An introspective by Richard LaBonté
What happens when vintage drum machines, iconic 80s soundscapes, and world-class musicians collide across generations? You get “Dancing Under the Moon” — and the story behind it is just as cinematic as the song, with a little help from online gear haven Reverb.
The 1980s was a seminal decade for music. The pop charts were a wild mash-up of genres and artists — punk rubbing elbows with funk, glam colliding with gospel. It was also the dawn of a technological revolution in sound. Synthesizers, drum machines, and sequencers became creative tools, not just studio novelties. Pop artists dove headfirst into this new frontier, chasing sounds that felt futuristic, weird, and thrillingly uncharted. I raised my two sons on the music of that remarkable era. To my surprise (and delight), it makes up the bulk of their self-curated playlists. From ABC to U2, they’ve developed a deep love for the same sounds that shaped my generation’s coming of age. The music of the ’80s isn’t just nostalgic — it’s timeless.
“The 80s wasn’t a decade, it was an emotion.” ~ @Jorge_Broa from YouTube
I’ve developed a musical partnership with my son, Roland LaBonté, a classically trained cellist turned singer/songwriter. Our first co-production effort was an ambitious affair called Sleepless Nights, a five-song concept EP released on June 9, 2023.
“If I were to describe the project, it sounds a bit like The Weeknd went back and collaborated with ‘The Hurting’ era Roland Orzabal from Tears for Fears, co-wrote an E.P., recorded it on analog tape with a string section, and mixed it with today’s modern technology.” ~ Eric Boulanger (Green Day, Colbie Callait, N.E.R.D.)
The Sleepless Nights EP blends afflicted lyrics and emotive cello lines with cinematic production and sonic elegance. What started innocently enough as Roland’s demos — recorded at our modest home studio — soon evolved into a true hybrid recording process, complete with live tracking of solo cello, a string quartet, drums, and vocals in a proper recording studio. Mixer Joe Zook and mastering engineer Eric Boulanger elevated the tracks to an entirely new plane, creating something we’re incredibly proud of — something we believe will stand the test of time.
Having built a solid aesthetic of production sensibilities, attention to sonics and quality, and a commitment to a hybrid recording process, we jumped into the production of Roland’s latest single “Dancing Under the Moon” in late 2023, determined to build on what we learned from our previous recording efforts. We released the single to streaming platforms on August 2, 2024.
A Minor Note
And where does the Reverb platform fit into all of this? I was introduced to Reverb in 2015 by a friend and former colleague, Walter Gross (he also introduced me to Shake Shack that same day after a meeting in NYC). What started as a simple question from Walter, ‘Have you ever heard of Reverb?’ has turned into a years-long obsession of mine to curate the right gear for my home studio efforts. In addition to the gear I’ve acquired over the years from Reverb, the platform also came in very handy during the recording of the Sleepless Nights EP, as the guest vocalist on the song “Fumes of Dismay,” Itz Julius, first sold me an Inward Connections 500 series vocal compressor called ‘The Brute’* on the platform, which started a musical conversation that led to an incredible collaboration.
“Dancing Under the Moon” was written at the end of the recording sessions for Sleepless Nights, but it just didn’t fit the concept of that record, so we temporarily put it on the shelf. When we finally started the production process, we began with two critical pillars: groove + ambience. Groove in the sense of ‘swing’ and ‘pocket’ and ambience from the feeling of ‘lushness’ and ‘space.’ This is where the 80s come into play because if it did two things well, it managed to produce drum machines with a swing and feel that no software has been able to emulate, while also introducing us to big, lush reverbs used almost like their own instruments. After listening to the iPhone Voice Memos recording Roland and fellow songwriter Jonathan Cour recorded during the songwriting process to grab the initial idea, I asked Roland to give me a crack at building out an initial demo. He obliged, and one Saturday, when he was out of town, I went downstairs to our home studio and got to work.
Basic Tracks: Drum Loop and acoustic guitar
Roland and I are very similar in that we both like to get a ‘feel’ going very quickly. A handful of years ago, I bought a vintage Linn Drum* (also referred to as the LM2), which has become a core piece of our songwriting and production process. This drum machine defined both the sound and groove of the 1980s, used famously by Tears for Fears, Peter Gabriel, Roxy Music, Billy Idol and Michael Jackson. Like all vintage gear, this one came with its own story. I purchased the Linn from a producer making records at Electric Lady studios in NYC, where he used it with younger R&B singers such as Nick Hakim and Charlotte Day Wilson, along with indie artists like Sufjan Stevens.
