	News
	Show Times
	Albums
	Information
	Articles
	Other Sites
	Credits

EXCERPTS FROM:

Hell's Kitchen

A Rock'n'Roll Phantasy, or, How to Record,Package, and Release an Album in ThreeMonths With No Money Down.

We never made it to Vancouver. We hit a fork in the road and wound up in Tennessee. We stayed at Joe and Trish's house in mid-town Memphis. Joe, being Joe Hardy, engineer and producer of ZZ Top, Steve Earle, Tom Cochraine's Mad Mad World, and Kim Mitchell's latest "Itch," to name but a few. We were discouraged from sending our new songs to Joe because "He was going to want way too much money." But we did anyway. When he phoned us back, he said, "I've got nine days between projects in May, and I want to do this. We can record it in my garage. We'll mix it at Ardent, and you guys can stay here." He didn't want us to sign anything. He didn't want any money. He just wanted to do it. To top it all off Kim Mitchell had just finished up "Itch" with Joe in Memphis and had some left over tape which he graciously donated to us. Joe would donate all the studio time, his fee, put us up, and even feed us. All we had to do was get there. Seven hundred dollars later, we squeezed into our rhythm section's (Mark and Drew's) newly mechanically certified Toyota Tercel and headed for Memphis. This was going to be a blast. Going into a studio without any record company or management for the very first time. Rock'n'Roll.

Fifteen hours and a brief snooze later we were staring up at Joe and Trish's awe-some Southern Rock'n'Roll castle. Two acres of lush green, hundred foot trees, a rope swing, and, yes -- there is a rock'n'roll god -- a swimming pool. Amy Grant's drummer donated the drum kit and Joe has two hundred guitars of various shapes and sizes and just as many amps. Monday morning (rock'n'roll morning: about 3pm) we started to groove. Ardent studios was donating mixing time and the only time available was that Saturday and Sunday. So we picked six songs to complete; Just Want the Proof, Give you Gave, Runaway Whoop-dee-Doo, Always Get what I Want, Big Guns and Moment of the River.

When we weren't actually recording, we were floating in the pool, just like Aerosmith. In six days we had recorded and mixed six songs and they sounded like we had always wanted them to sound. Monday morning was bitter sweet for us with the realization we had six great sounding tracks. But we only had six of them. And six songs does not an album make. But it was a start. One Hell of a start.

We over-stayed our welcome as long as we possibly could and on Thursday night tearfully bit into Trish's home-cooked Memphis barbecue. Joe and Trish drove us to the Greyhound in the Suzuki jeep which had been ours for two weeks. We hugged adieu two very good friends we will treasure forever.

Another month passed back in Toronto, still no CD. A CD in our books which had already been long over due. What were we going to do? We had just spent five years with a major recording label. We knew the pros and cons well. We wanted to try a different route this time. Not out of bitterness, rather, purely out of necessity. We did not relish sitting on our asses for eight more months while we "shopped"our six songs. That would kill us. We were already going to Hell. Hell's Kitchen, a small funky restaurant in Kensington market. They were keeping us in food at a vastly reduced price. Thank God for Hell's Kitchen. Their patio became our living room. Tag got to eat seated at a table. It was all quite civilized. Joe and Trish would have approved

After some soul searching we'd decided we got this far without money, why stop now. Joe would later remark, "There's a fine line between rock'n'roll and a felony." We called up Ron Searles at Manta/Eastern Sound, an engineer who worked on "Book of Rejection" He'd often said in the past he would like to help us any way he could. Boy was he in for a surprise. We gave him the Memphis tape, and included three of the Memphis bedtracks we wanted to finish -- Mention It Again, On Our Own Tonight, and Holdin' On Today. We kind of hinted if he dug it maybe he could think of a few ways we could get going on it. When we rang him the next day and asked if he listened to the tape his response was music to our ears. "About a hundred times." We knew we had found another partner in crime. We told Ron we'd like to finish all the recording in three days and mix eight songs in two days. Ron didn't flinch. He was taking the Pepsi challenge. We phoned Joe. He said it sounded like a party and he knew we could pull it off. With all the encouragement and confidence he'd helped instill in us, we knew we could too. We had also given a copy of the six Memphis tunes to Jason Sniderman, vice-president of Sam the Record Man.

When Jason called back he said he had listened to the Memphis tape "about fifty times" and hadn't taken it out of his car stereo. (Jason had played on our previous albums and had become a friend and a fan.) He dug it intensely and would be honoured to play on a few tracks. Whatever we wanted. And we should be very proud. We were and felt honoured he felt likewise. The night he came to Manta to play he said he would advance us the money for the first pressing and buy the CD's and put them in his stores across Canada. Recording In Toronto meant we could use ('use' being the operative word) some of our friends. David Ramsden sang, Cindy from the Cameron, Adam Austin, Lori Yates, Basil from Blue Rodeo even sang. Tag growled out an intro and a good-bye, and Ron got it all on tape, adding much to the project. Then it got mastered by Brett Zilahi at a cool place called FX that was also willing to wait for their money. Brett made us two glass- mastered CD's. We gave one to CFNY and on Thursday September1st they added the single Just Want The Proof. We gave the other one to P.A.M. another cool place that's handling the manufacturing. Our friend Dave Maltese took the cover shot without even knowing it. Our bass player's friend, Jan Becker, took the back shot. On September 17 / 94 a thousand CD's will bedelivered. Rock'n'Roll phantasies can come true. Our's is called Hell's Kitchen. Hope you can dig it. Rock on. The Spits.

[note: the following information is no longer valid]

If you want the entire Hell's Kitchen story with lots of juicy tidbits and far out adventures, you can callTag Records at (416)533-7005 and ask for Tag to send you one.

More Info:

To Top