Headliner Issue 25

ISSUE #25

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TIVE CO

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MAGAZINE

ISSUE SPECIAL

THE KOOKS

LET’S GO SUNSHINE

DEL AMITRI

BACK ON THE ROAD

MANON GRANDJEAN

ISSUE 25 | £3.95 UK/$6.95 USA/$7.95 CANADA

STUDIO TECHNIQUES

TIËSTO DYNAMIC MINDSET

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50 Series

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#25 From the Editor

“You can stay relevant, and be part of the scene for so long.

That is the beauty of music...”

Tiësto Welcome to Headliner’s landmark 25th edition, where we are fortunate to chat to revered producer and DJ, Tiësto, whose musical journey is fascinating: a dynamic mindset, collaboration, and the ability to think outside the box has helped keep his work fresh and relevant for more than 20 years.

We also chat to The Kooks about their latest album, Let’s Go Sunshine. These guys are one of a rare breed: an indie rock band that came through that genre’s boom in the early noughties, and came out the other side. The new record is excellent, and their attitude to making music is entirely refreshing.

We head backstage at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall with Glaswegian rockers, Del Amitri. These guys took a hiatus for a decade or more, but are sounding better than ever. With a state of the art Coda Audio PA in tow, and a classic analogue setup at front of house, it’s quite the live experience – as is their behind the scenes banter: look out for that inflatable parrot story..!

Justin Timberlake’s latest tour is a belter; we descend on London’s O2 Arena to chat to his two live engineers, and discover why a special set of custom, clear-shelled JH Audio in-ear monitors are transforming the artist’s stage sound.

Also in London, we pay a visit to Fraser T. Smith’s studio to chat to his MPG Award-winning engineer, Manon Grandjean, who shares inspiring tales of knocking on studio doors until they finally opened, which ultimately led to amazing working relationships with artists including London Grammar, and Stormzy.

All this, and much more inside, including chats with uber-talented musician and producer, Devin Townsend; neo-classical star in the making, Poppy Ackroyd; Canadian rockers, Theory of a Dead Man; and top US drummer, Terrell Sass.

We hope you enjoy the issue – and thank you for choosing Headliner.

Paul Watson Editor

SOCIALISE WITH US: headlinermagazine.net @Headlinerhub HeadlinerHub headlinermagazine

HEADLINER | ISSUE #25

CONTACT Paul Watson paul@headlinerhub.com +44(0)7952-839296

Yerosha Windrich yeroshasound@gmail.com +44(0)7804-583457

Artwork Eli Stapleton Eimear O’Connor

Contributors Adam Protz, Rhona Lavis, Henry Sarmiento, Jon Tessier, Adam Gwilt, Yerosha

There is nothing else on the market that comes anywhere close Hugh Robjohns – Sound On Sound

genelec.com/theones

Contents #25 Cover Story

P30 / Tiësto

08

SONIC VISTA INSIGHTS

Our friends from Ibiza chat to multiple award-winning artist, Chris Hinze, about music making.

10

THEORY OF A DEAD MAN

We descend on Koko in Camden to chat to this successful Canadian rock band, and their touring team.

14

ÓLAFUR ARNALDS

We head to London’s RAH to chat Spitfire Audio libraries, and to check out this artist’s biggest ever live show.

18

MANON GRANDJEAN

An inspiring story, and woman: an MPG Award-winner for her work on Stormzy’s album, with zero ego.

22

DEL AMITRI

These Glaswegian rockers are back, and sounding better than ever.

We go backstage in Birmingham.

26

DEVIN TOWNSEND

This phenomenal guitarist and producer gives us an insight into guitar modelling, and production.

30

COVER STORY: TIËSTO

He’s been spinning records and producing albums for more than 20 years, and he’s not done yet - far from it, in fact. We find out what it takes to stay relevant, and real, in the music biz today, which is as unpredictable, and exciting as ever.

34

MICHAEL CLARK

This guy’s day to day is capturing audio on set for The Walking Dead we get a behind the scenes tour!

HEADLINER | ISSUE #25

38

SOUNDSCAPING IN MILAN Yerosha takes hand luggage only to Italy to embark on a particularly cool field recording project.

40

POPPY ACKROYD

She’s making serious waves in the neo-classical scene, and for a very good reason. Definitely one to watch.

42

A HEAD FULL OF DREAMS

We go behind the scenes with Coldplay to find out more about their tour’s incredible audio infrastructure.

44

CUMBRIA CALLING

FLYNT are an extremely polished band, with an epic recording studio to boot. We pay them a little visit.

46

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE

We’re off to the O2 Arena to check out JT’s latest tour, which sees him use a set of bespoke JH Audio in-ears.

50

JOVANOTTI

We go out on the road with this very talented Italian artist, whose lighting show is also nothing short of epic.

52

THE KOOKS

These indie rockers have proved their longevity, and are about to drop a seriously impressive new album.

54

TERRELL SASS

This revered drummer has always known he was put on this earth to play music. We get his full story.

58

INTRODUCING KINNOHA

She’s an artist with fire in her belly, and R&B at the core. We chat new music, and how to measure success.

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Sonic Vista Insights

Chris Hinze

10 MINUTES WITH CHRIS HINZE Chris Hinze is a world renowned Dutch jazz and world music flute player. With a career spanning over four decades, he’s played with legends such as Peter Tosh, Hozan Yamamoto, Gerry Brown, John Lee, and Michael Brecker; and was awarded the best soloist prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Furthermore, he received three Edison Awards, and the Beethoven Prize from the city of Bonn for his composition, Live Music Now, comprised of 42 musicians, and a complete string orchestra. But there’s more... He also incorporates ethnical elements into his music, and his particular fascination with the sound of chants from Tibetan monks led him to meet and record the Dalai Lama (yes, seriously!). Since he lives in Ibiza, we at Sonic Vista Studios were able to take the time to sit down and ask him some questions about his music.

Hi Chris. What inspired you to pick up the flute when you were younger?

I was a piano player, and played in jazz clubs and nightclubs for a living. One day, I heard Frank Wess playing the flute on the record Opus de Funk. That flute player changed my life. I started to play flute, went to the Conservatory, and after finishing that, I went to Berklee College of Music in Boston for arranging and composition.

Tell us a bit about your experience speaking with the Dalai Lama...

The Dalai Lama is a very serious man, but on the other hand, he has a big sense of humour!

08 Headliner

He is a very warm human being. One of his messages was: ‘through your own profession, give people hope; you, as a musician’. And I was allowed to use his statements on my Tibet Impressions CD personally.

Out of all the places in the world, why did you decide to live in Ibiza, and create music here?

I visited Ibiza for the first time in 1993. It was magic, and love at first sight. So I decided to live here, buy a house, and build a studio!

How did you feel when you won ‘Best Soloist’ at the Montreux Jazz Festival?

Terrible! [laughs] What are your top three bits of kit?

Pro Tools, my Mac Pro, and my Roland A-90 master keyboard. I love all Roland synths, too, and most of the Korg ones.

Do you have a preferred flute? We hear the Headliner team tend to favour the champagne variety..! [smiles] I play live with Muramatsu (C flute and Alto Flute), and a bass flute (open valves and B foot), which are made by the famous Dutch flute maker, Eva Kingma.

Sonic Vista Insights

Chris Hinze

“Since World Music started to get well known as a style, or a brand, festivals and record companies have been giving that tag to every ethnic group of musicians...”

What got you interested in jazz and world music rather than pop?

I got influenced by all kinds of music. I don’t care if you call it jazz, pop, or whatever… I love all kinds of ethnic music, too. That’s why I played with musicians from Japan, China, Jamaica, Africa, India, Tibet, and Bhutan.

How was your experience working with Peter Tosh?

He is a very nice man. He’s a poet, and he’s a philosopher. He also came exactly on time for the sessions! Although I do remember that he was once precisely one day late! [laughs] What inspired you to start your own label, Keytone Records?

Freedom!

And what inspired you to incorporate electronic music into your songs?

To incorporate electronic music with acoustic instruments is just fantastic, and for me, simply opens up a whole new world…

What is your opinion on world music and jazz music of today?

For me, world music means the combination of different musical worlds improvising with each other. For example, Indian percussion players together with African percussion players - and then me playing on top of that.

There are just so many great possibilities.

It’s a pity that since world music started to get well known as a style - or a brand, even - festivals and record companies have been giving that tag to every ethnic group of musicians. For example, an Indian classical group suddenly gets the label of being world music. It seems to be more commercial, for some reason! [laughs]

Do you have any new music coming out?

Yes! I am working on music for my 2019 multi-media solo theatre tour which is going to be called Incredible India. It is, of course, inspired by my many visits to India.

I love to film in these countries, as they’re so very colourful. For this production, I will invite my Indian friend to play on the basic tracks, and I will use electronic sounds, as well.

We will most definitely keep our eyes and ears peeled! We would also like to extend a big thanks to Henry and Jonathan at Sonic Vista Studios for bringing us yet another fantastic Q&A. www.sonicvistastudios.com www.chrishinze.nl

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Backstage

TOADM

THEORY OF A DEAD MAN Despite the increasing number of Pret A Mangers and tourists, Camden Town is still the home of rock and roll in London; and as I arrive at one of its more famous venues, Koko, admittedly with a peppermint tea from the next door Pret, I notice three fans are already sat waiting for tonight’s show. They’ve got a six-hour wait until their heroes, Canadian rockers, Theory of a Deadman, take the stage, so I ignore the temptation to brag that I’m about to hang out with them backstage.

Words Adam Protz Once settled in the band’s dressing room upstairs, the foursome tell me about their antics the previous night, which include fish and chips (when in Rome), and The World’s End pub. I quickly sense a fondness for London from the band, which makes sense, considering they recorded their last album, Wake Up Call, here.

“We were here for seven weeks recording last year,” lead singer, Tyler Connolly, tells me.

He then nails the West London accent when he says: “In Kensal Rise, very posh. At first, we were a little unwilling to record over here, as it’s such an adjustment.”

Their producer, Swedish born Martin Terefe, was keen for them to use his London studio.

“They wanted to put us in hotels for that length of time, but we were like, ‘fuck that man’, and looked at a couple of Airbnb places.”

“And that had a huge impact on the outcome of the record,” guitarist, Dave

10 Headliner

Brenner, adds.

“The previous four records were all done in the same place by the same people, so it was great to get out of that comfort area,” bassist, Dean Back, admits.

“The whole view of how to make a record is different here to North America,” says Brenner. “Straight out the gate, we were saying ‘what are we using here?’”

“Gear-wise it was different, too,” insists drummer, Joey Dandeneau. “Drums I’d never played, bass guitars we’d never used with 50-year-old strings; it was awesome!”

“Some of the Kensaltown gear is so old,” Connolly says. “There was some radio kit from WWII, with steps on how to destroy it, so the Germans couldn’t learn how to use it!”

With Theory having been a musical unit for almost 20 years, I ask how Wake Up Call represents where they’re at on their journey.

“It sounds like a brand new band,” says Brenner. “We tried to pitch it to our label,” Tyler adds. “It was a curveball for them: ‘it

doesn’t sound anything like your older stuff,’ ;‘we don’t know where to start with this’, was the feedback we were getting, but that’s just it, it doesn’t sound like some band trying to relive their youth, trying to impress anybody. No desperation or complacency.

A fresh progression.”

Calling it a new band isn’t much of an exaggeration, as Theory of a Deadman are trying to officially abbreviate their name to Theory: one, because their full name can be a little unwieldy, and two, their new, leaner sound means the connotations of being a heavy rock band aren’t so attractive to them anymore.

Wake Up Call

It’s always troublesome for any artist to undergo a change in sound, most notably when an alternative rock band take out the shouts and chuggy guitars for something a little more poppy. It can often lead to a backlash from fans, but Theory haven’t

Backstage

TOADM

“Gear-wise it was different, too: drums I’d never played, bass guitars we’d never used, with 50-year-old strings...” experienced anything of the sort. Despite the fact that Wake Up Call is markedly more melodic, and leans more heavily on their country influences.

“That angst is out of our system now,” Connolly explains. “Our first record was very dirgy - dark and heavy riffs.”

“With our last record, Savages, the most successful song was Angel,” Brenner says, “which is the mellowest track on that record.

It was an eye opener, realising our fans like our lighter stuff. Our ballads and poppier songs connect more with the fanbase.”

“When we were at the UK border the other day, there was an older lady there,” Connolly recalls. “She asked us, [puts on an elderly English woman’s voice] ‘what’s your band called?’ So we told her, ‘Theory of a Dead Man’. She says, ‘Theory of a Deadman?! Never heard of ‘em!’ And I just thought, ‘well no-one fuckin’ asked you!’”

As much as we all laugh at this story, it is true that Theory of a Deadman has the potential to scare certain people away, particularly older ladies, whereas Theory is much more universal.

“Going fowards, being called Theory does suit the sound better,” Brenner concludes.

Before I head down to the stage to chat to the band’s tour manager, Andy Deveau, I ask

how their relationship has been on this tour with him; he also takes the reins at front of house, I should add.

“Well, in fact, we were at The World’s End last night with the whole crew, which was great,” Connolly says.

“But also, people have been saying how great our shows sound,” adds Brenner. “We have had comments on our English tours before, stuff like, ‘it sounds like the PA was stuffed full of pillows!’ What does that even mean? It’s not good!”

The praise for their sound is also testament to the DiGiCo consoles that Theory have been using.

“We used to get so much feedback all the time, but this tour has consistently sounded really good, which is fantastic.”

And with that, Theory saunter down the stairs for their soundcheck, where I seek out Andy, the man responsible for delivering that quality of sound for tonight’s show.

Sound Choices

Andy Deveau’s role in Theory’s 2018 tour involves wearing two very important hats: he’s the tour manager, and he also does the sound.

“We’ve had quite a few reincarnations of crew over the years,” he says, as we sit in an alcove away from Koko’s stage, where the

lighting is being tested, and distorted guitars are being strummed just prior to soundcheck.

“But the last three years, we have had a very solid crew with solid personalities. When you’re doing a one-bus tour, all crammed in for weeks at a time, that’s very important! I think we’re in a great place right now.”

Recently, it’s often become the case that the tour manager has amalgamated into being the main sound technician for the live shows.

“I said from the start that I’m more than happy to do both jobs,” Deveau says. “As long as everyone understands that on any given day, there could be a sacrifice from one job to the other. If we’re having technical issues at front of house, that could mean something from a tour management standpoint could get put off, or vice versa.

“So as long as everyone is on the same page there, it works out really well.”

I’m excited to find out about the gear Deveau has been rocking for this 2018 tour with Theory. We start off with the obvious, the mixing console he was stood behind before I grabbed him for our chat.

“I’m currently using the DiGiCo SD12 for front of house, and their SD9 for the monitor console.” he says. “We got the opportunity to demo an SD12 last summer, and I fell in love with it immediately. It’s been fantastic, I really

11 Headliner

Backstage

TOADM

“When we started using the DiGiCo SD12, I began hearing things in the show that I didn’t know existed before; for me, that was a huge turning point...” can’t say enough about the sonic quality of that console.

“I’m also a big analogue guy, and I find this console translates better for me from that standpoint more than any other digital product out there. The band have been incredibly happy with it since we made the switch. I like to have my hands on a lot of things when I’m mixing, so I’m a little old school that way.

“So what I really like about the SD12 is having one screen and one set of knobs. The price point is right for us, and the venues we’re doing. I can still make it compact, and still have everything I need at hand’s length.”

