Rice Cracker Project

About Rice Cracker Project

We write, engineer, produce, and make our own artwork when it comes to our albums. It's a personal process that we take great pride in. Who are we? We are the RICE CRACKER PROJECT! Specifically, they’re three good friends who also happen to be musicians, songwriters, and engineers. Wayde Brown and Nick Wilcox met for the first time in high school, where Nick was a soundstage coordinator while Wayde was performing at the school’s Performing Arts Center. (Nick had just recently graduated.) It wasn’t until 3 years later that they jammed together and liked what they heard--specifically the blending of their lead and backing vocals. They’ve performed in a few bands together, from The Santairs, Prospector, and Crime Scene. When they added member Stephen Prescott, they became the Rice Cracker Project (RCP). All three members have another thing in common: they all have worked at UPS at one time or another; and that’s when they met and found their mutual passion—music. Nick is a singer, bassist, and keyboard player, Stephen is a rhythm guitarist and singer, and Wayde takes on the duties as “cover musician” performing anything they need, from percussion, drums, lead and rhythm guitars, bass, vocals, and so on. All three of them write original songs individually, but as a group the Rice Cracker Project, their creative juices run wild and they come up with even more material. Each of the members brings an arsenal of talent. Stephen is an accomplished artist, drawing, painting and sketching album artwork for the band. Wayde has some minor background as an artist as well, bringing creative ideas to the table. Nick’s biggest strength for the group comes from his experiences as a music engineer, recording and guiding the group with some really great results. His favorite line he tells people is, “If I could have made money playing music, I wouldn’t be a doctor.” Nick plays the part of main engineer while Wayde and Stephen are assistant engineers. Nick focuses on the recording process, Wayde concentrates on the mixing and mastering involved with the songs, and Stephen brings forth new and fresh ideas with knowledge of the sound editor they use, Audacity. (You can download the free shareware at (expired link) ). It originally was Stephen’s idea to form this group-- writing and recording songs together, using the Audacity sound editor as their main program. All they needed was a computer and they were set, since Wayde and Nick accumulated enough gear between the two to make a full recording studio. Wayde’s brother, Jim, built them a studio computer to only be used for recording. Wayde’s father, Clint, had already built a rehearsal studio back in 1991, so they decided to fashion it into an actual recording studio in 2007. Originally starting with a basic Behringer 12 channel mixer, they soon upgraded to a Yamaha 01V. They also accumulated a few extra microphones, like AKG and SHURE off craigslist and a few other places. From 2007 through 2010, they wrote over a dozen songs together and had recorded an entire album worth of material. During these couple years, they experimented with many different sounds and techniques—some tried and true while others were totally off the cuff. For example, their only avant-garde song on their album, “Touch of Fantasy” entitled, “Aporia (Deconstruction of Destruction)”, Wayde used every VST plug-in that came with the Audacity sound editor. Though not a mainstream song by any means, he had a fun time learning what the sounds were all about and exploring different styles of making music.
The first song they recorded (and wrote together) for their album is called “31” and had no title originally. It’s the only song where the bass and drums were recorded live and mixed down on one track. It wasn’t an ideal way of recording, but they just wanted to experiment to see what they could do. After a few guitar overdubs by Wayde and Stephen, it actually formed into a song after only being considered an experiment to move the project onward. It received the title “31” because the final take they used was take 3, with overdubs done in the first takes. It was Stephen’s idea to incorporate the 8 second snippet of a recording called, “We Are Crackers” to start while the song “31” was fading out, then rip straight into another tune before a break, eventually to be titled, “Child Support.” He felt this would be a good way to introduce the band. Nick and Stephen recorded, “We Are Crackers” on their own computer using the Audacity sound editor. They had 3 versions of this quick tune and Wayde combined all 3 versions into the “final” version you hear on the album. “Child Support” was written mostly by Wayde, with Stephen providing a few lines. That song is the only song recorded on electronic drums and a “fake” bass, called an Ashbory. The next song, “Gotta Go” was written by Stephen. When he introduced the song to the guys, Wayde immediately heard the backing vocals that needed to be in there. And between Nick and Wayde, they provided a nice blend, making the song sound like it came straight out of the late 1950’s. The next song , “Angela Angel” was a song that took