Headliner Issue #8

Open & Closed

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CONTENTS #8

06 | SWIVEL ON THIS

30 | MUSIC MAKER

Grammy-winner, DJ Swivel, looks at how the demands of an artist have evolved in today’s industry: even more work, and less play.

Judson Crane is a composer, arranger, producer, and mixer. He gives us a run down on everything involved in making magical music for media.

08 | SONIC VISTA INSIGHTS

34 | UNCOMFORTABLY BEAUTIFUL

Our friends from the White Island bring us the third and final part in the quite exquisite ‘Origins of Music’ series (even if we do say so ourselves).

10 | STOP, COLLABORATE & LISTEN

Matt Hayes (AKA Aqualung) is back with a bang.

This producer to the stars has made a great new album, and miked up his first pair of trousers!

12 | RADIO RIDDLER

Fast and Frank from Fun Lovin’ Criminals are loving life on the road as Radio Riddler, touring a reggae tribute to Prince’s Purple Rain with UB40.

14 | ROCK AND ROLL WARDROBE

New York-based publicist and stylist, Gary Spencer, tells us why The Stones’ frontman’s ‘Jagger Swagger’ has stood the test of time.

16 | LUKE SITAL-SINGH

We advise everyone to check out the unique tone of this singer-songwriter. A tremendous voice, and a bloody nice chap, too.

18 | FORWARD THINKING

British-born songbird, Natasha Bedingfield, is making a new record in LA, working with a fantastic charity, and giving hope to everyone.

22 | LET LIVE RULE

We head to Wembley Arena to chat to the audio and lighting teams that make Lenny Kravitz come to life on the big stage.

26 | COVER STORY LENNY KRAVITZ

We talk to this uber-cool rock and roller about his early career, his new album, a fantastic run on the big screen, and that famous John Lennon guitar.

This quirky Californian gal was recently picked up by an indie label in South London, and is now making music with producer, Andrew Hunt.

36 | PAPA ROACH

Lead guitarist, Jerry Horton, and sound man, Eddie Mapp, tell us a few tales about life on the road with a powerhouse of a rock band.

38 | KEB’ MO

This two-time Grammy-winner is a guitar hero, and is glad he saw the studio collapse coming, or he wouldn’t be making music in Nashville today.

41 | IN THE MIX

John Edwards knows a thing or two about recording studios. He talks to us about his latest and greatest back yard project for Oliver Leiber.

44 | 10 MINUTES WITH... ANDY BARLOW

This acclaimed producer is also one half of electronic duo, Lamb, and reveals why he has got used to wearing two hats at the same time.

48 | BACKYARD BABY

Backyard Babies guitarist, Dregen, discusses the group’s latest record, and gives some sterling advice on how to keep a band together.

50 | GRUMPY OLD ROADIE

As ever, Robert brings you rants from the road.

They might be political, or very un-PC, and if we’re really lucky, they might be relevant to the music industry.

26 | LENNY KRAVITZ

FROM THE EDITOR

"THERE IS NOTHING SO STABLE AS CHANGE." - BOB DYLAN

They say you shouldn’t meet your heroes, but I beg to differ. I’ve been a L E N N Y K R A V I T Z fan since the mid-90s, and he was everything I could hope for and more. The multi-Grammy winner chats about old school recording sessions, that famous Beatles gig on the roof, and making it on the big screen. And if you saw the recent Super Bowl XLIX half-time show, you’ll know he’s still quite the performer. Check out the centre pages and give it a read - we think you’ll enjoy it.

But that’s not nearly all. We also speak to UK songstress N ATA S H A B E D I N G F I E L D about her life in LA, a brand new record, and her super-positive musical mindset, while LA-based M AT T H A L E S heads back to London to tell us all about his first A Q U A L U N G record in five years (congrats on the Grammy by the way, Matt!). We also catch up with guitar legend K E B ’ M O , who offers an insight into the everchanging recording scene in Nashville, and the uber-talented J U D S O N C R A N E gives us his top tips on making music for media - Christopher Nolan’s incredible ‘Time Capsule’ project really is something to talk about.

We’d also like to give a shout-out to last month’s competition winner, Michele Hurst, who enjoyed VIP tickets and hospitality at R A D I O R I D D L E R ’ S recent London show and after-party.

Turn to page 12 for our exclusive with the band.

All this and plenty more inside.

Enjoy the issue, and thanks for choosing Headliner.

Paul Watson

CONTACT: PAUL WATSON paul@headlinerhub.com +44(0)7952-839296 GRAHAM KIRK graham@gkirkmedia.com +44(0)7872-461938 Twitter: @Headlinerhub www.facebook.com/HeadlinerHub www.headlinermagazine.net www.tsu.co/headliner_magazine

EDITOR

CONTRIBUTORS: JERRY GILBERT JORDAN YOUNG J O N AT H A N T E S S I E R GARY SPENCER COLIN PIGOTT LOUIS HENRY SARMIENTO II ROBERT THE ROADIE

DESIGNER EIMEAR O’CONNOR

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DJ SWIVEL

SWIVEL ON THIS BEING AN ARTIST IS HARD NOWADAYS. In the past, things were simpler: if you had a talent, and the right person discovered it, you would be signed to a label, and the development process would begin. You would write and record songs, labels would help develop the branding and marketing, you would begin touring, then eventually you would release an album and go on the road to promote it. But in 2015, that model has been flipped on its head.

Artists have to be so much more than just a talent now (to be honest, the talent part isn’t even a necessity anymore). When I look at all the young up and coming artists I’ve noticed (and in some cases, have worked with), I see more than just a singer or rapper.

Today, artists have to be marketing gurus, videographers, choreographers, dancers, managers, promoters, stylists, designers, producers, and even photographers (it’s selfie season, didn’t you know?). Artists have to be their own branding powerhouses, or at the very least, be able to curate a team of those people with zero financial backing in most cases. The point is, it’s hard; really hard! The work ethic and perseverance it takes is off the charts!

Labels have largely forgotten what it means to develop an artist. They’re picking up acts who have already gone viral, built an audience, and developed a sound. They’re hedging their bets on things that are proven. And I understand it. The economics are such that it’s prohibitively expensive to sign and develop an artist that may never come out. The revenues just aren’t there anymore.

A great example of this is my friend Raury. I’ve had the privilege of being

“HAVE WE OVERLOOKED THE NEXT LENNON, OR DYLAN, OR WEST IN FAVOUR OF THE GUY WHO’S MORE INTERESTING ON INSTAGRAM?” involved with his music from the near beginning, and I’ve had a chance to see the amount of effort and support that goes into what he does. Let’s put the talent aside for a moment, he’s got that in spades. The charismatic personality too. These are both necessities for any artist expecting to make a huge impact.

Let’s focus on just the support side.

Before ever signing the dotted line, Raury had a huge team behind him supporting his creative efforts. At the helm, great management, marketing/ branding, an engineer, other producers, a publicist, a video team, and probably others who I’m forgetting to mention.

Even myself. All of this before he was signed, and with everyone supporting Raury on nothing but good faith. I think that says everything it needs to say regarding his talent, and the recent success says everything it needs to say about the hard work Raury and the rest of his team is putting in.

This is a classic example of the new generation of artists. They have to wear more hats than can fit on their head, but the successful ones manage to find a way to execute this balancing act between creative and business

mind. I’ve seen countless talents come and go because they didn’t have the right formula of talents. Some people are born with that ability to connect, but others have an inherent shyness. In the past, the label would just hire media training to get an artist comfortable in those public situations. Now that’s gone, and because of one little trait (or lack thereof), a potentially genre defining catalogue of music from that unknown musician will never be heard; and that’s a tragedy. Have we overlooked the next Lennon, or Dylan, or West in favour of the guy who’s more interesting on Instagram? I hope not.

So what does all this mean for aspiring artists? It means you’ve got to be better, and work harder. If you can’t tick off at least three of the above jobs I’ve listed, you’re probably shit outta luck. It’s hugely important for artists to carve out their niche and attack it relentlessly with every piece of ammo they have, and if they don’t have it, then they better build it. For every singer trying to break in, there’s now thousands of others who all want the same thing.

But for all the difficulty, there is a silver lining. Platforms like YouTube and Instagram have levelled the playing field, and opened up the doors for artists who don’t quite fit the mould.

The beauty of art is, it’s not supposed to be in a box. The old genre lines have evaporated, and now the amount of musical diversity is astounding. This gives everyone who’s got something interesting to say, a chance to say it.

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Thinking. Inside the box.

SONIC VISTA INSIGHTS P A R T

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S N I G I R O THE C I S U OF M THE THIRD AND FINAL PART OF THIS FASCINATING SERIES LOOKS AT THE FOUNDATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF POP MUSIC: GOSPEL, RAGTIME, ROCK AND ROLL, AND THE BRITISH INVASION!

W

WORDS | L O U I S H E N R Y S A R M I E N T O I I & J O N A T H A N T E S S I E R

ith the invention of recorded music, a a new cultural objective was taking place: preserving the history of folk songs. This was the new mission for researchers and businessmen in music, and it’s because of this new mission that popular folk genres such as Gospel, Ragtime, Jazz and Blues exploded into international awareness. The future of music was in the reproduction of sound that was already popular. The ability to capture and distribute music turned it from something elitist to an ordinary commodity. With sound recording came the invention of radio, and with radio came the development of commercial broadcasting (1920), a true phenomenon that intensified the proliferation of music throughout the US and the world.

Keeping this in mind, we see already how people’s interest in Classical music started to diminish. They were shifting their focus towards folk music because it was fascinating, unheard of, and most importantly, it was easier for a new market to understand: common people. With all these elements put together - the desire to preserve culture; discovery of sound; songs that were easy to create, capture, and simple to understand; songs that spoke directly about everyone’s problems and

emotions - there was a magnetic reaction towards folk music.

I GOT THE BLUES At the time, African-American music was what boosted record sales. More specifically, religious music from the deep south called ‘Spirituals’ and ‘Gospel’. Although they’ve been around since the 17th century, it was the invention of recorded music that introduced these styles to popular culture, making it the first foundation of our contemporary music.

By this time, the Blues was still unknown to the world; even though it’s a type of music that was being played along with Spirituals and Work Songs in the 19th century, it was non-existent until the word ‘Blues’ was first published in 1908 by Ragtime composer, Anthony Maggio, in his song I Got the Blues.

The actual genre of Blues as we know it today took a while to shape itself, going through different styles from Country Blues to Urban Blues (Delta Blues, Memphis Blues, Chicago Blues, etc.), until it really achieved international appeal with the appearance of the term ‘Rhythm & Blues’ in the 1940s, an umbrella term coined by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African-Americans.

Back in the 1900s, the music industry was centred around Tin Pan Alley in New York City, where selling of sheet music was still

the driving force of the industry. Ragtime, a style that introduced the use of syncopation in music, was very popular in those days.

With songs like Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin (1899), and Alexander’s Ragtime Band

by Irving Berlin (1911), this was the style of music that dominated the dance charts in the early 1900s.

AND ALL THAT JAZZ Next, we have Jazz. Influenced by the sounds of vaudeville theatres, minstrel shows and latin rhythms, it was a brothel piano player by the name of Jelly Roll Morton who introduced it to the world. Inspired as well by the Blues of his region and the previous Ragtime fad, Morton changed the face of the game with his song Jelly Roll Blues in 1915, establishing Jazz as the sound of the ‘20s.

