Bob Clearmountain: Legendary Mix Engineer and Producer - Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro

hey everybody hope you're doing marvelously well ah I'm rather blessed to be sitting here with mr. Bob clearmount and how are you I'm very good thank you thanks for having us over to mix this so you're from Connecticut Connecticut Greenwich Connecticut and from believing that there's another side of the tracks to Greenwich it's my parents weren't rich right you know my dad wasn't a CEO of a company he was just a accountants or something and and you know although you know it wasn't bad I mean Greenwich is pretty nice place to grow up I must admit you know there's a nice beach and lovely it's beautiful but uh and I was in little bands as a teenager we had these bands and and I said got older we we started having gigs and the local bars Port Chester New York was right over the border and the drinking age is still 18 over there and where it was 21 in Connecticut okay so we go and do gigs in these little little bars over in New York and we sucked basically we're pretty bad but um I like playing bass I hated being standing up on a stage a little bar was fine cuz you're not really on a stage you know and when it started getting bigger while you were there's lights in the stage I started thinking man I don't think this is for me plus some other band members like the last banner was in the guitar player was um spent around with the lead singers girlfriend didn't gonna then he quit and I was like God Jesus okay I found it with this yeah I'm gonna get a real job yep so believe it or not I found one in a recording studio yeah well how do you how did you get into that I mean well it's the the lot that band was doing a demo at a studio commedia sound in New York which isn't there anymore and the band split up while we were doing that and I made friends of the people at the studio and I got to know the engineer that we were working with who is also writing songs of the lead singer which is why we were there he introduced me to the studio manager and I told her this incredible woman named Susan planer she was just a wonderful person and just a great studio manager and I said you know I really think I'm gonna be good at this someday I mean you should you should hire me because I totally get this yeah yeah sure sure and I kept bugging her I kept coming back like week after week and until finally she said I will come back in September and we'll probably have a something for you to do you could be a runner for a while okay great so I came back in September they were some interns were just going back to school and so there was an opening I went out and did a delivery I came back and the receptionist says you that clear mountain kid oh man they're looking for you upstairs you better get up there and I'm thinking oh I screwed up already I've been here an hour and uh where have you been well I went out and delivery you oh no we don't need runners we need an assistant engineer get down a studio a okay well that's quick I thought it's gonna take three years and what times are different back then I mean everybody should understand that's watching this that that doesn't happen anymore I was really lucky right place right time but anyway I walk in the studio and it's a Duke Ellington session Oh incredible and yeah it was incredible it was I blew my mind completely of course and then it went on from there and I did I got it I got everything right away within a few months I was doing it I did a session with Khulna gang and mixed a couple songs and and and then six months later I was on another coolin gang session was the assistant and the engineer who was Tony Bon Jovi of course John's cousin didn't show up and we're starting their next album and doing basic tracks for the full band I had set the whole thing up and Tony's not there and the band's like out there warm you know rehearsing and so I said well somebody better do so I started getting sounds I'd never done it before and even though I had done one mix before but uh and Ron Ron Bell who is leader of the band who was the nicest guy in the world he was so nice to me and he came in and he's the or Estonia I go yeah I don't know he'd show okay well what do you got did you let's see and we had done one take let me listen to what you have and he goes yeah man sounds great we continued from there we recorded two songs Hollywood swing in and funky stuff and Hollywood swing it was like number six in Billboard I didn't get to mix it but um so it was pretty and I never even got a credit on an album and they've credited me since then but back then when the record came out they forgot who I was they didn't even remember and but I was still grateful I was able to do it sorry but that's the most different door so yeah that and that that's how it started basically that's amazing yeah it was I was what last knock'em Gladwell would say you know right place right time right but you also had to be ready for it yeah well that's right yeah I was and I was I mean I I can't really do much of it I can do some electrical work I do my own electrical work but that's about it maybe real basic carpentry but other than that this is it I can't cook I can't do much of anything but I can I think I can do this okay you can do this amazingly well yeah so how so what was sort of the journey from there I mean basically it sounds like you were probably working 1215 hour days yeah well Media sounded mostly jingles in the daytime and like music for Sesame Street and things like that and you had to be really quick I learned how to just edit really quickly on quarter-inch tape and set things up and break things down and get sounds really fast because you had that's the only way you could do it if you were slow you were forget about it and but at night they were doing things like they were doing R&B records they were big into in the early and disco Tony did Gloria Gaynor's version of never could say goodbye and I think I'm probably assisted on that I can't really remember but so at night while these owner B records are done Stevie Wonder was recording Innervisions oh and I made friends with the the producers and they let me hang out and get him coffee and stuff so I'd work all day long doing jingle Assisting for jingles and then I'd hang out on stevie sessions at night for a while and just watch watching him was one of the most amazing things and and then i i started in a lot of they really pushed me into doing stuff at that studio was great it was staff guy before I knew it I was you know mixing Benny King and a lot just a lot of people that I don't even remember to be honest but uh some some good records the sister sludges first I think was their first record oh how are the you know the big we are family which of course I did later at Power Station amazing yeah I used to play that in a band yeah yeah you know in all Rodgers and Bernard every oh it's amazing so those are the early days of power station they were our first client when we first built power station Wow and we did the Sheik records and and citrus legend and a bunch of other things that they produced that's amazing yeah I remember the freak I just remember that first came out wow what a when infectious so it was right yeah and they were everywhere I mean how many artists were though they had to leave they were difficult it was the same rhythm section the same rhythm section yeah yeah in fact the the Freak album and the we are family Sister Sledge album was all all the same people and we cut both those the the basic tracks for both those records the same four nights in a row right and I didn't know which song was going to be on which record and then they spent you know like a month or two doing vocals and things like that but uh yeah so it's amazing and what they came up with incredible yeah and and the singers were Luther Vandross is one of the sync singers yep which I don't know how many people realize that and there's guy named David Leslie and then there there's they're singers FONSI Thornton and Lucy forgot her last name it's a long time ago those are incredible records absolutely amazing records I'm seeing now I'm remembering on the days when I first heard those mm-hmm and it was so uniquely to us in England at least in a UK uniquely New York and America just that super dry drum sound mmm the bass line see I'm getting all geeky I just want to know if there's anything you can remember about recording techniques and stuff like that because those drum sounds were so like the snare is where had this perfect place that it's sad the kick set exactly people used to talk of the folklore of the tape being cut to just make sure that all of the beats laid back just right I heard all these stories and we were all obsessed with it you know how the folks logo yeah that's the way they play Tony Thompson was an incredible drummer although he wasn't a great it fills when one time I asked Bernard I said how come Tony never plays any fills cuz it was always his really straight yeah never heard Tony play fills and it was never in a click track or anything like that I mean he had an incredible time but he won't kind of tend to rush his fills of you cuz he went later where he played with Bowie you can hear it on Bohai stuff yeah but uh he was great and not end up with the drums speaking of that there were our drums that