You had a studio in the back of your house before this?
I've had it in my house, I've had it behind my house. I had one in about 1978 — we had one up North Memphis, sort of way out in this house. We bought a Scully 4-track from Stax and we just recorded some blues and some bands from around there.
How much was that an hour?
Oh shit... I don't even remember money! All I remember is spending money! For a 4-track — like $2750 for it. I went to the bank and I was probably 19. Got my Mom, and they were going like, "Y'all need money on... what?" At that time in Memphis that was the anti- Christ. Music at that point in Memphis had just [downward whoosh]. All the bankers had pulled all the money from Stax and all the people and they crumbled.
Big-time financial nightmare there.
Yeah! So I'm goin' down there, "Loan me some money, I'll pay ya' back!" [laughs] You know, four full tracks and a little room. It was fun. Then I made it into my house. And then I built another place behind my house, which a tree just fell on the other day. Mick Davis sorta got involved with me. Davis McCain, my partner, he got involved with me. We kept looking for a place. Actually, this place sorta walked into our studio one day. We had a 24 sitting there and some guy came in and said, "Damn, I got a building."
You lease it?
Yeah.
So this used to be a studio before?
Yeah. It's got a really bitchin' ad. This is the first studio Chips Moman built in Memphis [American East]. From the ground up. Everything else — they've just converted a building.
What year?
Sixty-eight. You know, Memphis had such promise in the music world. Billboard had its own little...
...a section for Memphis?
Oh yeah, 'cuz they were kickin' ass.
What year did you move into this space?
We got here in '90. So we've been here 14 years, Davis and I.
I first heard about you guys through The Grifters.
Right. I've always felt that Memphis is great at exporting local products and everything. Especially music. To sort of support things you always had to get it out of here. I always wanted to get into that exporting away from here 'cuz I realized the local scene is not enough to support bands and music. And it sort of worked that way but it actually sort of flip-flopped on us and people came here. And it was freaky, just odd. I guess I expected more like every Memphis band is gonna make a record and go out and do it.
It seemed like in the mid-'90s there was just this huge rush to come record here.
It was unbelievable.
Sonic Youth, Pavement...
Yeah, it was very unusual. Really, you go to the dressing rooms you can sort of tie it all together. You see them all on the same circuit, you know?
Do you think The Grifters were the first band to get around?
I think they were. They did a lot. It could have been Elvis! I really think the mystique of Memphis goes way deeper than anything that somebody can put a finger on. And I do believe [that] not only Elvis but everyone that came after him that really kicked ass.
Sonic Youth came here...
Sonic Youth. They had like 30 racks of guitars, you know? I wanted to go in there one morning before anyone came in and just [makes strumming sound] each one of 'em in their chord. Cuz every headstock, you know, had tape on it.
And it had the notes...
It had the tuning. Had the gauges. It was always strange on their recordings — the VUs do the weirdest shit.
'Cuz of the beats and things of the tunings?
It was just unbelievable to watch.
I never thought about that.
They just freaked out! They would get into these frenzies, you know. It was great.
Was it in some ways eye opening for you to deal with different kinds of music than you'd...
Oh yeah, sure. To me it all is sort of the same language, you know? You try to inflict taste in art and good decision in it, you know? If you're open enough you can hopefully absorb that and appreciate, help and assist, you know? But ultimately it's the band making the music, I think. [We get] a lot of self-produced bands here. Very few producers here. These bands are just poppin' up and we weren't gonna stop 'em, you know, "You can't do that!" Jim Dickinson said, "Memphis is the sort of town where if you start doin' something totally crazy nobody's gonna stop you." But a lot of places will! I sort of take pride in that, that I'm just tryin' to have fun. I was really convinced by the local scene. I grew up around a lot of the Box Tops and that. A lot of big brothers were in bands like that. Lotta gold records like on the wall down the street. I'm not quite that old, I'm 46. I mean my brother got me doin' this stuff. He used to do a lot of studio stuff so I would go with him to some of his studio gigs and watch it. And actually most of the equipment I bought came from that studio that he worked at a lot.
What studio was that?
It was actually that TMI [Trans-Maximus Studio] that [Steve] Cropper had. They did a lot of jingle stuff later. You know it was full-on union. It was a cool gig, you know — union paid jingle mill. No synthesizers. Voices out the wazoo, full orchestration.
Your brother was playing bass on those kind of sessions?
Yeah, yeah. He was a hippie and making lots of money on this union stuff. And that was really sort of the last of the music union they all had here. It's pretty sad.
One of the things that impressed me here is the amount of musical instruments at this studio.
I just thought all studios had these — don't they?
I wish!
Oh man, it seems like all these guys I see, you know these pictures in y'alls' magazine...
They got tons of stuff?
It seems like it. I go, who is their DADDY?! You know? [laughs] All the keyboards and stuff down here, they have attitudes as much as the feistiest guitar you've ever touched. They're not the pristine specimen, but then I consider that part of the paintbrush. People come down with an attitude, "I can't play this instrument!" If you can pick something up, if you're really musical, you can make something musical out of it. They're all sort of crazy. The Mellotron — that's a freaky device. I more or less compare that to a lawnmower for some reason. You sorta have to get it running and it might spit. But you'll get the weirdest, haunting kinda sound outta that damn thing.
Yeah.
You know, I like mechanical shit. That's probably why I'm not a huge fan of computers. I just don't have the patience for it. I like things to be off the cuff and unrehearsed as much as possible. Spontaneous. I don't like meticulous. I just don't have the patience to go in and clean stuff up in Pro Tools or something.
Do you have Pro Tools here?