Since symphonic music was slowly being pushed into the shadows of history, academic musicians responded to this by either preserving classics (with public performances) or associating themselves with the current musical trends. George Gershwin, for example, one of America’s most influential composers, gave birth to two historical songs during this pre-World War II era: Rhapsody in Blue (1924), and Summertime (1935, written for the Porgy and Bess opera). With the advancements of science psychology happening at the time,

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“The British Invasion was a phenomenon that took what Rock and Roll had done for Pop Music, and raised it to the next level.”

the art world was extremely influenced by the notions of subconscious manifestations and the concept of dreams. Artists favoured abstractions over realism, which researchers associated with a reflection of the changing world happening in the early 1930s. In music, classically trained composers would also experiment with atonality and the integration of mechanical sounds to their music, turning typewriters and factory motors into musical instruments within their compositions.

TOP OF THE POPS However, when World War II came around (1939-1945), Europe was in a very dark place socially, economically, and politically.

As tyrants were silencing culture everywhere (banning every art-form that suggested freedom), it was Popular Music that became the voice of conscience for the people, not Classical. When the War came to an end, the notion of freedom was highly associated with the United States of America, and with Europe coming out of a suffocating war, Europe saw American Pop Music as a breath of fresh air.

By the 1950s, American Folk had offcially turned into Pop Music. Every song played on the radio was more upbeat, structured, and the music industry was no longer led by sheet music, but LPs*. From the ‘40s to the ‘50s, American Pop saw transitions from Jazz to Boogie Woogie, to Swing, to Jump Blues, and to Be Bop. During this time also, a more infamous but important style of music was strengthening its roots: Country Music.

A genre of American popular music that originated from Atlanta, Georgia in the 1920s

but, like the Blues, needed some time to mature before achieving mainstream success.

All of these influences and styles came together to inspire the creation of a new and powerful type of music that would not only travel across Europe, but reach the ears of everyone in the world: Rock and Roll (also know as Rockabilly). This was much more than a mere genre, it was a commercial, musical, and social phenomenon! Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley, and Elvis Presley, all became household names that provided this exciting and riveting music for the masses. It was visceral, fun, and profound, to the point that it inspired one of the most important groups in the history of modern Pop Music: The Beatles, a group that brought The British Invasion to America.

BEATLES, STONES, AND PSYCHEDELIA By the late ‘90s, the music industry had faced another dramatic change with the arrival of Napster, and in 2010, when Spotify reached its first 10 million subscribers, consumer habits had completely changed to online streaming.

As a consequence to this unlimited access to music, listeners were becoming more refined and informed, not wanting to listen to one type of music, but every style available. This consumer habit was what caused ‘the age of convergence’, an age in which we are still in today, a time during which the walls of artistic categorisation are being dismantled and are spawning a multitude of cross-over styles that have become part of Pop Music culture, pushing contemporary music for

“In the 1900s, the music industry was centred around Tin Pan Alley in New York City, where selling of sheet music was still the driving force of the industry.” the betterment of entertainment and artistic expression.

The most important lesson we have to retain from this historical revisitation is that music has always been directly linked to two elements: technology, which has the power to influence the way music is created and discovered; and dance, the oldest physical reaction to the pleasure of music. Although good music will always find a way to reach the hearts of millions, it is music that is capable of creating a direct physical reaction that will stand the test of time. www.sonicvistastudios.com

VOCABUL ARY *L P: The Long Play (LP) or 33 rpm microgroove vinyl record is a format for phonograph (gramophone) records, an analogue sound storage medium introduced by Columbia Records in 1948.

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It’s been five years since Matt Hales made an Aqualung record. You might remember two of his biggest hits, Brighter than Sunshine, and Strange and Beautiful, but there’s a lot more quality where that came from, more often heard these days through the mouths of acclaimed international artists such as Jason Mraz, Birdy, Alex Clare, and Paloma Faith, all of whom he’s been busy writing and producing music for. And it’s that train of thought that’s led to a 2015 Aqualung revival. 10 Futures is the ultimate collaboration project, which sees Hales team up with a string of cool, quirky, and experimental artists to make music, sometimes using traditional instruments, sometimes using trousers! Headliner enjoys a half-hour with this Grammy-winning maestro on his birthday, before he heads to Radio 2 for a date with Dermot O’Leary.

When Matt Hales made the decision to cross the pond to sunny Los Angeles some five years ago, it was for a change of scene, and it coincided with his new focus of doing more writing and producing for other people. Since heading Stateside, the South Londoner has enjoyed great success doing just that, and that collaborative edge has provided the inspiration for 10 Futures, a brand new Aqualung record.

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“When I was first getting into producing for artists, most of the opportunities were in LA,” he recalls, “and I found myself working with British artists in LA that I couldn’t even get hold of in London, so I had a hunch it might be the place to be!”

The new record has been coproduced with Disclosure (Guy and Howard Lawrence), and it was working with the duo that gave the project the kick-start it needed.

“I was in that collaborative space, enjoying it, and then there were some weird coincidences. Guy and Howard got in touch with me at the end of 2012, just after I’d heard [their song] Latch, and I was a bit obsessed with it, but presumed I’d ever have anything to do with them, because they were so young and new,” he says. “But they wanted to work with me, and of

course I said yes. Initially I was going to work on their record, but it took ages to find time, so we missed the boat there, and then I just said, ‘why not send me four bars of something?’, and they sent me this beautiful beat.

“I had something on the go at the time which was sort of the beginnings of what would become [the first single] Eggshells, and I was really inspired by it, so I quickly made the rest of the track, sent it to them, and it turned into that song. I got Lianne La Havas to sing on the second verse, and when it was done, I not only really liked it, but I realised it was the template for a new record: me collaborating with the new talent I was lucky enough to get to work with.”

When making 10 Futures, Hales had to treat himself the same way he treats the artists he works with as a producer: encourage adventure, and move away from the comfort zone.

“That’s when people are the most creative,” he insists. “If I was going to make another Aqualung record after such a long time, the last thing I wanted to do was repeat myself, and I also figured it would be more fun. And it was! It’s the most sociable record I’ve ever made.”

In his early days, Hales was all about his art (‘with a capital A’), and his material typically centred around his private musings on life, love and the

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universe. But that’s all changed. He likens 10 Futures to “the best dinner party imaginable”.

“It happened in bits over two years, but in terms of actual work, it was probably only a couple of weeks,” he says, explaining that pockets of studio time were taken between making records for other people. “A lot of it was done remotely, too. It was almost a consequence of having such a fertile time in terms of music making in the last five years, and new people coming into my musical life.”

Abandoning musical boundaries and making sounds out of sounds is another of Hale’s fortes. I ask him to share a couple of fun and quirky recording tales with me.

“I’ve realised in recent years that songs and tracks don’t need to originate from instruments. It can be about a sound or a texture just as much as a great chord progression or lyric, and a good example is the first song [on the album], Tape 2 Tape, which started as a conversation about cassettes,” he explains. “As a kid of the ‘80s myself, cassettes was absolutely what it was all about. As much as everyone likes to go on about vinyl, all my first recordings and even my first album was made on cassette.

We were reminiscing about the sound, even that jaggedy noise when you open the little plastic box. Eject, the sound of the play button, and so on.

“So I found someone who had recorded some cassette noises, downloaded them, and then I made a beat out of all these cassette noises.

I thought I’d invented multi-track recording when I was eleven, after realising I could record two things at once with two tape decks, so that was the beginning of that song, and that led to the main beat of the song, then I just improvised on melodies.

It’s a little about cassettes, a little about duplication, and a little about genetics. It’s nothing to do with sitting down at a piano and playing lovely chords. It was totally inspired by sound.”

Another more off the wall story involves a particularly percussive pair of trousers...

“I like to have the mics on when I am in the studio, just in case, as

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you start hearing what’s going on in the ambience of the studio,” Hales continues. “I realised a great sound was happening when we were talking, and it was just trousers. Somehow or other, the combination of keys and the material of these trousers was a good, weird, creaky, shuffly, percussive thing. So I miked up the trousers, got the artist to walk in a rhythmic fashion, and it became a grainy loop that was the beginning of the track!”

He clearly had a lot of fun with the

“I MIKED UP HIS TROUSERS, GOT HIM TO WALK IN A RHYTHMIC FASHION, AND IT BECAME A GRAINY LOOP THAT WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE TRACK.” music (and trousers), but Hales points out that sounds he’s never heard before make the biggest impact.

“When that happens, you’re obliged to make something that’s new, and that’s a really important thing to be open to,” he says. “We were joking around, and I grabbed a floor tom, went outside, where there was lots of bird song and ambient sound, took a mic, and whacked the tom once. I recorded it, came back in the studio to a flabby sounding tom with a whole load of distant road noise on it, and because of the sound of the freeway, it had a pitch, and the tom had a note to it. I EQd it to bring out the note and re-pitched that hit to make some other notes, and that made a bassline, we started singing over it, and it became the basis of a whole song.

“It’s one of the wonders about making music in the future age: absolutely anything, be it the tiniest little sound or mistake or piece of broken wire or crisp packet can be transformed and made into music. I

find it so fulfilling to work that way.”

So, from an audiophile perspective, is Hales concerned at the way the industry has become so digitally dependent? Not really.

“While I love the sound of the records I make, I am not someone who sort of fetishes fidelity; I don’t really care if people are listening to it on the best speakers, or at the best bitrate, because in the end, music is just a carrier for ideas. If it’s a good one, it will be received and understood, even when it’s on a crackly little radio or an iPhone speaker; if it’s not, it doesn’t matter. And if there’s a good idea in the music, then that’s going to be preserved, either way.

“It’s a minority of people who really care about that stuff, and I sometimes think they are maybe missing the point. People are still making a bit of money, and I’m still getting sent brilliant new music all the time, and people are still re-defining music as they always have, figuring out how to get into the business, and find an audience. People talk about downloads and streaming and such, and I do slightly miss the artwork, but that’s about it. Anyone with the weird ability to turn an idea or feeling or even hunch into a piece of music and encapsulate inside that something truthful or something beautiful, has a real value in the world. I think that probably means the music business is going to be alright.”

In my humble opinion, 10 Futures is somewhat of an eclectic masterpiece, complemented by a series of unique guest performances. The production is outstanding (no surprise there), and because I’ve listened to it twice while writing this article, there may be more typos as a result. But so be it, because I’m in my new headspace, and for now, it’s all about Aqualung. www.aqualung.net follow Matt on Twitter @aqualungmusic

RADIO RIDDLER What do you get if you take two members of Fun Lovin’ Criminals, a Prince album, and add a dub reggae twist? Radio Riddler, of course! What was once a fun side project for FLC’s Brian ‘Fast’ Leiser and Frank Benbini, has turned into a real band, with a real record, backed by a real label, with real funding. No, you’re not seeing things, apparently this does still happen! The duo have put together a cool, reggae-fuelled version of Prince’s seminal record, Purple Rain, aptly titled Purple Reggae, and they’ve done him proud (whether he thinks so or not). I catch up with Fast before he and Frank take to the stage alongside three UB40 legends in London.

The Radio Riddler project oozes cool, and it stems from a lightbulb moment Frank and Fast had some five years back, which has only recently come to fruition.

What started out as an experimental cover of the song Purple Rain, has turned into recording and then touring the entire Purple Rain album, and landing a new record deal. What’s not to love?

“We’ve worked on a ton of remixes over the years; it’s something we used to do when we weren’t touring with [Fun Lovin’] Criminals,” Fast explains. “But we couldn’t believe no-one had done a Prince tribute like this, so we gave it a try; the first track we worked on was Purple Rain, and it sounded like a UB40 track, so we thought, ‘why not get Ali [Campbell, frontman UB40] up here to sing it?’

And in a few weeks, Frank had him in the studio with us,

and he was totally into it, and of course, he did a great job. That’s when we knew we might be onto something.”

From there, Radio Riddler evolved, and such was the quality of Campbell’s performance on the title track, they decided to get more guest vocalists involved, to add some real spice to the album.

