If a magician is never supposed to give away the secrets to his tricks, someone forgot to tell Bay Area guitarist, electronic musician, and Yuri’s Night performer Christopher Willits, when he took up the offer to create a monthly video blog about home recording for XLR8R Magazine. In the guise of that one teacher you had in high school who commands respect, but who you just know parties like a rockstar, Willits lays down incredibly dense lessons that are easy even for a novice to grasp. Granted, to make the greatest use of the knowledge he is imparting requires a few key pieces of recording equipment, but if you follow along closely, you’ll be sure to pick up a few useful ideas.

Throughout his lessons, Willits proves that he is a master of the technology at hand, and clearly demonstrates how to achieve stunning results with the minimum amount of equipment and tinkering. His methods are simple and effective, while producing material that could easily have taken a far greater sum of money and time in a professional studio just a few decades ago.

As an added side effect of his presentations, Willits showcases his own talent to the audience, which is truly an aural treat. He proves himself to be a musician who possesses an intuitive grasp of composition paired with an overwhelmingly apparent raw creative ability, even in the rough thematic elements he explores in these brief segments. If anything stands as an exciting prelude to his performance in April, this is it.

You can view the first installment of “What You Talkin’ Bout, Willits?” here.

Image sourced from christopherwillits.com. Photo credit: Charis Briley