Headliner issue 12

SUPPORTING THE CREATIVE COMMUNITY

R R P $ 6 . 9 5 U S A / $ 7. 9 5 C A N A D A

MAGAZINE / ISSUE 12

NEW THE TO USA !

JE S S GLY NN E

OCT/NOV 2015

CHECK OUT HEADLINER MAGAZINE ONLINE | HEADLINERMAGAZINE.NET

CONTENTS #12 28 | JESS GLYNNE

06 SWIVEL ON THIS

18 GENEVA UNCOVERED

Grammy-winning record producer, DJ Swivel, talks about the digital evolution of today’s music industry, and introduces us to SKIO.

We take a memorable road trip across Switzerland to check out Montreux Jazz Festival and Guitarè en Scene.

08 SONIC VISTA INSIGHTS

Our Ibiza correspondents discuss money and taxes, and offer advice to artists looking to better manage their cash.

In West London, this talented BRIT and MOBO winner talks to us about recording his new album the old school way at LA’s East West Studios.

10 FRIENDSFEST

24 THE FEELGOOD FACTOR

Comedy Central brings Central Perk to London’s Brick Lane. We take the tour, and meet Friends star, James Michael Tyler.

Rudimental’s Piers Agget gives us his thoughts on We The Generation, his band’s eagerly awaited second album.

12 SHOW REVIEW: TOM JONES

28 COVER STORY HOPE OUT OF HEARTBREAK

The world’s most famous Welshman is in sensational form in Greenwich, UK, with support from The Shires.

14 SANDI THOM

This LA-based Scottish artist was the world’s first music internet sensation. Now she’s back with a brand new album.

22 LEMAR

British singer-songwriter, Jess Glynne, is taking the music world by storm. Her debut album hit number one in the UK, and she’s now making waves Stateside. We find out more about her musical journey.

30 MIXING JESS GLYNNE

Some inside knowledge from ‘Nobby’ Hopkinson, the man who mixes all the shows for this chart-topping songstress.

H E A D L I N E R | I S S U E # 1 2 | O C T- N O V

32 DAVID MCALMONT ON STEVIE WONDER

Super-talented vocalist, David McAlmont, gives us a fantastic insight into two of Stevie Wonder’s greatest albums.

36 ON TOUR WITH...

RUDIMENTAL

44 MR. FEEL

Mark ‘Spike’ Stent is one of the world’s most in-demand mix engineers. We chat to him about his new studio in LA, and mixing Rudimental’s new album.

46 THE EMMYS

We head to Fusion Festival, UK, to chat to the guys that make everything tick out on the road with the East Londoners that everybody’s talking about.

As ever, the red carpet brought a mix of glitz, glam, and the obligatory awkward moment.

We wrap it all up neatly for you, and take a backstage tour with the sound guys.

38 FINLAND’S FINEST

48 NASHVILLE’S FIRST LADY

Suomenlinnan Studio is not your average recording facility.

Built on a naval fortress island in Helsinki, it dates back to the 18th Century - and it’s fantastic.

Lady Antebellum are one of the leading country acts on the planet. We talk to the guys responsible for illuminating their current Wheels Up tour.

40 ED SHEERAN

51 THAT’LL BE THE DAY

From busking beginnings to selling out Wembley, we take a look into Ed Sheeran’s unique and very impressive live show.

Headliner jumps on the tour bus with the cast and crew of the longest running show in the UK, celebrating its 30th Anniversary.

42 THE PEACEMAN

54 GRUMPY OLD ROADIE

Sir Ivan Wilzig has an amazing story. We get invited into this billionaire’s musical castle in The Hamptons, NY.

Robert the Roadie welcomes our new American readership by looking at the pros and cons of our two great nations. You have been warned..!

24

FROM THE EDITOR “I decided to make music about focusing on the positive.”

- Jess Glynne

28

22

Welcome to Issue 12 of Headliner. This month, we chat to the musical phenomenons that are Jess Glynne and Rudimental. Both signed to Atlantic Records, these artists have been knocking it out the park of late. Jess already bagged a Grammy for collaborative work prior to the release of her debut album, I Cry When I Laugh, so it came as little surprise that it shot to the top spot in the UK after its late August release, and with critical acclaim to boot. We chat to her about her musical evolution, kicking off the UK soccer season at Wembley Stadium, and her remarkable and rapid rise to the top of the pile.

Rudimental. Where do I start? These four lads from East London started off as bedroom producers, and after their debut record, Home, went platinum (and earned them a MOBO along the way), they began their transformation into megastars. They’ve headlined festival after festival across the UK and Europe this year, and have been spreading the word Stateside, earning themselves the reputation as the band to go and see live. Their newly released second album, We The Generation, was mixed by the great Spike Stent (also featured in this issue), and we think it’s absolutely killer. “It’s all about the love, and the music, giving something back to the fans,” the band’s Piers Agget tells us, with a smile.

Hear, Hear!

Also inside, we get invited into Sir Ivan Wilzig’s castle in the Hamptons. This super-entertaining billionaire is not only an astute businessman (with one of the lariest limos you’ll ever see!), but he makes dance music in his spare time, which happens to sell rather well! Then, back in London, we take an exclusive tour of Comedy Central’s F.R.I.E.N.D.S set, which descended temporarily on the city’s very artisan Brick Lane area; we grab a coffee or two on Joey’s favourite couch, before having a nose around Monica’s spotless apartment, remembering that Rembrandts song that cemented the show in the history books in more ways than one. We then head west to Notting Hill to chat to multi-MOBO and BRIT Award winner, Lemar, whose new album (recorded at East West Studios in LA) is gaining some serious traction.

All this inside and more, including backstage chats with the hard-working touring teams that look after Ed Sheeran and Lady Antebellum, an exclusive on the UK’s longest-running touring show, That’ll Be The Day, and a show to remember with the legend that is Sir Tom Jones.

We hope you enjoy the issue, and thanks for choosing Headliner.

PAUL WATSON EDITOR

C O N TA C T Paul Watson paul@headlinerhub.com +44(0)7952-839296 Graham Kirk graham@gkirkmedia.com +44(0)7872-461938 headlinermagazine.net @Headlinerhub HeadlinerHub headlinermagazine www.tsu.co/headliner_magazine

Art Director Eimear O’Connor Contributors Jerry Gilbert Jordan Young Jonathan Tessier Joanna Pearl Gary Spencer Colin Pigott Louis Henry Sarmiento II Robert the Roadie

Visit us at

AES Demo room 1A02 and booth 138

Waves of Pleasure Introducing Genelec 7040 ultra-compact subwoofer Weighing in at a mere 11.3 kg and 20 cm deep, the 7040 is the perfect low frequency solution for 8010 and 8020 compact studio monitors.

The 7040 is the coolest little subwoofer we’ve ever engineered! Utilizing the same patented Laminar Spiral Enclosure (LSE™) technology found in larger Genelec subwoofers, the 7040 extends the realism and accuracy found in our desktop products with almost an octave and a half of low fundamental pleasure.

Stereo inputs and high pass outputs are provided on professional XLR connections, and its 50 watt Genelec Class D amplifier and custom 6.5 inch bass driver defines the 100 dB output capacity with surprising musical detail, proving again that small things can make a huge difference.

At Genelec we are driven to inspire confidence that what you hear is all you are supposed to hear. The 7040 brings you one step closer.

// DJ SWIVEL //

SWIVEL ON THIS THE MUSIC BUSINESS IS CHANGING. FAST.

It’s been evolving and shifting at an incredibly rapid pace since the adoption of the mp3. We live in a digital world, and those big old intimidating walls that used to form the framework of the music industry are quickly crumbling, being replaced by a new framework of ones and zeroes. This is evident in almost every aspect of music culture today. Production, distribution, consumption, is all done from our laptops and phones. The big old SSL and Neve consoles that used be a requirement for any studio are now more often treated like expensive pieces of furniture. Sure, we keep them around, we might even use them for old time’s sake, but the fact remains, they’re not needed anymore. The same goes for CDs, cassettes, DVDs, or any physical media. We as consumers don’t want to buy them, and the record companies are nearing the point of not even wanting to sell them.

The distribution channels are now iTunes, and a myriad of streaming services. That’s it.

One click, and a very minimal fee, and your content is beamed to every corner of the world.

The point being, we live in a different world.

However, there’s one aspect of the music business that hasn’t changed, and that’s the business itself. I don’t mean the entire business, but rather the aspect of doing business. Content is created faster than ever, and yet there’s still a major legal and administrative bottleneck in the chain of events from creation to consumption. It’s expensive, takes a ton of time, and is quite frankly a pain in the ass, which is why rights are often overlooked for the bottom 95% of content 06 HEADLINER

we know it. Yes, I know you’ve met. From there, stems are creators. This is truly evident if heard it all before, and there are released to the remixer, and you take a look at remix culture. a lot of platforms and tools that downloadable from the website.

If you haven’t perused claim to reinvent the wheel, but Communication surrounding SoundCloud in a while, I I have to say, I think we’re truly the creation of the remix is all encourage you to do so. There’s onto something revolutionary centralised in a ‘deal’ on SKIO, a whole world of unlicensed here. It’s called SKIO Music and once the files are delivered, remixes, many of which are and is a new platform that we payments are released. And absolutely incredible. The have founded to tackle this very similarly to Uber and Airbnb, abundance of talent is there, problem. We do this by enabling SKIO relies on a user rating and yet very often, this music artists and rights holders to system to hold both parties is scrubbed by the labels and accountable to their deal. This pulled by SoundCloud, because create meaningful, fair legal is a massive leap forward in of the infringing content. Maybe agreements, which are easily negotiated transparency for an industry the artist online between that has always been plagued by is using an the two parties. a less than stellar reputation in unlicensed a “THIS IS A MASSIVE The process is how it conducts its business. capella, or they fairly simple: For any emerging talent posted a DJ mix LEAP FORWARD IN you discover struggling to get noticed, 50 or containing a TRANSPARENCY content on 250 legal remixes of a track group of songs. the platform, and being eagerly promoted by Unfortunately, FOR AN INDUSTRY and can easily waves of bedroom producers there’s no THAT HAS ALWAYS engage with it and keyboard promoters - is not easy way to by requesting the worst way to hype a new monetise BEEN PLAGUED to remix the release; and through the remix these things

BY A LESS song. The artist contents we’re putting on, for the label or label on the SKIO is able to provide a as they often THAN STELLAR other end then platform for established labels don’t have the REPUTATION IN gets notified of and professional artists to bandwidth to your interest in discover new talent from around engage with HOW IT CONDUCTS making a deal the world. That breakout star every content to use a piece could be just around the corner. creator, and ITS BUSINESS.” of their original Our message here is, since they have song, and can collaborate, don’t compete, to enforce their suggest terms and see how much further copyrights, to a deal. The brilliant part is, the your music can take you; it’s simply much easier to send only negotiable terms available SKIO enables creative freedom a DMCA notice and pull the are the ones we would all within a copyright protected content than to engage with negotiate, anyway: royalty splits, environment. We hope this the creator. But by doing this, exchange of money, delivery ethos thrives as our industry it creates a whole new set of date, etc. You can accept, or pushes forward into the new problems for the label. For one, world, and I am personally it costs money, and secondly, the suggest alternative terms, and once both parties have agreed looking forward to connecting label ends up punishing their to a deal they both like, you can and engaging with this industry biggest fans which leads to less e-sign your contract, and have in a whole new arena. engagement, and a disdain for a fully executed agreement in So all you content creators, the process. Everyone’s hands less than five minutes. Then, head over to skiomusic.com are tied, until now. to find out more! whichever party is responsible Over the last 10 months, for payment will fill out I’ve been secretly working on a their credit card or bank project with a group of partners W H AT D O YO U T H I N K? info, and that money in Vancouver. The goal being Message me @djswivel on Twitter with the is held by SKIO until to address these problems hashtag #swivelonthis to let me know your opinion! both parties have agreed specifically and, dare I say it, that terms have been change the music business as

powersoft-audio.com

K SERIES AMPLIFIERS. WHAT YOUR LOUDSPEAKERS REALLY WANT. The remarkably high efficiency, the huge power in a single Rack Unit, the AESOP interface combined with a highest-grade DSP - fully manageable via Armonia Pro Audio SuiteTM - allow you to maximize your sonic performance in every condition.

ENHANCE YOUR SPEAKER SYSTEM WITH POWERSOFT K SERIES AMPLIFIERS.

Designed and manufactured in Italy

MUSIC & TAXES

W O R D S | L O U I S H E N R Y S A R M I E N T O I I & J O N AT H A N T E S S I E R

In 2013, Lauryn Hill was sentenced to three months in prison because of tax evasion. In 1979, Chuck Berry was charged for evading $110,000, and spent four months in jail, along with 1,000 hours of community service. In 1971, the British government wanted to tax 95% of The Rolling Stones’ income, which forced them to flee to France (where they wrote most of their album, Exile on Main Street). These are just examples, but many musicians including Mary J Blige, Rihanna, Flo Rida, Ja Rule, Ron Isley, Lionel Richie, and Luciano Pavarotti also suffered the consequences of poorly managed taxes.

Let's dig a little deeper.

08 HEADLINER

W

hen people are asked about taxes, there are two kinds of reactions: good and bad.

The positive is justified by the system’s usefulness, as the money collected by the taxman is redistributed within the country to pay for things that we tend to take for granted: medical care, the government, and clean streets, for example.

The negative is, some people feel like it’s straight up stealing, backed up by a feeling of dissatisfaction with political representatives and the running government (whatever the country they may be in). But at the end of the day, no matter the level of discontent, or appreciation, everyone has to face the taxman. If you lie and avoid him, you’ll be penalised, or even risk jail time; if you pay too much, you’ll feel ripped off. Fortunately, there are ways to properly handle taxes. The musician has to learn to beat the system by playing by the rules. Because there are no hidden secrets on how to deal with taxes, knowledge is the only remedy; the more we know, the better we’ll be able to manage our taxes, and the more money we’ll be able to save. The age of tax evasion is over; welcome to the new age of tax reduction.

Income tax is usually the one that gets people in trouble, if not handled properly.

By law, businesses and individuals must file

an annual income tax return to determine whether they owe any taxes, or are eligible for a tax refund. To many countries, income tax is a major source of the government’s tax revenue. Non-taxable incomes do exist: gifts, health coverage, specific types of insurances, for example; and it’s important for future tax-payers (including musicians) to know about them in case one day they do have a non-taxable income, because to declare these sources could help reduce the amount owed to the government. However, we have to keep in mind that the conditions for these types of revenues are specific to a person’s situation.

So what about music, then? The top 10 music market rankings remain much the same as last year, with the US consolidating its position as the largest music market ($4.9 billion in trade value), comfortably ahead of its nearest rival, Japan ($2.6 billion). Germany remains third ($1.4 billion), followed by the UK ($1.3 billion).

We live in very different times compared to the ‘60s, where artists like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and David Bowie were pushed out of their countries because of old tax laws that forced them to give up 95% of everything they made. In 2015, the average rate for higher income is 45%, which many deem as an improvement compared to

/ / S O N I C V I S TA I N S I G H TS / /

the years of yore. However, many people out there feel it’s still too much, and seek to place their fortune elsewhere, namely in places we know as tax havens: a state, country, or territory where, on a national level, certain taxes are levied at a very low rate, or not at all.

According to the US National Bureau of Economic Research, roughly 15% of the countries in the world are tax havens.

These offshore financial centres include Luxembourg, Japan, Switzerland, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Hong Kong, Singapore, USA (Delaware), Belgium, UK (City of London), Bermuda, and Holland, just to name a few.

An estimated $21 to $32 trillion of private financial wealth is located, untaxed, or

Index), the FATF (Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering) or even the IMF (International Monetary Fund) have systems installed to control any malicious intent. They have black lists on countries, islands, cities, banks, firms, all with the intent to control any hidden and undeclared money that belongs to the governments.

But musicians don’t have to turn to tax evasion. There are steps that will allow musicians to significantly reduce the quantity of money they give up to the taxman. When a musician evolves from a hobbyist to a professional, independent music can be one of the hardest jobs out there: spending hours upon hours writing and re-writing music, producing and

“THE AGE OF TAX EVASION IS OVER; WELCOME TO THE NEW AGE OF TAX REDUCTION.” lightly taxed in secret jurisdictions around the world. Illicit cross-border financial flows add up to as much as $1.6 trillion each year.

Today, musicians set up their bands as corporations in tax havens like Holland, Luxembourg, and the British Virgin Islands.

“They hire financial advisers to find pathways through the international tax system to escape tax. At the end of the day, it’s usually about finding loopholes,” says Nicholas Shaxson, author of Treasure Islands: Uncovering the Damage of Offshore Banking and Tax Havens. The Rolling Stones, for example, have their bank accounts set up in Holland through a company called Promogroup, and Dutch documents revealed that over the last 20 years, the band have paid just $7.2 million in taxes on earnings of $450 million channeled through Amsterdam - a tax rate of about 1.5%. But not only wealthy individuals stand to gain.

The Dutch government has done much to foster the use of tax shelters in its country, and big multi-nationals such as Coca-Cola, Nike, Sun Microsystems, Ikea, and Gucci, have all set up Dutch holding companies virtually identical to the ones used by the rock bands in order to channel royalty earnings from patents.

Then there is tax avoidance. It is not illegal, but it is closely linked to a harder form of avoidance: tax evasion, a white collar crime. Offshore banking in tax havens seems like a great alternative for anyone to reduce their taxes, however there can be legal consequences if the true state of affairs are misrepresented and kept secret.

Institutions like the FSI (Financial Secrecy 09 HEADLINER

recording, hiring musicians to round out songs, sending copies out to the press to get reviews and build momentum, filming videos for YouTube, lugging gear to perform live, managing mailing lists, social media, then starting the process all over again every year, because the fans want something new!

This is when the taxman differentiates the hobbyist from the professional, and when tax deductions are taken seriously.

O

ne of the ways for musicians to properly manage taxes is to create a ‘loan out corporation’ in the form of a company (LLC, C Corporation or S Corporation) in order to distinguish the individual from the service - a separate legal entity which will provide legal protection and tax benefits.

Expenses incurred by the corporation will be deductible: agency and manager commissions, accounting and legal fees, equipment and office space. The remainder of the income paid to the loan out company is typically paid to the artist as a salary. A loan out company can also act as a shield, protecting the employee’s personal assets from liabilities associated with the business.