yeah that I bought for power station what rhymes there was Lud it was just a basic Ludwig kid I always liked the way Ludwig sounded it's not the best hardware in the world is stuff kind of breaks unforeseen but they always did great they were easy to tune and I would always tune them I would go and come in before the session I'd get in there early and I go through in a tune I might tune the snare drum and and then I take the key couldn't I sit up and then I go out between takes and touch them up and because I was just into that back then there weren't like drum Tech's back then like there are now and so now you don't really have to do that but back then the drummer's were so worried about what they were playing that they weren't they weren't thinking about the sound of the drums that much I guess I don't know but I was always kind of somewhat fanatical about it and so that it was on analog tape which I think it would be better if it was undal but there wasn't any digital that's an interesting perspective I like that yeah yeah well there were times especially with chic when I was only the only one in the control room the band is producing so they're out in them he's in the studio and they do a take and I'm like man this is the most amazing thing I've ever heard and then they come and play back off the tape and they go oh it still sounds great but it's a little it's like once removed it son it's not it's present the that's lost something it's old I always felt that a lost something especially with the drums not so much guitars guitars always sounded great you know no matter what and keyboards and things like that although piano I felt always sounded better not having it be submit you know not going through the analog tape phase but just in general you know there was this little little bit blanking blanket of noise you know yeah it's interesting Tim Palmer said that I did a panel with him a few years ago and he said the same thing really yeah most people in he manely disagreement well it's somebody else to question and it was about five of us on this panel and everybody had an opinion and Tim's like no I hated it I hate the fact that I get a great guitar sound up and then I play it back and all the high end of gong yeah right that's the thing and depending on what kind of tape you use to and whether it was the right batch or not I did some projects in Australia and we had to start a week later because we couldn't find tape that sounded good you know and then tell me Bakari said to me that in his perspective when people moved over to digital they stepped kept thinking it was like tight so he said they would always hit it super harder than I am and then they come back and digital and go oh it sounds so harsh so crazy and he's like stop thinking like tape alright and what's what's funny is that people that are used to recording on digital have trouble recording on analogue because I I'll get things that you know people go all recorded this analog yeah great except there's no top-end do you realize when you're recording on a log you have to kind of EQ to the tape yep because otherwise you're just gonna lose it it's not good it's gonna sound terrible when it comes back I presume as well they probably printing signal which is about this loud well that's the thing they're not printing loud they don't understand the levels you know drums you got a print fairly quietly because you're not on these meters you're not seeing yeah you're not really seeing the peak level yeah and then you know in the base you you know you it's just it's really different it's just there it's there's an art recording on analogue that I think a lot of people nowadays especially you get these real analog freaks that didn't go through that that just think that it's oh you just you just record flat on analog and it's fine yeah that's not so oh by the way hello in the studio made a sound media sound was well it was built by Joel Rosen and John Roberts the guys that financed Woodstock oh okay right and I don't think it had anything to do with Woodstock it's just they were these couple of rich guys with money and so so they financed the building of it I mean then real cheap equipment it wasn't great gear although they had a lot of pull texts and things like that which were great and so that was nice but the consoles were ha you know there was really in fact I remember coming in the first thing I would do I the politics were all in in boxes outboard boxes yeah and it's there were two three floors of studios two floors like two floors and so they were scattered all over the place so I come in really early and gathered them all up and bring him in and pile them up in my room I know if I was doing a session and then the console I would put everything at 10k and turn them turn all the knobs full up a 10k right just to get just to make it sound normal right and then I plug in pull Tex to actually get some sounds Wow yeah just really dark sounding consoles remember who will console you there was a spectrasonics but they were basically homemade right you know the guy that built the place was just got a real deal on them and there was a they had a wire all these transformers in the thing to get it to not home and they finally got neeps which were great and when that happened everything changed it was and of course then I left where did you go to - power station yeah Tony came to me and said he had made money off Gloria Gaynor and disco star wars and all these funny projects but he had done pretty well he said look like you made some money I'm gonna build my own studio you want to be do you know Vienna or work worked there he didn't want me as partner he's like me to be kind of the head engineer guy I said yeah sure and so I helped you know we went searching for buildings we found the the 53rd Street location and and I remember that day I walked into this building and there was an old TV studio they used to shoot a show called let's make a deal in there and so is a huge soundstage and I go well this oughta work pretty well and then I found this store that led to a an extra stairway like an exhilarating what's this like clap my hands and it just went Shh wait I was like oh man this is the place and we barred that up - that became our chamber one or may neck chamber I'll fantastic which unfortunately the fire department came in quashed that number of years later but you got to use it on a bunch of records yeah yeah you know you can really hear it on an Avalon in particular the for Roxy Music know if you listen to the song heaven for Brian Adams all that the drunk the crazy drums that's all that chamber no it is yeah and a bunch of other things I mean there's lots of and all the big ballad things you know I definitely want to get into those records but I'm I'm really enjoying the chronological order of your career so so what was you know this is like a fan question what was like the record for you when did you transition to like become more of a mixer hard to say I think I mean Sheik was a big deal because we had done lots of dance mixes extended versions and that was the thing back then that I mean the equivalent now is remixes that people show but back then we didn't add instruments we just took what was there and we loop a section and we'd make them longer so the people on the dance floor could dance for eight minutes or nine minutes and there were big instrumental sections and we do breakdowns but I don't know percussion and things like that yeah you know it's pretty pretty basic and so I don't you know we've done some of those for Sheik and plus Sheik had the the biggest single the biggest selling single Atlantic Records had ever had up to that time I think was I think was left free you didn't look like there were good times I can't remember which one but um so the Rolling Stones were they they had their Rolling Stones records but it was through Atlantic and so the really clever A&R guy over there they were looking to they had done a song called miss you and they said yeah we're looking for like a dance like a 12-inch dance mix of this Oh get this guy clear Mountain because he's he's doing the thing and so I did that and Mick loved it and then he said we'll do the single version to redo the single version okay and I got to meet him and work with him and I think it kind of started there and of course then well there was she which were huge and there was that I was producing Bryan Adams mm-hmm and that became really big they Co produced four albums for him there was you want it you got it which is a terrible name for a record and then cuts like a knife cuts like a knife first right oh yeah wrecked reckless and into the fire and then I mix pretty much everything up until a few years ago and for him and and we're still best friends that's great you know I hardly see him ever but yeah we're still really really it was so huge in the UK yeah yeah well I think he's underrated you know him it's just an amazing singer is a great performer if you've ever seen him live Nelda have you puts on a fantastic show and he's a really good guy is a real flinth or Beth could fly game it's a philanthropist he he doesn't talk about it at all to anybody but he supports all kinds of great causes and charities and you know I remember being in Vancouver because he we did a lot of his records in Vancouver where he lived and he was giving