Tracing the Lines

BIG EGO:
Mighty
Vertebrates
in Long Beach

by Chris Schlarb and Anna Butterss

photos by Robbie Jeffers

TRACING THE LINES

NO. 3

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It meant a lot to me that Anna would want to come back to BIG EGO for one of their own albums. The studio is located in North Long Beach, so if you live in LA there's a little bit of a drive out of town. Anna and Ben came in with a handful of tracks that needed overdubs and everything else was recorded live off the floor in two days.

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Anna in the iso booth and Ben, Gregory, and Josh out in the live room. Everyone established their space in the room and I put up some baffles. Same headphone mix going out. The whole thing felt very loose and informal. One mic and a stereo DI for Josh's alto sax and effects. One mic for Greg. Maybe five mics on the drums. I don't like to fuss over mics (and details) too much. Let's just get the session going and not slow the musicians or ideas down.

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I love recording double bass. I've listened to a lot of records where I felt like I wasn't getting all the instrument had to offer. I use two mics: a Beyerdynamic M160 for the neck and a Gefell UM71 or Nordic NU-100K near the f-hole. I never use a DI. There's a duality to the instrument. You need to capture that upper frequency near the neck. You need the listener to feel the wood and snap of the transient of the note. The body is equally important. That's the power and sustain of the instrument. Just like the sound hole of an acoustic guitar, it's an amplifier.

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The first time Anna and I worked together was on the self-titled GUMA album back in 2018. They were part of a two bass, two drums rhythm section and their tone and feel just knocked me out. There’s a picture Devin O’Brien took from that session with Anna’s double bass, electric bass, and empty shoes laid out in a row. If you come by the studio you’ll see a print of that photo taped to the back door.

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Ben Lumsdaine was doing some mobile recording in Indiana and we drove around the city in his van. Maybe it was missing a seat or two. He told me he was moving from Bloomington to LA and I said I'd try to get him work at the studio. At this point we've probably made 15 records together. Maybe more. The day I met him I had no idea he was such a brilliant musical mind and I'm grateful he thought to bring this album to BIG EGO.

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I met Gregory Uhlmann when he was loading his equipment into the studio. He wanted to play through my '65 Gibson Falcon and I liked him immediately. I have a lot of respect for any guitar player who can shred but instead chooses to be the harmonic/sonic glue for the composition. A skill many guitarists never seem to acquire.

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Jeff Parker brought Josh Johnson to the Chicago Underground record I was producing at BIG EGO on July 6th, 2018. It was an inspired decision. I could be wrong but I think Jeff was the only person who had worked with Josh at that point. It was over 100 degrees in Long Beach and my landlord chose that week to re-roof our building and disconnected our air conditioning. I brought a portable AC unit from home and we all took turns standing in the front of it, drinking cases of Topo Chico. Josh and I barely spoke that day. I think we were both hanging on -- him being dropped into one of the great jazz ensembles of the last 20 years and me trying to record them.

— Chris Schlarb, Long Beach, CA.

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My favorite photos from these sessions are the ones of Josh, Ben, Greg and me sitting on a couch in the control room. It's a couch that is likely designed to hold two or three people, but can accommodate four who’ve known each other for a long time.

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To me, these photos capture the intimacy the four of us share; an intimacy that is fundamental to the music we recorded over those two days. I wrote this music for Josh, Ben and Greg, knowing that they would know how to play it, knowing they would intuitively understand how it should feel. I hear the connection deepen every time we play together.

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During that weekend in March, Chris’s studio became a kind of den, or a cocoon – a quiet, protected space where we collectively brought something to life. I’m grateful to Chris for opening up his space to us, and to Robbie for capturing the feeling so perfectly.

– Anna Butterss

Chris Schlarb is the owner and operator of BIG EGO, a studio and record label in Long Beach, CA. He makes records constantly, and engineers or produces almost everything that comes through the door. His own music is released under his own name and, often, under the moniker Psychic Temple. He is also the author of an excellent book called On Recording: A Manifesto.

Anna Butterss is a Los Angeles-based bassist and composer, originally hailing from Adelaide, Australia. Their lyrical low end command has been foundational to progressive jazz recordings such as Jeff Parker’s pair of albums with the ETA IVtet, Makaya McCraven’s Universal Beings, Daniel Villareal's Panamá 77 and Lados B, and SML's debut LP Small Medium Large. Their own IARC debut, Mighty Vertebrate, was released in October of 2024.