Guitars and Owning a Historic Studio | Craig Parker Adams, Winslow Court Studios #022

Hello everyone. I am Karissa Dunham from Shining Light on Minnesota. I am super honored and humbled to have a very special guest here today, Craig Parker Adams. Welcome, Craig. Hi. Thank you so much. Very honored to be here. You bet. So, let's start off with telling some of our viewers your amazing story of growing up in Minnesota. Uh, exactly. I would say it was an amazing story. It's like an overwhelming way for me to start. Um, basically, um, I was born in the the late60s uh, in Minneapolis. I was put up for adoption. I was in foster care for my very early years and got adopted into a amazing family of with three adopted children from from three separate worlds, right? um different bloodlines as well as my folks. Um so there was five of us and I was the youngest and it was actually a very musical life, a musical household. Um and um the age gap was pretty big. The closest uh sibling to me was 5 years older and yeah and I shared a room with a brother who was 7 years older if you can imagine. So that's a pretty big gap. So, um his patience level was probably just beyond. But anyways, um and then my my my parents, they were um already in their late30s when they got me. Um and so the it was a big generational situation between us, us and them, and then also me and my siblings. And we all listen to very different things. and my both my parents were actually musicians uh professional musicians but not their sole source of survival. They did things uh in group form for fun. My father was a barberh shop quartet singer. My my mom was in the Sweet Adelines um which was a a female chorus um which is is big in that area or actually really kind of all over the country. Um but so there was singing and there was um pianos. We had two pianos in the house and it's crazy. I don't play I mean I play I play piano but I don't play piano and um I had a drum set you know that was through my brothers and there was a guitar and auto harps. There's just all this stuff. So music was just fullon and then also we were all radio kids. So you know radio was the day and all the different stations and so it was just a real eclectic scenario of music. U just it was just endless and and I should also preface that this involves um seeing rehearsals like being a part of rehearsals. My parents would have the groups come to the house and so I would be tasked to help set up or get ready or whatever. And and all of this was paramount for my studio business many years later because I learned the art the art of hospitality and in a studio in a recording world scenario that's everything like the the atmosphere setting the ambience the mood being able to um read people how they're feeling and you know sensing what they're about to do. It's all this chess type stuff and and my parents were huge at teaching me this very young and that became kind of a a part of like who I am. So when I later years when I ended up getting a a recording studio and a studio business going, I think my strength was handling groups of people. Like that was really it. Like we're not even talking about the notes. Like we're not in the notes. We're not in the melody. We're not in the not not any of that. Just the nature aspect of how to get somebody in the zone to feel their best to be able to let out, you know, their heart basically. So these these were the early years that made it so later I was kind of inadvertently ready cuz I never wanted a recording studio business. That was never my goal. It just my life happened that way. So these things worked out. So yeah, so those the the early years were uh my brother took guitar lessons, my parents were doing the the gigs, the rehearsals were in house, we'd go and travel with our parents when they would do um my dad would with the barberh shop quartets, they would tour like you know the Midwest and we so we'd go to Milwaukee, we'd go to these big shows and so I saw all of this kind of thing. Um, but I I always felt that music and myself was a very personal like it came before anything. Um, so I had a personal relationship within my own world with music because I was an observer. Everything was observing, you know, and you're just soaking it up as a kid. So, but in the meantime, I had an an innate knowing that, oh, um, I'm supposed to be around this and I'm supposed to just live whatever this is. This is my life, you know, being around the music that I like. Um, and so that turned into an obsession with wanting to play the guitar as a young kid. Then that basically became my life. And and what was weird about this is I would say that I was the most um I was the squeaky wheel when it came when it came to music, wanting to play music. Like it wasn't my siblings weren't talking about this all the time or whatever. It was just kind of in our lives. I remember my sister even having to do violin for a period of time. Um but for me it was a real I was being sucked to it. Like it was really a big deal. And um when I was about four or five years old, um this would have been 73 around there. I was born at the end of ' 68. Um my brother started taking guitar lessons at Schmidt Music School. If anybody knows of this place in downtown St. Paul, it used to be around. And um so he would have been 12. Uh so that way that would have been 74 actually. So he gets a Yamaha nylon string acoustic guitar, the first real guitar in my family. And I in a ceremonial type situation, I was told by the parents, you are not to touch this guitar. And I'm thinking, wait a minute, what? What? Why can't I touch the guitar? Well, it's because you're a silly little kid, right? You don't know. So, and this isn't a toy, right? So, um, I had to, um, and I, and because I shared a room with my brother, when he wasn't around, I knew how to get access to the guitar. So, this kind of forbidden thing was going on for these early years with guitar, which is always weird to me. I mean, like I just said, I know why my parents did that, but it created a stronger draw to by the time time I was 7, 8, 9 years old in that age range, I got like a fake electric guitar and I just it just consumed my life. And it started by pretending, you know, just using a vacuum guitar, all of that. Yeah. the hockey stick, the tennis racket, whatever, you know, pretending, playing, cranking up. Um, I don't know if you would remember stations like U 100. Yeah. So, stuff like that I remember. And then, of course, KQ came later for me. Um, but, you know, and then pretending and then just trying to make my hands move like what I'm listening to. Um and and then um my I had a cousin teach me a bar chord and that opened up everything for me cuz now you can play one chord and move all over the neck. Y um and so somewhere around 8 n 10 my playing actually started to be playing like I'm playing the thing, you know, as opposed to posing with it or pretending with it or whatever. So, and then I I took some lessons for a a short period of time at a place called Rex Music in West St. Paul. Um, which oddly enough, or I should say, luckily enough, is actually still there. I was just there a year ago. Um, Wow. Yeah. I was in town and I went to my old store and uh saw the son of the owner. So, it's same family still owns it. So, um, but it's it was a very special place for me. Um, I did my first gig in the fifth grade and it was at the YWCA downtown St. Paul and I played some weird piece called Shorten and Bread, which I don't recall at all. But that was my first time on stage and and um it was also where as as as natural as music is for me like a finger or some other you know extremity or something just a part of you nothing separate performing is a different thing for me and it it's always been like that I'm not I haven't done a lot of performances in my lifetime it I've done studio work and all this other stuff But as far as live gigs, I probably have about a hundred gigs only in my in my life. And um that part of my life never really took off. It never got the um the synergy of a of a great working band. Um you know what I mean? So I don't have I don't have a ton of stage uh experience and my father did and so he would always critique me. you know, there's the thing that that that uh people that know how to work the stage, like that's a real art form. Um, and I I must admit naturally I don't have that. You know what I'm saying? Cuz I've worked around a performers all my life and it's like they're a special breed, you know, and so is it's I mean I can stand there and suck it to you, no problem. But um that's not a natural thing for me. Like it's just like oh I just go do this, you know? It's like it's a head it's a head game kind of deal. U so coming up in in the I started playing with a with a group kind of a makeshift rock band you know when I was around the seventh grade um you get to middle school and then that you know I start meeting and making my friends you know once you go from the elementary school which for me was called Somerset and it was in Mod Heights. Um then I went to something called Grass Junior High. you meet all these people from all over the area and you know new friendships are formed. Started playing in a little band. Um and that kind of band was like just teeter to me through uh junior high and high school. And mainly what I was doing for my musical uh education was I was getting asked to teach guitar. M so I became like a guitar instructor which in some ways I kind of had no authority to do such a thing you know what I mean but it's uh it it's when people ask like hey would you do that it it was like well yeah okay so so I started doing that and that actually got a little problematic by the time I was in the later years of high school cuz that music store that I told you about Rex Rex music the the guy who owned owned it. Mr. Rex, he called my dad and and and said, "Hey, what's your kid do?" Like, he's hearing I'm doing guitar lessons and I'm taking business from redirecting it. And he kind of threatened me threatened my well me via through my father in a, you know, in a way where it's not going to make my dad