ABOUT
Basics
Acoustikitty is Arran Fisher's music production operation, based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. My services include pre-production, production, engineering, mixing, mastering, arrangements and live sound.
I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to email me.
Ideas
Acoustikitty is the recording production company that I started with the idea that it's the people and ideas, not the gear or the location, that make good recordings. I know that's a pretty simple concept, but it's surprising how many musicians and engineers can get so wrapped up in the technical side of things that they lose sight of the fact that they are actually creating works of art that are subject to human tastes and experiences. No amount of flashy gear or time spent polishing and perfecting the takes is going to make a great album. In the end, the most important thing is the emotional experience of the recording. Anyone with a laptop can create reasonably convincing sounds, so, as Brian Eno pointed out, the challenge in making great recordings is not technical, it's largely a matter of judgment. My aim is to work with musicians to help them translate their ideas into recorded form, and I see it as a mostly artistic, not technical endeavour. But this is not to say that I have no enthusiasm for the technical side of engineering, I just make an effort to see that it is in the service of the music.
Background
I wrote my first song when I was three, made my first recordings as a five-year-old, and I have been obsessed with audio and music ever since. When I was 13 I bought a drum kit, and taught myself to play guitar from a songbook of 20 Beatles classics. In high school I formed a rock band which was influenced mostly by The Pixies and R.E.M., as well as playing in an experimental electronic trio called The Octopus. In 1999 I co-founded the psych shoegaze rock group The Summerlad. We toured several times across Canada and the U.S., released four albums, and received national acclaim for making music that defied easy categorization. In 2010 I was commissioned to create the soundtrack for a promotional film for the State of Qatar, which was shown by the Qatari royal family to the United Nations. Lately, I've been playing drums in the alt-country group Lucky Sonne.
I used a four-track cassette machine for a number of years to make some pretty quirky material for the bands I was in, and some friends asked me to record their bands too. In 2002 I took on the project of recording a serious album and upgraded to a digital 8-track workstation. This album ended up being The Summerlad's Themes: International, which got to the top 40 on the Canadian campus radio charts and was favourably reviewed without anyone noticing that I had recorded it using such limited technology. After that, I was fully hooked on the process of making records and haven't looked back. The gear is more sophisticated now, but my approach hasn't changed. Since the beginning, I've focused on the emotional impact of the music I help people create. In 2007 I went full-time with my production company, Acoustikitty, and I've produced dozens of releases for mostly local Calgary artists and mixed and mastered for musicians across the internet.