The Self-Recording Band

What happens when you compare the record you’re making now to the one you made a few years ago... and your first reaction is:
“What the fuck? We sent this to our mixing engineer?”
That’s exactly what happened to Stefan Thoms and fourcitycolony. And honestly, that’s a pretty good sign. It means they got better. A lot better.  
Want to make incredible-sounding records yourself, without having to figure everything out alone? → https://theselfrecordingband.com
In this in-person episode at our studio, Stefan joins us to talk about how fourcitycolony have developed their approach to making records over several releases.
They record most of the music themselves, but they don’t insist on doing absolutely everything themselves. Instead, they’ve landed on a hybrid approach: DIY recording, combined with outside help for mixing, mastering and feedback when it makes sense. 
And that opens up some bigger questions:
Should a record simply capture what your band sounds like... or should you use the studio to create something bigger than what you can reproduce live? How much do influences from other bands matter? What's the vision for the project? Should you try to recreate sounds from a reference?
For fourcitycolony, the starting point was their live identity. They already knew how the two guitars should interact and what they wanted the band to feel like. Their goal was to get that sound and energy onto the record, while still allowing themselves to add things that wouldn’t necessarily happen on stage.  
We also get very practical.
Stefan talks about having to re-record guitars because of tuning problems, changing the way they structure recording sessions, renting a better room to track drums, separating loud guitar cabinets from the musicians during recording, and learning when another take will genuinely improve something versus when you’re just doing it again because you can.
And once again, one of the biggest reoccurring lessons from making records yourself:
Knowing when something is good enough.
Don’t rush the beginning of the record. Set the standard. Don’t get lazy toward the end. Don’t leave the hardest songs until everyone is exhausted. And if something simply isn’t happening that night, come back tomorrow.  
We also talk about why bringing in a professional mixer can be useful even when you know exactly how you want your own music to sound like: 
They’re hearing the song for the first time, without hundreds of rehearsals and demos shaping their expectations. That outside perspective can reveal things the band simply stopped noticing.
Pair that with professional feedback, coaching and guidance during pre-production and the recording sessions and you have a bullet-proof, no-compromise approach.

In this episode:
Capturing a band vs. producing a band
Getting better from one record to the next
The guitar tuning mistake they won’t make again
When re-recording is actually worth it
DIY recording + professional mixing and mastering
Why they rented a better room to record drums
Making a studio record that truly sounds like your band
Adding parts you can’t reproduce live
Knowing when a recording is “good enough”
Why an outside mixer hears things you don’t anymore
Vocal recording, pitch correction and keeping imperfections
Songwriting, emotional lyrics and ridiculously catchy choruses

If you’re recording your own band and wondering what you should do yourself, what you should get help with, and how to make every record better than the last, there’s a lot to take away from this one.

Check out fourcitycolony:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fourcitycolony
Tour Dates, Socials & Music Streaming Apps: https://linktr.ee/fourcitycolony
Also mentioned:
I Wish I Could Stay Records: https://www.instagram.com/iwishicouldstay.ka
Krachige Platten: https://www.instagram.com/krachigeplatten
Want help making your own recordings and mixes sound professional?
https://theselfrecordingband.com
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For links to everything we've mentioned in this episode, as well as full show notes go to:
theselfrecordingband.com/324
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Send us Fan Mail
If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: podcast@theselfrecordingband.com

What makes a record feel alive, not just polished? Producer Garreth Tackney shares how he keeps modern productions sounding real, human and exciting.
Want to make your own recordings sound professional without losing what makes your music yours? → https://theselfrecordingband.com
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What makes a record feel alive?
Like real people are actually in a room making music. While still getting the quality, size and impact we'd expect from a modern production?
That’s something producer, engineer and Self-Recording Syndicate member Garreth Tackney thinks about a lot.
His philosophy is simple: “It has to sound real.”
That doesn’t mean rejecting modern production. Garreth still wants clarity, punch and impact. He uses modern tools, amp sims when they make sense, editing, samples and everything else available to us.
But he doesn’t want the process to remove the character that made the performance exciting in the first place.
In this conversation, we get into what that looks like in practice: 
Making drums feel like an actual kit in a room, capturing guitars through real amps and cabinets, knowing when not to edit something, leaving natural details in vocals, using room mics to create energy, and even keeping a technically “wrong” guitar sound because it simply felt better. 
We also talk about Garreth’s development as a producer and engineer. He came into The Self-Recording Syndicate with plenty of recording experience, but over time his ears, methods and approach to the entire process changed significantly. One of his biggest realizations was that great results have much less to do with owning more gear than with developing the skills to make good decisions with what you already have. 
And because Garreth does all of this alongside a regular job and family life, we also talk about finding the time to actually make records, improving through periods of intense creative work, and putting in the hours when music isn’t your full-time job.
In this episode:
What makes a recording feel “real”
Modern polish vs. sounding manufactured
Capturing drums that feel like a real kit in a room
Real amps, amp sims and knowing when each makes sense
Why you shouldn’t automatically edit every imperfection
The room-mic approach that transformed one of Garreth’s drum mixes
Why a phase problem became a sound worth keeping
Getting better without endlessly buying more gear
How Garreth’s ears have changed over the last two years
Making meaningful audio progress with a job, family and limited studio time
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If you’re trying to make your own records sound professional without sanding away everything that makes them feel human, this conversation is for you.
Find Garreth / De Villa Sounds:
Website & portfolio:
https://devillasounds.com
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/devillasounds/
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Want help making your own recordings and mixes sound the way you hear them in your head? Join the Syndicate:
https://go.theselfrecordingband.com/application
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For links to everything we've mentioned in this episode, as well as full show notes go to:
theselfrecordingband.com/323
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Send us Fan Mail
If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: podcast@theselfrecordingband.com

