Ballads of Mirror Road Project Log
- Zach Miller
- Jul 5
- 16 min read
Artist: Checker Bloom
Project Type: LP
Location: Bellingham
Year: 2023-24
Role: Artist, Producer, Engineer
The Backstory
What better a way to kick off my collection of project logs than with a recount of Ballads of Mirror Road. An album I can claim artistic stake in as a proud member of the rippin rock outfit Checker Bloom. When I first joined the band back in March of 2023, creative helmsman and frontman Bryan Hatchell had already molded a number of demos for the tunes that make up the final tracklist alongside his trusty rhythm section: Jonny Roberts (Drums) and Martin Pittis (Bass). From the first time I got in the room to play with these guys, I knew they meant business. Since then, they’ve become some of my closest friends.
Through the summer of 2023, we played a bunch of shows, did a regional tour and were continuing to write and explore new sounds. We recorded a couple singles (Soul Shine & To the 9s) which I considered to be a bit of a proving ground for the guys to trust me with my recording, mixing and production capabilities. These singles rounded out the self-titled EP that had been in process before my time and signified the end of an era for the sonic interests of the band. It was time to head to the wasteland on Mirror Road.
Process & Approach
As most projects were for me at the time, I knew this album was going to be a hodgepodge of studio sessions at various locations depending on the members’ overlapping free time and the sonic requirements of each track. Generally, I knew I was going to do drums and lead vocals in other studios, but my place was perfect for the early stages, as well as final tracks for bass and guitars.
I was renting a small mother-in-law suite on a chunk of land just south of Bellingham. It had a shop room attached outside which I had built out and treated as my booth, connected to my desk in the living room.
In September of 2023, the band’s weekly Tuesday night get together became recording nights at my place. Mapping out songs, writing new parts, printing tunes into ProTools and chipping away at our debut album.
Tracks & Session Notes
"Let Me In"
Let Me In was one of the tunes the guys had pretty locked in before I joined up. It was well known that this was going to be the opening track. We’d been opening our shows with it all summer and it just felt right. Bryan’s lyrics rely on a sense of brooding and simmering tension, which was the basis for how we wanted the song to sound. Lines like “for hopeless hearts, empathy is a weapon” and “one step closer all’s mine in a second” sum up the approach. I wanted it to feel like Bryan was going to jump out of the speakers and grab the listener by the throat.
Drums were done at Alpenglow Sound making use of the fantastic vintage ludwig kit there. The target was a tight rock kit with a gunshot snare. We had the kit set up in the dead room, and I was experimenting with cymbal imaging at the time. In addition to the AEG stereo tube condenser over the kit, I had sk-46 ribbons off to the sides of the kit in hopes of wider cymbal and tom imaging. These blended well with the overheads and phase issues were minimal. I’d do this setup again in a heartbeat! It sounded great. I also kept the doorway to the hall open and a 44BX out there being smashed into an 1176. Not too much of this mic made the final mix, but having a crush mic is always nice for building energy throughout a track.
The Hammond at Alpenglow also featured on this track. Guitars were all done at my place. The outro lead line, which to me became an integral part of the identity in the final mix, was one of my first efforts with a new fuzz overdrive situation I’d been working with. I’d recently become a member of the Empress Zoia club (about the nerdiest pedal ever made) and I was experimenting with using it to recreate overdrive and fuzz circuits. The result is still one of the meanest guitar sounds I’ve come up with to this date, Which with some variation, featured on a number of tracks across this album.
The most memorable session on this song was a bgv night at my place. I had all the guys out in the booth to do gang vocals on the “Let me in!!” shouts throughout the song. This spiraled into them shouting, hollering and pounding on the door to the booth, which can be heard clearly towards the end of the song. While Jonny and Martin were out there, they also came across some allen keys of mine which Jonny started hitting along with the groove of the song, enhancing the triplet feel. The allen keys ended up featuring across the entire track.
"Wastelander"
Wastelander was the second single off the record and a song Bryan viewed as the heart of the album. Lyrically, he attacks industry and the wealthy folks that have no concept of the destruction they can cause until it has already occurred. The hook of the chorus drives this home eloquently “It’s like you never thought the light so beautiful until you saw it through the smoke”. We always thought of this song as a soundtrack to a road war in Mad Max. I wanted listeners to feel the searing speed of the desert rock influences as a step up in temperature from the simmer of “Let Me In”
Let Me In and Wastelander shared a drum session. The kit was exactly the same. I had planned this out based on the references and target sound we were going for on both of these tracks. That big gunshot snare is right up front and becomes a big part of the Wastelander sound. Though the kit is the same as the last track, the way Jonny played it completely changed. His west coast surf rock fills reinforced the breakneck speed that the tone of this track implies.
