1. What essentially is Wait! Rewind That, and who are the people behind it?
Chris:Wait! Rewind That is my brain child so to speak, I started it a few years ago when I decided I wanted to start studyingaudio engineering and music production. As of right now it’s just a name, it represents so much more of what I hope it becomes. When it comes to recording or running a studio especially with alot of todays music I just feel like it’s being done because it pays the bills…but I want to be able to not only make a living but keep the quality of the music I work on good. Music that makes you say Wait! Rewind That, I need to hear that again.
As of right now WRT consists of just myself and my close friend and fellow Audio Engineer student Johnny Ragin. Johnny Ragin is an audio engineer and producer and student at the Art Institute of Atlanta. He began his musical career playing piano at the age of eight and discovered guitar a few years later. Since then, he’s played guitar in several bands in Atlanta. He came to the Art Institute because he saw the potential to have a career shaping the face of new music.
2. When you two got started what were your plans for the future? Are they still the same now?
Honestly, the plan for the future is to just record and work on as many projects as possible no matter what it takes or where it takes us.
Chris: Right now, Johnny’s house is being turned into a make shift studio complete with drum room, vocal booth and a control room. It’s a lot of work and i’ve only seen the pictures but this weekend i’ll see it in person. But the end goal is to provide us a place to record without the use of the school’s facilities because no matter how much better the school’s equipment is eventually we graduate.
Johnny: I got in on the project after Chris had been working on it for a while, but I think our goal has always been to make great music with great artists and to do what we can to influence the music scene for the better and to really work with artists to make their songs great. I feel like there’s a lot of times that bands who are just starting out don’t really feel comfortable with the recording and production process and there’s very little that most engineers and producers do to help with that uncertainty; we’re all about getting to know the artists and getting them in on the production of their records from the recording process itself to mixing and mastering and distribution, we want to give ever artist a solid foundation to create something really amazing and to feel like the final product is really “theirs” and not like just another piece of mass produced, corporate garbage!
3. Johnny, tell us a little about the process in finding bands to record and/or produce.
Johnny: Our process for finding bands is really simple: we want to work with anybody with a passion for music and a dedication to their art. We’ve worked with every genre of music and no matter what, there’s always one trait that everyone who’s great shares and that’s a real love of music and wanting to do whatever it takes to make their music great and that’s where we come in and help them accomplish that goal.
5. When school finishes up for you guys will this project be over, or do you have plans for the future?
Chris: [laughs] That’s something that I know neither of us have actually talked about yet. We should be graduating around the same time so there is a high possibility that we continue it in some form where ever we go but again we’ll have to see where the next year takes us. If I had my way, i’d chose to open up shop with Johnny and have a studio anywhere we can get clients to come.
Johnny: I think it’ll keep going. It’s really nice to have access to some of the resources at school, but really, we’re not tied down to the school’s facilities or anything like that. We’ve recorded everywhere from million dollar studios to my basement and the results are great no matter what what. Plus I’m actually in the process of building a commercial studio right now, so when that’s finished it’ll be our ‘home base’ for recording and production.
6. What new projects can we keep our eyes on the look out for?
Chris: I know we are both working on things for Wait! Rewind That, yet doing them some what individually. I am mixing the Every Atlas album, which for what it’s worth is a crazy experiment that relys only on the internet and file transfers. It’s a complete bitch because it’d be so much more simple not to mention fun if we could have the artist with us. It would be better for the music too, however that’s just not a possibility this time and we are working hard to stretch the boundaries of what we can do with what we are provided.
We have about 5/8ths of a song with Ninety Four (http://www.myspace.com/ninetyfourband) recorded and we are all trying to sort out when we can finish based on our schedules but basically we had set up sessions and in the middle of all that there was a car accident that required the band to step away from the music and tend to real life. It’s a total bummer, right now it’s just on a hard drive collecting dust but as soon as we can we are planning on tracking the rest of it and getting it ready for the public.
We have a list of bands that we are emailing or waiting to hear back from for future recordings but nothing set in stone just yet.
Johnny: Yeah there are a lot of them! We’ve just started production on a new track for “Ninety Four” and it’s sounding amazing so definitely keep on the lookout for that! Plus we’re talking with some other well known Atlanta bands about doing production on their new material.
7. What are some new bands you can’t get enough of lately? And what are some others that you would recommend?
Chris: I cant stress it enough, everybody should go get the new record from NEEDTOBREATHE (http://www.myspace.com/needtobreathe) They are friends of mine and put on one of the most amazing live shows period. I’m also really digging the new Paramore, Serena Ryder (http://www.myspace.com/serenaryder) and Relient K. Plus my girlfriend has me hooked on Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus [laughs]
Johnny: Definitely NEEDTOBREATHE! Chris introduced me to them and we went to see them when they were in atlanta and they absolutely blew me away! They’re definitely a band to look out for. Also I just picked up the new Andrew Bird record ’Noble Beast’ and it’s just amazing, and also they’re not exactly new, but if you havent heard of the band “Pedestrian” you really need to check them out!
8. Chris, what’s your perspective on the music industry right now, are you just as bleak about it as everyone else?
Chris: The music industry is so crazy, I interned at Star 94 FM for about 6 months and it opened my eyes to so many things. I pretty much learned you can be 1 of 3 types of people. You either help make the music (Producer, Engineer) 2. Help sell the music (Record Representative) or you play the music for the public (DJ/Live Sound Crew).
Are sales down? definitely but that is their own fault. Especially when it comes to downloading, the got in the game way to late…sure they shut down Napster and sued people but they took to long to provide an alternative. Not to mention leaks, Album leaks tend to come from either the packaging plant or the inside…but rarely do fans provide the actual leaks.
9. Johnny, can you give any aspiring producers any advice about school or how to get started?
Johnny: Listen to as much music as you can get your hands on!! Pick out what you like about each song or part or whatever and then see how you can get that sound in to your music. It’s really easy to fall in to a routine and to keep making music that sounds the same, but if you just listen to a lot of music you’ll build up a repertoire of reference material so you can be like “you know, that really beefy, deep snare sound from the new Chevelle record would go perfect in this song!” and then you can sort of model your sound after that. On the other hand I’ve also found myself in situations where realize “wow….that snare sounds just like the one on the new Chevelle record….but this band isn’t going for that sound at all!” and then I can change whatever I need to to correct it. Really it’s all about knowing what sort of sound to look for while you’re recording and (for better or worse) knowing what people “expect” to hear from a certain genre or style. Then if you know what people expect, you can give them the unexpected, but in a way they like. And that’s what makes the hits!
10. How has your school helped you with studio space and time? Do you have them to thank for a lot of everything that’s going on?
Chris: Our school, The Art Institute of Atlanta has helped us a lot. They have really nice studios and although booking time can be a bit of a pain, if you have a pretty open availability you can do some damage on the books. We’ve had a lot of good times recording at the school and i’d still be in a public college studying paintings if it wasn’t for this place.
Johnny: The Art Institute is really great about giving us a lot of hands on experience. That’s been the biggest tool for me. Just getting to sit down in front of an amazing SSL mixing console every day and learning the whole board inside and out has been huge for me. It’s something that would have been very hard to do otherwise!
11. Thank you guys so much for your time, is there anything either one of you would like to add?
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Official Email | Chris’s Twitter | Johnny’s Twitter