go stand up for me, you know what I mean? He just basically said, "Hey, your kid shouldn't be doing this." da da da da, you know, taxes, all but um it's just what I did, you know, and and that grew and grew and grew. And then I started working at a place there in Minnesota called the Rock Guitar Center, which was a new music store. Uh this would be the early8s. And um I started hanging around this music store um kind of just like the way I suppose you'd see people hanging around a barber shop or a beauty shop or whatever. And and so I'm kind of the young guy and so I'm aspiring to be around these older guys and girls. And so, um, you know, now I'm in the music store world where it's like, oh, oh, I'm just the the person running around doing things for nothing. You know, maybe a set of strings or something, but you just want to be there and see everything. And that was a really cool experience because I started seeing um guitar players all different types of guitar players and now they're they're coming AC I mean they are rock oriented cuz that was the name of the store. So so you're not you know the jazz guys aren't necessarily going to go in for the big hollow bodies and whatnot. So it was a rock scene. Um, but nonetheless, there was still enough of a variety and enough musicians coming down in front, like literally sharing your space and performing and playing. Maybe performing is the wrong word, but playing, you know, and so you're getting all of these firsthand experiences of, hey, how come this person's feel or touch, you know, is talks to me or, you know, gets gets a reaction out of me where the other side is just like, oh, there's nothing. Like, it became real clear for me my inner critic got very highly um developed. It's like, here's an A chord that hits me or here's the drop D, let's go. Let's bring it. Yes. Basically, all of all of those things all the way down to just the way somebody touches the thing or hits the thing or attacks the thing or I mean it it just spoke volumes. So, I was in the environment and seeing the it's kind of like going to the gym, I suppose, you know. So anyways, that that was really interesting times for me and as a as a guitar player and as just a musical being. Yeah. Because as a musical being like I had I like I said I had a comfort and awareness that oh well this is this isn't anything unusual. I'm not special. You know we all love music right? So I feel I feel like oh well this is this is just this is just part of it. But seeing seeing all the other players and stuff started to get a little introspectively uh with my playing because it was real clear of people who come in like I don't want to sound like this and I don't want to sound like. So this started helping me um just kind of see things a little broader. Um, and around this time, so for me, you know, I'm I'm in high school, ending high school, and um playing with others still consistently um with a very um oh, with a strong will. I'm I'm trying to learn everything I can about guitar. Like, I'm compelled to play this thing all the time. and with connecting with others to have groups. I'm still trying to get a group off the ground, you know, but in the meantime, I'm I'm tool shedding in the bedroom like you wouldn't believe, playing and learning learning everything, listening to the turntable and trying to slow things down and doing what we did. But I did I I played a lot of sports when I was a kid and I did like the camaraderie and and so playing music with others although it's extremely personal and I feel like oh I could be on a desert island. I'll be okay you know it's it is there's something to be said for playing with with others. Yeah. And so I was really longing for that like my band you know of you know uh the group that I was looking for like I was really longing for it. Anyways um so around this time you know I'm a teenager and I'm thinking well what am I going to do and all this kind of stuff. Well, when I was earlier in the back jump back to the 70s, my family by by just some beautiful grace, they would take we would go on these family excursions, you know, summer vacations basically. And we'd all get in the car and go drive somewhere, you know, and and so it turned out in 1976 we drove out to California for the bsentennial. Yep. So we went to yeah the the bsentennial was to be celebrated at Disneyland and that's what we did. So we drove all over the you know the country going and and so I knew when I came to California you know after really being around most of the country that there was something that spoke to me different than the way Minnesota spoke to me. Um, and especially at that time, you see, as much as I love and appreciate what I experienced growing up in Minnesota, when you compared that at the time to the mountains and the ocean and, you know, Hollywood and just everything, it was the West Coast and and California really spoke to me. So, I I asked my dad like when we got back from that trip, I'm like, "How come we don't live out in vacation land, right?" you know, so I got I knew in 76 that soon as I was out of high school, I'm going to move there like without music was not a factor. I was like I got to live there. It was a Yeah, it was a weather climate, you know, geography based, you know, topography thing. Um, so anyways, when I I graduated uh in the end of ' 87 into the beginning of uh yeah, the end of 1987, I graduated high school and in 1988, a friend of mine who was um in joined the Navy was going to boot camp and he said, "Hey, I'm I'm going to boot camp. Um I can drive you to California uh if you want. We can switch, you know, share the driving." And um and I had a mutual friend who who flew who I met around seventh grade at at middle school and he lived there you know he was his parents were divorced so he got shifted custody so now he's starting to come to my school and I meet this guy and um I you know we just instantly hit it off you know still friends to this day um he moved to California before me and he's like hey you got to get out here and I got a couch vouch for you and I can get you a job and you know so so get out of here get out of here you know so anyways the call came and so within a within 5 days my whole life just changed right where it's like you're it's like I knew I have to take this opportunity and I have to do this now and I was not prepared I had I had three guitars y and $88 and I told my parents on a Wednesday I'm I'm I'm moving to California Saturday. Oh, yeah. And they're like, cuz I found out on Monday and I thought about it for two days and I'm like, okay, I'm going to do it. And they're like, uh, uh-huh. Yeah, yeah, sure. Sure you are. And I'm like, no, no, no. I'm I'm I'm moving to California Saturday, you know. And they're like, yeah, uh, you know, didn't didn't take the word. And anyway, so that's what I did. So that was back in 1988, so long time ago. and and um so I got dropped into another world, but it was still based around music. So all my friends were were musicians and whatnot. So I just was now out in California. And the first musical job I got was at the Guitar Center. The Guitar Center was a brand new company um to the Midwest at this time. It was uh so anyways um when in ' 88 I'm here I get a job at the Guitar Center which was not an easy thing to do but now I'm in Mecca and I'm I'm like every every people from all over the world and I love it. Yep. So so basically now you know trying to find a band, trying to play gigs, you know trying to get better. All of this is happening. Um and I um I basically started getting at this time into the art of recording becoming a self-taught engineer. Um and so this this phase starts for me where now I do have a band. We do start going into studios and I'm not happy with the end result of what we're getting. So I'm like it's this something doesn't sound right. And you know as as the I was one of the main writers as a musician for those musicians out there who write you know like you can hear or you know what you're trying to achieve and that's can be difficult for those around you who have no idea what you're what's going on inside you. So um anyways, this is where I started to take control more of the recording of what I was doing and then I started learning that whole world and and those two things basically came to a head around 1997 when I got a historic recording studio space in in Hollywood. That was the catalyst because for me I was looking for a space just for me and my music, okay? Cuz I was in an apartment and I was usually had the bands I was with, we always had studios, our own. So you could go out and make a racket, not bother people, do your do your creative stuff, whatever. So, but in the mid '9s we lost our place and so I was uh sequestered back to my home space which was really crowded with all my gear. Um, and then really kind of by an amazing situation, I end up getting an opportunity to pick up and take over what is considered to be one of the first sound recording studios ever built in the world. Yeah. So, um, I did everything I could to get that place when I saw it because I was never thinking this grand scheme of let me get a big recording studio like a commercial facility and spend my time making other people's dreams come true basically, you know, right? Let's get the drummer to make everything mixed together and make it happen. Yeah. All of it. But but not only that, imagine putting your own musical desires basically on the back burner. Like you're just, okay, I'm going to put whatever I'm trying to do musically on simmer mode. That this this wasn't the case at first. At first, it was fullon. We got this great space. We're doing all this stuff. I um get some better recording equipment by this time and I record a record with my band that I've recorded and and and um under the toutelage of a great engineer named Shannon O'Neal. And this was the first record that I actually kind of engineered and worked on. And when I completed it, my when my musical friends would hear it, they would be like, "Oh, that sounds great. Would you record me?" Yeah. And so I guess I could, you know, so