Furthermore, musicians can set up qualified plans, like a defined benefit pension or a savings plan through the corporation; and within these, they can take tax deductions that may even exceed one million dollars.

Should the artist decide to wait before setting up a separate company, there are still ways to use tax deduction while being self-employed. Deductions are expenses

the federal government allows you to subtract from your adjusted gross income (AGI). The more deductions claimed, the lower the taxable income. The first option is standard deduction, a fixed number offered by the government purely based on filing status. In the US, standard deduction for ‘single’ status tax payers is $6,200, and for married taxpayers it’s $12,400.

Option two is itemised deduction: eligible expenses that the government allows to be reported in order to decrease taxable income. For musicians, these include: vehicle purchase, home office, equipment purchase, depreciation and amortisation of recordings (films and books), travel and meal expenses, per diem rates, startup costs, clothing, health insurance, and a number of miscellaneous expenses.

Furthermore, anyone is allowed to set-up an offshore bank account. It’s completely legal and is not about tax evasion; it’s about diversifying a person’s political risk by putting liquid savings in sound institutions.

However, it is becoming harder to open one, and soon it could be impossible; this is a strong incentive to act sooner rather than later.

In addition, offshore banking may have tax benefits: earned interest on offshore accounts and investments is paid without the deduction of tax, for example; and tax liability from a home country can be reduced by putting savings and investments into an offshore bank account. Then there’s the high level of confidentiality, asset protection, and currency conversion, as well as security from political or economic uncertainty.

But this article is meant only to advise, and doesn’t tell the whole story. Each country has a specific tax code, and each taxpayer has a unique situation that should be reviewed by a professional before filing for taxes - and the musician and performer are even more unique in the world of taxes.

When shopping for a consultant, make sure he or she is experienced in taxation for music performers.

Finally, did any of you know that most millionaires do pay taxes? In fact, the top 1% of earners pay nearly 40% of federal income taxes - a whopping $368 billion according to the IRS. The legend of being a wolf on Wall Street is fast becoming a thing of the past. The best way to beat the system today is to play by the rules, because by doing so, you can bend them to your best advantage.

As the great William Shakespeare once said, “Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.” www.sonicvistastudios.com

ARTS

FRIENDS was a

worldwide phenomena.

The show spanned 10 series, and 236 episodes; and the series finale was watched by a staggering 52.46 million people, making it the fourth mostviewed finale in US history.

At that time, each of the six main cast members were on one million bucks an episode (yes, episode), which is some rate of inflation when you consider the original $22,000 fee.

This cool Comedy Central exhibition took place during September at The Boiler House in London’s artisan Brick Lane, and it successfully captured everything that Friends was all about. The 5,000 (ish) allocated tickets took just minutes to sell out, and demand was so great that Comedy Central tell us they could have sold it out more than 20 times over. Incredible, especially considering the show hasn’t aired for more than 11 years.

So what do you get for your £5 entry fee? Well, not only do visitors get to perch on that famous orange sofa and sip on an espresso in Central Perk, they can watch a couple of Friends episodes from the luxury of one of those famous

/ / F. R . I . E . N . D . S / /

Q A lazy-boy recliners in Joey and Chandler’s front room, spend hours scanning the original props from the show - we particularly liked Rachel’s 18page letter to Ross when they were ‘on a break’ (or were they?) and Ross’s geeky ‘Science Boy’ magazine - or have a nose around Monica’s spotless apartment; and we have to admit, that bit was particularly amazing. Not only is the shell a perfect replica of the real thing, everything is meticulously laid-out, and exactly as it was in the show, from the positioning of the kitchenware and utensils, to the inclusion of an Etch-aSketch and the board game, Pictionary, both of which played pivotal roles in famous Friends episodes. Furthermore, they’ve found the same French poster to sit above the TV on the far wall, parting Rachel and Monica’s bedrooms; and you can even pick up a set of real binoculars and look out the window in search of ugly naked guy if that floats your boat. We couldn’t spot him, sadly, but top marks for effort.

Of course, Friends wouldn’t be Friends without the soundtrack.

When The Rembrandts penned that song, I’ll Be There For You, in cahoots with show producers David Crane and Marta Kauffman, they surely can’t have begun to imagine how iconic it would become.

Although it wasn’t the original choice (R.E.M’s Shiny Happy People was used on the pilot), this three-minute pop song, which was actually on the band’s third album, became a globally-recognised singalong almost overnight, and shot to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart when it was released in 1995, remaining there for eight weeks.

11 HEADLINER

JAMES MICHAEL TYLER Falling into Friends, and jamming with Def Leppard “So what are The Rembrandts doing now, then?” one might wonder. “Still playing a lot of music,” says James Michael Tyler. A music nut himself, Tyler famously played coffee shop manager, Gunther, in the show, and appeared in more than half of the episodes. He also sang a rendition of Phoebe’s classic Smelly Cat with The Rembrandts at last year’s 20th Anniversary celebration in LA. We chat to Tyler about getting his break in this iconic TV show by chance, jamming with rock stars, and his love of synthesisers.

Is it fair to say that the song I’ll Be There For You is as iconic as the show itself?

Oh, that song absolutely defined the show. The Rembrandts are actually mates of mine; over the past year, we’ve become quite close, and we go out to dinner a lot. They’re really great guys.

You sang with the band when you did a Friends pop-up in LA last year, right?

I did. It was odd, because they just did the theme song, of course, so weren’t around during the production of the show, but because I’d been doing all these pop-ups, we just got on. I’m a musician as well, so we started talking music, and they’re very easy to get on with.

They’ve told their story: how it’s kind of defined them, that one song; and of course they have

“My home was always full of synths everywhere you looked, which are still taking up space, but of course you can do these things on a laptop now, right?”

many, many other songs. In that sense, they’re kind of similar to me: that one role [as Gunther] has defined me, although I have also done a lot of acting, and have played tons of other roles... [pauses] which never get mentioned, of course [smiles].

I suppose you take that on the chin, though, considering the success of Friends?

Oh yeah. Of course there is some typecast in the role, and at times that has been a hindrance, but the blessings have truly outweighed any hindrances I might have had. And I’m a mature person, so I have to accept it. That’s part of my life, and I am very proud to have been a minor part on a major show; and to still be recognised for what I did, playing a character of very few words, is pretty astounding.

Agreed. You were in over half the episodes, though, so we don’t think your role was necessarily minor...

[smiles] Thank you. Yes, I was in 170-something episodes, I think – and that is bewildering!

I just embrace it, though, and I feel blessed; I don’t take any of it for granted.

And you kind of fell into the part of Gunther, right?

Yes, I did. I was an extra for a year-and-a-half - a background performer – then one day, one of the executive producers asked if I had any acting experience, right out of the blue.

I told her I had a master of fine arts in acting, and she just said, ‘ok, cool’. The next week she

came back and she said, ‘your name is Gunther, and you have a line of dialogue’. At that time I was just grateful I had dialogue, as it meant I would be able to pay rent that month! It wasn’t a large amount for having one word, of course, but I came back the next week and I had more dialogue; and this was before they’d even established Gunther, and his love for Rachel. He was just there to deliver the blows in scenes: ‘give that line to Gunther, as none of the other characters can say what he can say’. I guess I was pretty good at playing ‘dead pan’; I thought, ‘hey, he’s in a New York coffee shop, he’s gonna be a bit surly, hating the world’, so I played him like that – and thankfully they liked it, and it worked. From there, it grew organically, which was pretty amazing for me.

We can imagine. Before you go, do tell us about these big shot musicians you jam with...

[laughs] Well, I am a synthesist – a keyboard player. I’ve been playing by ear since I was four-years-old, so I guess I’ve got a natural talent for that.

My home was always full of synths everywhere you looked, which are still taking up space, but of course you can do these things on a laptop now, right?

But that’s what I do in my free time as a hobby. Do I perform? [pauses, then smiles] I jam with some friends of mine. Vivian Campbell from Def Leppard is great - and The Rembrandts, of course. I just enjoy it – it gives me a breather from everything, you know?

SHOW REVIEW SIR TOM JONES OLD ROYAL NAVAL COLLEGE, LONDON WO RDS | PAUL WATSO N

doubt I’ll ever visit as impressive a venue for an outdoor concert than London’s Old Royal Naval College (ORNC). With the River Thames and the bright lights of Canary Wharf as a background, it’s the ultimate juxtaposition of London then, and London now.

History buffs, it’s certainly worth a Google, but in short, ORNC dates back to 1698, and is now the architectural centrepiece of Maritime Greenwich, a World Heritage Site. The buildings were originally constructed as Greenwich Hospital, and designed

by Christopher Wren (yes, the bloke who designed St. Paul’s), on order of Mary II, who had been inspired by the sight of wounded sailors returning from the Battle of La Hogue. When the hospital

I

“THERE’S JUST THIS BEAUTIFUL RICH, SOULFUL DYNAMIC IN EVERY SYLLABLE HE UTTERS.” closed its doors some 200 years later, the buildings were turned into a training establishment for the Royal Navy. The Navy finally left the College in 1998 when the site passed into the hands of the Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College - and the rest, as they say, is history.

Before Sir Tom takes to the stage, there is time for a quite fantastic support slot from The Shires.

They’re from my neck of the woods, Hertfordshire, so I guess I have a little added interest. This boy-girl duo have performed at Isle of Wight and Glastonbury this year, and have carved out a reputation in Nashville as one of Britain’s only quality country artists; and for good reason: they’re brilliant. The Shires fuse super-tight harmonies, and a fun, happy-go-lucky attitude on the stage, which I find particularly endearing, especially when they belt out the song, Made in England. As an Englishman, how can I not love the line, ‘rainy days, and milk in my tea; it’s good enough for me’?

// TOM JONES LIVE //

But it’s not all tongue in cheek – they do an absolutely killer version of Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams, and it’s easy to see why they cite that band as such an influence. The final song, before making way for Sir Tom, is the upbeat singalong, Tonight, and they leave the stage satisfied (as they should be), and smiling, waving to the crowd, urging them to ‘enjoy the rest of the show’. But of course, this crowd doesn’t need any encouragement.

Sir Tom Jones is unquestionably one of the international artists of the last 50 years.

It’s insane to think he’s been strutting his stuff for that long, as he barely looks 50, but he has, and he is a master of his craft.

I can quantify this from the first steps he makes from stage right, dressed impeccably in a dark suit: the roar from the crowd is unbelievable; and I should add, they’re about 80% female, and aged between 16 and 80-something! ocally, Sir Tom is immediately on the money, as he and his band chug their way through the opening number, Heaven and Hell. I can tell there’s no warming up here, it’s polished from the get go. There’s no reverb on that voice, either – simply no need for it - there’s just this beautiful rich, soulful dynamic in every syllable he utters.

I recognise that keyboard riff... Mama Told Me Not To Come is next up, and of course it’s pitch perfect. As the noise increases, so does the size of the band... There’s now a horn section, including a guy with a fantastically huge tuba (I think it’s a tuba) sitting on his shoulders. And it sounds superb.

From here, Sir Tom falls into a less predictable, more bluesy, rock and roll set, with more riffing guitars and piano lines.

V

13 HEADLINER

‘Rain, oh my Lord!’, he cries, mid-song.

Thankfully it doesn’t rain, though it is getting a little chilly, and the skies are worryingly grey. As this song comes to a close, Sir Tom, in typical fashion, leans his body weight to his right side, clenches his fist, pivots, and motions forwards in unison with the last beat of the drum. Ever the showman.

“Who would guess that anything would be like this on a Monday night?” He asks the crowd, with a smile. They respond loudly, and also in unison. “It was never like this at The Wheatsheaf in Wales, but here we are, you see.

“Nelson was here, wasn’t he? And now look at this... We’re here! [crowd laugh and cheer]. We have a new album coming out, and a book... I’m gonna be very kind to everybody, honest... [laughs].”

After confessing he’s ‘more English than Welsh, but don’t tell anyone’, he has the crowd eating out of his hand. Sir Tom has that ability to bring a crowd up and down as he pleases – and that’s not easy to do.

A laboured, Lonnie Johnson song next, where Sir Tom asks, ‘Tomorrow night, will you remember what you said tonight?’

The drummer switches to brushes, and the band perform it immaculately. As Sir Tom sings these sweet lyrics, he seems to be heading down memory lane himself, and the band complement that feel: beautifully played slide guitar, a sad sounding accordion, and some nice horn playing.

This guy is believable, as well as affable.

Before you know it, he’s belting out a country-sounding acoustic number, and his tone remains as powerful or as laid back as he chooses it to be: “Why don’t you love me like you used to do? My hair’s still curly, and my eyes are still blue.” Oh, I think they still do, Tom.

The next 20 minutes provides an eclectic mix, including a beautiful waltz, and some really fun songs, especially Black Eyed Susie, in which Sir Tom sings, with a smile (always a smile): “I love my wife, I love my gravy, I love my biscuits sopped in gravy.” Great stuff. hen comes Delilah. The crowd scream, and his voice if anything is getting better.

He follows this with The Green Green Grass of Home which, I have to say, is a real spine-tingling moment, and the raucous crowd get snuggly, even a little teary. Sir Tom must be one of the only living performers who can have a crowd screaming unspeakable X-rated innuendos at him one minute, and sobbing into their tea cups next. That is talent.

We’re almost done, but not before Sex Bomb, It’s Not Unusual, and You Can Leave Your Hat On. The tears have magically dissipated, and everyone wants a piece of him now.

“You give me reason to live,” Sir Tom whispers, slowly pacing the stage. “You give me reason to live.” He riffs on that lyric with the band in bluesy fashion for some time, teasing us, but perhaps also sending a message that in fact, it is only down to his fans that he remains so fresh and fit in body and mind, and it’s them that he owes everything to. He eventually breaks into the full song, and smashes it out of the park (right over the Thames if it were a real park).

As Sir Tom departs with a wave, and of course that smile, I wander back to my car spellbound, in awe, wondering how, in the musical world we live in today, there could ever possibly be another Tom Jones.

T

andi Thom was (we are 99% sure) the first artist ever to webcast herself to a live audience from her own home.

She was really the first internet music sensation, and although she admits to ‘downplaying it over the years’, actually, she was truly pivotal in the digital music revolution. From her little basement flat in Tooting, London, what could be deemed a publicity stunt soon turned into marketing gold, as Sandi’s audiences rose from 70 people to 70,000. These sessions soon caught the eye of some heavyweight UK broadsheets, which led to the clinching of a major record deal with Sony, and in turn, an explosion onto the UK singles chart on May 22, 2006 with the unique, quirky, and very catchy, I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (with flowers in my hair), which would knock Gnarls Barkley’s mega-hit, Crazy, off the top spot two weeks later.

Although a fantastic story in itself, what the public probably don’t know is, this was actually a re-release... Sandi had already charted with that same song under a self-made indie label, all off her own back; it was play-listed on BBC Radio 2, and she was also interviewed by legendary broadcaster, Johnny Walker.

She’d been truly fighting the system, approaching all the majors for a deal (as you did, back then). She then recorded the video for the single ‘on a shoestring’, and prepared the artwork for the record herself, which ended up being exactly the same for the eventual Sony release.

“We were already on a journey, putting it out ourselves, and the webcasting was all part of the plan,” Sandi tells us. “The question had always been, ‘how do you reach that kind of audience without any money?’”

In recent years, Sandi’s musical journey has mostly taken place Stateside. She has recorded five albums worth of soulful music backed by some incredible musicians, and has always tried to stay true to her art. It’s been a roller-coaster of a career (and a life) so far, but she is currently in a great place, making music the way she wants to make it, with a new record deal, a cracking new single, and a brand new album on the horizon – ‘the best yet,’ she insists. Everything is looking particularly rosy for this very likeable, and super-talented Scottish artist. She has many stories to tell, so let’s start from the beginning...

S

/

S A N D I T H O M

14 HEADLINER

/

// SANDI THOM //

t’s 1996, and Sandi calls in a favour from a friend, a freelance journalist who happens to write for two UK broadsheets, The Times and The Daily Telegraph.

“He came to watch my webcast, sat in the room with me, and wrote an article about it; when that article dropped, that’s what snowballed with all the other media, and then everyone wanted to know about it,” Sandi recalls, breaking into a smile.

“It was an exciting thing I was doing – a first - and that’s what attracted the major labels. We’d approached labels before, of course, to try to get a record deal, and the irony of it all was that all these people who suddenly showed interest had already received the same material, prior to the event!”

In hindsight, she says, she was very much in the eye of the storm: a girl in

I

which, she says, was a bit like being made redundant: “You get the feeling of rejection, and I have always been driven by doing well for everyone. I kept it going in an unrealistic way: still toured, lived in a bubble for a while, with this ‘it doesn’t have to end’ attitude. I was probably one of the last artists to get tour support from a label, and really, we were riding the wave.”

This didn’t deter her from making a third record, of course. Around this time, she had met, and then got engaged to, acclaimed blues-rock guitarist, Joe Bonamassa. Through Joe, she got into a lot of ‘obscure guitar music’, which became a big influence for Merchants and Thieves (2010).

“It was certainly a darker record than the first two, and that was also going on internally with me,” Sandi recalls. “The blues seemed to fit: raw, rootsy, swampy;

“W HE N YOU M I X SO M E T H ING 100 TI M ES, YOU DRA I N T H E SO UL OU T O F I T.” her early ‘20s, suddenly thrust into the limelight. A successful album followed, Smile... It Confuses People, and two years later, it was time to make that ‘difficult second album’, The Pink and the Lily.

“With any second record, you just want to keep the ball rolling,” Sandi admits. “We did some crazy stuff, flying here, there and everywhere, journos following you, people following you, but you’re still young and growing up at the same time, which is great songwriting fodder! The difference was the formula to making that second record, where labels put their artists in with a bunch of songwriters, and find out which one they like. I experienced the process, and it was so different to my gung-ho, spur of the moment style. You get this guy to mix it, mix it again, change this note, change this lyric. [smiles] I’m building a negative image here, and that’s not really fair, but the process was so different, and I don’t think I fit that, or ever did. I don’t like being told what to do, you see [laughs]. I wasn’t really into it myself, and I am the worst liar, and that’s the same with performance: I just can’t put it on.

The audience who bought my records were smart; they got the honesty from the first record, and with album two, admittedly that lacked. When you mix something 100 times, you drain the soul out of it, almost.”

Shortly after, Sandi split from Sony, 15 HEADLINER

and there was a lot of depth to what I wrote that I hadn’t been able to before.