Ultimately, though, it’s all about the sound: “It was really always a sonic thing,” Deveau explains. “When we started using it, I began hearing things in the show that I didn’t know existed before. For me, that was a huge turning point — different guitar sounds, thinking one of the guys was using a new sound, and they’d tell me it was the same sound they’d been using for years!

“I can really hear the tremolo, and things like that, now. The amount you can customise the console is amazing, too. Everything about it is right for us at this point.”

When it comes to plugins, Deveau is a major advocate of Waves.

“For the new record, everything has taken a bit of a pop approach,” he says. “I find with Waves, I can have some preset compressors and vocal filters that I can pop in and out 12 Headliner

quickly. What’s great about it is, you have a band like Theory who are traditionally a rock and roll band - a lot of guitar - to now having a band using a lot of backing tracks and drum samples. For me, I need to have that consistency in the show, and with Waves, I’m able to accomplish that.”

I ask Deveau if Waves makes it easier to have a core set of plugins to rely on, instead of having dozens, as some technicians do.

“I think Waves did a really good job of emulating the SSL stuff, for example,” he says, in agreement. “It’s all really warm, and punchy.

It’s amazing to have that analogue sound, but through a digital console.”

Microphone Theory

When it comes to microphones, Andy describes the setup as ‘a mixed bag of tricks’.

“My inside kick drum is a Shure SM91, the outside is a Sennheiser E902, which is an odd combination, crossing a Shure and a Sennheiser! Same on the snare drum: a Sennheiser E905 on the top, and a Shure SM57 on the bottom. Then I like to use Shure KSM32s on the overheads.

“Other than that, it’s SM57s on the guitars — we tried a few things, and every time, I come back to the SM57s. I just find it’s the best sounding guitar mic out there.

“For vocals, it’s just straight up Shure SM58s, and everything else is via DI boxes.

We went through the whole endorsement thing, but I found I was always battling things,

so we made the decision to try some kit, and buy what works. We kept coming back to the Shure SM57s and the KSM32s. We once got thrown on at a festival with an SM58 vocal mic, and I straight away thought, ‘oh my gosh, that is the vocal sound.’ So we decided that was the way we were going to go.”

This has also all been made possible by Peter Hendrickson, who runs Canadian PA rental company, Tour Tech.

“I went to Peter, and asked if they’d want to be involved with this tour, and let him know the pieces of gear we were after,” Deveau explains. “They absolutely delivered on everything we needed, and the rest is history! We’re now using Tour Tech exclusively for audio, lighting, and video.

And how has the run of shows worked out?

“In general, this has been the smoothest tour I’ve ever done,” Deveau concludes. “If I’m not hearing about something, that means everything is running okay! We’ve really surrounded ourselves with the right people, so we haven’t had to deal with things that suck up the time. It’s been very successful - no drama at all, which means everyone has been able to get on with their job.” @TOADM www.digico.biz www.waves.com www.shure.com

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Triggered

Ólafur Arnalds

TRIGGERED

The last time I spoke to Ólafur Arnalds, it was a few hours before he, alongside his Kiasmos partner in crime, Janus Rasmussen, turned London’s Royal Festival Hall upside down. It was an incredible experience, witnessing one of London’s premier classical venues turned into a full-blown rave. However, as two girls wearing sunglasses climbed on top of their seats to film themselves throwing shapes, I couldn’t silence a voice in my head saying, ‘you’re disrespecting this venue!’ “But it’s good to disrespect these places, sometimes,” Arnalds says, with a laugh...

After a long period of touring, and focusing on his techno side-project with Janus Rasmussen, the wait is now over for Ólafur Arnalds to go solo again. Something you’ll notice about his work is that its genesis is always a concept or idea: Living Room Songs was inspired by the notion of recording seven songs in seven days in, you guessed it, his living room; his last solo effort, Island Songs, also saw seven pieces recorded, but this time in seven different locations in his native Iceland. It’s no surprise, then, that Arnalds’ new music was similarly born out of a new conceptual idea.

And that latest bit of inspiration is incorporating the Stratus Pianos into his new music, a new player piano technology he and

14 Headliner

audio developer, Halldór Eldjárn, have spent the last two years creating. Two selfplaying pianos can be heard in the artist’s recent single, re:member, and formed the basis of its creation. I mention that I recall a video Arnalds posted on social media a long time ago, in which a self-playing piano was playing his music, with the caption: ‘I am no longer needed!’

Was this moment the genesis of the idea?

“That was while on tour with Ryuichi Sakamoto,” Arnalds recalls. “That was the first time I came across one of these pianos. He had one on stage on this tour — I remember being blown away by it, thinking, ‘oh, cool, the keys are moving by themselves!’ But now, it’s sort of a gimmick. A couple of years later, I

started thinking about these again, but not about how the keys move on their own, more about the possibilities they hold. The things you couldn’t do with your hands, or even with your brain!

“You can send data to these things using an old Moog synthesiser (the Piano Bar). I wasn’t interested in them until I realised that - that you could use them in the same way you’d use an arpeggiator on a synthesiser, for example.

We set about to make an extremely complicated and detailed version of that for pianos!

So I was talking to a friend who’s a programmer, and asked him if we could come up with a technology where I could just put my hands down and play chords, and if the player pianos could come up with

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Ólafur Arnalds

“And that’s one of the main reasons I make Spitfire libraries; it’s me thinking, ‘I wish I had this tool!’” the melodies.”

And with Arnalds having recently embarked on his biggest tour yet (it started in May), it’s very exciting to learn that the Stratus Piano technology will ensure that each concert will be different to the last.

“It will be the same notes, but it will never be exactly the same,” Arnalds explains. “It will have the same signature, you will recognise it as re:member, but those little melodies that are appearing in the record will be different.”

Extraordinary. The flagship show of this tour is his stop at London’s Royal Albert Hall, which Headliner was fortunate enough to attend (and review overleaf ). His biggest and most prestigious show so far. But he’s not letting it go to his head - far from it.

“Yeah… it’s cool,” he smiles, “and having it sold out since October was huge for me; to announce it, and have it sell out so quickly.”

Off the back of one Facebook post, the concert did indeed sell out within days.

“And to be honest, when we booked the Royal Albert Hall, we had no idea whether we would sell one thousand tickets, or five thousand tickets! We decided that if we lose a lot of money on this, then at least we tried.

We’d actually booked out all these billboards in London, for a week later, thinking we’d really need them. But it was already sold out by then!”

Chamber Evolutions

Remarkably, Arnalds has also somehow found the time to collaborate with Spitfire Audio a third time to create Chamber Evolutions, a brand new sample library.

“It’s definitely my favourite one so far,” he says. “It’s cool, because a lot of this is guess work for all of us — it’s so hard when we’re all making samples, and playing one note at a time. I’m glad it’s turned out well. I use it a lot; on everything, actually!”

Arnalds is immediately confirming my suspicion that he is now exclusively using his own Spitfire libraries in his compositional work.

“And that’s one of the main reasons I make them: it’s me thinking, ‘I wish I had this tool!’”

Arnalds smiles. “Evolutions was just soloists, and for Chamber Evolutions, I got to do it again with an 18-piece orchestra. There’s a different feature in this new library also, called Waves, which is a really simple idea:

in my string writing, there’s always this wave structure where I fade the string instruments in, and then out again; I was tired of programming that all the time, and it didn’t sound good, so we sampled the string players doing these waves at different lengths, and different articulations and dynamics. Now it sounds fantastic!”

Arnalds is going to be touring all the way through to 2019, so enjoy this lengthy solo phase of this Icelandic composer’s career while it lasts, as there’s little time to spare at present for Kiasmos or film scoring.

“I’m not talking about a new record yet,” he says, when I ask where the new single releases are heading. “If it happens, it happens... when it happens! [laughs]” A tantalising note to end on, but as long as the new Stratus Piano-inspired music is the same quality as the majestic single, re:member, this solo period could be the most exciting one yet for Ólafur Arnalds. www.olafurarnalds.com www.spitfireaudio.com

15 Headliner

Show Review

Ólafur Arnalds

ÓLAFUR ARNALDS: LIVE @ RAH Many of the 5,000-strong audience have travelled overseas to be here to witness the Icelandic composer’s most significant show of his career so far. And despite being stood in the pure opulence of the Royal Albert Hall, Ólafur Arnalds is looking as anti-classical as ever, in a white t-shirt, black joggers, and chequered socks. It’s certainly a statement, but if he can pull off bringing his music to this huge space, it will become an irrelevant detail.

An hour prior to this, Austrian hang player and composer, Manu Delago took to the stage. If you’re understandably wondering what on earth a hang is, it’s an instrument from the idophone family, alongside the likes of steel drums — but as well as its melodious vibrations, Delago is also able to create bassy beats from it. It’s all very stirring and ambient, partly thanks to Delago’s setup, creating dreamy pads from his playing.

Those who got to the venue early enough were fortunate to hear Delago’s rags to riches story: his first gig in the UK after moving here a decade ago was at a pub in West Croydon to four people, and the discovery of a parking fine afterwards meant it was a gig that left him very much out of pocket.

“So I’m not complaining tonight,” he told the RAH, before delivering an assured, and unique performance. I hope a good portion of the audience will make a point of listening to

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his music again in the days that follow. Ólafur Arnalds begins his set as modestly as his concert outfit, with a piano piece that doesn’t see his string quartet and percussionist appear until halfway through. He follows his unknown opener with his very well known Þú ert jörðin, but unreleased and unheard new music serves as the mainstay for Arnalds’ performance. While this was never going to be a ‘play the hits’ show, it’s still something of a gamble on his part, considering this is his first tour for two-and-a-half years.

The downside to this gamble is a few technical hiccups: at one point, Arnalds is visibly scrambling to start one of his new songs after a pause; and during one of the first live performances of his remarkable new single, re:member, his recently developed player piano technology cuts out for a short period — fortunately, it results in a shared laugh between the composer and his fans.

The upside to this is, as usual, a fully authentic performance from Arnalds, who is sure to explain that the reason he hasn’t undertaken a solo tour for such a long time is because he was simply bored of doing the same thing over and over. The Royal Albert Hall has sold out tonight because this artist has spent his career refusing to play it safe, and is reaping the rewards. A few intimate warm up shows would have been the safe

option, but that would have been distinctly out of character for Arnalds.

With that aside, the two unattended pianos who flank Arnalds end up contributing wonderfully to the evening — his great pains to make them more than just a gimmick shine through, as they star in the music written around them, but also add wonderful flourishes to his earlier songs, 3326, and Near Light. The lights that synchronise with their inhuman notes are a very nice touch, also.

It’s a special evening, not least for the couple who call out from the audience to confirm Arnalds’ announcement that they got engaged during the concert; and it’s special right up to the very last moment, as he closes his encore with his strings playing off stage until they are inaudible. Never has ‘you could hear a pin drop’ rang truer, in an extremely emotional rendition of Lag Fyrir Ömmu (Song For Grandma). One can only imagine how special this must have been for his extended family, who have flown over from Iceland.

This prompts a third standing ovation, and this concert shows yet another evolution in the story of Ólafur Arnalds, who will spend the rest of the year filling huge spaces such as this one. It’s tempting to say this guy is at the height of his powers, but has he ever not been? @olafurarnalds

MANON GRANDJEAN: ENGINEERED FOR MUSIC “She is a hero to me; I’ve never worked with someone as quick, as incredible, and as focused as Manon,” declared Stormzy, before presenting the MPG Award for Recording Engineer of the Year to Manon Grandjean earlier this year. Manon engineered the grime icon’s number one debut album, Gang Signs & Prayer, which became the first in its genre to win Best Album at this year’s BRIT Awards. It marked a real poignant moment for progress in the music industry.

Words Yerosha

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I

THINK THE ALBUM DID SO WELL BECAUSE Stormzy and Fraser [T. Smith, producer] really thought outside the box,” Manon Grandjean explains. “You could have just had a beat, but they really had a vision; there are lots of live elements: drums, bass, brass, strings, harp, choirs... But it still kept the toughness. It’s like a hybrid, really. I was there for the whole creation, and a lot was done from scratch, the two [of them] writing together. It was a great experience for me, as working with rappers was new to me. When he’s recording, his vocals can be quite dynamic, and you need to capture the toughness, but keep the clarity; it was a big learning curve. Stormzy’s a very inspiring artist, because he has a vision for everything he wants to do.”

Grandjean was also the recording engineer for both London Grammar’s albums, their debut reaching number two, and their follow up hitting the top spot in the UK Albums Chart.

“I met the two producers, Tim Bran, and Roy Kerr, at State of the Ark studios,” Grandjean recalls. “I’d worked with Tim before, and on this session, there wasn’t an engineer - I was the assistant - but he said to me, ‘you’ve been in the studio a long time, and you know this studio well, so why don’t you engineer?’”

She clearly nailed it, as it was the band who contacted Grandjean for album two.

“They wanted to go back to the studio, just us four, to write, and have jam sessions, with me recording it all. When it came to recording the second album, I recorded some of it at State of the Ark again, only for the tracks that they did with Tim and Roy,” she says. “They all are so lovely and talented; I am very lucky that I built a great relationship with the band. Hannah Reid is one of the best vocalists I’ve had the chance to work with - she is an extraordinary singer.”

Growing up in Provence in the South of France, Grandjean had very encouraging parents, and a real passion for music. During school, oversubscribed classical guitar classes resulted in her learning the harp, as well as piano before that, and finally gaining a space as her first choice.

“I was a fairly musical child, but I’ve always been shy and reserved about playing in front of people,” Grandjean admits. “That’s probably why I went into engineering, as that’s where I’m most comfortable. My parents never pushed me to do anything, but I was really drawn to music - every day of the week was something new.”

Humble Beginnings

Grandjean’s musical upbringing, combined with her love of physics, saw her choose sound engineering as a potential career path.

Manon Grandjean UK Engineer of the Year

“Workflow is everything, as you need to maintain the vibe...”

As part of her physics degree at university, she needed to do an internship, so she applied to a music studio in Marseille: “The engineer there was really interested in having me around, as he was self-taught, without a physics background, so we learnt from each other, which was amazing.”

So, unsurprisingly, spending two months working in a studio with a great live room, enjoying lunch outside in the beautiful garden, situated in the South of France, working on wonderful jazz and acoustic sessions, convinced her that this was definitely something she wanted to do. A Master’s course followed, which gave her the opportunity to work in the music studios.

“We were doing loads of recordings, going into churches to record string quartets and orchestras,” she recalls. “I then worked in live sound with the organisation IRCAM (the renowned French Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music), who experiment a lot in recording, and live music.

It was technically quite complex, and it gave me a good idea of the pressure of working in live sound.”

They say 90% of success is just showing up, and Grandjean definitely did her bit to prove that when applying for her next internship at Livingston Studios in North London.

“I flew in from France for my interview, and the manager, Tim Jenkinson, was like, ‘do you live here?’ And I said, ‘no, but I really want to come to London!’” she laughs. This led to ongoing freelance assistant work, and it was State of the Ark in Richmond that granted Grandjean further opportunities. “A friend of mine had applied to them for her internship, and suggested that I do, too, as they had actually responded - you send 100 emails, and you get one

reply... If you’re lucky! [smiles]” It is a studio owned by songwriter, Terry Britten, and his son, Dan, is the manager, the former having penned hits for Michael Jackson and Tina Turner.

“It’s an amazing place. Terry is a big Beatles fan, so the studio was inspired by Abbey Road Studio 2, so there was an old TG EMI desk, a couple of Fairchilds, various bits of vintage kit, and a great collection of guitars and amps.”

Studio Vibes

Grandjean says that in both her placements, she didn’t see any other female engineers, so naturally, everyone was pretty surprised, and occasionally wondered who she was.

