Recording studio
is a sound investment

By Brian Rademaekers
Times Staff Writer

When you hear the music that Greg Weeks makes, it feels as though it’s been recorded in a castle, or perhaps a big spooky mansion in some far-off land.
It feels old. Haunting. Even majestic.
In reality, though, the music he makes is recorded in a much humbler place: the claustrophobically cramped basement of his home on a quiet tree-lined street in the Northeast.
Weeks, a native of Rochester, N.Y., broke onto the music scene in the late 1990s with his solo works. Eventually he came to Philadelphia to found the Espers, a psychedelic folk-rock group that has earned high marks from critics for six years now.
Two Espers albums later, Weeks is still in Philadelphia, where he bought a home and set up a recording studio called Hexham Head.
Now, two years after his first recordings at Hexham, Weeks and his wife Jessica have launched their own label — Language of Stone — and are poised to release a slew of new bands from the Philly headquarters.
Well over 6 feet tall, lanky, and sporting wire-rimmed glasses and hair that tumbles onto his shoulders, Weeks has the laid-back look of a musician. But only a few neighbors know what goes on in his basement, and even they don’t know the whole story.
Weeks prefers to maintain that level of secrecy, even requesting that the location of his studio remain undisclosed.
"People don’t really know that we’ve got this going on here, and, to me, that’s a very, very good thing," Weeks explained while moving about in the cluttered basement studio, painted a rich blood-red.
In the recording booth, a new band, Silver Summit, warmed up on vocals and ran through some guitar riffs.
Weeks estimated that he’d finish recording at about nine that night, a schedule he sticks to almost daily. Beyond the numerous artists he’s in the process of recording, Weeks happens to be a member of no fewer than five bands.
And while his musical duties may seem herculean, there is a familiar and distinguishable thread that runs through his works, both in his own music and that of the artists he records.
The music that comes out of Hexham Head tricks the mind into believing it’s somehow older than it is — a seemingly ancient quality that Weeks says is related in part to the technical aspects of his studio. Weeks uses what is known as "analog" recording equipment — essentially big stretches of tape that roll out of winding spindles to catch the vibrations of voices and instruments.
Forty years ago, analog was the only way to go. These days it has largely been supplanted by digital technology, just as film cameras have lost some luster to their digital successors.
To Weeks, the transition to digital recording was a big step backward.
"Recording technology reached its height in the mid-1970s, and once digital technology was brought in, it actually devalued the sound of recording more and more until you got to the point where we’re at right now, where so much of the music that’s out there sounds completely sterile," Weeks laments. "It’s been chopped up and sandwiched together in a computer by somebody that has fifty vocal takes, and the whole sense of performance is lost."
When a musician comes to Hexham Head, Weeks does his best to get the take just right. Once it’s on the tape, it’s final. He firmly believes that recording the old-fashioned way gives music a sense of spontaneity, warmth and life.
"The idea that everything has to be done in one solid take with as few overdubs as possible makes you approach recording an album in a certain way," said Weeks. "With digital recording, there are things that are really working against the organic human element."
Weeks feels that his philosophy in no way makes him an endangered species on the musical planet. "There’s a boutique market of brand-new analog equipment that has sprung up because everybody understands that digital is great, but without all this (analog) stuff, it just sounds really dead and clinical," said Weeks.
He considers himself fortunate to have scooped up vintage equipment that used to be worth anywhere from $150,000 to $500,000 for just a fraction of the price.
Weeks also is pleased that his throwback methods seemingly enable him to spend less time on his projects, compared to sound engineers who rely on the complexity of digital equipment and a quest for that perfect take.
"I believe in spending as little time on a project as possible," Weeks explained. "Work as much time as you need to make it good. Don’t overwork it, because then it becomes overwrought, and again, it loses its feeling of performance."
Two Saturdays ago, his new label, Language of Stone, hosted its first record-release party at Johnny Brenda’s in Fishtown, and the feeling of a family gathering was pervasive in the tavern’s second-floor venue.
Three bands with upcoming releases on the label took the stage. Festival, a Brooklyn-based experimental rock group, warmed up the crowd with harmonious folk-rock grooves. Singer-songwriter Orion Rigel Dommisse followed with her set of eerie, death-tinged songs rooted in mystical tales conveyed with a blend of classical music and traditional folk.
Closing the night, future Language of Stone artists Ex Reverie delivered a performance of psychedelic folk that featured dizzying electric guitar and the sweet but dark vocals of Gillian Chadwick.
Why these bands have come together now and are launching a genre that is increasingly resonating with fans is an intriguing issue.
Dommisse, before her set at Johnny Brenda’s, suggested that it was "just something in the air right now," a judgment Weeks was quick to accept.
"It’s not just one stereotypical sound, it’s really a whole mindset, something that is stretched out all over the world. People are coming to this means of expression and way of experiencing the world and wanting the same kinds of changes all at the same time," said Weeks. "It’s something that is just kind of rising as a force."
The bands that will be emerging on Language of Stone, he noted, represent a rebellion against today’s pace of life and a disregard for tradition, just as his recording techniques rebel against the sterility of digital recording.
Weeks founded the new label, to be distributed by Drag City, to give the bands he appreciates a chance to reach a wider audience. He has high hopes for the music, particularly because he thinks it can make people give more thought to the way they live. He thinks it might even say something about musical integrity.
"There is an expansion of more and more bands, and they are recording themselves in cheaper and less artistic ways, and thinking about the music less artistically," Weeks said. "There is a reason why things were the way they used to be, where you had to take the time to come up with a sound and hone your craft . . . there were a limited number of ways to get your record out there, so you had to be good to get out there." ••
You can find out more about Language of Stone and its upcoming artists at the Web site dragcity.com
Reporter Brian Rademaekers can be reached at 215-354-3039 or brademaekers@phillynews.com