There was no commercial, layering, formulaic production; sometimes we’d end up using a guide vocal, as we were so relaxed, and unaware. I was doing all those things you can’t do on a major label pop album; I think it brought out the rebel in me, actually.” erchants and Thieves (a lyric borrowed from Dylan’s Changing of the Guards) was about as honest and ‘real’ a record as you can get, Sandi admits. The irony, she says, was that it wasn’t a commercial success. But that’s not everything, after all: “It’s one of my babies, and I’m proud of it, as it reflected a time in my life. We didn’t make a truckload of money, but that’s not what you always aim for. It was very transitional, and I was moving around a lot, so for me, it’s about those memories.”

We jump to 2012. Sandi is living with Bonamassa in West Hollywood, starting again musically in a new territory. She does what any new girl in town would do: create a new label, woo the CEO of leading distribution company, Fontana, and secure global distribution for her next record!

“When Fontana agreed to give me a chance, I was over the moon,” she beams,

M

eyes widening. “It was the first time in a long time that someone had believed in me, so I was in a good position again, fell into the Fontana family, and went to make another record.” hat record was Flesh and Blood, which, through a simple twist of fate, was produced by Black Crowes’ guitarist, Rich Robinson.

“Joe was in Nashville, I was in New Orleans, so as you do, I decided to drive 11 hours in a convertible Mustang by myself, and went to see a friend of mine who runs an indie label there,” she says, laughing.

“When I got there, he suggested talking to Rich Robinson, so I called him out the blue, and had a very long, deep chat about what I wanted to do. So we agreed to meet in LA, I played him some songs, and he was like, ‘yep, let’s do it’. So he made the next record.”

The record was made in 16 Tonne studio, where ‘you can record in the bathroom, kitchen, all sorts’, due to the facility’s amazing acoustics. It also benefitted from an all star band, put together by Robinson, which included Sheryl Crow’s guitarist, the late Bobby Keys on sax, and even a guest performance by the legendary Buffy Sainte-Marie.

“If you’re into the Baez, Mitchell, Dylan era, you might know that Buffy was a badass! The FBI were taking her songs off the radio, put it that way,” Sandi says, as I make a note to Google her. “My mum was a big Buffy fan, and she said I should find her, so I did. I emailed her manager, said I loved her, and that Buffy was my mum’s favourite artist in world, and she agreed to do it! She said, ‘girl you’re a powerhouse!’, and she guested on the record, which was just amazing.”

What a journey... So all those people that wonder where Sandi Thom disappeared to back in 2006, now you know! During Flesh and Blood, Robinson would antagonise Sandi to get her to perform with some angst, which helped created a bluesy, soulful sound.

“To be honest, I feel like there’s always a lot of soul in my music; you associate soulful singing with real, honest performances, whatever the genre,” she reflects. “Listen to Adele. Yes, it’s pop, but it’s got soul; and that’s always something I have maintained as a singer. Flesh and Blood was teetering on the lines of some memorable catchy songs, but the production was very Nashville, with Rich’s influences in there. I think it’s an awesome record to listen to, and the level of musicianship in the room was off the chart.

T

// SANDI THOM //

“ YOU ASSO CI AT E SO U LF U L SI NG I NG W IT H R E A L , H O N EST P E R FO RM ANC ES, W H AT EV E R T H E G E NRE.”

I hoped people would take note, support it, and then I made a video for the single, Flesh and Blood, which ruffled a few feathers as I used part of Martin Luther King’s speech, but only because I thought it was cool.”

This prompts me to ask Sandi where the next Dylan, Joni, or Lennon will come from, considering what is becoming a more and more ‘Big Brother’ society.

“We were talking about this last night, actually, and these artists are still out there, but not globally recognised; it’s just where the music industry is right now,” she says.

“I could have made the decision to fall between the lines, and conformed to all the things I should have done, but I didn’t. I feel like I can sleep at night, so I am comfortable with my decisions so far.” n 2013, Sandi put together a very nice sounding album of cover versions, ‘mainly for her fans’, which received some critical acclaim; and then in June 2014, she broke off her engagement with Bonamassa, and found herself in yet another transitionary state.

“It was a real roller-coaster of a year, and I knew I had to get my shit together,” she says, softly. “Joe wanted a life on the road, I eventually wanted a family, so really, it was a case of, ‘where is this gonna end up?’ But it was also very tough and very emotional, as we were two peas in a pod. It was the next chapter, and I wrote a lot of songs. I then did some gigs, including the Sunflower Jam at the Royal Albert Hall, with [Deep Purple drummer] Ian Paice and his wife, Jacky. I did two of those shows, and that’s where I met David Rogers from MITA.” MITA is Sandi’s new label, which she seems to have a great relationship with.

The label also looks after fellow Headliner interviewees, Radio Riddler.

“I knew I should collaborate again with a support network, especially now, so when David called me after the Sunflower Jam and said he was looking for new artists, it was the ideal situation,” Sandi explains. “I’m not like I was 10 years ago; I am smarter, and I have all this stuff going on that I now don’t have to worry about anymore thanks to the label support; but at the same time, I have all the creative control. It’s a great place to be.”

I

16 HEADLINER

andi is producing the new record herself, which she sees as a good thing, as she now knows where she is business wise, and musically.

“I have seen what you need to do to make something commercially appealing, and I can do that and still be myself; it’s about finding the balance, sitting on the fence, and producing the album,” she insists. “I am working with a guy who I met through Joe, and Joe’s drummer, Tal Bergman, so it’s a co-production really. We did stuff before the covers album, so it’s a cool relationship.

At this point, I have played everything [on the record] bar one bass line, and someone came in to play the bouzouki. I wanted to interject the world theme into it, with some celtic instrumentation: fiddle lines, pipes, you know? I am staunchly Scottish, and you mentioned about my trilly voice, a lot of that comes from the whole celtic thing.”

S

did indeed. Very Joni. And there’s more than a hint of that in the single, Look Up, too. If that’s anything to go by, it looks like it’s going to be a beautiful album.

“I was pretty down in the dumps, so the title is self explanatory, but I decided to make it very much about social commentary, how in this digital age, we live with our heads in our phones, buried in our own worlds,” she says. “My friend Jeff Silbar (who penned The Wind Beneath My Wings), came and played guitar on a track we wrote together, then said he’d been to Nashville and someone had written exactly the same song that I’d written, with the same principle, same title, everything. In the songwriting world, there is always a song that needs to be written, but I am not the only one who is thinking it, clearly, so I said, ‘shit, get it out now!’ And that’s the story behind that song. Hopefully, everything that’s happened has been the catalyst really in reviving myself, and my career. Not that I haven’t done a lot, I have, but I haven’t been ‘living room chat’ for some time, which is something I’d like to change.”

The stars seem to have aligned, both musically, and on a personal level, for Sandi.

She met a lad from Yorkshire in a bar in LA (as you do) on December 30, 2014, and

I

on Valentine’s Day 2015, he popped the question, and they married at a ranch in Malibu in September. What a difference a year makes!

“Exactly! On Facebook at the end of last year, I said I wanted two things: find the love of my life, and make the best record I’ve ever made. I don’t know if you believe in God, or fate, but for me, this is totally fate,” she says. I can’t argue with that. And the record? “I’m making it chronologically, so it’s one whole piece of art. I want people to buy it as a period of my life, and this is a chapter. I have segues, and I am also conscious I need to provide people with what they want, but maintaining the quirks too. That’s the plan, anyway!”

Sandi’s new single, Earthquake, is out on November 13, and the album will follow later this year. It’s going to be a belter. www.sandithom.com

#S21DiGiCo DiGiCo UK Ltd. Unit 10 Silverglade Business Park, Leatherhead Road, Chessington, Surrey KT9 2QL. Tel: +44 (0) 1372 845600

www.digico.biz

FESTIVALS

GENEVA UNCOVERED WE TAKE A TRIP TO LAKE GENEVA TO CHECK OUT THIS YEAR’S MONTREUX JAZZ FESTIVAL WHICH FEATURED PERFORMANCES FROM TOTO, LENNY KRAVITZ, AND LADY GAGA, BEFORE DRIVING INLAND TO CHECK OUT GUITARE EN SCÈNE, A BOUTIQUE, NOT-FORPROFIT FESTIVAL WITH GUITAR ACE MARK KNOPFLER AT THE HELM. LET’S JUST NOT MENTION BORDER CONTROL. IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN, MONTREUX! And yes, I have, in true Montreux fashion, forgotten to pack my Swiss phone charger. Why is it that only the Swiss insist on their own bespoke electricity? Anyway... During my beautiful train ride along Lake Geneva, my iPhone inevitably dies mid-email, so I relax into my seat and take in the view. And what a view that is.

On arrival in Montreux, I foolishly attempt to ask how to get to my hotel in native tongue, so obviously alien to the two Swiss-French locals, that I don’t even get an acknowledgement, let alone a response. I ponder as to whether this is actually because of my poor French, or just the fact that I’m English... Or a combination of both, perhaps? We’ll never know.

This is the second year in a row that Headliner has been invited to this grandiose musical celebration – and it really is a celebration these days, as we all fondly recall the loveable festival founder, Claude Nobs, who left this world in January 2013 – a true legend among men, whose legacy and dreams must live on. I don’t think even Claude would mind me pointing out, however, that Montreux is by no means solely jazz exclusive. But that’s certainly not a bad thing, as it brings in an array of 18 HEADLINER

international rock, pop, and alternative talent, while still representing the jazz genre. I’m told that it’s not unusual to spy Quincy Jones in the Champagne and Caviar Bar (though I never have), and acclaimed jazz players such as David Sanborn, Alex Goodman, and Hugh Coltman will all grace the Jazz Club stage at some point over the course of the 2015 festival. A nice mix, then.

A staggering 200,000 visitors from around the world descend on this quite beautiful Lake Geneva setting every year for this famed two-week musical treat; and for this, the 49th Montreux Jazz Festival, a string of eclectic, internationally renowned artists spanning a cacophony of genres will be strutting their stuff and waving their jazz hands. There’s the great Tony Bennett and the super-talented Lady Gaga, US rock icon Lenny Kravitz, the legend that is Lionel Richie, the quite brilliant Toto, and the unmistakable Carlos Santana.

The thing about Montreux is, there really is no other festival like it. The setting speaks for itself, of course, but from a production point of view, it is always smooth, from backline, to live concert, to broadcast. The artists are always relaxed on site, and the shows sound tremendous, thanks to the very hard working sound coordinator, David Weber, whose dedication to his craft is truly inspirational, and festival partners, such as DiGiCo, who make everything sound extra rosy.

DiGiCo, as Headliner found out last year, has had a major presence at Montreux for some time now. For the past seven years, in fact, the UK console manufacturer has fully supported the cause and provided mixing consoles to all the festival’s venues. In the flagship Stravinsky, an SD7 holds court at front of house, with an SD5 complementing

it at monitor position; in the legendary Music Club (formerly the Miles Davis Hall), it’s an SD5 at front of house, and an SD10 on monitors; there’s an SD10-24 in the Jazz Club; and an SD8 sits outside at front of house position for Music in the Park. SD8s, 9s, and 10s are also scattered among the Jazz Lab, Rock Cave, and even Montreux Palace.

Two major DiGiCo advocates involved at this year’s event were Laurie Quigley and Rob Mailman. Quigley works front of house for Lenny Kravitz, and Mailman (also GM of touring for San Diego-based rental house, Sound Image), does the same job for Carlos Santana. We sit down for dinner together, a couple of hours before showtime.

“For me, it’s a case of the wetter the better, as that’s what Lenny wants,” smiles Quigley.

“We’ve had the curtains taken down for the

/ / G E N E VA U N C OV E R E D / /

“REALISING WE WERE PASSPORT-LESS AND UNDER THE INFLUENCE, WE BYPASSED PASSPORT CONTROL ALTOGETHER.”

19 HEADLINER

show. It’s a tricky room, the Stravinsky, and Lenny is very particular about his reverbs.”

In line with Lenny’s love of old school kit, Quigley carries a plethora of classic outboard on the road, and also uses the internal processing within the console, which he rates highly. He is also a big fan of the snapshot function on the SD7. In fact, he is adamant that he couldn’t do the show without it.

“I am still very hands-on with the console, one because I love to mix, and two, because there’s too much going on during a Lenny show not to be hands-on,” Quigley explains.

“But because so many channels are not being used on certain songs, having the snapshots is a godsend, and the facilities on the SD7 are fantastic for that; I basically snapshot the mutes and faders, so I’m not changing the effects sends on every song.”

“Well I hope they put the curtains back

/ / G E N E VA U N C OV E R E D / /

in for my show tomorrow night,” says Mailman, with a half smile, tucking into a fillet steak. Mailman is also on an SD7, and has been for some time. “We have a strong relationship with DiGiCo at Sound Image, and I love the versatility of their consoles.

Everything is where it needs to be, you can operate it as you would an analogue board very comfortably, and the sound quality is also phenomenal.”

It’s fast approaching showtime, and before heading back into the Stravinsky, Quigley warns us that “it might get loud”. It does. Very. At one point, the console looks like it’s floating, as the audience is jumping, and the dBs are rising. Fast. Lenny’s set is banging, and during his encore, he even finds time to make it up to front of house to share a moment with his team, much to the crowd’s approval.

As the last chords of Are You Gonna Go My Way? ring out, and the crowd begins to disperse, Quigley is half squinting. He shakes his head, and breaks into a wide smile: “I told you it’d get loud, didn’t I?” WITH SWISS TIME RUNNING OUT,

the following morning, hangover in tow, we jump into a quite marvellous black Mercedes 500SL convertible in search of Saint-Julien, a peaceful little town situated on the French side of the Swiss border, a few kilometres from Geneva. At the height of summer, however, the volume rises somewhat, as Guitare en Scène comes to town: a friendly, and not-for-profit, boutique festival, founded in 2007 by Jacques Falda, an astute businessman-cumguitar nut. The nice thing about this festival is its intimate feel (5,500 capacity), not to mention the fact that the artists are of the highest calibre: Toto’s Steve Lukather, Deep Purple’s Steve Morse, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Seasick Steve, and John Paul Jones have all graced the main stage, and this time round, it’s the turn of Mark Knopfler, Sting, The Scorpions, and jazz bass extraordinaire, Marcus Miller, this year’s guitar ambassador for the event. As we pull up, we’re ushered straight into the heart of the festival.

“It is all about the music here,” beams Falda, as we take the tour backstage. Falda created his baby through pure musical passion and is, understandably, as proud as punch as to what he has achieved. “It’s all about the guitar – we’ve done anything from classical, to blues, to gypsy jazz, hard rock, punk, everything!”

There are 250 volunteers that work on 20 HEADLINER

the event, and no-one makes a penny. Any money that does come in goes straight back in, and pays for the bands. Then, on stage two, there’s a battle of the bands, and whoever wins that each year gets to play support for one of the headliners the following year. What a nice touch.

“Two Japanese guys who work out of their bedroom in Tokyo won it, and they went on to support The Scorpions, so it’s doing what we can for the young guys, but also showing the public music they wouldn’t always have seen,” Falda explains. “It’s opening up the guitar to everybody, showing people what it can do. But we wanted to keep it intimate, so we have a maximum capacity of just 5,000, which does the job nicely.”

Of course, the problem there is making enough money, so Falda and his team are always looking for new sponsors. There are 170 sponsors this year, ranging from industry leaders such as the [French] Netto supermarket chain, to a guy selling letterheads. They all get their name on the program, and there is a VIP area where they get to invite guests and have a drink in the evening. There is also a corporate area at the back.

Guitare en Scène has two stages, both of which benefit from DiGiCo consoles.

For the main stage, which is housed in an impressive purpose built tent (and feels like

an oven inside!), two SD7s are deployed: one sits at front of house, the other at side stage, for monitors; and on stage two, a real sun-trap, an SD5 is at the helm, with an SD10 on monitors, and all the audio is networked using an Optocore system.

Head of audio for the festival is affable Frenchman, Alain Courieux, himself a longtime DiGiCo advocate, whose mainstay is mixing front of house for Jean Michel Jarre on an SD7.

“What’s so nice about this festival is its feel,” Courieux smiles, as we make our way across the stage to what can only be described as guitar heaven. Knopfler’s tech must be looking after 15 of his axes: Gibsons, Fenders, Martins, and that unmistakable 1937 National Style ‘O’ Nickel-plated brass guitar which featured on Dire Straits’ 1985 masterpiece, Brothers In Arms. I move towards a second set of guitars, adjacent to Knopfler’s which, I am told, belong to his second guitarist [since 1996], Richard Bennett. His guitar tech, Tom Calcaterra, is tweaking a DiGiCo SD11 console. As I approach him, he offers an outstretched hand, and beams. An unusual spot for a mixing console, isn’t it, Tom? “We use the SD11 to mix the guitars,” Calcaterra explains. He’s been Bennett’s tech for 20 years. “We just run inputs, and then we run VCAs, because he has mics and DIs, so we just run them off mutes. We send it to

“I FOOLISHLY ATTEMPT TO ASK HOW TO GET TO MY HOTEL IN NATIVE TONGUE; I DON'T EVEN GET AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, LET ALONE A RESPONSE.” the split, so basically I turn him on and off.

Richard has multiple acoustic lines, and we just take out one acoustic line, then we gain trim it all here on the inputs. I used to have a series of different mute boxes, you know, and a whole bunch of A-Bs all linking into each other, but now it’s just one button, and that’s all.”

I turn to the acoustic guitars, and notice Calcaterra has DPA clip-on microphones of some description on all of them. He catches my eye, and says: “They’re DPA 4099s, and I use them on all the acoustics, as he wants that pure sound, and they do that job really well. We get all sorts of noise on stage [smiles], but he doesn’t mind it, because he wants that live sound. If he turns to the drummer, he gets a bit more drums, that’s how we have to look at it. The acoustics all have DIs, too, so the front-of-house engineer can pick and choose what he wants as he sees fit. It’s a nice option to have.”

I realise that being on stage is even hotter than under the tent, so I quickly jump down and head to chat to Knopfler’s mainstay engineer, Dave Dixon. He started out on a DiGiCo D5 when it first came out, and now he’s touring with his own SD7.

Like Calcaterra and Bennett, Dixon and Knopfler have been working together for almost 20 years.