The breakdown before the bridge of Wastelander is the first you hear of what I've coined the "Mirror Road Effect" I'm not sure this has been mentioned in any other public spaces, but it may be too convoluted for that anyways. For those that care, I'm referring to a reversed glass breaking texture that can be first heard through the bridge of this song. The name of the album comes from the concept that Mirror Road is a place folks are trying to get to. It's a place of introspection, reflection and clarity. Lyrically, a lot of the record focuses on these principles through different lenses and applies them to different scenarios through life in the real world and in the wasteland. What you hear through the breakdown, and in various other parts of the album is what it sounds like to be on Mirror Road.
“Tally Ho”
Lyrically, this is a bit of a sister track to “Wastelander” regarding Bryan’s disdain for those who leave a path of destruction while padding their pockets. Trying to convey a bit of a punk influence, I wanted to pull some production tropes of the genre onto this track to bring it some extra scorn. For me, that meant a more raw, dry drum kit. Though it was the same drum kit that was on the first two tracks, Mic placement and tuning varied to accommodate the genre pull. There’s also more of an introduction to the transitional effects of the album on this track. I’ll often make a bank of risers, sfx or feedback swells for any project I’m working on. Records should sound memorable to new listeners and familiar/iconic to a fan when they put it on. Having a folder of reusable sounds helps craft the world you want to place the listener in when they consume your music. They should feel personally addressed!
Anyways, vocals were a blast on Tally Ho. On another one of our long delirious bgv sessions, Martin shrieked out the second verse adlibs in my booth. I would get a loose list together for each band member to go out on their own to the booth and get done whatever overdubs I had cued up for them. At this point we were well into winter, so it was a chilly walk from the house out to the cozy recording booth. I did my best to minimize trips back and forth.
I go through bouts of missing my setup there. Something about walking outside to the booth made me feel a little more like I was leaving the house to go to work, which always seems to make me more productive. Nowadays, I’m recording dead things like vocals or acoustic instruments in my control room, or in booths when renting other studios.
“Who Is Michael”
Drums for Michael were tracked on the same day as Tally Ho. I believe we swapped out a snare, but otherwise the kit was identical. I was going for the same tight and dry source tracks, but I was targeting more of a 70s funk sound similar to The Gap Band. I was also pulling more modern references such as Young the Giant and some Franz Ferdinand. On drum day, I also had Martin in the studio tracking some
bass. I wanted him there because the bass part on Michael is pretty intense, so any input from Martin on what Jonny was playing would be useful for choosing which drum fills went where, in addition to what part of the kit was carrying the groove. Plus Jonny and Martin have been playing together a long while and communicate really well.
I was quite adamant about the tightness of all the parts on this song. Of all the songs on the record, I probably spent the most time editing on Michael. When I was tracking rhythm guitars, I was extra conscious of my picking, and where the tone sat within the mix. All of the rhythm tones on this song came from a hardtail Harley Benton Jaguar fitted with p90s plugged directly into the desk. I often track rhythm guitars DI because it’s easier to hear imperfections and get a tight edit before re-amping the comped part. If you listen closely in headphones, there are some sneaky overdub guitar parts that sit pretty low in the mix. Especially from the second chorus through the solo.
Signs of Life
As an engineer and musician, I’m incredibly proud of this track. Really fantastic captures of really great performances across the board, with minimal editing. The drum sound being the pinnacle of my engineering accomplishments to this date. The way it sounds on the record is damn near exactly how it sounded when we tracked it.
Drums were tracked at Empty Sea. I had Jonny bring a second kick drum, so we could do a “kick cannon”. One batter head, open back on the main kick, then just a reso head on the extension. I wanted a roomy sound, with a super deep kick, clear glossy toms, and light/bright cymbals. Sometimes, I’ll have a strong understanding of exactly what I want for a track. One way I can convey that for drums is by programming the basic groove of the song and achieving the sound through midi kits. I did that for this song before the recording day and got the band on board with the sound I wanted to chase.
EQ and Compression were the only processing applied to the kit and most of it was baked in on recording day. Empty Sea has a wonderful selection of pre-amps and outboard processing, so I always make a spreadsheet in preparation the day before the session so I can keep my head on straight, and focus on having an ear for the song and the sounds I am capturing instead of spiraling about routing for the whole session.
