Kurt Ballou
Kurt Ballou | |
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Kurt Ballou performing live with Converge at the Eurockéennes festival in 2007 | |
Background information | |
Born | February 1, 1974 |
Origin | Massachusetts, United States |
Genres | Metalcore, hardcore punk, experimental rock, indie rock |
Occupation(s) | Musician, recording engineer, producer |
Instruments | Guitar, bass, keyboards, theremin, saxophone, slide guitar, drum kit, melodica |
Years active | 1991–present |
Labels | Deathwish |
Associated acts | Blue/Green Heart, Converge, The Huguenots, Kid Kilowatt, Supermachiner |
Kurt Ballou (born February 1, 1974) is an American musician and producer, best known as the guitarist from Massachusetts-based band Converge. Aside from his role in Converge, Ballou is a prolific producer, recording and producing out of his own Godcity Studio.
Personal life
He is vegan.[1]
GodCity Studio
In the late 1990s, Kurt Ballou was working as a biomedical engineer when his then project got cancelled. Instead of selecting a different position within the same company that he had worked with for six years, Ballou opted to receive a severance package which he used to build his own recording studio.[2][3] His experiences and knowledge in engineering carry over to his recording work. In regards to Ballou's technical precision as a producer Bannon has stated, "nothing gets by him—it is inspiring to watch him work."[4]
Established in 1998, GodCity Studio is located in Ballou's home state of Massachusetts. One of the earliest recordings from the studio was Cave In's Until Your Heart Stops. In the production of album Ballou deals with all production, engineering, and mastering.
In 2005 Ballou remixed and remastered Converge's Petitioning the Empty Sky and When Forever Comes Crashing. Ballou has stated that because of the quality of [Converge's] recordings has improved so much that the original recordings were "becoming distracting".[5] Ballou has also produced and co-produced several Converge albums, including 2001's Jane Doe, 2004's You Fail Me and 2006's No Heroes. He has also produced a number of independent metal and hardcore bands, including Genghis Tron's, Board Up the House, Torche's, Meanderthal and Disfear's, Live the Storm.[6]
Equipment
- Guitars commonly used: Wild Customs The Savage One w/ EMG P85 bridge pickup, First Act Custom Sheena Guitar w/ EMG 81 bridge pickup, Warmoth Custom Jazzmaster W/ EMG 89 bridge pickup, First Act Custom Offset-Horns Double-Cutaway, Rickenbacker 650A w/ EMG 81 bridge pickup.
- Amps commonly used: Orange OR50 head, Orange Rockerverb 100 head, Sparrows Sons overdrive std (aka Sparrow amp), Bad Cat Black Cat head, Bad Cat Lynx head, THD Flexi head, 1978 Marshall 50-watt JMP non-master volume head, Ampeg V-4 head, Mesa/Boogie Quad preamp with Mesa/Boogie 2:90 power amp, Guild Thunderbass.[7]
- Speaker Enclosures commonly used: Emperor 6x12 cabinet (2), Marshall customized 4x12 cabinet w/ four "Eminence vintage 30 clone" 12-inch speakers, Marshall 8x10 cabinet w/ stock 15-watt Celestions.
- Effects commonly used: TC Electronic G-SYSTEM, Providence Stampede Distortion, Boss GE-7 Graphic Equalizer, Akai Headrush, Line 6 MM4, Boss Pitch Shifter/Delay, Boss Heavy Metal, Boss Metal Zone, Boss Tuner, Boss Noise Suppressor.
Discography
As band member
With Blue/Green Heart
- Self Esteem Through Modern Science (2002)[8]
With Converge
- Note: Kurt Ballou has performed on all Converge recordings to date. Only studio albums have been listed here, for a more complete list of releases see Converge discography.
