PRODUCER PROFILE
What equipment did you have in the studio to start off with? We had a 16-track half-inch reel-to-reel and we had a Soundcraft board. We also had a few SM57s and 58s. We had a Yamaha SPX 90 (reverb effects processor) and Yamaha NS10 speakers. We were approached by Daniel Lanois to record some stuff here and he brought in his Neve console and Studer tape decks and a lot of his gear. He had phenomenal microphones and outboard gear and his thing was that he wouldn’t pay us to record here, but he would leave his gear here for roughly a year and probably be in for a total of maybe two weeks in a year and we could use his gear. So we actually started doing a lot of cool albums with that gear which helped us buy more gear as we went along. What were some of the first paid-for sessions? We did a Victoria Williams album called Musings Of A Creek Dipper, which is a great album. Trina Shoemaker produced and engineered it and she ended up doing Rated-R, the Queens of the Stone Age record with me. Daniels Lanois recording here definitely put us on the map with people wanting to come and see where it is. The studio has a sort of mythical, or legendary status in the rock world. Would you agree with that? I honestly agree with that and, not to sound like that like a braggart or anything, but there is something very special about the house, which is what drew Fred here
in the first place. And then, when we became partners in the studio, that’s what made me commit my life to doing it. 99.9% of the sessions have been so easy and fun and things work really easily here. It’s not the studio to work for four days on a snare sound. This is this is more of, you put a mic in front of a good amp with a good guitar and it sounds great and you just go with it. So a lot of people have been inspired daily working here and things work very easy, and that’s why people like Arctic Monkeys come out here and have written a couple of their most successful records here. Same with Queens of the Stone Age and you know, that’s why the Foo Fighters came out here. To try to tap into that. So I really do think there is magic in the area, but especially in this house. It’s very small, but it’s very forgiving to the people working here. How much has the studio changed over the last few years in terms of the layout and equipment that you’re using? The layout hasn’t changed at all. We kind of got it down to what works best, you know? I mean, it does change where we are able to move things around and people can try different things, but for the most part we found what really works in which rooms. We have the drums miked up to what we feel is the best place for them, but you’re welcome to move them anywhere in the house. As far as gear goes it’s really cool because I’ve been
very fortunate that a lot of great gear makers are into a lot of the bands that have played here and they’ve donated tons of gear to make this place better. So I really can’t thank them enough. What console do you have? A Neotek Elan and I’ve had that for about 10 years. Where did you get it from and why did you choose it? Someone gave it to me, which is very strange and it turned into a bit of a strange thing. I won’t get into it, but eventually we did restore it and I love it. We’ve been recording a lot of stuff without anything, just drums directly into the Neotek and they sound phenomenal, really cool. Do any of the bands take their own gear there or will they usually just use everything that’s in there? Well, I’ve had some bands bring stuff in that they definitely did not need to bring and then other people will look at the gear list and go like, Yeah, I don’t really need it. When Arctic Monkeys recorded here once, they brought their own acrylic drums. I have two kits here. Both are amazing. One is an early 70s Gretsch kit and one is a newer Sonor kit and they both sound fantastic. I think some people, you know, they haven’t had a lot of experience in studios, so they think they have to bring their own stuff and then they get here and see that there are so many cool vintage guitars and some people are very excited about it, but some just stick to what they have. October 2018
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