I never wanted to be anything but a record producer – it’s the best job in the world! I grew up in the cultural wastelands of Essex, a long haired rock obsessed misfit fascinated by the sounds that made up the records I loved so much.
I started making the tea at Powerplant Studios in Willesden & Maison Rouge Studios after basically prostrating myself before Robin Millar, the amazing producer who owned the studios, & begging for the opportunity! 9 months later 4 skinny punks called the Manic Street Preachers on a little indie label walked in to make their debut single Motown Junk & my life was never quite the same again. Christ knows what they thought of this dodgy metal kid that made floods of tea for them, but this was it for me – having done loads of sessions for dodgy remixers & bad 80’s soul music, suddenly the amps were on 10 & I was in hog heaven! Although I didn’t yet have my indie or punk credentials I did share a love of Guns & Roses with them & we soon hit it off, so when they wanted a little Hammond organ & I was the only one around that knew where the D chord was, I was more than happy to pick up my first credit. They went off on tour & I went back to the bad 80’s soul & remixes, but gawd bless ‘em they always stayed in touch & came back again to do their next single You Love Us, again with a smattering of largely inaudible Eringa organ! They went off & got their big Sony deal & Powerplant went bust & I was off to make the tea at the Kinks studio Konk, but they still stayed in touch & kindly asked me to play all the simpler keyboards on Generation Terrorists.
Meanwhile I was sneaking as many bands thru the back door at the studio as I could to hone my recording chops, and when in 1992 they came back to me & asked if I’d be interested in producing their second album, I was either too stupid or too egotistical to be intimidated & so I was thrown in at the deep end at only 21 with no real experience! That album ended up in the top 10 & suddenly I had start. Next thing I knew they’d asked me to play keyboards on tour with them – not based on any stunning ability I should add, I was a mate, I was cheap, & I could play Hammond just a tiny bit better than Richy could play guitar!! A whole new perspective opened up to me on the road. Standing next to the drum kit & the amps every night & feeling the adrenalin rush of the gig, I suddenly understood why bands were always chasing the excitement & the feel of live for their records & I couldn’t wait to get back in the studio & try to capture the feeling. I played with the band for a year on & off, but it was never where I felt most comfortable & I retreated to my domain duly revitalised. I carried on working with the Manics including producing tracks on Everything Must Go, This Is My Truth, Lipstick Traces, both their number 1’s (If You Tolerate This, & Masses Against The Classes), Know Your Enemy album, & most recently the new album Send Away The Tigers, which is a massive return to form & I consider my best work yet.
In between all this I have worked with Idlewild, (3 Albums & counting!), Dykeenies, Kubichek, Milburn, Ash, 3 Colours Red, Lowgold, Ocean Colour Scene, Johnny Boy, Kylie , Tom Jones , Supergrass, Suede, South, Haven & millions of others and have loved every minute of it! More recently I have been developing an idea I had to start recording in unusual acoustic spaces not usually used for recording. I set about amassing a lorry load of vintage & modern recording equipment & have now recorded 7 or 8 albums this way. I recorded Idlewild in an old church in Fyfe, Dykeenies, Engerica & Starky in a magnificent Georgian mansion in Wales, Ocean Colour Scene in a huge converted barn in Scotland & so on. There are so many great spaces out there, it seems a shame not to use them if you can. The mansion in Wales that I’ve used 3 time is particularly good, it has 3 amazing drum rooms at least, including a 3 floor high hallway – pure Led Zepplin!! Bands love the beating the odds vibe of it all & it really gets a team spirit thing going on. I love the idea of an album being a snapshot in the life of the band – really capturing where they are at that moment in time & this method seems to really help that feeling. Its definitely not the only way I work – I still love studios too much, but it is another way of getting it done, & mostly it’s a lot cheaper too!
My other big obsession is guitar amps – ebay has a lot to answer for - & I have amassed a collection of 15 or more vintage to modern, from a ’57 Watkins Westminster thru a ’67 Selmer Treble’n’Bass, ’73 Hiwatt Custom 50, ’75 Marshall Super Lead right up to super modern Diezel Einstein & many others. I just got bored of bands having crap amps – so I had to get some & it just spiralled a bit! I love the way amps blend together to get different tones….nerd alert (!)
I believe there are 2 schools of record production – there’s the old school guys who have a sound all of their own & apply it to everything & tell the band how its going to be & then there’s the 5th member school – the guy who tries to think like the band – knows all their reference points as well as they do & tries to make the sound that the band have in their heads come out onto record. I come from the second school – I don’t want to dictate how it should be, I want to capture what’s special about the band. I’m still old fashioned enough to believe there’s a bit of magic when a great band play all together & I want to get that feeling onto record by whatever means necessary!
I have been very lucky over the years to work with some amazing musicians & great songwriters, long may it continue!