“Working at RAK studios was amazing, as they had more female engineers, and they also have a female studio manager and director,” she says. “After doing a session with producer, Richard Woodcraft, at State of the Ark, and taking his advice to contact RAK, I worked there for a couple of years. They have four great studios, with two APIs, a Neve, and an SSL, so I had the chance to work across a whole range of consoles, all equally great.”

It was there that Grandjean met and worked with top producer and writer, Fraser T. Smith, who has worked with the likes of Florence + The Machine, Drake, and Adele.

“Beatriz Artola - Fraser’s engineer at the time - was moving to New York, and Fraser needed a freelance engineer for a couple of sessions. After those sessions, he asked whether I’d like to work full time; and three years later, we are still working together,” she smiles. “Fraser’s also a writer as well as a producer, so in writing sessions, he programs a lot on Ableton, and plays various instruments, getting the track together; I’m on hand to make it happen quick.

“Workflow is everything, as you need to maintain the vibe and inspiration. Vibe is the most important thing, getting the ideas out, and getting all that information in. Everything is labelled, everything is organised.”

In the studio, the two record most things, unless it’s a large ensemble with many musicians.

“When Fraser started producing and writing, he was on his own, so had to do everything,” Grandjean says. “It’s been a great working relationship, as he’s taught me a lot of things that he learnt along the way. Every person likes a different sound, and building that relationship to know exactly what he needs and likes is extremely important. And if it doesn’t sound right, he then knows how to guide me to get me back in the right direction.”

Part of that relationship is branching out into the different aspects of creating a record: “I didn’t really mix before, and now I’m mixing much more. We mixed the Stormzy album together, which, for me, is a big achievement. Fraser works harder than anybody I’ve seen, so that proves you can excel at everything; he mixes, he engineers, he programs, he writes, he plays instruments. He puts the work in, for sure. He has done a lot of Berklee online courses over the last 10 years; as Fraser says, knowledge is power! [laughs]”

In the Mix

“You have to mix as you go, as everyone wants to hear a practically finished track at every stage, so if I am engineering the track, I try to build the mix as I go, or if it’s something that I didn’t engineer, I try to see what the track needs, and put my technical and musical stamp on it.”

There has been a lot of talk about mental health within the music industry, with a phone line being launched at the end of last year

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“I really like how precise the Genelec speakers are...” as part of Help Musicians UK’s ‘Music Minds Matter’ campaign. I ask Grandjean how she finds it.

“I don’t realise it sometimes, but when I look back on all the people I have met, I think I have been quite lucky, as I worked with lovely and supportive people, from artists, producers, studios… It can be tough though, sometimes: the hours, the stress, the pressure, the deadlines. I’ve stayed more than 24 hours in the studio, many times. You go through a lot; not bad, necessarily, but it can be quite draining. You get tired, and your confidence goes down; and you think that you’re doing a terrible job, even though most of the time you’re not. But you think that.

“It’s when you’ve only had two hours of sleep that mistakes happen.

I always think I’m the only one in that situation, but I think a lot of engineers and producers go through that emotional rollercoaster - ‘this is such a great thing, I’m loving what I do, this is the best job ever’, to the next day being like, ‘I can’t be doing this anymore!’ People should be more open about it, so you don’t feel you are the only one in that position.”

The studio Grandjean works out of belongs to Fraser T. Smith, and is quite grand, with a large semi-circle desk, high ceilings, and recording rooms leading off from the main room.

“Fraser and I really make sure we choose the right tech to record,” she says, and in showroom-style, Grandjean guides me through the kit. “I love the [Thermionic Culture] Culture Vulture to add a bit of crunch to drums, and their Phoenix compressor is also great to use on overheads and piano, as it’s got a warmth to it, and a fairly slow attack, so it doesn’t squash anything, so it lets it breathe, but still compresses it nicely.

“What I’ve realised - for me, anyway - is that I like to add a little bit, but at different stages; so compress it a little bit there, then compress there, add a little EQ, and in the end, it has the sound that I like. You really want it to be dynamic.”

Smith and Grandjean have a penchant for hardware that is reminiscent of the type used on The Beatles’ albums.

“Eric Valentine is a great producer, but also a bit of a tech genius, building these amazing preamps, EQs, and especially compressors that are basically replicas of the Fairchild 670, which was a compressor that was used a lot in The Beatles’ era,” Grandjean says. “They have such character, and contain a lot of valves, so they are very warm and rich sounding. This UTA desk is custom made for Fraser by Eric Valentine, which we use every day for the EQs, because it’s so versatile, and so precise, but at the same time, very musical. We also use two API EQs: one of them on the live vocal mic that is in the control room, for vibe and brightness, and taking out some low mids; and another one is on a percussion mic to add top end if needed.”

When it comes to plugins, Grandjean tends to lean on Waves:

“I am a big fan of the Waves CLA series, as it’s perfect for getting the vibes going, especially to inspire singers when they are putting ideas down.

It has modules: vocals, drums, bass, guitars, effects, everything you need; and although I use a minimal amount of plugins in general, the Waves RBass is also used a lot, as obviously in hip hop and grime, the bass is important - you can’t have a small bass!”

Speaker-wise, it’s all about Genelec, she reveals: “I like how clear and precise the Genelec speakers are, in both the small and larger format. We’ve got a pair of 1035As with the 7071A sub, and it’s great to be able to use big speakers, and crank them up, but always keeping the definition. Paired with the sub, they are completely ideal for the vibe in the main studio, and also to check the low end on mixes. They are a big artist favourite.”

There is also a pair of 8240As in the studio’s programming/editing suite: “These are our smaller speakers, so they suit the size of the room better, but they can be pushed in level if needed, which is something we look for in speakers: to be able to push them loud without distorting or clipping.”

I ask Grandjean what winning the MPG Award meant to her, and how important an organisation like the MPG is to a creative in her position.

“The MPG is a great organisation, not only for the MPG Awards, but also for all the events they organise, such as new gear presentations in various studios,” she insists. “Their Benefactor Scheme, and their involvement in campaigns such as ‘Shared Parental Pay Equality’ for self-employed people - as that’s what most people in the music industry are – and ‘Credit Where Credit Is Due’, because credits on records for engineers, musicians, and producers tend to disappear in this very digital age..!

“Winning an MPG Award is always a great honour, as it is judged by very talented engineers and producers; it is also a great recognition of the work that you put into records. It was also fantastic that so many women won this year, I am really proud of that, as well! Receiving the award from Stormzy was incredible. It meant a lot to me that he took the time out of his incredibly busy schedule to come to the MPG Awards that night.”

So, no wish to whip out the harp, or strum on the guitar any time soon? “[laughs] I’d maybe like to produce in the future, but my dream was to record, mix, and master, so I’m very happy where I am!”

And rightly so.

@ManonGrandjean4 www.genelec.com www.waves.com www.mpg.org.uk

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EXCLUSIVE

Del Amitri

BACKSTAGE WITH DEL AMITRI We go behind the scenes at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall to catch up with Glaswegian pop rockers, Del Amitri, whose comeback tour has them sounding better than ever.

Words Paul Watson Del Amitri are back, and we at Headliner are delighted about it. Formed out of Glasgow in the early ‘80s, frontman Justin Currie and co. have had 15 UK Top 40 singles, and five Top 10 albums, with Waking Hours (1989) achieving Platinum status in both the UK and Australia. The guys knocked it all on the head in 2002, and although Currie continued to make music, while fellow founding member, Iain Harvie, delved into the world of record production, the band were in the shadows until a reunion show was announced at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro in 2013, where 8,000 people showed up to see Currie, Harvie, Andy Alston (founder member/keys player), take to the stage with renowned drummer, Ash Soan, and guitarist, Kris Dollimore.

Fast forward to present day, and that same line-up are back in a big way. They’ve just completed a run of shows in the UK: Newcastle, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, London, and the famous Barrowlands venue in their hometown of Glasgow. It’s been a blast, and it’s good to

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be back, they tell me, as we chat backstage over a cuppa at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall to talk touring, speaker technology, new music, and giant inflatable parrots.

“I started a band called Del Amitri when I was at school, but that only went on for about a year, and we did alright, actually,” Currie reveals. “We did quite a few gigs, put out a flexi-disc with a fanzine, which was quite a big thing at the time. The two guitarists went to university, so I thought that was that, but then a journalist persuaded me to try and find other musicians; and I didn’t think you could do that, I thought bands only existed because magic only happens once, I was very romantic about it – and then I put some notices up in some music shops advertising for like-minded people, and met these total arseholes – guys who wanted to be rock stars, and didn’t have any discerning ability to be anything other than a clothes horse.

“Finally, after two weeks of meeting people, fruitlessly, I met Iain [Harvie], and we clicked straight away – and within a week, we were

in a room writing songs together. Iain would play a part, and we would stick parts together; I would take away a cassette, write a load of lyrics for the rest of it, and we would come back and edit it.”

A Sound Choice

Del Amitri used to use Dick Rubel as their live sound guy who, although great at his job, was a little too hi-fi for their liking.

“Dick was great; if you walked into a show, and he was mixing it, you would just know, as he had his own way of doing things,” Currie explains. “But we always wanted to sound a bit dirtier and heavier, and we found the Adlib [Audio] guys were really good at that.

“I remember I went to see Texas; I had seen them before, and they had sounded OK, but they always had that kind of ‘80s voice and snare mix; and then I saw them again at [Glasgow’s] Barrowlands: I thought ‘who the fuck is their sound man – we want him!’ And it turns out it was Andy Docherty at Adlib. It turned out that we were on a different touring

EXCLUSIVE

Del Amitri

“I thought bands only existed because magic only happens once; I was very romantic about it...” cycle to Texas, so we actually shared Andy for a couple of years. After that, we worked with Dave Kay [of Adlib], and he knows our sound inside out. The company has been great to us.”

So, when heading back out on the road, no surprise that it’s an Adlib show, with Kay at the helm; it’s an old school approach, and it’s really a case of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.

“I have a Midas Heritage console out front for these shows, the same board we used with Del Amitri back in the day,” Kay explains.

“Then I have a rack full of dbx 160s and some BSS compressors, and a couple of reverb units.

It’s all very analogue, and it sounds fantastic.”

Conversation turns to Justin Currie’s vocal chain, which Kay likes to keep very simple.

“I really like the Shure Beta 58A mic on vocals, just for the clarity, and to keep life in the performance. The Beta 58A goes into the Heritage, with a 160 compressor; I drive the vocals quite hot, and compress them very lightly. Justin’s vocal isn’t one that needs compressing, as he has such great control – really, I am just trying to make the whole experience from the stage as natural as possible, and relaying that to the audience.”

Pushing the Boundaries

One thing that is brand new to Del Amitri, however, is the Coda Audio PA system that’s out with them on the road. It’s the AiRAY system: 12 boxes per side, with two SC2-F

low frequency extensions on top, and another four per side for the downfill; on the floor, there are four 18-inch SCP subs, with APS and HOPS8 cabinets as fills. It’s quick to set up, says the tour’s system tech, Steve Norman: “When you get the Coda system into place, it’s very lightweight, so very easy to move; we’re done in a couple of hours. And with it being a bi-amp box, you effectively cut your cable down by half, so it makes your day a hell of a lot easier. If we were carrying a bigger box, we wouldn’t be able to get it up in the air here, as the balcony points are too close. So we have a full-range system in the sky here that you literally couldn’t achieve with any other box.”

With Kay opting for analogue at FOH, to allow him to stay true to Del Amitri’s chunky sound, Norman had to find a way to transport and distribute this analogue audio without degrading the quality of it. He looked no further than a Prism Sound converter.

“Yes, it could be done in the analogue world, but it seemed to make sense to convert that into digital, so whatever you convert it to, it’s now lossless, giving you cable redundancy, and the ability to split it in a multitude of ways, or combine different inputs on top of that as well,” Norman explains. “So that bit in the middle – the converter - needed to be the best we could get, and having worked with and owned Prism Sound converters myself, it

was a no-brainer for me to go there.”

It’s a Prism Sound ADA-8XR doing the trick, which has the a jitter-free clock; that also gets the thumbs up from Norman: “And you can hear that, because the stereo width and depth you get out of the unit is massive. It’s like comparing an mp3 to a wav; it’s like you’ve peeled the grills off the speakers, in the sense that it completely opens up the sound. So through the Coda system, you hear every single bass note, and the subs aren’t just something that make a noise, there is true definition; and that’s the converter helping that along. It’s a hell of a combo!”

Norman says having AiRAY on this tour also makes moving the show from venue to venue a very straightforward process.

“Because AiRAY is no bigger than a double eight-inch, and only weighs 40kg, its versatility is unparalleled,” he insists. “On this run, we’re doing a range of different venues, from small clubs to 3,000-seater venues, and Glasgow’s Barrowlands, which is a place where you have no option but to groundstack everything. And the amazing thing is, we carry the same PA; you just bring in more or less of it, which means it’s a consistent sound at every gig from a front of house and band perspective.”

Kay says the AiRAY system is a huge leap forwards in driver technology and design: “Coda have a fantastic manufacturing plant,

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EXCLUSIVE

Del Amitri

“The guy who was running the generator realised it was actually the parrot that was pulling the power...” and [company founder] Svetly Alexandrov has been playing with prototypes for a very long time. The actual component technology is so simple, when you’re told about the dual diaphragm; but it really goes back to my fundamental of mixing: get the source right.

“We have two amps for each guitarist, but I just use one, because you’re going to get interference; and the Coda speaker technology is exactly the same: the whole design of the cabinets is that different components don’t interfere with each other.

“The linear wavefront comes out of the components linear, and in phase, rather than trying to force it around a waveguide, or process it to be in phase; the mid drivers, and the high end drivers were based on that principle, and the subs’ sensor technology means you can reproduce what you put into it.

“Coda just kind of takes the blanket off of the PA system, if you like. It’s so transparent, which is good for some people, though some people won’t like it, as you’ll hear things you haven’t heard before! Luckily, I’ve got a very good band, so I don’t have that problem!”

A band of Coda Audio advocates, too: “I was sitting in the circle yesterday when Dave [Kay] was voicing the boxes he was flying, these new Coda things,” Currie recalls.

“I couldn’t believe the amount of bottom end that was flying out of these speakers – it is a very impressive system.”

“I wasn’t even sure Steve [Norman, system tech] had turned the PA on, but I saw him

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walking around with his iPad, and then I heard this ‘whooop!’,” adds Iain Harvie, with a smile. “He had this spectrum analysis software, and tuned it all in about 30 seconds – and that was it! [laughs] Usually we’ve got all this white noise, and pink noise, and we’ll play music for about an hour while people wander around; but none of that happens with this Coda system.”

The Inflatable Parrot

Before the guys head off to take the stage, I ask them what their weirdest ever gig has been to date. At first, silence, followed by laughter, and the following reaction from Currie: “We would do these absurd gigs in America, all for free – and this one was on a beach, where people were literally sunbathing. All these American radio stations had nicknames at the time, and this one was called ‘The Parrot’, and it had this shitty little stage that was lit by three white par cans; it was really hot, and they had a little generator for the lights and rig.

“So they also had this inflatable parrot, a good 20-feet or so high; and within the first song, the breakers blew, and everything went off – no sound. So, we went back on again, and it blew again as soon as we hit a loud note. We did this three times, and said ‘if it happens a fourth time, we’re not doing it, as it’s so embarrassing’. And the guy who was running the generator realised it was actually the parrot pulling the power! [smiles] It had

to be constantly inflated, because it had a leak, so we heard the guy going, ‘pull the parrot! pull the fucking parrot!’ [laughs] And someone did, so the gig went ahead..!”