I quickly programmed a simple loop on the Linn, running its mono output into a Radial Pro D2 DI, then into the preamp section of a 500 series Erickson Montessi EM1 preamp*. From there, I ran the signal into a Universal Audio Apollo X4 audio interface clocked with a Black Lion Audio MicroClock MKIII* and finally into the Logic Pro Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), recording at the 24-bit/48 kHz high-quality audio resolution. The groove felt incredible after a few micro-tweaks to the beats per minute (bpm). It immediately felt like the perfect foundation, knowing we would layer live drums on top of it later. Roland and I often joke that even in 2025, nothing else feels better than this 40+ year-old drum machine initially manufactured in 1982. It creates a feel quickly, sounds huge, and moves air out of your studio speakers. It definitely gets things off to a great start.
Next came the main finger-picked guitar line. I picked up my Taylor 818e acoustic guitar, placed a Neuman KM184* microphone close to the 12th fret to grab the guitar’s sweet spot, and ran the microphone through a 500 series BAE 1073MPL* microphone preamp. I then opened up Universal Audio’s software plugin emulation of the infamous Lexicon 224 as an insert on the track for that lush reverb vibe. I selected Kevin Killen’s ‘atmosphere’ setting, which immediately took me back to U2’s Unforgettable Fire record, mixed by Killen and produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. There it was – a vast, lush, finger-picked acoustic guitar locked in with the Linn loop. This is the point during the song’s creation where I made what I initially considered my first mistake (later repositioned as a happy accident). Normally, I run any audio effects used during instrument or vocal tracking on an auxiliary send for monitoring purposes only. However, given that I had this effect on the acoustic track as a direct insert and had ‘UAD Record’ in Universal Audio’s console application, selected, I was committing the effects to the track. Initially, I committed the reverb to save time in the song’s demo phase because I didn’t think this would be a final take (turns out I was wrong!).
Next, I tracked a strummed acoustic part with the same setup as the finger-picked track (with the exception of that lush reverb on the insert), sang a scratch vocal, mixed down a demo, and sent it to Roland for a listen. What I didn’t expect was his reaction. He absolutely loved the feel and direction, and wanted to use the demo as the bed of the track. All of my alarm bells went off. This wasn’t recorded well enough – my guitar part could have been played better, I had committed the lush reverb to the primary acoustic part, and there were 100 other things. However, his production sensibility was that I caught the magic of the song, and we should continue with this as a foundation.
Cello, Vocals, and Ambient Piano
Returning from his trip, Roland took my tracks over to his DAW of choice, Ableton Live, and got to work. He’s incredibly adept at recording his own cello performances and vocals, a talent imperative in today’s home recording and production world. I jump in from time to time when he asks for my opinion on ideas, but he generally prefers to be left alone while writing and recording. First up came the cello. His acoustic cello was mic’d with a DPA 4099 attached to the bridge of the cello to get close to the strings, which he then ran through the BAE 1073MPL*. He ran a little comfort reverb to make the space feel larger (again leaning on Kevin Killen’s Atmosphere setting). Recording a cello is like recording a human voice as it has such a wide sonic range, and Roland looks at his cello as the second, or complementary voice, to his songs. So, his parts sound more like a singer than an accompanying cellist.
Next up were vocals, the hardest thing to get right at home. I was okay with re-cutting vocals in a commercial recording studio if needed, as we had done with Sleepless Nights, but Roland was committed to getting his parts finalized at home. He loved his vocal chain and the vibe in our studio, and wanted to get his parts nailed down in his chosen environment. Like many musicians, we’ve been back and forth on the best combination of microphones and preamps, always trying to find the right combo. I’ve also learned over the years that the right microphone for your home studio isn’t always the same as what you’re used to seeing in larger commercial recording studios. We’ve landed on a vocal chain that works perfectly for Roland’s voice: an Audio Technica 4033* microphone through a Langevin DVC* preamp/limiter, but we change it up slightly. We run out of the Langevin’s preamp output into a 500 series Great River 32-EQ (modeled after the famous Harrison recording consoles used by Bruce Swedien), where we do some high-pass filtering, then back into the Limiter Input of the DVC, which is a discrete transistor version of the Manley ELOP® Limiter. The result is a clean, present, and larger-than-life vocal sound with just the right amount of saturation and presence.
As a sidenote, the Audio Technica 4033 is one of those mics that works for almost anything. It’s famously loved by music production legends Alan Parsons and Phil Ramone, but if you listen to the vocals on a record like ‘White Ladder’ by David Gray, you get a good sense of its possibilities. It’s also incredibly affordable.
