My
Favorites : Lists
My
f avorite albums I've worked on, favorite
albums to listen to,
great songs on albums I don't love and favorite
movies
Favorite
Albums I've worked on:
*
Led Zeppelin, for sure. Mixing that
stuff for the DVD and CD sets was the high point for me, and the
one I enjoyed the most! Sitting with Jimmy Page every day was
nerve-wracking as he is a very intense person, but he loved what
I do, and just enjoyed it. He said he'd never made a record before
being as hands-off as he was with these ones, by he was very trusting
and enjoyed it all, and I love the music! The stuff dreams are
made of!
KS and Jimmy Page
*
Aerosmith - Nine Lives. Definitely the most stressful album
I've made, and would not do it again for anything. The story has
long been documented, but Steven is a most complex character,
possibly the most talented I've worked with, and definitely the
most pleasant but also the most unpleasant person - and all on
the same day! On the first day of pre-production at Joey's house
in Boston, they were so rusty, I thought they sounded worse than
a high school band, but to watch them in full flight in the studio
in New York was pure magic! I think the mix is perhaps 60% there,
at best - they took about five hours to mix, and a further four
days of input compromised them, in my opinion. The Farm is great,
but I hate the Wizard of Oz sample shit - the song is much cooler
without them (as it was cut).
David Campbell scoring strings,
Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and KS
*
The Black Crowes - By Your Side.
I absolutely enjoyed making this record, and still really like
it. I do think Sony screwed it up marketing-wise, and all the
bullshit the Robinson brothers say about being made to cowtow
to label and producers is just that! Actually, John Kalodner had
Chris rewrite the lyrics to "If It Ever Stops Raining"
and it became "By Your Side", and I wasn't sure about
the rewrite, but Chris said it had made it a better song for him,
and that's the extent of label interference. Oh, they did recut
"Only A Fool" with someone in L.A., and Sony gave it
to Nile Rogers as well, but nothing ever made the album. As Crowes
drummer, Steve Gorman says when Chris rants, "perhaps he
forgets about dancing around and playing it 100 times over and
over, saying, "this is the shit - we're gonna sell some serious
records!". Pre-production in Atlanta saw us whooping it up
at Cheetah's, a gentleman's establishment from which I've never
recovered my expensive wrist-watch!
*
The Divinyls -I'm Jealous. Hoo boy,
this was a song we cut for a Melrose Place compilation/soundtrack
thingy in Nashvile. I had a dodgy history with their management,
and Peter Collins was producing and hired me, which wouldn't have
happened otherwise (long story). I was a fan, especially of their
Temperamental album, and this was the first song Chrissie and
Mark recorded since they'd split romantically. Chrissie was seeing
Charlie Drayton, who was playing drums in the band, and Mark had
his new girlfriend along, and the atmosphere was so thick you
could cut it with a knife. The lyrics reflect the break-up. "What's
she got that I don't, what she do that I don't ..... I might kick
her face in!". I mixed the song in about an hour and then
headed for the airport, stopping just long enough in the lounge
to tell them the mix was done. They just looked at me, and didn't
say a word, so I split! And I love that mix!
*
Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence:
Well producing them was fun, trying to strip
things bare and get them to focus on hooks was exciting, but at
the end of the day I think their hard-core fans like all that
random, complex stuff. I thought we should try and widen their
appeal, and even had them write with Desmond Child to try and
get a single out of them, which didn't really work. But I love
mixing them and the records they produce themselves - it's the
bomb, because it's so difficult and complex, and there is never
enough time or money, so I concentrate non-stop for about ten
days straight! I have to do quite a bit of production in the mix,
because they record everyone playing everything all the time,
and all at the same time, and it's a beautiful mess that just
can't ever work. So, I make it work. And it makes me feel alive!
Love it!
*
Healing Sixes - Enormosound: This
is music I like, produced how I wanted to and I didn't care about
label input. Great musicians, I hoped this would be a first album
of a career, but we'll just have to wait and see. Jason Bonham
floored me when he kicked the bass drum for the first time, because
it was the most like Bonzo I've heard without me trying to achieve
that sound! Check out Wild Horses on the album.
Jason, Doug and Chaz
*
Iron Maiden - Rock In Rio: By the
time we got to record this gig in Brazil, we'd already done Brave
New World and I had gotten to know the band a little more, so
a trust was forming. Each band has their idiosyncracies, but Steve
is the captain of this one and is very guarded and protective
of the band; he doesn't care what label, fans or critics feel
about anything, and is totally commited to the integrity of their
music remaining intact, and the fans show it by knowing every
last nuance of every song, as is captured on this DVD/CD set.
