VIA THE WEB

Spent the last few days helping fellow producer/engineer George Vitray design his website. George's brother James, of the duo Nate & James, did the majority of the heavy lifting, but I contributed some artwork-album covers for Via Skyway records, some text writing and editting, a little photo doctoring here and there. The website is up and running, so check it out.

www.viaskyway.com

The site is definitely worth checking out (good work, James!) and contains mp3's of both of Via Skyway's records, which are about as well recorded as they get. Check out the song "Spider" from the first record, entitled "Record." (Now, is it "record" as in a piece of circular vinyl, or "record" as in that button on your VCR? Only George knows for sure, and he ain't saying...)

There are also tracks from other artists George has worked with, including Microdot, Fagen, Trickside, Nate & James, and (shameless plug) Brainshivers. It's a nice bit of variety, but it all has the Vitray sound, which is to say it sounds good. Like many artists, George gets a vision and sees it through, even if it means pissing you off from time to time. He forces us to play better, to sound better, and that's all that really matters in the end; we're talking about recordings made for other people, who don't care if you've never played the chord that way before or if you really just want another beer. A LOT of people make their records only for themselves, something akin to a vanity project, but George's records are meant to be listened to by others, and to still sound good 20 years from now. It's pretty rare, especially in these days of instant gratification and virtually non-existent budgets.

So visit his site, listen to the music, and (most importantly) book some time to work with him, if you happen to be a musician. I promise it'll sound good.