From start to finish, Del Amitri had this Birmingham audience thoroughly engaged as they rolled through the years, playing material from various hit albums as well as the odd new number, and B-side. The band were phenomenally on the money, and those trademark ‘in your face’ vocals that are to be found on all Del Amitri records were perfectly replicated out front here: rich, warm, and up close and personal. Credit to Dave Kay at FOH, he clearly does know these guys’ sound inside out.

Some great guitar work on the night from Iain Harvie - and his backing vocals were sharp, too - and Ash Soan is a great choice on the drums. Regarding frontman, Justin Currie, listening to him live was a joy, and took me back to my school days, where I’d often have his music blaring through old cassette players, Walkmans, and eventually my first iPod Rumour has it that Del Amitri are making a brand new record, too; if you consider the band’s rapport, performance, and overall quality of musicianship on stage, that can only be a very good thing. www.coadaudio.com www.delamitri.com www.prismsound.com

PITCH BLACK EDITION Only available for a limited time www.shure.co.uk

© 2017 Shure Incorporated

01 Headliner

DEVIN TOWNSEND: CHAOS THEORY I ask Devin Townsend, songwriter, guitarist, highly sought-after producer, composer, and many other things, what he currently identifies with the most. “Lost!” he says, with a smile. “I am also a dad, husband, and at the risk of sounding super-douchey, a person. In a lot of ways, music acts as a pressure release, just everything about your nature and my personality.” Here is a Canadian who founded metallers, Strapping Young Lad, recorded and toured with Steve Vai, while releasing a multitude of solo material, which ranges from metal music we’d naturally associate with him, to the polar opposite: ambient albums.

Words Adam Protz

I

ask Townsend how and why he releases such a diverse range of albums; 2014’s Casualties of Cool saw an ambient take on Americana, while 2004’s Devlab sees the artist explore the world of electroacoustic experimentation.

“Well, for me, just doing metal would be like having steak for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” he says. “Sometimes you just want granola! The reaction to a heavy record is often a downtempo electronic thing, and then the reaction to that is probably going to be orchestral, and the reaction to that might be pop. And it seems in the case of the record I’m working on right now, it’s all of those things, which is frustrating! I can’t seem to define it myself, yet.”

Performing in metal bands throughout high school, Townsend was discovered by a record label, and approached with the prospect of recording and performing with the legendary guitarist, Steve Vai, considered by some to be the best in the world. The music of Strapping Young Lad was often a backlash against his experiences of the music industry while working with Vai. It was a creatively successful backlash — to date, he has released 23 albums across his various projects.

I ask Townsend how he found himself in the crazy world of music production.

“There was a guy in my hometown, kind of a hotshot producer,” he recalls. “He was the guy you wanted to work with. We had a meeting, and he asked, ‘what’s your vision?’ I said, ‘well, I really like the production of Def Leppard, I really like the brutality of Metallica, and I really like the vocal treatment of Enya.’ He said, ‘well, you’ll have to choose one of those things, because it’s not gonna be able to co-exist.’ And I remember thinking, ‘but it has to!’

So I just went about thinking of ways to do that.

“I really like and respect the production and mastering abilities of

Deadmau5, or Jon Hopkins — they’re all different sounds, but they all have a sense of width to their work. Clean, but still hitting hard.

Deadmau5 masters as he goes, and there’s such a size to it, all the tonality and the snares.”

Townsend’s studio wizardry is highly renowned, and a key part of said wizardry are the Waves plugins that he champions.

“I got their starter bundle years and years ago,” he says. “And would dream of having the Mercury package! But then I went to NAMM and walked past them, and they just recognised me, and told me they’d like to work with me.

“Since then, our dialogue has been so useful to me, learning how to use all these tools at their disposal. They’ve really helped bridge the gap between the clarity of electronic and orchestral music, and the grittiness of rock music. It’s been so inspiring.”

Townsend goes on to give me a rundown of some of the Waves kit he uses, and how: “I usually go for the Scheps Omni Channel Strip,” he says. “It’s my default for a lot of reasons, originally because it was one of the first ones I could get to from the drop down menu! Up to that point, if I wanted to use a high or a low pass, I would need to use a channel strip. But the guys at Waves let me know that they’ve made it as low CPU, so I can use it in lots of instances. If I’ve got a vocal group, I’ll drop it in there to get that low end information. If I’ve got a stereo mix of an orchestral part, I’ll use that to take some of the real low and high end out.

“I often use the standby plugins: the Convolution Reverb, for example. What I’ll use for an effect for that, is an SSL strip, which has a bunch of presets. They’re filtered strips, even on the Omni channel. It’s what gives them that radio sound. So for a vocal effect, the reverb will be the first in the line, then the Omni strip, Headliner 27 Headliner 02

“I’ve just found such success with the Waves PRS SuperModels plugin; a great mid-gain sound, and a clean sound that is so functional...” with that affected EQ, and a compressor. It compresses the reverb in a way that you get a really cool ambient effect.”

THE GUITAR MAN

Townsend recently collaborated with Waves to create artist presets for their PRS SuperModels, a guitar amp plugin series that was created with the legendary Paul Reed Smith.

“To be honest, the first one that I pulled up was the Archon,” Devin says. “I’ve just found such success with it. I’ve found a great midgain sound, and a clean sound that’s been so functional. It’s a complicated thing, to get guitar plugins to sound like amps - a lot of times because of the latency. If you can get a plugin to work as your modeller, you’re gonna get that latency down to one or two milliseconds. There’s something that has been really satisfying about the PRS plugin — I feel really connected to the instrument, for once.

“In terms of creating the presets, Waves gave me the beta version of the product; once it was installed, I went through, thinking that a good thing for anybody using it would be to have an overview of the sounds. So I started with a clean sound, and created something that worked well 28 Headliner

with single coil pickups. From there, I moved it up in gain stages. The next thing I worked on was a clean sound with grit, which became a revelation for me, because that sound was hugely satisfying. I called it the Devin Writer, because even when I was working on the presets, I was coming up with riffs!”

As Townsend mentions, he likes to work with orchestral instruments, and he wisely uses Spitfire Audio in that creative process.

“Spitfire kit is brilliant,” he says. “I have it set up with the Albion library, and one of the choral packages. I have the templates set up in Logic, but it’s all split up. For example, the violins and their articulations are set up in Kontakt, so that they’re each a separate instrument - say, a tremolo violin or pizzicato violin. I can also work on the dynamics with my mod wheel. The amount of orchestration on my new Empath project is huge, and the Spitfire stuff is recorded so well, and is gratifying to hear.”

Besides Logic and Pro Tools, Devin often relies on Ableton as a go-to DAW: “Ableton is the concubine; I just absolutely love that program. It’s so creatively open. Even the most functional DAWs have a trajectory, whether it’s Logic or Pro Tools. You start with

your track, and you import your plugins. The thing about Ableton that’s always been so fascinating for me is, it’s an open architecture that allows you to have the tools to do whatever it is you want. Once you get the fundamentals down, you can take pieces of the work you’re doing as another clip, and run it as a master bus, and drop distortion on it to blow the whole thing out. It’s really, really fun. So creatively inspiring.”

Finally, Devin is very fond of his Universal Audio 6176 preamp: “After trying all the vocal preamp options, a lot of them were going to result in two units, and be more than I needed,” he explains. “But the 6176 has the tenuation for gain, pad or phase; the rudimentary EQ... it’s just a great colour. It’s got a really cool and unique crunch to it. It goes straight into my HDX system, and that’s my vocal chain. I’m so pleased with it.”

What a thrilling musician Devin is. Headliner awaits his next album, Empath, with baited breath. Watch this space!

@dvntownsend www.waves.com www.spitfireaudio.com

Cover Story

When you hear the name Tiësto, the first thing that comes to mind is EDM, but this acronym could easily mean something different to Electronic Dance Music; when describing Tiësto, the words Engaging Dynamic Mindset come to the fore. As we discuss his career, constant evolution, and latest release, Jackie Chan, his enthusiasm for music is clearly evident. With an extensive catalogue spanning over 20 years, his love for making music and DJing is clearly still coursing through his veins; speaking with him, you believe anything is possible.

Constantly on the move between shows and the studio, we find Tiësto in London, after having headlined the May bank holiday weekend Creamfields show at The Steel Yard.

Words Adam Gwilt Photographs Jordan Loyd

01 Headliner

TIËSTO A

fter being given such accolades as the ‘Greatest DJ of All Time’, and winning awards such as a Grammy, and the Edison Lifetime Achievement Award alongside such luminaries as David Bowie and U2, I ask Tiësto if he still pinches himself, and wonders how a boy from Brada got to where he is today. “[smiles] Yeah, absolutely - every day! It’s just incredible...

I feel like I can really enjoy everything,” opens the dance music icon. “I’ve done so much in my life, and I can always look back on it with a smile – and it’s still going. I played a show on Sunday at The Steel Yard for 15,000 people who were going crazy start to finish; it made me feel like I’d just started my career or something. Pretty special.”

Indeed. I ask Tiësto to regress, and take me back to his early DJ days.

“I started out at home, really - just listening to the radio, and other DJs mix records; it gave me an early interest. Then as soon as I went out and saw other people mixing records, I decided I need to do this as well,” Tiësto says, as I ask what was influencing him at that point. “It was dance music, like acid house, I think, that kind of style. I was into a lot of DJs from Belgium, and I remember going to all the Belgian dance clubs like Cherry Moon and La Rocca; the DJs playing there definitely had a big influence on me.”

Because he was so interested in how people created that kind of music, it was somewhat inevitable that Tiësto would also head into music production.

“I was intrigued,” he reflects. “It sounded so different, so I went to a random music store and bought a Roland DJ-70 sampler keyboard, which was a kind of ‘everything in one’. I started making my first tracks using that, but I realised pretty quickly that I needed to upgrade; when I started to get in contact with other producers, they told me what I should buy, and at that point, I started getting the really good stuff.”

Conversation turns to Black Hole, Tiësto’s own record label.

“I had previously released music on a label called Basic Beat, but I had this vision of melodic trance music, and no-one was wanting to put it out, because in Holland, club music was the really popular stuff,” he explains. “So I offered

it to them first to release it, they said no, and then I had to start my own label. I pressed 500 CDs myself, with my phone number on the back, and just started selling; and my first release sold 10,000 copies, so it was a good start.”

Tiësto collaborated extensively with Ferry Corsten in the late ‘90s on the Gouryella trance project. I ask him how that relationship happened.

“That was a lot of fun,” he says. “I worked in a record store, and he was one of the regular visitors; Ferry would come there to buy records. He was already doing his System F stuff, and he was basically the biggest DJ house producer in the world, so I was like, ‘I want to see what you’re doing in the studio’, so he invited me over, and one afternoon, we made Gouryella.”

Simple as that! What kit did you use, do you remember?

“I had a Mackie mixer, and the Nord Lead [keyboard], and I was still on Cubase! It was all analogue - very different to now, with all the virtual plugins, FL Studio, and Ableton. We also used a lot of modular synths – Ferry had plenty of those!”

That collaboration was a big stepping stone for Armin van Buuren, who featured on a remix. I ask Tiësto if breaking new artists, and helping up and coming artists, is something that’s particularly important to him.

“Yeah, absolutely. I’ve been pretty much doing it my whole life, I guess, so I really like to break new artists,” he explains. “They give me inspiration, as well, so it works both ways. The biggest example is probably Martin Garrix. When I played at the Olympic Games in 2004, he was watching that with his mum, and she said, ‘that’s DJ Tiësto’. He was eight-years-old at the time, and he said, ‘I want to be a DJ like Tiësto’. Now, some 14 years later, he’s the biggest guy in the world, so that’s pretty cool! [laughs]”

SILENCE IS GOLDEN

The remix of Delerium’s Silence seems to be a defining moment in Tiësto’s career. I ask him to tell me about it.

“Yes, definitely a defining moment in my career. It was at the very start of my career, too - some 18 years ago – and that was really the start of everything, because Paul Oakenfold started playing that remix, and it became a Top 10 hit everywhere. After that track, I started getting

Headliner 31 Headliner 02

“I really like to break new artists; they give me inspiration...” bookings from all over the world. I had just done two remixes for a label in Belgium called Muse, then they said, ‘we have another one for you’. I was just about getting on a roll with remixes; I’d done one for Balearic Bill, and another one, and they said ‘would you like to remix Silence?’ And I loved the vocal, for a start - it’s an amazing vocal – and said ‘yeah, sure’.

I just did it, and that was that. I remember it was for about €2,000, something like that. They made some good money on that track! [laughs]” Tiësto is constantly evolving musically, having collaborated with artists such as Calvin Harris, Flo Rida, and a whole host of others.

This is another part of his career that he feels is very important.

“I mean, that’s how you evolve,” he says, very matter of fact. “Calvin Harris is a great example.

In 2009, I made the Kaleidoscope album. I worked with only indie artists like Sigur Rós, and Kele from Bloc Party. Calvin Harris was another game-changer in my career; that was like Tiësto 2.0! [laughs]. After that, I never looked back; I just kept moving on, and that’s something I’m very proud of.

“At that point [in 2009], I had to approach everybody, because what I was playing live, and how people knew me, was not necessarily what I was listening to at home, so I really wanted to combine the two.

“When I approached Sigur Rós for a collaboration, the guy was like, ‘wait, what, Tiësto?’ He had no idea, but I’d been a huge fan from the beginning, and I went to many of his shows, hung out backstage, and thats how we got to know each other. So he realised I was a real fan of his music, and then he was like, ‘OK then, it’s cool, I’ll do it’. Normally, he would have never done a collaboration, and he never did after! [smiles]” 32 Headliner

I am intrigued to know what other influences Tiësto has outside of the EDM scene.

“I listen to everything, and I think Spotify really helps with that; you’re more exposed to different bands and music, and that’s how I discovered Post Malone, who I collaborated on [my latest single] Jackie Chan with, so it’s just completely different.

“It’s totally different to Silence! [laughs] I think in life, everyone evolves, and everyone changes. Your personality changes a little bit, too: what kind of food you like, for example.

And it’s the same for music, that’s the beauty of it. If you can stay kind of relevant, and be part of the whole scene for so many years, that, for me, is something I’m really proud of.

“For Jackie Chan, we were in the studio together - there is another version with different verses, and only one part of Post [Malone].

Preme played it for us in the studio in LA, and we wanted to do something with the track; we loved it right away.

“Then we came up with a little guitar riff at the beginning, and that changed the complete vibe of the track; we thought it should be a single release, because it’s so good, and different to anything else out there.”

STUDIO PROCESS

“These days, you get a studio session, they write five songs, send them to you, and you pick the best one, change the music completely underneath, and then you find a new vocalist, and then it all comes together,” Tiësto reveals, adding that his world is very much digital when it comes to music production. “It’s all plugins, really, and I’m working in either Ableton or Logic. It’s not much analogue anymore, as almost no studios have the kit.

“If there is one bit of kit I couldn’t do

without, it’s Ableton; I like it a lot, because you can put down ideas very quickly, so it’s a good starting point, and then you can easily just take it over to a bigger studio later on.”

Tiësto recently headlined at Creamfields in London. I ask him how it was, and what can we expect from him next on the live scene.

“The London show was incredible,” he enthuses. “I was extremely happy with the turnout, and the crowd sang along with every track. The second track I played was a new one, and that isn’t even out yet, yet everybody was singing along! I was really surprised about that “The English crowds are always really good to play to – they’re very well educated about dance music. I have a long history here, as I started playing here a long time ago in the Gatecrasher days, and at Creamfields. I have been coming here forever; it’s a yearly thing which I love being a part of; it’s just incredible!”