And once you join the Maiden inner circle, it's loads of fun,
if a little Spinal Tap at times because of their distinctly differing
personalities! A band close to my heart.
*
Jimmy Page and The Black Crowes - Live At
the Greek: I had forced the issue about recording these
gigs in Los Angeles along with Crowes manager Pete Angelus, and
we had no expectations for them. I was, first and foremost, a
fan. But I recorded the shows, and burned CD's live in the truck
and gave them to the guys after the gig. They were reasonable
performances and mixes, and they bought the tapes in order to
sell them exclusively to an internet music site, musicmaker.com
since defunct. Well I took the tapes to Paris, and set about "assisiting
and producing" some of the performances, mixed them properly
and sent 22 final mixes back to them, and everyone seemed to be
floored by them! Jimmy had one comment, "do you have a mix
with guitars up in Celebration Day a bit?". I did - a 1db
up option which I let him have, and he was happy. Not another
comment - and I think it came out great! And everyone made a ton
of cash out of them, but I was left with a slightly bitter taste
in my mouth in that regard. Had I any idea it would lead to working
on Led Zeppelin material, I would have paid to do it!
Jimmy Page, Kevin Shirley
and Chris Robinson at the Greek Theatre - Oct 19, 1999
*Journey
- Trail By Fire: Ah, what a voice - what a band! This is
a long story, but I had NEVER heard Journey, other than "Wheel
In The Sky" before working with them. John Kalodner called
me in to his office in L.A. one day and played me "Seperate
Ways", and very loud for him too! He asked me what I thought,
and I said "lots of reverb!". I had no idea what to
say. He said they were having trouble finding a producer - they
didn't like Bruce Fairbairn's (then) recent work, Glenn Ballard
had been in the running but had bailed to do Aerosmith (which
I ended up redoing), Ritchie Zeto, Mike Stone, etc., all failed
to excite them - and would I meet the band. So off to San Francisco
I went, and I think Steve Perry was attracted by my no-nonsense
attitude to them. I couldn't have been star-struck, because I
didn't know them at all! Pre-production was great, I made them
play the whole album live before we started recording, and by
the time we got into the studio Steve and Neal had had enough
of the "rehearsing" but the sessions at The Site studio
in Marin County were magic. I had been warned that Perry could
be difficult to work with, but he is a superstar, and what a set
of pipes. I love that man! And all of them, to be honest - Jon
Cain I love, and I was the most nervous about producing him, because
he'd produced a Jimmy Barnes album I loved! Neal is my brother-man,
Ross is a sweetheart, Smitty and the new guys Dean and Augeri
are fantastic - but that original band is the deal!! I was nervous
to mix the band, and so employed George Massenberg, one of my
all-time favorite mixers, but the band preferred my mixes, and
in one of the highest compliments paid me ever, Massenberg told
me he'd learned more from me than from anyone else! From him,
high praise indeed, and one of those moments when you think maybe
this job WILL work out!
Neal Schon, Jon Cain, Kevin Shirley.
4/11/2000
*
Rocket From The Crypt - RFTC: Love
this record! Speedo and the crew! They loved "Falling In
Love..." off Aerosmith's Nine Lives record, and called me
about producing them! And I was drawn in from the beginning, and
love this still. We did pre-production in a corrugated iron storage
facility in San Diego in the middle of summer, and recorded in
New York going into the winter, and the extremes were tough for
me there, and the Californians in NYC. The punk fans thought it
a bit clean and commercial, and Interscope thought exactly the
opposite. I thought it's what the band sounded like, and just
tried to capture that magnificent rough-diamond, fuck-you attitude!
One of my faves!
*
Silverchair - Frogstomp: I first heard their demo as The
Innocent Criminals on Triple J in Australia, and called everyone
about them, publishers, labels, etc. Then they recorded a single
which exploded in Australia, and the label called me about producing
the follow up single. I knew they'd enjoyed working with the engineer
who'd recorded the first song, and am always loathe to step into
a situation where the band don't want you there, but at the insistence
of Gary Rabin, my manager at the time, I said I'd spend a weekend
with them. Well we had a great weekend, cutting and completing
"Pure Massacre" and "Leave Me Out" in two
days, and another song - which was the B-side of "Pure Massacre".
