Building Your Band

A better conversation about music, with David Loftis and Peter Bulanow

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Trent Walker | Experts in Photoshop

February 15, 2016 By Pete Bulanow

Trent Walker talks to us about stepping out in faith- leaving a perfectly good job as a church worship leader to take the show on the road with his wife, Siobhan, and their five kids.

Obviously passionate about the mission of the Church, Trent challenges us in simple but direct ways with profound implications: to put away the music stands and play to a click and in order to better engage with the congregation in our times of worship.

To learn more about Trent or book him for your church, visit Trent and Siobhan or go to Facebook.

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Consulting, Season2, Specialization

Gavin Morris | Never Really Said Anything

January 25, 2016 By Pete Bulanow

Gavin MorrisAs the frontman and lead songwriter of Break The Fall, Gavin walks us through the process of creating their latest EP “The Wanderers“. From the preproduction writing, to choosing a producer, to packing up a van and driving eight hours to Nashville to record, it’s fantastic to hear the intentionality behind their creation.

Break The Fall: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Reverb Nation | Youtube | iTunes | Amazon

Produced by Lester Estelle II Website | Facebook | Twitter | Wikipedia

Mixed and Mastered by Robert Venable: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Wikipedia

Brandon‘s Cassette Preview/Teaser:

Song writers, musicians, band leaders, worship team members etc. . . Look at what instruments you have to work with on your team. Your guitar player doesn’t always have to play all the time, every song, start to finish. There doesn’t always have to be a lead guitar player noodling lead lines and melody riffs. Learn to tell them to lay out a section (Guitarists-learn to be ok with not playing and being told to lay out from time to time, it will make what you DO play sound more important.) Use every instrument on stage to build some diversity in your songs. And start finding new instruments to use to freshen things up. You have options; start experimenting on how to utilize your team members and not just one instrument. Also, dynamics still matter. Learn how soft and full you can really play and actually utilize it when the show/service/performance starts. Retention matters.
Posted by Gavin Morris

Kings Kaleidoscope (iTunes | Amazon) has Trombone in it!

For King and Country (iTunes | Amazon) ha Horn Players!

Who else should we know about who uses non-traditional instruments? Please post in the comments!

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: BreakTheFall, Drums, Inspiration, LessisMore, Nashville, Production, Recording, Season2, Simplicity

Steven Kristopher | 40th Birthday Gift

December 10, 2015 By Pete Bulanow

With Abandon CD CoverSteven Krisopher shares what was behind his most recent project, With Abandon, (edit: released December 15th, 2015). With sixty minutes of music in ten songs, he talks about how his desire for this project was to let the songs breathe.

Primarily a pianist, Steven wrote this project on the acoustic guitar and did a textbook rock keyboard/piano treatment, after programming the drums and bass himself. Lots of vocal tracks unite the songs, sung by him and four other vocalists (one of which we talk about in particular). He then mixed and mastered the album, and edited the official video.

Keep up with him at his website: StevenKristopher.com, and follow him at Twitter and on Facebook.

Check out his music on iTunes and Bandcamp – and “With Abandon” is out!

Find this podcast on iTunes or Stitcher and subscribe. If you enjoyed this episode, please support this podcast with a rating and comment.

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Album, Drum Programming, Keyboards, Old School, Piano, Production, Season2, Songwriter

John B Stanley | The Language of Heaven

September 28, 2015 By Pete Bulanow

John B Stanley

John B Stanley (Twitter, Reverb Nation, iTunes) challenges us to do better music in our services and gives us the behind-the-scenes story of his “Drum Spectacular”.

Also check out his post on this in Modern Drummer.

Along the way we discuss his influences, most especially Lee Ritenour (Wiki, iTunes, Amazon) with Omar Hakim (Wiki, iTunes), and Hans Zimmer (Wiki, iTunes, Amazon).

Without further ado – scored and produced by John B Stanley:

Find this podcast on iTunes or Stitcher.

edit: “O Holy Night” has been released on iTunes!

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Drums, Instrumental, Musicianship, Production, Season2

Dave Tauler – Not Enough Bassoon Gigs

August 17, 2015 By Pete Bulanow

Youtube | Facebook | Twitter

Dave Tauler: Youtube | Facebook | Twitter

In this podcast episode, Dave talks to us about how playing wind instruments informs the way he approaches singing and composition, and warns us about how solo instruments can conflict with vocals. He then gives us his formula for using these instruments in a band setting, describing not only where to play but where not to play.

Along the way, we discuss the difference between Handel’s Messiah, Watermusic, and Fireworksmusic, as well as the difference between Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and his St John Passion, and Dave gives a big shout out to the Bach Collegium Japan (Amazon | iTunes) version of the latter.

If you’ve ever wondered about how to incorporate note-readers into the (chart or ear-based) worship setting, this podcast is for you, as Dave gives practical steps toward this and points us toward the free notation software MuseScore 2.0.

Connect with Dave Tauler on Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter.

Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes & Stitcher

 

Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Brass, Production, Scoring, Season2, ServingtheSong, SoloInstruments, Story, Vocals, Woodwinds

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