John Paul Peters

Royal Canoe Interview

2012-01-12T05:51:00.000-08:00

Meticulous Musical Montages

Royal Canoe’s new songwriting lineup records new music

By Mitch Kruse

“It’s pretty much a new band,” said Bucky Driedger of Royal Canoe. “I would say
from CO-OP Mode to now it’s been a re-invention of the band, we’re almost starting over
again.”

Royal Canoe began in 2006 as a collaborative side project for Matt Peters from The
Waking Eyes, but became serious when Peters put together a live band and released CO-
OP Mode on in 2009.

“Now for the last year, we’ve had the same guys and all six of us are part of the writing
and arranging process and it’s a really creative, fun group of people to make music with,”
said Driedger. “It’s really open and great.”

The reincarnated Royal Canoe comprises a healthy mix of members from The
Liptonians and Tele, but still sticks to collaborative methods. They are piecing together a
new album and EP at Private Ear Recording.

Teaming up with them is producer/engineer John Paul Peters, whose patience has paid
off for the ambitious band and their potpourri of keyboards, digital triggers, and effects.

“He’s an engineer/producer that’s really up for a challenge,” said Driedger. “He’s also
a guy that’s always really open to trying new ideas and trying something weird to see if
we could get a cool sound out of it.”

John Paul also pushes for ideal vocal performance. He will do everything to facilitate
a perfect vocal take, such as having water and tea ready or blocking out windows if a
singer prefers not to be seen singing.

“I have to feel an emotional quality coming from the singer, no matter how they sing,”
said John Paul. “If you’re perfectly in tune without emotion, nobody’s going to care.”

Though the new music still embraces the synth hooks and vocal effects of CO-OP
Mode, Royal Canoe now has a digital/analog double drum attack, played by Mike Jordan
and Derek Allard, which gives their rhythmic grooves human quality as opposed to
sounding programmed. Though not an electronic album, it will definitely embrace sonic
exploration.

“This album is going to have a lot of extreme contrasts,” said John Paul. “There will be
very wet, roomy elements and very dry elements working together to form very unique
tones and sonic textures.”

“We’re all pretty calculative,” said Driedger. “Not in a way that’s sterile, just that we
spend a lot of time while we’re writing making every part perfect.”

Royal Canoe debuted their new tunes live at The Pyramid Cabaret at the end of
December. The EP will come out early this year, while the album’s release date is to be
determined.

Rave reviews for The Ripperz "You Are The Moon" LP

2012-01-03T14:02:00.000-08:00

www.punknews.org review here

You Are the Moon was 3rd in Kent Rocks top 15 albums of 2011!
www.spun-music.blogspot.com review here

New from Matt Epp!

2012-01-03T00:06:00.000-08:00

Check out this new vid (well actually a few months old now but I'm a slacker) from Matt Epp! It is for the song "I Met Someone" off his latest LP release "At Dark".

Enjoy! (and check out his website!)

Met Someone - MATT EPP official video from Grant Baldwin Videography on Vimeo.

Royal Canoe Studio Updates

2012-01-02T23:12:00.001-08:00

We've been hard at work on the new Royal Canoe EP and LP. Nice! Productions is doing a by-weekly film short on the band as they work through the recording and mixing. Some real and uncontrived footage of the band as they do their thing, first in pre-production at their practice space, and later as they begin recording at Private Ear.

Have a look at the first two episodes here and here

Happy New Year!

Destroy, Destroy, Destroy!

2012-01-02T22:55:00.000-08:00

Check out this new video by the Liptonians. The single was recorded and mixed by me in early fall.

New Videos

2011-06-10T06:44:00.000-07:00

Wow- It's been a busy year! Here are a few interesting videos from Royal Canoe and Deco Dawson. Royal canoe's video was shot and recorded live in our studio A.

The sound track to "Prairie Scene" by Deco Dawson was a drum solo by Anders from Inward Eye, mixed and edited by myself. Enjoy!

Who's "Your Worst Enemy"?

2010-01-24T16:05:00.000-08:00

These Guys. With their catchy melange of old school hardcore and comedic lyrics- these guys just have way too much fun in the studio.... and probably live as well except they've never played a show! Maybe sometime?

Your Worst Enemy also contains 2 members of the Ripperz, Another Winnipeg staple. They are due back for some recording this coming March as a follow-up to their first Self-titled disk that they recorded back in 2008. It was tracked live off the floor with no isolation, no headphones, no gobos, just the band with mics and monitors.

Salinas Mix

2009-11-27T00:09:00.000-08:00

Matt Peters and I just finished a very fun and intensive mix for Salinas (produced by Matt). We mixed in Studio A at Private Ear on the Neotek. The goal was 2 days to complete it- a hybrid analogue and digital mix. It's gonna be a very interesting record- lots of unique tones, stylistic blend of punk, old rock, surf rock, geez.... pretty cool! We're putting it down to 1/4 inch tape tomorrow, then it's off to Alan D. at West West Side Music for mastering. Look for their record to be released early 2010!