For three 14 year olds who'd been playing for about a year, that's
unbelievable! We then cut the album in Sydney, Australia, in six
days, and I mixed it in three more, all with their mums and dads
managing them in the background. It was fantastic, and I believed
it, eat, slept, dreamed it non-stop for those nine days and the
two weeks of pre-production in a Newcastle sweatbox prior. And
Josh played on it, at age 6 - that drum mess before take 11 earned
him a multi-platinum plaque and a session fee of $150!
*Baby
Animals - Baby Animals: This is real rock 'n roll. Debauchery,
drinking with Satriani's band in Bearsville, up-state New York,
nearly setting Harry Chapin's parents house in Long Island on
fire; Dave walking the Runway strip club in Manhattan with his
shirt off, and narrowly avoiding broken fingers; dragging cross-dressing
transexuals (unknowingly) back to our seedy 42nd street hotel,
and only seeing the five o'clock shadow a month later on developing
the pictures; arm wrestling, more drinking, my darling woman of
seven years leaving me with a kid still in diapers (that be Josh),
the pain, the hangovers - and then the music was a blast. Mike
Chapman, who can drink anyone under the table, producing, and
my role as engineer definitely underplays my contribution to the
album, and I mixed the crap out of it, but I learned so much from
Mike! Need to write a book for that one!
*
Rush - Counterparts: This was major. I was flat broke,
had $8 that February of '92 which I spent on a spaghetti special
at the A & P (3 packs for a buck) so Josh wouldn't starve;
had bummed a Fedex form to send producer Peter Collins a show-reel
and he'd had me fly to Toronto to meet the band for lunch. After
the meeting, I headed back to NY, only to be refused entry by
Immigration officials, and with my 3 year old son still in NY
with a school friends mother! I had to call the band collect from
the airport and tell them if they were interested in having me
on board, then they had to let me know right away, and if so,
to let me have some money! Unbelievable! And they said Yes! Well,
this album was such fun to make, we had a real blast! I had to
be super obnoxious to get Alex to plug in some vintage guitars
and amps, and had Geddy play through a beat up old B15 we'd found,
and I am more responsible for the sound of the album than I'm
given credit for! But, I HATED the mixes! They'd someone booked
to mix before I was even hired, and the mixes in no way reflected
the balls and vibe we had on tape! But, it was SOOO much fun,
giggling and laughing - actually I'm on the record somewhere,
singing "Fela-barooooosch!" into Geddy's bass pick-ups
before he started playing a song! Alex and I worked out our differences
over two bottles of Scotch at the Toronto Four Seasons, and then
he played in the studio with vintage Gibson and fender guitars
and amps for the rst of the session, rather than in the control
room wih his "coffee-table" PRS guitars and effects
processors! I think this record probably saved my life!
Geddy Lee and Peter Collins
at McClear Pathe during the making of Counterparts. 12.24pm!
Favorite
Albums to Listen to (that I haven't worked on):
Miles
Davis: Something Blue / Tutu
AC/DC:
Back In Black
Joni
Mitchell: Court And Spark
Led
Zeppelin: Presence (all really, In Through... least tho'!)
Beethoven:
Violin Concerto in D major. Herman Krebbers w/ Bernard Haitink
and the Concertgebouw Orchestra
Beethoven:
Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral" conducted by Klemperer and
the Philharmonia Orchestra
Deep
Purple: Made In Japan
The
Who: Quadrophenia
Sex
Pistols: Never Mind The Bollocks
Stone
Temple Pilots: Core
Mother
Love Bone: Stardog Champion
U2:
Joshua Tree / Achtung Baby!
Jimi
Hendrix: In The West
Bob
Marley: Catch A Fire
Little
Feat: Down On The Farm
Metallica:
(Black Album)
Tom
Waits: Rain Dogs
Great
Songs on Albums I don't love:
Smashing Pumpkins: Today
Soundgarden:
Black Hole Sun, Rusty Cage
Aerosmith:
Mia, St. John, Janie's Got A Gun
Suzanne
Vega: Tom's Diner
Elvis
Costello: Alison
Favorite
Movies:
Dr.
Zhivago
Lord
Of The Rings
The
Big Blue
The
Godfather
Fargo
Schindler's
List
Young
Frankenstein
Trading
Places
Gandhi
Pulp
Fiction
The
Bond Movies (esp. OHMSS!)