More than ever in today’s industry, an artist really has to build a brand. Tiësto has featured in DJ Hero, and was recently involved in a project with Armani. What next for his brand?

“I’m always looking at stuff,” he says. “I’m definitely working with a fashion brand; not just to put my name on it, more to collaborate, so that’s going to happen after the summer. I’m also working with some big beer brands, and that’s always good, because they can help you with the production. I like to work with brands that can bring something extra to the table, not just for the money, but to get people a nice experience; and that, I think, is very important.”

Nice to hear. It appears there really is no stopping the train that is Tiësto, with his genuinely unique EDM mentality.

@Tiesto www.tiesto.com

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MICHAEL CLARK: PROTECTING THE PERFORMANCE Michael Clark started making mix tapes from the airwaves as a kid, which led to him editing 1/4-inch tape at his college radio station to cut swear words, and eventually to the Full Sail, where he was able to fully immerse himself into the recording world. During his studies, he had a switch in passion from music recording to film post production, and it’s worked out pretty well for him since.

Today, he is one of the top production sound mixers in the business, with credits such as The Walking Dead, and the uber-popular Netflix series, Stranger Things, to his name. We chat to the man behind the mics to find out more.

34 Headliner

I

T WAS WHEN MICHAEL CLARK CAME TO ATLANTA and managed to get an internship at a small boutique, commercial production company called Whoa! Films that he really began his Production Sound recording journey. On his very first job there, he was introduced to Michael Filosa, and he started learning about the art a deeper level.

“This is when I started my career on small ENG jobs,” Clark explains. “During my time with Michael [Filosa], I was able to work on many styles of projects from commercials, corporate internals, music videos, indie films, and my first episodic mixing gig for the TV show Good Eats, on Food Network. While on Good Eats, I fell in love with scripted filmmaking, and started honing my skills as a production sound mixer.”

There is no such thing as a typical day for a guy like Clark, however, we ask him to do his best at setting out his day in the life to us in layman’s terms.

“Being a production sound mixer means that I am recording the dialogue for the production, which sounds pretty straightforward, but as with all jobs on a film set, we have to take on factors and variables provided by other departments,” he says. “As in music recording, we wish to capture the dialogue in as clean an environment that is possible. In a music

studio situation, we have great abilities to manage these variables, but in the film world, we have exterior variables that most of the time are uncontrollable.”

Each department on a film set is there to support camera, Clark says, so the focus is on the image, at this stage of production, and on tracking the dialogue: “We work with the electric department on placement of generators and ballast systems for powering the set; with the props department on any handling concerns we have with props in the scene; with our camera department to work out frame lines and shadows for our boom microphones to work on a scene; and with the costume department to place body mics on our actors to capture dialogue that can’t be picked up by an overhead boom microphone.”

Furthermore, Clark and co. are also the keepers of sync on a film set, maintaining sync with the cameras being used to keep the workflow consistent throughout post production, with sync boxes and/or with a timecode slate (clapper).

“We are also responsible for delivering a mix feed of the production tracks to our video village full of directors, script supervisors, and executive producers,” Clark explains. “Maintaining radio frequencies is also a major concern, as we live in a wireless world, and we at times employ

On Location Michael Clark

“DPA mics offer outstanding sonic characteristics...”

25-30 wireless devices on our set, between microphones, audio feeds, camera focus devices, and camera video transmissions. As we have the most at stake, and we are usually the only ones licensed, we tend to manage these frequencies on set to minimise interference.”

The Walking Dead

Conversation turns to the epic US TV series, The Walking Dead, on which Clark has worked for the past seven seasons.

“I’ve been able to witness how a TV show affects people, and their passions towards the art of filmmaking,” Clark reflects, adding that the team are preparing to make season nine. “We are routinely having fans camped out on our perimeter road blocks, all day and night, just to catch a glimpse of our stars. I’ve seen over 200 people stand in blazing Georgia sun, on asphalt, with no shade, for 12 hours, watching us work inside a building they could see into!”

Every day on The Walking Dead is usually in a location in the woods, or on a permanent set piece. At times, the team are driving deep into rural Georgia, an hour or more south of Atlanta, depending on the location for the day. Clark’s day usually starts with him refreshing himself with the script.

“After seeing rehearsals, and understanding camera placement to cover the scene, my boom operator, Kevin Cerchiai, and myself breakdown the scene and decide how we can attack the scene, and capture the dialogue consistently; and my second boom operator, Dennis Sanborn, starts the lavalier [mic] wiring process of the actors that speak,” Clark reveals. “We will always use one or two boom microphones as our preference, and utilise the body mics as backups for wide angle setups. The toughest part of The Walking Dead is that we shoot three camera

setups often; these pairings can drive the headroom too high to cover with booms, and we either work to get matching headrooms on all cameras between discussions with our episode director and our director of photography (DOP), or we rely on our wireless body mics.”

Box of Tricks

We ask Clark what kind of microphones and wireless kit he is choosing to deploy for these epic audio productions.

“I discovered Lectrosonics wireless when I first started working in Atlanta, with Michael Filosa, as Lectrosonics was the industry leader for TV sound,” Clark says. “It was a time when not many companies invested into the TV side of sound, and Lectrosonics continuously listened to sound mixers, and adjusted their devices to handle the RF interference inherent with ENG style location sound gathering. We have many manufacturers with high quality wireless devices in the game now, and Lectrosonics still holds strong as the standard in our industry.”

Clark’s go-to Lectrosonics pieces are his 16-SM, SMQV, and SSM transmitters: “They are the workhorses in constant use, day in, day out; their robust design has proven long term, as I rarely have to return a transmitter to the service department for repair. And in the fast-paced world of TV sound production, I can’t afford a failure in gear. Having consistently working gear and sound quality ensures that I always capture the best wireless audio possible.”

For body mics, Clark is a DPA man, for what he describes as ‘outstanding sonic characteristics compared to the old standards available’.

“My kit consists of DPA models 4060, 4061, 4061 Core, 4071, 4098, and 4080; each microphone has its own characteristics, and I use each dependent to the voice and/or action of

the actor,” he says. “I will use the 4060 on soft talking actors, as the microphone has a higher sensitivity than the other models, and picks up these lower volume voices without adding Tx noise floors into the signal.

“When we bury the microphones under costumes, we are changing the sonic footprint of our actors’ voices; I find that for men, most sound best on the 4071 when buried under costumes, and I usually get away with using 4061s on female actors when buried, as their vocal signature tends to have higher frequencies that cut through the costumes well.

“I enjoy using the 4061/4071 and Core series for most of our work, as we tend to have dynamic dialogue, and these DPA microphones handle way higher SPLs than what I used prior.

These are great additions to this style of TV production. I use the 4098/4080s strictly as plant mics in vehicles; they are compact, and attach directly to the Txs as quick plant tools, and are great tools for small spaces.

Along with a selection of boom mics, all of this kit is connected to Clark wirelessly via Lectrosonics Txs paired with the Sound Devices MM-1.

“It’s for the higher quality mic preamp, with a proper gain staging, so we can avoid the limiters in the transmitters,” he explains.

Mixing it Up

This year, Clark transitioned into the world of control surfaces, after holding on strong for many years to his Cooper Sound Systems 106+1 analogue mixer as his workhorse.

“I gave consideration to digital mixing options that were geared towards the music industry, and have been having great success with other production sound mixers, but ultimately, I wasn’t willing to sacrifice tactile

35 Headliner

“I can’t afford a failure in gear, and I always capture the best wireless audio possible using Lectrosonics...” responses to the analogue layouts I grew accustomed to,” he explains.

“Having direct access to the channel strip functionality for every channel was key to my mixing style; and the digital offerings always had to be a workaround. A lack of instant control was not for my style.

“The demand of TV production sound keeps increasing, and actor count is always on the rise, so as these demands increase, the recorder and mixer demands also increase. For the past six seasons, I have used my Cooper seven-channel mixer, and added a Mix-8 control surface for additional inputs and control; this year, I added the Zaxcom Deva 24 and Mix-16 control surface. This combination eliminated my need to have a second package available for extra wireless, and I can now meet the demands of production with 16 analogue inputs and control available.”

Is it even worth asking what the biggest challenges in this job are..?! “[smiles] Our biggest concern on film productions is with noise: environmental noise, costume noise, crew noise, equipment noise,” comes Clark’s response. “With large productions comes more people, logistics, equipment, and potential noise concerns. However, it also brings experienced crew.

“The tools we can use to address these concerns comes with personal relationships we build with our crew members, and keeping an open dialogue between departments. An experienced crew helps us so much, as many of us understand the concerns of each department, and are able to consider each other, and work accordingly to minimise crossdepartment impacts. From placing generators at a reasonable distance for everyone, to props and costumes, and special FX placement.

“Even with a strong crew, and open dialogue, there will still be concerns that are uncontrollable: environmental concerns like airplanes, traffic, trains, lawn maintenance, air conditioning units, and other everyday noises that we take as second nature.

“For these, we have to rely on the sonic qualities of our microphones to reject as much of the noises we can’t control. With super-cardioid pickup patterns on our boom microphones to using body mics, that although are omni-directional, have a shorter signal reach, and we can get a stronger signal to noise ratio at the sacrifice of tone, and a more open sound of an overhead boom microphone.

“When noises occur that are actor-driven with props, we work it out with the actors to avoid as much overlapping with the dialogue as possible.

And as stated above, with experienced actors, we find they tend to correct themselves before we ever have to say anything.”

Keeping it Real

Every show holds memories that will last a lifetime, Clark tells Headliner.

The fact he gets to help create performances that touch the heart, and stir emotions almost every day, is something he is clearly humbled by.

“The greatest part is being able to experience these moments twice: once as we shoot them, and again months later with the rest of the world,” he says. “And the most memorable moments were actually before I ended up on The Walking Dead and Stranger Things - on a documentary called Feasting on Asphalt. While working with Alton Brown on this new travel food show, we traversed the United States laterally from Savannah, Georgia, to Los Angeles, California, experiencing the food available in every region, with down to earth, everyday people this country has to offer.

“I was able to see the landscape of America like I never have before, via the backroads, and no major interstate highways. We developed bonds with our long-lasting crew that we will hold together, forever. And, it ignited my passion for landscape photography that still grows inside of me, today.”

Although there’s something very special in store for us in October, Clark is unable to divulge information just yet. Before we leave him, however, we ask what the most satisfying part of his job is.

“It’s a few things, actually: first, my location changes almost every day; I’m not stuck in a cubicle processing numbers looking at the same three walls day in and day out. Second, we are creating stories that will be told for generations to come - and that impact is powerful. My children’s children will get an opportunity to see something that I helped create; it will create a generational connection that can’t be broken.

“Third, we capture performances that someone pours their energy and hearts into; and when they come back to us, thanking us for not forcing them to recreate their performances in a studio, because of onset problems or equipment failure, is by far the most rewarding aspect of my job, as it tells me, I’m doing the job to its highest level. And that’s the real core of our job... protect the performance!”

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Field Recording

Soundscaping in Milan

SOUNDSCAPING IN MILAN

Yerosha jumps on a plane for a weekend trip to Milan to take in the sights, and capture the quite marvellous sounds lurking within this bustling Italian city.

Words Yerosha

Field recording is something that I believe is a great way to increase your available sound palette for producing and programming. It turns out that Milan is a great place to record and capture the sounds of the city to create a cool soundscape.

One thing to note with composing, if you don’t already do it, is that anything can be used - from Imogen Heap using ‘noises of trains, thumping metal gates, and cardboard carpet tubes’, to birdsong sprinkled throughout Björk’s last album, Utopia. Just get creative.

Given the democratisation and ubiquity of quality, yet affordable, virtual instruments and plugins, now more than ever is the time to create your own sound palette. If, on Gaika’s EP, Spaghetto, I wasn’t using field recordings, I was using VIs, but manipulating them: time stretching, reversing, changing the pitch, you name it. But the magic of field recordings and, of course, one of the big reasons why owning

38 Headliner

the masters of records is so important and valuable, is because you have captured the atmosphere and a moment in time - an actual individual made that sound. What was the weather like? What time of year was it? What was happening in the world? You just don’t get that with MIDI!

True Blue

For me, the aim of the game when you are travelling for only a couple of days is to be able to go hand luggage only, and breeze through the gates with ease. So, with my small haul complete with Audio Technica’s M50x headphones in electric blue, and my Tascam DR-07mkII recorder, off I went.

It’s nice to bring the more sturdy variety of headphones rather than opting for earbuds, which you might do for trips. And how blue they are. Like, ‘80s video game blue. Like, really blue. Although we’re not prejudice here

at Headliner. They can be whatever colour they want. Blue.

Straight out of the box, these M50x cans feel robust. I’ve had a few sets of headphones in my time that I’ve loved, but have severely let me down in the robustness stakes.

For me, headphones should be near bulletproof - especially for the working DJ, musician, and recording engineer. They should be fully prepared to take a kick, a drop, or a good whack on a lamppost while rushing about. Not that I tried all the above on these - but they certainly give me confidence that they wouldn’t turn to dust if I sneezed at them wrong. There is even a waterproof pouch to carry them around in. Excellent.

These headphones have collapsible earcans that create an easier, less cumbersome shape, making for straightforward packing, as well as a detachable cable, which is a feature that I’m a big fan of, and is the main difference

Field Recording

Soundscaping in Milan

“I was able to pick out the detail around me in the Piazza del Duomo, and seek out the elements to help me create my soundscape...” between the M50 and the M50x.

They come complete with 1.2m-3m coiled, 3m straight, and 1.2m straight cables; and as they are marketed as a professional monitor headphone, I can guess A-T’s thinking behind it: coiled for personal use, 3m for studio use (perhaps for vocal tracking), and 1.2m for a DJ set - but, of course, it all depends on your setup.

I’m pretty new to Audio-Technica headphones, but I do know the original M50s are firm fixtures in studios and professional music settings.

One thing I notice off the bat is the padding. Spending long periods of time with cans on can really make your ears sore, as well as feeling really tight on the head, but it feels A-T has really tried to combat this with soft, and what seems like extra padding for the ears, and for the head, than other products, which makes for a really nice snug fit.

Many headphones can also feel very rigid, and at odds with the head, even; but even the headphone shape feels like it’s been tailored for the contours of the head - made even more

apparent when I tried testing them the other way round: I found they also acted as a great dampener for what I was listening to.

You can certainly have these pretty loud without spillage, and you can also listen to a loud monitor mix, and a ‘nose bleed’ metronome without troubling a recording too much. And these are loud headphones, which is another big plus. I’ve tested them with the DiGiGrid Q and the ART headphone amps, as well as with my Android, and a friend’s iPhone, and wasn’t left wanting with any of these devices. From the audiophile quality of the DiGiGrid Q to a smart phone, these headphones maintain their integrity, and quality of reproduction.

When in Milan...

I was really quite surprised at how I was able to hear and pick out the detail surrounding me given I was in the middle of Milan’s Piazza del Duomo. So much so, that rather than assuming it would feel like a cacophony of sounds, I was actually able to seek out and follow the details and elements

that would help me compose and create my soundscape.

I did also test the cans out on a number of different applications whilst walking around London, and at home: they brought out the bass for Missy, the delicate piano of Debussy’s Clair de Lune, and when recording vocals, they gave a very clear, super clean, and precise sound in the studio - giving an all-round very detailed, balanced sound; and a fine job at noise-reduction.

I also like the weight of the M50x: not particularly light, not too heavy; and they feel like they’re made to last. I especially like them in limited edition electric blue; it makes them a lot more fun, in my opinion; and personally, I don’t feel the colour makes the product look any less classy or high quality.

