a sugar guy. Shot of Jager and a coke? HAHA Seriously though, I almost never eat ice creme or candy. Maybe once a year I'll get a hot brownie sundae with the fudge & whipped creme. I do love the coke classic and the cherry coke... black cherry is great but I can almost never find it!


Keep 'em coming!

 

[J Moose]

Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

Ha ha , I guess the last well turned more into an audition than anything else.
So , you said that folks don't pick their own nicknames.So the story behind moose would be , (and if ya try saying the size o' your johnson we're gonna assume you can't spell mouse )

Moose... well... it's not a great story but so it goes...

Years & years ago when I was incorporating the studio I needed to have three names picked out in case the first had already been takin. I was really digging my first choic, and had a second but I didn't have a good third option. On the day I'm meeting with the lawyer to sign the deal I STILL didn't have a third name, so while driving to the attorneys office I called my long-time (now-long ex!) girlfriend and said I needed a name... ANYTHING?! She was throwing out stuff left and right and said "Mad Moose"...

Yeahhhhhh... Mad Moose Recording. Sold. #1 with a bullet. Beat the pants off whatever my first choice was. Probably something lame...

Anywhoo... having been on usenet & the interknot for a long time, and running that studio people came to know me as the "mooseman" or whatever. It was pretty well cemented when after shutting down the studio I took a gig at the infamous Mercenary Audio in Foxboro MA and my email address was moose@mercenary. They already had a Jay and having two Jay's was gonna be a problem... they were calling me Moose before I even got there.

Yeah.

Someday I'll have to create a better story for all that...

BTW... J. is short for Joseph. A whole other story... :sleeping:

 

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

Do you live in Massachusetts?

 

[B Bent]

Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

When are you going to sell me that bandmaster head?


SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[J Moose]

Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

how old of a guy are ya?

is vernon reid as awesome live as i think he would be!? he is the first guitar player that made me really "listen" to the guitar in music and start thinking about the music itself instead of just hearing it as something that's just on the radio and primarily listening to the vocals and lyrics...now don't get me wrong...once i was mesmerized by vernon...i listened even more intently to every part of the song/songs!

Gonna turn 30 this year!

Working with Living Colour was great... one of those surreal moments where I can't believe I actually get paid for this! I've been a fan since the first record & love Vernons energy & exploration of sounds. They're all great people, super nice. Killer hang. Demanding though... like any good artist. A four piece band that chews up 40 inputs on a mixing console... insane! Right around the time 'Stain' was released was the first time I played, and shortly after, bought a Hamer which I still own. Never got into the EMG's though... lol

I worked with them in 2004...they played several dates in the greater NYC area which is home-ground so they were (ahem) "traveling light". He was appearing in Crate ads but brought out his original Dual Rectos...run in stereo. Here's a couple shots...

Vernons pedal board ~ laptop rig not shown

Dougs board & laptop/midi rig... note the PV midibass interface!

Showtime! I love this first shot

 

[J Moose]

Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

Do you live in Massachusetts?

Not anymore! I don't think I could even live in the state of Taxachusetts at this point if I wanted to. Some issues with unpaid parking excise tax and screwed up insurance/registration with the RMV when I moved out of state... Long story that I still don't understand... It took 'em maybe two years to catch up and send me a letter saying that my registration had been revoked. Well, no ****! It had expired and been replaced long before that...

I live in NJ now, just outside of Morristown which is about 30 minutes from NYC.

When are you going to sell me that bandmaster head?

SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!

BUWHAHAHAHAHA




Never.




Christian has first dibs anyway.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

First, a joke....

Why do so many New Yorkers suffer from depression?

You'd be depressed too if the light at the end of the tunnel was New Jersey! LOL


Now for some gear questions. If you were forced to sell all of your guitar equipment on Ebay, then take that amount and re-buy a whole rig, which guitars/amps/FX would you buy with that money?

If you had a 200K budget to supply your own recording studio with your dream gear, which recording medium would you use, and which primary rack pieces and mics would be mandatory purchases?

 

[Rich_S]

Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

I live in NJ now...

WHAT EXIT?

Sorry. I'm from Philly, so I have to ask that. It's in the bylaws.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

Why do you always invent your own words for everything (Fools Tools, Interknot, Smackie, etc.)?

 

[J Moose]

Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

WHAT EXIT?

Sorry. I'm from Philly, so I have to ask that. It's in the bylaws.

Right! Truthfully... none. I'm not really anywhere near the parkway OR the turnpike! But I'm minutes from the intersection of Routes 287 and 80...

Why do you always invent your own words for everything (Fools Tools, Interknot, Smackie, etc.)?

Heheheheh Does that annoy you?! Rad. I enjoy the word play... seeing things in a different light & twisting them around a bit...

I have a deep hatred for Digidesign and ProTools... stems all the way back to the early days when the systems were REALLY unstable, would crash and tracks would randomly disappear. It didn't sound "great" then and it still doesn't sound great. ESPECIALLY not for what a Mix + or HD rig costs... and really NOT when compared to pro-format analog tape.

Speaking of costs... there's nothing quite like dropping $10k or $30k on a Toolz rig and several months later being offered $4k for the thing, or risk NOT upgrading and being left with an incompatible system. I bought PT Project, 8-tracks on a Quadra 800... two years later it was junk. Totally worthless. Not compatible with anything & worth barely even $200. So I turned it into "art". The mic stand mount isn't pictured...but I have that and a little hinge for the top lid.

I'm a pro... this my tool.

Interknot... Well... it IS sort of a knot isn't it? World Wide Waste of time?

Smackie... 'Cause you gotta smack yourself for using one! Another company that I've had nothing but horrible experiences with... both the products blowing up and the support, or lackthereof. I've got many, many a horror story about Smackie... not to mention the overall tone of the stuff is IMO, serviceable at best... but I'm a snot. Grew up with big Neve desks & Studer 2" tape machines... I Smackie sometimes, do you Smackie?


Right then... I gotta split until tomorrow. Session calls...

Until then... I just wanted to touch on this.

what's your take on high tech vs. Old School recording gear & methods?

I could easily yak about that for days on end... might be better to listen. At least for now... then you tell me what YOUR take is!

Solo'd drum track from Whole Lotta Love

Peace.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

I'm a pro... this my tool.

Ya know, thats one of the things that tells me Im gonna end up making atleast a few recordings with you one day J!

I love this attitude and sadly it's rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

I am so sickened by the sound of 99.8% of recordings today...so sick it makes me wanna throw up!

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

BTW...how was it working with/around Joe Baressi??

Also, must have been a blast working with Living Colour...I saw them on that tour and was blown away!

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

When are you going to sell me that bandmaster head?
SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!

BUWHAHAHAHAHA
Never.
Christian has first dibs anyway.

Thats right fool!

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: The Well ~ Lucky #13. Cavefish spills all

One last thing (for now...)

Why Cavefish???