“I don’t do anything apart from mix 21 HEADLINER

the shows,” Dixon smiles, adding that he ‘doesn’t even need white gloves’. “I use a lot of the onboard effects on the console, but don’t like to use much compression; it’s all about getting the source sound right, and with someone like Mark, you don’t need to do much other than get the mic placement right. He’s that good.”

It’s huge pressure, Dixon admits, as everyone wants to hear Knopfler at his best, and when you’re working with the acoustic of a big tent, it’s less than ideal. On a positive, there is a mutual trust when it comes to live shows.

“Mark lives in this world of studio [with British Grove], so he tends to leave me to it out there,” Dixon explains. “He’s come out and listened to a few things in rehearsals, but on tour, it’s total trust. Reverbs are a big thing for Mark, but I got him to take them off at his end; I add it from the console when required, depending on the venue.”

Dixon started out as system engineer on this tour, and has been riding faders since 2006, so he certainly knows his way around the kit. Which leads us to the console.

“With Mark, I absolutely have to use snapshots,” he states. “There are so many instrument changes, you couldn’t possibly do it on the fly. Every song, they are changing instruments; one minute it’s a

guitar, then a mandolin, violin, or flute, so I have to be dialled in, and it makes life way easier.”

Showtime arrives, and Knopfler doesn’t disappoint. His liquid guitar tone takes over the town, let alone the tent, and he plays a perfect mix of old and new, with heart wrenching classics such as Telegraph Road, Romeo & Juliet, and Your Latest Trick, before encoring with the beautiful and rather fitting instrumental, the theme tune from the movie Local Hero, because tonight, that’s exactly what Knopfler was.

“Considering that show was in a tent,” smiles a rather relieved Dave Dixon, postshow, as we watch the console get carefully packed away by the crew, “it sounded bloody good, didn’t it?”

It did, indeed. It’s been a pleasure, SaintJulien. Let’s just agree never to mention that we turned right out of the venue instead of left, accidentally ended up in Switzerland, passport-less and under the influence, and used the power of our V8 engine to bypass Passport Control altogether. www.montreuxjazz.com www.guitare-en-scene.com www.digico.biz www.dpamicrophones.com

/ LEMAR /

R

emember Fame Academy? For those that don’t, it was (and probably still is) the only British reality show whereby musical talent and songwriting ability was a prerequisite. Lemar made the final in the first series of the show, back in 2002, which acted as a pedestal for some serious successes: seven top 10 singles, two million record sales, three MOBOs, and two BRIT Awards. His fifth studio album, Invincible, was released in 2012, and after a three year hiatus, he’s back with a bang. Album six, The Letter, is a fusion of original material and alltime classics, and was recorded at LA’s legendary East West Studio (rather refreshingly, with a full live band).

“It was all about the vibe of the room, and all these amazing musicians feeding off each other,” Lemar tells Headliner, with a smile. Sounds good to us. We sit down with him in West London to find out more.

Perhaps predictably, we begin by asking Lemar to regress back to those Fame Academy days, where it all began for him.

Politely, he concurs, though reminds us that actually, his musical story began a lot earlier than that.

“I got into music when I was 16, just 22 HEADLINER

trying to be an artist, really. I bumped into Best Kept Secret in London, and did about 200 gigs supporting the likes of Usher, Beyoncé, basically any US artist that came up,” he explains. We did not realise that. Do continue. “I did the roadshows with Trevor Nelson, met with all the record labels, but no joy [smiles]. Eventually, eight years on, I was going to give up music, and remember

progressing until eventually, he made it onto the show.

“I look back now and think the stars couldn’t have aligned in a better way, but at the time, it was a struggle,” he admits.

“The reactions were positive, I met Mariah Carey, sang with Lionel Richie, so I knew something was going to change, however far I progressed. And the cool thing about

“IT’S REALLY NICE TO OPERATE ON THIS LEVEL WITH A TEAM BEHIND ME, WHERE I CAN BE AT THE TOP OF MY GAME AS AN ARTIST.” being in the NatWest bank and hearing Trevor Nelson’s voice as he was doing an advert for Fame Academy. I was like, ‘oh, it’s Trevor’, and I saw the advert for the show.

I had already re-applied to go back to uni, so that was starting in two months, but I thought, ‘let’s give it one more try’, then I’ll call it quits.”

Divine intervention at its finest! Lemar went for the initial auditions and kept

doing it was, I’d been working in music eight years earlier, so I’d seen so many artists get a deal, lose a deal, and so on; so when I did get a deal, it was something I really wanted to work on and look at the finite details of, to make sure it was perfect.”

Lemar finished third in Fame Academy, which acted as a springboard to a series of musical successes. He hasn’t made a record since 2012, so when he came out of the

// LEMAR //

shadows to make his sixth album, he had to be completely focused on the job in hand, which began with an autumn tour of showcases in September.

“My band is normally a 10-piece, but we can add strings, too; it depends on the stage size and just availability, really. And all the numbers! [laughs] We always make sure it’s rocking, whatever the setup.”

The first single, The Letter, came out on August 21, and received critical acclaim, as well as playlisting on BBC Radio 2.

Snippets of the album have followed, and on October 9th, it was officially released.

“Recording in East West Studios was amazing,” Lemar recalls, adding that Larry Klien (Sinatra, Michael Jackson) aided with the production. “I had Vinnie Colaiuta, one of the best drummers in the world, and we had The Water Sisters on BVs. They’ve sung on so many hits. In fact, on the album there’s a cover of Someday We’ll Be Together

by Diana Ross, and the girls said, ‘shall we do the same as we did on the original?’ I was like, ‘what?!’ They sang on that original track when they were just 16! Amazing! So getting us all in that room together with the band gave us that extra 10%, you know?”

The approach for The Letter, as Lemar hints, was all about getting that raw, live feel.

“We went in with a full band, with horns

by Jerry Hey, who did Thriller,” Lemar enthuses. “We’d do the take, record the take, maybe do it two or three times, pick a take, and bang, it’s on the record! Although I had never recorded in this way before – I normally write and then the producer and I add elements in, or it’s a full production, and the musicians come and play the parts all vibing off each other in a room was much quicker. The hardest thing was coming up with new songs, and then picking which reworks I was going to do.

“Once that was done, we would record two or three songs in a day, and there are 11 on the album, so there you go. After that, there was post production. The whole thing was done over the course of two to three months, but in terms of actual recording, it was more like two to three weeks.”

Impressive, and so refreshing to see a back to basics approach to recording. Talk turns to the US scene, and Lemar tells us he keeps a little place out in LA, because there’s a lot of music there, and of course there’s the incomparable movie scene: “Because music and movies go so well together, it means people have had to group together a bit closer to the source of what’s happening. People have moved out of New York, and although I like the vibe of the city, I think it’s about the value of music, and also the way it’s being consumed at the moment.”

Although Lemar may have been out of 23 HEADLINER

the limelight for a while, he’s no slouch.

We calculate that he’s been writing for over 20 years, which raises our respective eyebrows in unison, and he’s also been playing some incredible live shows: a few gigs in Monaco to celebrate the Prince of Monaco’s 10-year reign; and a huge show with Robbie Williams in Bucharest to 60,000 people. Wow. “Yeah, that was pretty amazing with Robbie,” Lemar says, with a smile. We ask him about his writing process, and what else has kept him busy of late. “I’ve written for a few peeps, I set up a library company and signed some producers – you know, music for film – but with that it was very full-on. With my last album, I also set up my label and was doing deals - it was fully me - so now it’s really nice to operate on this level with a team behind me, where I can be at the top of my game as an artist.

“Because I wrote, produced, and released my last album on my own label, I was kind of burnt out [laughs] so I said to my management team, ‘I don’t feel like writing right now; I know loads [of writers], and I am sure they have their A-game songs; if we know any people, and the songs are cool, I will put in my two-pence, or if it’s great, I’ll just take the song’. So we have three new songs: A Higher Love; Love Turned Hate; and Never Be In Our League. I wanted to make sure the songs are in keeping with the classics, as they have to complement each other to provide some kind of continuity.”

Lemar is as full of modesty as his voice is of soul – a lovely attitude to have, especially when you consider he came from a manufactured entity. We tell him as much, and he bows his head, bashfully: “I never wanted to do music to be famous,” he insists. “I am shy...[pauses]...

I’ll be the one in the corner, saying very little! On stage, it’s a different thing. But I only ever wanted to sing, and if you can make a living out of that, brilliant. Once it’s your primary source of income, the

pressure of success is a little bit more, but to me, If I can put on a show, and people buy the record, that is success. [pauses] You want to sell a trillion, of course, but as long as it’s not a calamity, and people are coming to your shows, it’s not a problem.”

After a brief chat about Lemar’s charity work, particularly for Cancer UK (he lost his mum to cancer in 2003), the Prince’s Trust, and Christian Aid, we ask him to leave us with a happy musical memory.

He beams, and says: “The performance that I learned most from was on Fame Academy with Lionel Richie. The one that got transmitted was cool, and set a bit of a tone, but before that, we did a soundcheck, and during it, Lionel does his bit and I then come out, look across, and he introduces me. So, I came out, totally forgot the lyrics to his song, and I remember thinking, ‘I’m from Tottenham.

I’m trying to do some music. That is Lionel Richie; I am on the stage with him, and I can’t do this!’ [laughs] But Lionel was so cool; he called me over and told me a story about him when he was younger. He said, ‘I’m your mate, picture me as your next door neighbour; I picked you for a reason, and you have the ability. You know the songs backwards, your voice is fantastic, go back out there and forget about me and just deliver.’ So then, when I went back, I nailed the performance. It’s because of the gent he was, and I haven’t found anyone since that’s as nice as him in this industry.”

The Letter is out now, and comes highly recommended. It’s a fusion of old school with contemporary originals, and it’s been put together beautifully.

Throughout November, Lemar will be playing a string of shows with fellow Brit, Will Young. Check out his website for more details. www.lemar-online.com

Q A

R U D I M E N TA L T H E F E E L- G O O D FAC TO R WORDS | PAUL WATSON

I

t was almost two years ago since Rudimental’s debut album, Home, started working its way into musical pockets across the UK and then beyond. It’s since gone platinum, won a MOBO, a BRIT, and even a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize; and the four-piece from East London have been touring it ever since, often to massive crowds. Fresh from a headline slot at Lovebox in Hackney, where they felt right at home, they’ve now released their follow-up record, We The Generation, mixed by multi Grammy-winning mix engineer, Spike Stent.

So what can we expect? Whirring organs and trumpets with an electronic backbone, fusing jungle and garage beats – and that’s just for starters. This time around, they’ve had the help of the Class of 2015: vocal contributions from the headliners of tomorrow, plus the odd megastar performance for good measure. But the Rudimental message remains the same as ever: “It’s music to make people happy,” Piers Agget assures us. Headliner catches up with him to find out a little bit more.

“IT’S DEFINITELY UNIVERSAL, SEARCHING FOR A FEEL-GOOD FESTIVAL BAND THAT IS ABOUT LOVE AND PEACE.” So how was Lovebox?

Lovebox was sick, yeah; it’s probably one of our best shows ever. Playing in Hackney, which is where we’re from, and to headline that festival was a dream, really. And as for the vibe, the crowd was really special. The line-up was great, too: Annie Mac, Mark Ronson, Snoop. Unfortunately, we had to go to the Czech Republic on the Saturday [for a show], so we missed Snoop, but what can you do? [smiles] You’ve been quoted as saying you were saved by music... Is that still the case?

Very much so. Lovebox in particular was a very emotional performance, as we had a lot of friends there, and we’ve all seen a lot of bad things, so it was a definite ‘moment’ for us as a band.

Your first record went platinum, won you a MOBO, a BRIT, and got you nominated

25 HEADLINER

for the coveted Mercury Music Prize. No pressure on the follow-up, then..?

[laughs] Yeah, the new record came out on October 2, and although we’ve been playing a lot of new tracks this year, essentially, we’re still drawing a big crowd from that first album, and this is the fourth year of touring it, really, which is pretty mad. Now it’s finally out there, we can’t wait to embark on a new arena tour.

In the beginning, is it fair to say you had a kind of bedroom producer reputation: pals from Hackney, pirate radio stations, a kind of underground vibe? Now you’re firmly established globally, what’s changed?

I think the message is still the same, really: we make positive music that makes you feel good.

We’ve always been into mixing live music with electronic music, and mixing old instruments like trumpets and

organs in with house and jungle - especially in this day and age.

We’ve always been conscious, and we’ve always wanted to have music with a message, and a positive message at that. That’s what’s really important to us.

The single, Never Let You Go, has a great vibe, and some serious jungle undertones.

Does the rest of the record follow suit?

We The Generation has got more soul funk to it; we’ve been a touring band for three years now, so the musicianship that’s come out of that time, we’ve been able to put back into the new record. If you look at the John Newman collaboration on the first album, this time around, we’ve got Will Heard and Anne-Marie – they’re the Class of 2015, so to speak [smiles]. And there are some legends in there, too, like the late Bobby Womack – he sent us an a capella before he died, which was amazing to work

on. It’s definitely one of our proudest moments. We’ve also got to work with George Clinton and many more. It’s a mix of what we grew up listening to, and now contacting those people and meeting us in the studio to work together; and there’s all this new talent being discovered, too, just like we did with the first album.

So the same vibe, but a few more doors opening?

Yeah, definitely. We’ve got some legends on the record, doors have opened, and we’ve also set up our own record label called Major Tom’s, so we’ll be releasing material from the artists that we find. The future Ella Eyre and John Newmans will be released through our new label!

A&Rs too, then?

Yeah, well we pretty much A&Rd most of the music on our first album, so we thought we might as well do it on our own label rather than giving everyone else the job! [laughs] Fair point! Do you find your music is received differently depending on the territory or city, even?

Yes. I think there are different vibes in different countries. In Eastern Europe, they’re so up

/ / R U D I M E N TA L / /

for it, as they were in Czech Republic recently, singing along to every word, whereas Londoners can be a bit more reserved. But the whole vibe is pretty similar, and the crowds always bring a good feeling. It’s definitely universal, searching for a feel-good festival band that is about love and peace; and that’s the whole point, to have a connection.

You’re all producers as well as musicians. What is your creative process?

We pretty much get involved in everything, in and around touring, which is hard. We tour a lot, we come back, and we write. We started the new album two-and-a-half years ago; it’s been an ongoing process. Sometimes we write a

“LOVEBOX WAS A VERY EMOTIONAL PERFORMANCE. IT WAS A DEFINITE ‘MOMENT’ FOR US.” song ourselves and hand it over to a singer and say, ‘can you do the vocal?’ We pick one, like we did with John Newman, Feel the Love, but also sometimes we just write melodies and lyrics with the vocalists. A lot of time we jam with the band, get the instruments out and jam it out in the studio, then we’ll put it on our laptops, and work with it on the plane. And we’ll end up in South America, do a gig, go to a hotel room, and work on it even more [laughs]. We pass projects round to each other, and we all get involved in the production as well.

What are you working on, DAW-wise?

We’re all on Logic at the 26 HEADLINER

moment. It’s kind of like, if someone hits a wall on a track, someone else can come in and give it a new fresh spin, you know? It’s great bouncing these projects around and chipping in when we can. Then we have this studio in Hoxton called Major Tom’s, and we get back to that place where we know our speaker setup, so we can not only gauge it, but write it, and finish it all there.

into his place, and we mixed it with him. We tweaked it for quite a while... [pauses]... Okay, I’m not gonna lie, it took quite a few months to get it right, but that’s because we’re all perfectionists, basically!

Were you involved in the final mixes?

Yeah, I think more than anything, in five or ten years’ time, we want to be on our sixth or seventh album, headlining Glastonbury, like the big bands of our childhood.

So the goal is really to make music that we’re proud of, and

Yeah, absolutely. We get our records mixed by Spike Stent, who’s phenomenal in his world, and we wanted to continue working with him. We went

So what is the next goal?

You seem to be all about making people happy with your music more than anything else, which is a fine attitude, in our book!

that has a message, and makes you all feel good; and all the awards can come whenever [smiles], but the priority is all about the music, doing what we’ve always dreamed of doing.

That’s where we want to be.

Finally, Piers, any tips for any up and coming Rudimentals of the next generation? Please forgive the pun...

[smiles] Really, it’s all about not giving up at the first hurdle.

Don’t put all your eggs into one basket because... not all baskets get picked up by... [pauses] what am I trying to say, here? [laughs] Basically, all it’s about chipping away at it, and working really hard.

The success that we got took about eight or more years to mould, and the team we built took several years to build. It’s not something that happens overnight, so building that is so incredibly important. www.rudimental.co.uk

NEXO LOUDSPEAKERS

FOR SHOWS THAT

STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD

Loved by leading live sound system designers and chosen to power some of the world’s biggest artists and events, NEXO speakers deliver truly memorable experiences night after night, from packed clubs to huge stadiums.

With a highly musical audio performance, exceptional system scalability, focussed audience coverage and one of the best power-to-size ratios in the industry, when it comes to sound reinforcement that enhances every show - nothing else comes close.

www.nexo.fr

Thinking. Inside the box.

COV E R STORY

JESS

HOPE OUT OF HEARTBREAK

WORDS | PAU L WATSO N

“IT’S A GREAT FEELING TO KNOW THAT PEOPLE CONNECT TO THESE SONGS IN THE SAME WAY I DO.” AFTER RELEASING HER DEBUT ALBUM, I Cry When I Laugh, at the end of August, London-born Jess Glynne stormed to the number one spot on the UK Albums Chart.

The 25-year-old singer-songwriter was no stranger to success prior to this, however. She secured her first three number ones as guest vocalist on Clean Bandit’s mega-hit, Rather Be, Tinie Tempah’s Not Letting Go, and Route 94’s My Love (all three also feature on the new album); and thanks to the success of her own tracks, Hold My Hand, and the supercatchy Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself, she is now officially the second ever British female solo artist to have five number one singles in the UK. Not bad going really, is it? Headliner chats to Jess about her musical journey, playing in the UK football season, and how an Amy Winehouse album inspired her to make her own records.

A

t the time of writing, we’re eight games into the football season here in the UK, and Jess helped kick it all off with a fantastic live performance at Wembley Stadium. It’s as good a point as any to start, as I know she’s a bit of a footy fan, so I ask her how it was.

“It was the first time I had sung since my operation, so I was extremely nervous,” Jess replies. She underwent surgery on her vocal chords earlier this summer. “But it was amazing to perform at the home of football, and even better was to see my beloved Arsenal win the match!”

