--Ada Wofford
----Released 2 June 2020
Not many good things have come from the COVID pandemic that is currently still raging through the US like the very fires currently raging up the West Coast where, incidentally, The Honeymoon Killers are located. Creature Comforts is one of the few good things to come out of this awful year. Recorded during lockdown, fully remote, The Honeymoon Killers conjured up 11 tracks of their self-described swampadelic rock.
This album is great fun. It shifts from psychobilly, to surf, to funk and does so with zero pretension. It's like if Devo, The B-52s, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon formed some sort of super group. Opener "Lights Out Everybody" is perfect music for speeding a hotrod through a cemetery on a sweaty summer night. The swampy dirge of "Creature" will crawl into your ear and lay its rock n' roll eggs in your brain. The spaghetti-western surf of "Lizzie" will have you tappin' your foot and crooning along at the moon. And the surf-epic closer, "Return to Mag City" will literally hypnotize you and leave you purchasing a leather jacket and a pair of shades off eBay at 1AM because you need to look as cool as this song sounds.
I don't usually play with so much descriptive imagery in my reviews but in this case, it's a nod to the lyrics. We don't discuss lyrics at MLU but the music truly embodies the vibe of the lyrics—It's all very well-orchestrated, with every sonic decision feeling purposeful and created with a specific atmosphere and mood in mind.
As I mentioned, this album was recorded remotely during the pandemic lockdown; a fitting backdrop for a horror themed album. I spoke to bassist Marc Tramonte about their process and the band's gear:
First, our band leader and songwriter, Ken Nash, recorded a scratch rhythm guitar and vocal track to a click for each tune. These were later monitored in headphones by our drummer, Keith Harrison, as he played. That was done at a local studio, Blue Jay Productions, and engineered by Mark Thomas Johnson, just before the virus lockdown. Once Keith's drums were captured, using a variety of Shure mics, they were delivered as dry WAV files, and Ken took it from there.
Everything following happened at our respective home studios via DropBox, email, and so forth, in Logic Pro X.
We all installed Logic Pro X and used a variety of USB-connected interfaces to get our instruments and vocals into the digital domain. Overlaying our respective parts and then dropping files on common shares. Ken handled assembly and mixdown of the overall project.
Keith and Ken getting ready to record drums
I recorded with a 1975 Fender Precision bass strung with Fender roundwound strings, into an Avalon U5 preamp/DI, set with no tonal coloration, just that massive transformer and high-voltage U5 circuit working their magic. From there into a Presonus Audiobox 44VSL interface, to a MacBook Air running Logic Pro X. The Logic plug-in used was "Big Stack", an Ampeg SVT amp/speaker emulation. A little additional compression and minor tweaking was added later.
Mike Smith recorded his parts using his trusty 1990s Ibanez Jem almost exclusively, plus a Levinson Blade on a couple songs; like on the funky tribute to Dracula, "Down For The Count." He went direct through a Focusrite Scarlet 2i2, and straight into Logic Pro X.
Ken laying down some vocals
Mike said, “I found that the amp combinations in Logic are almost as good as my tube amp sounds with less noise and mic placement hassle. I took the advice of a couple of folks online and just started with a Logic amp setting and how I wanted THAT to sound without all the other effects many of the patches have. I used minimal chorus, flange, and phase for some modulation. We then added a little reverb and delay during the mix. I think I ended up with a pretty good guitar sound for this big sounding record, without relying too much on anything except a big-ass guitar sound.”
In the home studio with some friends
He then doubled his existing track then panned them left and right at 3 & 9. The final helpful trick he learned from a friend was to change the amp setting, speaker cab, mic and placement on that second track to add some additional depth. “I found that this little trick really broadens the spectrum of frequencies for your guitar sound, especially in the typically squashy digital audio landscape. It’s like playing through two amps that are very similar, like I do live with my Mesa and Fender amps, but with slightly different settings to fill the spectrum a bit.” Mike then used his "outside voice" for some strong lower register background vocals.
Ken played his Strat through an Alesis i02 Express into Logic X, using stock ultra-crunchy overdriven amp setting plugins on almost everything. The piano setting (Heard on "Last House on the Left") was “Steinway in a cavernous basement,” Ken recalls, which he plucked out note by note on his qwerty computer keyboard.
Mixing the album
Of course, mixing and mastering was another story and is where the drama truly unfolded, with many thanks to Chris at Why Logic Pro Rules (WLPR). All members contributed vocals, with Ken singing lead, and Keith, Mike, and Marc singing backups. Vocals were recorded with a very precise AKG condenser vocal microphone that we sanitized between uses and shared by leaving it on our respective doorsteps. No lie!
I love hearing the story behind how an album is made, particularly when it is made under such unique circumstances. Many thanks to the band for sharing all of that information with MLU.
If you love fun, catchy rock and vintage horror, then The Honeymoon Killers are made for you. You can purchase their album via iTunes, stream it on Spotify, find them on the web at honeymoonkillersmusic.com and listen to the track "Creature" blow:
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