Site News on Tate Eskew

What a year!

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 05:52:17 +0000

Well, nothing like not posting for a year and coming out swinging. By the subject of my last post, I’m sure all of you know what I have been up to over the past 10 months. That’s right, baby wrangling. What can I say, it has been an amazing experience and Ruby is absolutely wonderful. Hence, the reason there are no posts here for nearly a year. Although, I have indeed come back to internet life and redesigned the website. I have been meaning to do it for quite some time, but I always mean to do things with free time and consistently fail at finishing said things, but not this time!

Ruby Arrives

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 06:17:12 +0000

Well, we did it (Actually, Amy did it). We had our beautiful baby girl. As you can see by the lack of posts here, we’ve been just a tad busy with everything. Mostly we’ve been staring at Ruby Jessica, but we’ve also been enjoying family and friends, baking bread, planning gardens, losing our baby weight, reading, etc.

Two things that are of the music-related sort that I should probably mention. My incredible friend Chad Blinman started teaching at Berklee College of Music this semester and I’m very happy for him. He’s a great engineer and an even better human being. Good luck Chad and Nicole!
Also, my friends Nate Dort and Josh are going to be doing the RPM challenge this year and I wish them luck. I may stop by for a guitar track here and there, but I won’t be involved in the capacity that these two will be. Enjoy the process, guys.

Whoa, see ya summer…

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 21:48:39 +0000

I’ve been crazy busy, what with the baby coming, taking care of this 5 acres of land, staying in San Francisco for a week, and on and on. Watch out summer, you’ll be gone soon and everyone’s favorite season will be upon us. So, some bullet points:

Planting grapes, fruit trees, and nut trees on the property
Fixing up the nursery
Not recording music
Sucking up information at an alarming rate

New year, new ideas, and work

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:02:02 +0000

Well, that first month didn’t take long to pass, did it? I kept busy over the last month by starting a pretty nice exercise regime, building a whole new infrastructure for work, and getting the bicycle ready for spring riding and commuting (if I can talk my wife into letting me ride 15 miles one way to work. she thinks I’ll be killed.)

I’m back to running anywhere from 5-10 miles every morning and enjoying it. I’m seriously thinking about running a 25k in June.

Bandcamp and quality

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:21:00 +0000

You know, we engineers spend ridiculous amounts of money on preamps, compressors, eq, etc., yet when all is said and done, the end result is compressed into some horrible sounding mp3 file and listened to on a pair of crappy earbuds. My friend Chad and I have discussed this ad nauseam. We even started Functional Equivalent Recordings so that we would have a place to not only release our music in the form we want it to be heard in, but also to express that we want higher fidelity in the recordings released by all artists, which we don’t find to be particularly ground-breaking and wonder why this isn’t the norm already.

Bands In Town

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:21:51 +0000

Bands in Town is something I came across today and it seems pretty cool. It shows a tag cloud of artists that are playing in a specified area and the dates when they play. It will even let you take a listen to the band via a streaming player.

last.fm users can log in using their username/pass and it will filter to bands that it thinks you’ll like. You can also filter based on location and distance from that location.

There actually may be a hell

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:30:13 +0000

…or maybe there is a hell in the making and it’s practicing the heating technique here in Middle Tennessee in early June. Anyway, it’s damn hot and if you plan on doing anything outside, say like mowing 5 acres, moving rock, trying to clear a space for your child’s cabin/playset, running long distances, picking strawberries, playing washers, or drinking beer then you better be out there before 10 am.

There is a possibility that the build-out of the new studio may resume here shortly. we will see how things pan out, but I’m pretty damn excited that it may continue within the next couple of months.

