PHOTO BY COSMIC FROGS
50 San Diego Reader December 15, 2016
really rewarding because she loved the music.... “The best part of this job
continued from page 48
Legoland, country clubs, retirement homes, casinos, and private parties.” The gigs can range from the big spectacle to the
Full Measure Carolers owner Ryan (second from left) may sing 20 gigs on Christams Eve: “You’re exhausted.”
intimate, according to Whit- taker. “We did a military- base party where Santa and his elves jumped out of a Black Hawk helicopter and parachuted down to the tarmac while we were caroling. On the other end of the spectrum, we sang in a room where a woman was dying. Her daughter hired us to come and sing for an hour every day and we would gather around her bed at the old-folks’ home for almost a month before she passed. That was hard to do but
is getting to interact with people with very little dis- tance between the perform- ers and the audience,” says Ryan, who, like Whittaker, has years of experience in more formal settings like churches and opera houses. “The worst part,” says Whittaker, “is on Christmas Eve when you’ve done 20 gigs. There’s a lot of running around and changing cos- tumes out of the trunk of your car. You’re exhausted and you realize you haven’t done anything to cele- brate the holidays for yourself.” The Full
Measure Carolers appear at the Las Americas Premium Outlets on December 17 at 2 p.m. and the California Bal-
let Nutcracker at 6 p.m. — Robert Bush
First one’s free. Scott Lehman left Canada a year ago when his wife got a plum job as a cancer researcher at Salk Institute. The guitarist/ keyboardist had spent three years in Acronycal, a Foo Fighter-ish band that had released albums and toured North America.
The band mattered in
the Edmonton, Alberta, rock scene, “but at the end of a tour it was clear we just weren’t that good.” He helped his friend build Edmonton recording studio Velveteen Audio and in exchange he learned audio recording. “We had toured San
Diego, but I didn’t know that much about it. It’s big but it doesn’t seem like a big city. It seems like everyone knows everybody.” Because Lehman wanted
to keep involved in music, he sent out social-media blasts saying he would produce one song for free for any band that was inter- ested, hoping that the band would like his work and then hire him to produce the rest of the album. “I searched venues for band names and started emailing them, telling them I had the gear and I would go to their
Scott Lehman recording Fake Tides: “There’s a thousand bands in San Diego. If bands really like you, they will work with you.”
free offer. “They were on [start-up
label] Chuck Records.” That Chuck Records hook-up led to recording projects with Fake Tides and Pueblo. Lehman says his word-of- mouth then led to sessions
He says he would one day
like to have a home studio for his Blowhole Sound company but is now pleased to have access to Rarified Recording in North Park. Lehman admits his $10/ hour fee is what keeps his
jam spaces.” South Bay surf/punk band
Low Shadows took him up on his offer. They ended up using him for the album. He says that was the last time he had to use the first-one’s-
with local bands Low Points, Splavender, Boychick, Oh Spirit, rap artist Cali Cam, and Temecula’s Funk Shui Planet. Lehman is currently working with “indie-soul” artist Aquille.
calendar full. “I went on a tour pricing studios in Hollywood. I went to a studio called East West. It was beautiful, but it was $2000 a day. I realized most people don’t have a budget for that and I had to start smaller. Because my wife has a real good job, I can do it this way.” But doesn’t he worry that
he will piss off producers who make their living from studio recording? “There’s a thousand bands
in San Diego. If bands really like you, they will work with you, no matter what it costs. With the economy the way it is, I think bands respond to a good deal. But I don’t want
to be undercutting forever.” — Ken Leighton
Find Blurt online at
SDReader.com/blurt
CONTRIBUTORS Chad Deal, Dave Good, Dorian Hargrove, Mary Leary, Ken Leighton, Bart Mendoza, Jay Allen Sanford, David Stampone
Friday December 16 Shocks Of Mighty
Nothing Special (No Cover)
Saturday December 17 Zen Robbi
Funk Fairies (No Cover)
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