🚀 Want our personal help with your next recording project?
If you want to learn to listen in a completely different way, and get the production skills to finish songs consistently...
👉 Book a free first coaching session with us:
theselfrecordingband.com
We’ll listen to your music, look at your current situation, create a custom plan for you and figure out if you're a good fit for our coaching inside The Self-Recording Syndicate. 
If you are, we can help you make records you're truly proud of and give you the skills and confidence to do it over and over again.
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About this episode:
What kind of person decides to cover the entire ~400-song catalogue of one band?
Someone like Tobi Seitz, aka Samy Braysel.
His ongoing project is to cover every original song by German punk legends Die Ärzte. He’s currently around 10% of the way through and estimates that finishing the whole thing could take 25 years or more. His reason for starting such a ridiculous project is simple: if an idea is crazy enough, you sometimes have to start immediately before you overthink yourself out of doing it. 
But that project is only one part of what Samy does.
He writes and records his own music, plays multiple instruments, produces other artists, teaches guitar and songwriting, repairs and restores guitars, and is building Hitzen Audio, where he helps artists take songs from the initial idea all the way to the finished production. 
In this episode, we talk about the philosophy that connects all of those things.
Samy deliberately creates challenges that force him to move quickly instead of overthinking everything. He has written and recorded songs within a few hours, captured one new musical idea every day for a month, resurrected unfinished songs from ten years ago, and learned when to accept that something is done and simply good enough to release. 
We also get into his approach to production: making records polished without making them robotic, recording real instruments, keeping human imperfections, using references early in the process, and knowing when the last 10% of "perfection" simply isn’t gonna help the song. 
And we talk about “Always Smiling,” the first official Samy Braysel release: a fast, loud song about unexpectedly finding a sense of freedom after AI takes away a job you didn’t particularly enjoy in the first place. 
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In this episode:
The 25-year mission to cover every Die Ärzte song
What recreating hundreds of songs teaches you about arrangement and production
Why Samy deliberately sets himself creative challenges
Moving fast without sacrificing quality
Why 90% can sometimes be good enough
Recording real drums and keeping productions human
Polished vs robotic
Knowing when a song is actually finished
Using reference tracks before you start recording
Producing your own songs vs producing other artists
Translating someone else’s ideas into a finished production
Why Samy enjoys restoring and building guitars
Finding time for music alongside work and everything else
Being a generalist instead of specializing in only one thing
Building Hitzen Audio as an end-to-end production service
The story behind “Always Smiling”
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Check Out Samy / Tobi
Samy Braysel:
https://samybraysel.com
Die Erbse – the Die Ärzte cover project:
https://www.youtube.com/@Die_Erbse
Hitzen Audio:
https://www.hitzen-audio.de/
https://www.instagram.com/hitzen.audio/
https://www.tiktok.com/@hitzenaudio
Confusion of ChiffChaff:
https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/album/4A4IYUKMvLEhES3ZzIFyYw
“Walls” – produced by Tobi:
https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/track/0V4WGClbt12B2TwwM0lMhj
“Tuxedo Torpedo” – Ron Jambo:
https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/track/5WTQ2lAyLR5IPt0QGd3bNQ
“Always Smiling”:
https://samybraysel.com/#presave
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Work With Us
If you’re making your own music and want outside feedback, coaching, and a clear process for making better records:
https://theselfrecordingband.com
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If this episode helps you, we’d really appreciate it if you left a rating/review or shared it with another self-recording artist. It helps us reach more musicians like you, invite exciting guests and keep the podcast going.
--
For links to everything we've mentioned in this episode, as well as full show notes go to:
theselfrecordingband.com/322
--
Send us Fan Mail
If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: podcast@theselfrecordingband.com

🚀 Want our personal help with your studio or your next music project?
If you want to explore the full potential of your creations, learn to listen in a completely different way, and get the production skills to finish songs consistently...
👉 Book a free first coaching session with us:
theselfrecordingband.com
We’ll listen to your music, look at your current situation, create a custom plan for you and figure out if you're a good fit for our coaching inside The Self-Recording Syndicate. 
If you are, we can help you make records you're truly proud of and give you the skills and confidence to do it over and over again.
--