Much like football, Music has always been in Jess’s blood. She auditioned for X Factor when she was just 15, then began networking with scores of songwriters and producers, living and breathing music wherever she went. But it was when her parents introduced her to the music of Amy Winehouse that she knew it was something she could really do.

“When I listened to Amy’s Frank album, it really inspired me and my songwriting, and it’s still one of my favourite albums,” Jess explains. “I then decided to go on a songwriting course and met Janée ‘Jin Jin’ Bennett, who I have since worked with on nearly all of my songs.

She introduced me to a few producers, and then the track Home was made. That’s when things really started to move forwards, as it led to me signing both my recording and publishing deals.”

2014 was quite the year for Jess: several number ones, including Clean Bandit’s Rather Be, and Route 94’s My Love; and then her debut single, Right Here, made the top 10. Her second single, Hold My Hand, was a huge hit that held the number one spot for three weeks. Pretty incredible. Did she ever think she would achieve this kind of success so quickly? In a word, no.

“The success of Rather Be and My Love has been absolutely overwhelming,” admits Jess, with a smile. “I couldn’t have asked for a better response, but when Hold My Hand went to number one, it was on a whole other level, as that was my first number one as a solo artist. For me, songs have a strong emotional connection, and to see the response to Hold My Hand and Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself has been amazing! It’s a great feeling to know that people connect to these songs in the same way I do.”

And when I Laugh When I Cry shot straight to number

29 HEADLINER

one in the UK Albums Chart (which we at Headliner think is a fantastic mix of anthems, beats, and piano-led ballads, by the way), everything must have looked rosier still. There’s a message or two in that title Jess, right?

“The title is an actual fact about me, I really do cry when I laugh! But the overall theme is one of happiness, and never giving up,” she explains, very openly. “At the time of writing this album, I was going through quite a tough break up, but I didn’t want the music to be sad, so I decided to make music about focusing on the positive, and living life to the fullest. You could almost say it’s about hope out of heartbreak. Musically, it’s a combination of the things I love: soul, R&B, hip-hop, and dance.”

Jess was heavily involved in the writing process of the new record, and collaboration was also key, she reveals: “I worked with lots of different people, but there are a few who really helped shape the album. When I recorded Ain’t Got Far To Go with Knox Brown, that was the moment I really felt I was making the album that represented me. It feels like every time we work together, something special happens. Janée ‘Jin Jin’ Bennett has been with me right from the start, and it’s great to have such a good friend writing with me. She really understands me, and what I’m going through. And then there’s Starsmith; he has really helped craft the record, and take it over the finish line.”

Sounds like a true team effort. As our conversation comes to a close, we ask Jess to take us through some of her musical influences, and her goals for 2016. She kindly obliges.

“Again, I have to go back to Amy Winehouse’s debut, Frank, as it was the first time I’d heard songs about real life, and then musically, the soul, R&B, and hip-hop vibe on The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Also, I love the fresh new sound of dance music by artists such as Disclosure, Rudimental, and Gorgon City. It’s all important to me.

Now, it’s about getting out to as many places as possible with my band! There has been so much love from all around the world, and I honestly cannot wait to get out there and put shows on for everyone!”

We’d like to say a big thanks to Jess for taking the time out to talk to us, especially considering her super-busy schedule. We wish her and her team every success with the album and the upcoming tour. www.jessglynne.co.uk

TEC H

MIXING JESS GLYNNE WO R D S | A L A N ‘ N O B BY ’ H O P K I N S O N

I WAS INTRODUCED TO JESS VIA HER TOUR

manager when they first put together a touring crew for her, not that long ago really - May 2014. My first show with Jess was in a wine bar in Banbury, UK, where we shoehorned a front of house and monitor desk in, side by side, if I remember correctly!

She’s a lovely lady, and we have a great working relationship. She wants the sound to pack a punch, yet hold all the textures; there are piano-based ballads, there are the hits, and a whole range of other styles in between. She will often make sure that Senab and Holly (her backing vocalists) are up in the mix, and she is always sensitive to unwanted changes.

As we’ve been progressing, climbing the line-up list at festivals, and doing a lot of promo shows in often challenging environments, it’s been important to keep our footprint to a minimum.

Jess has an amazing voice, so not too much needs to be done. There’s a little compression, just to hold down any random frequency more often created by the room or the system, then a touch of plate reverb in the background, and the odd delay for a little vocal ‘ghosting’.

We went through many different microphones with Jess. I would have to be honest and say it was largely her call to go for a DPA d:facto II, which we use wirelessly.

Her band are all on in-ears, and as we tried to find the microphone that was great out front, Jess became more involved in how it sounded in her ears, and decided this was the one for her.

Out front, d:facto is super-clean, has great air, and is very responsive right across the range, with a very crisp high end, which helps us to get Jess’ vocal sitting nicely above a full-on live band with tracks and samples firing away.

30 HEADLINER

The DLS lets me catch creative magical moments.

It allows me ‘worry-free’ mixing!

DiGiGrid Creative Audio Interfaces.

Jack Joseph Puig U2, Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, John Mayer

DiGiGrid DLS Pro Tools™ I/O with SoundGrid DSP Server

...get the Freedom to Connect and Real -Time Power for Plugins.

Find out what DiGiGrid DLS interfaces can do for your system at digigrid.net For U.S. sales: www.waves.com

Network and integrate seamlessly with ANY DAW system on PC or MAC to process and offload Waves and third party SoundGrid plugins with LLM™ (real time low latency monitoring).”

Q

STEVIE WONDER (1973-4) Q: Is Innervisions better than Fulfillingness’ First Finale?

WORDS | DAVID MCA L MON T In 1967, the year before

Stevie Wonder’s For Once in My Life album, the raw soul thrash of I’m a Man by The Spencer Davis Group reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. After a mid 1960s British pop invasion, British acts were still responding in increasing numbers to gritty North American sounds produced in Southern US cities, and thereby impacting the US chart. It was a year for two major Southern Soul classics: Aretha Franklin’s Respect, and Soul Man by Sam & Dave. Harder, more conscious sounds registered significantly with listeners. Grit was in.

By 1968, the American climate was fraught: Martin Luther King railed against the Vietnam War; his Spring assassination would prove incendiary; armed members of the Black Panther Party mobilised in Sacramento, California; Black America rioted in Tampa, Buffalo, Newark, Minneapolis, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Washington.

Stevie Wonder observed all these events keenly.

Berry Gordy’s refined Motown sugar was caramelising with audiences: newer signings, fewer hits. The resilient Gordy cosh was irritating Wonder’s aspirations. Stevie was constantly scrutinising experimental musicianship.

In interviews, he enthused about the vocal mix on The Beatles’ Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite (1967). A fight for artistic control was imminent: a fight for freedom from Gordy in a bid to shape cutting-edge, experimental developments into a cluster of peerless 1970s records.

At 17, “the Little Stevie Wonder thing” had been bothering the lanky Michigan teen for a good three years. For Once in My Life could only hint at the funk-rock to come with the pianist’s introduction to Do I Love Her and the funky hoedown of You Met Your Match, but record buyers at least according to the Billboard figurespreferred the sing-along Wonder of ShooBe-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Day (#9 1968) or the big romantic heart of For Once in My Life (#2 1968) to what Bob Dylan called the

32 HEADLINER

“WONDER’S HARMONIES CRESCENDO: MULTI-LAYERED, GLORIOUS, AND BEWILDERED, THEY PETRIFY IN SPACE AND STALL.”

“gut-bucket funky stuff ” of You Met Your Match (#36 1968). Number 36 was the kind of chart placing that gave Berry Gordy cold feet whenever the teenaged Wonder talked about experimenting.

The maverick pop of the classic Stevie Wonder period (1972-76) would have to flash fitfully until 1971 when Stevie sprung renegotiation on the Motown Hit Factory. Gordy was floored by the move.

The artist had amassed the bargaining muscle of two independently produced albums and the success of The Spinners with It’s a Shame (1970): the top twenty hit that Wonder produced, and co-wrote with Syreeta Wright. He had attended Sly & the Family Stone concerts and left craving the response that Sly and the gang elicited from their audiences. He went on the road with The Rolling Stones aiming to reach live audiences beyond the limits of the de rigueur Chitlin’ circuit.

Little Stevie Wonder was “all grown up,” but he needed to free Classic Stevie Wonder. He did not want to play cute little Motown games with ‘70s America after its fraught 1960s. Neither did he want to wrestle with Gordy’s strict commercial parameters as the nation shot at itself. Marvin Gaye had already made a resounding statement with What’s Going On? (1971). The Temptations had created Ball of Confusion (1970) with psychedelic 33 HEADLINER

soul architect, Norman Whitfield. Wonder had worn his final Motown bow tie on television. He did not leave the label; he stayed, determined to exceed its reactionary formula. Gordy felt a little stung, but the new creative deal with a historic royalty rate secured him a ‘70s megastar and rock and roll legend. Soon, the likes of Paul Simon would see Stevie as “the composer of his generation.”

In 1971, Stevie was at work in a Fire Island studio when a man called Ronnie handed him an album, Zero Time (1971),

by Londoner, Malcolm Cecil, and New Yorker, Robert Margouleff. Margouleff had designed and built a game changing synthesiser system known as TONTO: The Original New Timbral Orchestra. Cecil was an exceptional bass player, sought after in British jazz and blues circles. They formed a duo: Tonto’s Expanding Head Band.

On Memorial Day 1971, while Cecil was fixing a mellotron at Media Sound Studios, Manhattan, his friend Ronnie arrived with “a black guy in a pistachio jumpsuit.” It was Stevie Wonder with the copy of Zero Time.

He wanted to meet the guys who had made it. They introduced Stevie to Margouleff ’s ingenious synthesiser rig. Stevie stayed and played, learning as much as possible as soon as possible. Together they created 17 compositions that weekend.

A collaborative co-op formed. The trio wove classical composition, folk, funk, jazz, rock, and the sound of the West Coast into a symphony of bloodied concrete, unabashed romance, and scorched urban earth. Instead of being a character, Wonder became many. The co-op’s daring ebullience was perfected on Innervisions (1973), Fulfillingness’ First Finale (1974), and Songs in the Key of Life (1976).

This article considers the first two titles.

Fulfillingness’ First Finale has long been my favourite. I still think it is a masterpiece. For years, my preference for Fulfillingness’ has been challenged by dozens of Innervisions retorts. I listened to both records again, chronologically, and ran the comparison by social network contacts. Most of the responses favoured Innervisions. I began to see that I had missed something. I listened to Innervisions first, and Fulfillingness’ First Finale immediately afterwards.

I had not noticed Innervisions’ odyssean quality before: each song an episode where the author emerges into greater consciousness; buoyed by dogged optimism and righteous rage in the face of preposterous odds. It begins amid the narcotic haze of Too High. Wonder plays all the instruments. His enjoyment is infectious, but it belies tragedy. Atop Moog driven, chromatic funk, he revisits choral arrangements from Donald Byrd’s Brother Isaac (1964) with singers Jim Gilstrap, Tasha Thomas, and Lani Groves.

Stevie uses the voices ominously, to foreshadow a nightmare trip in which his harmonica warbles and screams. As Too High closes, the author comes down badly.

The comedown concludes sharply with a succession of vocal quavers.

The shocked staccatos leave the author shaken. With the song Visions, Wonder anticipates the fluidity of Joni Mitchell’s 1976 Hejira sessions. Malcolm Cecil’s upright bass and Wonder’s Fender Rhodes

// STEVIE WONDER //

slip through the lower frequencies like thick liquid. Virtuosic guitar performances

by Dean Park and David T. Walker are polarised yet conversational within the spectrum. As Stevie emerges from his nasty trip, he questions what is going on in his head. He considers his vision’s worth. The metaphysical mull over his mental wellbeing invites a reality check.

Living For The City is that reality check.

The song reached number eight on the Billboard chart in winter 1973. Rolling Stone magazine lists it as the 105th greatest song of the Rock and Roll era.

It has been the subject of musicologist theses. The introduction recalls the Music of My Mind (1970) set opener, I Love Having You Around. Wonder plays and sings everything. The author stresses his abandonment of his 1960s incarnation.

He reinvigorates his commercial expertise with a hellfire blues tirade. Apparently, Malcolm Cecil badgered him for hours until he let rip.

The visions in the author’s mind are interrupted by abrupt reality. Wonder addresses the ongoing South to North migration of African American people and the consequences, dramatising one of James Baldwin’s views on the AfricanAmerican: in essence, an uprooted Southern United States citizen. The mannish upstart of Water Boy - a 1962 duet with Clarence Paul - matures into a raging polemicist. Wonder’s harmonies crescendo: multi-layered, glorious, and bewildered, they petrify in space and stall.

With Golden Lady, the author recovers his hope through love. Wonder played drums, Moog, and piano. Clarence Bell (Hammond), Ralph Hammer (guitar), and Larry Latimer (congas) accompanied him. Wonder sings in unison with himself and evokes a West Coast beach setting.

The hellfire polemicist is revealed to be a puppy soul dog as well. The song’s bridge is elevated by a melody in which the “sun makes the flowers grow.” The author is acknowledging a maybe: drugs, visions, and reality don’t seem to be working; can he lose himself in the Golden Lady? The enterprise ascends with a heady modulation, made blissful by Bell’s confident Hammond soloing.

Higher Ground was a solid triumph for the new Stevie Wonder. It peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100. The author’s revived optimism - thanks to the Golden Lady - affirms with a rock-out driven by his thumping snare drum. The signature Funky Clav style of Superstition makes a fresh appearance, as Wonder compresses 34 HEADLINER

“BALLSY FUNK AND WEIGHTED OPTIMISM COALESCE INTO THE SOUND OF PEOPLE BATTLING THEIR WAY OUT OF DISAFFECTION.“

shifty, blue, clavinet notes into rapid arpeggios. The author exhorts the world to retain the aspirations of Martin Luther King: to keep on lifting its eyes unto the hills from whence cometh its help.

Wonder then rounds on his country’s believers. Jesus Children of America is an admonition directed at the gulf between religious belief, the American junkie’s high, and harsh realities, “Tell me junkie if you’re able.” Stevie Wonder commented in interviews that a one-off joint had scared him. The rebuke is intensified by Wonder’s frenetic hi-hat, and a near whispered vocal in early verses that sounds mocking. The same energy drives his vocal performances on the track’s other vocal channels. It is annoyed gospel; God’s children needed to get their act together. The dry-humoured funk increases in temperature as beats per minute accelerate.

The mood cools with All In Love Is Fair.

On Innervisions, it is a naked melodrama married to grave piano strains. The romance with the Golden Lady has palled. The absence of fancy vocal footwork, and an impassioned lyrical meditation on the ways of love make it a precursor of the 1980s power ballad favoured by artists like Whitney Houston. Wonder’s Billboard record by this point had testified to an audience enthusiasm for his romantic side.

Here he capitalises on that preference by effectively inventing the Soul power ballad.

Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing begins with Wonder assuming the form of a jive sweet-talker, “I speak very fluent…

Spanish!” The Golden Lady is taking a trip.

Wonder reassures her that he will be here upon her return. “When you get off your trip.” There is no snare, just a rolling tom rumba. Higher frequencies shimmer with Wonder’s cymbals and Yusuf Roahman’s shaker. Tracked vocals become audacious, chromatic slides, as confident vocal freestyles duel and harmonise. The funky Latin breather fades to an odd, abrupt end.

He’s Misstra Know-It-All barges in, an odd celebration of necessary evil. Wonder’s eloquent complaint on a corrupt political sort, rumoured to be Richard Nixon.

Wonder played most of the instruments: Willie Weeks joined him on bass. The song builds to an embittered acceptance of the corrupt; the music celebrates Misstra Know-It-All in spite of itself. There is a suspicion of compassion for the miscreant who is here to stay. It has a “longest ever” fade into an ultimate conclusion/inclusion.

Discard Misstra Know It All and he will be immediately replaced. “Raise your hand to the man!”

Innervisions finishes strongly; a march led by a 23-year-old master. I decided to listen to the follow up. I played Fulfillingness’ First Finale and noticed a distinct mood change. It was weighty, not airborne. It felt burdened. Musical pessimism replaced the adventurous lightness of Innervisions’ touch; the mastery was inherent, but bruised. The artist sounded physically and spiritually altered. Why? If you listen to Fulfillingness’ First Finale immediately after hearing Innervisions, something feels very different. Wonder appears to go down; the way that Jonah did to Tarshish and the Whale. It is still the sound of an old soul in his mid 20s, but he sounds even more wizened. The energetic genius is still present on Smile Please, but the bravura seems subdued. It is ultimately a sad song about smiling. The narrator of Innervisions sounds pessimistic. He sings, “There are brighter days ahead,” arguably, with a deliberate lack of conviction. Instead of observing from a lofty place, he surveys from a subterranean vantage point. The energy seems introspective; the optimism is doubting. The singing is located deep in Wonder’s chest.

Heaven is 10 Zillion Light Years Away spirals into the abyss. The agitated gospel of Jesus Children of America returns with a boulder on its back. Wonder makes his Hohner clavinet and Moog synthesiser

// STEVIE WONDER //

sound like fingered strings. It is the first of three selections on the record begun before the release of Innervisions. It is fresh pessimism. Wonder’s Living For The City firebrand sounds reduced to doubting his faith, “Where is your God?” and making excuses for his god, “It’s taking him so long because we’ve got so far to come.” As it develops, other voices, phantom Stevies, sound lunatic and aggrieved. It is a portrait of his stubborn refusal to accept a loss of faith.

On Too Shy To Say, the pre-Whitney balladeer of All In Love Is Fair returns. A space age arrangement - for Wonder’s piano, James Jamerson’s acoustic bass and Pete Kleinow’s pedal steel - marks the arrival of a new Golden Lady. The arrangement prefigures Prince’s Condition of the Heart (1985). Stevie wants to fly away with the lady, but there is still heaviness. His singing shapes Too Shy To Say into an admission of weakness caused by romance. As the author prepares to say what he really wants, he describes suffering: “And I can’t go on this way…” after which, “I really love you” is but a plea to stem his torment.

With Boogie On Reggae Woman, the author’s taut heartstrings loosen up for a moment. It reached number three on the Billboard countdown in the winter of 1974.

Briefly, it adjusts the mood of the album. It is another of three songs on the album begun before the release of Innervisions. Wonder’s dexterity takes flight on every instrument.