so now I'm starting to have that thing of, oh, I'm I'm in the uh form of service like I was as a little kid at those rehearsals at my home cuz you have people coming to your space and and so I'm starting to, you know, like just organically fall into the position of how I was actually groomed as a child where it's like this just seems natural to um where all of a sudden it's like hey you got eight people in the room with you like you know what I'm saying and it's like and they all got a park and they all want something something to drink or something to snag or set up their stuff or this or it's like you just the logistics it's just like all right go all of it put together we're we're good absolutely so it was it was just fullon with all of that and I took to it so and then as a musician I'm again playing chess with the people I'm working with, I'm I almost know what they're going to say before they say it to me, right? Because now am I I'm this musician person, but you're also responsible for all of these people that are in your space who have an expectation. Yeah. And so I mean it this just opens up the whole world into psychology now for for me and all the things because it's negotiating and and handling personalities. That's really what the gig is outside of yeah you better know how to mic this that or the other and you you better know how to get a good sound or to fix something if a piece of equipment breaks down or so. you know, if you're on the clock and eyes are on you, it's this is a whole new dynamic now. So, so, um, and then not only that, so right away when people started asking me, as you know, and and maybe Minneapolis, St. Paul's more like this now than it was back when I was there as a child, but this is a very international community. So, you absolutely and it's and it's in the zone that I am. You have to think now Hollywood, California recording studio uh business. I'm going to guess there's some competition. Oh yeah. You get it? I mean it's like there's music for everybody, but people don't understand that there's enough to go around there. That is the key right there. And so and I started doing that right knowing that right away or learning that right away because my that studio that I had for 22 years Winslow Court which Winslow Court was the name of the culde-sac that I grew up on in West St. Paul. Nice. So it's the second it's the second home that I lived in. And actually I didn't even name my business. So there's there's another story to it. A friend of mine named it after a piece of music I wrote. He didn't know what the name meant. It's the street I grew up on. It means home. So my business name is that's what it's related to. So anyways, um having all like these people coming in and learning that um people from all over the world or people from different musical styles or genres, they have their own terminologies. Mhm. So, uh certain words like say the chorus, right, does does not mean you say that to a rapper, right? They're going to look around like what's he what where's the people singing? Yeah. Exactly. So, um there or or even the jazz jazz guy. I mean, so when you cross over genres, things mean different things. When you come from different parts of the world, things mean different things. There's all this studio terminology that is convoluted or it's it it's in direct like it doesn't mean the same thing if you're working with uh musicians from Britain. They'll they'll use they don't call chords chords. They might call a musical chord a chord, but a chord is a lead, right? Or you know a line is a cue as opposed to hey, I'm going to queue you in or so. So So anyways, you get all these these these things that you have to learn and it's like oh wow so the reason I'm I'm mentioning this is because music when you think I don't well depends on the the being the person you're talking to is music like a thing or is music kind of a part of everything everything and exactly and so um it beca it became like this thing where it was just something that was a part of me that was very very personalized an an epiphany came that this is the basis for just kind of existence itself. I mean sound everything starts with sound. So in the studio world, I started getting this other these other educations that I could have never saw coming, right? And and it was from everything that's attached to what makes those beautiful musical moments, you know. Um so uh in now what's happening is I'm working with people in styles of music. What what h one thing that happened for me is I got very lucky. Not only did I get lucky, I mean just from the beginning of my life getting adopted number one, right? Um but lucky enough to get this amazing studio that had all of this uh history and also authentic vibe, right? Like you can't deny spaces like you could just let's say there's a room and for some reason whenever people go into that room they always mention something about that room, right? It talks to them. They have they have a higher awareness. They they're they're being sensitive, alerted to something they can't quite put their finger on. Whatever that is, it's got a soul to it. Yep. All of that. That place had that like you wouldn't believe to where people would literally walk through the threshold and just stand there looking around going, "Oh my god." Wow. And it's not because it's like standing under the Eiffel Tower where you know it a big embodiment. Yeah. It's not a this this tremendous opulence but it's an intensity of of authenticity that it's left behind and people even people who aren't super uh who don't really notice those things a lot they can't help but notice in this space. So, so this space would facilitate these people. I would try to get them into the zone as quickly as possible. And now all of a sudden I'm working with orchestral musicians. So it's this kind of rock thing that was my inner taste even though I would say I was kind of really weaned on the balladers, you know, and and by that I mean the the John Denvers, the Glenn Campbell. This was big at the time. and Gordon Lightfoots, Jim Croach's um like those Livby Newton John, those those acoustic singer songwriters of the early late 60s, early '7s, that was something that like my uh my warm blanket, right? My roommate, my brother is is crushing me with Sabbath and and Zab Zap and Nugent and you know all of this stuff and and you know the parents are off in another universe with you know the classics the classical you know so I I've always had a taste and an understanding and awareness but now it's like you got so and so in from Italy who's doing some beautiful kind of folk music with accordion and you know and a mandolin and then and then later that day you got a punk band coming in and just kicking it to you. You know what I'm saying? So I start now learning um the all of those haircuts that defined us as kids like yeah there's a rocker and there's a mod or whatever you know punker I'm with all the haircuts. So, and and I'm I'm kind of like a to I don't talk to the clients at this time other than my friends who who first came to me musically were like, "Oh, record me." As this started to blossom and I started to look like, "Oh, I could actually turn this into a business because I I learned the equipment that I bought, you know, the money I made uh over my life." I should say that I did have proper day jobs in the '9s and what what those were, they were the same as in Minnesota. They were music store related. So that's where you met Dasel too, wasn't it? At one of the music stores. Yes. Yes. Dweezel Zappa. So uh I met Dweezel working at the Guitar Center um back in 1989. What's crazy about that is that I was listening to, if for those who don't know, Dasel Zap is a really amazing, incredible artist, musician, uh, guitar player who who's and a great personality. And he's the son of a musical icon, legend, composer named Frank Zappa. And so in the early '7s sharing that room with that older big brother, he's he's playing, you know, it's his stereo. He's 7 years older. There's nothing that I can do against that that age difference. Um and so he's turning me on to, you know, Frank Zappa, you know, and this would have been probably 75, 1975, 76 around that time. So I would have been 6 years old or something. And um so I mean I was certainly aware of I've had many musical situations by then, but I would, you know, just be amazed by this guy's insane music. Um uh and so I had knew who Frank was. Well, around 1982, I should also mention that in the late '7s as a young guitar player, I came across a guitar player who u became my definitive idol um or person that I looked to and that was a guy named Eddie Van Halen and Edward. Yeah, Edward Van Halen, right? And the the legendary rock guitar player and so um in me loving that kind of music and then you know as my age, you know, as my brother and I get older, my brother gets into those middle teenage years. will call those the tormenting years of uh you know he likes to tease and hassle and do all the stuff big brothers do to me you know um so one day after school early 1982 I remember sitting on the edge of my bed no it couldn't have been 82 81 um I'm sitting on the edge of the bed I'm playing my guitar and my brother puts a picture right in front of my face from from the I guess the Pioneer Press, St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper right in front of my face, and he goes, "Here's your competition." Oh. And it's and it's a it's a picture of another 12-year-old little boy, you know, his name's Dasel Zappa, and he's photographed here in the newspaper with a guitar that Eddie Van Halen gave him. H. And I'm thinking, who the what the you know, and like my brother said, here's your competition. You know what I mean? Like It's like a very pivotal moment. Yep. So, I I started learning about him and his playing and stuff um early on in the 80s. So, basically, I'm I'm giving this uh sharing this to let people know that by the time I meet Dewasel, I'm well aware of who he is and and what he's done. And I was a fan of his. Um and so it just by luck. So, I got that job at the Guitar Center