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Olly

ollyharmer

About Me

I run a recording studio In Auckland, New Zealand, called The Lab. It's got a lovely custom 70s Neve, a rack or two of vintage outboard gear and a great old school vibe.I swim to the studio in the morning by stopping off at the Mt Eden swimming pool and freestyling 1.5 kilometers. This sets me up perfectly for a glamorous day of sitting in a comfy chair with wheels on and gliding from one side of the control room to the other frantically twiddling controls. Originally from North Canterbury & Christchurch, I moved to Auckland in 2001 and hated it! Nice and warm, but what a rat race! Eventually I settled down to only minor grumbles and got on with being a huge big rock'n'roll engineer.I spent most of my 20s as a sound engineer and guitar tech, which resulted in many tours around New Zealand, and even a few to Australia, with some of our most illustrious musical talent.

My Interests

Vintage guitars & amplifiers, pre-1980 Neve consoles and tube microphones-ok ok, I'm a boffin, however fishing from a small boat in the Marlborough sounds and back yard cricket also make me very happy. I'm also somewhat politically minded, left leaning and fundamentally liberal. Obviously, music and the evil conservative right don't mix.

I'd like to meet:

Someone who has a mint 1958 sunburst Les Paul under their bed and is willing to see it go to a good home where it will be cherished properly. Oh, and being male, straight and single, a single, straight female. Quite simple really.

Music:

It's good for you. I feel privileged to be a part of the process. My chosen career path involves listening to the same piece of music over and over again. I know some songs very well indeed. Sometimes I still like them at the end of the process, I think this means it's good. It's also really cool when you hear a tune that you worked on playing on the radio or TV

Movies:

I've probably watched This Is Spinal Tap more than any other film. It is a masterpiece of dry, subtle humour, and it's made by Americans, which is even more of a feat! Stupid Hollywood blockbuster films just make me annoyed, I'll only ever watch them if they make it to TV.

Television:

The four channels up the end of the Sky remote starting at 70, and sometimes channels 30-33. There are so many documentaries about war, flying and massive engineering feats and I am determined to watch them all.

Books:

If it has pictures of WWII fighter planes, studio interiors or guitars I'll probably pick it up myself. I like novels, but it usually involves a friend handing me something recently read and enjoyed. I tend to stumble across books rather than actively seek them out.

Heroes:

Jimmy Page, Geoff Emerick, George Martin, Rupert Neve, George Neumann, Bill Putnam, Alestier Crowley, Geoff Tanner.