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Right By Midnight – In The Studio

The control room at The Gallery

It’s a cold winter weekend in January, the Glebe area hustling and bustling with afternoon shoppers. Tucked away from it in the basement of the Gallery Recording Studio, Kris Ward and Charles Downey are setting up guitar amps while engineer Dean Watson is running cables and placing mics. Ward greets me at the door, and leads me into the serene chaos that is the control room of the Gallery. It’s a tangle of cables, instruments, nic-nacs, CDs, and cold war era equipment running side by side with units that look like they’ve been borrowed from NASA. This is the typical studio environment, and as a musician it’s easy to feel the creativity oozing from every item. There’s a song playing on the speakers, with some brand new drum parts that were nailed just the day before. “We got three drum tracks done yesterday, one take each!” says Ward, who’s understandably happy with the progress they’ve been making. The song is thick and rich, a simple arrangement spiced tastefully with layers of delayed guitars and vocals. The next song is a full turn from the easy going and sleepy pace of the former; a full on rock song complete with huge riffs and hammering bass lines. Comprised of Ottawa music scene veteran Kris Ward on guitar and vocals with Charles Downey and Joey Patrois on guitar and bass, respectively, Right By Midnight is a brand new band. They formed last fall and decided to take a slightly different path than most bands by recording a full length album before ever hitting the stage together. I went down to the studio to catch a preview of what they were working on and ask them a few questions.

KW – Kris Ward (vocals, guitar, keys)
CD – Charles Downey (guitar, vocals, keys)
JP – Joey Patrois (bass, vocals)

Patrois and Downey at rehearsal

How did you guys prepare to record the album? Was it difficult to form a band and jump straight into the studio?

CD – No, it’s really been quite a simple process for the songwriting, at least in my opinion. Jumping in the studio I think builds character and a sort of teamwork attitude for the band, also we can get all the little issues about parts and harmonies sorted out right away.

KW – Personally I found it easier to jump into the studio right away. There was no being bogged down with shows or anything. We were able to take our time and focus more on writing the songs and coming up with good parts that we were happy with.

You’ve taken a slightly untraditional route and decided to record a full length album before playing any shows. What made you decide that this was the best way to go about it?

JP- Every other band I’ve been in has put off recording which makes playing out almost useless. If there is no music to promote or show then you are selling yourself short. Its really cool to be able to make a good record first then see where it can take us.

KW – In any band I’ve ever been in, or started up, it’s always started the same way and this time around I discussed with Charles about how I would like to break that pattern. Usually what happens is: a bunch of guys get together in a room, write some tunes that probably aren’t their best, rush a live set together, hit a stage with no tangible product to sell people, and play to empty bars. There’s nothing memorable about doing that. You can’t leave any sort of impression on the listener by just rushing things together too soon. My belief is that songs need to be nurtured and built properly from the ground up. In this case, we really took our time writing what we feel are great songs. We’ve done some acoustic shows to start getting the name out there a bit and now we’re focusing entirely on the recording process, without having to worry about rehearsing our live set.

What is the difference between your approach to writing and recording coming from various backgrounds?

JP- I’ve been writing music for as long as I can remember and I’ve written with a lot of different people. I like the fact that with this group we all have a mature and easy-going attitude towards writing. Personally I write very different than Kris and Charles but I think the music evolves and grows from that.

CD – I took guitar lessons for a long time and while I learned a lot, I think it may have impacted my creativity. Kris on the other hand is self taught and I believe it gives him the ability to write in unorthodox and very interesting ways. That and he’s just good at writing songs. But when teamed with my textbook-ish approach to riffs and writing, plus Joey’s country attitude and considerable homegrown skill, we’re a pretty damn good combination.

KW – I think each album presents it’s own challenges regardless of experience. Each time you lay the groundwork for a new recording of some kind you have to be ready for whatever comes your way. In this case, what I like is the enthusiasm that Charles and Joey bring to the project. I’ve been writing and recording with various projects for over 10 years now and I will be the first to admit that sometimes I can get a little jaded and frustrated. But it’s nice to have some young, fresh, eager blood in the band and just when I’m at my worst, Joey and Charles will kick me in the ass and get me going again.

Ward tracking rhythm guitar

Describe the writing process for the songs on the album.

KW – I think the writing for this album kind of happened in 3 big steps. As alluded to earlier, Charles and I began initially writing in and around August. Our first couple of sessions actually yielded about 8-10 songs. We threw a bunch of those out after our first acoustic show and kept maybe 4 of them, songs like Sound the Alarm and Ocean, which will both be on the record.

CD – Drinking, playing guitar, and singing out of key at various locations in the Ottawa valley…Magic.

What made you decide to record the album with Dean Watson at the Gallery? What does he bring to the table as producer/engineer that you find appealing?

KW – I’ve worked with Dean on a few projects now and I really like his laid back attitude. He’s very easy to work with and he’s not afraid to jump in with advice and suggestions as well. He acts as a mediator and devil’s advocate when you need him to, but he’s also got a great sense of humour which helps keep the vibe in the studio light and easy going. He’s also a great musician and I think that’s his biggest asset. He’s been there before, he’s got a great knowledge of theory and can really help you out of a jam musically. He knows his stuff.

CD – The whole recording experience so far has been an absolute blast for me.  It’s way more entertaining than I expected, and Dean is great at helping us, especially me get our parts down perfectly.  Also, he puts up with my bullshit, and one time he bought me coffee and a brownie, so I would whole-heartedly recommend him.

When will the album be done and how many songs will it include?

KW – We’re hoping to have the album done by May 2010 and it’s slated to have 12 songs.

What do you plan on doing when the album is finished?

KW – We’re hoping to play a lot of shows throughout the summer culminating in a tour of some kind for the fall. We’ll also be working with a local publicist too so we’re hoping to get our name out there quite a bit.

CD – Going on the fall tour, living in a van, not showering

JP – Tour!

The boys have been kind enough to post a preview or the album on their myspace page, and I highly suggest you check it out. They’ve got an acoustic show planned for February 27th at the Avant Garde Bar.

You can follow them on Twitter for regular studio updates or check out their Facebook group.

Article by Mark Laforest

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