Producing The Color Truth

“Working with Daniel was the best move we could have made. As a young band, we knew our music had some potential, and so we really wanted to make a mark with our debut release. Daniel was that missing link between having some good songs… and delivering a record.” Zach Steinbach - The Color Truth

As I’ve said previously, the EP I produced for The Color Truth is the project that traveled the farthest from my expectations to the final result… the guys simply surprised me at every turn, and I’m quite proud of how this collection of songs turned out.

Huge kudos are deserved by the so-very-kickass recording engineer for the whole EP, Mr. Justin Perkins. I had heard about him through our mutual friends Mike Morgan (drummer for Northern Room) and Gabriel Reed (Ellestel). Justin was everything I’d hoped he be, and was a perfect (read: patient, kind, easygoing) match for a band who had never recorded in a pro setting before - with a studio/engineer/producer combo. Thanks so much, Justin, for giving us your great energy and killer recording abilities for The Color Truth’s Proof Of Life.

Words Or Letters (before and after)

Here’s Words Or Letters before we hit the studio : And here’s Words Or Letters after production :

If (before and after)

I felt that If needed to be slowed down considerably, be given a bit more attitude and drama… here’s the original demo : And here’s If after tweaking the tempo and arrangement : pictured above : Zach Steinbach (gtr, voc), Justin Perkins (eng), Frank Babeck (drm), Dave Streese (gtr), Daniel Holter (prod), Dana Nielsen (bass)

I’m also grateful I was to be able to expand my design portfolio when the band decided to let me have a stab at their CD packaging design and layout… we went through a few concepts and ended up with something that everyone liked. Check out a few of those images here.