Anyone who has played music with me knows I have quite a bit of love for Dire Straits, and I have no shame in admitting my lead tone on this track is an uncanny replication of Mark Knopfler’s signature strat tone and play style. Songs like “Once Upon a Time in the West” were high in my listening rotation around the time we were writing the album. I’ve never had a clean fender tube amp, so I’ve always been barely out of reach when it comes to the Knopfler sound. Luckily, I was able to re-amp my guitar at Alpenglow through the Princeton there. The fet-47 came in handy for adding clarity and depth to the tone.
Lyrically, this song does quite a bit of lore building for the wasteland of Mirror Road. The story that plays out in the song offers a window into the chaotic hierarchy that is created in a lawless world.
The One That Loves Me Best
Ahh yes our campfire song. The bones of this song were assembled before I joined the band. Written on an acoustic guitar, within an hour. We wanted to save that initial feeling, but also work the production into the sound of the record. Lyrically it conveys the idea of a love affair gone wrong, with masochistic tendencies sprinkled in. Certainly a story from a broken world.
This is the only song where we tracked drums at my old place. It was a super paired down kit, just kick, snare floor tom, hihat and crash with a sizzle on it. As you can see from the photo, fitting anything else in would’ve been a bit ridiculous. That said, I was super pleased with the results, and it led me to doing some other small drum sessions in that room. The rest of the parts came together quite quickly. Martin tracked upright bass, which I had never done before. I still have some exploration to do on mic’ing techniques for that instrument, but a 7b on the body and pencil condenser on the neck mixed with the DI seemed to do the job just fine.
I believe this is the only song where Martin ventures off of bass. He tracked one of the two finger-picked acoustic parts with me. The main reason being, when the song was written, he was playing the acoustic part which really set the tone for the whole song. I really love doubled acoustic guitars, and when possible, I quite enjoy tracking them at the same time. Something about two different players bringing their own style to the same part, panning it wide and easing it down into the mix just brings so much life to a song. We sat facing each other in my booth, and each guitar was outfitted with my top secret goated acoustic guitar mic array.
The finishing touch came in the form of the smokey electric guitar part heard across the song. I was feeling like there was no strong sonic connection to the rest of the album, and also that the whole tune was feeling a bit dry. Though I was met with some resistance when I sent it out to the boys, in the end we all agreed that it brought the tune into the sonic sphere of the record and scratched the itch of our feelings of incompleteness on the production.
This is also the only tune I can claim any lyrical input on. Originally, the bridge was instrumental. Bryan had an inkling of an idea for additional storytelling over the bridge, and we sat down and hashed it out together in the later stage of the record, with it culminating as a vocal line Martin and I sing on our own.
Bubble
Bryan brings out his inner crooner on this deeper cut, with sonic references to one of his favorite bands, Arctic Monkeys. I would say this is one of the more experimental songs on the album, with samples of grandfather clocks, expansive synthesizer patches, and two substantial tempo changes being brought into the more familiar palette of the band.
This was another song where we double-teamed the acoustic guitar tracking, with Bryan joining me in the booth. I would say these acoustics are where I most prefer the result of shared tracking, because we are both gently strumming instead of fingerpicking. The sonic result is a lovely rhythmic texture that makes the whole mix feel a bit more velvet-like. The textures in the verses leave a ton of space for Bryan’s lyrics and vocal melodies to take the spotlight.
The drum kit on this song is identical to the kit on Signs of Life aside from the snare, and was tracked on the same day. Tracking on Signs went quickly, and in the late afternoon/evening, we tracked Bubble. I didn’t end up utilizing the kick cannon we had set up, though I suppose it still had an effect on the other mics. I was so in love with the imaging of the kit shells in the overheads that I kind of overlooked cymbal positioning. In the end, I got what I needed from the set of Coles I had positioned far behind the kit, wide in the room.
We spent quite a bit of time getting the snare to sound exactly how we wanted it to. It was perfect. We started tracking and things were sounding great. Maybe 45 minutes in, sometime in the second verse, Jonny goes “uhh guys? hold on a sec” and takes off his headphones and starts messing with the snare. Jonny does this thing throughout his life where he reacts as if someone died at the slightest inconvenience, so we never know how bad a situation is until he tells us what’s happening. Turned out, the snare wire tensioner had snapped. Shit. There goes our perfect snare. After attempting to fix it and figuring out how to proceed for another half hour or so, Jonny was able to strap the wires back on somehow, but it just wasn’t the same. I mustered as much positivity as I could and we pressed on through the rest of the tune. I knew I was going to have to trigger it, but I wasn’t gonna ruin the vibe over a broken snare. So if you notice a difference sometime in the second verse onwards, there’s your explanation.