A Minor Note
Another important factor we’ve learned about recording vocals at home is the importance of removing room reflections and overall room echo. We leverage the SE Reflexion Filter Pro that surrounds the back side of the vocal microphone and does a great job giving you a tight and focused sound. In addition, we’ll place a GIK Portable Isolation Booth behind Roland when he sings, to tame any rear sounds coming towards the microphone. This combo is about as close as you can get to having a professional vocal booth at home.
Roland also recorded an initial ambient piano part with our Roland Fantom X8 keyboard workstation. He routed the keyboard directly into a Strymon BlueSky reverb pedal dialing in its ‘cloud’ mode, then into a Radial Pro D2 and finally into the BAE 1073MPL*, again using the Universal Audio Apollo X4 to handle analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion.
Taking the tracks to the studio: Hybrid-Recording
With the drum loop, main acoustic guitar parts, vocals, cello, and ambient keys recorded at home, we were ready to record acoustic piano, drums, and additional overdubs. I find when acoustic piano and drums are recorded in the right room with the right engineer and gear, there’s just a magic that’s not achievable at home. With that, our first stop was with Jason McEntire, owner/engineer at Sawhorse Studios, based in St. Louis, MO. Jason is an incredible engineer and a true savant in ProTools. He’s also the owner of an incredible Solid State Logic SSL 4000 E Series recording console that was previously owned by the Austrian pop artist Falco between 1982 and 1996. This console has a massive, rich sound, which is exactly what we were going for.
After Jason transferred our working Ableton Live session into Pro Tools, further cleaning things up and adding a layer of organization to the session, we were ready to record drums. Drums are my primary instrument, so I always appreciate recording with someone who brings an inspiring sound to the session. My main kit is a Yamaha Maple Custom with an 18 x 22 kick drum outfitted with the Evans EMAD 2 drum head system, a 13×6.5 Yamaha Steve Jordan Signature maple snare drum* with custom wood hoops, and 12×9 + 15×14 toms. I use Remo-coated ambassador drum heads on the batter side with the original Yamaha clear drum heads on the resonant side. I’m a lifelong Zildjian player, employing 14” K Series sweet hats, 16” K sweet crash, 18” K sweet crash, and a 22” Zildjian A Series Ride cymbal. I use all Yamaha hardware, with the exception of a Drum Workshop 5000 Series bass drum pedal I bought in the mid-90s and still love to this day.
From the image, you can see Jason’s close and room mic’ing technique, which gives us so many options during the mix, where we can blend the attack of the drums with the sound of the room. For this session, he utilized API, Shadow Hills GAMA (with the iron transformers), and Neve 3405 microphone preamps, all running into the Solid State Logic SSL 4000 E Series console.
After recording drums, we worked with Grant Essig to double my original strummed guitar parts and add some additional ambient guitar lines to fill a few spaces. Grant’s a multi-instrumentalist and a key member of Roland’s live band. He has a knack for coming up with incredibly precise, infectious melodies, as well as laying down beautifully atmospheric textures. Grant used my Taylor 818e for the acoustic parts. For the electric lines, he played his early 2000s Gibson Epiphone ES-335 through a small pedal board made up of a Boss DD-20 Giga Delay and the Walrus Audio Slö Multi Texture Reverb, all amplified through his Fender Blues Jr.
Acoustic Piano
After recording drums and additional guitar, Jason grabbed the hard drive and we headed to see Nate Hershey, a fantastic St. Louis-based pianist and engineer. In Nate’s case, I would flip the home studio moniker and call his place a studio home. He built his home into a professional studio centered around his beloved 1965 Baldwin Model R Grand Piano. Jason mic’d the piano with a stereo pair of AKG C414 XL II microphones feeding Burl B1D preamps straight into ProTools. Nate’s the kind of player that can come up with parts on the spot, so we let him work his magic, and after a few hours, the piano parts were complete.
Virtual magic from Tony Franklin
One thing that was certain from the start was that this song would have fretless bass. When Roland and I started discussing who should play fretless on this track, I immediately thought of the Donna Lewis song ‘I Love You Always Forever.’ I could listen to this song on repeat, as it has the most incredible driving beat and infectious chorus. And holding that together and moving it ever so melodically…Tony Franklin. Tony is a legend, having played with influential artists like Kate Bush and David Gilmour, as well as being a member of supergroup The Firm. I was able to get in touch with Tony, sent him the track, and got a call from him almost immediately. He loved the track and was excited to add his piece. From a production standpoint, we decided to take the opportunity to let Tony interpret the song in his own way and in his own studio, thereby avoiding the chance to react in real-time to what he played.
