Make an Analogue Record with Adam Plomaritas and Nick Nagurka

2” ANALOG TAPE is the wave of the future! – no it’s not, it’s from the past and it’s pretty freaking sweet.

I’m Adam Plomaritas, and I’ve been spending my days and nights playing music in restaurants, coffee shops, music rooms, churches and bars of the greater Ann Arbor, MI area. A lot of people tell me I should make an album and that they would buy it. Well, PROVE IT! This is your chance.

An old guy once said anything worth doing is worth doing awesome. That is exactly what Nick and I intend to do. We’re gonna make you a Rock & Soul record for the ages.
But this is not just any other music project. Here are a few of the things that make this record unique:

Tape                                                                  
We're not making a "throwback" or "70's" record. Our aim is to make something that is timeless and tasteful - a really good record with the feeling and vibe of the original sessions intact. Besides tape, we’re going to do as much of the record as possible live-tracked. That means you’re not gonna hear the best vocal take of 50 or the best guitar take of 20 spliced together in 30 parts. This will be a genuine performance captured to a classic media.

There is a sense of urgency and heightened awareness when you get a bunch of musicians together in a room. They know they’re about to throw down and make a record. That vibe, that urgency, is what we’re chasing. If the take is no good, well....we’re recording over it.

There is no time or pitch correction, no endless library of takes to pick and choose from. We're leaving in the human element of music. Think about the music that you love, the music you grew up listening to and cherish. All of that music was recorded to tape, up until about 1995. At some point people realized the benefits of recording digitally. The sound of the music started to change, and it was not always for the better. Recently there has been a resurgence of artists realizing the musical and sonic benefits of recording to tape.

Jamie Cullum has long praised tape, The Civil Wars recorded some of their album “Barton Hollow” to 2” tape, and most notably, the Foo Fighters latest (multiple Grammy winning) album “Wasting Light” was completely recorded to 2" analog tape. Here’s an interview Dave Grohl gave talking about all of the joys and wonder of recording to tape:  http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2011/04/dave_grohl_wasting_light.php

Nick Nagurka
Nick is wrapping up studies at the University of Michigan where he has learned to be a music production beast. He has been behind the console at some of Ann Arbor's most well known studios (Backseat, Solid Sound) as an engineer for hire. Nick's experience, talent, and unbridled drive to make a quality album make him a great fit as producer of this record. Nick believes in this project so strongly that he has offered to work on it for free AND he has staked his academic career on it by making it his Thesis.

Also, he is a great cultivator of beards, which is good, because I need a producer who won't be intimidated by my own stylish beard.

No Digital Processing & Live Tracked
What you hear is what we play. “The files are IN the computer!!!” No, they’re not. This record will be recorded and mixed on an analog console with faders, knobs, and switches. We're listening with our ears, not our eyes. We won’t waste our time or your money searching out that wayward sixteenth note on the hi-hat in the Edit window of Pro Tools.

We’ll be recording at historic Detroit rock and roll studio, The Tempermill. We also have an all-star line up of some of Ann Arbor’s finest musician’s playing on this album like: Joe Dart, Billy Harrington, Mike Shea, Ben King, Betsy King, and Chris Dupont.

Oh, Real Instruments!
No samples, no loops. Real guitars, tube amps, real drums hit by real wooden sticks, real Rhodes, real Wurlitzer, and real musicians.

The Music
The music I have written for this record doesn't need to be polished into banality. There a raw energy that is best experienced in a live setting, where musicians feed off of each other and don’t merely play the parts of the song, but perform music together. The element of live musical cooperation between players is rarely captured with top of the line studio equipment like it will with this record. The soulful, gritty style of music that this record will be hearkens back to a day when this method of making records was the norm. It will sound killer – and you can be a part of it.

Get Connected
I really want to feel, and want all of you backers to feel, like we are all making this record together. That can be reflected in the rewards. We’ll give away some of the charts we used in rehearsal and recording sessions. You can get never before and never again heard demos of the songs as they were being written, photos from the process, and a lot of other neat stuff too.

There are very few studios around who even have the old equipment that we need, even fewer have it in working order – it is expensive. Luckily, Kickstarter provides a platform where creative projects like this can be funded before they’re made, ensuring their success and quality. This also helps the backers stay up to date on the process. No money changes hands until the Kickstarter deadline and only if it’s fully funded. Again, if we’re gonna make it at all, we’re gonna make it right.

And I know that all of you can get creative too. While all of the rewards at every level will be well worth your investment, don’t settle if you want a big reward. If you’d really like that house show, get a handful of friends to chip in and let’s make this happen!

This record won’t happen without your help. So please do what you can and spread the word!

- Adam & Nick