Rocky Dzidzornu plays congas. Wonder’s singing is cheeky devil-may-care cool. The quirky jerks of Jesus Children of America are reiterated; this time to facilitate the author’s wily eroticism.

Emotions deepen with Creepin’. The title evokes love by stealth. Musically, it is a gothic narcotic: a romance hindered by romantic doubt. Layered, post-Les Fleurs (1972), Minnie Riperton voices enhance its ambience: a portrait of obsession awash in Wonder’s woozy synths. Wonder wants his Golden Lady in his waking and his unconsciousness. In the flashes between them, he voices urgent concerns: has he possessed her in the way that she has possessed him?

You Haven’t Done Nothin’ is not a demonstration. It is a ruck! Wonder replaces romantic doubt with political anger. The rage of Living For The City returns. You Haven’t Done Nothin’ was a more resounding victory for his newly independent voice than Higher Ground. It was nakedly angry, and it reached number one. It was released in a summer dominated by Watergate scandal headlines. Wonder chooses not to peacefully demonstrate, but to get right up in his 35 HEADLINER

target’s face. The rhythm bangs and thuds.

Uncredited horns emit kiss-my-ass attitude.

The rage stamps its foot and shakes its angry black butt. The Jacksons deliver hardbitten doo-wops. Ballsy funk and weighted optimism coalesce into the sound of people battling their way out of disaffection.

With It Ain’t No Use, Wonder’s mood plunges further. He plays all instruments again and flaunts one of the best ideas in Soul history: Minnie Riperton and Deniece Williams together on backing vocals. But this is no jolly. Wonder’s lead is harrowed passion. In additional vocals, a negative, disappointed Little Stevie Wonder reappears with a voice that has broken into subliminal growled whispers. The Living For The City firebrand stumbles newly injured. Wonder’s performance is virtuosic during his closing improvisations, but his virtuosity doesn’t swagger, it careens.

Barely recovered from

Wonder’s emotional torrent, he leads us into the wilderness. The author becomes an anchorite. The requiem dirge of They Won’t Go When I Go was written before the release of Innervisions. The piano references Chopin and Bach, as synthesiser melodies recall snake charmers. To these, Stevie added words written by Yvonne Wright, Syreeta’s sister. It drifts from shadow to shadow, and sorrow to sorrow. It conjures a desert in a nuclear winter. Wonder reduces himself to a superstitious religious wreck.

He imagines the spectral afterlife inhabited by a phantasmagoria of weeping matriarchs.

The Misstra Know-It-Alls have won. After two verses, Stevie eulogises, “People sinning just for fun. They will never see the sun. For they can never show their faces!” He emotes like a desert penitent beating his chest with a mortifying rock. It is a moment unmatched by anything on Innervisions.

On Bird of Beauty, Wonder makes an unexpected return from the wasteland. But over a flurried Latin breeze - assisted by Bobbye Hall’s cuíca - Wonder retains his homiletic purpose. He counsels the listener against the taking of “red, white or yellow pills,” to seek a new kind of mind expansion: ditch the drugs; consider the birds.

Please Don’t Go recalls Marvin Gaye’s rhythm sections for What’s Going On?. The vocal is sincere and sass free. It recalls its giddy For Once in My Life emotions; they are painfully revisited. At times, Wonder sounds like Al Green, guttural and anguished.

Deniece Williams, The Persuasions, and Shirley Brewer bring awkward jubilation to the closing bars. “Don’t go baby! Don’t go!” greets the modulated payoff. It is a crestfallen lyric executed with joyous performance. Wonder believed in lyrical

dissonance: marrying tough political love and difficult emotions to uplifting music, to get the message heard. The conclusion is a gospel-rock-out that sends the listener’s hands skyward. The album concludes on a high of sorts, having groped its way through a river of tears.

My first impression upon completion was that Fulfillingness’ First Finale smouldered where Innervisions blazed; it took grave steps, where Innervisions sauntered. The energetic firebrand of Innervisions sounded like an emotionally exhausted prophet on Fulfillingness’ First Finale. But what had occurred between the two records that could have had such a radical effect on Wonder’s effervescence? I assumed that something political had happened. I was mistaken.

Today, Stevie Wonder has a scar on his forehead. He has declined offers of treatment from plastic surgeons. He retains it, a symbol of something momentous.

On the afternoon of August 6th 1973, Wonder fell asleep in his friend’s Mercury Cruiser headed north on Interstate 85 near Salisbury, Maryland. He would wake up days later at North Carolina Baptist Hospital. The circumstances behind Wonder’s accident are disputed. However, reports agree that a farm truck was involved.

When Wonder regained consciousness, he interpreted his coma as a uniquely spiritual state. He described his unconsciousness as if he had attained nirvana. He had already attained musical nirvana with Innervisions.

With Fulfillingness’ First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life, he would cement it.

So something had happened. Where Innervisions had been a mission response to a Burning Bush command, Fulfillingness’ First Finale represented post-Damascene clarity: a report from the author’s traversal of a deeper unconsciousness. Where Innervisions was a firebrand finding his stride, Fulfillingness’ First Finale represented the firebrand in recovery, listening to his god anew. The desert coloured Innervisions sleeve was a serene depiction of the un-spectacled author’s present-ness and awareness. The cover of Fulfillingness’ First Finale depicted the bespectacled author hermitic; his contemplation on a stairway to heaven formed of piano keys. It was the spirit, not the quality of the albums, that differed. I revisited two albums I thought I knew, and discovered two remarkable records by an exceptional young talent in his 20s.

Follow David on Twitter: @DavidMcalmont

// ON TOUR WITH... //

ON TOUR WITH

RUDIMENTAL We head to Fusion Festival in Birmingham, UK, to chat to the guys who have witnessed Rudimental’s rapid rise to stardom first-hand from behind the mixing consoles: Rickey Ricketts and Stuart Macaulay.

“It’s been pretty mental,” admits monitor engineer, Stuart Macaulay, taking a large swig of a giant-sized energy drink. “This is arguably one of the busiest gigs in the industry.

We did 250 shows last year, and with the spectacular routing from the agent as well, it’s 250 gigs that could not be further away from each other! [laughs] If there is a logical way to do it, we haven’t found it!”

It’s been some musical evolution for Rudimental. Since Macaulay and Rickey Ricketts (front-of-house engineer) joined forces a couple of years ago to mix the Rudimental live show, they have both been taken aback at the band’s monumental success.

“The live show almost goes further than their records do,” says Ricketts, whose previous role was riding the faders for Labrinth.

36 HEADLINER

“When they first played V Festival, I remember they absolutely smashed it. People say it was the biggest audience watching a single band at V since The Killers in 1998 – and then the day after, their album went back to number one from number four. That was a moment when you kind of thought, ‘ok, this is proper!’ Promoters started to noticed them, and suddenly we’re headlining all these shows in 2015.”

And deservedly so. Ricketts’ core setup at FOH is his Soundcraft Vi6 console, plus a couple of Tube Tech compressors. At monitor position, Macaulay relies on a DiGiCo SD10.

“They’re a very sonic band, so it’s just about replicating what they want to hear,” Ricketts explains.

“I use the Tube Techs for limiting, really, to help deal with the noise police, especially in a festival environment. It helps keep a handle on the vocals, so they’re not overpowering. Rudimental are all studio bods anyway, so they really know what they’re doing; it’s just about keeping them comfortable so they don’t have to worry about the sound out front.”

And barring a few effects and

three playback channels, the huge sound Rudimental are putting out is all played live. Using a selection of Audio-Technica mics helps capture all the intricacies of the band’s jungle and house elements nicely, Macaulay reveals: “Sonically, the Audio-Technica kit just feels right for this band; they’re such an eclectic and original group, playing clever music, so putting a pair of quality condensers on the snare, for example, gives you all the snaps and pops you need for their drum and bass beats. The wired mics and the radios are all top quality, and the band are meticulous in the way they work.

“Sometimes they’ll come out, have a listen, and we might start tweaking something here or there, or add an effect in, but that’s about it, really. We have headlined 90% of the festivals we’ve played this year, so we must be doing something right!” www.rudimental.co.uk www.audio-technica.com

It’s Not Magic... ...it’s Lectrosonics.

Like you, we have a passion for music, sound and live performance. Perhaps you’ve heard about our legendary reliability, sound quality, or the fact that our products are easy to use. From the patented Digital Hybrid Wireless® technology to the all-metal chassis and the pristine sound quality, Lectrosonics products deliver state-of the art performance and reliability, at a cost that may surprise you.

« Scan here and find out more. www.lectrosonics.com or 1-800-821-1121 In Canada, call 877-753-2876 Made in the USA by a Bunch of Fanatics.

In Europe, call +33 (0) 78558-3735

my profession; it was just something I got more and more drawn into as time went by. The bands I played in always seemed to be missing somebody who would take charge and set a direction, and bit by bit, I found myself taking responsibility, slowly growing into doing what I do today.

RECORDING WITH

FINLAND’S FINEST S

“I never thought music would be my profession; it was just something I got more and more drawn into as time went by.”

38 HEADLINER

uomenlinnan Studio is a facility like no other. Located in Helsinki, Finland, on a naval fortress island which dates back to the 18th Century, it is an UNESCO cultural heritage site, and boasts some of the finest audio kit money can buy. Run by the enthusiastic and influential pairing of studio CEO, Tapio Tamminen, and producer/composer, Tommi Tikkanen, Headliner descends on the island to chat to Tommi about the evolving Finnish music scene, and the ins and outs of this remarkable recording hub.

Tell us a bit about your musical background, and how you got involved in the recording industry?

I got into making music when I was a kid, and got my first computer, an Amiga 500; tracking with FastTracker and Protracker was the first experience I had in terms of making and sequencing sounds. Later on, I learned to play actual instruments – guitar, piano, and a bit of drums - and quite quickly started my journey towards producing music. After high school and university, where I studied ethnomusicology (yep, we Googled that, too!), I had a stint at Sibelius Academy studying music production, but at the time, I was too impatient, and quit my studies after a year. By then, I was working at a small studio and was recording and producing bands as well as playing in some. I never thought music would be

I produced my first long player album (Soul Captain Band, Jokaiselle Tulta) in 2001, and have produced 16 further albums since, mostly urban music, hip-hop, reggae, and dance. I’ve had quite good success locally in Finland with a few gold records, one platinum, and one double platinum, as well as getting quite a lot of radio play despite the style of music produced not being automatically radio-friendly. Apart from producing and managing artists, I work as a recording and mixing engineer, and do mastering as well.

I also play keys in a popular group called Sound Explosion Band, touring with three different Finnish artists. Over the years, I’ve worked in a lot of different roles within the music industry: I’ve imported records, run a record label (nowadays I try to avoid that, as there’s only so much one person can do!), played records, dee-jayed on the radio and in clubs, promoted shows and clubs, and done live engineering for bands, as well. Having experience from ‘the other side’ - running a label - adds clarity to my thinking about the music industry, and also makes it a lot easier to deal with other labels, A&Rs, and promo people. I often find myself working as a mediator between artists and label people in finding a common goal and language.

How did you meet Tapio, and what is your working relationship like?

I met Tapio 10 years ago when he was working at a club we played records at.

He is our CEO, and where my role at the studio tends to be taking care of technical things and stuff related to making and recording music, he is somebody with a great broad vision. He’s great at many things: finding business partners and clients, as well as getting the business side taken care of. He is great with people, and has been instrumental in finding people to help us and work together with at the studio, such as Genelec, Woodsaver, and the engineers and producers who work in some of our rooms. We both share a lot of things; we want things to run smoothly, and we both have a bit of the perfectionist in us. We are strict and adamant with the business side of things, but we also love music - not for the sake of money, but for the vibes. Tapio is way more underground in his taste with a love of modular synths and dark techno; this sort of bipolarity makes for a great balance. The studio works for us, and not the other way around.

// SUOMENLINNAN STUDIO //

The location of Suomenlinnan Studio looks incredible: an island, and within a fortress that was built hundreds of years ago to defend Helsinki! Tell us about it...

Yes, it’s special! Nowadays, everything is strictly conserved and regulated, which can sometimes be a source of trouble when redesigning acoustics. I’ve worked on the island since 2001 at a smaller studio, Ylivoima, which I still have running next door to our bigger studio. Where Suomenlinnan Studio sits now, there used to be another commercial studio, so we didn’t really start from scratch with the refurbishment. Most of the big structures were designed and built when we took over the property, which is good, as getting the permits here can be nearly impossible.

Our biggest work was getting the acoustics right, as some corners had been cut earlier, and all the surfaces and surface acoustics had to be redone. We then started from scratch with the equipment, which was great, as we got where we wanted to be, quickly. Janne Lankinen from Genelec was a great help designing the acoustics, and getting the monitoring right.

What kind of applications does the studio cater for?

Well, we have a number of spaces, including two rooms big enough to record bands in: the bigger one is equipped with a one-inch tape deck as well as a modern DAW system and all the preamps and EQs, and the rest of the outboard is equipped with live instruments in mind. The Haista room can also facilitate live bands, but mostly, the work done there is based on a ton of analogue synths in the room, all CVd to the DAW, and connected to the main mixer. Basically, it’s a great place to find the right analogue sounds for your productions in a jiffy, as everything’s ready to play. We have a smaller mixing and mastering room where a lot of tracks get their final touches before hitting the market, and our main mixing room is designed with two things in mind: big projects, where you can incorporate analogue outboard into your digital mixes; and electronic-based track production, with a great collection of synths and nice outboard. Originally, we thought of making the room just a simple great mix and master room, but we found that the demand for actual production needs is greater every day, so we are in the process of building the dream room, where we ourselves would love to produce tracks in.

What is the current temperature of the Finnish pop and rock scene?

Over the last five years, it seems a breath of fresh air has blown into the local 39 HEADLINER

IT MIGHT GET LOUD..!

industry, with a lot of young open-minded producers creating records and tracks that would have been deemed too far-out just a while ago. There are too many names to mention, but it feels like the Finnish music industry has just recently come of age.

Our country is small, so basically, it’s just about a few dozen key players being brave enough to do what they actually love, while doing it so well that they can get through the radio and A&R barriers to reach the people without too many compromises. I see a bright future.

Tell us about your Genelec co-op...

We got involved with Genelec as they were looking for a space to showcase their newest creations, and it’s been a great relationship so far. We host their guests monthly, and provide them with a great experience at a spot where actual music is being made in a beautiful environment; and Genelec provide the latest monitoring gear and the expertise needed to go with it. I’ve worked with Genelec speakers for the last 10 years, and have been very happy.

Without getting too technical, they sound superb, and allow me to make records that sound great outside of my studio as well.

What are the biggest changes you’ve seen in the recording industry in the last few years?

The big studios have had it hard. Less and less bands and artists use big studio facilities except for tracking drums, mixing and mastering, as technology has made it easy for bands to record at their homes or impromptu locations. The labels are having it hard, too, with less money flowing in by the year. We’ve found that great work and good music are the only ways to cross these barriers; being proactive, producing artists, and working as an agent who brings different parties together definitely helps.

It isn’t really enough nowadays to wait at

The centrepiece of Suomenlinnan Studio's main 'Miksaamo' room is an SSL Matrix2 console, and there is an abundance of Genelec loudspeakers throughout the facility. In Miksaamo, there are three sets of 1238As, two pairs of 7271s and 8320As, and a whopping 10 sets of 8330As; in the Iso Livehuone room, which benefits from an SSL Nucleus console, there is a pair of Genelec 8351s; in the production and tracking room, or 'Haista II', a Jim Williams fully modified Soundcraft TS24 console feeds a pair Genelec 8260As; and a pair of Genelec's three-way 8260As (with built-in DSP) sit in the TTLangen mix and master room. That's a whole lot of Genelec!

home for people to call you for work.

Last but not least, what is your favourite musical memory to date?

One of my favourites would be from earlier this year, when I was recording Jamaican riddim section, Raging Fyah, for Finnish artist, Raappana’s album at Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston, Jamaica. I had the pleasure to only work as a producer at the session, and see their engineer work his magic on their Bob Marley-owned, API-modified Sony console. The musicians were ready to record within minutes of hearing the first track demo, and the engineer would do everything on the fly to bring up the life in the music being made.

It was one of those moments where you really appreciate and respect the work of everyone around you, and feel inspired to become even better at what you do. www.genelec.com www.suomenlinnanstudio.fi

ED SHEERAN: ONE MAN & HIS G U I TA R ED SHEERAN is undoubtedly one of the music phenomena of the last decade. Since his humble busking beginnings, his career has skyrocketed, and after his most recent jaw-dropping achievement, where he headlined three shows at London’s 93,000-capacity Wembley Stadium with just a guitar and loop pedal in tow, it’s difficult to see how he can top it. We look at how he has mesmerised audiences night after night by chatting to the guys behind the scenes, that helped the magic happen.

40 HEADLINER

W

hat’s nice about Ed Sheeran is, he is as humble as he is talented. During one of his sell-out Wembley Stadium shows, for example, he announced to the crowd: “A lot of people have said to me, ‘have you achieved your dream now you’re playing Wembley?’, and I’ve said no, because Wembley was never my dream; it was always too big to dream about, so now we’re here, it’s a bit mental.”

I’m sure it was, Ed. And whether you’re a Sheeran lover or loather (there are plenty of each), no-one, barring perhaps Noel Gallagher, should dare criticise him. He is, after all, the first solo artist ever to sell out the hallowed stadium (and three times over!) with just a guitar in hand, and that famous loop pedal.

The Wembley set that we at Headliner witnessed - after support from Passenger and OneRepublic - began with Sheeran easing the masses into the rhythm with I’m A Mess, Lego House, and Drunk, before striking with a soulful mash-up of Take It Back, Superstition, and Photograph. And that was just for starters. He delivered two hours of this kind of quality, uninterrupted. Even Sir Elton John joined him at one point. He’s been quite the mentor to Sheeran, and the pair performed a great duet of Afire Love, a touching song written about the passing of Sheeran’s grandfather, who suffered from Alzheimer’s. He ended the show by pumping out flawless

// ED SHEERAN //

“WEMBLEY WAS NEVER MY DREAM; IT WAS ALWAYS TOO BIG TO DREAM ABOUT.” renditions of You Need Me, and Sing. All in all, a superb effort.

The shows were put on by leading UKbased rental company, Major Tom - a firm keen to keep its finger on the digital pulse at all times when it comes to audio technology. For the Sheeran shows, the company invested in an Optocore system comprising multiple X6R and V3R converters with mic in, line out, and AES boards, to distribute all of the audio. This, in short, made everything much easier to manage.

