The In-Session Podcast

In this episode, Luke O'Kelley sits down with multiplatinum and Grammy winning producer, engineer, and composer Isha Erskine to discuss his career in the music business.

Throughout his career as an engineer and producer, Isha has worked with artists like Maroon 5, Macy Gray, Fall Out Boy, Common, Kanye West, Ziggy Marley, Black Eyed Peas, Jeff, Beck, and many more. Isha also composes music for film and TV and has had his compositions featured in over 300 episodes of TV including: The Kardashians, 20/20, E News, Dateline NBC, Catfish, Bad Girls Club, Young and The Restless and more. 

In this episode we discuss: 
- How Isha first was introduced to music
- How he first started recording bands in his area
- His time as an intern and runner in major label studios
- How he went from intern/runner to a full time engineer working in some of the most well known studios in California
- Advice he would give a younger self
- His favorite piece of gear
- His take on live sound vs. in studio recording

The music in this episode includes: 

"I Wanna Know" By Jeanna Love (1:40) (cowritten by Isha Erskine)
"Move On" By Katie Marie and Isha Erskine (33:37)

The background intro and outro music is by Daniel Hardin.

In this episode we had the pleasure to sit down with prolific producer, engineer, mixer, songwriter, arranger and multi-instrumentalist, Ken Stringfellow.

With over 30 years of experience, on over 250 albums and some 9 million record sold, Ken has had a pretty incredible career.

He got his start as co-founder of the popular indie band the Posies. He has worked in studio and on stage with R.E.M., Neil Young, Big Star, Mercury Rev, Snow Patrol, Patti Smith, Game Theory, Damien Jurado, the Afghan Whigs, Nada Surf, Carice Van Houten, Robyn Hitchcock, John Paul Jones, Ringo Starr, and Thom Yorke to name but a few... 

On AirGigs it's no surprise that clients are raving about Ken services from vocals to keys, to mixing, guitar, bass and much more. 

We had an awesome chat spanning the different phases of his career. 

From meeting his partner in The Posies Jon Auer in middle school. recording their first album as a demo to attract other musicians, but soon after the band blowing up and getting widespread recognition.

We discussed:

- How he got into production 
- How he connected with REM and what he learned from 10 years of working with them
- How he approaches and thinks about songwriting 
- How he shifts between his many roles from vocalist to engineer to songwriter to producer

Without further ado, let's get right into it...

Today we had the real pleasure to sit down with Grammy® award-winner, producer, engineer, multi-instrumentalist and music coach Paul Santo. Paul has worked closely with major artists from Aerosmith to Ringo Starr to Eric Carmen to  Ozzy Osbourne, Kid Rock and many more.
 
One of things that makes Paul so interesting is his diverse range of skills and musical experience. From his early days with Aerosmith as Steven Tyler and Joe Perry's personal sound engineer, to playing and engineering on major releases, and even filling in on guitar for Brad Whitford for a show at the Boston Garden.
 
Paul also offers his session musician & coaching services on AirGigs, and has a ton to offer any songwriter / producer looking to take their music to the next level.

Today we sat down with Joel Kibble, award-winning musician, author and inspirational speaker.

As a musician, Joel's been a long time member of the Grammy Winning, Multi-Platinum vocal group Take 6. During his time with the group Joel has written and co-produced several of Take 6's most requested songs.  

Joel's focus goes much bigger than just music. He's a man on a mission to uplift and inspire. Our conversation happened shortly after the Covid-19 quarantine. We talked about about his early musical influences and experiences. His first experiments with vocal arrangement on through joining Take 6 in 1991.

He shared a few of the many amazing experiences traveling the world, working with icons like Marcus Miller as well as a paradigm shifting encounter performing at the Oscars and being produced by Quincy Jones.

We talked about his road to becoming an author, and the challenges he had to overcome on the way.





