R.I.P Dan (From Auteur Recordings)

I wish my return to this neglected blog was to share some happier news. Instead, it's to share a piece written by my wonderful better half about the death of his close friend and producer, Dan Achen. He's heartbroken, as the rest of the Hamilton arts community is by Dan's sudden death. Dan truly believed in The Rest and gave them so many opportunities, and for that, I'm thankful.

The Rest at Catherine North


From Auteur Recordings

I’m really happy I knew Dan Achen.

Last Thursday I hung out at Catherine North Studio. I was stopping by to pick up a guitar that Dan was helping me sell. A guitar that Adam and myself had purchased off of Dallas Green a few years back while Dan and I had been working on Dallas’ record. I had just finished working my 4th consecutive 10-hour shift and was super exhausted. I told him how my plans for the afternoon were to grab the guitar and run home to nap before a show that our band The Rest was playing. In true fashion, Dan successfully transformed our five-minute meeting into almost 4 hours.

“You gotta try this coffee, smell it, doesn’t it smell good?”

“Smells awesome.”

“You take yours black right?”

“Yep.”

“Me too… but with cream. Haha.”

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and working with Dan for the past five years. I remember the first time I met him. We wanted to record a full length, and our friends from the band Cities and Dust had been working at his studio. Through them Dan had heard our demo for Innocent Fools, and after seeing an amazing photo of the studio we met up at Doors Pub here in Hamilton. This same photo on a business card with a friendly handshake landed Dallas and countless others at his door.

Dan loved to sell you on stuff, whether it was a guitar, or a Mac book, or an idea for 5-second section in a song. Dan could convince with such passion. And our first meeting with him was no exception. Still to this day I’ve never heard anyone explain the mechanics of a melotron with such enthusiasm. Dan loved to talk about gear, how it worked, what it sounded like. His love for it was infectious.

Last Thursday was no exception either. As I walked around downstairs at the studio I looked over and noticed a strange looking electric guitar.

“What’s that?”

“It’s an Idol.” (A crazy looking 60s Japanese electric guitar)

“Cool.”

Dan then picked up the guitar and played some blues riffs. I think I’ve heard him do the same thing a thousand times now when he picks up a guitar. His tester riff. It’s like 4 chords and then some dancing. It’s always impressive. Then he hands it off to me and I try my best to pretend like I can play something.

I’ve had the pleasure of working a lot with Dan in the past 5 years. I’ve engineered records with him, mixed records with him, driven to airports to get people for him, mopped studio floors for him, made coffee, cleaned toilets, driven 2 hours away to pick up pre-amps for him. I would have driven 20. When you worked hard for Dan you could always tell he appreciated it and would reciprocate ten fold. Dan had his hands in everything we worked on. Even the allegories record that was recorded in my parents’ basement was transferred to tape by Dan, dithered by Dan, sent to mastering by Dan. With The Rest he turned a group of sloppy, naïve, high school buddies into a real band. Dan’s power was in his ability to give others power, and that made him truly special. I spent countless hours staring at a screen mixing albums with Dan. And we truly had an amazing work system together. It took a lot of convincing to let him let me mix records at first, but I’m so happy I was bullheaded enough to pull it off. I’ve learned more about how to make music from him than any other person in my life.

On Thursday we sat down at the mixing console and he showed me his newly acquired vintage speakers. I told him how excited I am for the new songs that we are working on. He was super excited to mix new stuff with these speakers. We spent the next hour or so listening to stuff back and forth, speaker set to speaker set. He glowed about how much air he was getting off of the two inch machine. He told me how he had been playing more guitar than he had been in years. He showed me what he had put down on Amanda’s record. It’s fucking amazing. The next day I saw her and blurted, “It’s fucking amazing!”

And I’m an absolute mess right now because he is gone. And I can’t help but be thankful that I didn’t go home and take that nap. I will forever miss him and be grateful to him for all of the good he brought into my life.

It’s really hard to sum up a person in just a few words but I will say this about my friend.

Dan loved his family. Dan was great at what he did. Dan was an endless source of inspiration and enthusiasm. Dan was cool as shit.

I’m really going to miss you Dan.

- Jordan