Heavy Footed

I started Heavy Footed with close friend Justin Aulis Long in 2013. We worked with an MPC 2000XL and a microKorg; no computer and no DAW. My old gray cat, Pépita, was hanging with us in the room, continuously trying to jump on a lap for warmth. It must have been Winter. Most of Heavy Footed came together in one session. After that day, the track waited for years on a Zip drive until 2021 when I recorded the parts out of the MPC into my Mac and Logic Pro. I kept working on the track, arranging it and adding new elements from the Arturia Pigments synthesizer. When I had it all there (meaning I was dancing to it in the studio by myself), I sent the stems to Brian Boncher to mix down. I remember Brian was excited to engineer the track because he’s usually working with computer music, meaning a track that’s been completely created “in the box”. But Heavy Footed was originally written on outboard gear and Brian was looking forward to mixing something that ran through an analog mix board. Brian brings his own creative flair to every mix and the crisp, punchy result here is a prime example of his precision ear. With the final mix in hand, I sent the pre-master to Dietrich Schoenemann. Dietrich is a sonic wizard living in New York, and he uses an all analog signal path for his process. What he returned is what you hear now. The warm color that Dietrich added is exactly what the groove needed. To bring the project full circle, I asked Justin to create an illustration to accompany the release of Heavy Footed. He created the brilliant image you see here and I did a bit to animate it. Music played, programmed, sequenced, edited, and recorded using the Akai MPC 2000XL, Korg microKorg, Arturia Pigments, and Logic Pro X by Maziar Namvar Additional keys by Justin Aulis Long Audio mix by Brian Boncher Audio mastering by Dietrich Schoenemann at Complete USA Illustration, collage, and layout by Justin Aulis Long Animation by Maziar Namvar ISRC: USQYW2200033 Copyright Control Fresh Meat Records 2022