"The 88 recenlty released "Love is the Thing" (iTunes link), a new song recorded directly onto the iPhone with FourTrack. The 88, currently on tour with the B-52s, read about FourTrack while driving to a gig." - USA Today

"The band documented the process of recording their new single, including tricks like covering the drum set with a sheet, so the volume wouldn't overpower the iPhone mic." - The Loop

Sonoma Wire Works first heard about The 88s recording their new song with FourTrack after it was released. What a surprise! The band recorded such a great sounding tune, we wanted to find out more. Keyboard player Adam Merrin was quick to respond.

Sonoma: How long did it take you to record "Love is the Thing" start to finish on the iPhone?
The 88: It took us about 3 hours to record the entire song on FourTrack. Thanks to the bounce feature on FourTrack, we laid down 14 tracks total, one of them which was just one crash cymbal hit in the intro of the song. Then I spent about 2 hours on the mix, which I did in Pro Tools. We filmed the whole experience ourselves which added a little extra time. We posted the making of video on our website, which got about 20,000 hits in just the first week.

Sonoma: Did recording with FourTrack on an iPhone impede or enhance your creativity?
The 88: I feel like using FourTrack not only enhanced our creativity, but also our performances, since every track was recorded live from start to finish with no "punch-ins." We also had to be creative when getting the proper input levels into the phone since there is no control over that in this current version. For instance, we used a sheet to cover the entire toy drum set and put the iPhone behind the couch, which was also behind some pillows. The four of us also sang all the harmonies onto one track which was a lot of fun."

Sonoma: Have you ever used a FourTrack cassette recorder?
The 88: One of the first recording devices I ever purchased was a Tascam four-track cassette recorder. The quality of the digital recording on the iPhone was better than the cassette tape, and FourTrack's bouncing feature on the phone is a lot more advanced and easier to use.

Sonoma: What do you think of the recording process and how the song turned out?
The 88: The band does a lot of recording on our own. I love the energy and sonic quality of "Love Is The Thing." We wanted to try something different for this recording, so in addition to using the toy drum set, we also used a $150 Yamaha Keyboard using the built-in speakers for amplification. We ran the bass through a tiny, practice guitar amp, and used a small Silvertone amp for the electric guitars. Our thinking behind this was, we wanted to show people that you don't need expensive recording equipment or instruments in order to record your music and still get it to sound good.

Sonoma:Would you ever use FourTrack again, and would you do anything differently?
The 88:The whole reason we bought FourTrack was to record our ideas while we were on tour and away from our home studio. We would definitely use it again. The only thing different than we usially do is we didn't direct mic most of the tracks. In order to get the proper levels, we would distance the phone further away from the instrument being recorded.

Sonoma:Anything else you'd like to tell the FourTrack user community?
The 88: Stop by www.the88.net and The 88's Facebook page, and say hello, and have fun recording! It's good to keep doing it regardless if you think it's good or bad.

More in a Pro Sound News Interview.