- Halo in a Haystack (1994)
- Petitioning the Empty Sky (1996)
- When Forever Comes Crashing (1998)
- Jane Doe (2001)
- You Fail Me (2004)
- No Heroes (2006)
- Axe to Fall (2009)
- All We Love We Leave Behind (2012)
The Huguenots
- Discography (2007)[9]
With Kid Kilowatt
- Guitar Method (2004)
With Supermachiner
- Rise of the Great Machine (2001)[10]
As guest musician
Year | Band | Album | Contributions |
---|---|---|---|
1998 | Cave In | Until Your Heart Stops | Guitar, percussion, vocals |
2000 | Garrison | A Mile in Cold Water | Slide guitar |
2002 | Nationale Blue | A Different Kind of Listening | Melodica |
2002 | In Pieces | Learning to Accept Silence | Harmonica, melodica, slide guitar |
2002 | Curl Up and Die | Unfortunately, We're Not Robots | Vocals |
2004 | Old Man Gloom | Christmas | Guitars, drums, drum programing, vocals |
2004 | Last Perfection | Drawing Conclusions | Guitar |
2004 | Suicide Note | Too Sick to Dance Forever | Guitars, vocals |
2005 | Mi Amore | The Lamb | Guitars, solos |
2005 | New Idea Society | You Are Awake or Asleep | Drums |
2006 | Kahoots | Fourteen Ghosts | Saxophone |
2007 | Animosity | Animal | Saxophone |
2007 | Pygmy Lush | Bitter River | Saxophone, melodica, slide guitar |
2007 | Coliseum | No Salvation | Keyboards |
2007 | Trap Them | Sleepwell Deconstructor | Guitars |
2007 | The Casual Lean | Swears | Guitars, vocals |
2007 | The One AM Radio | This Too Will Pass | Drum engineering |
2007 | New Idea Society | World Is Bright and Lonely | Guitars |
2008 | Verse | Aggression | Drum engineering |
2008 | Torche | Meanderthal | Guitars |
2008 | Pygmy Lush | Mount Hope | Percussion |
2008 | Trap Them | Seizures in Barren Praise | Bass, guitars, noise |
2008 | Clouds | We Are Above You | Synthesizer, saxophone, guitar, slide guitar |
Production and recording discography
Year | Band | Album |
---|---|---|
1996 | Jesuit | Jesuit |
1998 | Converge | When Forever Comes Crashing |
1998 | Cave In | Beyond Hypothermia |
1999 | Jesuit | Jesuit |
1999 | Cave In | Until Your Heart Stops[5] |
1999 | All Chrome | Flounders Flyers College & Canada |
1999 | Orchid | Chaos Is Me[11] |
1999 | Codeseven | Division of Labor |
1999 | Isis | The Red Sea |
1999 | Converge | The Poacher Diaries |
1999 | Year of our Lord | Frozen Divide |
2000 | Orchid | Dance Tonight! Revolution Tomorrow![12] |
2000 | Garrison | A Mile in Cold Water |
2000 | American Nightmare | American Nightmare |
2000 | The Hope Conspiracy | Cold Blue |
2001 | Old Man Gloom | Seminar II: The Holy Rites of Primitivism Regressionism |
2001 | Old Man Gloom | Seminar III: Zozobra |
2001 | Sevenday Curse | After the Storm |
2001 | Isis | Mosquito Control[5] |
2001 | Converge & Hellchild | Deeper the Wound |
2001 | Pg.99 | Document #8 |
2001 | Piebald | Piebald |
2001 | Jeromes Dream | Presents |
2001 | Garrison | Garrison/Hundred Reasons [Split CD] |
2001 | Converge | Jane Doe |
2001 | The Hope Conspiracy | File 03 |
2001 | Panic | Dying for It |
2001 | Damage | Final |
2001 | Carry On | A Life Less Plagued |
2002 | The Cancer Conspiracy | The Audio Medium |
2002 | Eulcid | The Wind Blew All the Fires Out |
2002 | In Pieces | Learning to Accept Silence |
2002 | Curl Up and Die | Unfortunately, We're Not Robots |
2002 | Eden Maine | The Treachery Pact |
2002 | Suicide Note | You're Not Looking So Good |
2002 | Supermachiner | Rise of the Great Machine |
2002 | Beyond the Sixth Seal | Earth and Sphere |
2002 | Ramallah | But a Whimper[5] |
2003 | Beecher | Breaking the Fourth Wall |
2003 | Embrace Today | Soldiers |
2003 | Since By Man | We Sing the Body Electric |
2003 | The Static Age | The Past and Now |
2003 | Another Breath | Not Now, Not Ever |
2003 | Examination of the... | The Whitest of Elephants |
2004 | Scars of Tomorrow | Rope Tied to the Trigger |
2004 | Breather Resist | Charmer |
