Tetrasonics (p3)
Left-Brain
The Studio Evolves
I don't know if Mark just had never really cared for the location on 25th Ave (right next to the train tracks), or if it had something to do with the fact that the whole facility may not have been his idea to begin with.
Whatever the case, A few months after I went to work there, we started work on a move to a new location in downtown St Cloud.
It was an old shoe store and we gutted the 2nd floor and started building out a new and improved version of the studio.
I bought a couple books on acoustics and found everything I could at the library (which was not much).
Mark gave me an incredible amount of leeway on the design and basically took what I came up as-is.
Right-Brain
Musical Unrest
After playing with the Starlites for a couple of years--almost every single weekend--it was starting to feel like drudgery rather than fun.
It wasn't anything like a full on I-have-to-get-out-of-here sort of thing. But it was starting to gently tug at me.
Just the nagging feeling that there had to be something more. Something more challenging and musically fulfilling.
Also, with the Starlites I was starting to develop the beginning stages of being a bass player. Like I could actually hear chord changes now and know when to change!
So, the idea of playing bass full-time in a band started to kick around in the back of my head.
"Um. . .I wonder what that would be like?"
It was around this time that the Starlites recorded a studio album at Tetrasonics and, along with engineering it, I played the bass guitar and the 2 trumpet parts.
Being out of school and not playing horn every single day was starting to take it's toll on my technique and I struggled through those sessions.
So, that idea about playing only bass in a band and not having to stick a cold piece of metal into your face all night long began to grow legs.