What does S.D.R.L. stand for?
It stands for Stereo Disguise Recording Laboratories. It could also be San Diego Recording Laboratories. I did the studio at my house for a while, and the records I was doing there I just put S.D.R.L. or Stereo Disguise [on the credits]. Eventually I wanted to get out of my house because I couldn't be loud as often as I wanted. Zach Smith [Armistead Burwell Smith IV] from Three Mile Pilot and Pinback is really into recording, too. We're always swapping and sharing gear. He's always helped me, as well as Jason Soares, as far as computer software and things like that. We decided to build a place down at Zach's spot because he had a bigger room. His dad is an architect and owns the buildings. We built a smaller studio in there and it turned out great and it was a really good spot — for one person. We quickly realized that we both couldn't be doing work in there, and Pinback is busy all the time. I'm the one out of all of us that's really into recording other people's bands, obviously besides Rafter [Roberts, Singing Serpent]. I wanted to have a facility to make records for bands as well as my own.
Do you feel like this started as gear for you to use and then evolved into working with other bands?
It started off more for my own stuff — for Black Heart's Amore Del Tropico album. I had always done 4- tracking but I'd never really recorded a band until I got the Studer [A80 MKII]. I had the Studer and I was going to be doing the Black Heart record. I had a band called Teacher's Pet come in to test everything. I was like, "Let me try and record you guys." They came and I did a handful of songs for them. I got into gear. It's like an addiction. Once I had a few positive experiences of recording a band and seeing them happy, I really got into that. But gets really tough to have a business like this. I can't give too good of a deal because we have to pay our rent. Moving into this place, bands walk in and they realize it's a legitimate space. When it's in your house, you can kind of be like, "Oh, I don't have extra rent to cover." Here we have to pay rent every month. We have bills.
There's going to be a certain amount of overhead every month. How did you hook up with your partner Brad [Lee]?
Brad runs a small record label here in town called Loud and Clear Records. It's a very small record label with cool bands. He plays trumpet in this other project I do called Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects and was in a band called Manuok. I told him I was looking for a place and he knew I recorded. He said, "I don't know how to record bands but I really want to get into that. I would love to own a studio and be able to be a part of things and help out." We decided to go into it together. We had both been looking on Craigslist and searching all over around town. I had been looking for a place for four years. Then he came across this place that said "Recording Studio for Lease." I think there had been two previous owners in here before. It's been here for ten or fifteen years.
Had you heard of it at all?
No. I'd never been here. Next door they supply analog tape and they do CD duplication and I'd been over there. In the ad it said, "Check with Advance Recording Supplies." I was like, "I didn't know they had a studio over there." I walk in here and it was kind of dumped out a little. Brad and I came in here and I was like, "This is the place." We had checked out several buildings and had looked at building our own studio. This was already built and ready to go. We put new carpet in and painted the walls black. Everything was dead, so we cut the carpet out and painted the cement in the live room so we could have a live drum sound. We vacuumed, cleaned and fixed the place up as well as we could.
Are there any noise problems? Can you make as much noise as you want at any time of day?
We can make as much noise as we want anytime. Next door is a vending supply warehouse. Every now and then I'll hear some banging going. They were building a big shelf cabinet and they were hammering directly on our wall while we were doing drum takes and we actually used part of it once. For some reason he was throwing two by fours on the ground and it was almost like it was right in time. He must have been listening or something.
So you just jumped in and grabbed the lease?
We got a really good deal. He's been a pretty cool landlord, letting us fix it up however we want. In the first month it was tricky with Brad, because he really wanted to learn, but we also had to get moving and start. He's been really patient. He's been doing the scheduling and bookkeeping, but now he can actually run a session and he helps me.
Part of the thing about learning is just being immersed in it.
Now he knows the names of microphones. When we're having a session I can say, "Can you grab this?" He knows how to arm tracks. There's always more to learn. He's been really great and now I actually feel like I have an assistant engineer.
Maybe he can do some things that you can't fit into your schedule.
