How did you enter the recording world?
I played trombone and guitar in a band in high school, but I didn't like practicing that much. If you've ever seen a trombone symphonic score, it's 191 bars of rests, then a whole note, and 120 bars of rests. It wasn't for me, but I loved getting those Guitar Center, Sam Ash, and Musician's Friend catalogs! One day I got a copy of Mix. I had no idea what an engineer did. I saw an SSL console with a computer in it. I thought, "That guy's got a cool job." I ended up going to MTSU [Middle Tennessee State University]. I got an internship with Bil VornDick, an amazing bluegrass producer and engineer. The first day that I did my internship with him, we were transferring some Jerry Douglas files. Chuck Ainlay was going to mix it. I got to meet Chuck.
Another nice guy.
An amazing engineer and mixer. Later, just being young and dumb, I called Sound Stage Studios, asked for Chuck, and said, "Hey, you want an intern?" He thought I was Justin Niebank. He's like, "Hey Justin, how's it going?" I said, "Oh, you remember me?" Luckily I still did an internship with Chuck after that. I worked as hard as I could. He put in a good word with the studio manager, and they hired me on as the night manager. I worked a couple of years at Sound Stage. I ended up covering one day when Crystal Bernard was doing vocals. She was struggling with some lines. I was supposed to punch in and out, and not to do anything, but I helped her out on some lines; we got a good chemistry and flow together. We worked through the night. She helped me take out the trash! We finished her demo, and it turned out that she was dating Mike Shipley at the time. She flew back to L.A. I talked to Mike a couple of times and he gave me some pointers. He got busy and said, "Hey, do you want a gig?" I said, "Yes, I do!" They actually moved me out to L.A. He paid first and last month's rent, and then I started working with Mike. That was unbelievable.
After working for Mike Shipley for several years [see Justin's excerpt in on page 20], what did you do?
I went and worked with another producer and songwriter, Tommy Henriksen, who now plays guitar for Alice Cooper. I worked with Tommy for a little while, and convinced him to move to Nashville after a couple of years. We worked with this band, Runner Runner, trying to shop them for a deal. The first week we were here we met Bob Ezrin. He wanted to sign them; it didn't work out, but Bob and I created this relationship. I'm not working solely with Bob, but he has so much work, so I do a lot with Bob. Bob has a school in Vancouver [Nimbus School of Recording Arts] with Garth [Richardson, Tape Op #28]. He lives here, and he lives in Toronto. Where he lives is dependent on what day it is.
How long have you been working with Bob?
I think it's been about eight years. We've done Alice Cooper's Welcome 2 My Nightmare. Alice Cooper calls it the "shriekquel." We did the Hollywood Vampires' [self-titled] record. We did Phish's Fuego, Deep Purple's Now What?!, and a Kristin Chenoweth record. She's amazing.
She's the sister in Four Christmases.
Yeah! We did 2CELLOS. That was a crazy record, but cool to do.
It was a different kind of challenge?
Yeah. Johnny Reid is one of the biggest artists in Canada. His voice is like Joe Cocker, meets Rod Stewart, meets Bryan Adams. He's such an amazing singer, and a great guy. Those have been a lot of fun to record.
What's it like working with Bob Ezrin?
He's seen enough, and he will put the fear of god in you. If you can make it through the boot camp stage with him, it prepares you for so much. You can take anything. But it's great, because it saves time. You know exactly where he stands, and you know if he's not happy. When the red light goes off, he's the best guy ever. He's not mean, necessarily; just intense.
I assume you engineer on these projects?
Yeah. Tracking, mixing, as well as all the editing and overdubs. With mixing, Bob is such a hands-on producer. It's definitely a shared experience, which is great, because he has a very specific sound. There's some headbutting, for sure.
Probably good.
I think it kind of stretches both of us.
At this point are you using Bob's studio space when you need to do personal things?
I've got a little setup at home also that's nice. I have my PMC monitors, a few pieces of outboard gear, and a Dangerous D-Box. But I do a lot of sessions out of here. Bob and I just work it out, as far as cost and all that.
Do you find yourself still doing a lot of Mike Shipley-style, detailed editing?
Those skills come in handy. Every now and then, we'll hit a song that needs to be just perfect and chopped up. I got pretty quick at editing. I kind of do a little bit of everything here, which is fun.
The Hollywood Vampires' self-titled album sounded like a crazy session. It's based on John Lennon, Harry Nilsson, and Alice Cooper hanging at the Rainbow Bar & Grill in the mid-'70s, right?
Yeah. I guess Johnny [Depp] and Alice met on that movie, Dark Shadows. Alice was telling him about the Hollywood Vampires. "Wouldn't it be great to get the band together?" Johnny plays guitar – he's a great guitarist. It's a bunch of cover songs of what Alice calls the "dead drunk friends." One after another, all these legendary artists came in to sing on these songs. It started out just having Johnny in there, who's awesome and super cool. Then Brian Johnson [AC/DC] came in. He was singing in the control room here with a [Shure] Beta 58. It was a little bit surreal having Brian Johnson sitting right next to me, singing in my ear.
Man, that's crazy.
We started doing a lot of the recording at Johnny Depp's house.
In L.A.?
Yeah. Joe Perry was hanging out, so he started playing on a bunch of songs. Then Paul McCartney. I mean, come on. I got to record him playing piano, playing bass, and singing. That day was incredible. I woke up in a hotel room to a text that said Jerrod Niemann's "Drink to That All Night," which I had engineered and mixed, had gone to number one. I went up to Johnny Depp's house and set up for Paul McCartney. It was the best work day that I've had. He was so nice.
Was Bob Ezrin producing this album?
Yeah. He had to leave – it's kind of a funny story. He produced the band. The band on the floor was Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums, Johnny Depp on guitar, Joe Perry on guitar, and Bruce Witkin was playing bass for tracking sessions. Paul was on piano and singing, Alice was doing background vocals. It was so much fun. Then Bob produced the vocals. Bob was actually in the live room with Paul. It was a cool interplay and energy between the two.