in in uh June of ' 89. I believe it was. And uh a year to the day, which would be September 1st, cuz we arrived September 1st, 1988. September 1st, 1989. I'm working at the Guitar Center on Sunset Boulevard and they're having a big sale day or something. We all had to be there. And uh and uh this guy from another department comes up to me and he goes, "Hey, I have to go take care of something really important. um I need you to take care of my client. His name's Dasel Zappa. You know who he is? And I'm like, "Yeah, the light bulb." Yeah. Yeah. I And it was it was It's much more than what I'm making it because to be honest, somehow I manifested this. And I dreamt about him. I dreamt that we were friends. I um I remember doing this job where I was working at a music store during the day, but I had to do other stuff. So, I was it was crazy. I was doing some janitor stuff downtown where my brother worked. And anyways, I'm in this office building, you know, taking a break. And there's a magazine in the lobby of this law firm that I'm, you know, emptying the trash in or something. And there's the new People magazine, and on the cover is this guy named Dasel Zappa and it's and it says Hollywood's most eligible bachelor. And it opens up into a multi- cover, of course. So, when you just see the cover, it's him standing there looking cool, smiling with with a couple girls or something. But then you open it up and it's like two other pages of girls. So, it's like, you know, might as well be the cheerleading squad for the Raiders or something. You know what I mean? Like 40 women. And I'm sitting there and I'm looking at this photo and the story was quite good cuz it had pictures of him in his house. And here he is at there and there. Literally a year to the day that we got there, I met him and within a week I am in those photos. I I am in those locations that I saw in that. And so my life takes a major step up in terms of things that I get access to musicians that I get access to cuz now I'm I'm at like a Frank Zappa rehearsal, right? Wow. I'm standing with the orchestra. I'm talking to Frank. I'm I'm next to him when he picks up a guitar. these these experiences are now like uh you're living in them, right? And and so this just opened up a whole world uh of possibilities and opportunities for me. Um and so that was the late '8s. Um, and another thing that came from that was that ultimately Dweezel then facilitated the connection to my relationship with Eddie Van Halen, which became a friendship uh in in my life. Um, and those things were they they really go back to Minnesota. They go back to the bedroom floor. And the thing is is that there's there's several of these. There's several of them and they're all they're all apppropo and they're all musical musically oriented. The next one I'll share with you is that so in the '9s I'm out here. I get this band going, but my I was mentioning day jobs. So I worked I worked for the guitar center and I worked for another music company called Carvin. Um and that's what I did through the '9s. And and once I got my studio, I should also say I was doing guitar lessons on the side early on as well, cuz that that was, you know, it's it's an easy way to help somebody out and and make, you know, lunch, dinner, money, whatever, you know, so pays the bills. Absolutely. And also too, it you know, you you learn as a teacher. Anytime you're instructing, you learn, right? So I I started learning that stuff real early at 14 years old when people are going, "Hey, will you teach me this song?" You start learning those nuances. So um anyways, so with this with the early '9s, you know, I'm playing in a band again, trying to get that band off the ground, you know, and not having this success. Always a member, somebody's there's just always an issue, you know? Yeah. And I'm of course I'm thinking, is it me? What's wrong with me? you know, I look I get introspectively with it all, you know, right? Um, but no, it just just wasn't in the cards for me at that time. So, um, I started getting more and more into recording the studio business. I get the studio. It's not a business. I got my day job. It's my personal studio. I'm recording bands. It's growing more. That's when I decided in 2000, no more the day job. I'm just going to do the studio. And it was my parents that said to me, why don't you just start a business? And I thought, God, I don't want to do that. I want to just play guitar in a band. I want to do what I love. Yeah. Start a business. What? So, but I did. And it and it was uh it was tough, you know, I got to say. But it just year from the first year to the second year to the third year was like double double double like it was really going. And what happened was and this relates to the childhood bedroom floor that I mentioned. The next thing that was the huge musical burst of uh that changed or contributed greatly to my life was I got a phone call out of the blue from a guy named Jack Tempmpion. Mhm. Now, if that name doesn't ring a bell for anybody and and you have to think, why would it? Right. Right. Well, there's a reason why I knew that name and it's because of a musical song book that used to be laying around the house. in the in the early 70s mid70s and I used to like something we used to do uh when there was just records is when you listen to your record it's becomes your focus and when you're doing it you're in that space you're absorbing it you're concentrating on it and we used to read all of the details that came on the packaging of the record whether there was a sleeve inside or what like you wanted to soak it all up. Yeah. So, um, in this book, as I'm looking through like the notes of the songs and I see all these song titles, popular song titles, I kept seeing this name for some reason. Like, you know, when you open up the page of a book and it's always the same page for some reason, you know, I would always look the same. I would always go to this name and see this name Temption. Temption. Temption. And I Well, Jack Tempmpion wrote peaceful Easy Feeling for the Eagles. It's one of the amazing one of the biggest songs ever. Exactly. And he co-wrote with them Already Gone. All right. And at the time, those were ginormous hits as well as others. And so that's why I knew that name. That's the only reason why I knew that name. So here all these years later, this is now we're into like looking in that song book would have been in the mid70s. Now we're in 2003. Okay? And I get a random phone call from a guy who tells me he's looking for a studio space and his name is Jack Tempshion. And I'm like, "Hey, I I know I know you. I know your name, you know, and and he's like, "Yeah, I wrote Peaceful Easy Feeling." I'm like, "Yeah, so so anyways, he needs a studio space to do something." So he says, "Can you put together a rhythm section for me?" And I do. Yeah. And um so anyways, long story short, he comes to my place. He was delayed by a couple hours. I thought that somebody was playing a trick on me, right? You know, getting phone calls. People like to do that to businesses from time to time. Here, I hired two guys to come set up, be here for something, and we're all standing around like waiting. Yeah. like is this is this uh you know and after about we're getting close to two hours like I think I've been scammed and I'm going to have to pay these guys for being here and y this isn't good. And then some one of my neighbors shows up uh and he's like hey Craig there's some guy with a beard out in the parking lot wandering around looking for you. Oh boy. So I find him and um I I should uh well let me complete this. So anyways I meet this guy. We do a session and everything changes from that day forward for me because he he fell in love with this energy of the studio of that that that space that room in it was just like this is my home. This is my new home. Perfect. So all of a sudden he starts bringing me all of this very uh much higherend type business where cuz Jack who is in the songwriters hall of fame who does have two songs on that was the greatest selling record of all time for a period of time the Eagle's greatest hits I think it was Thriller that knocked it off or one of those Michael Jackson records beat it um just ginormous ginormous success Everybody he works with are all what you be referred to as A-list type people, right? Yep. So, um the rhythm section I hired for him, he liked, but he told me when the session was over, he's like, "Next time I'm going to bring in what I call an A-list rhythm section." I was like, "Okay." But he was still happy with what I got him, you know? So, we we cut a song that night. It was called Going Back. It was a great tune. Um, and Jack, um, anything that he writes, he it gets pitched basically and the PE when we recorded something from something that I do with Jack, it goes from Jack into Clive Davis's hands. Wow. Okay. So, CL Clive signed Jack's band in the 70s to a deal. His band was called the Funky Kings. Mhm. They recorded the song Slow Dancing that Jack wrote, Sway into the Music, that Johnny Rivers made a hit. So, they tried to make it a hit. It It didn't go. Johnny recut it. The reason I mentioned this is because in a Rolling Stone interview a few years ago, they asked Clyde Davis, you know, what was over your whole career, what was the band that you thought was going to be the one that it didn't work or something? And it was Jack's band. Oh, of course. Yeah. So, but anyway, so, so you know, everything we're doing now has all this weight. So, the responsibility goes way up and now Jack's bringing Johnny Rivers into the studio. So, now I got Johnny coming into my place and other people like that. and and I I won't go down down a um a uh name dropped uh road, but just letting you know that now that these people are actually coming to my studio, which so which was local friends and whatnot. Um just all of a sudden blossoms to Alys rhythm section. So the next time he came in, he brought in this guy Don Heffington and Bob Blob who are an alist rhythm section or were cuz Don passed away. Rest in peace. Yeah, these this is the first time I record