However, there was one challenge. Tony was scheduled to have a fairly major back surgery in a few days and needed about a month of recoupment before he’d be ready to record his part. Without hesitation, Roland and I agreed to wait, as we knew his part would be the glue that would bring the track together. After we had recorded all of the essential tracks, including live drums, we sent the working version of the song to Tony and waited.
The wait proved to be fruitful. Tony sent us two complete ‘takes’ of his part, each with slight variations. He has about the most straightforward setup of anyone I know, but it’s incredibly effective for him and the results are outstanding. He recorded his parts with his Fender ‘Tony Franklin’ signature bass (affectionately known as ‘Baby Blue’), running directly into his Focusrite Scarlett 212 audio interface without processing. Clean and simple.
Roland and I agreed that the second ‘take’ was perfect from front to back, and this is one of the moments you just listen back and smile. From Tony’s initial entrance at the top of the second verse to his emotive slide at the end of the song, it took things to an entirely new place and inspired us to keep moving forward. Music really does come down to the right song eliciting the right performance, where you trust your musical collaborators to do what they do best.
Female vocal recording & mixing – Enter Joe Zook
Roland and I were certain we wanted a female vocal on this song—someone who could bring another level of intensity and emotion to the track. We also had a fairly immediate feeling that the singer we wanted was someone Roland had known from high school, Menea Kefalov.
Menea had the perfect voice for the style of the song, but our one challenge was that she wasn’t close. After high school, Menea attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston and currently resides in Los Angeles, pursuing music full-time. We knew that, ultimately, this song was going to be delivered to Joe Zook to mix at his Los Angeles studio. I also knew that Joe was an incredibly accomplished recording engineer, so I posed the question to Joe to see if he’d be up for recording Menea’s vocal as the final element before he mixed the track. Joe obliged, and Roland and I went to Los Angeles.
Joe’s mix room sits inside a house he purpose-built for mixing, an ample space with a large amount of outboard recording gear, and plenty of space for vocal or even instrument recording. For Menea’s vocal chain, Joe set up a vintage Neumann U67 microphone, routed through a JFL Audio MP F4 tube microphone preamp, finished off by his vintage 1176 Blackface compressor. Everything sounded incredible straight away, so we got right to recording.
It was a relatively quick session as Menea’s an accomplished singer, and with Joe engineering, everything felt effortless. With Joe at the controls, Roland and I were truly able to produce for the results we were after. After a few hours, we were done. Well, Roland and I were done. We had produced every element that we felt was necessary for the song. Now it was time to hand things over to Joe to bring his own interpretation of the song to the mixing process, as I would call ‘producing the mix.’ This is something Joe is incredible at and has brought to so many of his other clients, from One Republic to P!NK.
It didn’t take Joe long to send us a mix that blew us away. He blended the tracks recorded in our various environments so they all sounded seamless and elegant.
After we approved the mix with Joe, he sent the file to Eric Boulanger at the Bakery Mastering in Los Angeles. Eric mastered Sleepless Nights for digital and vinyl release, and he and Joe have a great relationship, which always helps with the handoffs. Eric took Joe’s mix and added the final sweetness that his mastering style is known for, and we were ready for release.
In closing
Back in mid-2024, the creative music community was struck by a comment from Spotify CEO, Daniel Ek, who stated that the cost of creating content was ‘close to zero.’ While this isn’t a story about cost, it’s probably clear that we were committed to investing where necessary to get this song right. There were undoubtedly cost savings from doing things at home, but there’s still the cost of the gear involved and the years of trial and error to learn how to get the right sounds. The hybrid approach saves money, but it’s really about finding the right path to elevate a great song to have a life of its own. Gear is a crucial piece of the puzzle, but it all starts with a great song and a vision for where it can go. The gear becomes the tool, and sometimes the inspiration, to create sounds that take things to another place.
And while we didn’t set out to make a nostalgic song reminiscent of a movie from the 1980s, we might have landed there. It was after we released the song that I connected the dots between all of the references to the 80s, including the gear, the players, and the overall sonic aesthetic. Outside of that comparison to the 80s, what we’ve really created is a hybrid recording process and framework that’s scalable for us as Roland furthers his career as a songwriter, producer, and performer. I think Tony Franklin’s quote sums up our creation beautifully.
“The song has a timeless, transformative quality. To me it invokes images of summer nights, happy times and beautiful memories. Very heartfelt and genuine.” ~ Tony Franklin (The Firm, David Gilmour, Kate Bush)
For more information about Roland LaBonte, visit: rolandlabonte.com
Listen to “Dancing Under the Moon.”
Watch the video for “Dancing Under the Moon.”
*purchased on the Reverb platform