“We had been looking at Optocore for a while,” says Major Tom’s Andy Banks.

“We’ve been massive DiGiCo users since they started out, and as such, have always used the Optocore products within the DiGiCo setup. Getting the independent Optocore system was a co-ordinated move from both analogue and AES copper to fibre; we knew it would make the front-of-house runs smaller and lighter, and give greater efficiency, as we needed a far greater channel capacity over far less cable.”

The purchase, which gives Major Tom separate V3R and X6R standalone systems, can be deployed as either conventional returns racks, or the systems can be combined to run larger delay rings as and when required.

It’s definitely been a winner, but like anything, is not without its challenges, Banks admits: “The Wembley shows [with Ed Sheeran] were a major challenge, especially as we were using a system design that had never been tried in the venue before. However, it was a massive success, and the improved coverage for the upper seats wouldn’t have been possible without the longer cable runs we can now use over a fibre network.

“It also means that in any stadium, we can easily run one small optical cable to our delay positions hundreds of metres away with no signal loss, and have data control to all of those positions over the same single cable. The Optocore system is not only lighter and more compact to 41 HEADLINER

THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT ED SHEERAN

run, but the fact that it is scalable to each job is also a massive benefit.”

And even better, Sheeran’s team of techs, who already run their whole stage on an Optocore loop (with DiGiCo SD racks for I/O), were delighted with the stadium setup: “The system worked faultlessly and with transparent audio quality,” Banks insists. “Ed’s head of audio, Charlie Albin; system engineers, Dave White and Malcolm Giles; and front of house engineer and production manager, Chris Marsh, all really appreciated the ability to run such long cable runs without having to worry about signal loss or cable paths.”

With the US leg of the tour now complete, next stop for Ed is New Zealand and Australia, for more stadium extravaganzas. www.optocore.com www.digico.biz www.edsheeran.com

>> He packs five pairs of underwear >> He has three cats: Suki, Stanley, and Graham >> Every year, he makes a wish on his birthday, and for the last five years, they’ve all come true >> Originally, he just did one Wembley show, but in press photos, he held up three fingers because he wanted to do three (and got three) >> He is the only solo artist ever to play Wembley Stadium >> He never had the time to train up a band for the Wembley shows >> Mick Jagger text him to wish him good luck >> On opening night, the loop pedal broke on the last two songs, he broke a string, and then broke a string on his spare guitar >> He didn’t aspire to play Wembley until last year when it was his birthday wish as he cut his cake

GARY SPENCER CRUISES INTO LONG ISLAND IN STYLE TO CHAT TO THE UNMISTAKABLE SIR IVAN, A BILLIONAIRE WITH A TWIST, WHOSE DEDICATION TO DOING GOOD FOR THE WORLD IS BOTH CHARMING AND INSPIRING, BUT MOST OF ALL, EXTREMELY ENTERTAINING.

W

e will be sending a Range Rover or the Peacemobile to collect you from the station and take you to the castle.” This was the wonderfully polite and concise message I received the day before I set out to meet the ever charismatic, philanthropic billionaire and of course, EDM billboard star, ‘Sir Ivan’, otherwise known as ‘Peaceman’. I have caught glimpses of the ‘Peacemobile’, and as much as I would love to jump out of it at my favourite NYC restaurant or nightclub, I was dreading the art limo wrapped in multi-colour hippy icons pulling up for me in this tiny enclave of Long Island known as Bridgehampton.

I too have an ego, but also a British heritage, which means a little bit less is more, so it was much to my relief when a suitably finished British racing green Jaguar soft top pulled in to the parking lot.

“Good morning, Sir,” was my greeting from Nathaniel, a trusted staff member of Sir Ivan’s household that was charged with the duty of collecting and delivering me to his boss.

Immaculately dressed on this hot summer day in jacket and tie, he made me feel almost too casual for my meeting. As we exchanged small talk winding through the tree-lined Water Mill lanes I was tempted to ask, “so how crazy do the parties really get?” However, knowing that I wasn’t the first journalist Nathaniel had ferried, and that after two years he wouldn’t enjoy having to look for a new employer, I decided to just stick to, “wow, this countryside reminds me so much of rural England!”

IVAN WILZIG was born the son of Siggi and Naomi in

SIR IVAN THE PEACEMAN

Clifton, New Jersey, in the mid 1950s. Miraculously, his father, Siggi B. Wilzig, managed to survive the horrors of Auschwitz in wartime Germany and move to the USA, where he eventually took over two traditionally anti-Semitic businesses: one, an oil company; and the other, a commercial bank, both of which he grew into major successes. He had tragically lost 59 relatives in the Holocaust, so to keep his mind off this tragedy, and to cut down on his nightmares, Siggi B. Wilzig became a workaholic and, as a result, incredibly wealthy and successful.

Today, Ivan Wilzig is known as ‘Sir Ivan’, and he lives in a castle, which is set on five stunning acres in the Water Mill countryside. The castle took 18 months to plan, build, and decorate, and was mainly orchestrated with Sir Ivan’s brother, Alan, who worked on the drawings with the architect. It boasts an outdoor infinity pool with underwater speakers, gym, tennis, volleyball and basketball courts, nightclub, movie theatre, and all sorts of secret dens and dummy walls that lead to even more adventures. In fact, it’s everything you would expect from a commercial banking billionaire’s home, except that Sir Ivan stopped banking a long time ago, and became a pop star on the dance charts!

With cup of coffee in hand, I wait by the pool before Sir Ivan makes his way out to tell me more about his incredible life so far, and how he cooly went from banker to Billboard Chart crusher.

/ / S I R I VA N / /

“ H I , H OW YA D O I N G? ” Sir Ivan

is much more casually dressed than I had expected as he calls out and strolls over to shake my hand. He’s wearing black shorts and shirt, and has the demeanour and tan of an ultra successful man that lives in the Hamptons, or owns a castle, even. He explains the ‘Sir’ title came about when he and his brother built the castle, and what started out as a family joke ended up sticking as his stage name. Peaceman became his nickname because once he shed his banker suits, he started wearing capes with a large Swarovski peace sign on the back.

“Well I didn’t ask the Queen of England to build me a castle, so I sure wasn’t gonna wait for her to knight me!

And anyway, I was always far more of an entertainer than I was a banker,” confirms Sir Ivan, explaining he had been an exceptional dancer as a child, and was only able to follow his childhood dream of being a singer years later, after his family had sold their substantial banking and oil businesses. “After being artistically and creatively repressed for so long as a banker, once I was free of that world, everything had to be a creative project. With favourite films such as Robin Hood and King Arthur, it’s natural that I also wanted to own a castle.”

By remaking and covering various antiwar and peace songs from the 60s and 70s, Sir Ivan has managed to return some very impressive dance chart positions, which has subsequently grown his celebrity persona to fuel various charitable foundations like his own foundation, The Peaceman Foundation, that seeks to benefit the victims of hatred and violence, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder victims, and the LGBT community. Sir Ivan would later go on to tell me that the LGBT teenage community has a four to five times suicide rate compared to the straight teenage community.

His first recording success was a cover of John Lennon’s Imagine, the first time any artist had covered a Beatles track and managed to turn it into a dance anthem. It reached number 31 in 2001, and spent nine weeks in the Billboard Chart. His biggest hit to date is Hare Krishna (2011) that went Top Ten on the dance chart, and continued charting for a whopping 13 more weeks.

Two more songs he recorded went Top Ten in Music Week in the UK: Live For Today, and La La Land. His current release, Kiss All The Bullies Goodbye, has so far reached number 22 on the Billboard Chart and spent six weeks there. All very respectable numbers for a man who spent much of his life on corporate Wall Street, and is now in his mid 50s.

43 HEADLINER

“There’s no question that my love of dance music came from my disco days; that high energy makes people wanna dance.

Sure, Studio 54 was the coolest club to get into at the time, but there was an even cooler club that gay friends of mine would go to called The Saint, where people danced

On completion of our chat, Sir Ivan took me on a tour of the castle, and in doing so, we spent a lot of time at the pinball table, which was naturally castle-themed.

It was here I realised that Sir Ivan really does have a boyish enthusiasm for life,

“AFTER BEING ARTISTICALLY AND CREATIVELY REPRESSED FOR SO LONG AS A BANKER, ONCE I WAS FREE OF THAT WORLD, EVERYTHING HAD TO BE A CREATIVE PROJECT. ”

under a real planetarium. I went one time just to see what they were talking about, and it was really out of this world,” he explains.

What’s even more impressive is that through his enthusiasm and financial clout, Sir Ivan probably uses more producers and engineers than any of the major labels, and can even attract world famous talents to collaborate with, such as DJ and producer, Paul Oakenfold, and singer, Taylor Dayne, to work on his projects, such as Kiss All The Bullies Goodbye.

This summer has been very busy for Sir Ivan. August saw the release of his one-hour documentary titled Sir Ivan - I Am Peaceman, as well as another of his legendary costume parties take place at his castle, to celebrate his latest hit single, and the success of The Peaceman Foundation.

and is really only looking to have fun, and also try to bring fun into other people’s lives. Everything is all very much tongue in cheek, and he has that charming ability to be able to laugh at himself, a rare trait in someone who is so lavishly wealthy.

We ended our meeting at the very top of the castle, amongst the turrets looking out over the five acres of greenery, with extended views to Robins Island and the Peconic Bay. Our final discussion centred around the big issue that many children are faced with: carrying the burden of their parents’ pain. In Sir Ivan’s case, that not only drove him on, but in his own special way, he has used his influence and wealth to try and make this world a better place for others who may have suffered. He is indeed Peaceman – a real life Superhero.

“ I SA I D I WO U L D M OW T H E L AW N A N D

/ MR. FEEL / World-renowned mix engineer, MARK ‘SPIKE’ STENT, took some time out of his busy schedule, setting up a new mix room in LA so he can bounce between there and the UK. His musical journey started in his teens; he remembers pestering the guys at Jacobs Studios into giving him a job, which would ultimately lead to a huge break at Trident Studios, and a career in mixing super-successful records.

Oasis, Keane, Madonna, U2, Lady Gaga... His credit list is long, though he insists he does it because he loves it – and we believe him. We chat to Spike in LA, as he is putting the final touches to Rudimental’s new album, We The Generation which, he says, is going to be a belter.

44 HEADLINER

clean the loos, and thankfully, they gave me a chance, and I never looked back,” smiles Spike. He’s talking about Surrey’s Jacobs Studios, where he began his career in mixing... and toilet cleaning. “I spent every waking hour in there, trying to learn everything over four years, and I worked with some incredible artists.”

Next stop was Trident, where he worked with young DJs who needed to do extended mixes: club versions of singles. The year was 1985: “So I would do those remixes, and they were rhythmic-based, but the songs all extended out, and then the A&R guys would say to me, ‘well how come it sounds better than the original? Let’s do a single version!’ And that is how it happened to me, really. I was very young, I then went freelance, and realised mixing was my thing.

I have always done it, and will always do it. Working on records every day makes me feel young and happy, so I can’t complain.”

Talking of young talent, we move onto Rudimental, one of our feature artists in this issue. Spike’s mixing their

// SPIKE STENT //

second album as this goes to print, and band member, Piers Agget, told us about the phenomenal working relationship the guys have with Spike since they started out. Spike also mixed Rudimental’s debut, Home, and needs no encouragement in singing their praises.

“I love them dearly, I really do,” says Spike.

“They came down to my studio [in Salisbury, UK] and they’re just brilliant guys.

Wonderful people, with such talent. Since the first record, it’s interesting seeing their confidence grow as they’ve grown as a band and as musicians. It’s been a fantastic growth to watch, and their attitude is entirely exemplary. Can’t say enough about them, to be honest. The boys’ live shows are immense (Headliner can vouch for that), and they have such energy in the way they project, which is evident from the love they get from their dedicated fanbase.

“This record is interesting, as they had a few tracks they handed to me early on. We started on We The Generation and tried to really go for it, and nail down the sound of the record.

cause of the way they work, it’s not often they need much help there.”

When it comes to mixing, Spike describes his setup as a hybrid of computer software, outboard kit, and a console.

“It depends on song to song, the genre of music, or actually what kind of mood I’m in,” Spike admits, with a chuckle. “Using Waves plugins is absolutely standard for me. I use the Waves SSL EQs, the channel strips, and that brilliant new H Reverb, which I use a lot, as I do the Waves H Delay, which is also superb.

These are things I use literally every day, as an integral part of my vocal chain; it’s always going to be a mix of classic analogue and Waves plugins.”

In terms of monitoring, Spike has a plethora of options: Yamaha NS10s, KRKs, PMCs – and a great big set of Genelecs that he used to use at Olympic Studios back in the day, which were very popular with the Rudimental boys, he explains: “I’ve got these huge Genelec 1038Bs in my Salisbury studio. They were stuck in a storage container, and by the time we got them set up, they were sounding amazing. Rudimental absolutely love those speakers, especially for their fat, punchy bottom end! Then, in addition to all my other monitors, I have lots of hi-fi speakers and headphones for reference, and then I used to use my Audi car in England – that was always a good test.”

Before I leave Spike, our conversation turns to the Music Producers Guild, and the 2016 MPG Awards, which Headliner is delighted to be involved in as media partner. I ask Spike just how important a job he feels they’re doing.

“They do a fantastic thing. They support young engineers, struggling musicians and producers, and do a lot for these people,” he states. “They encourage, nurture, and fight for their rights. It’s alright for someone like me, because if someone doesn’t credit you quite correctly, you can handle it, but when you’ve just started out, and spent all your time on a mix or production, that is everything to you.

How will people discover who did this work without them getting you the recognition, you know? So they’re very important, and should be applauded. There is a massive wealth of knowledge there that we can all tap into, and anything I can do for them, I will do.”

“WE THE GENERATION IS A PROPER ALBUM, A REAL PIECE OF WORK.” As soon as Ed and Ben from Atlantic Records showed me the track, I was like, ‘this is fantastic’. That record took me back to my youth which was quite interesting, with the feel and the programming. I can tell you, We The Generation is a proper album, a real piece of work, and they should be proud of it.”

Spike always likes to approach a mix fresh: “it’s all about the song,” he says: “I’ll speak to the A&R, the producer, the artist, ask for a demo and one other important version, and somewhere in there I will hear if there is a feel or a spark. Sometimes you can dilute the vibe in production. I then see where it is up to. Some sections are often better than others, and so on; and then I just get it rocking.

I am feel-based; people talk about digits and my eyes gloss over a little bit!”

Another thing Spike cites as ‘fantastic’ about Rudimental is that they flip between songs and projects: “This is the great thing about them: they bounce the sessions between each other the whole time, and then it’s all filtered back to me, which is brilliant. If one of them is stuck, the other picks it up – then Ed and Ben will give their opinion. The band are focused, and are strong and clear in their opinions; and be45 HEADLINER

www.genelec.com www.waves.com

// AWARDS SEASON //

THE EMMYS

A

s a stream of international music, TV, and film stars descended on LA’s Microsoft Theatre for the 67th Annual Emmys on September 20, Game of Thrones set records, while Lady Gaga turned heads on the catwalk, opting for classic black for the awards, then donning a striking white gown with sleeves the size of small countries for the after party. We take a look at the big winners, the awkward moments, and chat to the guys that made it all happen behind the scenes.

The Emmys is right up there with The Oscars and The Grammys, one of

D e re k Ho u gh wi n s t h e award fo r O u tstan di n g Ch o re o graphy at t h e 20 1 5 Creat i ve A r ts Emmys

ATK’s Kirk Powell has been with the firm 16 years. Adept at setting up all things tech-driven, this year, Powell was hands-on as system tech for the show.

“We loaded in the PA system, and then went into the Creative Arts Emmys for a week – that’s a scaled-down version of the big show – then we went into full rehearsals for the main show, and then we did the live show,” Powell explains. Sounds a lot of work.

“It is,” Powell admits. Stressful? “Actually no, this show was very relaxed across all groups of people: us, the lighting guys, the video guys. No-one got wound up, and there were no proverbial guns to heads, as everyone was getting things done. I really enjoyed being

per rack).

“We rebranded our amps to be universal, and that’s great for configuration, as we can now do two channels of three-way, three channels of two-way, or six channels passive,” Powell enthuses. “All those

“JIMMY KIMMEL’S DECISION TO CUT OUT THE WINNER’S NAME AND PROCEED TO EAT IT WILL CONTINUE TO BAFFLE US FOR SOME TIME.” America’s most recognised award shows, always attended by the big guns in the world of entertainment. It was a very big night for HBO in Los Angeles this year. The leading network accumulated a staggering 43 Emmys in total, with the magnificent Game of Thrones taking 12 from its 24 nominations, including the esteemed best drama series, as well as best directing and best writing.

It was also another big night for ATK Audiotek, the provider of all things audio for The Emmys for several decades. When Headliner went backstage at The Grammys last year, we realised what a tight ship that operation had to be to run smoothly: stop, start, stop, start, and so on. And The Emmys is no different. Behind the scenes, away from the glitz and glamour, the buzz words are less shiny, but equally important: infrastructure, efficiency, and workflow!

And with two weeks solid audio prep - preproduction, rehearsals, and the live show itself – it’s no mean feat putting a show of this magnitude on without a hitch. Okay, there’s always a hitch, but we’re talking audio hitch. We’ll get to Jimmy Kimmel later.

47 HEADLINER

hands-on this year, actually, which I don’t necessarily say about every show! It was very well oiled.”

ATK does everything audio with the exception of the broadcast mix (they give the broadcast guys their splits, and let them do their own mix). ATK cover monitors, the house PA system, delays, sidefills, and provide all the kit, which includes DiGiCo mixing consoles and Powersoft amplifiers.

“Audio at The Emmys needs to be powerful, efficient, and reliable, and that’s why we use Powersoft K10s; the company has done such a wonderful job at developing a really great amp in a very small package,” Powell continues, explaining that the K10 takes up just 1U of rack space. “It’s lightweight, and you get a ton of power, so it ticks boxes from lots of points of view: our footprint is so much smaller, which means it’s easier to load the trucks, and lighter to carry, which means it’s also easier on fuel.”

Due to the size of the event and the JBL VerTec PA system, a monumental 116 Powersoft K10 amps were deployed for The Emmys, housed in ATK racks (three K10s

connections are on a flat panel on site, so it’s very easy to select the connector you want, recall a preset on it, and off you go.