The price point is very reasonable at £125.

With the new, all-important detachable cable feature allowing for different uses, the great sound quality, and comfort, the M50x is a great all-rounder, and well worth investing in. www.audio-technica.co.uk

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Poppy Ackroyd

Brighton Rock

POPPY ACKROYD: BRIGHTON ROCK We chat over coffee before an East London soundcheck with the brilliant Poppy Ackroyd, one of the most interesting and exciting artists in today’s evolving modern classical scene.

Words Adam Protz The modern classical scene has been very Berlin-centric for some time, and its representing composers have been a little male-heavy. But about 700 miles west, in the seaside city of Brighton, there’s a composer who’s rapidly gaining ground on the likes of Nils Frahm and Ólafur Arnalds.

Poppy Ackroyd is becoming increasingly accomplished with the recent release of her third album, Resolve, and in October, will play her biggest show to date at London’s Southbank Centre. I grabbed a coffee with Poppy before her soundcheck at Vortex Jazz Club in East London, to find out how it’s all going.

My first question seeks to find out why she’s based herself in Brighton - of course, an arty and creative city, but not as seemingly

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obvious a choice as London (where she grew up) or Berlin, where she’d be in the company of luminaries such as Dustin O’Halloran, Lambert, and, of course, Nils Frahm.

“I love Berlin,” Poppy says. “I first went there to have my first record mastered by Nils Frahm. If I hadn’t been in a very long-term relationship, I would have actually stayed there. But it’s also nice to not be part of the scene — I went to an aftershow party at Nils’ studio after Piano Day, and it is a very close-knit scene, and I like to be separate.

“My partner and I did try to get a studio together in London, but we just couldn’t afford it. But I’m really happy to be in Brighton, so it’s all worked out.”

While a lot of the artists in the modern classical scene write their music and dress as

a rejection of classical music’s rules, Poppy very much went down the classic route. She studied piano and composition at Edinburgh University, before completing a Master’s degree in piano performance. Those hours and hours of practice certainly come through in pieces such as Feathers, a song which really marries Poppy’s use of music technology, and her hard-earned virtuoso ability.

Behind the Music

Resolve, album number three from Poppy, represents something of a sonic shift, but in a pleasing way and staying true to her earliest material.

“Escapement was all piano and violin sounds,” she says. “And then Feathers was all keyboard sounds. For the new one, I wanted

Poppy Ackroyd

Brighton Rock

“I’ve got the Fireface UC interface: simple, robust, and no glitches; switching to RME was a very good shout...” to get as much of an orchestral sound as I could, but still with only a few instruments.

So it was only me, Jo Quail on cello, and Mike Lesirge on clarinet, bass clarinet, and flute. Everything so far has just been me, so it was interesting to, say, ask someone to just improvise percussively on their instrument. It gave me a little more to play with.”

I ask Poppy if she felt any resistance towards getting outside help, having been a one-woman band for such a long time.

“Well, there was money,” she says, with a laugh. “I mean, I could have pulled people in for nothing. I think there was also a little bit of ‘I need to do this’, for some reason. I think I’d done the ‘I don’t need any help, but can you help me out a little bit’, approach for long enough.”

Studio Vibes

With Poppy’s DIY approach extending to recording and producing, there was no way I was going to pass up on finding out about her studio.

“For my sound card, I go with RME, because there’s no extra noise coming from the gear - total transparency,” Poppy says. “I’ve got the Fireface UC. It’s a small little guy, and I use it for the live show. Simple, robust, and

no glitches. I was on a MOTU Audio Express before, and it was giving me so much glitch!

Switching to RME was a very good shout.”

While luminaries such as Nils Frahm are religiously analogue, Poppy achieves a sound with all the same quality and character with digital equipment.

“That’s largely because companies like RME are actually affordable, sound extremely good, and it means I don’t have to spend hours going through eBay to find an old piece of equipment,” she says, with a smile. “Resolve was recorded with AKG C414 microphones, and my RME interface. I recorded the violins, cello - everyone in my room with a couple of mics!”

With so much going on in Poppy’s music, it’s crucial that she works with quality speakers.

“I use Adam speakers, and my partner has both the Genelec 8020 and 8030s, which he absolutely loves; and I personally love being able to play my stuff back on his Genelecs to get a different perspective. We try not to get the same gear — I’m always saying ‘can I just listen to this on your speakers, quickly?’”

Poppy uses Logic for studio purposes, but tells me she has a lot of fun with Ableton Live on tour.

“I love it,” she says. “My partner uses Ableton, and swears by it - and it’s so quick.

Particularly when I’m trying to be creative.

It’s so logical, and there are so many options.

I’ve only been using it for two years, and I feel like I’m there already. Before that, I was using MPC Studio, and it was such a chore getting all the sounds on there. Using Ableton has made life so much easier.”

The world of composers is notoriously male-heavy at this stage, but that clearly hasn’t fazed Poppy Ackroyd one bit, and there’s no doubt she’s been an inspiration to others for quite some time now.

Her next milestone will be her most prestigious show yet, performing at the world-famous Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room on October 10th, later this year.

Her live show is a brilliant blend of her classical performance and her studio wizardry — you won’t want to miss her doing so in the biggest space to host it yet. Beyond that, there seems to be nothing that can stop her matching the success of Ólafur Arnalds, et al, if she keeps blazing her Brighton-based trail. www.rme-audio.com www.genelec.com @poppyackroyd

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Coldplay

A Head Full of Dreams

COLDPLAY: A HEAD FULL OF DREAMS Chris Martin and co. have truly taken their success to the stratosphere, with no better proof than their A Head Full of Dreams tour. It saw the globetrotters performing in stadiums in Latin America, Europe, Asia, North America, and Oceania. It looked and, of course, sounded stunning. Which it had to, really — accompanying the album of the same name, which has sold 1.4 million copies worldwide, and spawned singles such as Hymn For The Weekend, and Adventure Of A Lifetime.

But praise must go to some of the unsung heroes of this gargantuan Coldplay tour, which was attended by 5.39 million fans, and made $523 million. Headliner descended on the massive Warsaw leg of the tour to speak to some of the most prominent faces from the literal army of engineers on the tour.

Absolutely vital was the Optocore network infrastructure, and DiGiCo consoles.

“We started looking at design options for the loudspeaker system towards the end of 2015,” says Alex Hadjigeorgiou, fibre infrastructure designer and system realiser.

We also have with us Tony Smith, the audio system technical director: “Preparation is key — from Dan’s point of view (Dan Green, Coldplay’s front of house engineer) he’s very meticulous in his setup.

He knows all the arrangements and the

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instrumentation very well. But that same meticulousness goes for the whole show.”

Hadjigeorgiou explains why the team opted for Optocore - not a light decision for such a behemoth of a production.

“We designed the system around Optocore because it was a tried and tested method that we knew,” he explains. “The technology is reliable, it’s a known quantity, and it delivers everything we needed from the system. I’ve spent many years basing my reputation on that product, and they’ve never let me down.”

Hello, Wembley!

Meanwhile, Smith talks us through how he would use the biggest venue of the tour as his starting point. Namely, Wembley Stadium.

“I designed it around the largest venue, and I based it around Wembley,” he says.

“The signal distribution is all from Optocore,” adds Jack Murphy, systems engineer. “The main hub is at front of house, where we take signals from the mixing desk.

We have seven X6R units across the system, our seven main hubs (which is front of house) either side of the stage, two delay positions, and then the two ring delay positions. And then the delay units and front of house have some extra TP units to add some analogue inputs and outputs to the system.”

“With the front of house control, we use them to put the Optocore units on the DiGiCo loop,” Smith says, “which then feeds to a Pro Tools system.”

Murphy then walks us through the mind-numbing scale of the literal lengths the team went to.

“We’ve got quite a few long distances in

Coldplay

A Head Full of Dreams

“The Coldplay system design infrastructure has evolved to incorporate a lot more Optocore products...” this system,” he says. “We have a 150-metre multicore from front of house to the stage, and a 100-metre one across the stage; each delay position has a 150-metre cable.

“And on our ring delays, where sometimes our amplifiers are put in the roof, we have 300-metre fibres, which means we can position anything anywhere.”

Hadjigeorgiou continues to sing Optocore’s praises: “We like the fact that the separation we get across fibre, in terms of power and ground loops, we remove all of those issues. The Coldplay system has effectively evolved with every tour. So going back to Viva La Vida, Mylo Xyloto, and Ghost Stories, and now A Head Full of Dreams, the requirements have increased, and become more complex.

“As that’s happened, the system design infrastructure has changed and evolved to incorporate a lot more Optocore products, because it provides us with some really unique functionality.”

Rock Solid

In layman’s terms, the last thing you’d want at a sold out Coldplay arena show is Chris Martin’s vocals cutting out, because of a dodgy cable somewhere. Clearly there’s not a chance

of that with Optocore providing the spine of the production.

“The difference within the system is the Route66,” Smith says, as Hadjigeorgiou immediately concurs.

“The Route66 is a great device,” adds Murphy, with similar admiration. “We were using it so that we don’t have to have a whole, complete loop at any one point. So what we have is different areas of the system set up in individual loops.

“So we’ll have a loop for the main PA, each set of delays, and the ring delays either side of stage. This means we can set up the system without one of those sets of loops not being there. And then the way the Route66 closes those loops makes it so easy.

“The reason we chose to use Optocore is that we don’t add any more processing to the sound system. So there is a Lake processor for Coldplay, which Tony will tune the system with, but straight off the back of that, it goes to the Optocore, and straight to the amplifiers.

So if I want to fine tune anything, I do that within the amplifiers themselves.”

And last but not least, the consoles, the very hub of the Coldplay live audio experience.

“We have two DiGiCo SD7 consoles at front of house,” Smith tells us. “One is the

main Coldplay console, the other the support console - but it’s also a spare, in case we have any issues. On the network, we just have the two SD7s, an SDRE, and the DG2FRs.” Murphy talks us through where the team are hidden during the show.

“Underneath the big screen we have a technical bunker where the monitor desk and monitor equipment is housed,” he says.

“This setup has been pretty much unchanged for the last couple of tours,” Smith adds. “This control rig flies everywhere, wherever the band goes. The support from Optocore has been great, only a phone call or an email away.”

Hadjigeorgiou feels very much the same: “It’s been a great journey, and we hope to do more of the same in the future,” he says.

Could you blame them for wanting to do it all again? A huge thanks to each of the guys for this fascinating behind the scenes tour of what it takes to get a Coldplay stadium tour sounding tip-top. And a huge Headliner congratulations for pulling it off so brilliantly. www.optocore.com www.digico.biz

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Artist Focus

FLYNT

FLYNT: CUMBRIA CALLING We sit down with multi-talented ‘northern brewed’ quartet, FLYNT, whose attention to sonic detail is seemingly as impressive as the music that gets made in their state of the art studio.

Words Adam Protz Cumbrian indie-popsters, FLYNT, describe themselves as ‘northern brewed’, and are very much on the rise after a strong backlog of gigs, including shows with the BBC, and Glasgow’s TRNSMT Festival — not too shabby at all, considering they only started performing together last year.

This quickly saw them conquering the north as they focused on playing in Manchester, Leeds, and their native Cumbria. It’s little surprise, when they have such an infectious pop-rock sound.

Brad Kavanagh, Emma Dockeray, Steve Norman, and Calvin Thornborrow sit down with us to tell us about their journey so far, and about the epic studio they’ve created.

“FLYNT came about as a culmination of various random happenings, to be honest,” Kavanagh says. “Me and Steve ended up playing for the same band for a short while, and realised a mutual love for Stevie Wonder’s great instrumentation kicked off our first big discussion. We then went on to start our own

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project band with Calvin on bass, and gigged around for a few years. We already knew about Emma and her voice, but it wasn’t until we produced her EP in 2015 at Big Moose Studios that we really got to know her better.

“Together, we all sat down and spoke about joining up. It ended up being January 2017 by the time we felt it was right to start doubling down on our songs, and making a focused vision for what we wanted FLYNT to be.”

It’s one of those stories where it just seems that the stars aligned in bringing musicians together. What certainly has helped the band enormously is the studio that Kavanagh and Norman already owned prior to all of this band business.

“We’d pooled together all of our resources, and began working out of his parents’ dining room,” Kavanagh says. Must have made family meals a bit awkward, I’d imagine. “But in 2013 we found a small unit on a farm near Keswick that seemed ideal; a beautiful setting, and a great starter facility.”

With all that being said, FLYNT are careful to not spend all of their creative time in the studio.

“Usually, we write at Emma’s house in her living room as there is such a vibe to the space,” Kavanagh reveals. “I think you can lose the natural vibe of a song, and it becomes something else when you end up producing on-the-go alongside the writing. So we enjoy getting the song sounding good alongside only one instrument, usually guitar, before we even think about production or recording.”

Studio Vibes

I ask the guys about their core studio setup.

“We use an iMac Pro, and record and produce in Pro Tools 12,” Norman tells me.

“I really enjoy using Pro Tools because of its editing capabilities and functionality. The star of the show for us, however, and without a doubt the best thing we’ve ever bought, is the Prism Sound Orpheus interface. It’s phenomenal. We had been using various

Artist Focus

FLYNT

“Our mixes just opened up using Orpheus; the top end is flawless, and the dynamic range is incredible...” interfaces before, from the MBox Pro to the Digidesign 003, but when we heard the Orpheus, it just had something special.

“The top end is flawless, and the dynamic range is incredible. You hear things in mixes and recordings that you never noticed before, and the clarity almost makes you sweat!

“Another major difference we also noticed was the width. Our mixes just opened up, and our space sounded like it had more depth, and a greatly improved stereo field. I find it hard to fully explain, but it’s almost like there isn’t just left and right, there’s also back and forward, and up and down... if that makes sense? You can pinpoint something in the mix, and really hear everything. That was a game changing moment for us when we got the Orpheus, and it certainly made us better at capturing sound.”

And their go-to gear doesn’t stop there: “Other daily-use kit is the Digidesign C|24 for mixing, which is a great tool,” Kavanagh says. “The tactile nature of it makes mixing and recording a a really nice experience. For in the box production we also have a Native Instruments Maschine Mikro MK2, and the Komplete Kontrol S25 for laying in synths.”

But I’m not letting them off until we’ve

talked plugins.

“We use Goodhertz plugins: their Faraday Limiter, Tone control, Lohi, Vulf Comp, and Wow Control plugins are great, and really open up the creative process when it comes to getting weird and wonderful sounds,” Norman explains. “For delays and creative FX, we use Soundtoys 5. Regularly in an edgier vocal chain, I’ll run a send from the lead vocal out to a channel with the Devil-Loc to add some crunch and distortion, and then put that into an EchoBoy, adding a short slap.”

Handle with Care

FLYNT were meticulous when it came to acoustically treating their studio rooms.

“We used Vicoustic panels,” Kavanagh tells me. “We used their bass traps to create a dead area behind the main desk to stop the workstation becoming a bass pit. We then used a tonne of diffusion panels and wood/ foam panels to treat the live room, and panels in the vocal booth area to make sure that that section was as dead as possible. It’s been vital in recording vocal takes in the studio, and getting a great sound.”

Knowing that I’ll get some decent answers out of these chaps, I ask Brad and Steven

about their highlights from working in the music industry so far.

