The other day I was listening to Let's Welcome the Circus People and it credits you as the producer, but I didn't see any mention of a 4- track and the recording quality is pretty high compared to some of your other stuff.
Yeah, that one was mostly done on an Alesis ADAT and a Studio 32 board so I can go up to 16 tracks, which is what I'd like to do eventually. The stuff that I did on Moonflower Plastic, outside of the studio stuff, was done on an 8-track cassette and a 4-track cassette and there's a big difference in the sound quality of the ADAT.
Have you been upgrading your stuff pretty steadily over the years?
Pretty much. My ultimate goal is to get a 24-track analog machine, but it's just expensive. You've got to have somebody that can work on it, and you've got to find one to begin with. They're expensive and a problem to maintain and there aren't really a lot of people up here who could even work on it. So eventually I'd like to do that, but for the time being I'm just going to be using the ADAT because it seems to be working out pretty well and it's easy to use and there's not a lot of problems like with a tape machine.
Do you find yourself being drawn to the analog sound instead of the digital stuff?
Yeah, quite a bit. Mostly just for the saturation point that you can get with tape and you can't get it on the ADAT. They are getting better to where you can get a nice sound on them but they still don't have the warmth that you get from tape, I don't think. A lot of people say they can't tell the difference, but I can hear the difference in a lot of the stuff.
Is there any piece of equipment that you really like that you've stuck with over the years?
There's a couple of microphones that I still use. There's an Electro-Voice that's more of a stage mic that I still use just because it has more of a crisp sound to it. And then I've got a CAD E-100 vocal mic that I've been using — I was using that with the 8-track too. That's got a nice large diaphragm so it really picks up the vocals really well. Aside from that I still use the Memory Man [analog delay pedal] occasionally on some vocal sounds because that was really the only thing that we had on the 4-track for effects. It was just an echo and a chorus on it.
And you used that for a lot of the Guided by Voices stuff?
Yeah, most of the vocal sounds were done through that.
Do have an actual studio set up a home now, or do you pretty much just pull the Alesis out and do it all in the bedroom?
Actually my board is set up in a box with the 8-track in one unit and it's up on casters so I can move it around to the drums and I can actually set the sounds while I'm playing the drums. And then the other equipment, the outboard stuff, is in another thing like that and when I mix I can hook them up and so it's easy to use one-man wise.
So you do most of the recording process by yourself then?
Pretty much unless Jim Eno [of Spoon] is in town. He's been up here and there are some other drummers that I've used, but pretty much when I'm just getting the ideas down I'm recording by myself.
With the new Eyesinweasel double LP of demos and unreleased stuff, I think that it's really interesting to hear some of the songs, like "Digging Up Wooden Teeth", that you recorded a while ago and then redid for the Let's Welcome the Circus People album. There are big differences in how the versions sound.
It's definitely tighter on the album but a lot of the stuff on [the new Eyesinweasel record] are the 4-track demos from before I set up here after we moved. I was just using the 4-track to get the ideas down and that's why they're muddier and stuff. I still use the 4-track just to get ideas, and then sometimes I'll bounce them over to the 8-track and finish them off.
So the 4-track is now pretty much just for ideas?
Sometimes I'm shooting for a finished product and then other times I'm not and they'll still turn out pretty nice. I usually try and get a pretty good sound anyway in case I decide to use it later on instead of taking it into the studio.
Yeah, I actually like the demo version of "To My Beloved Martha" a little better than the album version from Carnival Boy. It's got a really cool sound to it.
That was one that Todd Robinson (from Luna Music, he's kind of the one that talked me into doing this album) dug up from some place, and I was kind of glad that he brought that one back because I hadn't heard that since I did it.
So you're officially affiliated with the Luna label these days?
Well, I'm Wigwam/Recordhead [both labels are associated with Luna Music] and he kind of does the foot work and the selling of the record and that way I can just worry about getting the record done. It's a fifty-fifty deal so it works out pretty nice.
Do you think of recording as an integral part of the music? I know some people think of it as part of the art and other see it more as an obstacle to getting the record out and onto the shelf.
Yeah, the process itself with the effects and the vocals and different things. They're textures and they can set the mood and you can use different sounds just as much as you can use words. You can use the different types of textures and sounds that you get out of recording... and a lot of times I'll even record knowing that it wouldn't go over well live. I mean you couldn't do it live, but that's the essence of the recording part of it.
So you end up spending a lot of time in the mix down process experimenting?
I used to, but it would seem like I'd get to a point where it wouldn't get any better and I'd just end up messing it up. [laugh] So a lot of times once I get a really good mix I'll just try and stay with it. I mean sometimes I'll try to go back and mix it a few more times, but usually that first mix is the best.
Do you usually go ahead and mix right after you've recorded or do you like to wait a while and go back to it later?
I usually try to mix it right away because I'll have it set and as I'm recording I'll have the levels where I need them and also I want to make sure I get to it before my kids get down there and start turning knobs. [laughter] Plus I'll want to hear it. You know you've got to mix it down so you can hear it in the car right away. [laughter]
Do you just mix to cassette or do you have a reel machine or something else?
No, I've got a DAT. A dual DAT so that I can actually do two tapes. But I'll mix it to DAT and then over to cassette and then once I've listened to it in the car and it sounds okay then it's pretty much finished.
What about at Cro-Magnon [Guided by Voices Dayton, Ohio, studio of choice]? I take it you've known John Shough [Cro-Magnon's owner/engineer] for quite a while?