“Within a week, I had laid down the basic rhythm section, then Frank had a cornucopia of musicians he could call upon, and over the next few weeks, we had it all recorded, with Frank and his friend Naim Cortazzi doing all the vocals,” Fast recalls. “The original idea was to release it with Frank singing, but getting guests was a better idea for getting it over commercially; we asked loads of people, and those who got it and understood it were all from the ‘80s, whether it was Sinead O’Connor, Ali Campbell, Suggs, or even Deborah Bonham; they were into it from the start.

“It was also important that Frank was singing on a couple of songs, and that Naim sang on a track, just because when we play it all on stage, we’re obviously not going to have all the guest singers there at every show.”

Prince, Sly, Bruce, and Freddie This project sounds cooler by the minute... But why Prince, exactly?

“Well, five or six of the songs on Purple Rain were hits, so for me it was always a good idea. We talked about

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doing Queen, or Depeche Mode, but Prince kinda stuck.

I knew what a big fan Frank was, but also what I love most about Prince is his production,” replies Fast. “He was never afraid to mix live drums with drum machines, and nowadays, bands seem to do either or. So by taking his music and turning it into reggae, I figured we should use all the same instruments Prince used, be it a full horn section or a Linn drum machine, and construct it as if Prince was in Jamaica when he was writing Purple Rain.”

Fast then informs me that Frank has multiple Prince tattoos: the Prince symbol on his foot; ‘The Beautiful Ones’ scrawled across his knuckles; and a full colour image of Prince on his upper arm. I guess that answers my earlier question.

“The guy doesn’t show away from pain, man,” Fast adds, with a chuckle. “On his other arm, he has a huge Bruce Lee tattoo! The trisector of influences in Frank’s life are Prince, Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Lee... Then maybe he’d get Freddie Mercury to come sing for him, too.”

That’s some dinner party... So what do the hardcore Prince fans think of all this?

“Some like it, but a lot of them hate it,” comes the response. “They think it’s funny or silly, and that Purple Rain is this ‘really serious song’. I’m like, give me a break!

If you watch Purple Rain the movie, yes it’s got some serious subject matter in it, but the fact is, it’s Prince on a purple bike, all set in the Minneapolis scene, so it’s all very silly to begin with. Prince is notorious for not liking anybody covering his songs, yet it’s okay for Prince to cover any song he wants and not make a big deal of it.

Funny that, huh? [smiles]” I ask Fast whether he or Frank felt at all intimidated during the process, because of Prince’s jaw-dropping musical ability: “Whether it’s Prince or Slipknot, it’s easy to cover any song; the hardest thing is to write a really good original song. Musically, a translation to reggae was easy: we wanted a dub track, a rocksteady track, a steppers track, you know? The only intimidation was about how we should go about it all, legally.”

When Dove Wanderers Pry I’m a bit unsure whether to go down the legal line of questioning or not, but Fast continues to talk, and suddenly I get the full Big Brother picture, and an insight into Prince’s ‘Dove Wanderers’.

“Prince is also notorious for having a hard legal team.

When we did the first video, we put it on Vimeo, and we tagged it ‘Prince’, and thirty minutes later it was taken down,” he laughs. “I sent a counter claim back saying we had the rights to do this, and so on, then I got a phone call an hour later with a Beverley Hills caller ID, and I’m like, ‘this will be interesting!’ And sure enough, it turns out to be one of Prince’s many lawyers. He was straight up, though, and once we sent him the official paperwork that we’d filed, he lifted the block.

“We weren’t going to try and screw Prince out of any money that he was owed; the whole thing is a tribute, and we tried to do it legit, but he has these Dove

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“Prince is notorious for not liking anybody covering his songs, yet it's OK for Prince to cover any song he wants, and not make a big deal of it.”

Wanderers - they’re like ‘his people’ who rat out anyone ripping him off. But he can’t stop you. Once you release a song, anyone can cover it; it’s like an age old law, which he hates and is trying to change, but it’s not gonna work, and it’s silly, as he comes off a hypocrite.”

Sign ‘O’ The Times As our conversation comes to a close, Fast expresses his frustration about the lack of touring from bands today. Radio Riddler, on the other hand, will head Stateside in the spring to play a string of shows, before heading back to the UK during festival season.

“With [Fun Lovin’] Criminals back in the ‘90s, there was still a good foundation with labels and the industry, and bands were out touring all the time. We never made any money out of the first two records because we put so much into it, but today we can still tour based on a song we wrote back then,” he says. “If people want to come back and see you, that’s the best thing you could hope for, and nowadays it doesn’t seem to happen. Artists have a huge song on the radio, and then they disappear.

Labels want to make money when the shit’s hot, then get onto the next thing. EMI supported us incredibly back in the day, and without that, we wouldn’t be doing our thing now. That’s one of the things that’s so great about about our current label, Mita Records. They actually agreed to the figure that we threw out for tour support, and that’s unheard of!”

Follow Fast and Frank on Twitter: @RadioRiddler

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MOVES LIKE JAGGER

LONDON-BORN GARY SPENCER is, in his own words, “a decent vocalist, but a far better publicist and stylist”. Throughout his career, he has dressed up (and most likely down) plenty of artists, providing PR consultancy and guru-like advice on what not to wear, while also enjoying success as a fashion model himself. Now a resident of New York City, he offers his words of wisdom on that thing we call the Jagger Swagger.

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rowsing through the Urban Dictionary (that never ending online slang source founded by Aaron Peckham), when you get to ‘J’, you will find the phrase ‘Jagger Swagger’, which translates to, ‘the confident, cocky attitude-stoked air and persona that Mick Jagger emits when he struts his butt on the walkway, and flicks his hands in the air’. So let’s take a closer look at it.

There is some debate as to who influenced Jagger’s sense of style, but there is no doubt that Jagger himself has influenced many other great frontmen of Rock and Roll.

Michael Hutchence, Dave Gahan, and Michael Stipe are all fine examples.

But what makes Jagger this ‘muse’ of a frontman? Although slight in stature, with a nearly androgynous persona, and lips as famous as the voice pouring out of them, he has managed to create a character on stage that screams Rock Star.

It was during the late ‘60s and the ominous boy next door presence of The Beatles that Jagger’s style took shape, catapulting The Stones on a decidedly more rebellious route of long shaggy hair, make up, leather jackets, and incredibly tight jeans. But for Jagger, he managed to take it a step further, adding an unexpected touch of femininity by donning a long flowing scarf, a large fur coat, or a cool kipper tie.

Many tried to replicate Mick’s simple jeans and t-shirt look, but soon realised it wasn’t about what he was wearing as much as how he wore it. To master the look, not only did you need the waist of a 15-year-old supermodel and a big leather belt, you would also have to wear that infamous t-shirt perfectly cropped so that it would fall just to the top of the jean, and show just enough rock star tummy as you glided across the stage.

By some observers, it has been described as ‘dandyism’, and I suppose with Keef’s more masculine harder edge (I do wish Mick had kept away from the dance lessons),

it would have appeared very much that way, swaggering around in Ossie Clark jumpsuits and silk paisley shirts - and this femininity was also picked up on by some Glam Rock icons in the ‘70s.

By the 1980s, The Stones were a household name, and Mick’s style had evolved from rebel boy in silk to fashion icon, making anything he threw on his coat hanger shoulders a trend. He loved the element of unpredictability, and would still surprise, playing an American tour in football pants, jockstrap, and black trainers, for comfort as well as the style.

Since the ‘90s, Jagger’s style has evolved, and mixed and matched in the most suitable way, catering to each individual project or for whoever his foil is on stage at that time: the dazzling green silk dinner jacket at The Grammys in 2011, or the loose dress shirt for Taylor Swift in 2014... But always the tight t-shirt and jeans at some stage.

No matter what the decade, for nearly six of them, Mick Jagger has known a lasting success in an incredible career, and will always be at the top of the style charts. That Jagger Swagger never disappoints.

Made in Denmark

YOU DESERVE TO BE HEARD The DPA d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones covers the entire orchestra, providing highly directional, truly natural sound and high gain before feedback. DPA has designed ingenious mounting accessories to sit gently and securely on your instrument.

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Q &A

LUKE SITALSINGH WO R D S PAUL WAT S O N Ecstatic, yet at the same time, terrified at the prospect of writing his second album, Parlophone artist, LUKE SITAL-SINGH, should be proud of what he has already achieved musically. His 2014 release, The Fire Inside, was a sensational debut, and he was recently selected to guest on Matt Hales’ (AKA Aqualung) much talked about new record, 10 Futures.

Luke’s also packed some serious gigging into the last 12 months, and despite that fact that ‘it’s not ideal when 2,000 people aren’t listening to you’, I saw his showcase at London’s Red Bull Studios last year, and as far as I’m concerned, this lad has a hell of a future.

Last year was pretty huge for you...

The Fire Inside came out in August, and from what I can gather, the take up has been really positive.

Yeah, it’s all been a bit of a blur, but it was fun; and yes, an unbelievable year, really. Now it’s all about keeping that fire lit and charging on, not letting people forget about you. The Fire Inside is one of those images that means a lot of things, but one of them is keeping whatever

drives you burning inside, and that’s what I have got to do.

Tell me about your collaboration with Matt Hales...

That was really cool. I met Matt last year, who is predominantly a writer now, collaborating with various artists, and I was a fan, so I wanted to work with him. We got together and wrote one of the songs on my album called We Don’t Belong. We only had a day to do it, but it turned out great; and I then wanted to do some more stuff, so I went out to his place to do some more writing and recording, and then out of the blue, he emailed me some months after, saying he was doing a new Aqualung record and that the whole project was to be a collaborative affair with lots of people he’d worked with over the year. He sent me the song and asked me to sing bits of it, and I did it in my bedroom, sent it back to him, and now it’s on the record.

Nice. How was it recorded?

I use Pro Tools. I did the standard thing that maybe a lot of people do, starting out on Garageband, which amazed me in the beginning, then I grew into Logic, used that for a long time, and then I noticed the vast majority of studio guys were on Pro Tools, and

it seemed a better fit for the way I like to work, so I switched to that platform a year ago. Matt had completed the track, so my vocals were recorded remotely. He fired over the full track with him singing, then the backing track. I put the backing track into Pro Tools and just sang over it, and sent him the stems of the vocals and chucked on a few harmonies, hoping it was good enough. I just tried to make it clear and loud enough, assuming that someone would put it through some analogue gubbins at some stage!

As an artist, you’re all about the vocals. What’s your go-to mic?

Well, I’d always used a Shure BETA 58 on stage, but I was recently introduced to DPA’s d:facto II mic. I’d heard of DPA, and my sound man said I should give it a shot. I was all for investing in getting the best stuff that I could to really boost the quality of the sound of what I was doing, and like you say, a lot of people highlight the vocals in my music, so I had to really think about what microphone I wanted to use. I first went onto a Neumann, which worked for a few months, and then we got a loaner of d:facto, and it just blew me away - and everyone away, actually! If there was two of me, it’d be a lot easier to go out into the crowd and listen to what it’s like, but

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what I do know is, after I started using it, the response from people that don’t even know about microphones or audio technology was incredible. Everyone was telling me my voice sounded clearer and way better. I love singing with it, and because it’s a relatively new mic, when I go around the world, the in-house engineers - who can be a bit snooty - see a mic they’ve never heard of, and they get intrigued.

This happened in Rotterdam; at the end of the show, when they were packing down the stage, one of the local crew was holding the DPA mic up and the rest of them were taking photos of it. That was funny.

You also use DPA’s d:vote mic on your acoustic guitar, right?

Yeah, I’ve been trying it. It will work for me, but I haven’t played the right venues for it yet.