 

Welcome to another episode of the in Session Podcast brought to you by AirGigs. I'm David Blacker and today we had the real pleasure to sit down with the incomparable Songwriter, Producer and performer John Lee Sanders. John Lee has worked with some of the biggest legends of the last 50 years, including Jimmy Page, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, Starship, Bill Withers, Chuck Berry, Randy Newman, Freddie King ,Tower of Power, and, Bonnie Raitt who called him one of her musical heroes.

 Our conversation takes us from his early roots growing up between Memphis, Jackson, Birmingham, and Monroe Louisiana, on through being signed to a major production deal, being nominated for an Emmy and right up to the release of his latest album Tweaking Some Twang. While comfortable playing in all styles, John's musical roots are very much born out of the intersection of blues, jazz, country and soul, and his latest release is a real seamless fusion of these styles - so be sure to check it out.

 Our conversation goes way beyond just music though. We get into the historical, cultural and geographical dynamics that influence these musical styles, as well as discussing the current state of music business and how technology is changing things. Well enough of my talk, let's jump right into it!

It was a great pleasure to sit down with record producer, composer & audio engineer George Shilling. George has a diverse range of experience, from his first big success in the early 90's with Yazz and The Plastic Population through his work with artists such as  Gabrielle, New Radicals, The Corrs, Blur, Texas, Teenage Fanclub, Primal Scream, Nicole Appleton, Johnny Hallyday, Oasis, Mike Oldfield, Eternal, Boy George, James Brown, Mark Almond, Bernard Butler, The Fall, Steve Winwood and the popular light opera duo Operababes.

We spoke about his early musical influences, starting out a Livingston Studios under Jerry Boys, his first big successes and all the way up to the present day. George's unique perspective is shaped by his multi-faceted talents, wealth of experience and knowledge. I really enjoyed speaking with him, and I'm hope you will enjoy our chat. 

We are really excited to share with you our latest podcast interview with Ike Willis vocalist & guitarist For The Frank Zappa Band. Ike was a regular member of Frank Zappa's studio and touring bands from 1978 until the last tour in 1988. He was the longest steady member of the band, and is most recognized for his involvement on Zappa records such as playing Joe in Joe's Garage, providing vocals on Tinsel Town Rebellion, You Are What You Is, and The Man from Utopia, and as the title character and narrator in Zappa's off-Broadway-styled conceptual musical Thing-Fish. In addition to playing in 12 Zappa tribute bands, Ike regularly does studio voice work and writes compositions for films. He also leads The Ike Willis Band, and has released two solo studio albums under his own name and is currently working on another album. If you want to book Ike for a remote guitar / vocal session, you can check out his service here

We are really excited to share with you our recent conversation with Ronnie Eades, one of the co-founders of the Muscle Shoals horn section. Ronnie has an had an incredible career working with some of the biggest names in the business. He shared freely with us on a number of different topics from his early years, to his time at muscle shoals, to working with Rick Hall, to key lessons and experiences he’s had along the way. He also shared his thoughts on doing sessions remotely here on AirGigs. As many of you know, starting in the 60’s & 70’s the little town of Muscle Shoals Alabama became one of the most important recording and production hubs in the world. Artists from the Aretha to the stones all cut hit tracks there. For those of you that don’t know the history of Muscle Shoals, there’s a great documentary out currently on Netflix that’s a must see. It covers the story of legendary producer and founder of Fame Studios, Rick Hall, and his troupe of super funky session players who became responsible for the some of the biggest recordings of the 20th century. The Muscle Shoals Horns were established in 1967 and can be heard on countless hit recordings by Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, B.B. King, Bob Seger, James Brown, Roy Orbison, Jimmy Buffett, Phish, Oak Ridge Boys, Elton John and many others. They toured with Elton John, Lyle Lovett and Dobie Gray to name a few, and Ron has toured with Lyne Skynard. The muscle shoals horns also have put out 3 solo recordings. To book Ronnie for a session you can find his AirGigs page here: http://www.airgigs.com/online-horn-session-players/2361/