Jones Nelson

Recording Connection Grad Jones Nelson Talks The Program, His Mentor, Nashville, And His New Album

Jones Nelson had a bit more experience than most Recording Connection students when he signed up with the program. He’s a singer, guitarist and is competent in a number of other instruments. What he wanted from his apprenticeship was to be able to hone-in and focus on learning, not having to piecemeal bits of information together but to actually work with a pro, ask questions and get answers to those questions. Jones was matched up with mentor Jamie Tate, of the Rukkus Room in Nashville, Tennessee. He was pretty excited about coming in for his first lesson that coming Wednesday. Then, he got a text from Jamie, prior to his official start date. Jones recalls the message he received this way:

“‘Hey, we’re actually going to be doing a tracking session this evening if you’d like to swing by.’ It was just kind of ad hoc, but I thought, ‘Well yeah.’ I went in and they had a session band in, and the session band was going through and just recording a bunch of different artists that would come in. What was really interesting is that these guys, even if you’ve accidentally listened to country music over the last 10 years or 15 years, you’ve likely heard some of these folks on the record. The drummer, I know his work, toured and worked with Reba McEntire for like 15 years. The guitarist that was in the recording, I think he got the Nashville Guitarist of the Year or something last year. It was that moment that I realized that I was standing amongst giants and really had, at least somewhat, stumbled into the big leagues.”

Even though he’d been in and around studios since he was about 15, Jones found there were things he still had to learn. His mentor did certain things “completely differently” than what Jones was used to, including a “record it right the first time” methodology. Looking at one of Jones’s mixes, Jamie told him “Man, you’re zapping a lot of real frequencies here.” He said, “At the end of the day, these frequencies are really supposed to be there. All those frequencies could really live together. It’s just all about blending them.” The resulting fuller sounding mix made an impact on Jones. “When you see somebody do it just completely differently and much better than what you’re used to, it’s just like very awe-inspiring,” Jones says. 

Jamie also inspired Jones with his perfectionistic streak. The highly sought-after Grammy and Emmy award-winning recording engineer, mixer, and producer has a penchant for going through old projects and remixing work he’s already done, trying to outdo himself and find something else in the mix.

When asked about his experience in Recording Connection and how it has prepared him for his career the DIY artist says, “You can’t be taught the real world out of a book, you know…[Jamie’s] got a Grammy hanging on the wall…So I think more than anything, the big difference… going this route versus another, is that you’re getting a shot of real world confidence, because you know you’re quite literally just one step away from being in the mix, so to speak.”

When asked about his new album and how it came about Jones says, “So I started working on the record—it would have been January this year— I already had written like a southern rock blues record, but then just had been wanting to put out a harder rock album for years and years. So I just kind of made the decision to table the southern rock deal and to really pour my energy into working on the harder rock record. Originally, I had planned on having it all done by the summer, for summer release, but I kept learning so much through the school or just through my own training, and then kept acquiring new gear and new gadgets, and this, that, and the other. So I ended up having to go back and redo and re-record and tweak a bunch of songs that were already there, just making them better and better.”

When asked about the inspiration behind the album, Jones says his debut concept album attempts to showcase the pain everyone encounters in life and how the experience of pain can shape and mold them. In such a mindset, pain in and of itself isn’t intrinsically bad. Jones has wanted to make music a full-time job for as long as he can remember. During the creation of his album he channeled the pain and frustration of nearly being there into fuel for the album, placing it on-parallel with any hard-won labor of love or life ambition.

Making the full-length album was no small feat for Jones who spent hundreds of hours on the project and received input from his mentor from time to time, but helmed the project himself. As he was nearing the end of the mixing process, Jones revisited a couple tracks and unexpectedly found himself inspired to make some different creative choices, thanks to Chris Lord-Alge, whom he had met just days earlier at Gear Expo Nashville 2016: “Because I had met him and I had him on my mind, I went and mixed the last two tracks for the record, actually, and mixed it differently. I had forgotten that I had bought some of his plug-ins, that actually ended up changing the sound of the mix because I had actually got to meet him. So that was kind of cool.”

Still working hard at perfecting his craft while also working a full-time job at the radio station, Jones is nevertheless appreciative of the opportunities he has to do good work as an artist and elevate his chops day by day, and says,  “As far as the connection goes, I mean, I think that it’s a really good opportunity for a lot of different people. It gives folks that really want to do this the chance to see how it’s done in the real world as opposed to being locked to a desk and seeing everything in a sterile environment. So I think that’s been really cool.”

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