The tour I initially got it for was the wrong tour, as I was opening for people that were too noisy, and as I’m on monitors, not in-ears, it sounded absolutely amazing in sound check, but I haven’t yet had the quiet enough gig to be able to really use it to its ability. When I do my next bunch of headline shows and the crowd are more into it, the scenario will be much better for it, and that will be interesting. Playing a support slot and being ignored by 2,000 people isn’t ideal! [laughs] But the overall sound of d:vote I really love, and when you’re an artist like me, who’s on stage with just a voice and guitar, you want every bit to sound amazing. I guess I am still on that never-ending quest to try and make the acoustic guitar sound like an acoustic guitar when I’m miked up or plugged in, but I think d:vote will aid me on that, for sure [smiles]. I already record with d:vote at home, as I have been doing with d:facto on the demos for the new record.

What has your gigging life been like so far, then?

It’s been pretty varied, to be honest. I started off opening with other people who, luckily, were in very similar musical places - bands with appreciative fan bases such as Villagers, The Staves, and Angus Stone. Touring with The Staves was a lot of fun; they were coming up, their record was just out, and they are a fun bunch of girls - very boisterous, and they like a drink [smiles]. I’m very much looking forward to their next album, actually. They make great music.

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How does a new artist make a living today, with the demise of the CD and the album?

Well I’m pretty boring, I did the standard old thing of signing a major deal and getting a chunk of money, and I’m still living off that.

When that stops, as I’m sure it will one day, then I’ll find out how you deal with it [laughs].

It’s ridiculous how expensive touring is, and I don’t think that’s a viable way of making money unless you’re doing something clever.

People in the US do these house tours and living room tours, driving around on their own and making money that way; and being on my own, it’s a bit easier to come home with money in the bank from a tour, but as soon as you bring in other musicians and you’re on a bus or a van or whatever, the overheads alone are ridiculous, and you’re lucky coming home not making a loss.

Another way money comes in is syncs on TV shows and stuff like that, but again, it’s so unpredictable and competitive. Not everyone can be on Grey’s Anatomy, you know? So I guess the answer is, I don’t know. In the UK, there is not yet a place for that kind of musician who doesn’t make the Radio One playlist but wants to have a full time gigging or writing job as an artist, and I don’t see how you can do that yet, quite honestly.

So what’s the aim for 2015?

Well, the new record is in the very early stages, being written and thought about. I am learning how you get into this precarious position where you’ve worked your entire life to make your first album, and then you get a few months to do the second one! Where do you start? So depending on which day you talk to me, I’m either feeling liberated and excited to have a blank canvas and be creative; or I’m terrified, tearing my hair out going, ‘I’ve got no ideas!’. It’s too early to tell what today is, but needless to say, that’s what this year’s going to be about. I would think that another EP will come out before the album, and I’m heading back out to Europe, keeping the shows ticking over, and seeing what this year holds. Firstly though, it’s about new music. www.lukesitalsingh.com www.dpamicrophones.com

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“MUSIC IS POWERFUL, AND THE WAY TO GET IT OUT IS TO KEEP BUILDING MOMENTUM.” N ATA S H A B E D I N G F I E L D is one of the UK’s most successful female exports. Her debut album, Unwritten, sold 2.3 million records back in 2004, and several of her songs also made it to mega status across the pond. Although out of the UK limelight for the last few years (she now resides in LA), she’s in the middle of a brand new album, and is writing more prolifically than ever.

She’s also just brought out a new single, Hope, in collaboration with fashion brand, Philosophy and its Hope & Grace charity initiative, and she has a refreshingly positive outlook on the music industry – a pretty rare thing in today’s gloom-infested times.

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“Philosophy, as a brand, is one of my favourites, and I want to work with people that I feel in line with, message-wise; it's a positive company, and the first of its kind to support mental health," Natasha informs me. "And that really resonated with me because there is so much craziness in the [music] industry, and just in the world in general. You hear so many stories of people that you think are so happy and then they're committing suicide; it feels like craziness is celebrated, like a spectacle, but the truth of it is, so many people feel very alone.”

Natasha prides herself on trying to remain balanced, which can't be easy in a business where, as Ronan Keating famously put it, life is a roller-coaster.

“When you're doing well, you're like a God, so how do you stay down to earth?” she ponders. “Between every album, it goes up and down; everyone knows you and wonders if you can make a comeback, and then you do.

I see a lot of my peers being pushed into a state of imbalance, and I think this is a really good issue to focus on.”

I agree. Aside from the glitz and glam, this industry is notorious for its demons. If there was less of a stigma associated with mental illness, or if people felt others were also going through their pain, it would be a little easier to combat. And on that note,

twenty-percent of the revenue from her new single (out now on iTunes) will go to the Hope & Grace initiative.

“This song isn't really a single for me, it's a collaboration between myself and something that I strongly believe in,” says Natasha, with a sense of drive. “Releasing music as a product, as yourself, can actually damage art, so for the new record I am working on, I've decided to make music for the fans, not for the executives: what do people want to hear, and what do I like, you know?”

If her hits Unwritten and Pocketful of Sunshine are anything to go by (both were huge in the US), then the new album, which is out later this year, could well be a belter.

“I hope so! Since I came to the US, I've just been on a wave,” she smiles.

"I've done a lots of shows here, and I've written lots of songs, and I've travelled the world doing corporate stuff, but I haven't toured for some time, and that's what I would love to do again.”

LAND OF OPPORTUNITY Unlike a lot of artists, Natasha thinks the 'new look' industry of today is one that people should embrace and be excited about, as it's providing more opportunity for many artists across the board.

“The Internet is now so important, and it's so much easier for people to

connect; it's a great avenue for new singers to get their music out without needing a middle man,” she insists.

“To me, this is really exciting, and has burst the doors wide open. People are not being forced to listen to things as much, as they have more control.

The real challenge for artists today is to be heard above the noise - what makes your music more listenable than anything else, you know? And I think this changes the way that people market themselves. Artists are putting their stuff out online, then it goes viral, and that seems to be a way that is really working.”

Natasha believes that 'anyone can find gold and strike it rich', and suggests that record labels are getting more and more concerned. It’s a valid point, we think.

“Think about it. Labels don't create the music, they just find people who create it,” she explains. “But if you're someone who does create music, you shouldn't be concerned. I know I'm not worried; I have a very deep well, and I can pull water. I am writing songs every day, and haven't dried up.”

The UK and US music scenes have always crossed over, and the new buzz word between the two territories today seems to be collaboration, as so many artists from both sides of the pond are now making plenty of music together.

“You have to be open to working with other people to achieve success,”

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Natasha insists. “Look at Sam Smith; he was on everyone's records as well as his own, then there's Iggy Azalea, who is another good example.

And I like that. Music should be much more about a culture - an experience rather than this one person that everyone worships. Music is powerful, and the way to get it out is to keep building momentum. You'll see people rise to the top, but often, it's taken them years, especially songwriters.

You might see a guitarist on stage that is just beyond brilliant, but what you don't see are the hours they've put into their craft becoming the best guitarist ever.”

SONIC BLISS

And talking of being on stage, Natasha loves nothing more, and the experience has just got a whole lot better, thanks to her decision to acquire a set of JH Audio JH16 in-ear monitors. Compared to anything else she has worked with, it's night and day, she says: “I love singing live and I love the reverb that comes back, but when I first started out, I was on wedges, and it got complicated because you'd have everybody singing along, which is beautiful for an artist to hear, but technically it bounces back, so it's very hard to hear the music.

“New singers normally end up singing too hard, and you can end up hurting your voice if you do that; and from my perspective, that was the key point for me to start using in-ear monitors. It took a while to get used to, but switching to JH in-ears has completely revolutionised the way I perform. I love the detail that they give me, and they give me a great stereo image... Oh, and they make them in wonderful colours, too! [laughs]” Natasha is a real advocate of social media, and for several reasons: one, it gives her direct contact with her fans; and two, it saves her from getting writer's cramp: “I remember when I was getting sent letters, you know? [smiles] And it was always hard to respond to them, because you'd have to buy a stamp for each one, and it's a lot of extra work. There were a lot of them too, so replying to mail used to be very tough.

But today, thanks to these social platforms, it's much easier to connect, and I really like that.”

So how does she feel about the mp3 evolution, and the death of the CD? “I actually never liked CDs! I know that's a weird thing to say, but I never thought they were very functional,

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as I would buy one and then it would just stay there on the shelf,” she replies. “I love that you can pick and choose songs today. It's difficult for the industry, yes, but on a practical level, making your own playlists is like making mix tapes, which is much more personal. Besides, people don't often even want to listen to a whole album these days.

“Yes, we're losing a lot of sound quality, and often I'll be in the mixing room and I'll think, 'this is the best it's ever going to sound', because no-one will ever hear it as it was intended, but I don't think many people realise that, so I do think there will be a move towards that in a few years.”

And what about streaming?

“I like the format of Spotify, and it makes more sense, like Netflix does, where you can watch the movies you want to watch when you want, and I think that should be the same with music," she admits. "It's like the new radio, but it's not monetised right, and I think people are actually stealing.

Spotify needs to work out how to distribute the money better... I guess technology is just moving quicker than the laws!”

LOV I N G YO U R WO R K

Conversation turns to stand-out musical moments, and rather than go down the self-indulgent route, Natasha, in what I am now realising is true Natasha fashion, chooses to look at the crop of new talent that is coming up instead.

“There's so much talent out there, and you never know who's going to make it, and that's what excites me,” she says, passionately. “A year ago, I was asked to sing a VH1 show with Iggy Azalea, and now she is winning awards, which is amazing; and when Nicki Minaj was making her first album, her record company called mine and said she would love to have me on the record, and everyone was like, 'who's Nicki?' They said she was going be the next hugest thing, so we got on there, and I obviously liked her stuff too, and within a week, her album comes out and she is just huge! I just love that! To me, something exciting and moving is getting to feel a part of another artist's journey.”

Our interview is drawing to a close, and I'm realising that Natasha has had a very positive and uplifting effect on me. No-one likes a hater, and if music is easier to make and easier to put out, then I guess what's not to like?

“Exactly! There is a lot of doom and

“I DON’T THINK FEAR CREATES A GOOD CULTURE FOR CREATIVITY AT ALL.” gloom, and that is because of fear, and I don't like that. I don't think fear creates a good culture for creativity at all, and I'd rather look at possibility," Natasha concludes. "It's like the Wild West: there are a lot of rules being reinvented, some people are breaking the rules, but what are the rules?! [smiles] Those are the questions that I feel like asking at this time. Good music will be good whenever you put it out, and this year for me is about getting my record out there and showing it to people. It's really hard to hold back when you know you've got good music, but I will know when the time is right. It's like a puzzle, but one I feel excited about!” www.natashabedingfield.com www.jhaudio.com

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Headliner descends on London’s Wembley Arena to have a chat to the guys behind the audio and visuals for rock and roll megastar, Lenny Kravitz. First up, we meet sound man, LAURIE QUIGLEY, who has been riding the faders for this New York-born showman for over a decade now, and says working for Lenny not only keeps him on his toes, but makes him a better engineer, though it’s hardly a walk in the park.

WOR D S PA UL WAT S O N

I first encountered Laurie at a Lenny show at The Bercy in Paris in 2011. With a gargantuan PA system in tow - “it’s what Lenny wants,” he assured me at the time - and his trusted DiGiCo SD7, the mix was as impressive as the artist himself. It’s not often that you hear stories of major stars speccing their own audio kit, or coming out to front-of-house to check the sound in rehearsals, but then again, Lenny Kravitz is no ordinary artist.

“I have a great relationship with him, and I have learned so much working with Lenny, but it’s very difficult at the same time - and I mean that with no disrespect,” Quigley smiles, adding that any artist that can record, engineer, produce, and mix his own records gets his vote. I concur. “He’s very particular about all of his sounds, and he wants to replicate the sound of his records, so I’ve got to be on the money all the time, which has definitely made me a better engineer, because Lenny literally is that good.”

Combined, Lenny and his trusted guitarist Craig Ross have more than 17 channels dedicated to their guitars for the live show, which calls for some seriously organised mixing at front-of-house.