“We had a solo project signed to Warner Bros.,” Norman recalls. “We played indigo at The O2 twice, which was pretty awesome, and then hearing FLYNT’s first single air on Radio 1 was very special. But the biggest buzz of them all comes from our FLYNT gig at The Deaf Institute in Manchester last year to a great crowd; and in my personal opinion, the vibe from that gig from 200 people dwarfed any show I’ve played anywhere else. Myself and Brad also do some film work — besides filming and editing our own sessions for the band, we also got to work with Paloma Faith at her O2 Arena show.”

Clearly, FLYNT is a very talented meeting of minds, and we’ve given you more than enough reason to go and listen to them. They are currently working on releasing an as yet untitled single, which will drop later this year, with their first music video. Cumbria is calling; we urge you to accept the call. www.flyntofficial.com www.prismsound.com

45 Headliner

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE: MAN OF THE WOODS TOUR Justin Timberlake has been a mainstay in the charts, and on our TV screens, for the best part of three decades. Starting out in The Mickey Mouse Club, before becoming a member of the boyband NSYNC (their first two studio albums now certified as Diamond by RIAA), to then becoming a bona fide pop legend, selling 32 millions albums and 56 millions singles worldwide, Timberlake is currently on his sixth world tour, Man Of The Woods, and I am very lucky to get a sneak peek and chat with two highly important members of his team: his live sound engineers, Andy Meyer, and Paul Klimson.

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I

N RECENT YEARS, LIVE MUSIC CONCERTS HAVE boomed, seeing a 12% rise in audience numbers, and bringing £4bn to the UK economy, so says UK Music’s study, ‘Wish You Were Here’ - which had a record 30.9 million attendees between 2016 and 2017. It turns out, funding music education in schools might actually be good for the economy! Something some politicians stateside, and here in the UK, would do well to take note of.

“If you think about it, the whole industry has come full circle,” says Andy Meyer, Justin Timberlake’s front of house engineer, who I am speaking to in his natural habitat - a 20,000 capacity venue, that of the O2 Arena in London.

“It went through a phase where PAs weren’t very good, technology was trying to catch up, digital consoles were coming out not sounding great, and everybody started putting out mp3s. But that’s all changed; the artist now relies on live income, so it’s strangely come full circle. And you’ve got to sound great to keep up.”

I had a surreal moment walking around watching the weather forecast on Timberlake’s massive screens in a near empty arena before the crowds entered to watch the pre-show England World Cup match - something Timberlake had organised, and announced on Twitter days

before - and it really is awe-inspiring how complex a show like this is, with everyone on site at the top of their game.

For not only has Meyer worked with Timberlake on and off since 2005; he’s also engineered for Madonna, Guns N’ Roses, and Janet Jackson, to name a few. So what is JT like to work with, exactly?

“He’s very specific, and knows what he wants it to sound like, and is very much involved,” Meyer explains. “What he has to say and offer is always on point, so that makes it really pleasurable.”

During high school, a band asked if Meyer wanted to join them on the road, which led to him learning how to set up drums and tune guitars: “I was a backline guy, and then I became the lighting guy for a few years. I got hired for a couple of different artists after that, and I was tired of the shows just sounding like crap - it would aggravate me.

“I learnt a lot of what not to do by watching and paying attention. And then on this one gig I had, the sound guy got sick, and I said, ‘I’ll do it!’ After that night, they said I was now in charge of sound! There weren’t schools back then for training, and when they did come, I was already well into it. You learn like everyone else; by trial and error, trying and failing.”

Justin Timberlake Man of the Woods Tour

“The SD7 offers an input count, flexibility, and sonic clarity that is unsurpassed by other platforms.”

Epic Proportions

Seeing the setup for a venue of this size is truly incredible - with a total of 200 input paths into Meyer’s DiGiCo SD7 console, and 138 outputs, just how much of it can be done on the fly?

“The SD7 offers an input count, flexibility, and sonic clarity that is unsurpassed by other platforms; I’ve got snapshots for changes that I want to make, and I fire it off of time code.

I used to do it manually, and I have foot switches to do it, just in case,” Meyer explains.

“The snapshots are starting points, though, and throughout the performance, I’m making slight adjustments. I don’t EQ the system, I let the system be the system, and I fix it in snapshots.

If there’s a frequency bugging you, you find out what it is, and then you put a snapshot in to clean it up - you learn those things over time, so frequency-wise, I’m pretty set; it’s level-wise that I’m doing the work in real-time.”

I ask Meyer if there is anything that is guaranteed to always need adjusting?

“I always ride the vocal,” he says. “You can’t just leave that up, because everyone is everywhere, so I have to make changes around that. Every once in a while, you have that magic show that’s perfect, and you just laugh, and go through the motions, but it’s pretty much always an adjustment situation.”

It’s taken Meyer some six months to piece this show together; I ask him to run through the setup.

“There are so many pieces of gear you can use, but I decided that I wanted it to be specific to the gig, though now that I’ve gone through this process, honestly I would probably take this setup to everything that I do,” he declares.

At front of house, Meyer has a series of

Thermionic Culture products in the mix.

“The Phoenix was my first [Thermionic] piece, which was life-changing for live sound,” he says. “I was working on Madonna’s tour at the time, and I literally flew with it from America to our first show down in Mexico. I didn’t want anyone to get a hold of it!

“Later on, I wanted a Pultec-style EQ, and when The Swift came out, it was perfect. To get it to where it needed to be, I got more deliberate with snapshots, and then brought in a mastering rack, inserted on my left and right.

“I’m also able to add overall high end, and low end with this Pultec - the atmospherics change every day; the temperature changes, so the system’s response changes. So instead of throwing EQ on a PA which causes phase, I just use a nice subtle brush stroke. It goes into the Phoenix, into the Swift, into a Neve Portico II, then a Maselec MLA-4, then a Dangerous Convert AD+, and then back into the rig..!”

And breathe..! There are also two Little Red Bustards sat at front of house: “Yeah, we did a shoot-out. I decided I wanted to use summing mixers, so I had a lot of people sending me different ones. I had them all lined up, unlabelled, but numbered, so only I knew what they were. I maximised each one where I thought they sounded best, set them up at equal levels, and then had people come listen, and see which they liked better. And they all picked the Reds!

“When you drive it hard, there’s a certain sweet spot, level-wise, where they are just tickling, and the valves are working nice. It reminded me of when I was mixing shows years back when it was only analogue - it was like a

nice familiar feeling. Vic at Thermionic Culture is a wonderful person with a truly unsurpassed pride in audio excellence. His gear sonically is second to none. The support he has given me has been stellar. We discussed EQ modifications on the Swift which he happily did for me, and I can’t thank him enough.

“Also, the wonderful people at Optocore have these digital and analogue convertors that worked out really well; it’s only two pieces of fibre, and one 14 pair for 60 spaces of gear, so it’s a very simple, efficient rig. The Optocore DD32R-FX is a digital AES/EBU I/O interface; it allows multi-channel digital audio transport through fibre, so I don’t have a lot of analogue lines at all. The X6Rs are the A-D and D-A fibre converters, and I do D-A conversion with the Apogees, and the new Dangerous Convert AD+.”

The Voice

I ask Meyer what his go-tos are with regard to JT’s vocal chain.

“It’s a true in-line analogue strip. I went analogue with Justin a long time ago because I wanted it to stand out. There’s something about true analogue; there’s more distortion, so it sits very much forward in the mix that way,” he reveals, “Out of the receiver, it travels to front of house into a Rupert Neve Shelford channel, out of the Shelford into a Neve 5045 expander, and from there into a Rupert Neve Portico Channel. This analogue chain goes into a line input on an Apogee Symphony, converted to AES, and back into my system. This allows me to utilise blue and red silk in combination, instead of using EQ. “The bottom line is, it’s about the A-D to

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“Justin uses clear-shelled JH16v1 in-ears, utilising the IR filters, which has just revolutionised everything...”

D-A, and not using sample rate converters. This entire rig is one clock, which also clocks the monitor rig and all the wireless, so when that comes back to me, it is still my clock.”

According to Meyer, a front of house engineer is very much ‘a slave to the room he or she is working in’: “That’s certainly the case here at the O2, because the sound just points into the entire room; when that happens, building reflections are different everywhere: the frequency responses, the way it breathes is different.”

Monitor World

Paul Klimson is Timberlake’s monitor engineer on tour, and has worked with him since his 20/20 tour in 2013, having worked previously on John Legend’s Evolver tour in 2008. He was also there from the start of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, building the show from the ground up. He also works from a DiGiCo SD7, along with two side Midas 24 channel Veronas: one to sum the audience mics, one to combine talkbacks.

“The SD7 is the only console to use when you’re talking big channel counts,” Klimson insists. “And it really does come down to that. Also, the surface layout, flexibility of programming with the macros, and ability to see many channels at once keeps all the important things under my fingers without having to page around to find things.

“The file I work off now has been in existence since 2014. It was a pretty full file back then, but on this tour, even more inputs and outputs have been added. There are two stage racks and a nano rack, and I use all of the inputs, so we’re at 140 channels. I’m really excited to change over to DiGiCo’s new Quantum 7 engine when it becomes available, and explore the new options and features that will aid us monitor engineers.”

I ask what is going where in terms of monitor mixes.

“Monitor mixes vary so much between players; in-ear mixing for bands is quite utilitarian, as they have to hear everything, so you give them a decent mix, especially this band, because they are all playing together, and vibing off of each other,” he says. “But I’ve had other players in other bands where it’s just them, which is like, ‘how do you even know where you’re at?’ There are 32 stereo monitor mixes between Justin, the dancers, and the band; they have a couple of players that come and go.”

“Justin has a full band mix in his ears, and we have four audience mics at the fire pit, two on the main stage, and one behind stage; and I found a couple of spots to give a nice audience reaction, which is great for Justin.”

On an operation of this scale, I ask how those on stage get his attention if they need adjustments?

“I’m underneath the stage, right underneath the drums, and I have screens,” he reveals. “Our cable runs are super-short since they go straight

down into the patch rack. There are 16 talkback mics plus four tech talkbacks. There are pedals on stage which they walk over and use - one for each section - and there are a lot of singers where the vocals are way out front, and it’s kind of hard to listen to all night, but with Justin, we are very lucky. It’s a lot of fun: like driving a Ferrari, especially with this band!

“I set up a matrix [on the SD7] where I can always hear the talkbacks: there’s one for the MD, so if he sees someone who is in the middle of the stage waving to him - which hasn’t happened often - the MD will hop on, and let me know. Plus our tech, Hugo, walks around, and he has a switched mic that he can talk to me on wirelessly, and it all goes to myself. It doesn’t change much; it’s been groomed, and we always do a soundcheck.”

In terms of in-ear monitoring, Klimson looks no further than JH Audio.

“It was on Madonna’s tour that I started using [ JH Audio] Roxannes; the other IEM I was using before, the high end just wasn’t quite there, but with Roxanne it was like, ‘ah, there’s the rest of it!’ They’re just really good for all frequencies, really. Justin is also on JH: he uses the JH16v1s, and his are clear-shelled, so that the IR sensors can be utilised.

“JH audio make a very consistent product when it comes to sound and fit. They have come a long way in the fidelity department, and I’ve seen their new 3D printing and laser scanning at work in their workshop. JT’s main set for this tour are actually a scan and remould of his JH16s from the 20/20 tour that he loved the fit of. Using these in-ears has just revolutionised everything, really.

“Wedges aren’t used much in pop; sometimes, if there are dancers on stage, they’ll throw up a sidefill. When we were still borrowing things, I would rent daily, until we eventually purchased our JH ears. This tour, there’s only a drum sub and a thumper per player on the two keys guys and the bassist; other than that, no wedges at all, which is quite something.”

Final word to JH Audio’s Kevin Glendinning (who also worked monitors for JT for several years) on these super-smart custom JH IEMs: “I was approached about 18 months ago by Justin’s show designer, Nick Whitehouse - a good friend of mine - about the new IR elements, and what value that could lend to his show and production programming.

“Justin has always been a stickler for the sound and lighting to work as one, and this allows it all to work as a unit, and create real show cohesiveness, night after night. A special thanks from Jerry [Harvey] and I to the Timberlake organisation; it’s a real treat to have them on our roster.” www.jhaudio.com www.digico.biz www.thermionicculture.com www.optocore.com

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Artist Focus

Jovanotti

JOVANOTTI: STILL POSITIVO An unlikely living legend, but deservedly so, thanks to his relentless positivity throughout a career that began in the early ‘90s, Lorenzo Cherubini is best known by his accidental stage name, Jovanotti, ever since his optimism anthem, Penso Positivo, exploded in 1993.

Jovanotti’s artist name stuck when his adopted Joe Vanotti was misspelt by a promoter, and would, of course, be ‘Giovanotti’ if it were to use proper Italian spelling.

While becoming a successful musician in your own country is always a remarkable thing in itself, achieving international recognition despite sticking to your mother tongue, and not bowing to singing in English, is a challenge on another level.

But an appearance at charity concert, Pavarotti & Friends For The Children Of Bosnia, in 1996 helped no end in putting the artist on the world stage.

Fast forward to 2018, and we find Jovanotti with a Rick Rubin-produced album at the end of last year, and a gargantuan world tour,

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which stopped off in London at Wembley’s SSE Arena in June. It’s a tour that’s been backed up in a big way by GLP Lighting, to give it the superstar show look it deserves.

Jovanotti, as you’d expect, has been particularly upbeat about his recent gigs.

“I always hope I will offer a great, joyful show, and I’m thrilled about sharing my music with all the people who’ll join us during my Lorenzo Live 2018 tour,” he says.

“We are working hard on doing something extraordinary and it’ll drive you crazy, that’s a promise!”

And something that Jovanotti has consistently espoused is the transformative power of music.

“Hip hop has always been the most

important musical genre for me,” he says, “because it taught me the power of the rhythm, and the words.”

Early Days

Although his early music was mostly Jovanotti the rapper, since then, he has given us ska, world music, and even music of the cantautore tradition. But it’s not too difficult to see why it was hip hop that lit the fire inside him.

“Wherever you go in the world, there will always be young people making hip hop,” he insists. “Hip hop is the music of my generation, and the generation that was born after me. But beyond that, something that is always on my mind is how one song can always give you the right word, at the right

Artist Focus

Jovanotti

“The X4 Bar is a very versatile product, made with high quality components, and attention to detail; the colours are wonderful, and the LED and the lens have been chosen with great attention...” time. Because that happened to me; music changed my life.”

Illuminating Jovanotti

The right set of lighting fixtures is so integral to lifting a concert to the level of greatness, and few people are as deserving of that as Jovanotti. Good news, then, that he and his team chose GLP, and prominent lighting designer, Paul Normandale, to light up these shows in a truly profound way.

They requisitioned 44 GLP impression X4 Bar 20s from rental company, Agorà, to light both A and B stages during the shows.

These formed the anchors of what Normandale describes as “an immersive design of the whole room, with moving stages, screens, and set.”

The renowned designer set 14 X4 Bar 20s in a line on the back of the main stage, behind the musicians, another 14 on the

front of the main stage, eight on Stage B, and the remainder in strategic positions on the main stage.

One of the main challenges was adapting the lights around Jovanotti’s live shows, and also during the DJ portions of the set.

“The X4 Bar 20s are clear low profile units on a stage populated by a lot of players,” Normandale explains. “They provide two clean lines behind the band, and behind the artist.”

“The X4 Bar is a very versatile product,” adds Daniele Francescone, Agorà crew coordinator. “It is made with high quality components, and attention to detail. I have noted the durability of the components, and the coverage provided by the light.

“The colours are wonderful. The LEDs and the lens have been chosen with great attention. I give this a 9/10!”

Tour lighting programmer and show director, Hunter Frith, was also ecstatic

with the performance of the X4 Bars.