me a ride to the airport one time because I was getting back to New York and you know the Chinese had come in and they were tearing their old all the old architecture down and putting up these big glass and steel towers and there was this one old this beautiful old building that they were just starting to demo and we stopped on the way to the airport because oh look at this and he stopped meaning we're not started yelling at these guys so you got to stop you can't tear this down what are you doing what are you doing it's like a real fanatic about that kind of thing they're like Bryan Adams just shouting at me they would know exactly yeah yeah now just leave us alone and they know we're getting paid to do this and we don't care what you say oh but yeah he's he's a really amazing person actually yeah I I you know growing up in England us records were huge yeah huge yeah and just like hit after hit yeah I mean I can't remedy has some kind of have to look it up there's some kind of record for top ten singles in in the UK yeah probably yeah well everything I do was she isn't one that I produce but uh but Lange did that and it was number one for like it was ever ever you know what I mean not only that but that that album he tried started that album and then Steve Lillywhite tried to produce some of it and then finally he did it was not lying took two years cost probably a million and a half dollars I don't know it cost a lot of money just spent forever on it well the single recouped the album costs before we even finished mixing the album the single came up before the album and we couldn't believe it when we were looking at the how the record sales in yep it was unheard of it was just I was such a huge hit ya know I remember I remember the video I just remember every week every Thursday night on Top of the Pops there it was number one hit for weeks yes yeah so how long how many years did you stay at power station were you there for it was about let's he was 77 to about 82 I think 83 so about five years maybe and then what happens I started doing other projects like it was I was producing hoe notes and they wanted to lock the studio out you know and they really liked Electric Lady because um well a couple reasons because they you know lunch lady would do anything they wanted and downtown and on 8th Street and that was the other thing is that the 8th Street is where they all the shoe stores are and Dallas really into shoes one time you would always go out and go shoe shopping so he liked it down there and that was cool his good studio you know it was fun to work there and but the that that's when I started working in other studios that's art working Hit Factory in right track and different places were that were more flexible with hours because power station well no there had a policy that a policy that every room had to have two sessions a day a day's session in the night session right so they would say there was three rooms that there had to be six sessions you couldn't lock out what was the thought process of that well I mean on a business-y sense from a business looking at it business-wise uh it keeps you always have clients right you have more clients that way and so there's more things being done there and which makes sense the trouble is that you lose big clients that show lock the room out like yellow notes or other people yeah how we leave everything set up and you want to come in the next morning and yeah it was always this mad dash between 6:00 and 8:00 to change over for the next session no especially with the analog tape machines because everybody had their own their own bias setting or their own you know is it plus three over 185 or it's a plus six and it was just the you know they'd have to go in and tweak everything it would be we're not being so difficult nowadays cuz digital was digital yeah yeah but still setup is so the set up is a lot yeah I mean Springsteen would be set up and they'd have to they have to break down his entire session and he'd record live with drums guitars two keyboards sax you know all this stuff and so yeah it was it was difficult there not only that but the other thing about power sage internet back then was I had wired up I found this ladies room in the basement because it was because it was a TV studio there were dressing rooms and so there was a men's room and the ladies room ladies room was a little bit bigger and I went in what Dana once again clap my hands it always has a kind of a cool sound it was all dirty and everything like I cleaned it all up I I found an old JBL 4311 speaker that nobody was used and stuck it in there stick it's like a couple of uh I think 450 kg 450 ones and they're just like the little XY and then started using that as an echo chamber and but the problem was it was right next to the freight elevator I'm used to parked cars on the third floor yeah right I parked my car in the third floor but the the accountants the office people they all parked up there and so it like six o'clock I'd be just printing a mix using the echo chamber and you know because of all the pipes ran right under the floor you couldn't use the elevator if I'm printing yeah right and they'd be knocking on the window could I gotta get my car out you just give me a minute it'll I've just got a print this was not so you know what it what a thing I mean nowadays you just do an impulse response yeah I'm not worried about it yeah but and and all that's gone now of course they were renovating the whole thing but uh yeah those it's funny thinking about the space yeah it was fun yeah and a completely unique sound well that's the thing yeah listen to the opening to start me up I'm starving pretty much all that at that bathroom oh my get the guitar time yeah I know that yeah do you hear that griever yeah I heard my head like any ever new late when we get into my plug-in I don't have that chamber but although I'm trying to get it cuz they actually did a switch once I got to get permission to use it but we found another bathroom that's almost identical to it inside in fact in fact it's a little bit better isolate and so and we have it in in my plug in so tattoo you I mean that's a well that was an interesting record that's a big record for me oh yeah yeah oh yeah I love that well that was interesting because they didn't actually record that you know it was it was leftover recordings from a you know between 8 and 10 years before that that they just put together and finished up and wrote songs for and and so a lot of it it was interesting the way it came in was all analog but some of it was 16-track some it was 24-track some it was dull be some of it was non Dolby and nothing was labeled and so I put the tape up gee I wonder what this is and you could tell if it was 16 track because every third track would there wouldn't be anything on it you know and on the 24 track head and of course it was 24 track you could there was something I'm most almost every track and but whether it was Dolby or not you had to just listen to it okay does it sound all his seemed compressed well then it's Dolby then we better pull out the dope plug in the Dolby's and and I think I got most of it right but no that was the toughest part with that record III had heard that it was a load of alt text oh I didn't know I didn't know whether they had rerecorded stuff or whether it was original outtake from its original text but they added stuff you know it's yeah I mean you did an amazing job on it because thanks it's kind of a for me it's like one of the best records because well I mean you've got to start me out waiting on a friend you know even a silly song like she's my little tas still like an amazing rocker you know it's it's hard it's hard to believe like a song like start me up didn't make the album than it was supposed to be I know such a great song it's like one of their staples now but it was a beautiful thing because the record after emotional rescue which was a great record was a great great read boy but this was like a return because of the the being an old older tracks a return to like the Rolling Stones that everybody wanted yeah but due to the you mixing it it sounded like a modern album right so it had the feel of Exile on Main Street but for me growing up I loved those records and they're amazing but they sounded older you know where this tattoo you sounded of the time they had a modern like snappiness to it but it's only like classic stones so that's nice it's a very important record I think for them yeah because I see for me I listen to their older stuff and I prefer it that's well first you know it's just me well I mean this there's a romanticism isn't there of when we listen to that because yeah we've got that visual of a 19 year old makjang you know just kind of doing his thing and and Beggars Banquet I just think is probably about the best rock record ever ever made I just love that record so much you know and that that period of you know exile and all amazing the other records turn that that time period with the Jimmy Miller produced just amazing amazing songs did you carry on working with the stones after that uh yeah well on and off I I have I mean I did they did a movie after that in the mid-80s and it was AB live album so I did that I read you know I went out and recorded them in a bunch of places and and then just more recently here we did a bunch