“On stage, Lenny has eleven guitar amplifiers, all of which he uses. He and Craig are really switched on, and Craig actually engineers a lot of Lenny’s stuff in the studio, too,” Quigley reveals. “All of that takes a reasonable amount of time to get your head around as an engineer, and then you need to program a board to snapshot it all; these guys

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were responsible for getting the sounds in the studio in the first place, so they really do know what they’re talking about!”

And getting those sounds out front is made that little bit easier thanks to his console. An analogue man for so long, once he got his hands on a DiGiCo, he never looked back: “When digital boards first came out, they sounded like junk, then DiGiCo came out with the D5 and it actually sounded good! At the time, I was with Aerosmith, and I had two [Midas] XL4s out front, but the guys at DiGiCo said they had a prototype board, which I went out and tried. It not only cut down my footprint, but the digital format was a lot faster. I worked with that for about five years, and then when the SD7 prototype was available, I took that out too, and that’s what I’m working on today.

According to Quigley, the SD7 does everything he wants it to do, and more: “You can run a few hundred channels off this console, and everything at 96kHz, so you can use plugins to reproduce any of the old effects that you’ve ever wanted to; and I have all my channels right underneath my hands, so I don’t have to hunt for them! I’m still very hands-on as a mixer, and I love to mix, but having the snapshots available is a Godsend. There are so many channels on stage that aren’t being used on particular songs, so you have to write all the snapshots, but the facilities on the SD7 are fantastic for doing that; they’re very simplistic, and the only thing I snapshot are his mutes and faders, so I’m not changing the effects sends on every song. You’ve just got to make sure you don’t snapshot yourself into Hell; in other words, you have to remember sometimes that you’re still an engineer, not a programmer!”

On a Lenny show, there’s too much going on not to get hands-on, and although the bells and whistles are important, Quigley insists that the overall sound of the console is still the most important thing: “I get very argumentative with some engineers who debate which board has the best plugins, which has the best effects, and so on. I have said for years now: plug a microphone into a board with nothing going into it, and how does it sound? And to me, my DiGiCo board sounds far, far better than any other board on the market. The other reason I go with DiGiCo is that you can page it; you don’t have to switch the whole board from page to page, you just switch sections from page to page. And it reacts far more like an analogue board than it does a digital board.”

Much in line with Lenny’s love of analogue kit, Quigley still uses a plethora of classic outboard at FOH, mainly for the lead vocal chain.

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“I'VE GOT TO BE ON THE MONEY THE WHOLE TIME, W H I C H M A K ES M E A B E T T E R E N G I N E E R , B EC A U S E L E N N Y L I T E R A L LY I S T H AT G O O D . " “I’m using real APIs, Distressors, and 901s on the vocals, and I still have two Lexicon 960s,” he explains. “Also, there’s some specialised effects: a Leslie effect on his vocal, and a Vulture Culture, which is used for distortion on the drum kit, and on his vocal for American Woman there’s all sorts of stuff going on, and to do!”

Although the record industry has changed, audio-wise, Quigley believes it’s got better, and more consistent.

Another piece of kit that’s continued to come on leaps and bounds over the years is the in-ear monitor, and that, he says, is in many ways down to the brilliance of Jerry Harvey.

“JH Audio is a phenomenal company, and the service is outstanding; Jerry’s been looking after us for years now, and his products have always been excellent. Lenny uses JH16s, and I have a pair of Roxannes. I use mine for

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personal use when I am sitting on a plane; and in rehearsals, I’ll take one of Lenny’s belt packs out front, and listen to his mix whenever I want to, just for reference, to make sure he’s getting what he wants,” Quigley says. “He might say, ’I want it to sound like this’, and I’ll listen to what the monitor guy is doing, and I can actually hear it. If I turn a reverb on through a huge PA system in a big reverberant room, I don’t get the effect of the reverb he’s listening to in his ear, so I might use a different reverb to get the same effect, hence I use the Roxannes to listen to what he is doing.

“From Lenny’s perspective, he uses his JH16s for pitch; it’s in your head, so it’s not like you’re hearing a reflection, it’s crystal clear audio. It also means we have far less wedges on stage, and no side fills at all, and there’s not as much bleed in the vocal mics to deal with, so it’s easier to get the vocal sounding just right, too.”

A Lenny Kravitz gig isn’t just about audio, of course.

The lighting show is crucial, and this one has a seriously cool edge to it, thanks to a constantly changing scenography, and a cool sphere centrepiece, masterminded by renowned creative duo, Steven Cohen and Bryan Barancik.

Cohen and Barancik have worked together for some time now; they collaborated on the famous Star Wars tour of 2010, and were responsible for illuminating Lenny’s tour the following year – but the design for Strut breaks new ground. Cohen describes the centrepiece as, ‘one of the most unique touring scening lighting elements in the world’, and he has a point. It’s redolent of the global ‘super-discos’ of the 1990s, an automated retro-style overhead sphere with unfolding petals that reveal the light sources; and to bring it to life, the complete family of GLP X4 impressions are called upon: 12 X4 XLs, 16 X4s, and 32 X4 S, supplied by US rental house, Atomic Lighting.

“I find the GLP X4 family to be my go-to LED fixture these days,” says Cohen, who along with Barancik, has become very familiar with the GLP platform over the last few years. “They have an almost organic feel to them, which is rare in an LED, and they’re as reliable as it gets. Having this variety of sizes in a single sphere gives me an almost cinematic theme of special effects in a live setting.”

Programming the show happened initially at a Paris studio before relocating to Amiens and going into ‘full

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trim’, where the possibilities of this awesome rig could be explored in much greater detail.

“It gave us the chance to see how the system really lived and breathed, creating focuses and other visual elements that provided a foundation from which to begin developing songs,” reveals Barancik, also the operator for the show. “The X4 is the ultimate work horse thanks to its superb dimming and colour, and the new X4 XL has been a great addition; this was the first time I’d worked with it, but once we had a profile built, it worked fantastically well, and it now fits in perfectly with the rest of the kit.”

During the show, the GLP fixtures are deployed in several different ways: sometimes the complete artillery goes all-out, resulting in a sublime symphony of light; and at other times, it’s broken down into any of eight individual moving petals. The cybernetic sphere has the ability to transfigure at will, which really brings the best out of the GLP fixtures, which is illustrated very nicely indeed during some of Lenny’s high-octane numbers such as New York City, Fly Away (during which, the unfolded sphere transformed into a spaceship!), and his all-time classic, Are You Gonna Go My Way? “Yeah, all those songs certainly show the flexibility of both the sphere and the fixtures, but the song Circus is another really interesting example,” concurs Barancik, with a twist. “When he puts Circus in the set, it all gets very asymmetrical, with some very odd green and CTO combinations, while strobing at different rates.”

And when the GLP family all shine together, you could call it illuminated bliss: “When all the X4 fixtures are working in unison, they create such a superb daylight white and tungsten; and that is totally key when you’re working on any Lenny Kravitz gig. I can honestly say, those fixtures were a cohesive aesthetic to the entire show.” www.digico.biz www.glp.de www.jhaudio.com

It’s Not Magic... ...it’s Lectrosonics.

Like you, we have a passion for music, sound and live performance. Perhaps you’ve heard about our legendary reliability, sound quality, or the fact that our products are easy to use. From the patented Digital Hybrid Wireless® technology to the all-metal chassis and the pristine sound quality, Lectrosonics products deliver state-of the art performance and reliability, at a cost that may surprise you.

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I N T E R V I E W

LENNY KRAVITZ has to be the coolest rock star on the planet. Not only is he a multi-Grammy-winning, multi-platinum selling artist, he’s also a multi-instrumentalist, whose musical talents extend off the stage and into the studio, where he not only engineers and produces his own records, but finds time to put pen to paper and finger to fader for the likes of Madonna, John Legend, and, posthumously, Michael Jackson. And if that’s not enough to whet the appetite, there’s his movie career: two sterling performances as Cinna in the excellent Hunger Games movies, and two supporting roles in Lee Daniels’ highly acclaimed 2009 and 2011 films, Precious, and The Butler, have proven he’s no slouch on the big screen.

I first saw Lenny perform at The Bercy in Paris in 2011, and he was electric: the ultimate showman, with an obvious love for his music, and more importantly, his fans; and now, nearly four years on, I’ve just absorbed his tenth studio album, Strut, for the second time in as many hours, and I have to say, I’m equally impressed. It’s fresh, it’s edgy, it’s bluesy, it’s riffy... It’s Lenny. Excellent. Now I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be to find out more about the man behind the music (and the sunglasses)...

Right off the bat, I decide to ask Lenny a series of questions about his 1991 release, Mama Said. Why? It was the first Kravitz record I ever heard, and it’s my favourite to date. We talk a little about the John Lennon-esque slap-back delays that he used so effectively

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on the album, especially on the brilliantly raw All I Ever Wanted, which, funnily enough, features John’s youngest son, Sean, on the piano.

“I love that track,” Lenny reflects, softly. “We didn’t necessarily have the intention of getting that sound, but it just kind of happened. Sean and I wrote it together, actually, and it was all very quick; the lead vocal was done in just one take.”

It’s a great vocal performance, too, though for me, Lenny’s voice, much like Paul Weller’s, has got even better with age. I put that to him, slightly nervously.

“I believe it has, yes. Some peoples’ voices change tone over time, but I have really tried to take care of my voice; I’ve worked on it, and by growing, you know, it’s gotten better,” he concurs.

“Musically, I have never followed the trends, so I am very grateful to still be here, especially because I have stayed true to what was inside of me at the time I have made each record. I am not good at faking my creativity; if I am not feeling it, it’s not organic to me, so if it’s not authentic, I can’t really do it. I am very much a creature of the moment.”

LIFT ME OUT OF MY HEAD And creative he is, particularly in the studio. Since he started, he’s had a passion for performance, and to this day, Lenny still plays most of the parts on all of his records.

“I made my first album without a record deal, so I couldn’t afford not to play everything myself,” he smiles, as we liken the situation to Bruce Springsteen’s struggle to keep his E Street Band afloat during the early part of his career. “But I’ve gone on doing that with all my records. On many of the tracks, I’m playing everything, and if I’m not, then Craig Ross is playing [guitar] with me.

Sometimes I want to be playing the drums with the guitarist, so I can set the groove properly, and Craig is the best guitar player in the world for me to work with when I want to do stuff like that; he is a big part of me making my records, and provides an extra dynamic.”

Lenny hints that it can be a lonely place, working without any collaboration, which is one of the reasons he enjoys working on film sets. He won’t make his next movie until the end of the year, as touring comes first, but it is another means of expression, and one he clearly treasures, though he didn’t necessarily see it coming.

“When I started working on The Hunger Games, I didn’t expect it to be all that, you know? And then it turned into this monster! [laughs] But I have been so very fortunate to have made four really great movies in a row, and they’ve all done really well; it’s another medium that I am using to express myself, and I really do enjoy it because it enables me to collaborate in a way that I don’t with my music,” he explains. “Music-wise, I work a lot by myself, or with a very small group of people, and it’s about me and my expression, what I want to do, and how I feel, but when I am making a film, I am serving a director’s vision, and I am serving a character... And it’s refreshing! I really do enjoy the collaboration, and the amount of people that I am collaborating with... It takes me away from myself.”

FIELDS OF JOY And talent clearly runs in the Kravitz family. Lenny’s daughter, Zoe, made her movie debut in 2007 in No Reservations, and starred in six episodes of the hit TV show Californication before landing the mega-role of Angel Salvadore in the X Men: First Class movie in 2011. When she’s not on a movie set, she’s touring the world with her band. Sound familiar? Proud dad springs to mind.