Exactly. Or if somebody comes in and they don't care who's engineering. A lot of bands come in here and they want to work with me. I like when somebody wants to have my creative input.
When did you start using digital recording gear?
I got into [Sony's] Vegas. That was the first computer program that I started working [with] — that was mostly because Rafter Roberts and Zach Smith were into it. I learned on that and it started falling short. Then I got Pro Tools LE for a while and that pissed me off so much that I just wanted to kill.
What was pissing you off about it?
It was just crashing all the time. I had to call the number and they wanted to charge me for everything. At that same time Zach said, "You should just try Cubase." I started working with Cubase a bit with some Three Mile Pilot projects and I quickly realized how user-friendly [it is]. Everything just runs really easy.
What version of Cubase do you run?
SX3 at 24-bit, 88.2 kHz.
With Cubase you're using the Apogee Rosetta 800 and an Apogee Big Ben to clock everything, with RME cards inside the computer. How many channels does that give you of analog I/O?
I have sixteen in and out. I'll move up to twenty-four at some point, but I don't see the need for it. I do outboard mixing sometimes. I've done records many different ways, from the tape machine or bouncing from the computer back to the tape machine just to get it onto tape. I've mixed through the console from the computer and (obviously) from the tape machine through the console. After trying all these different ways, for me the cleanest and best way that I've found that I prefer is to track everything into the computer or the tape machine — either dump the tape machine down to the computer or leave it on the tape machine if we can really do that. I'd love to do that if everyone is willing, but that takes more time and money. Once I have stuff in the computer, I generally keep it in the computer. I'll maybe send out to my AKG BX20E [spring reverb]. I love that thing. I don't have a plate reverb here. That would be cool someday.
If you're working in Cubase, do you send tracks to that and then record them back in?
I'll either record them back in, or if I really have the time and we're focused on a session I'll do a live mix. Sometimes I'll run out to a compressor. It really depends on the band, but most of the time I'm keeping it in the computer.
Is that due to budgets and the flexibility of recall?
Exactly — being able to recall a mix and then somebody coming in and wanting vocals or anything a little bit quieter or louder.
What about your own stuff? Say you're working on a Black Heart Procession track.
Up until the new one we'd done them all to a tape machine. We did the first three BHP records up at Bear Creek Studio [Woodinville, WA], with Ryan Hadlock producing and Zach Reinig assisting. During that time frame between our third record and Amore Del Tropico was when I was getting into recording.
That's exactly the time period that I recorded Black Heart at Jackpot!
I think I was asking you a bunch of questions at that time.
You were, and then you haven't come back and spent a bunch of money in my studio! Wait a minute. Did you pick Ryan's brain too?
Sorry! That's someone I have to credit to. Ryan Hadlock was an inspiration. Going up to Bear Creek Studio was a huge inspiration. The Hadlock family is really cool and they just have a beautiful studio up there. We had some amazing times recording.
It's peaceful there.
When I started buying equipment Zach Reinig flew down to San Diego and we bought my console in New Mexico for seventeen hundred bucks. I had a Studer [A80 tape deck] shipped to me from Australia. The first one came and it was broken in half so I rejected the shipment. Luckily we had insurance on it and the guy gave me a 24-track for the same price. I paid for better shipping. I still feel really nervous every time I calibrate this thing.
Did you learn how to bias it?
No. To be honest, everything I've learned is mostly from experience. I've made a bunch of records at other people's studios and then I began making my own records. I have a tech that comes in here who will help me calibrate and bias. I kind of stand there and go, "Okay. I've got it." But then every time it comes time to do it I'm a bit nervous. There are so many things I would love to learn, but I've learned so much as well.
It's interesting to talk about the jump that you made from someone who lets someone else do the technical stuff, to going, "I'm going to try recording myself."
I'll tell you this — going from a musician to actually being an engineer, producer — I suddenly have gained a huge amount of patience for any engineer. You know, musicians are pains in the asses. It's really helped my own structure as far as songwriting goes. I've always wanted to figure things out by myself.