of outtake records it how it takes from exile and outtakes from some girls I think it would make wrote songs around you know updated these outtakes and added stuff you know and things like that and and I've mixed so many live concert videos for them probably 40 or 50 concert videos for them over the last 15 years or so you know things that they had recorded that they there were boat legs for most of this stuff but they never really remix or cut the videos properly you know and so they you can get all that stuff on their website I think fantastic so let's keep going on that order I definitely want to get to sort of the Avalon time if I if I say your name to anybody the first thing always comes up is Avalon mm-hm and then some wise Tessa fears as woman in chains and when I taught you at NAMM this year I told you about all these mixes they're friends of mine they're all that's one of the reference trends there's something about women and change for so much for us it's the width of it mm-hmm and the depth of it and also the height of it the fact that when then we're all really high I mean I think like tattoo you these are records that you listen to now and they sound contemporary mm-hmm and there's lots there's lots of things I'd love to know I mean from a technical perspective when I was talking to Jack Joseph for yesterday he was telling me about em exhale flanger and I said oh I got that from Bob dear ma'am ya know they are yeah sure he said that he said that you would send to that before going into a reverb that's what he said he died probably had done that I don't really remember that particular one but yep sometimes on the output of a reverb when the output is leave a bright right you know and just on vocals and Bowie's vocals sometimes I'd use those and and and jaggers vocals entirely local being such a huge fan that I am Albury vocals were use anymore um a China girl but where he goes he goes Shh like that yeah well that's a couple of desks you shut your mouth yeah yeah just you shut your mouth yeah yeah right exactly that's it she says baby just you shut your mouth yeah and then when he did it is a key thing he says what is I'm Jimmy Jimmy shut your mouth yeah that's right yeah yeah and then I'm tajci you uh what's that song I'm terrible with names so it's okay if you have a lot of songs floating around your head yeah but uh yeah that's just an that was actually the the flanger was that the Fender Rhodes R&B sound of the 70s for me is that you get the fender rhodes and and you'd stick it through that thing in it it turned it into this cool let's cool thing you know that all of a sudden you you could hear it cuz Fender Rhodes kind of blend in you know what I mean there yep yeah they kind of you don't really hear them for some reason the it was kind of beautiful sometimes well yeah I can drink something Qatar just put it there and all of a sudden it turns into yeah unlike a an identifiable instrument somehow I don't know I don't know if that's I'm saying no that's beautifully put yeah how long have you had the console since 94 they built it for it the thing with with this studio mix this is uh I didn't know if it would work having a studio in the basement of my house and so we built it basically this is a big rec room and you know put the walls in and everything I got a really good architect that that turned it into something that worked because it's a square room there's a lot of diffusion and and then I rented Staines gear he's got the studio in the box and it's a it's an SSL like this is smaller than it's a 64 input that folds up into Road cases and it comes with everything else you can rent it it had a racks of gear and tape machines back then of course chairs speakers everything and you could you could set the thing up in like 45 minutes the whole dancing and it was really pretty well designed by the ssl was pretty well the custom designed by unit salsa logic and so we I rented that for six months to see if it will work and I was it was just non-stop from the first thing we did here was streets of Philadelphia for Springsteen girls and it was a video lockup and everything which is back then it was a big much bigger deal than it is now and and so I say okay this is working out so let's I'm gonna buy my own gear and I bought that had they had them make custom make this for me it's got a bunch of factory mods and then i modded it over the years and that's it I bought a bunch of stuff you know some some people Bryan Adams gave me a couple of poll tax I bought some more no things like that and off we went um are there I see you have a four de-stresses there for you sir yeah yeah I like those any particular favor things a lot of distress politics I've always loved I'm gonna grew up using those and I'm still using them the qp1 a is my fav you have particular places you like them on piano look cat wants to say hi piano guitars yep that bottom one is actually broken it's a it's a solid-state one it doesn't have to be in it oh and I've always liked it on snare drum and I thought it's always kind of preferred it over the the other tube once I thought oh it's just because it's something about the fact that it's transistors and so Apogee modeled these for their plug because they they've done pull tech plugins so that they're actually the only authorized pull tech plugins they can they're the only ones that can use the name pull thing legally but then when they did that the solid-state one they said you know this that's broken and you're like I said what what do you mean it's broken see yeah there's something there's a bad part in there I don't know it's a bad transistor they didn't tell me what it was but it distorts more than its supposed to quite a bit more and I've been used it on snare drum and it does a thing I guess I seem to gravitate towards it and it's been working pretty nicely for me that's no idea there was anything wrong with it though so we're gonna do a actually we've done a AB he's done a plug in it's just the broke Wiggly the broken or the so yeah it's amazing i I have the remakes of Steve Jackson does of that yeah but oh the other transistor one yeah it says this one because they Adam because they have the API 25-23 yeah I didn't know that yeah we had one at Apogee for a while other Steve's the top two or Steve yeah any a wonderful guy he's amazing yeah it's cuz brilliant he's just a total geek you know and I hope that I'm not I don't mean to be in I don't mean that in a bad way these days geek geek a nerd of actually is a badge of honor at least yeah and he spent years years making sure it was exactly right and they're they're virtually identical to the to the originals because two of those originals and I can't tell the difference yeah I agree and anybody doesn't know Steve he's a wonderful human being and the nicest guys also we developed appetit developed the the Pope the plugins with Steve the mace of his approval great and it's pretty hard to tell tell the difference I can get a plug in and the real thing I mean that they totally nailed it it's amazing how good it is he told me it became really good friends with Gene the original designer Serena and you know God is blessing and and really worked very hard well that's all things well later on tonight make sure it was totally authentic yeah yeah it was really beautiful so other outboard stuff I see yes px90 at the top all this a 990 at the top right yeah the 990 which I always thought was strange because they have an SP excellent they've made an SP X 1000 but the 9990 is better but why didn't they call this the SPX it's 1010 why why is this last that you heard it was because the SP x90 was such a catch phrase they probably thought oh maybe I'll just keep that 90 in there then people remember you probably right but I suppose you just had to get the marketing brain on it's never the me like when everybody invents a new microphone they always call it a they give it some kind of no minish name Yeah right the marketing guys like it yet Taketa say it's a six seven something a four seven seven it's funny trying to come up with names for Fergie R because the apogee I get a little involved in that you know they never use my suggestions of course that's okay cuz probably know what you would agree with me but uh yeah I know that those Yamaha boxes the this thing the d5000 Yamaha it's really good to accept that not have been through to my nation they both broke in that one doesn't work either Oh Zack other current models they make oh no they don't make them oh so you have to scout this stuff anymore if to scale the internet to find that's actually a you an eBay one anybody know and then there's the road in there yeah of course this one's dead Oh as well luckily I came up with this plug-in that does all that right and so that just in time because this is the last one because I went through two of these these STDs unfortunately because they're great I mean they're just so easy to set up and reliable up until recently I suppose they have a lifespan that's just you know yeah old enough they just go after a while see some drama gates there yeah well they don't I think one side of that works that's that's all that's left of that I also harmonizer yeah that that works yeah still yeah my 3000's hanging in North is work the 3000 and the ultra hose I'm a big fan of even - oh yeah - I love those guys Richard