Kurt Ballou

Kurt Ballou
Kurt Ballou performing live with Converge at the Eurockéennes festival in 2007
Background information
Born	(1974-02-01) February 1, 1974
Origin	Massachusetts, United States
Genres	Mathcore, hardcore punk, metalcore, indie rock, experimental rock, post-rock
Occupation(s)	Musician, recording engineer, producer
Instrument(s)	Guitar, bass, keyboards, theremin, saxophone, slide guitar, drum kit, melodica
Years active	1991–present
Labels	Deathwish

Kurt Ballou (born February 1, 1974) is the guitarist from Massachusetts-based band Converge. Aside from his role in Converge, Ballou is a prolific producer, recording and producing out of his own Godcity Studio.

GodCity studio

In the late 1990s, Kurt Ballou was working as a biomedical engineer when his then project got cancelled. Instead of selecting a different position within the same company that he had worked with for six years, Ballou opted to receive a severance package which he used to build his own recording studio. Established in 1998, GodCity studio is located in Ballou's home state of Massachusetts. One of the earliest recordings from the studio was Cave In's Until Your Heart Stops. In the production of album Ballou deals with all production, engineering, and mastering. In 2005 Ballou remixed and remastered Converge's Petitioning the Empty Sky and When Forever Comes Crashing. Ballou has stated that because of the quality of [Converge's] recordings has improved so much that the original recordings were "becoming distracting".

Equipment

• Guitars commonly used: Wild Customs The Savage One w/ EMG P85 bridge pickup, First Act Custom Sheena Guitar w/ EMG 81 bridge pickup, Warmoth Custom Jazzmaster W/ EMG 89 bridge pickup, First Act Custom Offset-Horns Double-Cutaway, Rickenbacker 650A w/ EMG 81 bridge pickup.
• Amps commonly used: Orange OR50 head, Orange Rockerverb 100 head, Bad Cat Black Cat head, Bad Cat Lynx head, THD Flexi head, 1978 Marshall 50-watt JMP non-master volume head, Ampeg V-4 head, Mesa/Boogie Quad preamp with Mesa/Boogie 2:90 power amp, Guild Thunderbass.
• Speaker Enclosures commonly used: Emperor 6x12 cabinet (2), Marshall customized 4x12 cabinet w/ four "Eminence vintage 30 clone" 12-inch speakers, Marshall 8x10 cabinet w/ stock 15-watt Celestions.
• Effects commonly used: TC Electronic G-SYSTEM, Providence Stampede Distortion, Boss GE-7 Graphic Equalizer, Akai Headrush, Line 6 MM4, Boss Pitch Shifter/Delay, Boss Heavy Metal, Boss Metal Zone, Boss Tuner, Boss Noise Suppressor.

Discography

As band member

With Blue/Green Heart

• Self Esteem Through Modern Science (2002)

With Converge

Note: Kurt Ballou has performed on all Converge recordings to date. Only studio albums have been listed here, for a more complete list of releases see Converge discography.

• Halo in a Haystack (1994)
• Petitioning the Empty Sky (1996)
• When Forever Comes Crashing (1998)
• Jane Doe (2001)
• You Fail Me (2004)
• No Heroes (2006)
• Axe to Fall (2009)
• All We Love We Leave Behind (2012)

The Huguenots

• Discography (2007)

With Kid Kilowatt

• Guitar Method (2004)

With Supermachiner

• Rise of the Great Machine (2001)

