Los Angeles, CA (August 10, 2023)—A Bad Think, a musical project led by Grammy-nominated artist Michael Marquart, recently released Short Street, its eleventh studio album, which was once again co-produced by Marquart and engineer Dave Way and mixed in stereo and Dolby Atmos by Bob Clearmountain.
To kick off the production process of any new album, Marquart begins with bare-bones demos, which he shares with Way, his longtime, multi-Grammy-winning collaborator. They also review older material to bring out existing gems or uncover new ideas for those tunes. After selecting which songs to focus on, they start building the tracks.
Tracking took place at Marquart’s private studio spaces in Virginia Beach, VA, with an API analog console, and in Malibu, CA, with a vintage Neve console. But one common element was the vocal chain. “I have the same 1073 Neve mic pre, Telefunken ELA M 250E microphone and an old vintage LA-2A,” Marquart says. “That’s what I’ve used for my vocal chain on the last few albums, and I make it identical in both locations so there is no variation in sonic character.”
Principal contributors included Matt Chamberlain on drums, Dan Rothchild on bass, Kirk Hellie on guitars and Phil Shenale on keys (all returning from previous projects), along with others. Additional overdub sessions took place at Way’s Waystation Studio in Laurel Canyon, including with guitarist Greg Leisz, who provided both lead and pedal steel parts.
Dave Way and Bob Clearmountain Talk A Bad Think’s X
Multi-platinum award-winning mix engineer Bob Clearmountain mixed the album — his fifth full-length project with Marquart — in stereo and Dolby Atmos. Clearmountain explains that he starts with the stereo mix, working on the Atmos mix as a parallel process.
“I am able to work from the routing buses on my SSL desk; I have a whole group of them that I use for the Atmos channel assignment, so I’m basically able to accomplish that while I’m doing the stereo,” Clearmountain says.
“Once I get a pretty good sounding stereo mix going, then I switch my monitors over on my Apogee Symphony I/O MkII and I start listening in Atmos and then refining it,” he continues. “Just like the last record, I started with Matt Chamberlain’s drum tracks in a stereo mix, and then moved on to Atmos, taking other elements like ambient room mics and putting them in the back or overheads. Michael’s music really works well in the immersive format.”
Short Street was mastered in stereo by multi-Grammy-winner Bob Ludwig and mastered for Dolby Atmos by Grammy-winner Emily Lazar and Grammy-nominated Chris Allgood at The Lodge.