factor and and Tony I know they're good friends of ours that's wonderful I recently did some stuff with them and and Tony wrote me this really lovely email and you know thank you and I appreciate what you said because I was a big fan of the omnipress er oh yeah right I was really wrong sounding randomizing thing yeah any rubberiness I just I felt like a little kid yeah you know to get this nice email from this guy that I respect so much it was that's great you know it's really a lovely feeling plus Jack Douglas would tell me about the early days of eventide in New York how they would like bring in stuff that they had been working on and they get to try it out he'd always told me there was a there flanger the insta flange yeah he used to use that on a snare drum to kind of give you so that I don't know if you ever tried some silly stuff like no I never tried it I was that sound like a good good trick I don't remember that well you know those guys like Jack and Shelley and yeah so um thanks for indulging all this stuff I love the chronological thing because quite frankly you have an insanely good resume one of the most III I can't help in my mind you know hearing when you're talking about like the and Benny King and Sister Sledge stuff just how much of a blessing that was because you're working with some of the finest kind of funk and groove and R&B artists of that period not only just great players but massively successful yeah like that stuff was huge and then because we've always I talked a lot about my it's my own bias but what I believe to be a golden age of music for us was like mid 70s to like mid eighties yeah because all bets were off mmm genres were irrelevant people would put our albums where hares a disco trackers the 50s kind of rock and roll one here's more of a rock one and and songs were still King him whether it be sure Michael Jackson or whoever it was everybody just had song after song after song yeah you know I love I love like 1980 as a very ignored here because not a very sexy year because it's not punk rock in England it's not really but you know in 80 alone was was off the wall and Queen the game and the river and Glass Houses and the list goes on you know of just like Commodores like all these records and they're just like so I love talking to you because that you're making records around that period and involved in so many of those I think there's a part of me that just wants to know what that energy felt like just what was it like to be in there and that might well is it was amazing I mean you know a media sound in their early days I was just happy to be working in a recording studio I thought what a great job this is and I love doing this and I kept learning stuff constantly you know and and learning how to deal with clients and and and different types of music and and I mean I grew up I was a I was a rocker I loved listening to Motown Records on the radio I always loved that but I never thought that wasn't really you know my main thing was British rock mostly in some American American rock of course there was a big Leon Russell fan for instance but that was part of England too and even though he was from the American South but so so because media sound was mostly armed be records I got this sort of arm be training which mixed in with the rock part of me he that's a fantastic training and so it I think you think it was a really good thing for me because instead of just just the you know screaming vocals and super loud guitars there was something about the the drums and the bass that was really important and that I always felt was important because of that and so it was a great it's a great mixture I was very lucky that in that sense I think I believed it a hundred percent Charlie Gillett the writer talked about how Rock got incestuous because rock bands in the sixties listen to blues and it was amazing but in the 70s they listened to the late sixties bands and then in the eighties listen to 70s pin exactly so anything you can do to go back to classic R&B and funk and blues it's just I mean that's yeah so it really comes from all right so I'm sure a guy like Mick Jagger probably could see that as well sure being a huge series a big blues fan yeah and those guys were totally into American blues more than anything you know it's amazing you hear so much of it so we're gloss over a few years how did how did Avalon come about well once again I think it was something to do with Atlantic Records because they they were on it Atlantic and they had a song on this on their album manifesto their song called dance away and they thought it could be a single in Atlantic felt it could be a single and so they they had me mix it and it was a funny thing as they sent I'm at Oregon who was pretty my guess he was like the president of the label I'm not sure what its title is but he was a big shot it at Atlantic he came over and to mix it with me because the the band was still in England and so on mixing and he comes in and originally that song was was an intro a verse a chorus a verse and then went into the bridge and so there wasn't a second chorus and Salaam it's like mr. hit guy you couldn't where's the second there's no sing a chorus in that thing you gotta put a second quarter you gotta do something about that kids you're just chopping that's chorus and I got on cheese really okay and without the band that yeah we're not in Pro Tools or that obviously there's no Pro Tools is just quarter-inch tape yeah I don't think we were even half inch yet it might have been happy I don't know but uh I said well okay let me see what I can do so I didn't I went back and remix the the first chorus again on a piece of tape and chopped it in there and worked pretty well and I was like but it isn't it beautiful the way cuz the original format of it was magnificent it worked so well yep and I thought well why would we want to do that and then then you play banging you okay and I get this now yeah and sure enough that that made it a hit he was right you know he wasn't he was an autumn I'm an arrogant for nothing you know and and we had to add I think I had somebody I had a drummer come in and out of bass drum because it didn't have a consistent base drum and so to make it more of a dance kind of thing we needed like fours on the rice drum so yeah we that was the other thing that we did that's something that I I thought would be a good idea they let me do you know it worked yes fantastic oh and so how so obviously they hear this they're like this is great we want to work with this guy yeah and so then then there were the next album was flesh and blood and they came over and and I mixed that for them on the console that I bought and the original console from power stations to do a is that our studio at Apogee now and so I mixed it with no automation or anything it just manually in the old days and and so that was a beautiful record as well that's a really sellable and then and then they didn't Avalon and uh that was that you know and it said more people have commented on that that record and probably just about anything else I've ever been involved with you know I think it sort of had to explain it I just remember when it first came on the radio I can't think of a more like of the time record mm-hmm you know it just had a it just had such a unique sound it didn't sound like anything else at that time there's like a couple of things that were like that I remember when sweet dreams the first time I ever heard that you just like what is this this is like alien music yeah and then Avalon had that same thing it just like whatever song you heard it just sounded like it came you know I can't think of like it was almost heavenly the amount of ambience that was around it was there anything tell us about that that really that life chamber design chamber yeah and the line you know kind of a lot of the stuff that I've developed I've put in this plugin where you know I'd use delays and delays that are in time yep and delays that would bounce back and forth or around the room and and it is very stereo it's a very stereo regret it very wide and very deep you know and you don't a lot of the delays you don't really hear because they're in time and they're mixed in in such a way they just kind of add this enhancement it's like a you know it's just like a stage you know it's sort of this wider soundstage that I tried to get and and I mean I don't know if I really thought about it that much I mean I don't really think about mixing very much it's just whatever hits me whatever just stuff you just so on I know let me try this you know I'll try eight different things one of them maybe will oh that that works you know what I thought the other day after after I saw you last week it'll remember to have a long I remember that song mr. wrong moment the first time I heard it I went back and listened to it with my older more sophisticated ears and you know what I really enjoyed about it all the same things all the ambience in all of us and how like the hair stand in like it what a unique sounding record I listen to the drums I'm like that's that's a real drum kit that's right yeah in those days you mark yeah but do you understand what I mean it's I'd almost imagined in my mind that it was more synthetic than that because it was the 80s all right yeah sure and and it was a beautiful thing because now it's