Worship StackTraxx: An Interview with Mike Brassell
On any given day, there are a number of projects being worked on here at the Digital Juice production studio near Orlando. Some of the most exciting projects are related to product development. Lately, there are all kinds of sights, smells (yes, smells) and sounds to delight the eye, wrinkle the nose and prick the ears. The sights and smells are primarily confined to our back studio where the video team is producing a new visual effects package (including the generation of small explosions and fireballs created by igniting things that may or may not have been intended for ignition. Flaming non-dairy coffee creamer anyone?), but no matter where you go within the walls of the Juice studio you'll hear music. Good music. Positive, uplifting music. The catchy riffs and melodies floating in the air find their way into your ear and dance around inside your head in a way that has you happily humming the tunes to yourself hours later. Worship StackTraxx is in the air. That project is lead by Mike Brassell, Director of Worship Music at Digital Juice. We caught up with Mike to get the inside scoop on the project, and on the man behind it.
DJ - How did you come to find yourself working at Digital Juice?
MB - In 2003 I was working at Disney Feature animations as Assistant Production Manager. We were in production on Lilo & Stitch. Somehow I saw an ad looking for musical composers and when I answered it, it turned out to be from Digital Juice for StackTraxx. I talked to Jeff Earley and he brought me on as a contributor.
DJ - What were some of the volumes you participated in?
MB - I have work on several StackTraxx volumes: Serious, Epic, World, Broadcast, Cinematic, R&B
The first volume I wrote for was Serious Stacks, volume 3. I have two songs on that volume, Godsend and New Ideas. As a matter of fact New Ideas is now being used as the main theme in the movie, 'Another Perfect Stranger'
DJ - So what is your professional background? Is it in music?
MB - My professional background is actually in Business Management in the Entertainment Industry. I worked in that field for 15 years, but I went to school for music engineering, which has come in handy doing my own songwriting, composing, producing and recording.
DJ So where does your passion for music come from?
MB - I've always been around music in one way or another; it started for me at age 7 at my Grandmother's piano. I always enjoyed writing music as a kid. When I was 18, and with my parents support, I was able to move to California to really pursue my dream of making music full time. Eventually, I was able to develop some great relationships that have helped me to shape my career even further.
DJ - So when and why did Digital Juice decide to bring you on full-time? What specifically are you working on?
MB The way I understand it, DJ had run a poll asking customers whether they would be interested in layered worship music with lyrics and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Jeff Earley knew about my background and he contacted me. I was brought in to develop and oversee the new product line based off of our successful line of StackTraxx with the inclusion of professional vocals. I'm here, specifically, to develop the Worship StackTraxx product line and to oversee the production of original worship music for the product.
DJ - Who is this product targeted at and what all might they use it for?
MB It's specifically targeting the needs of our end-users that need royalty-free worship music that you could hear on Christian radio or in worship services. It can be used to by video editors to drive home a spiritual message, by music supervisors on films for placement in movies, by Worship leaders and Music Directors of smaller to mega-churches to add in to their regular rotation to add a fresh new perspective during Worship and by anyone else just wanting to enjoy great music.
DJ Does it have use outside a "Christian" or "church" setting?
MB Most definitely! It's going to be extremely useful to editors. We think of it as a dual-purpose line. Everyone who edits audio (or who loves music) is going to benefit. The only thing uniquely Christian about the music are the lyrics. Since the songs are layered, like Stacktraxx, it's easy for anyone to just turn off the vocals and use only the instrumentals. So yes, absolutely. Don't let the name fool you. There's something here for lots of different productions, Christian or otherwise.
DJ So is this essentially Stacktraxx with vocals?
MB It's based on the StackTraxx technology - which is really a great thing about this product. Have you ever wanted to turn off the lead vocals to sing along with a song? Well, now you can! That's a great thing to offer people; just turn off the lead vocal and you still have all the music playing including the Background Vocals. But it's different than Stacktraxx in a lot of ways. This is a much bigger job for us. Producing Worship StackTraxx is more like producing a record album than compiling a volume of royalty-free music.
