Interviews

Ethan Johns/Luther Russell

My friend Luther Russell and I have worked together on a number of records for artists and years ago we spent a lot of an Internet music site's money making a solo record for Luther that never came out. One day I received an excited call from him saying he'd be working with Glyn Johns in the studio the following morning. Glyn, whose discography reads like the history of music in the'60s and '70s (the Beatles, the Who, the Stones, the Clash, the Faces, Led Zeppelin), was in town to help Ethan sort out the console he'd given him and ended up helping with a day's worth of tracking on Luther's album that Ethan was producing and playing on. I also was curious about an artist's reaction to Ethan's live recording process.

How did the session with Glyn come about?

Ethan and I had talked about the coming sessions for a while, sort of waiting patiently for the appropriate window to start this particular type of thing. When the window finally came and he invited me down, he told me that his dad was in town and he would be joining us initially to assist with the sessions. Before I knew it we were cutting the first two songs.

What was Glyn like to work with?

I knew it was a rare opportunity and that Ethan and Glyn hadn't done much together by way of co-production or anything, so I was really ready to learn a lot. The short time I had to work with Glyn was extremely fun, informative and invaluable as a studio experience. Most of all it was just an honor to have someone of that caliber focus on my music.

How did Ethan's wanting to get live performances change the way you've worked in the past?

MORE INTERVIEWS

Recording Nona Invie’s <i>Self-soothing</I>
INTERVIEWS · ISSUE #167 · Apr 2026

Recording Nona Invie’s Self-soothing

By John Baccigaluppi

On Friday mornings I go to the new releases page on Tidal and wade through the new music released each week. I'll check out records from artists I know, but what I really enjoy is finding new music from an artist I'm not familiar with that resonates with me. On the last day of...

M. Ward
INTERVIEWS · ISSUE #167 · Apr 2026

M. Ward Leaving the Door Open to Chaos

By Geoff Stanfield

Geoff Stanfield spoke with M. Ward for an episode of the Tape OpPodcast in August of 2023, around the time of his album supernatural thing was released. Here they dig into his love of collaborations, his analog approach to recording, and more.

Daniel Tashian
INTERVIEWS · ISSUE #166 · Apr 2026

Daniel Tashian Having Fun

By Larry Crane

In 2017, one of my best friends, Craig Alvin [Tape Op#137], kept texting me about a record he was engineering. He was saying how amazing the process was, and how awesome the results were. The album turned out to be Kacey Musgraves' Golden Hour, which went on to be a platinum...