the most work for Wayde. He originally recorded the song at Audio Recording, Inc. in Seattle, WA. with legendary engineer, Kearney Barton. That song was recorded live with Wayde on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Sean Crain on bass, and Bill Fletcher on drums. Wayde eventually overdubbed another bass part to it, added some percussion parts, and Sean played the keyboards. Several years later, engineer Ken Fordyce of Mirror Sound Studios “baked” the one inch master that the song was recorded on and transferred it into digital form so that the Rice Cracker Project could work on it. There the song sat a couple more years before they finally got around to it. Wayde eventually overdubbed a new lead vocal to it, never having been happy with the results from the previous versions. Stephen assisted Wayde in capturing the final take. Nick added a couple backing harmony parts with a fellow friend and musician, Mark Hasbrook from the group Prospector. The next song, “Fantasy Touch” was written by all three members and is the idea for the main title of the album. They asked child prodigy, Jumpin’ Josh Violette, who was only 13 years old at the time, to perform the saxophone part for the first solo. It was exactly what the song needed. “Could Be Fallin” follows and contained the most overdubs of all the songs. Originally written by Stephen, the Rice Cracker Project added some great backing vocal parts that Wayde came up with and did with Nick. The crashing intro to the song was Stephen’s idea, like waking up startled in the morning with an aching head. The metaphor continues even until the end, where the song fades out but the backing vocals continue. “Hands of the Fates” was written by all three members during a jam. Wayde had the idea of modulating the key up during the solo, then back down again just before the last verse starts. Wayde wrote most of the lyrics, citing Creedence Clearwater Revival as a main influence. The next song was the aforementioned “Aporia” avant-garde tune. Nick had the idea of placing this odd tune right after “Hands of the Fates” and just before “The (expired link).” because of the quality of sound. “The (expired link).” was the only song recorded in mono and mixed in stereo. “The (expired link). (Bottom of the Pile)” was written by Stephen and was homage to some of the late 50’s sound. Wayde and Nick added some of the backing vocals to complete the effect, though Wayde opted to use a distorted guitar for the lead, which wouldn’t have been used back in that time period. He felt it gave it a little “push” that it was missing. This was the first “real” song they recorded and one of the first ones they finished. It was accidentally recorded in mono because they didn’t realize that one of the outputs wasn’t working correctly and before they knew what was going on, they had a final recording with overdubs that was usable. It turned out that one of the cords was going bad and had to be replaced. The next song that followed, “Eternally Lonely” was written by all three members with Wayde contributing most of the lyrics. This song was a bit short, so they added about 30 seconds of experimental “adlibbing” at the end. They felt it was just what the song needed. “You’re My Mary Jane” was a song written by Wayde when he was a teenager. It’s about addictions, and not necessarily about drugs. According to Wayde, “The song can be about any addiction, from overeating, illegal or legal drugs, love, sex, or anything. We, as humans, are all addicted to something. If we realize it and are truthful about it, then we can deal with it. Otherwise, it’s a lie and can destroy your life.” This song was originally recorded at Mirror Sound Studios in Shoreline, WA. by engineer Ken Fordyce with Nick on bass, Wayde on lead vocal and guitar, and good friend and fellow musician, Dan Penland on drums. After Ken did a basic mix of it, Wayde took it to the studio and completed a couple more overdubs and remixed it. “Closing Climax” written by Stephen, was originally entitled, “Opening” and was an idea of Stephen’s to use this as an opening to the album before the “main” song starts. When the idea of making “31”, “We Are Crackers”, and “Child Support” flow right into each other like one long song, the idea of using “Opening” was abandoned. Wayde got the idea to use this song as an ending to the album, thus retitling it “Closing Climax.” Stephen recorded this song entirely at his home, overdubbing all the parts. Wayde took what he had and added a few effects, changed the ending so that the drums would fade out, and remixed it. Although it’s a short tune, the song is very heavily driven and very effective. For the very tail end of the album comes the silly but fun, “Talking Too Much” which was Nick’s first experiment with Audacity at his home. He looped his parts together with a young boy he takes care of, named Hunter, who spoke the “talking too much” part. Wayde took the 20 second snippet and stretched it to 40 seconds, adding at the end a bunch of reverb, echo, doubling, and other effect sounds to fade out the album. In the end, they are very proud of what they accomplished and have started another project.