The Grates
ESSAY QUESTION: Discuss, making reference to the production, recording and mixing, the making of The Grates’ debut album, “Gravity Won’t Get You High”
The Grates are three little children with bad breath from Australia that are called Patience (she sings), Alana (she drums) and John (he guitars). These guys can best personally be described by their corresponding “Spirit Animals”: Pae is a seal; Alana is a tadpole; and John is a grizzly bear.
On recording their debut album, they say: “We flew into Chicago after having an awfully big weekend in London, then left Brian Deck waiting for three hours at the airport (sucker) ‘cos we saw this woman holding up a sign that said ‘Raddison’—that was John’s sweet nickname in high school, so naturally we thought it was for us. When we got to the studios, we all felt sad, assuming Brian didn’t want to come meet up with us, so we pretty much just cried ‘til he phoned and yelled, ‘Dudes! Bitches! I’ve been waiting for you for the past three hours! I have gum on one shoe and a little kid puked on the other!’ This really cheered our spirits.”
The Grates chose Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron&Wine, The Secret Machines) to produce their album after certain things from the spiritual plane collided with the real life plane, and we were big fans of his production stylings. “In Brian’s production you can hear heaps of layers but they’re all raw, like you can pick out every sound.”
Recording with Deckring (Brian Deck) was The Grates’ first real encounter with a producer. Before that they used to record in John’s Dad’s shed. The following is a chart comparing the differences:
| Brian Deckring | The Shed |
| Nice Wallpaper & pleasant temp | Hot tin roof |
| 100 miles | 2 mics, sometimes 1. |
| Interns | Heavy Machinery |
| Heaps of recording skills | No recording skills |
| Costs money | Totally free |
After recording, the Grates mixed their album with Peter Katis (Interpol) in Connecticut and spent hours walking around the huge graveyard, even finding a grave that said “Poor.” Peter bought out a more “aggressive” sound to the girly album and taught them how to pick a good wife. Both their mixer and producer had sweet wives.
In appreciation of the World Wide Web, I found this Grates’ Best and Worst of recording. It says BEST—threw shaving cream balls on the roof outside our window then someone came out yelling and we crouched. WORST—fell in love with Brian then had to leave for tour. BEST—Brian made John tune every four bars and the girls cried. WORST—that really annoying intern. BEST—at Peter’s house we all used the same toilet as Interpol. WORST—was when we broke down and John slept in the studio. BEST—going to the beach frat kegger with party animal Peter. WORST—being allergic to Peter’s cats.
In conclusion to my essay on The Grates, I have found that they felt fond and overjoyed at the opportunity to record an album and record it out of the shed. They continue to feel blessed daily to have their crappy songs recorded so well, and their parents are really bragging. Those three children are also responsible for album artwork, which is of “zoo” and “magical-fantasty” influence.
The end. Over and outro.
For more info, visit the official The Grates site and MySpace page.