Jameel “The Real Deal” Harris is a veteran of the Chicago recording community with a sterling reputation for top quality mixes as well as being a voice of experience and reason in the midst of a crazy industry.

Jameel programs tracks, produces, and mixes Hip Hop, [...]]]> Gravity would like introduce an addition to our Engineer/ Producer team.

Jameel “The Real Deal” Harris is a veteran of the Chicago recording community with a sterling reputation for top quality mixes as well as being a voice of experience and reason in the midst of a crazy industry.

Jameel programs tracks, produces, and mixes Hip Hop, R&B, Gospel, Soul, and Electronic music.  We’re very excited to have him aboard!  - Doug

First off, we are very pleased to announce Gravity Radio!   That’s right! We’re [...]]]>

First off, we are very pleased to announce Gravity Radio!   That’s right! We’re now streaming internet radio 24/7 full of nothing but past Gravity clients! Tune in here and discover a few gems old and new. You can stream it at work at your desk, in your car via iTunes, or even (as Doug does) when you’re exercising! There are at least a couple songs from each of the (over 250!) CDs that Doug had on the shelf in his office.  The songs are in “Shuffle mode” so it’s quite interesting to hear authentic early 90s Grunge rock next to Alt Country or Twee artists — you definitely won’t hear that on a normal radio station.  Learn more about Gravity Radio here. If any past clients would like to be included on Gravity Radio, send us an email and we’ll  get your songs on our playlist.

Recently, Lee DeWyze’s label, WuLi Records returned to remix and remaster Lee’s first album, So I’m Told with Doug McBride. Look for the re-release of the album coming soon on Universal Records.

Joe Peven was busy engineering this fall in addition to holding down the office.  Joe manned the controls for Shawn Kellner’s production of The Run Around’s Side Affects May Vary.  Look for the release on November 20th on Window Licker Records. Joe continues to work behind the glass with local mind benders Dropped Once whose new single will be available soon on iTunes. Our youngest engineer, Ian Spudes, has been working with Polish pop artist Jolanta Skawiniak as well as Chicago rap artists Michael Cage and Brandon Love; but the hazing is still an issue….

Tribeca Flashpoint Academy students are gracing our doorstep on Monday and Wednesday mornings as they attend Doug’s Studio Recording III class.  It’s fun for all of us as they all become defacto members of the Gravity family (if for only a few months…).

In other news, Doug is currently putting the finishing touches on Anna Fermin’s (of Trigger Gospel fame) new EP.  The new material is very cool, almost like an collage of different textures, watch out for that!

You can listen in right HERE!

We are proud to announce our very own streaming internet radio featuring Gravity clients from past and present.

You can listen in right HERE!

A word from Doug about the process:

Man this was fun to put together!  We went through all the DATs and CDs from almost 18 years of recording bands.  I’m sure we can all agree that some of the best music never gets heard.  Being a great songwriter/artist and having the necessary qualities to fight your way to the top of the music business are two VERY DIFFERENT THINGS.

We chose at least one song from every band we could find.  There are hundreds of bands represented, some who spent three months making an album for a major label, and some who spent a day here knocking out a three song demo.  Personally, I’ve had a ton fond memories pop up from projects I haven’t really thought much about in years.

I can hear the ADAT/ Mackie era, the AMEK/ Studer era, the Neve/ Protools……  Luckily, I don’t think my guys and I ever bought much into trends, so there is a certain audible Gravity aesthetic:  dry, clear, powerful, organic, definitely some ZAZZ going on here and there!

If you are or were in a band that recorded here, keep listening and sooner or later you’re likely to hear yourself.  It’s on shuffle, so it might take awhile, but you could also end up hearing your band every day (you know how shuffle works).

Thanks Chicago!  Here ya go!

Doug

GRAVITY STUDIOS RADIO

Squeaking in just hours before the deadline, Gravity Studios was included in the Mix Magazine Class of 2010!

Thanks again go to Mike Hari for the photos that got us in!

Mix Online

Exciting news! Lee DeWyze’s Slumberland just debuted at #32 on the Billboard Heatseeker list!

Edit: We just got word that Slumberland also hit #68 on iTunes albums charts!

Not only that, but MTV news stopped by the studio to talk with Ryan McGuire, Louis Svitek, and Gravity’s Doug McBride and Lee and his recently released new song [...]]]>

Exciting news! Lee DeWyze’s Slumberland just debuted at #32 on the Billboard Heatseeker list!

Edit: We just got word that Slumberland also hit #68 on iTunes albums charts!

Not only that, but MTV news stopped by the studio to talk with Ryan McGuire, Louis Svitek, and Gravity’s Doug McBride and Lee and his recently released new song “Princess (Reprise).”

Article below the break..

