Sevendust
Photo: Davo
Hardcore/progressive metal band Sevendust—Lajon Witherspoon (vocals), Morgan Rose (drums/vocals), Clint Lowery (guitar/vocals), Vince Hornsby (bass/vocals) and John Connolly (guitar/vocals)—followed up a rare hiatus from touring in 2012 by reconvening in the studio to self-produce Black Out the Sun, the band’s ninth studio album. During the break, Lowery and Rose had discovered Architekt Studios (architektmusic.com) in Butler, N.J., where they recorded the debut album for their new band project, Call Me No One, with Architekt’s chief engineer, Mike Ferretti.
“The way that we work as a studio fit into what they wanted to do, too,” Ferretti says, describing Architekt as a versatile creative hub, with a live venue and an educational component to go with the studio. Band members established “writing stations” with Pro Tools–equipped laptops for sketching ideas. Ferretti set up a drum kit in a smaller room, where the band rehearsed its new songs, tracked Rose’s drums in Architekt’s live venue, set up iso booths for guitars and bass, and used the control room for overdubbing parts and recording vocals.
“We had all their guitar [amp] heads and everything on a dolly so we could push into that live room and switch a couple of cables, and have essentially the same setup and headphone mix,” Ferretti says. “They would track [a song] within a half hour or so of writing the majority of it.” Ferretti recorded to Pro Tools through his trusted Vintech Audio mic pre’s; vocals went through an AKG C 414 B into a Vintech X81 Class A. He mixed on Architekt’s SSL 9080 J console. “I love the way SSL’s EQs sound for aggressive guitars,” Ferretti says. “I went in knowing this needed to sound heavy, brutal.”