“Oh absolutely. I mean, I’m just proud that she’s a beautiful person, that she follows her path, and that she’s being creative at all times; it’s wonderful,” says dad, enthusiastically. “She is on a movie set right now, in fact, and in between making films, she’s on the road. She’s got off tour now, but she was playing in Australia, Europe, across the States... It really is wonderful to see.”

When Lenny takes to the stage, he is dynamite, and the ultimate showman, but none of this would be possible, he says, without a super-strong working relationship with his touring team.

“I work closely with the front-of-house engineer (Laurie Quigley) to get the character of the music where I’d like it to be. Balance is very important; you change the balance, you change the character,” he insists. “That’s the main part, and then there is the technical part and the equipment, which is equally important. I tend to experiment with different things in rehearsals with Laurie, and get it the way I want to hear it.”

I linger a little on the technology, after recalling a discussion I had with Laurie Quigley at FOH position at the Kravitz show I attended in Paris a few years back, where he said, “Lenny can never have enough speakers out front”. I ask Lenny to divulge.

“Yeah, that’s kinda true, and I do know my multicores, too,” he says, with a chuckle. I ask if he’s ever tempted to get his hands on Quigley’s DiGiCo console at FOH, considering how adept he is in the studio environment. “I could do that, but I choose to respect Laurie and his job as engineer, so I’ll just say what it is that I am looking for, and let him work it out. It actually took me a

while to get used to digital consoles, as I always preferred analogue desks, but where they are now, they are sounding so much better than they were when they first came out.”

STRUT Lenny’s new album, Strut, is the tenth of his career, and the first to come out on his own label, Roxie Records, which he named after his mother. I’m curious as to why he’s chosen to go independent after all these years working with majors, and wonder what it says about the state of the industry?

“I’ve always had the idea to do it, but this is the time; I was free from a record label, and I decided to do it on my own, and to work with a distribution company that would assist me,” Lenny explains. “I have more responsibilities, but I’m enjoying it, and it’s working well. I mean, how many majors are really doing it, you know? There are only a couple of labels left, because the way it is today, artists have so much more direct contact and can reach their audience directly, so in the years to come, you will see most people doing it this way.

“A real concern I have is to make sure that artists are paid fairly. Music is something that should be paid for when an artist puts their time, creativity, blood, sweat, tears, and money into it; and of course, people are getting paid in different ways today. It’s more a collective thing; once everyone’s streaming, they pay a fee, and each month or whatever, they can listen to this

amount of music. It doesn’t seem to add up to me properly, but this is the world we’re living in now, and it’s gone on for so long. The music industry didn’t fight this in the beginning, which is why we are now in this position.”

Lenny’s purist mindset extends to the recording studio, and the equipment he uses.

To him, it’s all about the old school: “I have a great collection of analogue gear in my studio; it’s pretty much a vintage museum! I have an incredible Helius console, wonderful compressors, three Fairchilds, a bunch of LA2As, UA compressors, different mic pres, different EQs from different boards.

It’s an eclectic mix of vintage gear that gives me all the different colours that I need to play with.”

LET LOVE RULE Conversation turns to guitars, and Lenny is particularly modest about his own musical ability, particularly with axe in hand, which I find astounding, yet humbling at the same time. Then he lands this bombshell: “You know that famous Beatles performance on the roof? The legendary one?” I remain silent, picturing the fab four’s final public performance, blasting out Don’t Let Me Down on top of Abbey Road Studios in January 1969 (yes, I Googled the date). “Well I actually had John Lennon’s stripped down Epiphone guitar for many months. Yoko and Sean lent it to me, and they kind of forgot I had it, so I called them and had to say, ‘hey, come pick this thing up’.”

Gobsmacked, being a lifelong Lennon fan, I find myself asking myself two questions: ‘what was it like to play?’ and, ‘why the bloody hell did you tell them you still had it?!’ I only ask one out loud...

“I had it for a looooong time. I’m not sure I wrote anything on it, but I used to sit down with that thing and just feel it. I mean, it was just... [pauses] well, pretty incredible.”

After I close my mouth (with my hand), I decide to leave Lenny with a bit of a curveball: if he was starting out today, how would he go about it? He pauses for thought, and knocks it out the park with this soulful gem: “It’s interesting... I watch my daughter, who’s doing this with no assistance from me or anybody other than her core group. These kids are just pumping music out, and being really authentic to themselves - and they know how to use social media - so I am actually really inspired by watching them. I remember last Christmas, she and her band were recording in the kitchen of her shack that she lived in – and I mean a shack, this was no house! Anyway, they worked on this music, and at the end of the holiday, we all got back, and the music was out!

There was a video done, and people already knew the songs. It was amazing to me that they were doing this from their bedrooms, putting it out to the world. So I say, just be yourself, and follow your heart... Things will happen.” www.lennykravitz.com www.digico.biz

MUSIC MAKER W O RD S PAUL WATS ON JUDSON CRANE is a melody maker, a songwriter, an orchestrator, and a multi-instrumentalist. “Is that all?” I hear you ask. Actually, no.

After getting into guitar at high school, he went on to major in Music Synthesis at Berklee College of Music. The course was slightly off the beaten path, he admits, but it helped pave the way to a fascinating career in making music for media.

“I hit it from all sorts of different musical angles, really,” Crane explains. “A lot do performance or composition, but Music Synthesis was essentially using technology to make music, so it was a natural transition for me getting into music for media.”

His first gig out of college was, believe it or not, doing karaoke music! Strange as it may sound, it ended up being the ultimate training ground for ad music.

“I must have done eight-hundred karaoke songs in two years, breaking down the core of the top fifty songs from the last fifty years or so,” he says, “so it really gave me a great foundation working with reference

music and creating different styles when I started working in original music for advertising, which was my main focus for ten years.”

INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE Although certainly a composer first, making music for movies is now one of Crane’s mainstays, and he was recently involved in making the promo videos for a unique movie project, a short Time Capsule film, which was inspired by Christopher Nolan’s box office smash, Interstellar. It’s crowd-funding with a twist, curated by Nolan himself, and made by renowned filmmakers, David Brodie and Angus Wall, in

cahoots with Google Play and Paramount Pictures. The cool part is, the content is all created by the general public, who were invited to submit movie clips, artwork, photos, music, sounds - anything that they felt represented their most precious moments on planet Earth.

“I created original music for these promos, and then Christopher Nolan will sift through the material, find the stuff that’s special, and create this kind of time capsule video film that will be a cross-promotion for Interstellar and Google,” says Crane.

“The crowd-sourcing mentality is becoming more prevalent in media projects; look at what Doritos

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do with football: content creators can submit their self produced ads, and the winner gets a spot on The Superbowl. It’s becoming more and more common.”

Crane’s composing is mainly in the realm of advertising and branding, but he sees the other projects as a little more exciting and creatively rewarding.

“I do a lot of sonic production: twenty-minute long guitar improvs, which I then give to some of the composers, who will then manipulate them, chop them up, and integrate them into their scores,” explains Crane, adding that it’s very freeing to do stuff like that. “Anything goes, and things aren’t being dictated to me, which is nice. I’m essentially creating tool kits, and that’s a fun gig.”

PLAY WHAT YOU SEE I’d read somewhere that the score for Drive (by Cliff Martinez) was put together solely from the director’s vision, with just a short brief for the composer. I ask Crane if that’s more commonplace in today’s industry, rather than putting music to picture?

“I love that approach,” he says, enthusiastically. “The Facebook film that’s on my site came together like that. I was briefed by the director, and we talked about a general vibe, and created a little custom music library. We found a theme we agreed on, and I went away and pumped out music. It’s a short film, eight or nine minutes long, and they cherry picked their favourite tracks and cut their film to the music.

“Everything feels natural, and the picture follows that, essentially. I smoothed out some transitions and made a few tweaks for the final cut, but it didn’t really change. I think the reason you see a lot of directors working like that these days is because things tend to flow better.

“When I’m scoring pictures, I am having to fit a square peg into a round hole sometimes, you know, to get things to sync properly. I have all the tricks, and you can come out with great results; it’s the same if

“We found a theme we agreed on, and I went away and pumped out music.” you work in orchestral contexts: you can push and pull the tempo as much as necessary, but in the pop, rock, electronic context, it can be difficult to score an already created edit, if that makes sense?”

BOX CLEVER Crane has two studios, both of which are running Pro Tools 11, Waves Mercury SoundGrid, and DiGiGrid: a DLS in IO mode with Lynx Aurora 8 in Studio A; and a DLI in SGP mode with Lynx Aurora 8 in Studio B. “What’s great about DiGiGrid is that it has enabled these two studios which are in separate but networked buildings to pass audio back and forth without noticeable latency,” explains Crane. “The only connection between the two studios is a single cat-5e cable. I often record the large mallet instruments in Studio B from my A room; I can send headphone mixes, click, talkback, so it’s as if

Studio B was simply on the other side of the glass!”

I’m interested to find out what’s in Crane’s box of musical tricks...

“I don’t really do anything outside of the box, as I am working on so the box as I am working on so many projects at any given time. I might open up six different projects in a day, and do something to them!

“Unlike someone mostly scoring a film, more often than not they’re on a project for three months, on that one film, and maybe they’re opening up six different cues in a day, but it’s not six completely different projects! For me, speed is super-important, and so is recall, being able to get back to sounds very quickly, so it’s about having the best plugins at any given time, and Waves has been a great answer to me. I use their Mercury Bundle, and I love their EQs and compressors, and I am actually a big fan of their Artist Series, because it’s

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all about speed and getting a good sound fast.”

QUICK & DIRTY “I am not that particular when it comes to mixing, and I am entirely mouse driven! I’ve tried controllers, but they’re not for me; I have a quick and dirty approach, and I am much more into the core of the content, what I am recording, or the melodies, the harmonies, the instruments.

“It’s a rough and tumble approach, and I’m the same with recording. I like more raw, homegrown feeling sounds, so I love the Artist Series, as I can get great sounds quickly.

You have one plugin that gives you EQ, compression, and effects. Again, I am a composer first and probably an engineer third or fourth, so I love those plugs! Especially the Puig bass plugin, the Maserati acoustic, and I absolutely love the Kramer vocals you see a lot of those in my mixes.”

So what about the actual creative process, then?

“More often than not, I am pulling up a piano patch, getting a general idea of the shape of the harmony and the pacing. That’s before I explore melodies. Sometimes I will watch picture, turn on a click track, and move the click around as I watch, just moving the tempo around,” he reveals. “Strangely enough, seventyfive percent of the time, the first tempo I pick is the right one. It’s a weird sort of magical thing! Then I might move to a piano or a guitar, and find out the general shape of the harmony or harmonic structure.”

What sets Crane apart from most of the composers he works with is that he doesn’t really use a template. He likes starting fresh for every project: “Many film composers have presets with instruments ready to go and are essentially inputting MIDI or audio data that will trigger sounds, and sometimes it’s pre-mixed; I get that with a film score, sometimes you have to deliver a lot of sounds quickly, so it’s important to have things ready

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to go, but I love starting with a blank canvas every time, and I have some things I can quickly call up, such as the Spitfire orchestra stuff, the Orchestral Tools stuff, and obviously Contact from Native Instruments is important for me, because it runs most of my sample libraries.

I’m about to embark on recording my first music score. I’m on a budget.

What are the basic handful of things I need to buy to get the job done, without breaking the bank?

“That’s a great question, as I am a bit of a kit addict! [laughs] One thing I am liking a lot is Lite editions of products: abridged versions of the entire spectrum of their collections.

They’re labelling them as ‘sketching tools’. Some great companies have these essentials libraries that have a little bit of everything, and they’re less than five-hundred bucks, and will give you the whole orchestra.

Project Sam has something like that, Spitfire has the Albion Series - it’s a broader, less specific approach to sample libraries. So it’s that, and then Native Instruments has this package called the Komplete Package, which is similarly a taste of all their stuff.