it stands the test of time because of that because it doesn't go hey this is the drum sound we're using this week which a lot of unfortunately a sees stuff does you know and probably even to this day you know when you get so people can get so like here's the sound that you know there's real John's real and it's got feel and groove and and now some other things too that it's amazing how well it works because they were they made I mean Brett Davis and and the band recorded the album with a with a drum machine and I don't know what that was as a Lane I don't what they used but they created the songs not hearing those drums class I know then the last thing I think the week but trouble weeks before we mixed it they came in and we recorded any new mark and the percussionist who passed away years ago uh his name I've also forgot and so there's a lot of incredible percussion on that right that you know wasn't Lenny Castro it was a geez I can't believe he was really incredible I'm just a great guy too and hopefully somebody out there will remember hey Danny new modes just you just look at it I mean it he's got enough out he's got a credit on the record so that's me being a mg bear Danny who was great and he was the drummer for I think he did the bass drum on dance way too pretty not posit was that decision may was it was it always going to be live drums or was that decision made late on as you're about to mix it I think they were planning and I actually don't know you'd have to ask read write or Brian but I think that's what they were planning and doing and you know I mean yeah he was amazing he was I know he played with the fresh come fresh yeah yeah and yes slime and of course with with Jack on Double Fantasy yeah that's right yeah just an incredible talent insane trouble and it just sounds like the band's following him I mean too for a drummer to be able to do to come in and over dope yeah and make it sound like he was there from the start that's it's not easy to do and you have a certain talent to do that I also felt he's he's sort of almost honor honorary English as well honorary British she seems to be able to work really well with with British artists is such a great resume with that as well he's from halfway in between is from Bermuda yeah yeah yeah yeah he seemed to he's Jim Keltner I feel very similar about these drummers that can be uniquely American but also when they're playing with British artists they make sense yeah both those guys are that's right so yeah that's one of the nicest thing about this job unfortunately now I'm just mixing I don't get to work with a lot of these incredible musician but that's the that's the down part about downside do you want to UM I do accept that I just like the mixing part better than recording right and I and if I was a producer yeah I would probably rather do that but I'm a crap producer I think your resume doesn't say that but I don't think I'm that good and I wasn't ever particularly comfortable doing it and I'm much more comfortable I was always the guy that you know I'd be producing a record and I'd be like the end of the day anybody want a nice rough mix like you do with nice rough mix well that's okay you not to know really you just let me do it like all day like dying to do yeah it's a little I guess traditionally it's more of a high-profile part of the thing but but I I actually am you know you were talking about being one of the first actual mixers you know pute yes you yeah well you know it was interesting realizing that people were just hiring me just to mix records because that that seemed odd to me at the time I said really you just want me to mix your a okay and then you know I did a bunch of them and then my manager at the time a guy named Dan crew who is a very insightful person he said you know I could get I could probably a point for that no nobody's gonna pay a point for a mix are you kidding are you insane I think I could do that I think that can happen because a lot of people are coming to you specifically for the mix yeah knock yourself out pal and sure enough in Muscat I started getting points and now of course then everybody started getting points so you made a lot of people a lot of money there you go so Chris and Tom and Jack and and all these guys they they owe me they don't even tease ya Commission 15% yeah yeah where's my dance commission he's not getting it really yeah that's amazing yeah jet it was Jack Douglas who who told me that story and of him being him with Aerosmith in one room and Bruce Springsteen being in another room and he said you were upstairs I know if that was just a if it was well it could have been in either place actually because it was a mix room upstairs at ed factory and and power station I was usually up in the SSL room which is Studio C upstairs right so it could have been could have been power station I usually wasn't I'd come in and I do go head upstairs and I usually wasn't very aware of what was going on downstairs so the two main rooms B and a were downstairs and I'd always be up there mixing yeah Jack told me this story he's easy and making their Swiss records they're making a Bruce Springsteen record it's a little behind and like yeah Bob started mixing the record while they were still finishing up the album oh yeah yeah well that would happen that would happen a lot yeah so in Jack's mind he was like that's that was like the birth of the professional mission yeah because yeah I mean help the the album come out in time yeah well Avalon was like that because they were doing vocals I mean Brian would always they would always be the last thing he would do would be the vocal cuz he would just wait for the right to lyrics for the last minute and and they were in studio a recording vocals while I was I was mixing in Studio C that's true it's for that as well so yeah that happened quite a bit you know happens now yeah absolutely absolutely it also makes sense I mean from what I loved about Roxy Music is the career I mean you've got them with Ino yeah you've got them this sort of crazy art rock sort of just insane art rock band with pajama Rama love is a drug yeah pop songs like that pyjama rama which it in and then just insane art stuff they did and then they matured into this band which you know especially with that album is like a stamp of what what was great about the 80s you know okay so there they are they're there this arthouse seventies rock band from from britain and it's i I'm just a huge fan but I love careers I love looking at artists as they develops and it's great to see that that that became such a signature for them ya know it was a good thing right you know I liked writing you know I wasn't a huge fan of Roxy music I didn't know that much about him I don't know that stuff in the 70s even came out of it yeah did a little bit I did a little bit okay a little bit we love the drug has the main thing and I didn't know that much about them and then I got this message about mixing with them and I remember was talking with a I was producing a friend of mine near David Warner this guy from Pittsburgh and when I got the call and I said yeah you know this ban Roxy music is a pretty interesting band they want me to mix something and he just turned to me because he was a big fan and he was dude you should do that don't don't pass that one oh okay yeah it's beautiful so tell me a little bit about Tears for Fears because we just touched on it earlier about how woman and change is such a huge reference mix for so many of us what was interesting with them because the first thing I mixed for them was the other big hit on that album which is sown the seeds and I spent well spent a day setting up it was huge for the time it was enormous was on to Mitsubishi machines were 64 tracks but it was tracks were stacked so there would be like three and four things different things on each track and just massive thing and I spent a couple days mixing it Roland came in and listened to what I put together and so what do you think any listens to it he goes you know there's absolutely nothing about that mix that makes any sense to me whatsoever yes well I go you want to point me try to point me in the right direction and let me see what I can do I can I'll do anything you want you know and so he gave me some pointers some tips I said okay and so give give me like an hour so and I played around with it and he went back and he goes well that's a little better but uh hey let's make something else right I was just okay cuz he and it turned out I realized what when it came out I realized what it was because when I heard it it sound like a Beatles record mm-hmm you know and I thought oh I'll just mix this really drying up front in your face and if you listen to it it's got quite a bit bit of it's not soaked in reverb but sell a lot more effects and reverb than what I had and so not and once it came out I understood right but of course in the meantime he spent I mix a whole album in the time that it took him to mix just that song to remix that song Wow after that so yeah whatever but then he said let's mix a song called year of the knife right so I mix that and that went really well and then he cut on another ending or something that's actually two there's two mixing credits on that because he used I think that last eight bars or something from some from the producers mix I think and and