MARCH 30th, 2018
What’s it take to make an album?
In this interview, Jay Mamana tells us about the nearly 2-year journey of the making of his self-produced record “Nothing New in the West,” which comes out this summer 2018.
How long have you been working on this album?
The idea to pursue recording records as a thing to do got in my head when I was a senior in college. The first record I ever made was when I was a freshman in college, actually. So, I’ve been [recording] for a while, but this particular one started summer 2016.
As a self-recordist, what was the process like?
When I first started recording with the intention of making a record, I was basically in a little attic room in Providence, recording into a cell phone. I had no contacts, no studio, no equipment, very few resources to devote to it. All the equipment that I purchased to make the record I ended up selling to pay for mixing and mastering. So, I had no resources and no expectations except that I wanted to make a record.
Where did you record the album?
The piano, vocals, and some of the guitar were recorded in a studio. I ended up meeting an engineer, Seth Manchester, who works at “Machines with Magnets,” a recording studio, art gallery, and music venue in Pawtucket. Strings were recorded in a Bushwick basement in Brooklyn, NY. But the horns, woodwinds, bass, and maybe half of the guitars were recorded in my home studio.
How did you keep a consistent sound quality when recording in so many different places with different acoustics?
Part of the challenge was going into it knowing that it would end up being a collage-y thing. Everything was recorded individually and then overdubbed and mixed together. Were I advising somebody to do something like this, I would recommend that they use their ears to make sure that what they’re recording doesn’t assume the quality of the room. I think it’s important to treat your room with bass traps or Persian rugs or whatever in order to have the rooms acoustically similar.
What guitars do you play on this album?
I used 3 guitars primarily. One was a 1962 Gibson LG1, a student model from the 1960s, famously played by early Rockabilly musicians. And then I used a hollow-body electric guitar, an Epiphone Elitist Casino. And then a 1965 Guild Mark 2, a nylon string classical guitar, which is one I’ve had forever. That’s the guitar on which I wrote most of the songs.
Anything else that you want to add?
I think that people who are self-recordists have a tendency to focus too much on the gear they’re purchasing and the brand names. If you read magazines, they’ll tell you what mics to buy, what equipment you need, stuff like that. But it’s really not about what you can afford. It’s much more about your desire to do it and your ideas and your musicality. That’s much more important.