Musician Floyd White in his home studio in Waterville. Staff file photo
From the standpoint of the recording side of the Maine music scene, here in central Maine we have several excellent studios one can choose from including the Root Cellar (with Bob Colwell) and Cavern Recording (with Floyd White). The latter of the two is the subject of today’s column — last month, when I interviewed Jim Whitman, the Pittsfield resident sang the praises of White’s production, his arranging skills, the instrumental embellishments he supplied and White’s new album, released not that long ago. That was the trigger for today’s column. I hadn’t been in touch with White in quite a while, so I contacted him to see if he’d be willing to chat about that new album and how things are going at the Cavern during this pandemic. … He was happy to reconnect, and I called him on the 27th of July.
White: It’s been quite a while since I talked to you.
Q: Yeah, that’s the truth.
White: So, what are you doing now — not CD reviews any more, right?
Q: No, I’m just doing interviews for performances, but with this COVID-19 thing happening I’ve just been reconnecting with folks who’ve been impacted by this pandemic. A couple of weeks ago I touched bases with your old pal Jim Whitman.
White: Yeah, he called me after that, and I read his article, too. … Jim and I do go back quite a ways.
Q: Yeah, when he mentioned you I decided to try to get back in touch with you to see what you’ve been doing lately, both music-wise and coronavirus-wise. To begin with, Jim said you have a newish CD out — can we talk about that?
White: Sure, I’ve got one that came out a year ago or maybe a little longer, but yeah, that’s an album I have out. I’m just finishing a new one now. … It’s a long story, but I’m nearly in transition to a new computer system in the studio here. The pandemic has changed some of the ideas I had about that.
Q: How so?
White: What it did was it pushed it back a little bit. … I was basically locked down for like four months. I didn’t let anybody in at all, and now there’s no reason to change that. The pandemic’s not gone. But I rethought how I could do business, and that’s been part-time for me for some time.
Q: A new computer system, Floyd?
White: Yeah, I’m going to be putting it in next month, I hope — and some new hardware, too. … It’s never-ending, you know? And I’m kind of a gear-head anyway; I love gear and hardware. I’m always looking at, “What can I get now?” But mostly it’s “What can I afford now?” because studio equipment is very expensive.
Q: Well, in this digital age, that’s not surprising. I mean, I remember vinyl and 8-tracks, for gosh sakes, now it’s mp3s and downloads.
White: Well, I’m a vinyl and analog fan. I still get people in that want to use the analog and I still have that available.
Q: No way!
White: I still have my big, old analog multi-tracking 24-track, and I can still use it (laughter).
Q: That’s so cool, man.
White: Well, the thing is, it takes longer. A couple of years ago I had a young band come in that wanted to go analog — a lot of rock bands like it for the warmth quality to the sound — but, anyway, I told the young guys that it would take longer using analog. I told them, “The one thing you need to remember is that the tape machine has to rewind, so it’s not instantaneous. If you blow a song and want to redo it, I’ve got to rewind the tape back to that point and record over it.”
Q: Now, from the old to the new — album! Can you talk a little more about that?
White: I’ve got the album all done in the old system, and I sent it to a guy in South Africa to master. … He sent it back, but the vocals weren’t what I really wanted. They were too loud and too up-front making it sound like karaoke to me. So, I decided to ditch the whole thing and remix it all on the new system. When I started mixing it I realized, “Oh, wow, this is a whole new world. There’s all new reverbs and plug-ins and all that stuff. … everything’s different.” So, as I’m working on it, I ended up adding new instrumentation, and stuff like that — expanding on some of the things I had done on the old system. The problem is that it’s been long enough now that I’ve got two or three more songs that I might add that I haven’t even recorded yet. … So it may be a while. It may be a little while, because I have 11 songs on it as it is.
Q: And while we’re on the topic of albums, could you talk about the one that’s been out a while?
White: Well, it’s called “Liquid Rock.” That album is, well, it’s not heavy, but it certainly moves (chuckle). It doesn’t sit still; there aren’t any slow songs on it at all — nothing like that. I’m very proud of that album; I really am. I think it came out great. It’s got a little edge to it; it’s not heavy, but it’s got an edge to it.
Q: Does the new one have a title yet?
White: I haven’t decided yet on the new one. I don’t know what I’ll call it.
Q: Just out of curiosity, how long have you had your studio?
White: I’ve been here 29 years — I know, it’s crazy. I can’t even believe it, but I opened in ’91. And music has changed so much since then because in those days grunge was king. I mean, after Nirvana and Tool I had bazillions of young bands, like late teens/early 20s come it and try to emulate that kind of music. … I can’t tell you how many bands I did back there. Then there was the heavy metallers. Some of them made me laugh; they’d be in the studio screaming, “Die! Die! Die!” then during the playback, they’d go, “Oh, Floyd, that sounds great. Thank you, man!” They were very polite and soft-spoken, and I don’t mind recording that stuff. It’s kind of a challenge, honestly.
Q: Is there anything you’d like me to pass on to the folks reading this article?
White: Not really, but if you want you could run the studio number (207-873-1988) and the website which is www.cavernrecording.com.
Q: Thank you, Floyd … consider it done!
Lucky Clark has spent over 50 years writing about good music and the people who make it. He can be reached at luckyc@myfairpoint.net if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.
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