people come to me as a producer because I'll help them to realize their vision I'm beholden to my
captors and then I'll use my skills that I've learned in engineering just because I love gear
and I love gadgets so it's their vision but I'm going to supply the paints and I'm going
to supply the canvas and I'm going to say here use this brush for this part they are doing the
actual painting of the image it's their work and it's their song and their music and their ideas
their voices shine like crying it's too sweet
I came from a background in engineering so I started by learning the equipment and then
watching what producers do and then having my own opinions on what they were doing so
when I had my own clients I was ready to jump in and take that production role so I do both
in the studio oftentimes all engineer and produce at the same time it just is easier
for me to create the sound that's in my ears I and I'll be able to create
the sound using the studio tools that I have and then I also am a mixer because
I'll take what's been recorded and then I'll do a final balance on it it'll make
it finished I'll make it ready for consumption basically ready to be listened to by everyone
I got my first studio job in San Francisco I basically worked for free and realized that if
I really wanted a career as a producer I would have to go to Los Angeles and not stay in San
Francisco so I moved to LA and got a job at Tower Records because no one would give me a studio
job at the time but while I was working at Tower Records I met the people from a band called green
jello and part of the members of green jello were also in a band called tulle and when we started
recording the green jello record it was very easy to record tool at the same time so that's how we
all got together to do the first tool record and then it made a big splash and one thing led to
another and here we are today one of my first fun creative moments was with the tool record where I
really thought about what is the loudest sound in the world well let's try to get a crane and
get a couple pianos and just drop some pianos from cranes and record that and see what that's
like but I couldn't get any company to help me with this this idea so I got the two pianos
anyway they're cheap fifty dollar pianos and we brought them into the studio and miked them up
and then the drummer Danny Carey had a shotgun so we loaded that up and started shooting the
piano recording the sound of the piano as it's being shot and it was quite dramatic it's over
rumbling sounds and then we had purchased some sledgehammers and pickaxes and I gave
everyone you know safety equipment gloves and the goggles and said okay here now we've got
this miked up let's destroy these pianos and so we just completely dismantled these pianos
and recorded every bit of it and then created a song on the undertow album called discus to pated
I realized that even if it hadn't worked even if we didn't use any of it the memory of that
that session we'd have forever so why not do that with every session so if it's possible I'll try
to build something into every session that you'll remember forever and to do that I have a box full
of toys that will bring two sessions and then I'll pull something out when I think it'll help
inspire the artist to do something different to break out of their their box that they're
in and so I have some of these things here for instance this one where you take an old speaker
and you wire it backwards so it's actually being used as a microphone we put that right up to the
kick drum and it sounds just like an 808 style kick like a booming kick and then I'll use a
hose and tape a microphone onto one end and drape the hose underneath a drum kit and the sound that
you get is a great room sound with drums but it doesn't have all the shrill symbols in it so you
can use it as an effect or as a replacement for a drum room mic for better drum recordings it's
really an exciting thing to do there's times when there will be just an inspirational moment like I
thought well if you take a potato and you can use the power of a potato to drive a small clock right
I thought well why can't you you use a potato as an audio filter so we invented a new thing
it's a potato filter and what does it sound like well it's kind of okay it was more fun
just doing it than actually using it in the track but maybe that's all that matters it's inspiration
so imagine this plug this out of an amplifier this speaker oh this is the speaker out of an
amplifier okay and then plug in various kitchen appliances into this your lab okay and then you
mic up the kitchen appliance with a mic okay I've done this before and if you use the same
the right amp and hit it just the right way that the appliance starts up this is amazing
wonderful sound probably totally not appropriate for this music no but what the hell yeah there's
a lot of people that are doing very unusual things that you don't really hear about it's not in any
textbook so I wrote a book called recording unhinged and it's a book about unconventional
recording besides my own stories like 35 people all shared their little secrets their techniques
and I got to draw diagrams of how they did things and other panel illustrations and then tuned
when there was an opportunity to write this book I spent a lot of time sharing these stories and
writing them down kind of as a Legacy Project and I realized there's really a lot to share so I
started speaking in front of classrooms and doing workshops and I'll record a project and we'll just
do every wacky thing that we could possibly do because I want to show the people that come to
these workshops exactly how far they can go and just come on let's be fearless and let's just go
all the way plus when I go to these places I also pick up a job or two if I want to record an album
heck yeah well you know we look around for the the best and most unusual places to record when I was
in Bergen Norway there was a submarine actually available and so we got a chance to do some bass
recording on a submarine that was great I hope to be doing a lot more of this type of recording
I think the type of space that you record in is essential and being creative producer because a
perfectly tuned soundproof studio is oftentimes really uncomfortable to be in till why would you
do it why would you spend time there so there's very few walls in the studios that I like to work
in I like to work in a big open room where I'm sitting in the same room with the artist we're
communicating directly not through headphones or through glass then I think things happen
more comfortably and more immediate there's a choice every time it comes up yeah and then I
like to record through analog equipment and I use a Neve a t-38 console for the microphones on
the way to Pro Tools then in the computer I'll manipulate the sound with plugins and plugins
are very important now so I use a combination of external rack-mounted analog gear and plugins to
finish the recording it's very important to keep up with the technology so that you're on top of
new ideas in digital plugins for recording and I have to keep learning every single day so that I
can keep up I'm learning to enjoy mixing in the computer better but I find it lacks a few things
that I like to use so I'm working with a company called waves on creating some new plugins that
will add a different flavor and a different color my own special style to not only my recordings but
other people's recordings - I think right now the tendency is for people to be a little lazy because
most of the instruments that they could use are easily accessible in Pro Tools or in logic but
I want the artists to actually go out and feel the music even if the recording is not as good as what
you could get with someone else's recording in a virtual instrument it's worth the time to go
out and make your own sounds and do your own recording I'd like to see more women artists
writing producing their own music and there's a few out there that are fantastic right now and one
is Lady Gaga and the other is Taylor Swift so I'd like to see more of this type of thing because a
lot of the women artists are using other people's material and I know that they have it in them to
write their own material write their own music so that's what I'd like to see haha and the route
wipes are thirteen or fourteen thirteen fourteen great are you gonna play some more please same
kind of thing with some Tom fills that's great you know being a woman in a male-dominated industry
I have not really felt discriminated against I think it's difficult for anyone male or female
to get started and to be successful in this in this business the job is working 16-hour days in
a studio and you really just have to completely dedicate your life to this but production is my
passion and inspiration comes from the music and the artists and the emotions that they're trying
to convey with their writing because I want to follow through and help them make something
special over the last three years now whenever I get a chance I'll have an easel set up in a
session and I'll be painting while I'm working with an engineer who's actually turning the knobs
and channeling the music too because depending on the music that's happening on this session the
paintings are completely different every time I think because I get to paint I'm a better producer
suddenly there's much more creativity overall and I think it inspires other people in the
room to to be more creative so it really enhances the sessions to be painting during the sessions
as a producer I want to build in extra time in the budget so that
we can have some fun make some mistakes and you never know what comes out of it
I think it's important for everyone who's in the recording industry or
wants to be a producer to become more experimental
being creative with audio is as much holding a paint brush in my hand as the actual real
thing with a canvas it really is a wonderful tool for being an idols