As guest musician

Year	Band	Album	Contributions
1998	Cave In	Until Your Heart Stops	Guitar, percussion, vocals
2000	Garrison	A Mile In Cold Water	Slide guitar
2002	Nationale Blue	A Different Kind of Listening	Melodica
2002	In Pieces	Learning to Accept Silence	Harmonica, melodica, slide guitar
2002	Curl Up and Die	Unfortunately, We're Not Robots	Vocals
2004	Old Man Gloom	Christmas	Guitars, drums, drum programing, vocals
2004	Last Perfection	Drawing Conclusions	Guitar
2004	Suicide Note	Too Sick to Dance Forever	Guitars, vocals
2005	Mi Amore	The Lamb	Guitars, solos
2005	New Idea Society	You Are Awake or Asleep	Drums
2006	Kahoots	Fourteen Ghosts	Saxophone
2007	Animosity	Animal	Saxophone
2007	Pygmy Lush	Bitter River	Saxophone, melodica, slide guitar
2007	Coliseum	No Salvation	Keyboards
2007	Trap Them	Sleepwell Deconstructor	Guitars
2007	The Casual Lean	Swears	Guitars, vocals
2007	The One AM Radio	This Too Will Pass	Drum engineering
2007	New Idea Society	World Is Bright and Lonely	Guitars
2008	Verse	Aggression	Drum engineering
2008	Torche	Meanderthal	Guitars
2008	Pygmy Lush	Mount Hope	Percussion
2008	Trap Them	Seizures in Barren Praise	Bass, guitars, noise
2008	Clouds	We Are Above You	Synthesizer, saxophone, guitar, slide guitar