something where it sounds like a finished record the moment it's recorded. Wow. And so now you get a taste of what it's really like. Yeah. People who play on hits. Yep. Oh my god. This is how it's supposed to be. This is the bread and butter. This is it. Exactly. And I'll tell you the the the the awesome thing, the awesome byproduct of that scenario is is me standing there going, I can hang with these guys. I can do this. Like, listen to this. So now all of a sudden, and I've always been pretty hard on myself. Um I'm lightening up going, hey, you know, I'm I I you know, I'm not bad. You know, I can I can I'll give myself that. You know what I I can bring it to the level if I need to. Hey, exactly. So, I can I can hang with these people. This is fantastic. And not only that, they're all smiling and they're all coming back and they're all referring everybody they know and and so from that's that's been now 22 years of that. Um amazing. And and so when I look back at the all the the records that I've done, the thousands and thousands of sessions and hundreds of records um of of all different styles and genres, it's it's kind of crazy looking back. It's like looking back, I suppose, over the Grand Canyon and timeline. Yeah. Yeah. As to what I was before I moved out here. Um, and as it was all coming together because as I was doing it, um, through the years, I would always, you know, kind of question myself, why am I putting myself on the back burner of my life? This is how I viewed it, right? Because I was still, you know, when you work these long studio sessions, which I mean, the studio literally was my life for 22 years, actually. Yeah. For 22 years. I mean, I lived it. Like, literally, I was in it all the time, 20 hours a day. Like, my whole life revolved around that because now you're in the the realm of the show must go on. Okay. Yep. Professional touring musicians, the show must go on. Those people, no question. Yep. They do not screw around. And so you have to step up and you can't just cancel something when you got 12 people a part of the scenario because it's like hey I got this gig going on lots of schedules coordinated you you can't I'm sick I don't feel like you can't that doesn't happen if you're there you got to yeah so I started getting uh exposed to those types of situations um of working with what I call the lifers who um even even under the pain of I I kind of have to share this story just to give it the the kick that it to so I can really convey to the listener what what what I really mean by this. I'm not going to mention her name, but um a client of mine who who is, you know, she's got probably almost close to 50 years in the business. Um she at at a very uh pivotal time early in her career, this would have been late '7s on her way to a show as she's building her brand, her name, her band, her all of this, her si a si her sister flew out to go to the show with her. Her sister drove separately to the show. Her sister sadly got killed on the way to the show. The artist shows up to do the show, finds out her sister's just been killed, and goes out and does the show. This is what we're talking about. Yeah. Yep. Just got to bring it and do it. And you take Exactly. You take it on after because there's a packed house of, you know what I mean, right? So now I'm standing in the room with this girl. I'm recording this girl. I'm like I can't tell you what that uh I mean it changed me. Yeah. It gives me goosebumps. It's one of those you just you could feel it. Yeah. It it was just very very very um I don't want to say impressive because you know she would she would have loved nothing more than to lie down in the fetal position and just let it all out and who wouldn't I you know so but there is that other thing of the show must go on and so I just wanted to convey to what degree I mean when I say that right that's that's how I learned it that's how I that's how I've personally experienced it. So, um I I always hold her as the high watermark of of that scenario. Um so, it's very serious. So, um and and everything that I started picking up and learning, it did make me a better musician overall because it made it's made me a better person overall. Um, and what gets me is the fact of all of that stuff from the Minnesota days, how how that all I've seen it um come out of the ground and into reality throughout my life, right? And the only thing that throws me off is I thought I would be a successful playing and touring musical artist. But when I think back, I never obsessed on that. Right. So the things that I did obsess on, they have come to fruition. And maybe I will see what what what I would I mean I've lived as long as I have. I'm alive and well. I'm successful. I have I have a successful happy marriage with my wife 22 years and a biggest supporter. I I live where I want to live. Like I'm successful. But that other thing like I feel like I still am on my upward trajectory and expansion with my life. And I feel like when I would ask myself and especially with the Zappa work because how you know I could have never predicted that I would end up being like one of the main mixing engineers of Frank Zappa's entire musical archive. Like I I could have never dreamt of that. I never saw it coming. I had no inner desire. It was bestowed on me as if I just picked up the phone and somebody said, "Hi, it's Jack Tempmpion. Let's do this." Yeah. It just It's just I just answered the call basically. Um and so I never asked to know who Deasel was. My brother stuffed that thing in my face. I I never asked it to to know him. My my employee uh Compadre said, "Hey, could you please help me out?" Oh, by the way, his name is, you know, Dasel Zappa, you know, and then or seeing the Van Halen cover when you were young or watching his footwork and like, let's pick up the guitar. Let's do it. Oh, man. Like that stuff. Yeah. I I didn't I'm amazed that you even know about any of that sort of stuff because Yeah, this could get extremely esoteric and technical. Let's do it. Yeah. Uh it it's just I I was I was always looking what I what I call behind the notes because the the notes themselves uh they're almost like a drop of water in the sense where I can't explain it. Now you can break it down physics wise and go well it's a vibration it's but there's there is also the capacity that's beyond what we realize or understand. And so music talks to is always talking to me like it's talking from the dark. Like it's just like it has an outer body experience or something. Yeah. Basically. But it's like why why can't I understand you um in your most purest basic form without any puzzling confusion? You know what I mean? And and so when I started working on Frank's music, and for those who don't know, Frank is a is a legit composer. I mean, he will not only is an incredible guitarist in in front of of a of a rock band with orchestral instrumentation attached to the rock band. Um, the writing, the stylings are so intense and I've worked on so much of his music and it anything that I record or work on, it goes through my bones like I'm a part of it. It goes through me. I do what I do and then it's kind of left. I'm not and I'm not trying to put my stamp on things. I'm I'm trying to let what I'm perceiving to direct me to take it where it wants me to take it. This is my inner body experience for you. Yes. Yeah. I don't take charge and go, you're going to be this. I let it I absorb it. I let it talk to me and then I go, oh, it wants to be this. That's that's the approach. But anyways, with all of this Frank stuff, um I would, you know, and and we're these are massive massive projects. I've probably done I I I should get this number solidified in my mind, but it's got to be close to um I would say 80 80 records of just Frank's music. And Amazing. Yeah. And um we're talking about filling up the CD with all 80 minutes, you know. Absolutely. So, and then there's a huge portion of his son, Dweezel, that I was mentioning. Sorry, let's move this. Um and he plays his father's music as well. And um I've mixed an awful lot of that as well. So, between all of Frank's music, I literally say somewhere probably about 175 albums. Wow. uh worth of of music that I've done in my life of his of his music. And when I do it and it goes through me, I'm I want to know like what is this? What's where's the meaning behind this? You know, like if you were to look at a crop circle, right? and you're just like, "Oh, yeah, that's a that's a" But actually, if for for those who who talk about it or study, they're telling you like, "Well, a crop circle is actually it's not particularly a thing, even though it is in the sense of how I'm describing it, but a crop circle is actually like a whole book of coded information. It's not just one message. It's like E to F in the encyclopedia. There's a bunch of information in it." Well, music to me, we know it can make our hair stand up. Like, we can have physical reactions. So, um, and we know that it's physics that's doing it. You're being your senses are being tickled and agitated and vibrated. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But there's all this other information. Mhm. And I I want to know like clearly like what is that? And and so um Frank's music absorbing it I just say I'm I guess I'm not going to get to know I have to wait till the next life before I understand all this because it is the sort of thing when you work on this stuff it leaves a residue and this in my belief this is part of what I will take with me when I leave the body. Okay. So it's not just coming through for nothing. So, I'm trying to sift for gold and expand. So, um because you got to imagine when you work in volume and you're working with notes for long periods of time, it's kind of like uh working your muscles nonstop, right? You know what I mean? You're just sitting there doing curls all day long, not stopping. And so, I don't want to just do stuff and not have it be meaningful. So, I'm trying to for me it's all a big picture deal. I'm trying to see, you know, why did my life go this way, right? Why did I learn all this from all of these varying musicians? Yeah. Why did I specialize in certain genres or styles that weren't even anything I was particularly interested in? You go from opera to actors to politicians to anybody. Yes. Exactly. And imagine being a Eddie Van Hal and guitar guy. Yeah. And all I'm working on is Americana, right? Just banjos and and acoustics and uprights and and but I've Americana is that's the most amount uh the the single genre I've done the most amount of work in probably other than Frank and and and one thing I really don't work a lot with would be rock bands, right? Which is crazy. Yeah. And and I I actually love that because I mean I like doing mariachi. I like doing, you know, jazz. I like doing these are these are all departures, you know. Um and so I'm I'm really blessed uh and lucky that I did have the studio as long as I did. Uh they did end up I I never owned the place. I was always leasing. So they ousted it. Everybody from the studio I was in back in 2019. Um, and it ended up being a really good thing because I was getting kind of fried on recording bands, right? I was I was getting agitated with being on the back burner of my life with my music because when did you release Vistal Ble? Okay. So that it's a tough one to say because it is a term that I created. So the way the way you say it is Vistali Bule. There we go. Yeah. Vistali Bule. and Vistali Bule. Uh, I released that in 2022, but it was a lifetime's work. It was a long journey to get that record done. It relates it relates to Edward Van Halen particularly. It actually relates to a a experience back in that childhood bedroom in Menota Heights there before I moved to Winslow Court. Um, and uh kind of an out-of- experience I had when I was in when I was 12 years old, 1981. and it relates to Van Halen and it basically um I had an experience where I was listening to a record and the music I I I don't know how to describe it other than like kind of a other out like a otherworldly experience or an outof body experience. Um because I had never had anything happen uh like that uh up until that time. And basically, you know, I'm listening to this piece of music and all of a sudden like everything in my in everything just stopped like you're just frozen in space, but the notes are still coming. Mhm. But time but time somehow is standing still. And I'm I'm I literally have this voice that says to me, you're going to spend your entire life learning how to do this from ju from just this one artist alone. And and it was literally that specific. I'm listening to this music and it's like I'm just wondering why I'm feeling this way. The music has taken over my heart in a way that I've never experienced. And this dialogue uh maybe dialogue is the wrong word, but this voice comes in my head and it says, uh yeah, so uh you're going to And I I mean I'm literally standing there stupified like this isn't what's going on. Yeah. Yeah. But but I I snapped too and and I said, "Okay, I'm I'm I'm going to do this. This is going to be my life." And so, um, my life was basically trying to find out the real inner essences of Edward Van Halen. Now, I didn't really know how to ter put that in terminology at the time, but that's what it ended up being. and and you had mentioned um you know this feat stuff just just to tell the listener that that yeah I I at this point now you know 35 years or so of trying to emulate or seek out or learn from Edward Van Halen kind of this kind of special weight or magic that he has compared to others. Um, a lot of that journey that predominantly I did it by watching his feet, not his not his hands, right? And there was multiple reasons that led up to that. One of those reasons was that music store scenario that I told you about at Rock Guitar Center when all these guitar players would come in and it just be like, "This person doesn't have it. This person has this this." Like you can compare all this stuff and you start realizing that, oh, there's an offshoot going on here and you could you could uh think of that as like adding water to your liquor, watering down your watering something down basically, right? Yep. Edward Edward Van Halen never was under he was always a I viewed him always as a direct spot to the source. So when you turned him on or when he touched something and played it, it spoke, it traveled through the world in a different way. And in that is what I was trying to learn. So when I would see these guys playing right in front of me, I started getting less uh interested in what their hands were doing because I I could see, oh, he's sitting there, he's playing it. Oh, she's playing. They're doing it the same way. Yeah. But you don't even have to look at them and you can feel. So So that's kind of what led me uh to Ed's feet, but it wasn't ultimately it was an accident by ending up in the front row of of a Van Halen concert in 1984 at the St. Paul Civic Center. Nice. That's because at my height, his feet were right at my eyes and I was right up against the uh barricade there. So, I was forced uh to hey, check out these feet. You know what I mean? Like really check them out like y um and that's when I really really noticed um but uh those nuances. Another thing I want to tie in is when I was saying when I got when I first got my studio in 97, that uh historic old studio um Santa Monica and Gower Boulevards in Hollywood right next to Paramount. I was in a complex with 18 other studios. Wow. In the building. Yep. Let alone Param Paramount Studios is across the street, you know. Uh there just every block there's studios. So LA was just is and was completely saturated with studios. But what I learned is what you had said is there is more than enough to go around. There is. And and if you could think of like that image we get the satellite image of a hurricane. Mhm. To me, my business, my Winslow Court was its own hurricane, right? and my hurricane could be right up next to my neighbor's hurricane and my clients and their clients never know each other. They never knew each other. Well, now that now they're meeting cuz they might be hanging out in the lounge or they see each other coming through, whatever. So, so there was there I can I can safely say that to people that when you feel like oh there's not there's not going to be enough in my experience there's more than enough and you will have your very own scene just like your neighbor's scene will be different and you want to work together you know everybody wins. Yeah. Yeah. This is where harmon har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har har harmonizing you know comes into play as opposed to uh con uh what's the word I'm looking for? consonants or u oh that's not the word u oh it'll come back to me um you know you don't want to butt heads or have uh right conflicting just any tensions or any of that consternation that's what I yeah so um so that was really cool and then um in in the musical atmosphere everything's real pretty much wide open where if I if I had a client come to me and it's like h I'm not feeling I would refer them. I would always send them away. So I knew that if I couldn't bring something to what it was that they need somebody different. Other than other than that, I would pretty much take on just just on feel alone. I never advertised. It was always word of mouth and and that grew. So after Jack came in now, um it just opened up the doors and to without getting into names and stuff, I'll just say now I'm working with uh Grammy nomine Grammy winners, all this kind of stuff. So now I'm I get access into that kind of world and I'm working on records that are getting nominated, clients getting nominated, wins, stuff. I p I personally got nominated uh for engineering at one point. So those those accolades came in. I you still strive for them. I just finished I just turned in mixes on a record last night and you and you still you know hope that well hopefully this will do good for the label and you know it'll make it through and and if it if it gets those uh extra feathers of of notice um those can be helpful. So, um, you know, after all of these years of of still doing it, I I still have the same mindset. Um, you're trying to accommodate, you know, who's paying you, what do they want you to do? Y, what are they expecting? When are they expecting it? You know, all of these sorts of things. Um, and I've always been good about the service aspect of stuff. Like, I I don't mind it. And then everything is uh depending on how you view it, it's either it could be a pain or it could be it could be great. You know, if you think of when you're working at the computer, it's just clicks, right? So why do you want to put a bunch of energy into this click or this click or this, you know what I mean? Like give them all this real heavy meaning extra. Yeah. No. So, that was something for self-preservation reasons, being able to not um fold or uh you know, either a fold under pressure or b um just get completely wiped out. Um, I had to learn the art of self-preservation because anybody who does anything audio-wise, I can tell you like when I went from analog to digital, right? Like that was an actual shift in in my whole being like I knew that it's a different it's a different I was going to say beast but I won't use that. It's a different adion. It is. And it comes through you in a different way cuz now it's through this glowing screen, right? Where before everything's here and everything was analog before. Yeah. Yeah. Plus, you're you're you're you're not visually um uh tied down in the session cuz when you're doing sessions, you're you're always, you know, you're looking at, you know, the control center which is usually on the computer. So um but before that you know no everything you're just you're just looking out at what you're looking out into the tracking room of the people. Yep. You know you're just you're just looking around basically. So that just the computer itself would bring something to it. But also you have the ability to listen to things on repeat uh over and over and over uh which you need to do for multiple reasons and that can end up getting trapped in your psyche. So