............Patrick Cowley : page 2
PATRICK & SYLVESTER
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Patrick on tour with Sylvester's band, in The Coliseum, |
Silvester James, such was his name, was a gay star. He
was a transvestite who was very successful in the gay disco comunity in
Patrick's performance with analog synthesizer work,
electronic instruments, modified guitars and self-constructed equipement became
in synonymous of Sylvester's sound and covered with synthesized sounds the
edition of hits like “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”, “Dance Disco
Heat”, and “Can’t Stop Dancing”.
" It's almost amazing that Sylvester
had Patrick tour with us, because synthesizer technology was so primitive at
the time that Patrick was constantly patching and unpatching his board to make
sounds when we were performing. Frecuently he had problems on stage due to the
technical limitations of sound systems vis a vis live use of synthesizers.
But one night at Roseland Balroom in
I remember Patrick shrugging in a humorous
way and telling us : Some nights it goes well !! " (ROBERT KINGSOM )
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Resting
by day, performing by night. Patrick on a tour of |
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Patrick and Sylvester
in the studio working on 'Do Ya Wanna Funk' |
This
gave life to the "Step II" album that skyrocketed Sylvester to
international fame. It was Patrick's recording work which really pushed
Sylvester's 'Step II' album into a highly marketable category, to the point
that it sold more than 500.000 records in
"Patrick was a really fun person who was also very spontaneous, in
example, he frequently yelled at me publicity (but then, I was 18 or 21 years
old and totally folish, so i couldn't blame him. But in the same moment he
would hug me and we would laugh it off. " (ROBERT KINGSOM )
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Robert Kingsom playing bass for Sylvester at The Roxy Theater in |
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Patrick Cowley on synthesizer
and Robert Kingsom on drums performing
for Sylvester in the Roxy Theater in |
A PART OF
HISTORY
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Legendary producer
John Hedges, ex-president of Megatone Records and pioneer of dance era. |
Back
in the 70's John Hedges was living with Gerry McBride and Danny Williams. John
Hedges was the person who in many ways invented disco/ dance music. He was a DJ
at Mind Shaft . One night he happened to listen to the song 'Rock
Your Baby', he liked it so much that he figured out a way to make the song
last longer, he mixed it and made it danceable. And ever since more and more
dance sounds started to appear.
John
went from the 'Mind Shaft' to 'Oil Can Harry's' and then to
'City Disco' where he was the head DJ. John and Gerry Mcbride were from
Elyria,
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Famous 'City Disco' ! Patrick started working as light
technician in 1977. |
" More music things followed and eventually
Patrick Cowley joined the DJ family, although he never lived with us.
John Hedges and Marty Blecman were finding all kinds of musicians along their
careers such as Barry Beam and others. i wrote the lyric for a hit called
'Castro Boy', and also did the vocals on the recording." ( DANNY WILLIAMS )
PATRICK & MARTY BLECMAN
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What a trío ! ... Marty Blecman, Sylvester and John Hedges,
working at Megatone records. |
Even
though he was on tours with Sylvester, Pat remained close to San
Francisco 's disco scene and joined forces with his friend Marty Blecman (
Martin Sander Blecman) to found 'Megatone Records' in the
summer of 1981, whose offices would be located on 470 Castro
Street, Suite 3209, San Francisco. At that time, Marty was employed as DJ at The
City Disco; formerly he'd been working at Fantasy Records.
Big
"Fantasy's" stars (Tip Wirrick, Martha Walsh, Jeanne Tracy, among
others ), would later be in Megatone. Patrick Cowley and
Marty Blecman began their productions on "Studio C"
of "Automatt Recording Studios" , on 829 Folsom Street in
The Automatt had three recording studios,Its
owner was David Rubinson and its studio manager was Michelle Zarin.
Studio "C" was on the second floor of the building .It was large and
had very good technical equipment. It was similar to Wally Haider's (
several engineers who were working there went on to work at the Automatt at
that time). This legendary recording studio in which Patrick recorded Megatron
Man and Mind Warp albums torn down in 1984.
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Patrick making arrengements, on a tour of |
" Usually in Patrick's sessions, were
his singing vocals, two technicians and sometimes Marty Blecman would show up,
but Marty was always there for the final mix. His sound engineers
were Maureen Droney (my wife ) and
I recorded and mixed the most of Patrick's productions , and Maureen took an
active part on Mind Warp. After Pat was finishing to fine tunning the sounds,
it would take 3 days to record them and one day to mix.
Obviously it was Mind Warp album the hardest one, because Patrick was very weak
because of his advanced decease." ( KEN KESSIE )
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The 'Eight track analog machine' , Patrick recorded his first hits
with it. |
Before
establishing himself in the Automatt Studio, he worked at
his home studio. Many of his first hits , like "Menergy", "I
Wanna Take You Home" and "Right On Target" were recorded
there with an 'eight track analog machine'. He showed there all his
ingenuity and his talent potential since he spent lot of hours working and
modifying programs to be able to fit all his sounds into just eight recording
tracks .
Patrick Cowley's home studio was near Fulsom and
Mission, it was at 8th and Minna. He rented a small space in what looked
like a bombed out building, occupied by squatters. A brick warehouse
building. His place had a door, and when entered, recording machines and
a desk for mixing, with wires running could be seen just about
everywhere.
" The walls were just 2x4 , with insulation covering them for sound
proofing. Patrick shared his space with Tip Wirrick and there was a heavy
dividing door that went to another space where Maurice Tani had the
studio. They worked with Katie Guthorn who was later in Modern Rocketry .
Some years later, Jo-Carol Block and Lauren Carter rented the space uptairs and
had their recording studio there.
For recording his songs, Patrick played all
parts on an '8- track recorder machine', meticulously mixing down the first 6
tracks, and recorded 4 more, then mixed down once again, added vocals, and then
mixed it all finally. He was an obsessed man , and surely each song took weeks
of work, sometimes twenty hours continuosly ! (PAUL PARKER )
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The 'PROPHET V' ... In this synthesizer Patrick was creating all his
magic ! |
Patrick
Cowley composed and worked all his wonderful productions almost exclusively on
his "PROPHET V poliphonic analog synthesizer" ( five
voices) , about
Patrick
played his Robotic voices with an "studio effect box" .
Most of his effects were adapted onto the synthesizer as he played it. He also
used a "drum machine".... Everyone could say that Patrick could make
a song with just his "Prophet V" and a drum machine.
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Another sight of Automatt Recording Studios |
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The "Automatt Studio", the place where Patrick
recorded 'Megatron Man' and 'Mind Warp' albums. |
"Patrick did not need special scores, by the time he would be in the
studio with me and he would have all the parts written in his head.
He would just spend a little time fine tuning the sounds, then he would
record." (MAUREEN DRONEY )
"While recording 'Megatron Man' we didn't talk much cause we had a lot of work to do in a short time. He was the best synthesizer player I have ever met. " (KEN KESSIE )
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