Check out Mike Bolenbach’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Bolenbach.

Mike, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
The recording bug bit me early in life. I bought a cassette recorder at the age of 9 years old and started recording. I had the brilliant realization that if I had two recorders, I could record myself playing on the first machine, and then playback that machine while I played along, recording it all on the second machine. There was no internet or books on the subject available at that time so I thought I had invented the technique.

By high school I was playing in bands and making demo tapes. Right out of high school, my drummer’s dad gave us the opportunity to make a professional demo. I ended up landing an internship at the studio we recorded at. I was enrolled in college at the time, but the internship opportunities conflicted with my school schedule, so I dropped out of college to work in the studio.

I went from being an intern to being an assistant engineer, to being an engineer at the studio, soaking up whatever knowledge I could.

Skip forward another 30 years and here we are, still learning new stuff every day. I currently own and operate Full Well Recording Studio in Phoenix. We have been in the same location for over 20 years and have a group of great engineers working in addition to myself.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My main focus as a music producer and audio engineer is to capture the essence and the vision the artist has for their song. I prefer to work with bands and songwriters looking for a more organic sound. We specialize in capturing real musicians playing real instruments.

So much of the art of recording is being lost because computers have given people the ability to “fix” shortcomings in the recording and the performance after the fact. I push the artist to get it right at the recording stage. Everything from the performance to the quality of the sound is always better when you capture it right at the source.

We use a hybrid analog and digital recording setup. It is the perfect blend of vintage and modern. Although most recording is done using a computer and Pro Tools, we have a huge collection of analog tape machines and outboard gear which imparts a vibe on the music that you just can’t get with the computer alone.

I prefer to record guitars through real tube amplifiers and to record real drummers playing on real drum kits. I am not a fan of using drum samples from stock sample libraries where the same generic drum sounds are found on thousands of recordings. Great drummers do not want to spend years of their life perfecting their drum tuning skills and practicing their rim shot technique on the snare drum to achieve the perfect sound just to have some recording engineer cover it up or replace it with some generic sample.

I am not saying technology is a bad thing, I just feel that it has the potential to make artists and engineers lazy, and you can feel that in a production.

Have things improved for artists? What should cities do to empower artists?
The current state of the music industry has made it harder for musicians to actually support themselves soley from their art. With streaming services like Spotify and YouTube becoming the standard for music distribution in the present day, the income potential for music creators to be compensated through these services for their art has dropped to virtually nothing.

The bands that are actually making a living from their music have to be creative. Most need to play live regularly and have an interesting selection of merchandise that they can offer to their fans. When all the music in the world is available online for free, it destroys the perception of value for music as a whole. Coming up with unique marketing strategies outside of simple online music distribution is key to helping monetize their art and their brand. Be inventive. Be groundbreaking. Find a way to engage your fanbase in a way that keeps them interested in what you are doing.

The music industry is a tough business. The definition of success can mean different things to different people. While some may think that success is getting that elusive record deal, or winning a Grammy, or having a hit song, others feel that if you are able to make a living as a working musician or engineer full time without the need for a side job to pay the bills, you have made it, while still others believe that if you are able to feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment from the act of creating art, that, in itself, is success. Enjoy what you are doing. Make the art that you want to make. Do whatever is it that makes you happy. That is success.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I’ve done a ton of records that I’m really proud of. Most of them are made available by the record labels or directly by the artists on all the standard streaming and online music distribution platforms. Some of the records I’m most proud of are “Bright Side Dark Side” by Ben Phillip Hall and “Conditional Love Casino” by the Jesus Ponies.

There are a bunch of great bands and solo artists that we’ve had the honor of working with and I feel very blessed to have been given the opportunity to produce and engineer such a wide variety of music. Bands like The Sink or Swim, Black Bottom Lighters, Vintage Wednesday, Dierdre, Danny Roberts, Dephinger, The Glides, Southwest by Midnight, Guitarzan, Hello Swindon, Cockswain, Erik Ramnath, The Earps, Scorpion Vs Tarantula, Danny Roberts, Madison Roe, and so many others. The easiest way to support the art is to support the artists. Purchase the records and buy the merch.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fullwellrecording.com
• Phone: 602-367-1342
• Email: bolenbach@gmail.com
• Instagram: @bolenbach

Image Credit:
Studio photos credit: Byron Carrick

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