A Brief History of Bird Cloud Recording - Interview with Ryan Wasoba
Bird Cloud Recording is the brain baby of engineer and former band dude Ryan Wasoba. The Edwardsville space sits atop a guitar store where Ryan is also a teacher in the heart of the down. The fully self renovated studio houses a massive live space, mixing room, alcoves and booths, a wooden Transformer of a drum room, and has produced countless releases from bands like LifeWithout, Foxing, and many other artists that are held dear to tons of folks around here. I was lucky enough to be invited down to check it out. After a tour of the facilities and shooting the shit I snagged an interview with Ryan and got pick his brain about Bird Cloud, his experiences in the music world, and what he has been generally up to:
How long have have you been here in the space?
I’ve been in this space for 3 years as of like five days ago. I started doing recordings under the Bird Cloud name in 2007 and this is the third location it’s been in. It started in the basement of the house I was living in at the time when I was in a band and like a “band dude”. We would practice there and I would record it and then just started recording other bands as well. And then moved it upstairs in my wife’s house at the time. But we got married so it’s our house now. The reason was that I was recording a band where a guy in the band had a conflict with the guy I was living with before, and that was a problem so I started moving the studio over before I actually lived there. I knew I was going to move it there eventually so it kind of worked out.
There was a moment just a little over three years ago, before I rented this space, where I was about ready to quit recording. I was doing freelance writing, teaching guitar lessons at the shop down stairs and recording and I was just getting really burnt out and knew I had to drop something. I was just like “I’m going to stop recording bands.” I was trying to become an engineer at a studio and that studio shut down so I kind of saw that as a sign. But then Mojo’s, the guitar shop where I teach, moved right downstairs and when they did that, this upstairs became available. The owner, Bob, offered to rent it to me and so I decided I had to do it. Me and my wife Megan actually came up here to look at it and we weren’t even excited, but when we saw the space and what we could do with it, it was just like “Uuuugh I guess we have to do this.” (Laughs) It was just too good to pass up.
So back in 2007 when you started recording for So Many Dynamos, was that basically your start?
Yeah pretty much. I’m not actually in that band anymore, but I’m still friends with everyone in it so I kind of have to tell that to people or else they’ll assume I’m still in it. We actually went and recorded an album with Chris Walla from Death Cab For Cutie. We went to his place in Portland while we were on tour in the time between him saying he wanted to do the album and actually recording it and he just lent me a bunch of gear to make demos. Then I used that gear to start recording other bands and here we are.
As far as the work that goes into keeping this place up, what’s sort of the extra work that you do with artists aside from just recording the music?
Well first off, the studio isn’t finished being built, so for now that basically means getting everything up and running and functional. That’s the one thing that has made it tough since the beginning, just trying to run the studio while also building it. When I have free time I try to change gears and work on the space itself, but luckily I haven’t had a lot of time for that, which means I’ve been busy.
At this point you’ve worked with a huge variety of different artists, so what is it typically like jumping into the studio with a new or different artist? How does it differ?
When I was doing your job and interviewing people I talked with this great jazz piano player who I admire named Vijay Iyer and he said something that always stuck with me; “Genres are a result of people's priorities.” That’s the way I try to approach it now. Say I have a more punk-oriented band like LifeWithout, or a band like The Gorge where it is so much about precision. I always just try to hone in on where their priorities are. Everyone is trying to accomplish the same thing which is essentially an enhanced version of what they do anyway so I try to figure out how to center in on that. And also figuring out what it is that should be emphasized and what should be downplayed about different things.
It’s weird because it doesn’t always feel different. It’s basically a form of problem solving mixed with documentation. Even though everyone is different, it really doesn't always feel that different. Some things are harder than others, but even the most rehearsed band ever can come in here and still play some wrong notes. More than anything it’s just attention to detail.
Making sure things don’t get overlooked?
Yeah and when you’re playing and doing your thing you might not catch something. It’s natural. I feel like a reason why people come to me is because I don’t want to make things too polished or too perfect. I don’t know if I necessarily could even do that, (Laughs) but trying to improve something without watering it down is definitely my priority.
Out of all of the albums you have recorded in this space, which ones stand out to you the most?
“The Albatross” by Foxing is the one just because at this point in my career, that is the single record that has gotten the most people to come to me. And that record has been easily heard by the most people so that’s really cool to know that I had any involvement on it whatsoever, producing it, playing on it. Even if I had recorded that album and just bailed and stopped recording, it would always stand out in my memory and in my heart. It was also a difficult record for me to make too and was actually one of the first ones at this spot. The Gorge record that I just finished up, “Thousand Year Fire” has been the only album that has been more intense to make than that Foxing record. That was a record where I felt that I had a lot to prove to make it. That was the first metal record I had really made and there’s sort of a demand in that. I don’t buy into the hyper-masculine attitude of metal, but at the same time I would have felt bad if I had made a weak sounding metal record, you know?
The third record I would pick is a jazz record called “All Night” by Matt Fillinger. That was a really great record because I just loved the players and loved the songs. That is one that I really am proud of. Bear Hive also, that was a great one. That was a long process and a real labor of love. It’s interesting because the majority of what I get now is more on the emo-y, punk-y side and that obviously comes from Foxing, but I still get jazz records. I also have a couple metal bands coming up which I feel are definitely a result of kind of proving myself with The Gorge.
So what would you say your ultimate goal is with Bird Cloud? My ultimate goal is to have more out of town clients and to be able to have the studio be more of a freelance thing. Right now it is very specific to my work flow to the point where if other engineers were to be around, it would be a little difficult. Just because right now I have a very specific way that I work relative to my own setup. It makes sense to be able to have a workflow that is more conventional to more people besides myself. That and getting more out of town clients. I worked with a band called Odd Dates from Michigan and that was just a great experience. They came down specifically to record with me, they weren't on their way to anywhere else. (Laughs)
Another band that came down is called Tera Melos and I knew them from when I was in So Many Dynamos, but they had a day off and I hadn’t seen them in years. We weren’t even super close, but I was just like “Hey, I got the space, you should come by and record a song and hang out.” And they did and it was awesome. They came in and worked up a cover of a Boris song and it ended up coming out on a 7”. That’s so cool because I’ve worked with other bands and what ends up happening is they’ll record a song and later end up changing the lyrics or something and can’t really use the recording.
Luca Torretta
BSTL
Check out more info on Bird Cloud Recording here and here.