then he said well there's another song that you should give it give a shot and that's woman in chains and that had Phil Collins playing drums but it was all chopped up in sequence so he he used what Phil played but every Phil I guess he had Phil Collins play a whole bunch of Phil's and he picked he cupped and cut them up he create fills and he did it all I don't know how he did it I think he did it in a sampler or something I'm not sure but it was it was all spread out and a whole bunch of tracks it was brilliant the way it was recorded was very unusual if I remember but when you put it all together it all just sounded like it normal you know if you once I got the balance exactly right it's like wow because you have had the first part of a Phil on one track and then another part of the fellow on another track you know what I mean that kind of thing was all stacked pieced together and it was pretty brilliant really it's easy to mix I always spent I think I always spent four hour for five hours I like if I remember correctly and Olympic I think it wasn't in Barnes but yeah you know it's not a lot of a lot about that particular song there's more about the best stories about women about a sowing the seeds I think we're right well for women in Chains are you conscious because you know we were talking about you know how Kurt's voice is here mm-hmm and then when the girl singer then she seems to be sitting above I mean I'm sure a lot to do the tambour of the voice and all this kind of stuff but you know it's I'd have to go back and listen to it again I almost wanted you to listen to it yeah yeah well who is one easily listen to her hair and see what it feels like here cuz it's it's it's a it's pretty much a seminal work for many of us it's like I say not to exaggerate but the the the space is really beautiful on it what's the beautiful arrangement I mean that's the main thing more I think more so than the mix is his arrangement was fantastic and her voice is fantastic and that kind of dictated what I did I just heard that and it that inspired me to whatever it is that I did for it you know that inspired me to do that you know what it is for me I can articulate it you know how when you you hear those records that are done with incredible musicians seasoned musicians live in a room and there was the Grammy Award winning records that we all love you know there's so much dynamics from the musicians and the mix and the record itself is just an incredible representation of these incredible players mm-hmm women in Chains is one of the songs that has that sort of feel without being you know I mean it's definitely produced it's definitely the choices that were made but it still has that feel of depth and width that is really hard to get when you're doing pop records right you know exactly what I'm saying I print something compresses hitting like this everything comes up yeah and you're like you haven't got a bunch of 55 year old been playing together for years guys and girls all interacting and doing it naturally right there's something that's very special about that because it's so it it always challenges me when I listen to it because I think to myself you know I don't want everything to be quite so tight and sights so compressed and quite so perfect I I need oil sound human don't sound like human beings are yep yeah performing right I know so that's a that's a great reminder for me of how do I pull back cuz you know I wow the vocal sounds really up front I'm gonna bring this forward this forward this for this forth and then suddenly it's you know everything's right here and that is a refresher for me every time push it down okay okay everything's here now you know how do I yeah or for me you know just generally like you like I said I have to go back and listen I don't remember specifically what I did there but um next thing is is you just can't focus on the details too much and I think people do and I've worked with people that will sit there and focus on details for days on a mix and and after doing that for a couple of days I'm done I can't tell anymore and you want to do get something as quick as possible and listen to the songs set back like I don't solo things a lot I just solo to make sure everything is that there's no no problems but most of the time I have everything in I always have the voice in you know so it's all about the song and the voice for me and and everything's got to work around that and and it's it's the song listen if you're not feeling the song it's hard to do a good mix and even even bad songs you can put yourself even if it's a song you don't like you can make yourself like it you can you can divorce yourself from your opinion and and go okay what what is it what's the thing here what's what's the dominant thing that people should get out of this that what's the narrative maybe I don't know sometimes when lyric is pointless but the very times sometimes there's a great melody or the there's a great chord structure there's if it's a there's usually something that you can grab onto and and just listen to that and and don't sweat the details too much no no I hear you 100% general it's the advice very specific I know would - well that's that's quite specific because it resonates heavy and I done it I mean Eric and I sat up we setup wonder what to four o'clock in the morning with the guy telling us he heard us in a vocal who cares you know we just carried on like removing things and I think that was one of the ones you know we've all we've all been in that various you know get out the isotope plugins yeah I mean we heard lots of things in a vocal that you hear you know you know stuff inmate well that's the thing yeah there's so much a lot of times I just want would rather leave things in I mean there I heard an interview with McCartney saying that there are mistakes that he purposely left in to a couple the wreck and you hear them a couple of sites or and I don't know if he I think it was in Emmerich's book that I read about that yeah something I remember something like they'd listen to a taken it was like absolutely perfect except there was one like mistake he'd be like that's the one I like yeah right yeah and then David Bowie he was unbelievable because when we were doing Let's Dance remembers recording Stevie Ray Vaughan's solo in China girl I think it was where he wasn't quite sure when the the guitar section ended and it went to a chord change at the end of the section and he kind of ended up on the wrong note that didn't fit with the chord and we both looked at because he was sitting right here in the control room out in this room but power station and we both looked at each other you know we both cringed I hate and he goes ok that's fixed that I go yeah okay and Bowie jumped up is no no no no leave it just like that it's perfect okay you know who's gonna argue with Bowie it was pretty perfect yeah and then we was right Anne's right that that was like a huge announcement to the world of like check out this guitar player no I remember every guitar player I knew went back and bought Stevie boy know I didn't know who I remember him David coming to me and said you've heard of this guy named Stevie Ray Vaughn no unfortunately no I I feel like I should I should know I don't know that is I ran into him he was playing in a club in Austin I'm bringing him in to do some solos cool and I just II me and I hit it off immediately he's just such a great guy just a crazy talented incredibly talented player and and what was great was you know he didn't bring in some crazy paddle boy or rocket gear he had a super reverb a strat and a guitar chord beautiful luckily he was long enough to get from the control room back to the studio and I said you know and I put some room mics on it just to get a bit of ambience I love the ambience on that yeah it's nice to do see a power station it's fantastic yeah I mean what a beautiful idea you've got I just took we were just talking about Bowie yesterday and how that was like the time that he first made some serious money you know mmm he had all his beautiful records had done you know well but that was like the he wanted a hit record for he wanted a hit record yeah yeah but he's got this very like of the time modern sounding record but he brings in a blues guitar yeah have a Down and it just worked yeah and I remember like I was obsessed with that records obsessed with Stevie Ray Vaughan and a huge boyfriend member buying guitarist magazine and they interview him about making that record yeah and he's like they're like well you know what do you do when David Bowie calls you to come in and play on a huge pop record and I remember this line really well he goes I just had to figure out which Freddy King riff had to fit where and I just remember reading and thinking that was so beautiful that wasn't like it was his moment to talk about himself and talked about Larry King yeah that's the kind of guy that was it was a really good lesson I thrilling yes yeah it's already made me do we're now Bor bunch of Freddy King Records it's like totally humble guy you know I mean completely handle this is just a beautiful thing I mean like that that's what keeps the world going and that's what keeps great music being made yeah yeah I know that's it's pretty nice yeah so I being a huge Bowie fan I thought I've been reluctant sort of ask you about