Electro Quarterstaff.... Need I say more?!

2009-11-09T13:50:00.001-08:00

EQ will grace Private Ear Recording in December for their third release, following up 2006's Gretzky. I had the privilege of being electrocuted first hand last friday night at the Albert Arms where EQ performed with Rebel Yell, Velodrome, and Summer of Legs. I am looking forward to this! Check out this band... SERIOUSLY.

New Tele Song

2009-11-06T06:19:00.000-08:00

I'm currently in the mix of a brand new track from Tele (winnipeg). It's called "You Promised Her." Great song! Great vocal performance by Matt W.

Matt Epp - New Video!

2009-11-02T14:16:00.001-08:00

Check it out below!! Matt Epp's new video for "They Won't Find the Bodies". Kreepy... I texted him yesterday to let him know I'll NEVER mess with him...!

The Fall and Assault

2009-11-02T09:10:00.000-08:00

Photo by EppBphoto.com!

I'm finishing mixing for The Fall and Assault's new EP today. Great guys from MacGregor, MB. These guys have a distinct sound despite the variety they desplay in their style. Emotionally infused, dreamy at times, aggressive sections, quiet poetic sections. Check these guys out!

New Studio Website UP!!

2009-11-01T22:27:00.001-08:00

We've finally completed our new website for the studio (Private Ear Recording) and its online so go check it out!! Big thanks to Derek Hogue from Amphibian Design for the awesome work!

!! EVIL SURVIVES !!

2009-10-14T12:42:00.000-07:00

Winnipeg's infamous shredding legends Evil Survives return to Private Ear this December for production on their third... yes -third- studio recording in two years! It will be a follow-up to 2008's Metal Vengeance and more recently 2009's Judas Priest Live... both released on Vinyl through War On Music Records. The Voltage is definitely rising... hopefully enough to ease the transition into our Polar Ice-Cap season!!

Oktober Projekts

2009-10-14T12:03:00.000-07:00

The Furr are in and the drums are sounding like a super-B tractor trailer rolling down the interstate... should be a great project!

Upcoming projects include final production on demos for a new film with Winnipeg composer Matthew Patton, mixes for AM Glory and Fall and Assault (demos and EP tracked at Private Ear), and completion of production and mixing for The Shouting Ground's new EP.

John Paul Peters - Bio

2009-10-13T20:21:00.000-07:00

Producer Bio – John Paul Peters

Contact:
634 Greene Avenue, Winnipeg, MB.
R2K 0M6
204.799.4471
John.peters@mts.net
www.johnpaulpeters.com

John Paul Peters was born on November 7th, 1976 in Lorrach Germany. He moved to Canada at the age of 5, and started music lessons shortly after. He took violin with the Suzuki program for seven years before picking up the instruments of rock and roll. John Paul started several bands in High School, namely The Undecided and Officer Down. The Undecided signed with Seattle-based Tooth and Nail records and recorded two albums for them, touring extensively in Canada and the United States.

John Paul always enjoyed his experiences in the studio and found the recording process to be both fulfilling and motivating. In 2002, he began an apprenticeship at Ground Zero recording in Oak Bank, completing several albums there before moving out on his on as a freelance engineer and producer. His first full length project was the debut recording for Winnipeg’s own “Comeback Kid”, which went on to sell over 30,000 units. The band soon became a mainstay of hardcore in North America and Europe. After moving on from Ground Zero, John Paul joined forces with Joe Riccardo and founded High North Records, a retreat studio located near Grand Beach, MB. Over the next four years John worked with many great up-and-coming bands and solo artists totaling well over 50 projects in genres ranging in diversity from metal to top 40 pop. Recently, he has produced and engineered records for The Waking Eyes, Baysix (UK), Swingset Champion and Textbook Tragedy (Vancouver), Means (Regina), Sons of York, Subcity Dwellers, Coda, Every New Day, The Barrymores, Katelyn Dawn, and Tele (Winnipeg). The Waking Eyes (Coalition/Warner) won “Best Independent Album” at the 2009 WCMA awards for their album “Holding On to Whatever it is”, produced, engineered, and mixed by John Paul Peters.

In collaboration with Neil Cameron (Private Ear Recording), John Paul has constructed a new 3000sf recording studio in downtown Winnipeg. The studio has retained the name “Private Ear Recording” in keeping with the name of Neil’s original studio. Private Ear Recording consists of two separate facilities which will be the new home for John’s production efforts, as well as a commercial studio. The rooms feature a Neotek Elite m2 console (40 frame), Protools/HD Accel, Radar/24, Ampex 2’, Studer A807, and a Yamaha Grand Piano, as well as outboard gear and microphones by API, Avalon, Neumann, Dynaudio, Urei, BSS, Focusrite, Joemeek, True Systems, Drawmer, Orange County, Rane, Furman, Dbx, Lexicon, TC electronic, Gotham Audio, Yamaha, Rode, Senneheiser, AKG, AEA, Sure, Oktava, Microtek Geffel, Audio Technica, and many more. The new site is now online at www.privateear.ca