Warpaint Studio

Casey and I were playing out front of Warpaint Studio when Derek Knowlton, the owner, emerged.  He said, “Hey man, you need a foot tambourine.”  He soon brought one. Casey put it on his foot and jangled out the beat.  Derek listened for a minute.  A couple days later Derek sent a text.  

He had a new recording studio in the basement of Warpaint, and wanted Casey to check it out.  Casey responded, “How about we just record something?”  We didn’t set a date, instead spontaneously, on Friday July 26 2013, Derek called and we were free.  

Warpaint is gone now, turned into another business, but at one time it was where Derek designed and printed his edgy artwork.  It was the place the Flaming Lips got their far-out rainbow uniforms screen-printed. We were led down a dark subterranean stairway, creeping slowly on the unfamiliar steps, crouching to avoid a low head-splitting beam.  The inner-sanctum recording studio was tidy. Many instruments and black cases surrounded us. All well organized and dust free.  Gently trickling water flowed constantly through a cast-iron pipe in one corner. Soft sounds of the Plaza street life filtered down.  We decided to record a Cajun murder ballad by the Red Stick Ramblers called “Les Oiseaux Vont Chanter” which translated means “The Birds Will Sing.”
A couple weeks later Derek sent us the file. We liked the way it sounded through the stereo. That night Casey made a slapdash photomontage video for the song, our first year in pictures.  While listening to the song over and over, and creating the video, Casey shed a single tear because he was so happy his friend had made a recording for him, and it was good.

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