Behind the Scenes with the Walkmen
"The mixing room at Avast Recording in Seattle. Driving Phil Ek to insanity."
All comments by bassist Walter Martin.
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Pete on Piano
Image Credit: Charlie Schuck "Pete [Bauer] playing the piano he got for free on Craigslist and made the studio pay to have transported to the mixing room. It sounded like crap and smelled like a Dumpster."
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Mixing
Image Credit: Charlie Schuck "Mixing can get very boring, especially with someone like Phil Ek, who is so good at what he does that we really don't need to be there much."
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Hamilton on the Mic
Image Credit: Charlie Schuck "Hamilton [Leithauser] singing with his new '65 Martin acoustic. It sounds amazing."
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Warm-Up
Image Credit: Charlie Schuck "Here's Hamilton warming up before doing a lead vocal track. He usually sings at night, once his voice is warmed up."
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The Martin
Image Credit: Charlie Schuck "Here's a better shot of Hamilton's Martin. A beauty."
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Avast in Seattle
Image Credit: Charlie Schuck "Live singing at Avast. Basically, all of the singing was done at Avast in Seattle. Most of the music was tracked out of town at the big room at Bear Creek Studio."
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The Infamous Piano
Image Credit: Charlie Schuck "Here's the inside of the infamous piano we stuck Avast with. It actually made it onto a couple of our songs. It just smelled really disgusting."
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Instrument Junkies
Image Credit: Charlie Schuck "Walt and Matt [Barrick] playing recent acquisitions. We actually bought a lot of new instruments while we were recording – black Fifties Gretsch drums, black '66 Fender Precision bass, black '63 Fender Jaguar, Martin D-18 acoustic. We're instrument junkies."
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Pete Dancing
Image Credit: Charlie Schuck "I think we were playing Jerry Lee Lewis songs to get Pete to dance for the camera here."
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Studio A
Image Credit: Charlie Schuck "Paul [Maroon] at the grand piano in Studio A. He was working on some soundtrack music with Jay, the studio manager."
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Dressed to Impress
Image Credit: Charlie Schuck "Pete wore a suit every day of recording and mixing, and he has a pompadour haircut. He looks great. Someone at a show recently told him that his haircut was the best part of the show. They were right."
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Phil Ek
Image Credit: Charlie Schuck "There's Phil Ek. He's incredibly good at what he does. He played a big role in helping us make what we think is the best record we've ever made. Thanks, Phil!"
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Vintage Goods
Image Credit: Charlie Schuck "One of the few good cases we have. All of our really rare and valuable guitars and things usually travel in crappy cases and get broken. When we fly, we check 50-year-old amplifiers as luggage with no case or protection, just a luggage tag on the handle. We are incredibly cheap."
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’59 Rickenbacker Capri
Image Credit: Charlie Schuck "Paul's beloved, irreplaceable '59 Rickenbacker Capri. The neck is currently broken for the second time, because he's too cheap for a guitar stand. That's the Walkmen for you."