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1639378/20100517/story.jhtml

Plenty of “American Idol” finalists have independently released albums or singles before rolling the dice on the show for a shot at a big-time recording contract. In April, an Ohio radio station even started playing Crystal Bowersox’s “Holy Toledo,” a song that was never released on an album. But never in the history of the program (as far as MTV News can tell) has a top-three finisher had a brand-new single offered to radio in the final weeks of competition.

On Friday — the day Lee DeWyze returned home to Chicago for a parade, a concert and a visit to Wrigley Field to sing the national anthem and throw out the first pitch at a Cubs game — his former label, Wuli Records, delivered “Princess (Reprise)” to two hometown stations. On Wednesday afternoon, music engineer Doug McBride was at Chicago’s Gravity Studios putting the finishing touches on the song, which he’d first laid ears on less than 24 hours earlier.

“These guys [Lee DeWyze bandmembers and Wuli partners guitarist Louis Svitek and drummer Ryan McGuire] essentially produced this song,” he said, cueing up the tune on the small studio’s booming system. “It’s not really a remix of the album song; it’s a completely different production and recording. And basically, I just kind of helped them finish it.” He said the song, which appears in a much more sedate version on the Wuli-releasedSlumberland, shows a different side of DeWyze, with a crunchier rock arrangement, big drums and a heavier, alt-rock vibe.

The tune starts out with DeWyze’s raggedy, soulful voice over a gently strummed acoustic guitar, which is quickly joined by crashing drums and a thick wall of electric guitars that mixes the sensitivity of John Mayer with the stomp of Nickelback. The result is much more aggressive than the style of songs DeWyze has performed on “Idol,” especially in the middle section, which features a squealing electric-guitar solo.

Though Wuli’s founders sent copies of the song on Wednesday night to both the alt-rock station WKQX 102.1 (Q101) and the more classic-rock outlet WLUP 97.9 FM (The Loop), Kyle Guderian, operations manager for the Chicago sister stations, said Monday (May 17) that only WLUP has played it so far.

“We put it on the air Thursday on the Loop and spun it a few times on Thursday and Friday,” he said, noting that it did not get any weekend play but was supposed to pop up again during the Monday drive-time hours. “We’re still evaluating it to see if it will be a permanent add.” While the song didn’t fit the format for Q101, the station honored DeWyze’s request to be interviewed on Friday on the outlet he said he listened to all the time growing up. DeWyze was in town for his home visit, which his many supporters were excited about, as the low-key singer steams toward a possible showdown in the finals with Crystal Bowersox or Casey James.

While the Loop only has about a dozen new songs in rotation at any give time, Guderian said the response has been positive so far for “Princess (Reprise),” and he’s psyched to have the exclusive. “There’s lots of local hometown support for him, so it’s natural to have people exited to hear it and applauding the Loop’s effort to support him,” he said. “For a straight-ahead rock song, it fits the bill.”

Slumberland, released quietly in January when DeWyze was already on the show, was the second of a planned trio of Wuli albums under the singer’s contract with the label. Svitek and McGuire let their bandmate out of his contract, though, so he could compete on the show, but McGuire said the wheels were already in motion to release the follow-up to 2007’s So I’m Told, so that plan went ahead.

McGuire said he and Svitek were inspired to work with the one vocal take they had from DeWyze of the alternate version of the song because they were eager to try to get some of Lee’s music on local radio stations to support the hometown finalist. What they came up with was an unused track from the Slumberland sessions that they added new music to and beefed up in order to get play on commercial radio in the lead-up to the May 26 “Idol” finale.

Though sales of Slumberland were sluggish to tiny at first, McGuire said they’ve picked up considerably since, and he’s hoping the new single — or, best-case scenario, a win by Lee — will boost them even more. “He’s done pretty well,” McGuire said cagily, his eyes hidden underneath a baseball cap pulled low over his face. He noted that Walmart had just made a sizable order and that other major national retailers are getting onboard, in addition to iTunes. Though he didn’t have hard figures to share, he said even without DeWyze available to promote the disc — which he can’t do while on “Idol” — the word of mouth is definitely getting out. “Walmart is a huge chain, and they gook a big chunk, a big whopper order,” he said of the disc, which was recorded in his backyard studio in the Oak Park section of the city.

McGuire — who, along with ex-Ministry member Svitek, backed up DeWyze for five years and played on both records — couldn’t resist razzing his former frontman, chuckling about how Lee had insisted on having the Slumberland cases printed on recycled hemp paper with plant-based dyes, a process that tacked an extra six weeks onto the manufacturing process. But now that orders are picking up, McGuire said he’s been forced to revert back to good-old plastic jewel cases to comply with some of the major chains. “It’s plastic from now on,” he laughed. “Sorry, Lee.”

What do you think about Lee’s former bandmates releasing his music? Let us know in the comments.

Get your “Idol” fix on MTV News’ “American Idol” page, where you’ll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions.