Student Successes
Recording Connection apprentice Jones Nelson recalls the first time he set foot in his mentor Jamie Tate’s studio,
The Rukkus Room in Nashville, Tennessee:
“I was supposed to be meeting with my mentor on a Wednesday,” he said,
“and I got a text message from him that morning that said, ‘Hey, we’re actually going to be doing a tracking session this evening if you’d like to swing by.’ It was just kind of ad hoc, but I thought, ‘Well yeah. We’ll swing over there.’ I went in and…they had a session band in, and the session band was going through and just recording a bunch of different artists that would come in…What was really interesting is that these guys, if you even accidentally have listened to country music over the last 10 years or 15 years, you likely heard some of these folks on the record. The drummer, I know his work, toured and worked with Reba McEntire for like 15 years. The guitarist that was in the recording, I think he got the Nashville Guitarist of the Year or something last year…It was that moment that I realized that I was standing amongst giants and really had, at least somewhat, stumbled into the big leagues.”
Jones Nelson and mentor Jamie Tate
at Rukkus Room, Nashville, TN
As a serious blues-rock vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, and having had some previous experience in radio, Jones was not entirely unfamiliar with the studio environment. He’d even been doing home recordings of his own music for several years. But coming into the Rukkus Room as a Recording Connection apprentice meant taking things to a different level—a chance to polish his skills.
“I’ve been in and around production rooms and audio studios since I was 15 years old,” he says.
“I just kind of gleaned different tips and tricks over the years, but this is my first time in a real professional studio to where my sole objective is to learn…You think that you kind of have a handle on how sound is put together and how a mix is put together. When you see somebody do it just completely differently and much better than what you’re used to, it’s just like very awe-inspiring.”
Perhaps the most important thing Jones is learning as an apprentice is the art of the mix, and how the mix can make all the difference between a good recording and a great one.
“Every producer does it differently,” says Jones.
“Some folks really like to get in there, carve out the frequencies and really try to poke holes in the mix. My mentor Jamie, his approach is a lot more ‘record it right the first time, and then just mess with it just a little bit.’ I had a problem with one of my mixes and I had carved out frequencies…He looked it and said, ‘Man, you’re zapping a lot of real frequencies here.’…After he went through and just did some minor tweaks, my mix was sounding much fuller. He said, ‘At the end of the day, these frequencies are really supposed to be there…All those frequencies could really live together. It’s just all about blending them.’”
Jones says he learns a lot by just watching his mentor at work.
“[Jamie] mixed a tune on a record,” he recalls of a recent session time with his mentor.
“He was actually remixing something that he’d done earlier, trying to beat an earlier mix that he had done. It was really neat to be able to see that deconstruction occurring…to see kind of how he can breathe new life into something else, and kind of make it better…He even said during the course of mixing it, he’s like, ‘You know I’m spending all this time for something that really and truly I’m probably the only person that can tell the difference, from mix A and mix B,’ but he said, ‘I know, personally, that it’s going to be better by the time I’m done with it.’ I just think that’s awesome.”
How is Jones’ in-studio training helping his own mixes?
“I feel like my vocals are able to float a little bit better within the mix,” he says,
“going into it kind of with the idea of how the compressor is going to work or work with my voice…It’s one of those things that certainly has been helpful and a tool to be able to kind of grow with that.”
Jones Nelson
It turns out the connections Jones is making in the studio are helping with his own projects, as well.
“I’m working on a solo record that hopefully we’ll have out the end of this year, beginning of next year,” he says.
“I’ve been recording all of the pieces myself. I’m a singer first, guitarist second, [then] everything else. So I’ve been doing everything, all the instrumentation myself and the writing myself—which is fine, I enjoy doing it—but I think one of the big things in working with Jamie and being able to be around some of the tracking sessions and just seeing some amazing studio musicians is to be able to procure the services [of] some folks that do this for a living, bringing in a professional drummer, a professional guitarist, because those little touches will make an enormous impact on the record itself.”
As Jones finishes up his apprenticeship, he’s got his eye on the future—not just for producing his own music, but also for putting his newfound studio skills to good use.
“Ideally, my five-year goal is that I’ll be running my own studio,” he says,
“so that I’m able to work with new bands and new artists and so forth to the point where I’m able to help them kind of realize their dreams and aspirations, while at the same time have the perfect conduit to be able to record my own music.”
Meanwhile, the opportunity to learn in a world-class Nashville studio alongside a top industry engineer has been priceless for Jones.
“I think it all comes back around to being in the real world,” he says.
“You can’t be taught the real world out of a book, you know…I mean, [Jamie’s] got a Grammy hanging on the wall…So I think more than anything, the big difference, if I had to say what the big difference would be going this route versus another, is that you’re getting a shot of real world confidence, because you know that you’re quite literally just one step away from being in the mix, so to speak.”
Jones Nelson is also 1/2 of
Nonskid Blondes. He and bandmate Nigel Pawson’s full-length release entitled “Unlike Skylight” hits October 27th! Hear a track in Apprentice Media below.