2004 | The Great Redneck Hope | Behold The Fuck Thunder |
2004 | Backstabbers Inc. | Kamikaze Missions |
2004 | Converge | You Fail Me[5] |
2004 | Sex Positions | Sex Positions |
2004 | The Power & The Glory | Call Me Armageddon |
2004 | Champion | Promises Kept |
2005 | Mi Amore | The Lamb |
2005 | Beecher | This Elegy, His Autopsy[5] |
2005 | Converge | Petitioning the Empty Sky (Remastered)[5] |
2005 | Converge | When Forever Comes Crashing (Remastered)[5] |
2005 | Transistor Transistor | Erase All Name and Likeness |
2005 | Seventh Star | Brood of Vipers |
2005 | Modern Life Is War | Witness[5] |
2005 | Swarm of the Lotus | The Sirens of Silence[5] |
2005 | Gospel | The Moon Is a Dead World |
2005 | Doomriders | Black Thunder[5] |
2005 | Killing The Dream | In Place Apart |
2006 | Bleeding Kansas | Dead Under Decor |
2006 | The Punching Contest | …Is My Co-pilot |
2006 | Genghis Tron | Dead Mountain Mouth |
2006 | The Hope Conspiracy | Death Knows Your Name |
2005 | In Dire Need | Lost At Sea |
2006 | Converge | No Heroes |
2006 | Betrayed | Substance |
2006 | Rise and Fall | Into Oblivion |
2007 | Blacklisted | Peace on Earth, War on Stage |
2007 | The Freezing Fog | March Forth To Victory |
2007 | Trap Them | Sleepwell Deconstructor |
2007 | Seventh Star | The Undisputed Truth |
2007 | The Ghost of a Thousand | This is Where the Fight Begins |
2007 | Animosity | Animal |
2007 | Coliseum | No Salvation |
2007 | Samsara | The Emptiness |
2007 | Trap Them | Séance Prime |
2007 | I Hate Sally | Don't Worry Lady |
2007 | 108 | A New Beat from a Dead Heart |
2007 | Kruger | Redemption Through Looseness |
2007 | The Casual Lean | Swears |
2008 | Disfear | Live the Storm |
2008 | Pygmy Lush | Mount Hope |
2008 | Adai | ...I Carry |
2008 | Blacklisted | Heavier Than Heaven, Lonelier Than God |
2008 | Elysia | Lion of Judas |
2008 | Genghis Tron | Board Up the House |
2008 | Dead or American | Thaumaturgy |
2008 | Torche | Meanderthal |
2008 | Transistor Transistor | Ruined Lives |
2008 | Stray From The Path | Villains |
2008 | Misery Index | Traitors |
2008 | Argument 5.45 | Thousands of Birds |
2008 | Have Heart | Songs to Scream at the Sun |
2008 | La Crisi | II – Tutti A Pezzi |
2008 | Trap Them | Seizures in Barren Praise |
2008 | the_Network | Bishop Kent Manning |
2008 | Young Widows | Old Wounds |
2009 | Lewd Acts | Black Eye Blues |
2009 | Buried Inside | Spoils of Failure |
2009 | Rise and Fall | Our Circle Is Vicious |
2009 | Magrudergrind | Magrudergrind |
2009 | Doomriders | Darkness Come Alive |
2009 | The Hope Conspiracy | True Nihilist |
2009 | Converge | Axe to Fall |
2009 | Paint It Black | Amnesia |
2009 | Paint It Black | Surrender |
2009 | BATS | Red in Tooth & Claw |
2010 | Acid Tiger | Acid Tiger |
2010 | Black Breath | Heavy Breathing |
2010 | Trap Them | Filth Rations |
2010 | Kvelertak | Kvelertak |
2010 | Nails | Unsilent Death |
2010 | You are in my September! | To The Open Hearts |
2010 | 108 | 18.61 |
2010 | The Secret | Solve et Coagula |
2010 | Generation of Vipers | Howl and Filth |
2010 | All Pigs Must Die | All Pigs Must Die |
2010 | Pettybone | From Desperate Times Comes Radicial Minds |
2011 | SEVEN7STEPS | The Day The War Is Over |
2011 | Pneu | Highway To Health |
2011 | KEN mode | Venerable |
2011 | Trap Them | Darker Handcraft |
2011 | Meek is Murder | Algorithms |
2011 | Pygmy Lush | Old Friends |
2011 | All Pigs Must Die | God Is War |
2011 | Jesuit | Discography |
2011 | Trenchfoot | Trenchfoot |
2011 | Black Cobra | Invernal |
2011 | The Fear and Trembling | This Old Earthquake |
2011 | Today is the Day | Pain is a Warning |
2012 | Black Breath | Sentenced To Life |
2012 | High on Fire | De Vermis Mysteriis |
2012 | Rise and Fall | Faith |
2012 | Burning Love | Rotten Thing To Say |
2012 | Torche | Harmonicraft |
