When did you decide, "Okay, I'm serious about recording?"
I dropped out of my second semester of college [in 1997] to be a rock and roller. I started my first for- real studio in a commercial sense in 2001. I had this warehouse loft space that was pretty fuckin' nightmarish. It was 7-foot ceilings, no heat or air and there were no glass in the windows when I got it. But I paid forty bucks a month for it.
Forty bucks?
It wasn't worth $41. That's where the first Lords full- length, Swords, was recorded. Eventually I moved into a slightly better space. A friend of mine [Kent Obryan] got a degree in engineering, and his mom helped him buy a building. He had a nice spot, but he didn't have much in the way of equipment. I had started to accumulate some fairly nice equipment.
The first Lords EP, The House That Lords Built, was recorded on ADATs and a Peavey Mark IV '70s console. I took all that stuff over to Kent's space to do the drums. His room has 12-foot ceilings, hardwood floors — a huge difference. It's good enough to get some really cool drums. We did the drums there, and from that point he was always like, "You should move in here and we'll team up." I was reluctant to do that for a long time — if I don't have to work with somebody else or in that kind of situation I'd rather not. But eventually I ended up moving in, and it's been working out pretty well. I don't pay rent — I pay a percentage of what I charge, which is convenient for times like this when I'm on tour for a month. Then I don't have to pay anything and Kent can use my stuff for free while I'm gone.
Is that where you do most of your work?
Yeah. Actually I've never recorded anything outside of my own studio. I'd like to. I've talked to a couple of bands about going different places, but it never ends up panning out.
Your rates seem really low. Maybe that's my San Francisco perspective.
It's definitely a geographic thing. You were talking about paying $750 a month [in San Francisco] for a rehearsal space... you could own a house [in Louisville] for less than that. I've been looking into buying a building. There are places I've been looking at that are 5000-square-foot commercial buildings in industrial areas, which are selling for $80,000 or $100,000. A mortgage on that is about $680 [per month]. Staying in Louisville is the one advantage. There's not as many bands as say, in San Francisco, but I'm a day's drive from anywhere on the East Coast. Probably more than half of the business I do is bands that travel to Louisville. It's oftentimes cheaper for them to do that than it is to record somewhere in their own town.
Most of your records have a similar sonic footprint — they're dark, they're un- hyped, they sound great loud. The drums are very present, but the cymbals aren't all shitty and bright. The kick drums sound like the opposite of most kick drums that you hear in heavy music these days.
Drums are one of the things that I enjoy and have the most ideas about. They can make or break a record. To me, that's the thing that makes an album heavy the most. When I listen to a lot of modern metal recordings, sometimes it sounds cool, but I'm just like, "That's not what drums sound like." I've never heard a kick drum, when I was in a room with it, that sounded like a finger snap with sub bass. I guess I just have a different vision of when I hear a band. I think I hear a certain way. When I do a recording, I'm trying to translate that. I guess most of the bands that I do — I don't do a lot of advertising or anything — if they find me, it's because they know what they're getting into, and that's what they want.
I think if most people tried to describe your records, they'd say, "That sounds very analog."
That's hilarious, because it's...
...totally digital, right?
Completely.
And you use Samplitude [by Magix].
That's the software I use. I've used Nuendo and Pro Tools. I was more familiar with Samplitude, so I stuck with it. Sonically I didn't notice a difference. Last year I ended up getting a DDA [DMR12] console, so now I use the computer like a tape machine.
So are you mixing on the DDA?
I am. But probably most of the records that you've heard haven't been, because I just got it a year ago. I do notice a significant improvement in my mixes. I always had this trouble with low end and getting stuff deep but not muddy, you know? That's a struggle that summing outboard seems to have largely negated.
You don't have that much outboard gear.
I've got a couple [Empirical Labs] Distressors, a [Universal Audio] 1176, some [FMR] RNCs and a couple of dbx units. With guitars and bass I never compress. So if I'm doing anything, it's usually drum bus or vocals. Most of the time I'll [compress] vocals on the way in.
How about rides?
I'll usually do all the automation on the computer. I can usually set the faders at zero.
So are you just summing on the DDA? Are you using the EQs?
I'm mostly summing through it, and on occasion I'll use a little bit of the EQ. I won't use a whole lot of EQ most of the time. Mostly what I do is with drum stuff — I have a couple of different drum busses and different levels of squashing and destroying going on with them.
Your drums definitely all have a certain thing. Maybe it's the room too?
Depending on the record, some of them were done at the old space and some were done at the new space — a lot of people don't know the difference when they listen. Swords was recorded at the old space, and the room — I mean it's like this [holds up hand], you know? And it was difficult — I had to do lots of cheating and trickery. People will sometimes talk to me about the drums, "Dude, they sound huge, like this huge, explosive room!" and I'm like, "No. No."
Do you approach most records similarly? Are your mic techniques consistent?
I rarely mic stuff the same. I have the drummer come in, set up his kit, we'll tune it and I'll just listen in the room and go from there. I usually start with the drums. I'll spend a lot of time with mic selection.
Are you building mixes as you track? How different are your basics from your mixes?
When I'm getting the basic stuff, I want to get it as close to what the end product will be as I can — as close to what the band wants the mix to sound like. Especially with the limited amount of gear that I'm working with, it's extra important to do that. But I don't really mix as I go. Sometimes I compress on the way in — with vocals a lot of times, occasionally kick drum, or sometimes room mics for effect. I never EQ going in. I try to keep as pure a signal as I can and work with mic selection and mic placement to get the sound that we want.
It sounds like you generally take drums first, with headphones and scratch everything else.
Not all the time, but most of the time — probably 90 percent of the time. It's just the limitations of space and equipment that dictate that. I've done stuff live, but there are a couple smaller booths and they totally sound like shit — way too many standing waves. I always think stuff sounds better in the big room.
Do you cut guitars in there?
I do everything in the big room when I can.
Do you typically distance mic guitars?
I usually do close and room mics. That way I can at least get the room mics for the amps similar to the way I had the room mics for the drums, so that it sounds cohesive.
That's pretty cool. Controllable bleed.