All Things End
All Things End very well could be the heaviest Checker Bloom song that will be released. For the foreseeable future at least. All members of the band, including myself, have explored the world of grunge. Bryan has some prog references for the tune as well. Power chords, heavy fuzz, distortion and searing leads spatter the canvas in this otherworldly tale.
Good Lord. 5 toms. I was stressin. This was the second day of our time at Empty Sea in the first week of January 2024. With Signs and Bubble under our belts the day before, we were firing on all cylinders. I pulled the shoulder mics and exchanged them for two close mics with different preamps on the additional toms, and Jonny got out Bill’s Ludwig Black Beauty which we had rented for the weekend. We had a hell of a time making the fourth rack tom sound good, but with some tuning and damping, the kit was sounding massive. In one memorable moment from the session, we had Bryan go out into the live room to do a double cymbal choke that Jonny didn't have enough hands to pull off. Whatever it takes!
In natural grunge fashion, everything has to be huge. Huge drums? Check. Now for huge bass and huge guitars. Lots of re-amping. Bryan and I did most of our guitar tracking across the album at my place, with the amps set up out in the booth. Cranked. With distorted guitars, I find it very important for the player to be in the same room as the amp. The amp and guitar interact in a useful way, and often it feels more familiar for the player as well.
Forbidden Love
Our first single, our anthem, my favorite song on the record. Forbidden Love is the only song on the record that was truly formulated in the studio. When we hunkered down to record in the fall, it was the only question mark. To me, that’s what made it special. Vocal harmonies were super important on this track. On many of our Tuesday night sessions at my place in January and February, we were working out harmonies in the room with an acoustic guitar. Chasing down three part harmony can be really time consuming!
We rented out Empty Sea again towards the end of January to record the drums for this track and for the closer on the album Western. I wanted a tight snare, and Jonny’s classic 3 tom setup. I knew there was going to be a lot of guitars, synths and additional percussion, so I opted for an X/Y overhead setup, for a more central sound, and to leave space on the far reaches of the stereo field for other items.
My favorite synthesizer, the Juno-6 is responsible for nearly all of the non-organ keyboard sounds on Forbidden Love, and the rest of the album. I used it for pads, leads, risers and even some sfx. The only exceptions are some of the sounds Bryan had on his demos he made in logic, which were just too good to try to recreate or change.
We went a bit crazy with the auxiliary percussion on this track. I had Jonny playing shakers & congas, Bryan jumped on tambourine and finger cymbals, and I added some programmed options as well. triumphant and anthemic were a few of the words being thrown around as we crafted the groove of Forbidden Love.
Western
A close second to the favorite Forbidden Love, Western is about as good as it gets for a closer. The credits are rolling, the sun is setting, and Bryan sings “At ease, you’re safe in my company, everything is fine.”
Strings were the main accomplishment here. The kit was identical to forbidden love, Bryan tracked some 12-string as well as a telecaster track at Empty Sea, and Martin laid down the bass at my old place. Martin has a strong background in arranging, so he offered to take on string arrangement duties based off of Bryan’s demo. Once we finalized the strings, we collected an ensemble of various string players in the scene. I’d like to shout out Hannah Wyatt who had played violin and viola on To the 9s, and offered her skills once again for this recording. She put out a fantastic album of her own called Sunday Cowboy a few months later.
I opted for ORTF Octavas for ensemble mics, my trusty stereo condenser as a far room, and various close mics ranging from small condensers to my favorite mic, the Electro-Voice 635a. We had Martin on upright, two cellos, violin and viola. Hannah overdubbed the second violin and doubled some viola parts while keeping an ear out for other players’ tuning and helping translate my comments to the more classical players.
Fittingly, the string day was the final session for the whole record. Getting the results we did that day was such a wonderful cap to the recording experience.
Takeaways & Reflection
I learned a number of things along the way about how I want to structure these projects to make things as smooth and inspiring as possible for the artists I work with, and ease my own stress. There’s a lot that can be streamlined by having some pre-production days set to map out the project and organize the required studio time. Since we weren’t on a time crunch, we just figured it out along the way, but that isn’t really feasible or frugal in most scenarios. I would say this project was also a very formative time for building my personal approach to drum sounds and what I view as the most effective way to capture them.
This album was a big milestone and accomplishment in my career. It was the first rock album I’d produced front to back involving other band members as well as hired musicians and professional studio time. In retrospect, I’m proud of the choices I made and the way I managed the process. This type of project is what I hope to do for the rest of my life, and Ballads of Mirror Road cemented my love for making records.
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