you so you take that to bed. So whatever the last song you were working on or the strongest chorus of the or hook uh of the song, you know, something is sticking in your memory and you're laying down and you're betting down and you're hearing this thing on a little here's the riff over and over. Let's go. Like how can I make it work? That was the first thing that I needed to learn how to conquer. And that literally is kind of a for me it was a mind over matter situation because I was like I'm not gonna I'm not gonna survive if this is going to be my going to sleep scenarios, right? You know, I live all day long and all morning and noon at night. Now I'm sleeping with it too, right? And so I basically just ba commanded myself and and through basically practice uh was able to master the the thing where I can give myself a command, a mental command to just shut it off and it will shut off or I have a safe song that I can I can pull into my internal jukebox to cleanse the pallet. Right. Yeah. So, um I I took uh responsibility and direct uh charge over that like this is not going to ruin me. So, that happened very early on where I was able to gain control of my my sleep, you know, without the loops going on in my head. Um yeah, so the the studio business brought me from this to this in every aspect of existence of life. Absolutely. of and also of how to relate with people um how to put out fires. I mean, it's just it's really I would say far more the conversation and the discussion or just the transfer of energy of say you and I were sitting in a room next to each other instead of looking on a screen you're you're 3 ft away from me. I would feel you different. You would feel me different. Right. Absolutely. So all of those thousands of experiences um have have I mean I'm quite comfortable in my skin and I'm quite confident that if there was a group of people that needed to get something done uh in in a you know for whatever reason that I could be a a valued member of the team to let them know that I have their backs and you and you can let everything go. In fact, not only can you, you need to like you got to do that. Absolutely. And then I'll switch into comforting them in ways that they don't even realize, right? And that's that then becomes my main job. I'm not I didn't think about the compressors or the limiters or the this or the that like you know, I have my setup. I know what gear that I use, right? But I do not in any way uh other than the initial setup or whatever. And this assumes that everything is functioning and working. I don't have gear going down on me. I've been blessed throughout my life. I buy good gear and it lasts and I take care of it. But um all of those things I I've they're all like easily handled. So I really know that the person is in the cradle of my palm and they don't they don't even they don't feel like that and they don't know that right and and that really is is the best art form then like even turning in a like I I've mixed so many records. I turn I turned in a record yesterday right for the label and it's still could like the first record I ever did. I don't know. Are they are they going to like it? Is everybody going to hate it? Is there anything like you go through all of that stuff, you know, even all of these years later, um I'll share a story with a a a great guy that I worked with by the name of Jeff Emmerch. Jeff Emer wrote a book called Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles. Yeah. Okay. His first day on the job at age 15, sorry, his second day on the job at age 15 into 16 was to assist this new band from Liverpool, right? I mean, amazing. That's how he started, right? And and then just it goes on from there. He becomes their their head engineer by 19, wins his first Grammy at 19 for Sergeant Pepper. This guy became my friend through a phone call, through another great client who just rung me up. Her name is Nelly Mai. And um I've had a long time working career with her. And uh one day she says, "Yeah, my producer is going to I have a producer for this record. He's wants to come by and see your place." And she tells me his name. and I I didn't know his name, so I you know, but I but I did Google him and I looked him up and I was like, "Oh my god, this guy's done everything." Just an incredible career. And again, rest in peace, he's passed on. Y but um the reason I bring this up is because him and I worked together on, you know, few projects and uh co-produced some stuff together. We did a lot of stuff. We were we were friends, right? Um, but I remember working with him where the first mix that I did with we actually recorded Yellow Submarine in its entirety because he cuz he recorded it and and the original and and Nelly was doing a cover of it and she's an extremely advanced multi-talented uh artist. And so Je did everything that they did we did. So, we cut it from the ground up and had celebrity uh artists come in and play on the track. But when he mixed it, he mixed it in my room on my stuff on my NS10 speakers right behind me. Yep. And he just mixed it once. He listened to it and he's like, "There it is." And I'm done. I'm done. Did he didn't he didn't question it? You want to hear it on something? Nope. He didn't. That's it. And I just thought, "Wow, that's amazing." Yeah. I I just that's Jeff could get him to that place. I don't I get himself to that place. For for me, I always question the work that I do. I And and I can if I have to deliver in the moment, I I'll bring that confidence or whatever. But to me, there's always been a fine line between confidence, ignorance, and arrogance. Mhm. And so a little too much confidence one way you get into the ignorant world and a little too much the other way you get into the arrogant world which I I don't want to be either of. But I I do have an inner grace that I know I can do. I'm decent at what I do and I and I can show up and and be a part of the team. But in no way do I ever feel like, oh yeah, I got it my way. We're done. This is it. You know, I I another thing about the the the project I just finished yesterday, this is the fourth record I've done with this band called The Third Mind, and it's probably the 20th record I've done with the guitarist of the band, who's Grammy winner, Dave Alvin. And and uh Dave Alvin and I have worked together for over 20 years. And that was a direct connection with Jack that Jack basically referred me to Dave through the lineage of one other person, this guy Greg Lee. But this guy Dave Elvin from the Blasters who I mentioned goes back to that childhood bedroom floor. Yep. In Minnesota who I used to I used to see the pictures of his band at the back in the back of the magazines that I'd look at when I was a kid. And so now here I'm working with them. Well, now it's been over 20 22 years or so. And like I said, I just finished like my 20th record with this artist. Amazing. Yeah. So, what I'm turning in, there's five producers in the band. Five, you know, because it's it's a it's a a super group of sorts. So, not only am I mixing it to the best, but I'm trying to make it for everybody. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Here it is. So, and and of course they'll rip it apart and do what they will or they always will do, you know, turn this up, turn this down, whatever. I'm just trying to say that I still I I don't have the ease of like it's all good. I still butterflies like are they going to let you know all that drinking the unknowns like is it is it good? Is it not good? What are you going to think? Well, that's exactly right because it that what you just said is is huge. You're you have to get the known and when you try to get extract the known i.e. oh I have a client client wants me to do something. Okay, client's using these words. Okay, this is what it sounds like they know they want me to do. Okay, but now you have to go a step further and you have to go what do you actually mean by these words? You can say them, but that's not what you want, right? Because what the example I use for this is the Fuji apple. If you have a Granny Smith in your backyard tree growing up and you somebody gives you a Fuji, you're going to go, "Oh man, look how red that apple is." Great. But if somebody's got a delicious apple tree in their backyard, they're going to look at that Fuji and go, "Look how green that." You see what I'm saying? So So red's not red. Nope. What do you what's read to you? What do you really mean? Yeah, exactly. And in this esoteric world of of of the arts, I get people that will say, "Hey, I this one girl in particular, I always remember, she's like, "Can you make it sound like I'm in the mountains, right? Echoing. That's what I would picture." Like, of course, you know exactly where to go. Right. Yeah. But if she didn't say that, like she could say, "Oh, I have some echo so I sound like I'm in the mountains." Well, that's what she might say after you've shown her the technique of, "Oh, here's how we get to make it sound like you're in the mountains. This is reverb and this is delay. Check it out." So, so um so that's the other thing I learned very early on, like when I when I willfully said, "I am going to block and learn how to shut off the loop in my head. I am going to willfully decide when I work on this music. Am I going to let this am I going to absorb this stuff or am I going to let it just go through me? You know what I'm saying? And and that attaches to like how you how I deal with life. So if there's a life issue, I always think of myself as standing next to the Mississippi River in downtown St. Paul. Yeah. and I'm watching a log float by. Do I need to swim out and go grab on and hold on to that log for dear life for any reason? Or is it just something in existence passing by? Can I just look at it and enjoy it go going by without sinking my teeth into it or latching on to it? So I I decide consciously what I like I want to absorb and what I just want to pass through me. These are all things I did for my peace of mind um techniques and stuff like that. They all came out of having this studio. It it helps in all all areas, you know. Well, for