How did you get into recording?
As a kid we had this little, flat Panasonic tape recorder. I would go around and make up songs. I would tape soundtracks off of television and then I'd listen to them. I would make up plays, like do Star Wars, on tape. But very few songs at first. Mostly I was using it to spy on people. I'd record something and listen to it later. I got into doing music from hanging out with bands. I had a Walkman with a good stereo microphone and I'd just find a good sweet-spot. It was an Aiwa and I wish I still had it. It got the greatest sound. From that I went to four track. Then I went to the EVIL Full Sail Center for the Recording Arts.
You did?!! Oh my god. Elaborate please!
It's a lot of money and it's a good program but in retrospect, I would have purchased a four track and saved myself $20,000. Here's the thing: There's nothing like walking in on your first day and being on a Neve console. But then again, you're not going to walk in on a Neve console out of school. Yeah, it's nice to learn on all the bells and whistles and to have the chance to see what it's like to record huge sounding stuff. I basically went there because I was really interested in doing it, and I had been doing it on two and four track, but I wanted to know all the laws and reasons and theories... so I could break them! And that's basically what happened. I went there and everyone that was there was either into hip hop or metal and I was kind of into my own thing. Really into the Beach Boys, Neil Young, Guided By Voices and stuff. So I'm in there getting weird in a totally different way and they're going, "You can't do that. That's not the way it's supposed to be." I'm like, "But it sounds great." There's no rights or wrongs, there's just good and bad.
Did the instructors really tell you...
There were times where they were, "Well, that's just not the way we do it."
But if you're achieving an end...
They didn't understand the times where I wanted to overload a channel on the board to rip the vocals up. "You're distorting!" "I know. Thanks! If you want to give me a preamp I can rip up instead of the board preamp I'd be more than happy to but that's the sound I want." It really helps when you get to understand how frequencies work with each other. That is insane. A lot of people don't realize how muddy their tapes get because there's too much in there. If you would just EQ in the negative a little bit. Just take a little bit out here and there. That's all you have to do. I rarely ever add on EQ but I love to take things out. That frequency may not be something that's all that great about that instrument but it washes out the part that is great about another instrument. Toms and bass drums I do it all the time. Upper range vocals and guitar. Snare and guitar. There's different places where they overlap. You really have to get in there and make room at times. If you have time, whether it be because you're doing it at your house or you're doing it in a studio where there's more budget, money wise. Ideally, you'll move your microphones until you've done it. Sometimes people will look too much at one thing. "We have to get the snare just right." Put the guitar in and pop the EQ in and out and see whether you like it better or not. It may not have any effect. You may sit there and tweak on a frequency that's buried by the guitar. You always gotta look at the big picture. How's this gonna sound at the end? Think about it. "I want this, in itself, to be a really good sound." How's it gonna sound with everything else? You don't want it to sound layered; you want it to sound like it happened all at once. That's the hardest thing. It's like this live thing; explaining to the guys that you really need to turn down so I can make it louder.
So you're doing sound on this tour. That sounds like fun.
It is fun. It's a challenge going into a different room every night.
Are you bringing any stuff with you?
I brought no gear. We have a tech rider, and every place pretty much has what we ask for. You walk in, you don't know what the mics are, but you know you're gonna get one of three or four different units. The boards are different everywhere. One night you're reaching down here for the pan and the next night that's not the pan, it's the gain. Soundcraft boards have the gain right above the fader where most boards have it at the top. On top of their's is the pan.
I try to avoid doing live sound as much as I can. It's hard.
It's way hard and it burns your ears. I like Bob and the band a lot. Any opportunity to work with them is great. We just recorded some demos that went really well at my house. Bob and I recorded 25 songs in ten hours.
He said he had a bunch of stuff.
He came over to the house at noon and at ten o'clock he left my house with a tape of 25 songs. It's incredible. The guy's no joke. He just sits down and bangs them out. He wrote 16 of the songs in one day.
Were they just guitar and vocal?
Yeah, guitar and vocal. I play the e-bow guitar on one track but that's it. Some guitars we'd do a couple of tracks.
So you worked with the Amps a little bit?
I recorded some stuff on the Amps' record, Pacer.
Where were you doing that out of?
We did that at Cybertechnics in Dayton, Ohio. That's the place that Kim (Deal) and I did the Brainiac Internationale EP.
