Motown!

[ryanlikestorock]

Earlier this week, my brother and I decided to take the day off work and head west to Detroit and to find the Motown house. We had no map or address and just figured we could find it and we did.

Being in Studio A refreshed all my feelings about why I got involved in music in the first place. It's not about the gear or the ego or selling records... it's about the music and about creating something amazing, regardless of equipment or money. That tiny dirty Motown studio room helped me remember that. Definitely visit if you can.

On a related note, my 17 year old sister is doing a project on Motown and thought it would be fun for myself, our brother and her to get together here in my dirty project studio to record a song together. We're all musicians and doing our own things, but have never all worked together before. She came up here last month and we stayed up all night and recorded this song using instruments that we found lying around the house. It's not perfect, but I figured I'd share it just to see what y'all think.

http://www.littlekingstudio.com/temp...OVE-MASTER.mp3

[chessrock]

Originally Posted by ryanlikestorock

It's not about the gear or the ego or selling records...

Yea, you're right.

It's definitely about the drugs and the chicks too.

[Halion]

You know your motown dude

The drums rule and the tamborine (sp?) is there, as it should be I'm a bassplayer myself, and James Jameson (the bassplayer on 90% of the [early] motown stuff) is a great inspiration for me.

[ryanlikestorock]

Yeah, my brother decided to play these drums with no cymbols. This allowed me to get a pretty crunchy overhead tone. I really like the way all the instruments turned out. Asking my sister to go head to head with Diana Ross as her first recording experience was probably a bit much, but I think she did a pretty good job.

James Jamerson and I have the same birthday. Different year, obviously.

[mcolling]

Wow. That experience must have been amazing. I would love to visit Motown some day.

Did the room sound at all like it does on the records? (I know, silly question)

[ryanlikestorock]

The room sounded really good for such minimal construction. The walls were modified to have a bit of a zigzag pattern, with triangles about a foot deep coming out from the walls. It's got pretty high ceilings and a lot of acoustic tiles on the walls. Not the new foam stuff, but old school ceiling tiles. It works pretty well, for sure.

The spirit in there is unreal though. I'm hoping to go back every year just to get some more of that in me.

[giraffe]

man, i'm soooooo jealous.

[Track Rat]

The first 12 years of my life I was living within 5 miles of Motown.

[7string]

Originally Posted by Track Rat

The first 12 years of my life I was living within 5 miles of Motown.

I grew up 50 miles up 75.

[Consul]

I currently live in Port Huron. I should definitely consider making the trip down there to see it.

[Mark Hicks]

Thanks for posting that, Ryan. I enjoyed the listen. You have a talented family.

[Monkey Allen]

Great stuff. I loved hearing that