Squirrels From Hell reflect on their experience at the Kennel

Posted 24 September 2009, 23:46 by The Kennel

Recently, we asked our clients to write a few words about The Kennel. Everyone wrote many nice things, for which we are grateful. But one band’s story stood out.

We took a look at the Kennel when we were evaluating options for recording some new tunes we’d been working on for a few months. We had heard good things, and our initial tour seemed to validate what others had said: great board, great equipment, cool people, and a real pro vibe.  So we booked it.

I was shocked when I arrived for the first session and the drum sound had been established; I’ve sat through hours of drum setup in the past, and since I’m a guitar player I found these to be almost unbearable. But our drummer Larry was already happy when I arrived, and that doesn’t happen frequently. The rest of the setup was quick and delivered the sounds we wanted for guitar, bass, and sax. Later, the vocal setups were a breeze as well. We were looking for a live performance sound; raw and energetic, and the Kennel delivered.

What we liked even more than the equipment and setup was the support Billy and Jim provided as the sessions continued. They were kind when they heard technical issues that we didn’t pick up on, and sometimes gently prodded with a strategic “Hey, we both know you can do better than that.” We were real happy with the pace though; we never felt we were captive to the engineer or producer’s obsessions, just our own.

The mix went great, even though only one of our band members could attend. We laid out what we were looking for at the very beginning, reviewed it before the mix, and when we heard the mix we loved it. Sure, we made a couple of tweaks, but at the price we were paying we could afford it. We’ve got the finished product up as MP3s if you want to check it out. It’s awesome, like the Kennel.