Between a lite orchestral package and Native Instruments Komplete, you have everything you need.

“That being said, I am a major proponent for recording your own shit, and as many sample libraries as I have, my projects are eighty percent live musicians, and sixty percent of that is probably me, so it’s a really important thing to always be improving your craft as a performer, and an instrumentalist.

Most composers or producers have started out on guitars and keyboards or singing, and it’s important to keep that up and figure out what makes you unique from that angle, as that is something no-one else can have.” www.waves.com www.digigrid.net

“It’s about having the best plugins available at any given time, and Waves has been a great answer to me.”

Q &A

UNCOMFORTABLY BEAUTIFUL A little over three months ago, Californian-born artist Hazel Iris, who currently resides in South London, forged a working relationship with producer and MPG director Andrew Hunt, which led to her signing a deal with aspiring indie label, Marvellous Records. Although in her own words, “fresh out of the oven”, her sound is as unique and quirky as her attitude to making music. With a single due in March, and an EP to follow, things are looking mighty promising for this talented songstress. Headliner catches up with the two of them in a north London cafe (which is also quirky).

You’ve come quite a way in a short space of time, haven’t you?

HI: I guess so, yeah! From California, I went to Germany to study opera, so I did that for a few years, and then I came to London. I love all kinds of music, and love singing and performing, but auditioning is awful! I was never quite as rigid as the other singers; there is a certain stereotype for opera singers, and sometimes it’s very true, but I just always felt like I needed to do something else. So, just a short while ago, I started writing some stuff, and I was looking for a producer. I had Garageband, so I made a demo, but I didn’t know what I was doing, I had no idea; and obviously you need someone that knows what they’re doing to put it together. I looked for a producer for quite some time, which is hard, as London is full of so many people promising so much. One guy assured me that he could get a record out for me in 48 hours, and I was like, yeah, that’s really fast! [laughs]

And it was then that you discovered Andrew Hunt’s website...

HI: Yes, and I really liked the music examples on there, so I wrote to him and sent attachments of my little songs and ideas, really hoping that he said yes, and that he had time. And thankfully, he did! He suggested we got together, get to know each other, and hearing that someone was actually willing to take the time was so refreshing. I am not someone that’s interested in following trends, and someone that was happy to work with me, no matter how strange me and my songs were, was a huge relief [smiles].

Tell me about the recruitment process, Andrew!

AH: [laughs] It’s actually very hard to survive as a producer, which I think is why you get so many people that do the quick turnaround jobs. But that’s not in my nature; I have to be comfortable with and confident in the artist I work with, but of course it’s also my job, so I have to get paid for it, too! So we met up, we talked about budget - because again, a producer isn’t just about engineering or making beats or recording, it’s about all the things that are to do with managing the project, helping the artist get to where they want to be, and make the record they want to make. It’s dealing with labels, managers, choosing the right environment, the right players. All of those things are as important as what microphone you use and what you record to.

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You’re mentoring the talent as well then, to an extent?

AH: Yeah, I mean, a lot of people will approach me today and say, ‘I want you to record this’. So I say, ‘what do you mean, record? Do you want me to engineer it or produce it?’ And I’ll listen to it, and there might be programmed strings or brass, and I’ll explain that if you want all of that, you’re talking about a lot of money, regardless of me. So if you want me to get you Air [Studios] and a massive orchestra, great, but so far, I haven’t met anyone that can! So Hazel and I talked about what was and wasn’t viable, what she was trying to achieve, and she sent me a couple of links, and I saw real potential in there. There was a wonderful sensitivity to her demos, and a wonderful naivety that I never wanted to lose: an understanding of polyrhythms and quirky weirdness in a beautiful way.

It was like an uncomfortable beauty.

And then you listened to lots of different music together, to help find out what kind of direction you should go in from a production standpoint?

AH: Yeah, which I do with every artist.

And what I realised from this experience with Hazel was her deeper sensitivity to rhythm. I then suggested doing an EP, because you’ve got better budget, and if you’re a new artist, not many people care about an album. An EP shows off what you are as an artist and gives you a little curve. It’s a good format these days for budgets.

The EP was going to include four tracks, until you got a shock when you turned on the radio, Hazel...

HI: [laughs] Yeah, I had another song that I always thought was really weird, and I had uploaded it onto the BBC Introducing site, and before that, onto Amazing Tunes, and a few days after I put it onto Amazing Tunes, they played it on Amazing Radio, and then Tom Robinson played it on his [Radio 6] show, Introducing, and then Andrew and I were working on something together, it was a Saturday night, and we’d taken a break and put on the radio, and my song came on! I couldn’t think for a second, but that was definitely a sign...

AH: So I emailed Tom right at that minute, and said I was working with Hazel right now! I then listened to that track properly,

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and if I’m honest, I thought it sounded a little bit programmed and a little one dimensional, but I’m going to rework it, so it will be a five-track EP, even though we agreed to do four, because it is so very weirdly wonderful!

The first single, Mountain Top, is out on March 9th. Tell us more...

AH: It’s actually really unusual. It’s like a monumental mass of tuned percussion.

We used toy xylophones, little glocks, and a thumb piano, made from a seed pod with little metal bars on, and my mouth (makes ‘popping’ noise). I thought the demo was great and I didn’t want to lose that, which is a challenge in itself. There is something very, very clear in what she’s done, and I have to try and get all the good elements of this, and Hazel only conveys what is important, which is the best demo for any producer: the skeleton from which you can build on together.

And your label believes in the two of you, too, which sounds like a pretty perfect situation to me!

HI: Well, getting any label behind you is pretty amazing, but especially one like Marvellous Records. They’ve got right behind the two of us, and they believe in both me as an artist and Andrew as a producer. They just let us get on with it, and that’s the ultimate compliment. It’s quite seldom to be able to be yourself, so big respect to my label for letting me do that! They’re brand new, and they want musicians to be musicians and artists to be artists, and music to be made. And we absolutely love that attitude! www.mpg.org.uk www.hazel-iris.com www.audio-technica.com www.andrewhunt.info www.marvellousrecords.com

GREAT CANS When referencing - particularly on location - a good set of headphones is crucial. When it comes to selecting a pair, you could do a lot worse than Audio-Technica’s ATH-M50s, Andrew Hunt suggests...

“These days, I find that a lot of headphones are overwhelming in the bottom end for some reason, trying to be super bass-heavy, but I like bottom end with definition, and I find the ATH-50s have that in abundance. They’re affordable, they’re closed, and genuinely, I really like the sound. When I am working in the control room, and because I play a lot and was a singer, I’m quite sympathetic to what I think people need in their headphone mixes: if I can work to it, then chances are that will be a good ball park for what they can work to. Also, since they brought out the M50x, you can have interchangeable cables, which is much less hassle than the curly cable on the original M50. But for me, you have to have the same pair of headphones, so whatever I am using, the artist has to be using.

They tick a lot of boxes for me, and I love the way they fold down to nothing - very cool! With some kit, I am really picky, and I will A/B everything, but with other stuff, I just know. When I put these on, I went, ‘yeah, sold!’ Why do I need to A/B 15 more pairs of headphones when they’re comfortable, they sound great, and they’re the right weight? Like I said, sold!”

/ / O N T H E ROA D W I T H . . .

PAPA ROACH W O R D S PAUL WAT S O N

Renowned US rock band, PAPA ROACH, have just embarked on what promises to be a monster stint on the road.

They’re at the beginning of a new album cycle, touring their new record, Fear, with fellow rockers, Seether. Headliner catches up with lead guitarist, Jerry Horton, and sound man, Eddie Mapp, to discuss life on the road, what it’s like sharing the same tour bus, and why you should never judge an audience by its cover.

It was 2005 when Eddie Mapp first started working with Papa Roach, and after a long time away from the action, he re-entered the fray in September of last year.

“Part of the attraction with Papa Roach is that they never phone it in,” he smiles.

“They get up there and kill it every night, and the fans understand that. Nobody buys albums anymore, so you have to work hard on the road; and no-one does that better than this band.”

Typically, you might expect a group in this genre to be pretty loud up on stage, however that’s really not the case with Papa Roach.

“We still have sidefills and a couple of wedges, but the stage is far more manageable since the band have started using JH Audio [JH16] in-ear monitors,” Mapp explains. “They make everyone’s life much easier. Even Tony [Palermo, drummer], who was really sceptical at first, was totally convinced when he first used them. He was like, ‘wow, everything

is suddenly a lot clearer,’ so the band are very comfortable using them.

“We were in Europe recently, and Big Mick [Hughes, Metallica FOH] came out to one of the shows. During soundcheck, as soon as he heard the stage volume, he turned his head, looked at me and said, ‘really?’ He literally couldn’t believe how quiet it was, and that definitely helps me out front.”

“IT WAS LIKE THAT

WIRELESS WONDER

OUT OF THE WOODS

Another crucial part of Mapp’s live setup is his wireless kit. He was first introduced to Lectrosonics through what is now Rational Acoustics, the people behind Smaart, and he’ll never look back:

SCENE OUT OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS, PEOPLE WERE POURING OUT INTO THIS CLEARING.”

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“I took a Smaart class basically to learn about the world of alignment, and then in 2003, I found that Lectrosonics had a test and measurement wireless system, the TM400. I purchased a single unit, and it definitely helped speed things up and gave me a lot more flexibility, so much so, in fact, that I purchased a second Lectrosonics unit with the dual rack, and then I got spoiled so I had to have two more!”

Because he is typically using four or five microphones to measure audio in a venue, the TM400 makes the most sense: “This setup helps not only my tuning, but provides a safety factor; it allows me to have wireless measurement microphones all over the venue throughout the day, and it’s one less trip hazard, which is far better than having several hundred feet of cable lying around.”

And it’s not only Mapp in the Papa Roach camp that’s a Lectrosonics fan.

Lead guitarist, Jerry Horton, is also a serious TM400 advocate: “I actually pulled one of my second units out and put it in Jerry’s rack, so he now has a pair of 400s, one of which he uses for redundancy. Papa Roach is a straightforward rock and roll band, and Jerry plays one guitar all night unless there’s a problem, so it’s a simple, effective setup.”

ZONING IN When it comes to referencing, Mapp won’t stray far from his Audio-Technica M50 headphones. He acquired his first set a year ago, which he carries with him on the road, and a couple of pairs now reside in his studio, too.

“The isolation on the M50s is just fantastic. On the road, they completely isolate me from the band, which I find incredible, especially compared to the cans I used to use,” he explains. “I’ve also done plenty of mixes on them in the studio, as they’re so great for balancing, and sometimes, in rehearsals, the M50s are my only reference point, and whether it’s a line array or an old traditional box, they always translate really well. I just love those things.” www.paparoach.com www.lectrosonics.com www.jhaudio.com www.audio-technica.com

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PAPA

Q& A

ROACH

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Jerry Horton

Six shows into the Papa Roach tour, guitarist Jerry Horton shoots the breeze with us before heading off to a soundcheck in New York City.

So how's the tour been going?

It's going great man, a lot of them are selling out. We've done stuff with Seether in the past but never really a proper tour, but we're co-headlining this tour with them, and the opening bands are really good too, they rip it.

You're a straight rock guitarist, who are your influences?

Starting out, I was more of a metal head than anybody else in the band. I was listening to Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Testament, those kind of bands, and the other guys were listening to punk and funk, and Chilli Peppers, Mr. Bungle, you know, really off the wall stuff that I had never really paid attention to. So when I joined the band and discovered all this other stuff, some I didn't understand at first, but I suddenly understood the thought process behind it, and kind of became familiar and able to appreciate it. I started to take those other bands as influences as well, you know, like John Frusciante... It's not something you really hear outwardly in the [Papa Roach] music, but there are certain aspects of his playing that make it in there. And then just to go back to the classics, Page and Gilmour and those kind of guys, too.