About this episode:
What if the thing limiting your creativity is actually what helps you become more creative?
That’s one of the big ideas in this conversation with Bryan Hinerdeer.
Bryan is a songwriter, guitarist, live musician, and longtime member of The Self-Recording Syndicate. He’s also spent the last few years diving deep into sync licensing and writing music to briefs for film, TV, and other media. 
At first glance, writing to a brief can sound restrictive.
You’re given a genre, a purpose & references.
Sometimes specific instrumentation.
Plus a deadline.
And then you have to create something that fits.
But Bryan found that those constraints can actually force you to be more creative, because you can’t just fall back on the same habits every time. As he puts it, you’re already “in a box” with your own music, even if you don’t realize it. 
In this episode, we talk about how writing for sync pushed Bryan to grow as a songwriter, producer, and self-recording artist.
We get into learning to interpret briefs, figuring out what “contemporary” actually means, hearing production choices more critically, collaborating with other musicians, improving timing and drum programming, and developing the kind of ears that let you recognize problems before someone else points them out. 
We also talk about the balance between polished and organic production, why collaboration can unlock better results, and how Bryan went from simply “listening to drums” to hearing whether a snare, reverb, arrangement, or performance actually fits the song. 

In this episode:
How sync licensing and music briefs work
Why constraints can make you more creative
Writing inside a genre without copying references
Learning to interpret vague feedback like “sounds dated”
Why reverb can make a production feel tied to a certain era
Developing your ears through repeated feedback
Improving timing without over-editing
Why drum programming is such a steep learning curve
Making programmed drums feel more human
Bryan’s punk collaboration with another Syndicate member
Why complementary collaborators are so valuable
The difference between being a good musician and a good recording musician
How recording improved Bryan’s live performances
Why production choices need to fit the genre
Bryan’s acoustic guitar recording approach
Organic vs polished production
Using modern tools without losing feel
Why pre-production matters
The value of honest feedback
Why collaboration can take your music somewhere you wouldn’t reach alone

If you’re a self-recording artist who keeps defaulting to the same sounds, the same habits, or the same way of writing, this episode is a great reminder that sometimes a few limits are exactly what you need.

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If this episode helps you, we’d really appreciate it if you left a rating/review or shared it with another self-recording artist. It helps us reach more musicians like you, invite exciting guests and keep the podcast going.
--
For links to everything we've mentioned in this episode, as well as full show notes go to:
theselfrecordingband.com/321

Bryan Hinerdeer:
thebryanscottrevival.com
The Bryan Scott Revival on Spotify
--
Send us Fan Mail
If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: podcast@theselfrecordingband.com

🚀 Want our personal help with your studio or your next music project?
If you want to finally finish songs and make them sound so good that you can't wait to share them with the world...
👉 Book a free first coaching session with us:
theselfrecordingband.com
We’ll listen to your music, look at your current situation, create a custom plan for you and figure out if you're a good fit for our coaching inside The Self-Recording Syndicate. 
If you are, we can help you make records you're truly proud of and give you the skills and confidence to do it over and over again.
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About this episode:
What happens when you stop second-guessing every mix and start actually finishing and releasing your songs?

That’s a big part of Thomas Hauenstein’s story.

Thomas is a solo artist, songwriter, and longtime member of The Self-Recording Syndicate. He writes and produces his own music, plays multiple instruments, programs and records drums, mixes his songs, and also collaborates with other musicians.

For a long time, one of his biggest challenges was simply not knowing whether what he had made was actually good enough.

He could write songs.

He could record them.

But evaluating his own mixes, knowing what needed to change, and deciding when something was finished was much harder.

In this episode, we talk about how that changed.

Thomas shares how developing his ears, getting consistent feedback, and finishing more projects helped him build confidence and actually release music instead of leaving ideas unfinished on a hard drive.

We also get into his very hands-on approach to recording: 
Creating fuzzy rock tones, programming realistic drums, experimenting with acoustic guitar mic setups, sampling his own drum kit, collaborating with other musicians, and learning when to let go of control.

And underneath all of it is one idea Thomas comes back to:

“It has to be heard by other people.”

In this episode:

Going from uncertainty to actually releasing music
Why finishing songs matters so much (beyond the obvious)
Learning to trust your own ears
The value of outside feedback
Why chasing perfection can keep songs stuck forever
Producing both full rock arrangements and stripped-back acoustic songs
Making programmed drums feel more natural
Building unique guitar and bass tones
Thomas’s acoustic guitar recording setup
Using modeling microphones creatively
Sampling your own drum kit
Why unique sounds make productions more personal
Collaborating with other musicians
Learning to give up some creative control
The challenge of doing everything yourself
Managing expectations when music is not your full-time job

If you have a hard drive full of unfinished songs and keep wondering whether your mixes are good enough, Thomas’s story will probably feel very familiar. And it might inspire you to finally take action.
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If this episode helps you, we’d really appreciate it if you left a rating/review or shared it with another self-recording artist. It helps us reach more musicians like you, invite exciting guests and keep the podcast going.
--
For links to everything we've mentioned in this episode, as well as full show notes go to:
theselfrecordingband.com/320

Thomas Hauenstein:
instagram.com/thomas_hauenstein (@thomas_hauenstein)
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Send us Fan Mail
If you have any questions, feedback, topic ideas or want to suggest a guest, email us at: podcast@theselfrecordingband.com