sure with the people coming in from different cultures and what they say versus what they mean and being able to adapt to get to know that person and what they really want. That's been amazing. uh because I I literally do have a large uh international clientele from all over the world even I mean everywhere even Antarctica I mean every every continent I' I've had people come and uh um and and work on projects and it's uh it's incredibly enriching. That's all I can say. There's there's been frustration levels uh along the way and like like in anything, right? You can have these frustration levels, but I learned to make the decision to not let the frustration actually frustrate me because it's like when you're learning how to when you go from analog recording to digital, you have to learn all of this stuff that can make you in like I just want to hit play. How do I So many technical aspects on that one. H how do I how do I punch in so I can do an overdub? Well, if you don't know the key command, you're in or you don't know the technique. See, we're going back a ways. So, you know, upandcomers, they probably maybe they don't have this as intensely as as we did. The ones who who came before but then did the transition because I can tell you when I learned the key command, a simple key command to punch in and punch out um or to do what's called playlists, I cried. Mhm. I literally cried because of the time I knew to see. So, it takes a long time to learn how to do something that you don't know how to do. But you got to have the good attitude of like, hey, I could smash the wall right now because I don't know how to do something. But you take the time, learn how to do it, and then once you learn it, you make it your own and and it's gone. So, best best not to get heated. Well, I didn't think that way 25 years ago. You know what I'm saying? I I I grew into those understandings and others other people and especially the diversity of the globe. Uh just it just it's all spices and flavors and techniques and you know things that you can use in your arsenal like so it's all it's all you convert it all you know to tools useful things. So right um you know I I' I've been super blessed. I I have to say that when I when I think back of this, all of the musical stuff that I went through in Minnesota, all of my musical friends that I'm still in touch with, contact with there. Yeah. Um I do go I still go back. Um I it's been a little over a year. I think I I I I say I think because I don't know 100%, but um I don't have any family left there, right? So, um, at this point now, uh, it would, you know, it's just to make those extended family visits and things. Yeah. And the memories. Exactly. Yeah. Which, which of course, you know, I I still plan on on doing. I do have a love and a great respect for uh, Minnesota and where I came from. Um, and in some ways I if I could if I would do my life all over again, this is a big statement, I probably would have left. Wow. Probably. Yeah. Probably would have stayed. And that's mainly focused on my parents uh and my relationship with them. But it really was looking back the whole thing was extremely enriching, you know. Yeah. I I just was I was done with the with the plains and the bluffs and the cliffs and the caves and the rivers and I needed the ocean and the desert and the mountains and the So, you know, cuz you know, you just soaked it up as as a kid. It was it was fantastic. And I do have an archive of films uh and photos and things of that nature from my family which I last year digitized. Nice. Yeah. So, I got all this great footage and and it really was a special beautiful place. I I totally lucked out. And also, when I I should mention, you know, when I was in high school at Henry Sibi, which is in West St. Paul, I think it has a new name now. Um the band instructor used to come around and always get get me in the hallway and he he'd try to get me to play in the band class. Oh, for sure. In the band class. He's like, "I know you play guitar. You know, I know you can, you're good, and you know, you should come play with the band." And it must have been three years in a row that he would multiple times he'd asked me. And I just never did. I was like, the squares, you know what I mean? That's that's how you I viewed it at the time. Now, of course, I don't view any of it like that at all. I I I would have taken that opportunity, I think, just just to be around cuz band musicians are when I say band musicians, I mean band musicians you'd see in school. So, right. School bands. School bands. Yeah. Um, so, you know, I didn't come up around that. I came around I came up around my brother's friends, his band. So, it's it was a different thing. I wasn't interested in the school band. But now it's at least for the young people, I would say no barriers. No, no. Like my mom always wanted me to play at church. I never did, but I should have just done it cuz my mom wanted me to do it. Just that enough should have been like, you got it, mom. I'll play it. You got it. I'll play. Yeah. Well, that's the one thing I even look back at. I used to play the violin and now I look back if I wouldn't have continued. Now I'm picking up the guitar. I'm playing the guitar. I'm like, if I didn't stick with that, which I really should have and been forced to and just wanted to and drawn to it, like now I'm older and I'm going back to the music world again, like trying to bring it all back. Oh, it's beautiful. Well, yeah. So, I guess so it was it was stifled or you left dormant for a period of time, but still in you percolating. Oh, yeah. We have grew up in the family industry of music and knew it. played the sports for a while, did the sports thing, and now I'm like full circle going back and getting back into the music world. So, it's amazing. Oh, yeah. That's awesome. Um, yeah. So, I I would definitely advise uh to in fact go out and interact with the styles of music that you either may not like or um you just don't know about or whatever. The unknowns, too. Everybody's cool. Mhm. Doesn't matter. Everybody's cool. From the little kid that plays here to the stud that plays there to the girl that plays here like to the symph the people in the symphony. The whole it it brings everybody uh together in a a very very unique way. But if you're also an artist and a musician, I tell you, and if you don't, if you haven't already come to this awareness yet, you will get ideas and inspiration from places that you will never see coming, right? And so, you best just go out there like a a dry a dry sponge because you you could you can convert everything into a great day or a great attitude or a great something. So, um, now I'm I'm where I am in life is I take it as it is. Life as it is. I don't I don't need to put my energy into anything that I'm looking at. I need to actually do the opposite and just purely absorb what I'm looking at. That's that's my current stance. It's important. Yeah. It keeps keeps me feeling enriched and invigorated. Um I don't feel it's another thing is that you know when I'll speak for myself when I was young um you know rock and roll right every at least from the time that I grew up rock and roll was the predominant mindset I say in my world yes and so and rock and roll was always viewed and I always remember it as a young person's game it was always looked at that but that's when all of the old rockers who were around now still rocking, right? We're younger and and rock and roll was is is was a new it's a brand new thing, but it's now without a doubt we now know it's ageless. Yeah, it is. It never dies. No. No. So, uh whatever keeps that creativity uh flowing, whatever makes you uh somebody want to, you know, hit record on their phone and get c catch this on your memo cuz who knows? And and record I say record it all. Um, you know, it's it's uh you have no I no idea when it can fall into place uh and and be useful or whatever. So, it's kind of a a a uh never never dying or a fully charged um thing that we always get access to. Yep. Those spots always there whether it's on or off, it's there. Yeah, exactly. No problem. Got it. Yep. Yeah. So, it's super exciting. We just wanted to let our viewers, everybody hear your story. Craig Parkeradams.com. If you haven't been on his website, he is an amazing person, guitar afficionado, has Winslow Court Studios in Hollywood, California, has done so many amazing things, and we can't wait to see what the future holds for you. Wow. Well, I appreciate all of that very, very much. And um I'm uh honored to be a part of this and I'm also really stoked to have learned how music for you has got you in a fresh new position. Always has. It always will be. It's in your soul. Once it's there, it doesn't really go away. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. For sure. So, and um it was it was a thrill to have this conversation and um you know, hopefully I wasn't too long-winded for for many folks. So, and um always uh always thrilled to talk anytime. Yes. And um yeah, Craig Parkeradams.com. People can reach out for any reason at all. So, um I'm I I thank you both for You bet. We'd love to have you on again in the future. And just to see where your world brings you, if it brings you back to Minnesota or where you end up. Absolutely. Yeah, that's that's Yeah. And it it is going to be somewhere. That that is kind of what what the latest thing is for us is, you know, uh uh the next location basically, you know, for the studio and and also just uh for where we're living. So, but fortunately, safe and sound in the middle of LA right now, which is no wildfires there. Uh well, yeah, we can this we have the smoke and whatnot around, but I'm I'm literally about six miles from the closest burn site, so you know, I feel I feel good. Yeah. Feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feel feeling okay. So yeah. Wonderful. Well, Parkeradams.com again, guys, get on there. It'll go out in our newsletter and we can't wait to talk to you again, Craig. Thanks, Karissa. It's been my my honor and pleasure. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Take care. Bye.