that because they want to gush like a little kid but for us I think first you know there's so many of us like he was the complete artist for sure you know the fact that he was you know in his own right you know songwriter a musician an artist of all levels from acting to a you know to directing to to to like you know art itself was great in the Elephant Man on Broadway incredible I know he's thinking he was amazing you know and it's sort of humble in a way to you know it's just just just a great guy to work with spawn sort of it's weird cuz in some ways he was spontaneous in that kind of let me do anything I wanted you know I would come up with you know let's dance it's got some crazy effects on it I thought no no he's not gonna go for this think of yeah man that's cool that sounds great you know that crazy delay on the yep Nyles guitar and the and I mean there's a lot of weird stuff on that and but then at the same time he was very things that he did were very thought-out and calculated like I think it was Cappy was know was it was that son that instrumental song uh once again of titles fail me uh there was a song on the second side of the album I'm blanking now that's terrible yeah I'm blanking on the Bari song gang this oh my god and and he meant that he goes okay there's a I want you to put it it was like a quarter note delay or an Inc I don't delay or something but I'm gonna point to you or I wanted and it didn't make any sense to me where you know okay so I just turn it on wherever he pointed and then I heard it back and it's it made some kind of mathematical sense music musical sense and I always felt that way about the end of Ashes to Ashes which is one of my favorite songs not just Bowie's song but one of my favorite I found period I think it's one the greatest vocal performances of art unbelievable I've used that song with more singers than any other song because when they just think give me the song and a singing in time and in tune I might give me some flicker personality do we mean I plan master twice it's like four voices in the first minute I know you know it's like do you remember oh no don't say it's not true then the spoken word going on and the thing that round in the end Lily does yeah right words the melody is three times and the chords are four times or maybe it's all the way around I forgot but it so the melody ends up at the each each time it's around if they have different note and it's this sort of mathematical kind of funny thing that just works perfectly you know and we just do that a lot I love that that kind of thing it's almost like things that Bach would do where he came from when I saw the man who fell to earth as a caddy I was convinced that really was yeah and to this day I could believe it yeah what you were saying about the different voice is modern love yeah right he comes in the same model in love and it was just sending me in the he didn't like to have anybody else around for some reason he just wanted to engineer and him and so he starts singing it but he he sang it in his deep Anthony newley voice yeah yeah and I shouldn't try to imitate but that's okay you know and so so we do a verse and a chorus and he stops me he's out in the studio he goes did you hang out I just could just play that back for me so he just stands there listening on his headphones I play it back because uh he's give me a sec he said seriously now it's do it do it one more time and then he sings in the up the octave shouting modern love voice yeah right a completely different character it's like somebody else walked into the room you know like who's that Oh Sam I gotta adjust the mic preamp and yes overloading and gets to the end of the the chorus and Stassi goes okay play that back for me because yeah all right yeah you just punch it from there right not don't not let me get a good take of that right punching right where I stopped and and he finished this song and then okay let's just double it and that was that was it we were done with it unbelievable I took a hat like half hour maybe at the most maybe 20 minutes oh yeah it's ridiculous oh my head standing it's yeah yeah he was the alien yeah yeah you know I'm just like like jaws on the faders it's like pretty pretty incredible yeah it was really that's one of the high points of my life I would have to say working with that guy okay I can only imagine yeah I saw I saw him live once on the last tour and I I said the person I went with you know if he plays life on Mars I'm gonna lose it that's like yeah he didn't play life on Mars strangely enough but so and if he went to that last towards a jig did you guys the last time I didn't unfortunately oh yeah well I mean we didn't know he was never gonna tour again he was only 49 or 50 I mean who thought him he would never target and all that all it was at the pond all the lights go out and this cartoon comes up and have the bat and you hear them all talking and it'll lights go back out and you just hear don't lay down down down don't an owner right yeah I burst into tears I stopped crying 20 minutes on into the drive home wow the whole show that's just it was like I knew it was a fan but you go there he played for like two and a half three hours he did three uncle's been on his last encore he came out on the last on Coney goes this is what we did when we was Iggy and played the whole of side one of Z starlet it just felt completely impromptu like why we need is a menace it plays five and you're just like it was like so beautiful better hope nothing could take away working no that's a whole no that's pretty great yeah pretty great yep and you know getting meant to the humility side I mean that was the beauty of bow wasn't it isn't that he would find people to inspire them and then he would bring them up yeah yeah would come quite often yeah I mean we have New Wave as far as I'm concerned in England because the Bowery because by we coming along and go oh by the way here's a band called The Velvet Underground and here's a guy called Lou Reed oh yeah I mean every you know new new wave and punk is New York in Detroit you know it's Iggy and and Velvet Underground and Patti Smith and all of those bad and that's what and this place CBDs I got to play there really yeah lay there 96 nice hangout right late 70s I was there every weekend yeah so yeah so that that we owe our late you know mid late 70s through mid eighties entirely to her to New York but essentially through Bowie's eyes and Bowie's he is right he was our he was our inspiration and along but along with Roxy Music I mean that stuff is very New York influence do that sort of art scene probably with the bit of like the German kind of like synth bands like Kraftwerk and stylish crept in as well but I think between like the synth bands from Germany the crouch rockers we used to call there and the New York put that together and that's where you get our Punkins new way for speaking of Bryan Ferry and Roxy's you know I just saw Bryan just played at the Greek theater we did it a few weeks ago he's still amazing he's got an incredible fans of Chris Spedding playing guitar oh wow and you know the that just I mean it was amazing I was in tears yep you know and the front-of-house guy was outrageously good it sounded so good was I was like whoo I went up and congratulate him after and sugars hand because he all you know the little delay things that I did because he did pretty much all Avalon of the album and he just nailed it I mean the band everybody that the whole thing so it was so good you know so if he's still touring you know anybody hears this you should go see that show because I should have it's outrageously I've been trying to make a point to do that I mean you know because every day I wake up and somebody's gone and I'm just like anybody comes true yeah yeah take my wife take the kids yeah like cuz yeah when are they gonna see anything of that letter ever again I know what who's doing that now you know thank you very much so welcome thank you this has been a lot of fun um for me as well oh well that I appreciate this is a real blessing to pick your brain and I picked yours a bit too which is great in between you doing probably not gonna be in there but hello got some good stuff from you a little bit but you know it's you you you've been involved in so many records that mean a lot to so much especially in the industry side you know the fact you're saying people are always like mentioning Avalon but it's not just you know somebody in the public go oh yeah I like that album it's like industry people because we love you know how seminal that work is how important it is you know and then of course you know for me tattoo you was a big one and anything Bowie and then everything else in between so much great stuff so thank you ever so much for that for sharing all of those details in there my pleasure totally been a lot of fun great so please leave any comments and questions below have a Marvis time recording mixing and everything else and we'll see you all again very soon [Music] you

Channel: Produce Like A Pro

Views: 149,775

Keywords: Warren Huart, Produce Like A Pro, Home studio, Home recording, Recording Audio, Music Production, Record Producer, Recording Studio, Bob Clearmountain, Clearmountain's Domain

Id: xsvXtTiBnV8

Length: 86min 16sec (5176 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 14 2019