After spending over 20 years playing in bands in the Chicago area and the Midwest bar scene, Mitch Blumfield had a vision. You might even call it a momentary lapse of reason.
A band he was in was doing a lot of covers. However, it was their versions of Pink Floyd songs that were gaining the most attention with their flock. “There was a Pink Floyd Show that we threw in among all the other cover songs that included Aerosmith, Tom Petty and the usual cover fare,” says Blumfield. “Pink Floyd got the most attention.” So, Blumfield did the unthinkable for a single parent with a young daughter. He quit his six-figure marketing gig in downtown Chicago, got a home equity loan and went to work on a dream.
Today, that dream is a reality. He fronts and manages the largest touring production of Pink Floyd music in the country. Think Floyd USA is playing theaters normally reserved for the likes of Wilco, Ian Hunter or Paul Rogers. They also have cornered the festival market, playing in front of over 12,000 at Shwag Stock 2007 in Missouri. Milwaukee’s Summerfest, the largest festival in the world, has seen the band back three years in a row. In 2007, their production played before former Floyd frontman Roger Water’s show!
So, how did Blumfield and his handpicked seasoned professional studio and session cohorts do it? “A lot of phone calls and networking,” he said. “In the beginning, I really didn’t understand much about sound at the level we are at now. I just started asking people in the business for help!” The Project, as Blumfield likes to refer to it, is always evolving. “We spend a lot of time rehearsing — not just the music and vocals — but lighting cues and sound bites, plus projection scenes for our custom-made screens.”
The marketing of Think Floyd USA is the real genius of the band’s success. They play Pink Floyd albums in their entirety. “One show might be The Wall with full theatrical effects, including ‘The Wall’ itself, and then the next show could be Dark Side Of The Moon, says Blumfield. “We do the albums in their entirety, take a short 15-minute intermission and then do another hour or so of the ‘greatest hits’ so they get the whole ‘Pink Floyd Experience.’” The shows can run over three hours on some nights.
FOH sat down with Ken “Bo” Bohannon, owner of Blizzard Sound in Wisconsin and FOH engineer for Think Floyd USA, to find out how he approached this project.
FOH: How did you come across working for Think Floyd USA?
KB: The band crossed our stage at a festival here in Mishicot, Wisc., three years ago over the 4th of July. We had a really good show. We’ve been working together on and off ever since.
The band seems to be playing different and bigger venues than most tribute acts?
Most of the shows have been a festival sort of date or an amphitheater date or a theater show. They are a major touring act and a large production.
What kind of progression have you seen in their production?
As far as progression and production, they’ve come along quite a way. They pay a lot of attention to detail, such as the sound effects they use with the keyboard patches and the guitar tones. There’s been a lot of tweaking along the way trying to recreate the show — and they do it so well.
I think just dialing in the tones has progressed, be it the Hammond tone or the keyboard tone, a synth patch or the sound effects, including the bark-ing dog. They’ve really tweaked that stuff to a pretty refined level.
What is your rig of choice for this production?
We’re using a Martin Wavefront rig with WSX subs, W8T and W8Cs. It’s a real good rig for their show. It’s so smooth with the top end, and it’s real natural sounding. It’s got the extended low end with the WSX — it’s a real bump tool. We use about eight boxes per side for subs and about eight boxes for front of the house. We’ll bump them up if we need to. Depends on where we’re at.… It’s mostly ground stack. If there’s a place to fly them, we fly them. It depends on the size of venue.
What type of FOH console are you using?
A Midas Verona 480 desk — 40 channels.
You have a nice mic selection. What are you using on the band?
There’s an assortment of mics. Two mics on the kick: Shure SM91 inside the drum, with an Audix D6 in the hole. On the snare top and bottom is the D-1 Audix, and rack toms are Shure Beta 98s. There’s D6 on the floor tom, and Shure SM81 run overheads and high hat. We are also using a vintage Sennheiser 409U, which is perfect on the lead guitar, and we use the EV RE20 on the bass.
They are using their own personal monitor rig?
That’s right. The monitor rig they use is a Crest XRM 12X20 with four Shure PSM 200s, one Shure PSM 600 and one Shure PSM 700, along with one Shure E5 ear bud and two E3 ear buds. Then they have six Westone UM Dual Driver Universal earpieces and dbx 266 compressor/limiters in there..
They have their own monitor mix? How do you like it?
I think once we got it dialed in, we’ve got it. It’s real easy; it’s real sweet.
So, what’s there for the monitor guys to do?
We still have a monitor guy for wedges — they use PMs and wedges. Mitch (guitarist/lead singer) has two; Tom (lead guitar) has two. The girls (backup vocals) have PMs and wedges as well.
I noticed some unusual effects during the show. How do they get there?
The barking dog and other effects are on a laptop computer drive. There’s a left and a right, so it comes up in stereo.
What type of effects do you have to use with a band like this?
A Yamaha SPX 2000 handles the vocal reverbs, and there’s a TC D2 for the tap delays. Some of the stuff goes in direct — the computer effects are direct in, and they’ve got a split that comes off. Some of it goes to the house snake, and some of it they pick up directly off the stage.
How do feel about mixing the music of Pink Floyd?
It’s a lot of fun mixing these guys. It’s cool to mix some Floyd without mixing Floyd. It’s a lot of fun doing that show. EQs, effects, with the delays flying around. You need to get a big verb package, and that’s what we have.
Is it an active mix?
It can be an active mix. There’s a lot of panning.
We move a lot on some songs where there’s reverb and delay times. On Mitch’s vocal, I use a Klark Square One compressor inserted with a gentle 2/1 ratio and drive a second compressor, a Drawmer DL241, from an aux send, this one set with a 12/1 ratio. I hit it pretty hard and bring that back into another channel. These two channels are mixed together with the vocal delays and reverbs all sent from the heavily compressed channel. Sometimes Mitch doesn’t sing real loud; it’s a good technique to get his vocals up front in the mix.
Anything else that you do?
Running subs off of aux sends on some shows. Not only does it make for a cleaner mix, but there are parts of the show that demand big bottom end on the keys and sound FX.
What are in the plans for a bigger and better production?
We’re tossing around the idea of getting a new digital board. We’re looking at a couple of them: the Yami, the M7CL48. Depending on how many dates we do, we might go with the PM5. It depends on how much preproduction time we have.
Mitch didn’t know much when he started out, but he’s been doing it for three year’s now. What are your thoughts on that?
He’s picked a lot of people’s brains. Learned from his experience; learned from other people’s experience. It’s a good rule of thumb.
Anything you would like to add to this interview?
It’s a fun show to mix. It’s a good show to see.
What about the band as a production to work with?
They’re good people to work for… never a hassle, never a temper, everyone’s laid back and everyone is a pleasure to work with. Not like some acts. Here, there’s no temper, no egos. They’re so nice.
