Press Release for Urban Jack and the Savage Sophisticates

Urban JackPress Release

I’m Not Going Anywhere:

12 albums in 12 months

Urban Jack, the solo project name for, Subterranean Howl, and, Fat Mannequins, front man, Simon Eli Milliman, is embarking on a musical odyssey. The release of the album, Urban Jack and the Savage Sophisticates, marks the first of 12 albums that will be released in the following year. One album per month from May 2020 to May 2021. 

“It will be officially spring in the year of the rat,” says Milliman, “I can’t think of a better time to start a new, foolish venture...I don’t know of anyone else who has attempted something so silly. I have numerous passions and ambitions, the greatest of all being father to my five kids; hence the title of this project. I’m not going on tour, I don’t have ambitions to be away from home for months at a time, but I have a huge catalog of material that I keep adding to all of the time. In my bands I fall into that classic rhythm: Release an album and then spend years playing the album into the ground before releasing the next one. It was almost an excuse to not be as productive in the studio as I wanted to be.”

Milliman’s hybrid recording and photography studio, Urban Jack Productions, located in Southeast Portland, Oregon, is where he writes, records, mixes, and masters all of his own work. This first album under the Urban Jack moniker, is a soundtrack to, Flying Blind, a documentary about skydiver John Fleming, a thrill seeker who completed over 1,200 jumps while blind. 

“I was really inspired when I saw the first footage of, Flying Blind,” Milliman states. “[Fleming] was a complicated guy who embodied all of the drama, hubris, romanticism, redemption, and danger of rock and roll. The songs on this album switch perspectives between Fleming and his wife to tell the story of two very passionate and determined people.”

On this premier release Milliman performed all of the vocals and instrumentation on every track. Future releases will feature more collaborative efforts with former and current bandmates as well as other local musicians.

“I’m lucky that way. Some of my best friends just happen to be some of Portland’s best musicians. I can’t wait to see the awesome variety of music we’ll make in the coming year.”

Urban Jack and the Savage Sophisticates will be released digitally on iTunes, Amazon, Bandcamp, and streaming services everywhere May 19, 2020. 

Going Even Lower Tech

If you haven’t listened to Nick Cave while wondering solo through a graveyard then I highly recommend it. The clouds threatened rain as I passed the grave of a Klan member and Cave’s song, Water’s Edge, rumbled like thunder in my brain, you grow old and you grow cold… Talk about feeling Bon Vivant!

On this particular day I roamed through the grave markers with my headphones keeping me isolated from any semblance of reality attempting to film some b-roll for a music video. I wanted to capture a Film Noir feel for the video so I was using a lens from the 40’s: a FED 50mm 1:3.5. This lens can capture truly beautiful images, but, with a sticky focus ring and what feels like the opposite of stabilization, my attempts at getting some of the artsy shots I wanted was proving to be a complete failure.

I had brought two cameras with me that day. I was filming with my Olympus E-M1 mkII, but, dangling from my left shoulder, waiting to get its butt off of the pine and into the game was my Canon EOS Rebel G, a film camera—the first camera my wife and I had purchased early on in our marriage. For roughly five years my wife and I captured our memories with this camera, filling a couple of scarpbooks and the bottom of a Rubber Maid tote with film captures of the early years of our life in Portland, OR. Twelve years now this camera has slept in its case, a set of batteries and two rolls of unused Fugicolor 24 exposure film in the side pocket. On a whim I had brought it with me and attached my Helios 44.2 to capture as much vintage feel as I could.

The old Canon EOS Rebel G film camera with the Helios 44-2 lens.

For the last twelve years all of my cameras have had screen on them. I’ve received instant feedback for each and every capture allowing me to make any necessary alterations to improve the following shots. Getting out the old film camera made me realize how ungrateful I’ve been. Now, after failing all morning with one camera, I found myself feeling nervous, downright anxious about taking a picture with something that didn’t tell me in the moment if what I did was good or bad; and with only 24 exposers to play with I was being overly cautious with my shot selection.

Not every shot was a winner, but slowing down and being as thoughtful as possible produced more good shots than bad.

Finally, after shooting half the roll of film, I felt myself relax and enjoy the limitations. With no zoom, everything set to manual, and only 12 exposures left I stopped fretting over each capture and started meditating about each one. Dickinsonian works of fiction formed in my mind telling about the persons buried, the last person to visit the graves, the meanings behind the tokens left behind.

Upon viewing my developed film I wasn’t surprised necessarily to discover that the film had not been in good shape, but I was a little surprised at how much i enjoyed the ultra graininess of my pictures along with their general lack of good color rendition and contrast. Somehow the lo-fi quality just added to the stories in each capture. I’ll share a few samples bellow. I hope they tell you some great stories as well.

Hybrid Studio

When my passion for photography began to match my passion for music production I had to reorganize and make room for both in my studio.

In future blog posts I’ll be going into more detail about my studio and my favorite equipment and the ways I use specific equipment to create. For now I just want to give an overview of my “hybrid” studio where I’m utilizing vintage, modern, analog, and digital gear to produce music and photography in the same space.

My studio is almost completely utilitarian. There’s no cozy sofa to lounge in; there’s not even a proper chair. I have a standing workstation situated so that my most used tools (guitars, cameras, lenses, mic pres, effect pedals, etc…) are at least close to arms length. Hanging from the walls and on shelves and atop the piano are pictures of people such as David Bowie, Albert Einstein, and Marilyn Monroe to remind me that mediocrity is unacceptable. Sometimes I stand in the middle of the room and listen to John Coltrane and it fills me with the fear that I will never accomplish anything so outstanding. Fear is a good thing. Without fear the toil of creation loses all of its excitement. Success tastes so sweet because we know all too well the bitter taste of failure.

I’m so grateful to have my studio, my little fortress of solitude where I stand and create. We built it into our home so I could also pursue my other passion: being a dad. With one kid in college, one in high school, one in middle school, and two in grade school there have been days when I haven’t been able to get into the studio at all. That’s what the night is for…

The best way I can think to introduce the studio is through pictures so here’s a few with some descriptions:

My standing workstation: Synths, keyboards, cameras, lenses, awesome JBL 4311B speakers, Apple computers, some of my mic pres, Apogee audio converters, and Dr Doom to keep me on task.

One corner of the studio is set up all of the time for portraits. Multiple lighting configurations and backdrops makes this area very versatile, but I still prefer the classic black backdrop and the rembrandt lighting with a single light source. And, yes, if you look closely on the left side of the picture you can see a monkey holding on for dear life.

A variety of vintage and modern amps line the back wall between the portrait area and the drum kit. More often than not the floor is covered in effect pedals as I constantly attempt to design sounds that I haven’t heard before.

Having a variety of beautiful instruments at my disposal keeps me and the other musicians and bands that come into the studio inspired. I always feel like Tom Waits when I play that organ.

Over the years I’ve curated a highly versatile mixture of gear to capture recordings with. Recording equipment is beautiful to me. When a singer sings into a microphone that’s plugged into a great preamp that is also plugged into a great compressor and/or eq, that entire chain becomes one instrument.

Hopefully that gives everyone a fun glimpse into the studio. Next week I’ll be choosing a specific piece of gear to highlight and demonstrate how I use it to create.