DJ - So you're essentially creating full-blown albums. To the tune of how many per week?
MB - We are! We're producing 10 Volumes in a variety of genres with 10 songs per Volume, so over a period of the past 10 months, we'll have produced about 2.5 songs per week. Keep in mind that we offer both Male and Female lead vocals for each track - not to mention we also have a Kids Volume with Kids Leads, Male AND Female! That's a lofty goal. But it's happening.
DJ - Has anyone from your industry told you that you were insane? That seems like a lot of effort.
MB - Yes they have! It sure is a lot of effort, but we believe in this product and its potential. Most albums aren't produced at this kind of pace. It is insane.
DJ So in what way is this different than producing records?
MB - In addition to being good music, the tracks have to be super clean. A lot cleaner than a regular record because we know the tracks are going to get soloed. Every track has to stand on its own as a flawless piece of music. When you're putting out a single stereo mix for pleasure listening you can get away with hiding things like breaths or lip smacks in the mix. We can't do that. Every track is 'out there.' It's exposed to critical listening. When you solo the vocals, they need to be ultra clean. You need to hear just the vocals, no background noise. We had to take special measures to guard against any kind of noise or bleed through.
DJ - This seems to be a major league product. How many people from Juice do you have working on this project with you, and what are their roles?
MB - This is most definitely a major league product. Our team consists of 4 dedicated members serving in multi-faceted roles... Jeff Earley is Director of Audio Products at Juice. He does quality assurance, mixing, editing, and he's basically an Executive Producer. Michael Ocampo is leader of the mix team, he's our vocal session engineer, editor, and Associate Producer. Scott Davis is a mixer, editor, lyricist, and vocalist. And me.
DJ - Can you tell us how the idea for this product came about?
MB - Sure, Dave Hebel had posted that poll asking the customer base if they would be interested in Worship-focused music with vocals. The answer was so strong it convinced Dave that Digital Juice should move forward with this in mind.
DJ - Is there any sort of little known fact you care to share about this product?
MB One cool extra is that we're providing a click track for each track so people can perform them live in Worship services or wherever else this product gets used. That's really cool. I guess another secret is that we built a 'super-quiet' recording booth for tracking vocals.
DJ And your office is in the booth (or would you say the booth is in your office)? So do you record vocal sessions right here?
MB The booth is in my office. It's like a room within the room. It was built by Billy 'Billy's Blueprints' Allan's sons Jimmy and John. They're a clever and talented family! Yes, we did record vocal sessions right here using our Neumann-U87 Anniversary Edition mic routed through an Avalon 737 preamp... it sounds great! The original plan was to record every vocal part for the whole project in this booth, but the pace we're working at made that impossible. Still, a lot of the vocals we're recorded right here.
DJ - How broad will your initial offering be? Will it favor one religious denomination or style of music over another?
MB We'll initially put out 10 Volumes covering 10 genres. There'll be Contemporary, Pop, Rock, Kids, Hymns, Southern Gospel
we believe we have the right bases covered to start. Of course we can always expand after initial launch. We wanted to speak directly to the needs of our customer base and in so saying, the call was for Christian themed music.
DJ - There's a rumor going around that, on top of being a composer, you also sing. Have you been in that vocal booth yourself?
MB - Ha... rumors tend not to have truth in them, but this one is true. I do sing and I have used the booth myself. What a cool experience! I'm not telling which songs though. Let's just say you'll hear me here and there.
DJ - We know that Juice is big on promo videos to launch new products. You seem passionate and obviously know more about this product than anyone. Any chance we'll see you on-screen promoting it?
MB - I definitely believe in this product and I'm passionate about the message of the music along with being excited about the technology. I would love to promote it! I'd really love to get out to promote it face to face at events or churches. Unfortunately, I don't think that time is going to allow for that. I need to be here in the box making more music.
Chuck Peters is VP of Media and Publications at Digital Juice and is an Emmy Award Winning writer and producer.
