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JANUARY 2016, ISSUE 17
Meet Bruce Rintoul, the man at the mixing desk of Glasgow’s rock revival Undoubtedly, Glasgow has gone through something of a rock music revival in recent years. With bands like Twin Atlantic, Fatherson and Biffy Clyro finding international success and smaller bands such as DIVIDES, Holy Pistol Club and Vukovi all leading the pack of new up-and-coming acts bursting out of the city’s thriving music scene, you could be forgiven for missing the one other link all of these bands share – Bruce Rintoul. The enigmatic music producer has created a name for himself by producing for some of Scotland’s premier music acts and helping them to hit the right notes from their earliest EPs to their mega-hit albums. Although now Rintoul may boast a resume featuring some Scottish music’s
biggest headliners, his own musical beginnings were somewhat more inauspicious – even if they did feature some rather familiar names. “I’ve always been heavily involved with music, even from school with playing the drums and playing the guitar,” he said. “But really, my start in producing came about when I borrowed my mum’s laptop and bought a tiny wee mixing desk and just started recording stuff myself. It all kind of started from there really. “Eventually I got myself a slightly better set-up and started recording bands. Around that time, I started travelling to Glasgow more to see live gigs and ended up meeting Sam McTrusty from Twin Atlantic and I did some recording for them in my mum’s garage. We still talk about
it now and it’s quite funny the transition from then to today.” With a unique perspective to offer on Glasgow’s music scene, Rintoul believes the city is tapping into a thirst for new, guitar-based rock and bands have been able to capitalise by offering their own unique Scottish brand to export out around the rock community. “What Glasgow’s got to offer the music scene just now is incredible,” he says. “A lot of bands are really doing something right now and I think guitar music is really coming back in here. It’s a very pure form of music and I think the more electronic pop music feels more contrived than the stuff we’re doing here. “Don’t get me wrong, I love a good pop song but I think people are just being
drawn more to that rock sound right now and there’s so much going here for that.” Throughout our ‘TSA Pick of the Month’ features, a number of the bands we’ve covered have mentioned Rintoul’s producing style and how it’s helped them to add a new element to their existing tracks. From tinkering with guitar licks to synths, Rintoul has helped bands develop amateur-sounding demo tracks into thumping album anthems by helping artists come out of their shell and fine tune their sound. Although he’s keen not to interfere too much with the band’s own natural direction and is adamant that each album he produces should have its own unique voice, Bruce admits that he does have his own methods to help bring out the signature energetic style displayed across his back-catalogue of work. “My approach changes a lot depending on who I’m working with,” he says. “Right now I’m spending a lot of time focusing on taking the energy and the passion that comes from the band and trying to make that come across on the recording. “It’s amazing how much a track can change by just trying to have the artist relax and play naturally. I try and get people to open up as much as I can and try not to overthink it. It’s not always about getting the perfect take. Fortunately, I think that a lot of the bands who reach out to work with me are fans of people I’ve worked with in the past so that connection is already there when they come in. “I like to be pretty hands on. Where we can, we’ll spend a couple of hours in a rehearsal studio beforehand and I like to go over parts and put in my own thoughts on it. I try to stay away from feeding or protecting someone’s ego. For example, a guitarist keeping a part in because that’s just what he’s always played and it’s quite an impressive piece. If it’s not needed in the song then I’ll try to get rid of that and go for something more appropriate. That’s what I try to do the most, just be honest and that honesty will come by Derek Healey across on @Healey26 the track.” d.healey@tsaglasgow.com