American Songwriter Live: Kansas Bible Company

We first got turned on to Kansas Bible Companyvia the killer song “Jesus, The Horse Thief,” a tune that straddles the seldom-visited border between indie rock, prog, ska and marching band styles. Here, the Nashville-based group visit Big Light Studios to deliver a scorching performance of “The Desert She Screams.”

Here’s what sound engineer Joshua Niles had to say about the session: “Kansas Bible Company rolled in to the studio and we were all set up to track the band live in this darkly- lit, cozy little space. We set up a variety of vintage and modern microphones to capture the live performance as accurately as possible. Mics from RCA, AEA, Neumann, Beyer, just to name a few.

In the control room, everything was run through a vintage Neve console as well as Urie and  Universal Audio consoles, in order to help control the dynamics in a small room. The goal was to get two or three passes at the song and capture something unique and rare in the moment. The whole session ran a little over an hour from start up to tear down. It was quite a party with eleven people crammed in a 12 x 20 tracking room, but I think a really cool product came out of it.”

Audio recorded and mixed by Joshua Niles with assistance from Adam Froke. Video shot and edited by Neal Dahlgren.