For this Digital Media assignment, I teamed up with Mason Serna and brought in Santiago Tejada Castillo to help us record a cover of Nirvana’s “The Man Who Sold the World.” I’d worked with Santi on a couple of past projects, so I already knew he’d be a great fit for another freestyle-style recording session. As soon as I pitched the idea, he immediately knew what song he wanted to play. Once we got into the studio, everything came together smoothly, and I think Mr. Flo was impressed with how well Santi delivered once again.
Santiago Tejada Castillo
Santi is a guitarist at Mountain View High School who is inspired by bands like Nirvana, AC/DC, and Pink Floyd. He has been self taught for years. His talent is hard to describe in words, so listening to his cover for this project is the best way to get a taste of what he has to offer.
What made this project stand out from the ones we’ve done earlier in junior year was the level of responsibility put on us. This time, we had to handle everything – recording, running the booth, controlling ProTools, and making sure we had bits of each take we liked. I’ll admit, at first it was a bit overwhelming getting comfortable with all the controls and the setup, but after some trial and error we figured it out. Before we knew it, we wrapped up all the recording in about an hour. Check out our final product!
▶ The Man Who Sold The World
⏸ The Man Who Sold The World
Collaborative artist statement
In this assignment in Digital Media, Stephen Messner and Mason Serna collaborated with Santiago Tejada Castillo to do a cover of Nirvana’s “The Man Who Stole The World”. We were able to use the recording studio to practice being in the booth and producing/recording music. After working with Santi in past projects, Stephen thought he’d be a good fit for another Freestyle recording project. When the idea was presented, Santi knew exactly what song he wanted to play. Nonetheless, the result was pretty solid – even Mr. Flo was impressed with Santi’s work once again.
This project is different from other projects we’ve done in junior year because we were responsible to record everything and take control with ProTools in the studio. At first, it was a little rough getting used to the controls and setup, but with enough patience, we were able to get things figured out and get all of the recording done in about an hour flat.
Reflection
Overall, this project was very fun and taught us a lot of new skills in audio editing and using the recording studio that has inspired us to do more recording projects during senior year. Santi loved helping us out once again, and there’s no doubt that he’ll be back for future projects. The three of us really bonded during this project, and had fun working together.
(From left to right) Stephen Messner, Santiago Tejada Castillo, Mason Serna