There are many stop-starts, and you need something versatile, with the flexibility and the performance, so K10 is a no brainer for us, really.”

The 67th Emmys will be remembered for many things. Viola Davis made history, becoming the first African American woman to scoop best actress in a drama; and our own award for most cringeworthy moment must go to Jimmy Kimmel, whose decision when presenting the award for best lead actor in a comedy to pull out scissors, cut out the winner’s name, and proceed to eat it, will continue to baffle us for some time.

Other shows worth a mention included Veep, which picked up several awards including best comedy, and Mad Men, which John Hamm deservedly picked up best lead actor for. www.emmys.com www.powersoft-audio.com www.atkaudiotek.com

L A DY A N T E B E L LU M

NASHVILLE’S FIRST LADY

48 HEADLINER

t’s staggering to think Hillary Scott was rejected in the first round by American Idol... twice!

Undeterred, however, she soon got together with Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood, sang a few tunes around a piano, and formed what would become Lady Antebellum.

Okay, that’s the somewhat scaled down version, but it’s close enough.

The trio began playing clubs in Nashville in 2006, and found themselves signed to Capitol the following year. Five albums later, their rootsy, forward-thinking country music is wowing audiences across North America and even across the pond in the UK and Europe - territories that are slowly warming to that Nashville sound.

Currently, they’re in the midst of their Wheels Up tour.

Since January 2012, Lady Antebellum has partnered with the charity myLIFEspeaks, to raise awareness of and provide facilities for disabled orphans in Haiti.

Driven by the need to continually evolve, the country trio always seems to be in transit, pushing

I

toward a newer, bolder sound one minute, and hitting the road for a worldwide tour the next.

Last year’s 747 album, the band’s fifth, certainly captured the speed and spirit of their criticallyacclaimed live show. The record was written during the 2014 Take Me Downtown tour, and now the band is ready to pull up the wheels and climb even higher.

According to Charles Kelley, Lady Antebellum had started discovering more of an ‘in your face’ sound which they’d never explored before, so “began writing towards that mentality”. He remembers walking into a dance bar after a show and feeling the need to compose faster, fiercer songs that could live in that environment.

The first step towards making that transformation was relying less on the band’s history with mid-tempo ballads, and focusing on more explosive material. Kelley, Scott, and Haywood invited some of their favourite songwriters to join them on the road, resulting in a series of late-night writing sessions on the band’s tour bus, with everyone travelling together from one

// LADY ANTEBELLUM //

sold-out show to the next.

Today, Lady Antebellum are comfortably filling 20,000-seat amphitheatres, and are one of the great country music crossover acts. The Wheels Up tour has seen experienced lighting designer, Paul ‘Arlo’ Guthrie (of Minneapolisbased Toss Film & Design) provide an inspired and sensitive concept. In doing so, he became the first lighting designer to take out GLP’s new impression X4 Bar 20 high performance battens, the latest addition to the X4 family. uthrie has been in high demand recently, working on Fleetwood Mac tours, and a major Red Bull event in North America, and now he is back with Lady Antebellum, after successfully designing the lighting for last year’s Take Me Downtown tour.

Flattered to even be considered by the band’s management, Guthrie loved their energy and work ethic from the very first meeting: “We both have a style that is influenced by a lot of diverse sources, so I just brought what I do to what they do,” he explains, very matter of fact. “I don’t really pay attention to any genres; I just make sure you can see them really well, and that the show has an arc and a flow. They are so much fun to collaborate with in that way.”

Production designer, Bruce Rodgers, put together a great set for this tour, Guthrie explains, with some elements that gave him instant inspiration for where to put lights, and how to use them.

“It looks equally well scaled in an arena or amphitheatre, and sits nicely with how the band uses the stage and works the crowd,” he reveals. “Bruce had some lighting positions and ideas in place with his pitch to the band, so I had a springboard to start with, and then the rest was up to me.

Lighting director and programmer, Tony Caporale, had used the tailend of the last tour to research some different products for this tour, and I wanted to include GLP’s new impression X4 Bar 20 battens.”

Guthrie had tried out some demo units on a club show and a TV

G

49 HEADLINER

“IT LOOKS EQUALLY WELL SCALED IN AN ARENA OR AMPHITHEATRE, AND SITS NICELY WITH HOW THE BAND USES THE STAGE.” shoot in Minneapolis, “and was instantly sold.” Fourteen X4 Bar 20s were deployed in total, lining the thrust stage as foot lights, which in turn double as beam and aerial effects lights. These 40-inch long bars use 20 high output RGBW LEDs that are packed tightly to give a full batten of light.

“I would have used more, had the budgets allowed,” Guthrie smiles. “I love the colours, the beam, and the movement. Also, the way the lenses fill the whole bar, and the way they butt up to each other for a long string of continuous light. The beam diversity is great, too — from the pin beams to the full flood.”

Taking the decision to debut any new fixtures on such a high profile tour requires reassurance that they will be supported. Fortunately, Upstaging were again the vendors (this is the third time they have

supplied Lady Antebellum), and GLP always goes the extra mile for its customers, Guthrie insists: “Upstaging manage to spoil us and outdo themselves every time.

The band and myself get incredible service from them, and enjoy the many obvious and hidden perks that [company director] John Huddleston and the entire gang give us. GLP also exceeded what I would normally expect, and deserve, in terms of service.

“Lady Antebellum are a dream to work with; you cannot say enough about how courteous and respectful they are. It’s a very fun, artistically satisfying experience. They have such a great energy, and always make a fantastic connection with their audience.” www.ladyantebellum.com www.glp.de

The NEW M-Series Advanced MADI switches with bridging and routing options

• Single channel and stream routing • Standalone or network performance • Built-in LAN switch and RS485 router • Dual PSU, no fan • The most cost-efficient and powerful audio switches on the market

M8

4 BNC or fiber MADI ports 2 SANE ports (MADI over Cat5) 2 Optocore hi-speed fiber uplinks

M12

8 BNC or fiber MADI ports 2 SANE ports (MADI over Cat5) 2 Optocore hi-speed fiber uplinks

.com inquiry@optocore.com

TH E AT R E

THAT’LL BE THE DAY HEADLINER GOES ON THE ROAD WITH BRITAIN’S LONGEST-RUNNING TOURING PRODUCTION, THAT’LL BE THE DAY, WHICH CELEBRATES ITS 30TH ANNIVERSARY THIS YEAR. A STAGGERING 6,000 SHOWS, ENOUGH FUEL USED TO GET TO THE MOON AND BACK TWICE (IF THERE WAS A STRAIGHT ROAD, AND NO GRAVITY ISSUES), AND A DEDICATED FANBASE THAT SELLS OUT THEATRES ACROSS THE UK SOLELY BY WORD OF MOUTH. SO HOW DO THEY DO IT? PHOTOS: PEMBROKESHIRE PHOTOGRAPHY

T

hat’ll Be The Day is a show like no other. The brainchild of Trevor Payne, it started out as a modest club show, and thanks to a bunch of talented, dedicated musicians and, frankly, Payne sticking his neck massively on the line, it’s grown into something quite extraordinary.

“It was a hell of a gamble, moving the show into the world of theatre, but it was the only way to go, and luckily all the guys came with me,” smiles Payne, who started this whole thing up in 1985, and still sings in the show every night (very well, too).

“I can’t think of another show that’s been built purely on word of mouth: no TV or radio, and it’s just grown and grown, and it continues to grow. We’ll do well over 200 shows this year, which is pretty insane, really. And we only play venues where we know it makes sense – we’re not into playing to empty seats, all ours are filled!”

He’s not exaggerating.

There is next to no promotion

51 HEADLINER

surrounding this show, yet a huge core following continues to fill every seat in every theatre, night after night, some of which are 2,000-capacity rooms. Can you do our PR, Trevor? “[smiles] I’m the only one left from the original lineup, followed closely by Gary Anderson, my partner in comedy crime! Mark, the drummer, and Phil, who’s on keys, have been with me 25 years, and Clive’s been on sax for about 16 years,” he explains. I’m staggered. How does he maintain such loyalty?

“Well, it’s a bit of a family affair, I suppose. Olly down there [points to a guy playing guitar on stage], his mum was in the show back in the day. He was born the year the show started, learned drums,

“WE’RE NOT INTO PLAYING TO EMPTY SEATS, ALL OURS ARE FILLED!”

went to drum university, got a degree in drumming, came back here, and went on the guitar! [scratches head and laughs] Our two girls, Jodie and Nikki, have also been here eight years. We don’t change that much, really.”

Evidently so. There’s certainly a family feel on this tour, and

their musical repertoire is vast.

As the name suggests, the songs span from the 50s through the decades, and the band are right on the money, probably because most of them are phenomenally good musicians.

“We push everyone to do the best they can. Pete Jackson (from the West End’s Let It Be) has just joined, and he’s going to be a great asset. With Pete, that makes five multi-instrumentalists, which is unbelievable,” Payne says, enthusiastically. I ask him what it is that’s kept him going all this time. It also dawns on me what a wonderful radio presenter he’d make with that baritone-esque friendly voice. So, moving on.

“I just love doing what I’m doing; it’s taken a long time to

get to this position, but now, unless we seriously mess it up ourselves, we can keep going until we drop. We sold the London Palladium out three times, purely on word of mouth.

That’s not bad, is it?”

IN THE MIX For front of house engineer, Rick Dickerson, this show is also a 24-7 job. Up early, off to a venue, load-in at noon, out at midnight. That’s a hell of an ask, isn’t it?

“Well, of the 6,000 shows, I feel like I’ve done all of them,” Dickerson laughs, with a shake of the head, then buries his head in a giant coffee mug. He clearly needs it! “It’s the same with all the cast as well. They put 200% in, and they’re all brilliant.”

Dickerson is also responsible for keeping all the show’s equipment right up to date.

200 shows a year is quite a responsibility, after all.

“222, actually,” smiles Dickerson, apologising for being facetious. I let him off, and order more coffee. “The kit we rely on is all very high end. For example, I recently turned to Lectrosonics for a breakout box, which we now use on our stage sidefills.

I’ll be getting another of these for the main PA system, I can assure you, as it’s phenomenal.

We run Dante as our audio backbone, and because our PA system still runs in analogue, I wanted to transmit the audio over the network without using

52 HEADLINER

multicore for my crossover breakout, so I could retain the crossover at the mix position, and tweak settings depending on each room’s acoustics. That’s why I use the [Lectrosonics] BOB 88. The quality is just superb; it really is an excellent little box, and I’m so impressed with Dante anyway, having something that faithfully reproduces the audio so incredibly accurately is just a no-brainer.”

Dickerson also has a few Lectrosonics Venue receivers on trial, and has been equally blown away by them.

“I talked to some of my American friends, and they highly recommended the Venue, so I thought I would give them a try, too, and I have to say, the wireless is rock solid. It also sounds just like a wired system, which in wireless world, isn’t necessarily the case, I can assure you!”

We move onto the microphones, and Dickerson shows me his go-tos: a DPA d:facto II vocal mic, his first choice for any lead vocal; a couple of DPA d:votes; and a trio of Audio-Technica 5400s.

“I love DPA products, and I have a long history with them; they’ve always been my go-to mic when it comes to acoustic instruments, and orchestration,” he explains. “We have the d:votes on the saxophones, and they also sound great on the double bass and the clarinet. As a player of this kind of instrument, your perception of sound changes when your cheeks puff out, so it’s imperative that as much

accurate detail gets to your ears as possible, and the DPAs seem to capture all the nuances, the movements of the fingers on the valves, everything. They’re so accurate, and sound tremendous through the PA. Clive, who plays sax, was very dubious when we first discussed it, but once he tried one, he said it was the best he’d ever heard his sax sound in the wedges. He now wears in-ears, and his argument before for not using in-ears was that acoustic instruments don’t sound good miked up. But I proved him wrong with d:vote!

“For me, the d:facto II is better than the Neumann KMS 105 – and bear in mind I love that Neumann. d:facto II works well with brilliant singers, of course, but it’s also beneficial to those singers who don’t have brilliant mic technique, just a good voice.

With other mics, the EQ changes a lot when you move in and out, while the DPA is accurate within its pattern, and always maintains depth in the vocal.”

Dickerson moves on to the Audio-Technica 5400, which he uses for the three backing vocalists in the show.

“The A-T 5400 is great – like d:facto, it’s a mic with a bit of leeway,” he explains. “If you’re picking up a lead line and a backing vocal, the singers can do it themselves by altering how far away they are from the mic, and because everyone is on in-ears, when the 5400 picks things up from a distance, it is also accurate; what I’m trying to say is, any bleed you do get is not unpleasant, which is always

a great thing in a microphone when you have so many people on stage.”

We move onto the in-ears, and Dickerson unveils a plethora of JH Audio products. He uses a set of JH16s, as do the entire crew; and five of the band are on a mix of JH9s, 11s, and 16s.

“Even the lampy has a set, and the monitor engineer is also on JH16s, and he plays drums in the show, too, bizarrely enough,” Dickerson says, roaring with laughter, and suddenly with a skip in his step. Too much caffeine? “I use my JH16s for so many things: when PFLing, I just love the depth of them.

If you want to walk around the room, and you’ve got dead spots, and you’re not really sure what’s happening in the mix, they’re perfect for reference; and if on those one or two rare occasions in a venue when they’ve accidentally sold too many seats, it’s easy enough for me to set up my mixing desk at the side of the stage and mix the entire show on my JH16s. I’m not kidding, they are that good. If you want depth and quality of sound, the whole nine yards, the JH16s are a must; and from a musician’s perspective, if you’re using in-ears and you’re a keyboard player, a bassist, or a drummer, I couldn’t understand how you could live with anything less.” www.thatllbetheday.com www.lectrosonics.com www.jhaudio.com www.dpamicrophones.com www.audio-technica.com

THE FAMILY GER

JUST GOT BIG

NEW

    

4 XL

impression X

NEW

10 OR 20 HIGH POWER RGBW LEDs NEW ULTRA FAST ZOOM 210° TILT MOVEMENT INDIVIDUAL PIXEL CONTROL INTERNAL MACRO EFFECTS

4

impression X

37 HIGH POWER RGBW LEDs NEW ULTRA FAST ZOOM INTERNAL MACRO EFFECTS INDIVIDUAL PIXEL CONTROL BEAM-SHAPE

    

4S

impression X

GRUMPY OLD ROADIE

“I’VE ALWAYS LOVED GOING TO AMERICA. EVERYTHING ABOUT IT IS SUPERSIZED: THE COUNTRY, THE FOOD, THE HOUSES, THE PEOPLE (SORRY), THE CARS.” I'VE DECIDED TO WRITE THIS

month's column as if my mother was proof reading (which of course would be a miracle as she's been dead for nine years).

I still miss her though, but that's about as deep into my personal feelings as I'm prepared to go.

For those of you who haven't a clue what I'm banging on (talking) about, Headliner has finally tapped into America.

You'll find the mag on the shelf above 'Guns for Beginners', and 'How to Shoot Innocent Animals', and below the porn shelf. America used to shy away from decent porn, but ever since Linda Lovelace's escapades in Deep Throat, the USA has undoubtedly been at the forefront.

I've always loved going to America. Everything about it is supersized: the country, the food, the houses, the people 54 HEADLINER

(sorry), the cars. I first went in the mid-'70s, and while it was near impossible to find a decent curry, driving on the motorways (freeways) between cities in search of a biryani was so cheap, it mattered little. Now, of course, you'll find a good curry house on every street corner (sorry, block) which of course negates the need for using petrol (gas) as it's almost as expensive as what I currently pay in Bethnal Green (shithole).

So has this cultural and financial change occurred purely by stealth over a number of years? When I first ventured across the Atlantic (pond), any mention of the 'F' word was scorned on. If you dropped the C bomb, people would walk out in disgust! Now, they 'F and blind' on kids' TV, and the 'C' word hardly raises an eyebrow.

Even the fragrant Kristen Wiig

in the film Bridesmaids drops the C bomb! Shocking!

We're already united by speaking the same language.

This is a very useful starting point. Actually, we speak English and Americans speak English, too - not American, despite all that tea-dumping fuss in Boston harbour 250 years ago. But what Americans can't get their heads around is irony. This, of course, is not too big a deal for me. As the writer of this column I've always considered my readers to be bright, worldly-wise entrepreneurial-spirited intellects of independent means (see what I did there?).

Over here in Europe, we're jealous of the USA touring market. Our tours can be anything from a week to maybe four weeks, while over in the States, the tours can run for a year. You'll see a lot of American artists touring our market with American crew. It's much easier to work in this country if you're American than vice-versa. I recall reading an article by Bill Bryson, ironically (n/a) an American, living here in the UK

now with his English family. He recalled a story of how he was trying to take his family back to the USA for a holiday. Despite dual-nationality, there was some issue with paperwork, and he nearly invoked the fifth amendment from the armed immigration officer trying to get through USA immigration.

They almost had to catch the next plane back. Coming back home again, they got pulled up by a cheerful Heathrow immigration officer who, after having a friendly chat with them for a few minutes, concluded that their story seemed reasonable and why on Earth would they lie, anyway? He let them in and gave the kids biscuits (cookies).

So you have to ask yourself this question: is America ready for Headliner? Fuck, yes. But is Great Britain ready for Jeremy Corbyn? You new American readers are going to have to read up on World news to keep up with me. And you don't need to go on diets (n/a).

Robert the Roadie

GET CLOSER TO YOUR TRUE VOICE d:facto™ Vocal Micophones capture the entire dynamic range of your voice while effortlessly rejecting ambient stage noise. And our ingenious adapter system protects your investment in fantastic sound for years to come.

• Perfectly linear off-axis response

Wired. Wireless. Wherever.

• Best-in-class noise rejection

dpamicrophones.com

• Adapters for all major wireless systems

• 160 db SPL threshold

Open & Closed

The new flagship studio headphones

ATH-R70x PROFESSIONAL OPEN-BACK REFERENCE HEADPHONES ATH-M70x PROFESSIONAL MONITOR HEADPHONES Audio-Technica introduces the new leaders in studio headphones: ATH-M70x and ATH-R70x.

Both models offer extremely accurate audio reproduction along with the comfort, durability and convenient features that are bound to make them studio mainstays. So whether you prefer the sound isolation of the M70x or the spacious sound of the R70x, deciding on your next pair of studio headphones is an open and closed case.

www.audio-technica.com