2012 | Gaza | No Absolute in Human Suffering |
2012 | Code Orange Kids | Love Is Love/Return to Dust |
2012 | Converge | All We Love We Leave Behind |
2012 | The Secret | Agnus Dei |
2013 | Baptists | Bushcraft |
2013 | This Routine Is Hell | Howl |
2013 | Nails | Abandon All Life |
2013 | Modern Life Is War | Fever Hunting |
2013 | Kvelertak | Meir |
2013 | Sleeping In Gethsemane | When the Landscape is Quiet Again |
2013 | Oathbreaker | Anteros |
2013 | Nice Hooves | Nice Hooves |
2013 | All Pigs Must Die | Nothing Violates This Nature |
2013 | Immortal Bird | Akrasia EP |
2013 | Castles | Fiction or Truth ? |
2013 | Skeletonwitch | Serpents Unleashed |
2014 | Hark | Crystalline |
2014 | Idylls | Prayer for Terrene |
2014 | Floor | Oblation |
2014 | Trap Them | Blissfucker |
2014 | Every Time I Die | From Parts Unknown |
2014 | Vallenfyre | Splinters |
2014 | Code Orange | I Am King |
2014 | Iron Reagan | Tyranny of Will |
2014 | Baptists | Bloodmines |
2014 | Obliterations | Poison Everything |
2014 | Occultation | Silence in the Ancestral House |
2014 | Old Man Gloom | The Ape of God |
2015 | Torche | Restarter |
2015 | Harm's Way | Rust |
2015 | Four Year Strong | Four Year Strong |
2015 | High on Fire | Luminiferous |
2015 | Self Defense Family | Heaven Is Earth |
2015 | Expander | S/T 7" |
2015 | Mutoid Man | Bleeder |
2015 | Black Breath | Slaves Beyond Death |
2016 | Sumac | What One Becomes |
2016 | Hesitation Wounds | Awake for Everything |
2016 | Nails | You Will Never Be One of Us |
2016 | Russian Circles | Guidance |
2016 | Vorvaň | Once Love Was Lost |
2016 | The Dillinger Escape Plan | Dissociation |
References
General
- "Kurt Ballou – Credits". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved September 6, 2010.
Specific
- ↑ Miller, Liz (November 23, 2009). "Converge Rock Compassion: A Q&A". VegNews. Retrieved May 21, 2016.
- ↑ Borthwick, Andrew (November 14, 2005). "Kurt Ballou / Converge interview". LambGoat. Retrieved September 16, 2010.
- ↑ Bennett, J. (December 2009). "A Cut Above". Decibel. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Red Flag Media Inc. (62): 69–74. ISSN 1557-2137. Archived from the original on February 11, 2010. Retrieved September 16, 2010.
- ↑ Bennett, J. (December 2009). "A Cut Above". Decibel. No. 62. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Red Flag Media Inc. pp. 69–74. ISSN 1557-2137. Archived from the original on February 11, 2010. Retrieved October 17, 2010.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Lee, Cosmo (June 22, 2006). "Kurt Ballou – Interview – Stylus Magazine". Stylus Magazine. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
- ↑ "New Converge – 'Dark Horse'". Stereogum. August 25, 2009. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
- ↑ Kurt Ballou (Converge) talks gear and guitars, MusicRadar, http://www.musicradar.com/guitarist/kurt-ballou-converge-talks-gear-and-guitars-264751
- ↑ "Blue/Green Heart". Iodine Recordings. Retrieved September 6, 2010.
- ↑ Parker, Rob (February 27, 2008). "Review: Discography". LambGoat. Retrieved September 6, 2010.
- ↑ Gramlich, Chris (September 2001). "Converge: Have Innovation Through Suffering". Exclaim!. Retrieved September 6, 2010.
- ↑ "Orchid (3) – Chaos Is Me (Vinyl, LP, Album) at Discogs". Discogs. Retrieved May 21, 2011.
- ↑ "Orchid (3) – Dance Tonight! Revolution Tomorrow!". Discogs. Retrieved March 26, 2011.
External links
- Airbornmag.com Interview December 2007 Interview with UK-based music/sports website Airbornmag.com
- Interview with Kurt Ballow
- Kurt Ballou interview
- First Act website, includes a page on his custom "Sheena" guitar
- AMP magazine website (Kurt contributes an article to this page, entitled "Tech Talk")
- Kurt's Rickenbacker 650A review (Harmony Central)
- KURT BALLOU EXPLAINS HOW HE PLAYS SO GODDAMN LOUD (Noisey)