Production and recording discography

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

• Jesuit – Jesuit (1996)
• Jesuit – Jesuit (1999)
• Cave In – Until Your Heart Stops (1999)
• Orchid – Chaos Is Me (1999)
• Orchid – Dance Tonight! Revolution Tomorrow! (2000)
• Jeromes Dream – Presents (2001)
• pg.99 – Document #8 (2001)
• Carry On – A Life Less Plagued (2001)
• Isis - Mosquito Control (2001)
• Eden Maine – The Treachery Pact (2002)
• Suicide Note – You're Not Looking So Good (2002)
• Ramallah - But a Whimper (2002)
• Beecher – Breaking the Fourth Wall (2003)
• Embrace Today – Soldiers (2003)
• Since By Man – We Sing the Body Electric (2003)
• The Static Age – The Past and Now (2003)
• Another Breath – Not Now, Not Ever (2003)
• Examination of the... - "The Whitest of Elephants" (2003)
• Scars Of Tomorrow – Rope Tied To The Trigger (2004)
• Breather Resist – Charmer (2004)
• The Great Redneck Hope – "Behold The Fuck Thunder" (2004)
• Backstabbers Inc. – Kamikaze Missions (2004)
• Converge – You Fail Me (2004)
• Sex Positions – Sex Positions (2004)
• The Power & The Glory – "Call Me Armageddon" (2004)
• Champion – Promises Kept (2004)
• Mi Amore – The Lamb (2005)
• Beecher – This Elegy, His Autopsy (2005)
• Converge – Petitioning the Empty Sky (Remastered) (2005)
• Converge – When Forever Comes Crashing (Remastered) (2005)
• Transistor Transistor- Erase All Name and Likeness (2005)
• Seventh Star – Brood of Vipers] (2005)
• Modern Life Is War – Witness (2005)
• Swarm of the Lotus – The Sirens Of Silence (2005)
• Gospel – The Moon Is a Dead World (2005)
• Doomriders – Black Thunder (2005)
• Bleeding Kansas – "Dead Under Decor" (2006)
• Genghis Tron – Dead Mountain Mouth (2006)
• The Hope Conspiracy – Death Knows Your Name (2006)
• Converge – No Heroes (2006)
• Betrayed – Substance (2006)
• Rise and Fall – Into Oblivion (2006)
• Killing The Dream – In Place Apart (2005)
• Blacklisted – Peace on Earth, War on Stage (2007)
• The Freezing Fog – March Forth To Victory 2007
• Trap Them – Sleepwell Deconstructor (2007)
• Seventh Star – The Undisputed Truth (2007)
• The Ghost of a Thousand – This is Where the Fight Begins (2007)
• Animosity – Animal (2007)
• Coliseum – No Salvation (2007)
• Samsara – The Emptiness (2007)
• Trap Them – Séance Prime (2007)
• I Hate Sally – Don't Worry Lady (2007)
• 108 – A New Beat from a Dead Heart (2007)
• Kruger – Redemption Through Looseness (2007)
• The Casual Lean – Swears (2007)
• Disfear – Live the Storm (2008)
• Pygmy Lush – "Mount Hope" (2008)
• Adai - "...I Carry" (2008)
• Blacklisted – Heavier Than Heaven, Lonelier Than God (2008)
• Elysia – Lion of Judas (2008)
• Genghis Tron – Board Up the House (2008)
• Dead or American – Thaumaturgy (2008)
• Torche – Meanderthal (2008)
• Transistor Transistor – Ruined Lives (2008)
• Stray From The Path – Villains (2008)
• Misery Index – Traitors (2008)
• Argument 5.45 – Thousands of Birds (2008)
• Have Heart – Songs To Scream At The Sun (2008)
• La Crisi – II – Tutti A Pezzi (2008)
• Trap Them – Seizures in Barren Praise (2008)
• the_Network – Bishop Kent Manning (2008)
• Young Widows – Old Wounds (2008)
• Lewd Acts – Black Eye Blues (2009)
• Buried Inside – Spoils of Failure (2009)
• Rise and Fall – Our Circle Is Vicious (2009)
• Magrudergrind – Magrudergrind (2009)
• Doomriders – Darkness Come Alive (2009)
• The Hope Conspiracy – True Nihilist (2009)
• Converge – Axe to Fall (2009)
• Paint It Black – Amnesia (2009)
• Paint It Black – Surrender (2009)
• BATS - Red in Tooth & Claw (2009)
• Black Breath – Heavy Breathing (2010)
• Trap Them – Filth Rations (2010)
• Kvelertak – Kvelertak (2010)
• Nails – Unsilent Death (2010)
• You are in my September! – To The Open Hearts (2010)
• 108 – 18.61 (2010)
• The Secret – Solve et Coagula (2010)
• Generation of Vipers – "Howl and Filth" (2010)
• All Pigs Must Die – "All Pigs Must Die" (2010)
• Pettybone – "From Desperate Times Comes Radicial Minds"(2010)
• SEVEN7STEPS – "The Day The War Is Over" (2011)
• Pneu – Highway To Health (2011)
• KEN mode – Venerable (2011)
• Trap Them – Darker Handcraft (2011)
• Meek is Murder - "Algorithms" (2011)
• Pygmy Lush – "Old Friends" (2011)
• All Pigs Must Die - "God Is War" (2011)
• Jesuit – Discography (2011)
• Trenchfoot – Trenchfoot (2011)
• Black Cobra - Invernal (2011)
• The Fear and Trembling - This Old Earthquake (2011)
• Today is the Day - Pain is a Warning (2011)
• Black Breath – Sentenced To Life (2012)
• High On Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis (2012)
• Rise and Fall – Faith (2012)
• Burning Love – Rotten Thing To Say (2012)
• Torche - Harmonicraft (2012)
• Gaza - No Absolute In Human Suffering (2012)
• Code Orange Kids – Love Is Love/Return to Dust (2012)
• Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind (2012)
• The Secret – Agnus Dei (2012)
• Baptists - Bushcraft (2013)
• Nails – Abandon All Life (2013)
• Kvelertak - Meir (2013)
• Nice Hooves - Nice Hooves (2013)

References

General

• "Kurt Ballou – Credits". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved September 6, 2010.

Specific

External links

• Airbornmag.com Interview (December 2007 Interview with UK-based music/sports website Airbornmag.com)
• Interview with Kurt Ballow
• Kurt Ballou interview
• First Act website (includes a page on his custom "Sheena" guitar)
• AMP magazine website (Kurt contributes an article to this page, entitled "Tech Talk")
• Kurt's Rickenbacker 650A review (Harmony Central)

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