Settling in the new house

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:15:05 +0000

Well, it’s been a few weeks. We are getting settled in the new house and I think I’m going to set up to record some stuff while we plan the studio design for the build out on the back acreage. I think I’m really close to the overall design/layout of the new studio. I’ll post a drawing of it soon to see what everyone thinks. you can then offer your suggestions and i will dismiss them immediately since it’s not your studio! cool, eh?!

guitar rising…

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:18:13 +0000

well, it seems that someone has finally figured out a way to use a real guitar plugged into your pc soundcard to control a “guitar hero-like” game called guitar rising. (sorry for the shitty photo to the left)

i think i like this idea much better than the idea of guitar hero. this actually has some real world usefulness to it. i think this could be a great learning tool for people that want to learn how to play and it would probably help timing issues for people that already do play the instrument. the game isn’t out yet, but the makers state that their company is “…an independent video game development studio dedicated to bringing unique games and genres to market. GameTank was founded to develop games that enable players to acquire real-world skills while being thoroughly entertained.”

donation buttons…

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 20:17:57 +0000

i’ve actually taken the time to put a donation button scheme together. you can select your level of sponsorship by going here. once there you can choose one of 3 levels (amounts of money). the first is bill gates, second is steve jobs and the woz and the third is linus torvalds. you’ll then have a chance to enter a message and donate the amount selected. once you donate you will see your donation in the “donate” box on the sidebar over there ====»

david byrne – other peoples problems

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 05:00:12 +0000

there is a fantastic david byrne article over at wired magazine’s site. i love pretty much everything david byrne does, yes, even that crazy french shit on one of his recent albums. he’s always been an incredibly insightful person with regards to the music industry and this article is no different. i have to say that his outlook on this whole craptastic music industry is quite inspiring and i hope he’s right. this is the stuff i am most interested in with regards to what “models” work in this day and age.

armadillo run

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 03:38:32 +0000

okay, tad turned me onto this and now i have to send someone over to snuff him out. it’s goddamn addictive. this is a warning to you all. absolutely do not download this.

actually,go ahead…download it and ruin your life. thinking about going to the museum this weekend? how about meeting up with friends for a drink? perhaps you want to go check out that band you’ve been reluctant to go see because you’ve heard they have a drummer who thinks he’s in some mid-70’s prog band. well, forget about all of that shit. the physics of the armadillo run have got you by the privates, my friends.

summer coming to an end…

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 01:42:54 +0000

well, a whole summer has passed since my last post. we’ve been incredibly busy building a new house on 5 acres east of Nashville. we are really excited and can’t wait to get our things moved in. it looks like we will be able to move in the second week of november. i will also be starting on the new studio as soon as we get moved in. the slab floor is poured, the exterior walls are studded, the plumbing for the kitchen and bathroom are already roughed in and i should be ordering the trusses by the end of november. the studio build-out will be a drawn out effort as it will be built with quality and when money is available to put forth. in the meantime i will setup the console/gear in the new 2 car garage and finish my record starting in december.

Moving and life…

Mon, 07 May 2007 18:50:42 +0000

Well, we close on a new house later this month so everything regarding the studio and album is kind of on hold until everything can be settled. the new place will be on 5 acres east of Nashville. The new studio will be a 1200 square foot facility that will have it’s own kitchen/bathroom. I’m extremely excited and can’t wait to get started. there is a lot of construction to finish up, but it will be completely worth it in the end. I will definitely document the process as I did with the last build-out.

Records and studio update

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 16:48:45 +0000

It’s a good time of the year. Things are incredibly busy here as of late. I just finished tracking basics for the new Sequoia album here at Zero Art Studio and spirits are high there. I’ve also found a little bit of time to work on Semiotics, which is taking much longer to do because I keep adding more and more projects to the plate.

Mock Orange was recently here at Zero Art Studio mixing their upcoming album, which is still untitled at this point I believe. It sounds good, trust me.

Looking for trumpet and cello…

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 19:33:31 +0000

I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m looking for a trumpet and/or cello player to play on the record. Progress is being made on the album and I would like to add a few more players to the project. If you know of anyone, or you yourself play, contact me with the contact form on this site.

Please go see TJO while she’s out on tour.

tateeskew.com in the works…

Sat, 23 Sep 2006 05:11:18 +0000

this will be the official page of tate eskew. this site will contain information regarding the music and projects that tate is involved with and it will also showcase the newly built zero art recording studio. there are a lot of things to complete on the site and it may be in flux as you browse around. there are things coming. you’ll see.