Minus the Bear’s latest album, ‘OMNI’, hits stores today, and if you want to give it a test run before making a purchase decision, you can steam it here.
A bit of insight into ‘OMNI’ (from Dangerbird Records): This time out MTB wanted to collaborate with an outside producer and began interviewing potential candidates. Joe Chiccarelli (My Morning Jacket, The White Stripes, The Shins) flew up to Seattle and the rapport was immediate, with producer and band in agreement about how to proceed.
“We played the songs for Joe in our rehearsal space and he had a ton of ideas,” Snider says. “He had a great sense of where things could be trimmed, so he was a good set of ears to help us edit what we were trying to get across.”
On April 27, 2009, Minus the Bear began sessions at Seattle’s Avast! Recording Studios, opting to take a more organic approach towards recording. A conscious effort was made to play together as much as possible, eschewing the usual scratch tracks and overdubs whenever possible.
“He was really awesome about wanting to find the perfect sound before we even started tracking the songs,” Knudson says. “That was a big thing for us, changing the way we record, trying to keep as much of the performances that we were doing in the studio together to maintain the energy.”
“Joe kicked a lot of us in the ass more than any of us had ever been kicked in the ass before,” Knudson says. “We were doing 10 or 12 takes, more than any of us had ever played, but obviously all those takes paid off. He broke us down and made us evaluate what we were doing and maybe made us think of it from a different perspective.”
