If I asked you to close your eyes and picture in your mind a band busy recording a new album, you’d probably imagine a group of musicians huddled together in a padded, windowless room looking into a control booth.
Out of the control booth someone is calling out directions to the musicians who pause periodically to share ideas and rework certain sections. Together they may play into the wee hours of the morning trying to perfect a song.
That’s how The Beatles did it, and The Rolling Stones, and everyone from Alabama to Metallica.
But what if the band members are spread across the country and busy with other jobs and family life? Often, when those intrusions creep in, it means the end of the band.
Luckily for local musician Jeff Schmidtke, his band, Shadow Brother, has managed to avoid that fate thanks to technological advances.
The creators of the psych pop stylings of Shadow Brother are Metairie native and current Uptown resident, Jeff Schmidtke, and brothers and Arkansas natives Toby and Jake Vest. Toby currently lives in Memphis and Jake in New York City. The three have been playing together since 2003 — Jeff and Toby met during college in Memphis and Jake later joined — and toured together from 2005 to 2008.
Their latest album, however, entitled “Delta of Time,” was completed without ever stepping foot in the same state.
“Toby owns and operates a studio now in what was formerly our old practice space,” Schmidtke says. “Things typically start there — he’ll come up with a sound and he’ll send it to me, then I’ll add my part in and then it goes to Jake and he’ll add stuff and then it goes back to Toby who mixes it at the studio.”
Schmidtke says this method of collaborating — made possible by the use of Pro Tools, an industry standard recording software — not only allows the members to avoid having to hop on a plane, it also gives them as much time as they want to think about the music and what they want to contribute.
“There’s no real timeline,” he says. “We don’t set deadlines. I may listen to something and take a week or so just playing with ideas before I add anything. It allows me to do something I love because I can do it when I have the time.”
Besides being a musician, Schmidtke holds a day job in sales for a U.S. coin wholesaler and renovates historic homes and rents them out around New Orleans with his wife, who recently had their second child. When he wants to play, Schmidtke steps into a little home studio off his home’s courtyard and gets to work.
Initially, the majority of songs on the album were recorded as acoustic and vocal takes over basic drum machine rhythms, with the idea of getting the “keeper” vocal in order to set the emotional mood of the songs. Through voice memos and mp3s, the band spent over a year trading ideas back and forth that ranged from a fully-formed song to a simple solo guitar.
“I think we’ve played together so much that we just know what the others like, what we’re looking for.”
“Delta of Time” will be released digitally on Feb. 14. At that time it will be available to stream on Spotify, Pandora, Amazon, Apple Music, iTunes, Google Play, Napster and Tidal for 99 cents a song and $9.99 for the full album. The album will also be available on the band’s website (shadowbrother.net). A cassette tape release has yet to be announced.
“I think this kind of thing is getting more and more common,” says Schmidtke about his band’s alternative recording methods.
“For us, there’s no end goal really other than just to be able to keep making music,” Schmidtke says. “It’s not about money or fame, it’s just about continuing to get our music out to as many people as we can.”
Kimberley Singletary is the managing editor of Biz New Orleans magazine. A 20-year Southern California veteran, she has been surrounded by the film industry for most of her life.
