Editor’s Note: This is the final part of a three-part series about the past, present and future of 3 Elliott Studio to commemorate its 10-year anniversary.
Before HELLNAW began recording its debut album at 3 Elliott Studio, its members had trouble finding a studio that was in tune with their vision.
“The first recording studio we went into, immediately the guy starts talking about how much it’s going to cost, by the hour,” bassist Josh Wicker said. “But when we went to 3 Elliott, immediately when you walk in, I felt like I was more at home. It didn’t feel like I was going to work.”
For HELLNAW, an eclectic two-piece based in Athens, recording with producer Josh Antonuccio in 3 Elliott’s supportive environment is the ideal way to transition from local minstrels to indie maestros.
Recording HELLNAW’s rhythmic, groove-oriented sound — the band is inspired by John Bonham, Les Claypool and Primus — represents a funky diversion for the laid-back Elliott Street studio. But while it symbolizes 3 Elliott’s wide-open future, Antonuccio maintains that its focus will always be on the artist, regardless of genre.
“I’m not going to come out of here with my name on a billboard, and that’s not my intention by any stretch,” he said. “It’s about making this person, you know, propping them up and saying, ‘Look how great they are,’ and making them sound amazing.”
Wicker and drummer Wren Fenton are Lima natives who have played together in various musical ventures since they were 15. Instead of trying to find a guitarist, Wicker bought distortion pedals and began playing chords on his bass, allowing HELLNAW to remain a duo. The band has since experimented with hyper vocals, funky bass lines and monstrous drumbeats, nearly sounding as full as many-member local groups such as Elemental Groove Theory and The First Street Heat.
But when it came time to translate the sound and energy of their live show to an album, Wicker and Fenton enlisted Antonuccio and 3 Elliott’s high ceilings and resonant walls to make HELLNAW sound as good on tape as it did in their minds.
Recorded on analog tape with meticulous detail — Antonuccio used 12 or 13 microphones on the drum kit alone — and currently in the mixing stages, Wicker said the self-titled album so far has achieved the “raw and gritty” sound they had hoped for.
“We’re always trying to achieve this perfect drum sound that we always had in our minds, and Wren never could get it perfect,” said Wicker, an Ohio University sophomore studying audio production. “After we tweaked around some stuff, Josh kept messing with the drums and giving us different mixes, and it was exactly what we’ve been thinking for all these years.”
From a technical standpoint, Antonuccio did offer HELLNAW some suggestions for rearranging and rewording parts of songs, a process he said can make or break a new relationship with an artist.
“If you come up with an idea and you have a suggestion and it works, and people know that you’re on their side, that’s a whole other thing,” Antonuccio said. “Writers want to know that you are after what the song needs and what it calls for, and so I think, that process, there’s a level of just understanding.”
Wicker and Fenton both said Antonuccio’s advice ultimately made their songs sound better — and the album, which will be mastered by Bernie Nau at Peachfork Studios in Pomeroy and released in late April or early May, is better than they could have expected.
“It’s going to be great,” said Fenton, an undecided OU sophomore. “Some of our other recordings were pretty much just home recordings, it just didn’t really work out … but this is going to be our best to date.”
Once the album is released, HELLNAW plans to play gigs in the tri-state area, and then expand even farther beyond Athens. With the recent success of bands on independent labels such as Merge Records’ The Arcade Fire, which took home this year’s Grammy Award for Album of the Year, Antonuccio said now is the time for young bands to take a shot at indie stardom.
“You don’t make as much money maybe as you used to make, but the freedom is there to do what you want,” he said. “It’s a great era for independent music.”
al106606@ohiou.edu
@ThePostCulture
