Chris Longwood

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of touring possibly the most amazing recording studio in the world.
How did I get here??

Rewind to last month: Just out of curiosity.. I logged in to my United Airlines account to see how many miles I had, and to my surprise they expired at the end of the year! (if you had continental one pass miles – they are now united points… and they have a very short lifespan)

Without thinking too much about it, I booked a flight to Tokyo.

Sony Studios was definitely on the top of my list for things to see while I’m out here.
When I called them, I couldn’t communicate well enough to make an appointment. So I google mapped the studio, hopped on the Oedo line and found the studio.

Turned down.. Could’nt make it past the front desk.

Luckily my room-mate at the hostel is Japanese. And she was kind enough to call the studio and make an appointment for me. Thank you Nobue.

I met with a very welcoming team of people- Yumi Hanada (studio manager), Hiroya Takayama (recording engineer), and Noriko Fukushima (mastering engineer). They gave me the grand tour, the facility was incredible. I really felt like home.

Enough backstory.. Here are the pictures.

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2011/12/your_houston_city_limits_music.php

This is a sweet article Craig Hlavaty wrote- Lots of love for lots of projects I’ve worked on (Grandfather Child, Something Fierce, Runaway Sun, The Umbrella Man)

2012 is going to be rad. I have a feeling it’s going to be a successful year for the Houston music community.

things ive been working on in the last few weeks in no particular order

umbrella man, benjamin wesley, c’vo, runaway sun, macadams, leah white, austin smith, reddy redd, nbc’s the voice, ray wylie hubbard (a george rieff / steve christensen haunge)

i started school this week at u of h (learning). and i start teaching audio 4 next week at houston community college. got a sweet eq and compressor this month from igor (my crazy israeli connect— the dudes a genius), my rent’s cheaper this year, cool projects are on the calendar for next month (co-pilot, van wilks), life is good

Last Saturday, Roky Moon and BOLT! tore the roof off Fitzgeralds.
I think it might have been the best Houston show I’ve been to- and possibly the best attended show I’ve seen at fitz too.

It was super classy.

get the album here

happy birthday houston!

Celebrating, Preserving Houston History with Song: MyFoxHOUSTON.com

I’m about to finish up week 3 over in Round Top– thought I might post some pictures..
I’ve tried to explain this place to many people, and I really can’t. I guess it’s one of those things you need to see first hand.

check out a video they uploaded

The concert hall, from the outside

…and the inside

The chapel

..inside

Recording booth

….my bed…

(hey, it all cant be bells and whistles)

This weekend, I judged the Texas Folk Life Accordion Kings and Queens Competition for the third year. (www.texasfolklife.org) I really have a great time being there and watching the gunslingers of the accordion community. This year all of the finalists were very young, ranging from 12 – 16 years old. What a tough call – it was a toss up Ignacio Moreles (14), and Isiah Tellez (12) – Ignacio won, but there were some Judges that voted for Isiah to win.

(Ignacio Moreles)

(Isiah Tellez)