“They are fantastic to use,” he says. “They are a very flexible and versatile product; the zoom is incredible, with a very wide range, so that it can be used from very narrow to very wide, while the colours are intense, and brilliant. For this show, they asked for a very clean and free stage - and the X4 Bars have been perfect to help achieve that.”

What a spectacular tour, and what a year for Jovanotti. Hopefully we’ve given you adequate reason to take a quick break from English-language music, and listen to the extensive Jovanotti back catalogue.

And remember to think positive because, in his own words, ‘you are alive’. www.glp.de www.jovanottitour.com

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EXCLUSIVE

The Kooks

LETTING THE SUNSHINE IN We sit down in West London with The Kooks frontman, Luke Pritchard, to discuss the band’s upcoming new album, Let’s Go Sunshine, the BRIT School graduates’ fifth release, and perhaps their best yet.

Words Adam Protz | Photo Adam Whitton Many bands sprang up from that 2005 boom of new indie rock — Razorlight, We Are Scientists, The Futureheads, to name a microcosm. It’s very well known that the majority of these boomers ended up on the scrapheap. The demise of Towers of London was such that lead singer, Danny Tourette, left the UK for a soul-searching trip around India, in which he became a yoga master (this is, in fact, true).

But not The Kooks. The BRIT School graduates, who exploded onto the scene with hits including Naive and She Moves In Her Own Way, are in the slim majority of bands who have kept it going, and admirably so.

Their fifth album, Let’s Go Sunshine, will be released at the end of August.

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We’ve had several singles to give us a taste, including the epic All The Time. I grab a chat with lead singer, Luke Pritchard, who has been making the most of a very hot July day in Notting Hill.

In the Zone

So, five albums deep, I’m wanting to know where this record stands amongst the others.

The title does suggest the band were in a bright place for this one, and Pritchard appears to confirm this.

“It was a really joyous album to make,” he says. “We decided we wanted to make a real band record, with more chemistry. Our last record was done a lot in the box — we often weren’t in the studio at the same time, and

were just meeting each other in the corridors.

This time, it was trying to grab that band magic, and it was a great experience.”

A big part of The Kooks’ continuing success isn’t only their ever-evolving discography, but their willingness to still grind it out as a live act.

As we’re right into festival season now, the band are preparing themselves for another appearance at the Reading/Leeds Festivals, and then they’re off on the road for a UK tour, not to mention a slot at Mexico’s Corona Capital later in the year.

“Yeah man, I’m getting the wellingtons ready,” Luke jokes, ironically, as the grass has been yellow the last few months from a desperate lack of rain. “It’s cool, man —

EXCLUSIVE

The Kooks

“I’m conscious of the pressure to kind of redefine the sound, but we are a modern Britpop band, so for us, we have a compulsion to embrace that...”

I think these songs are gonna work well at festivals.”

On the strength of the singles released thus far, No Pressure, Fractured and Dazed, and Four Leaf Clover, this certainly rings true.

I’m also keen to learn about the studio process the band underwent for the new record, Let’s Go Sunshine.

“Well, we spent two-and-a-half weeks in London, and then two-and-a-half weeks in LA with everyone together,” Pritchard tells me. “Writing in the studio together is a case of catching the magic, and then experimenting with the sound. We were all just writing our parts, and keeping that chemistry.

“Don’t get me wrong, when we were working much more individually on the last record, and creating that collage of sound, that was an amazing experience. But for Let’s Go Sunshine, it was really about getting back to the full collaboration between ourselves, and the producers.”

In LA, the band recorded at Boulevard - a

truly legendary space, where Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours was mixed, and where Neil Diamond and Steely Dan also worked. More recently, Thirty Seconds to Mars were in there, too.

“Beautiful studio; it was like stepping back in time,” Pritchard reflects. “There are a lot of people hanging out there. Lots of people crowded around the desk, getting their rocks off, or whatever. But it definitely has some real magic to it. And then in London, we worked in Willesden, at a studio called Assault & Battery. We were fortunate to work in some very cool places.”

Peace & Love

The Kooks are a band who have most likely ticked most things off the list: achieve hit singles, play at massive festivals, sustain a career, tour the world, and so on.

Nonetheless, I ask Pritchard if there are any specific things left on The Kooks’ bucket list.

“I still sometimes think there’s this elusive, perfect song that I’ll one day write, that will change the world,” he says, dreamily. “You

write a song, and peace and love will ensue on the planet… [laughs] “I’m conscious of this pressure to kind of redefine the sound, and going with the grain, trying to sound like this super modern band.

But we are a modern Britpop band, so for us, we have a compulsion to embrace that. Just focusing on our own record, seeing where we are, and going from there.”

And in a world where musicians are desperately trying to stick out, and sound individual (which, ironically, leads to them copying others attempting to do the same), what a refreshing thing to hear.

This is a band just intuitively being themselves, looking inwards rather than out.

That is what has kept this four-piece going for well over a decade. Make sure you don’t turn a blind eye to the new Kooks album, which will drop at the end of August. @thekooks www.thekooksmusic.com

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01 Headliner

TERRELL SASS: DRUM MACHINE

There is an enthusiasm, positivity, and confidence that permeates through the American people, and a shining example of that is Terrell Sass, Grammy-nominated producer and session drummer for the likes of Tyler Perry, Ludacris, Rick Ross, TI, and Nelly.

Words Yerosha

P

laying drums since he could walk and talk, Terrell Sass’ mother has stories of him hitting the pots and pans as a baby.

“I grew up in church; my dad was a saxophonist, and directed the choir, so I was always in rehearsals, and that’s where I saw my first drummer up close and personal - a guy named Reggie Gray,” opens Sass. “I would go and watch him every day - the drums were so visually stimulating.”

I ask him what kind of reaction his performances got when growing up.

“During middle school, I played basketball, too, so people were like, ‘you are in a band?’ I got clowned a lot, but as soon as people heard me play they were like ‘oh, I get it.’”

As soon as his teacher heard him play, she had him performing drum solos outside during half-time in front of the whole school.

“She’s the one who taught me to read music, and made me stay in the band. The football players would try and turn around, and dance, and coach would be cussing them out. But from then on, I knew I could perform in front of people.”

The forever-battle and debate for a lot of teenagers is whether they will be able to establish an income, and career from music, but Sass understood the hustle.

“I’m blessed because I started so young. I was home from my first semester at college, and my mum asked where I was going to work.

I kept applying for these jobs, and I didn’t know that you couldn’t just come in asking for $20 an hour, so I wasn’t getting any jobs, and I didn’t know why,” he laughs.

Sass attended regular college, but knew he needed to go to a music school instead.

“A friend of mine said I should come to Atlanta, so I was skipping class to go there and do jam sessions,” he says. After showing his mum Atlanta Institute of Music (AIM), it was decided. “I had a friend there who skipped her mid-terms to drive me to do my audition, and the teacher, Creig Harber, said then and there that I was in. He’s the best teacher I’ve ever had. He can explain what you did, what you meant to do, and why you did what you did - and be right! And then tell you how to make it better.”

A common thread for most people I’ve talked to in the industry is their persistence and tenacity. During college, Sass already knew that it wasn’t the time to sit back.

“I was networking the whole time, which turned into a good friend of mine linking me up with TI’s head producer, Kevin “Khao” Cates at the time, and we ended up doing some studio

sessions. I never get nervous, because I guess I’ve been performing from so young for so many people. You’ll either crumble, or step up.

I’m kind of introverted, but when I’m performing, it’s a different thing. Being around Prince didn’t make me nervous when I met him, so of course nobody else could!”

This, incredibly, was at Prince’s home in Los Angeles: “He came to a show I was working on, liked what we were doing, and invited us to his house. He loved my feel, and the way I played; it didn’t hit me until I told my mum about it, and she didn’t believe me - and he’s not the guy you try to take selfies with..!”

This go-getting attitude is admirable, which Sass promotes over Instagram, often wearing t-shirts emblazoned with mottos such as ‘Execution over Excuses’, designed by his friend, David Shands.

“It’s so easy to quit. When I first moved to Atlanta, it wasn’t all peaches and cream; I could either quit and go home, or I could follow my dream. I believe if it were that easy then everybody would be there, and I credit my parents for that.

“My dad was a marine, so every Saturday we couldn’t do anything until we cleaned up the house and the yard, so that work ethic was instilled in me from a young age. My biggest thing is to not try to take short cuts. You have to be patient; sure, some people luck-up, but this isn’t a ‘get rich quick’ type situation.

“You’re often selling yourself first - and that’s a benefit of being a military child. I could survive in any environment, and talk to anybody, because the marine base was so diverse; and I moved around a lot, city to city. You have to be relatable to everybody.”

I ask Sass how modern technology has changed his live setup.

“Today, there is so much pre-production on Pro Tools, so it’s still a lot of rehearsing - on average, two to three intense weeks - but it’s not as much as it used to be,” he says. “If you play main stage, you can adjust it on the fly, but you need someone in tune with what’s going on. It’s the reason why some musicians don’t like it; if you wanted to make something longer, and vibe with the audience, you can’t. When the structure does change, it is definitely about eye contact, flexibility, and most importantly, trusting the instincts of whoever is leading the band.”

SMOOVE OPERATOR

Smoove Jones, the seventh studio album by Mýa, received a nomination for Best R&B Album at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards, and Sass was one of the producers on the record. I ask him how that collaboration come about.

“I was working with a good friend of mine, Orlando Williamson, Headliner 55 Headliner 02

“In America, they are taking art out of schools, so we do instrument drives; we raise awareness of the value of music, and music literacy...” at Dallas Austen’s studio. Everybody in that room was doing phenomenal things, and the energy was amazing, and positive. He said, ‘shoot me some stuff, because you never know who I’ll be in front of.’ Fast forward a little, he’s in the room with Mýa, and he ends up playing her one of my tracks. Mýa loved it, so chose it for the album. We’ve been going back and forth about some other future concepts, also.”

Very cool. So when he has his producer hat on, how does Sass go about making his records?

“Atlanta is the urban music capital of the world, so depending on who I am submitting to, and what they’re asking for, depends on my approach,” he reveals. “I was introduced to a guy named Ron Benner, who has an amazing studio called Dogwood Studios. It is treated to do drums, so the sounds he gets out of that room are incredible. I paid a lot of attention to how he did what he did, and I often go there.”

When it comes to recording his kit, Sass is meticulous, and relies on a vast number of Shure microphones.

“Shure mics are always crisp, clear and precise,” Sass insists. “On my bass drums, I prefer a Beta 91 inside of the drum, and a Beta 52 outside of the drum. This enables me to get crisp attack of my bass drums, along with some additional bottom end.

“On my toms, I love the Beta 98s. They sound amazing, and are extremely easy to adjust, and manipulate; and of course, on my snare, I have to go with Beta 57s, over and under it. For overheads, the SM81s or the KSM137s get it done for me!”

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Other key bits of kit include the Avalon 737, and Waves plugins: “For vocals, the [Avalon] 737 is definitely my favourite compressor; I haven’t been in many professional studios that didn’t have at least one of them! It’s very clean, and I occasionally record bass parts through it, depending on the kind of record I’m making.

“I am a huge fan of the Waves Maserati plugins, and my favourite feature is the acoustic guitar designer. Setting ACG1 brings out the low frequencies, which works well for songs that are more stripped back, and lacking other instruments, as you get a fuller sound; and ACG2 helps get a more ‘live’ sound. I tweak the settings based on what I need on each song.”

PRODUCTION VALUES

Having such strong expertise in one instrument, I ask how this might influence the overall writing and producing process.

“I actually usually do the real drums last, as I don’t want to dictate the sound. I want to get the full concept first,” Sass explains. “Lyrics and vocal tone influences my drum performance; my ears are sensitive to that.

“When it’s time to record, I use smaller 12-inch snares for R&B, because the higher pitch matches and blends better with the snaps and claps. If I’m doing something country or rock, I use bigger and deeper snares, that are fat and full bodied.

“It’s also about where you hit it. Sometimes it’s better to hit the snare in the middle, at a low volume, and you turn the mic up to get that

tone versus the crack.”

There seems to be a political shift both in the UK and the US on how the arts are funded and taught in schools. I ask what Sass make of that.

“A good friend of mine, Ryan Kilgore, is Stevie Wonder’s saxophonist; and after he got off the road with him, he was able to get the Kilgore Music Foundation set up. I got attached to his mission, and we’ve been hitting it hard for the last two years,” he says. Good for him. “In America, they are taking arts out of schools, so we do instrument drives. This year, we’ve been to loads of schools to perform, as well as putting together a Mardi Gras parade, and some music therapy in a children’s hospital.

We raise awareness about the value of music, and music literacy. A lot of people use music to get scholarships.”

“There are four of us, and with our combined resumes, those kids see that even if they’re not rapping, they can still do something in music. Somebody gets paid to hold the fan for Beyoncé, too, you know! [laughs] “There are so many other jobs in music besides being in front of the camera. When they just see us, and hear what we’ve done, and who we’ve worked with, you can see the light going off. It’s all about giving back.”

Beautifully put, that man. www.shure.com www.waves.com @TerrellSass

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Q&A

INTRODUCING KINNOHA..

Hot Sauce & Other Tales Tell us about the recording of your single, Hot Sauce?

We first laid the idea down back in 2016 but, in true musician fashion, we got distracted by other songs, and just left it for a year. We picked it back up in 2017, deconstructed the whole thing, and pieced it back together to give it a slicker sound. That song has gone through its own evolution! I like having a stripped back beat to work with - just a bass line and some drums - then I can add the vocal melody over the top, and really solidify that. You can always add the ‘trimmings’ afterwards.

How does a new artist break through in today’s market?

It is tough to cut through the noise, and make a name for yourself, but actually, that’s a good thing. It pushes me to really mark out my brand, and think about every aspect of my artistry from my lyrical style to what I tweet about, to which venues I am performing in - it all adds up to who I am as a modern artist. I’m a big believer in small details meaning a lot.

You’ve really got to know who you are in the music industry today as a person, and for the last year I’ve been carving out my own path; I feel like I’m in a really balanced place mentally.

How should an artist measure success?

I think there are two ways: you can use metrics, see how many plays and shares your song has, see if your follower count has grown - these are all valid ways to view a ‘successful’ campaign; but there is also the human aspect of it. If you feel like you’ve grown as an artist after putting the track out, then that’s also a form of success. If there are people reaching out to you about the song, people telling you how much they like it, or people you’ve never met sending you messages about it, that’s amazing.

I love when that happens. I look at the stats, but I don’t get lost in them, as you have to gauge what’s happening on a personal level, too.

You describe 2018 as ‘the year for the single’...

Yes. I feel like an album has to have a certain ‘flavour’ throughout, and the songs on it should be tied together. I don’t want to put out an album that is slapdash. There are some artists who like having an album with lots of variety, but I like albums which have a clear message or style throughout. I will be looking to write an album later this year, but for now, I’m just seeing what feels good, and finding what fits. I’m keen to make more R&B tracks like Hot Sauce; they’re really fun to write, and the UK R&B scene is finally getting some well deserved spotlight!

The best and worst parts of working in the music biz?

For every ‘yes’, you get hundreds of ‘no’s, or just no reply at all, when contacting promoters or radio stations. No-one likes to be told they aren’t someone’s cup of tea, but it means you grow thick skin, and have to learn at an exponential rate. The best thing, hands down, is meeting so many different people from all walks of life, and connecting with them; making something together, and blending ideas - that’s real art!

@kinnoha

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“It is tough to cut through the noise, and make a name for yourself, but actually, that’s a good thing.”

SPITFIRE AUDIO