So you started Zippah Studio when?
Um, 1989.
Did you have a partner?
I started it by myself, but soon realized I'd need someone to share the rent with. Keep in mind, at this point, Zippah was basically more like a little rehearsal room than a recording studio. It was just this small room, probably 12' by 12', and we slapped a wall up in the middle so we had a 6x12 "control closet" and a 6x12 "live closet." If you wanted to record drums, there was really only enough room for a small drum kit and maybe a bass player going direct. It was just ridiculously tiny. I think the rent was, like, 300 bucks a month — not a bargain at the time. The place was less of a studio and more of a "place to keep my gear." Anyway, this guy named Mark Wlodarkiewicz, with whom I'd gone to college but didn't know all that well, stepped into the picture and became my partner. He had a lot of gear, mostly MIDI stuff, sequencers, keyboards, and a couple of Macintosh SEs. Mark has since moved to the West Coast and last I heard he was working with Calexico and doing a lot of sound design for major films.
It's surprising that you had a big MIDI setup at the early Zippah, considering how "vintage"-oriented the studio is now. Did you always have the vintage gear setup as a goal, or did you just kind of happen into it?
That's a good question. Keep in mind that in the late '80s there wasn't much emphasis on the "coolness" of vintage gear.
Right. It was the opposite, actually.
Yeah, and at the time I was lucky enough to buy some really nice things early on before the prices got ridiculous. I remember there was almost a patronizing attitude toward the older equipment. Sort of like, "Oh, that compressor has a charming sound to it, but of course it's old," and, "... yeah, can you believe that thing uses tubes?!"
The eighties seemed to be the time when Japanese studio owners started coming here and snapping up all the old tube stuff. They knew, but we hadn't figured it out yet.
Right. So, from the beginning, I think my attitude was not necessarily "old school/vintage gear" but more like "I like recording people playing instruments. I like it when people make music from themselves." I understood what MIDI could do and definitely liked some music that was made with sequencers and computers, but my personal musical tastes ran towards predominantly performed music. I figured, too, that it wouldn't hurt for me to focus on a certain style of recording and over the years, this "performance-based" niche sort of naturally lent itself to the whole vintage/analog/tube/whatever- you-want-to-call-it aesthetic.
So, when Mark left, did you replace him?
Ken Thomas basically took Mark's place when Mark moved to the West Coast around '92. There had been an overlap era when the three of us were sharing the expenses. Brian Charles was a freelance engineer and brought a few bands into Zippah around this time. Eventually, Ken and I asked Brian if he wanted to buy into Zippah. I should say that, by this time, we had moved from the "closet" space to a much larger part of the same building — we could actually record full bands and started to develop a reputation around town for getting good sounds cheap. Anyway, Ken eventually bowed out, selling his share to Brian. That brings us up to date — which is the Zippah ownership chronology in a nutshell.
How did Zippah grow to the size it is now?
The first few years, when we all had day jobs, we were very careful to dump any studio-related income back into the studio. If you do that for a few years you can amass a pretty nice pile of gear. Around '93 we moved all the gear into a larger space and started recording better and better bands.
As a producer, do you have a philosophy that guides you with the kind of work you do?
Something I've been trying to do for the past few years is to really get to know the artist. Get a really clear idea of what they want. Some artists want a producer's personal taste stamped onto a recording and others have a definite sense of what their record should sound like. Strangely, one of the toughest things is trying to get a sense of which way an artist wants their relationship to a producer to be. They may say one thing and mean another.
Sometimes they don't know.
Right. Getting to know them as a person and artist kind of helps you at least get a better idea.
Zippah seems like — because of the way you guys put it together — that it's kind of better suited to more organic music.
When we did our major re-design/renovation about five years ago, the three of us sat down and tried to figure out how best to use the space. We found we had just enough space for a typical four- or five-piece band to set up — fairly comfortably — in the same room. And we still had space for a decent control room with a big console, multitracks, and a fairly big rack of gear. What we felt we did not have room for were computer monitors, keyboards, that kind of thing. So we figured, well, we've got a good rep for recording rock-oriented stuff, let's make this a cool, mostly- analog, vintage-type place.
We should talk about the equipment at Zippah. It's definitely part of the character of the sounds that come out of there. Would you say the Neve is the central article of enchantment?
Oh, sure. When it comes to equipment, people keep returning to Zippah for two reasons: the Neve console and the Neumann U47. The Neve is a gem. We were so lucky to get it when we got it.
How'd that happen?
Not that it was cheap, but it wasn't crazy money like they tend to be now. Since the early days of Zippah we had a very serviceable, but not very exotic, Tascam board. I actually forget the model number. But we recorded tons of indie rock albums on the Tascam with no complaints. It had sort of a harsh upper end, but, actually, I always kind of liked the bottom end of it. Anyway, we tracked with a variety of outboard preamps, including a few Neves, and mixed through the Tascam with fine results. But we became frustrated with the Tascam's limitations and started talking about getting, say, an Allen & Heath or something in that range. It would have been kind of the next logical step up in consoles. But, as we were shopping around for a new board, we eventually realized that we wanted something a bit more "pro." We — thank God — decided to stick with the Tascam for another year or two — like I said, it was certainly a good enough board to make cool indie records with — and squirrel away all the studio income in hopes of getting a Neve. And about two years later, we found a great Neve broadcast board from the mid-1970s through a broker. It had been at the BBC — they had used it for television broadcasts. We don't know specifically what the BBC used it for but, hey, given the time frame, it could very well be the Benny Hill or Monty Python board. [laughs] It's a 36-channel desk with 8 busses and 4 sends — just enough bells and whistles to do your normal routing tasks — and with that thick Neve sound. The modules are the 33114s and it has two 2254A compressors built in.
Did you have to do any modifications to it?
Yes, a few routing- and monitoring-related things had to be done. It was a bit scary buying it because we had to trust the broker in his description of the board. We couldn't afford to fly over to London and check it out. But we were aware of the BBC's spotless engineering and maintenance reputation, so that put us at ease a bit. One last- minute panic occurred when the console was actually in transit to Boston — we thought, "Oh my God, this board was used for TV sound in the 1970s ... what if it's a MONO board?!" It was one of those issues that never occurred to us to ask about. Luckily, the board was stereo. Upside down pan pots and everything — instead of "center" being 12 o'clock on the pot, it's 6 o'clock. It took some getting used to, but it's very British...
The sound of the Neve is certainly one of the main reasons we keep recording at Zippah. It's got such a musical, kind of, creamy tone. What other pieces of gear at Zippah are your favorites?
