In keeping with our promise to update studio news more often than once a year, we would like to present the 2012 Year In Review (Side 1)?

January and February saw Producer Casey Di Iorio start production on Jake Mai’s upcoming release along with tracking/mixing for Dallas band Siren Sea’s eponymous EP. Our good friends Here Holy Spain came in and began laying down very loud noises for their new album while The Blurries stopped by for a live video shoot?go check online. New Yorker Rachel Platten (Rock Ridge Music) & her band had a couple of days off from tour and decided to visit Valve and track a few new tunes. The Polyphonic Spree came in for 4 days in March to work on some new songs with Producer Eric Drew Feldman (PJ Harvey, Frank Black) and Casey Di Iorio engineering. Jason Weisenberg (Bobgoblin) started work on a 4 song EP and the dynamic duo Jarinus (Linus of Hollywood / Jaret Reddick) popped in to track 2 songs for their debut album.

In April, The Polyphonic Spree came in again for 8 more days of tracking new material. Matt Thompson was also in to track some more Bat Lanyard goodness, while mixes for Rachel Platten’s tunes were finished. If it wasn’t already busy enough around these parts May and June went to “eleven”? Producer Will Hunt (Evanescence, The Burning Hotels) came in with Houston band The 71’s to lay down tracks for their new record We Are The Seventy Ones (OUT NOW!). Casey Di Iorio laid down bass tracks and final overdubs for Jake Mai’s record and started tracking Dallas band The Brehms with producer John Dufilho, who also made a second appearance when he came back to work on songs for the upcoming Deathray Davies release. Jason Weisenberg’s album was mixed by Casey and Austinites Zest of Yore stopped by to do some work on their new album. Engineer Greg Gordon (Jet, Barkmarket, System of A Down) came from LA with Producer Dino Paredes (American Recordings) to record vocals with Tom Araya for the upcoming Slayer album. Note: always keep brownies in stock. Then last, but not least The Polyphonic Spree came back in for a few weeks to track their new holiday album with the same crew of Eric Drew Feldman producing and Casey Di Iorio engineering. The Holiday magic be out in October!

NEW GEAR: 2 Retro 176s, 2 Korby Audio U67 mod mics, 2 Wunder PEQ1, Evil Twin Bass DI, ProTools 10

Testing, testing? Is this thing on? Oh, hello there!

So, yeah? We’re running a little behind with the updates but, 2011 was too good a year not to at least give the low down so, here’s the “highlight reel”.

The first half of the year saw producer Casey Di Iorio doing the final tracking and mixing for The Blurries “Paper Cuts” record which was then mastered by the legendary Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound. If you don’t own this by now, go get it. John Dufilho came in to work on some new Deathray Davies tunes, Michael Jerome (Course of Empire, Richard Thompson, Better Than Ezra) flew in to lay down some sweet drums tracks for the upcoming Bat Lanyard release and Dylan Silvers ([DARYL], The Crash That Took Me, Polyphonic Spree) worked with Casey Di Iorio producing the vocal & bass tracks for his new project ‘These Machines are Winning’. Producer Will Hunt (Evanescence, The Burning Hotels) was in the house with Houstonites The 71’s cutting basic tracks and local favorites Here Holy Spain finished up their sophomore release “Division” with Casey, which was artfully mastered by Alan Douches.

In the immortal words of Billy Mays, “Wait! There’s more.”

2011 really finished strong with the tracking and mixing of new Bowling for Soup songs by Casey Di Iorio. Then John Dufilho made 2 more appearances, the first as Co-Producer along side Casey Di Iorio for Darstar’s Tiny Darkness album (Idol Records) and then again for a bit of tracking for Dufilho’s own John Singer Sergeant record (Kirtland Records). Production for Jake Mai’s upcoming release started with Casey Di Iorio at the helm producing while The Minor Prophets recorded and mixed their sophomore release “The Way”. Rounding out the year producer Daniel Mendez (Duran Duran, Lit, Dashboard Confessional) was in for 10 days recording tracks for Lucy Ever After, with Casey Di Iorio on guitar. Will Hunt reappeared once again for more tracking with The 71’s.

As you can see 2011 was a crazy year and we were lucky to work with such great artists, engineers and producers. We promise to try to get updates out more frequently as 2012 is only halfway through and it’s already a doozy!