That's an eclectic mix... Tell me about your wireless guitar setup.

We had used other wireless systems before, but it had always seemed that there was a compromise. They would generally reduce the signal, and it wouldn't sound as good as a cable. Then we tried Lectrosonics, and it was just night and day - we genuinely couldn't tell the difference between the cable and the wireless, and it was pretty amazing, so yeah, it's an integral part of the rig. I don't know what they've got going on over there but there's some voodoo in that little system, and it's really cool.

Do you have a favourite rock and roll moment... that I can print, that is? [laughs] Yeah, it’s all good! Probably when we played Polish Woodstock. We had never heard of the festival before, and when we got the offer, it said it had a 500,000 capacity, and we immediately thought that had to be a typo, and we thought it was probably 50,000, but that was cool, we could do that. So we get there, and during the day there was a huge area the size of something like Download would be, and there was maybe 5,000 people scattered about, off in their little circles playing in the dirt and mud, and we're looking at each other saying, 'we flew all the way out here for this?' Up until we played, it was all Polish bands, and the band before us had maybe 10,000 people watching. And then, it was like the scene out of The Lord of the Rings, people were pouring out of the woods out into this clearing, and it ended up being 350,000 people, and it was mind-blowing. We couldn't fathom that there were that many people in one area!

Q &A

KEB’ MO WO R D S PAUL WAT S O N

“MOST PEOPLE THOUGHT SLAVERY ENDED IN THE SOUTH IN THE US, BUT IT’S ONGOING WORLDWIDE, IT’S JUST TAKEN A DIFFERENT FORM...”

KEB’ MO was brought up in Compton in South LA, and started out playing steel drums and upright bass in a calypso band. From a tender age, he had a true appreciation for Gospel music and the Blues, and had become an accomplished musician by his early teenage years. Today, he is a three-time Grammy winning post-modern blues guitarist, and makes sweet music from his home studio in Nashville, America’s Music City.

Keb’ Mo is also one of the acclaimed international artists that have offered their time and musical talent to Set Them Free, UK producer Gary Miller’s first musical project for his Rock Against Trafficking initiative (see back cover for more details on RAT).

RAT is determined to raise awareness and put a stop to the human trafficking issues that are so rife across our planet, and Headliner is proud to be an official supporter of this important initiative.

How is life in Nashville these days, Keb’ Mo? Well, you know, it’s full of music! It’s one of those cities that still has a lot of recording studios, so it’s a very creative place, and that’s a good thing. On the other hand, it is changing in Nashville, too. I literally can’t afford to make a record in a studio out here anymore.

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KEB’MO

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You saw this coming some years back, and were able to prepare...

Yes I did. When record sales really started to decline, and technology started advancing rapidly, I started buying recording gear. This was some fifteen years ago. I did that until I had enough to make my own room, and I’m so glad I did that. If I went into a room out here to make a record, it would add twenty-thousand dollars minimum to my budget, and that’s just not doable. When I make a record, I can now do it in my own time, from my own space. I sit in there doodling around, and get it to where I want it, though I have to admit, it’s not always a good thing not to have a time constraint! You have the time to get it the way you want it, but at the same time you can get too relaxed in there and not care about time! But I use the space for a lot of things: rehearsals, recording, meetings... Hell, I could even throw a party in there, you know? [smiles] Sounds ideal! How do you like to work in the studio?

I like working in the box, though I have had it both ways. I see some people plug all this elaborate stuff into a giant console, and I see some guys work solely in the box, and they all know what they are doing, so it doesn’t really matter. The results I can get in the box are just as good.

I do have preamps going in, to get it nice and warm; and then I like mixing in the box. When you come down to mastering a record, there are all kinds of things you can do to it, providing the mix is accurate and on, and that’s what I try to do. Compared to years ago, it’s far more affordable to record high quality audio today. Just buying the board alone used to be crazy money!

Tell me about your involvement with RAT? I am still preparing my track for the [Set Them Free] record, but I’m looking forward to putting it down. Gary [Miller] came and found me, actually. He called me up, and started talking passionately about his goals for RAT, and it seemed like a really cool think to do, so I jumped onboard. The human trafficking statistics are shocking, and the main problem is, people aren’t aware of it. Most people thought slavery ended in the south in the US, but it’s ongoing worldwide, it’s just taken a different form: a form of greed and fear, and that needs to be addressed.

Have you listened to any of the other tracks on Set Them Free yet?

I don’t want to hear what anybody else is doing on the record, I just want to get in the studio and do my bit! I have started to map out the song, but I want to be very comfortable with it before I do it. I’m thinking a really nice guitar and vocal arrangement will work for what I want to achieve, and then we can see what else it needs. As long as I can just do it with a guitar and vocal, it’s all good.

How does an artist break through in today’s industry?

Well, that’s a big problem. A friend of mine wrote a nice piece on his blog about that very subject recently. How will the industry survive? I think it’s about keeping the band together, and figuring out the technology, as

it’s moved so fast in the last ten years, and you have to be very fast and nimble to pick up. The album is gone, the CD has basically vanished, and streaming is coming up. Vinyl is a nostalgic medium, and can’t survive in a digital world. It’s a fast world, and it’s how you monetise that, and make it work for the artists.

But for me, I just try to stay in touch with the music. It’s about the quality of product. You need that, and if you don’t have that, who cares about the tech, anyway? You know, change is inevitable, and sometimes change is a good thing; and through social media, you can get out there on the pavement and make your own way – you actually can...

Though I know I wouldn’t have had a snowball’s chance in Hell of getting signed that way! [smiles] www.kebmo.com www.rockagainsttrafficking.org

Advantages of the myMix System

Scan the code for more info www.mymixaudio.com/mymix-is-better +1 (952) 657-7889 Š2013 MOVEK, Inc.

IN THE MIX W O R D S PA U L WAT S O N

"WE HAD STEVEN TYLER ON MYMIX LAST YEAR AND HE ABSOLUTELY SMOKED IT. HE THOUGHT IT WAS VERY COOL."

Designing and building recording studios is something JOHN EDWARDS knows all about. He started out in 1987 and since then, has created esteemed facilities for the likes of Stuart Copeland, Teddy Reilly, and Christina Aguilera. Recently, he has been busy putting together a delectable studio for acclaimed songwriter and producer, Oliver Leiber, who he has been buddies with for some 25 years, after building the artist’s first studio back in 1989. This one, however, is a little different: try a 3,400 sq ft studio, right in Leiber’s back yard! According to Edwards, it’s his best work yet.

“This one really is my absolute pride and joy; it’s huge!” Edwards smiles, explaining that work commenced in 2009, and doors were already open the following year. “It’s a private studio, he doesn’t rent it for anybody, and everybody that uses it loves it. The compliments are so high, and they can’t believe it’s in a back yard! It makes me feel good, as I did something right, for once!”

Edwards is being modest, of course. In all his projects, he designs and builds the rooms, pulls the permits, does all the acoustic treatments, all the wiring, specs the kit, then shows the owners how to use the kit!

“I did Letterbee in ‘89 with a British guy, Bruce Miller, who was an SSL guy at the time, and Bruce ended up getting a job at Letterbee as their head guy, so we did it together,” Edwards continues. “Then Michael Jackson rented one of the rooms for two years - as you do - and I was then asked to do the other Letterbee on Letterbee Street in Santa Monica. So we went to Hawaii, we drank a lot, I came back, and then did the Santa Monica studio! And then Prince rented that room for a year!

That was a good collaboration, and it launched me into getting gigs. I have never advertised, it’s all been through friends.”

That’s some word of mouth! So what’s Mr. Leiber hiding in this back yard of his, then?

“Well, I bought a 1977 8068 Neve, tore it apart, then fixed the whole thing back to complete spec the way it came out of Neve; and then I

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JOHN

EDWARDS

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bought an 8066 in Canada from the same year, bolted it on the end, and made it all talk to each other,” Edwards reveals, praising the techs that helped him out on the build. “It’s all wrapped around that and Pro Tools. And it’s a guitar room.

In the control room, the back wall is all [guitar] heads, and it goes from any room at any time to all the respective cabinets.”

A PERSONAL TOUCH One of Leiber’s closest friends is Paul Peterson who works in Minneapolis.

He introduced Edwards to a personal monitoring system that has, in his own words, ‘blown his mind’. Enter myMix. “When I first saw myMix, they were playing in Oliver plays in F Deluxe, Oliver’s other band, which is also Prince’s backup band; and he said we had to get this thing,” he recalls, with a smile. “We had another system which was supposed to be the best, but the guy was going through a bankrupcy and the whole thing was a nightmare. Anyway, when I first saw it, I thought there was no way that it was going to be able to keep up with a rock drummer... I was wrong! It just kicks, it completely works.”

A recent Beth Hart session at the facility utilised a bunch of myMix units, and included a best of the best in session musicians. And it all went rather well.

“We had Michael Landaue, Waddy Wachtel, Rick Marotta on drums, Jimmy Cox on piano, Ivan Neville on the keys; and except for Rick, they were all in the same room, and everyone loved it,” says Edwards. “I just walked in and said, ‘this is how you scroll through it, pick what you want up, pick what you want down, that’s it’. And because everyone is computer-based now, it’s second nature.

Even Beth, who is always really nervous about kit, was ripping through that thing in no time. She kept tweaking it as she was singing: keys down, let’s move the drums, piano up. We had seven people playing through myMix at once, and it didn’t falter at all.”

And what about the setup? How does myMix talk to the console?

“Well, I did it a little differently to most,” he smiles. “First off, we have a board that was built in 1977, so it’s not like it’s a seamless interface with new technology.

So I have three interfaces that go just to the board from Pro Tools. Channel one is channel one on Pro Tools, and so on, so there’s no patching; it’s just basically like having two tape machines wired straight to your board where you don’t have to do anything.

“Then I bought a fourth interface, and I designated the outputs of that just

to myMix, so in Pro Tools there is no patching, nothing. As soon as I interfaced that, I still had the inputs of that interface to use, which I have going into an API rack, but the outputs are all hardwired to the IEX interface for the myMix, and it works great.”

PLUG & PLAY Prior to acquiring myMix, Edwards had already wired 24-input mic panels to all three of the studio’s rooms, therefore Cat-5 was already available everywhere.

“That was cool, as we were prepared in advance, so we just plugged the Ethernet into the myMix, and plugged them all into the Cisco switcher which is provided by myMix,” he says. “It took us no longer than forty-five minutes to hook the whole thing up, which just blew us away, to be honest.”

Leiber’s facility boasts 16 myMix: headphones come out of 1-15, and number 16 is hardwired to the console for talkback. One recent addition has been the myMix Controller, which has been really helpful in terms of workflow.

“I know a lot of people can’t afford to buy another interface and dedicate it to a headphone mix, but by being able to do that, we solved every problem,” Edwards admits. “We just got the myMix controller too, and my computer guy pulled that thing up in a matter of seconds, and said, ‘oh this is perfect’; and he did the whole playlist with everybody’s name, all within minutes, then sent it out to every myMix. It made everything so much easier, as before you had to name each individual myMix; the convenience factor of the controller is huge.”

The myMix system has been in for a while now, and is used mostly for overdubs and

solo artists, and the occasional rock God: “I had Steven Tyler on myMix last year and he absolutely smoked it, you know? He was like, ‘yeah, this is really cool’. And no-one has ever said it sucks.

Even the ficklest of artists like Vinnie Colaiuta - he is unbelievable on drums but he is a pistol! Vinny was like, ‘this myMix thing is pretty cool, I kinda like this little system!’”

As far as Edwards is concerned, every studio project he works on from now will include a myMix system of some kind.

“The manufacturer has really come through for me personally, and it’s made myMix a complete no-brainer for me,” he states. “I’ve gone into Westlake Audio and places like that before, and they have these big mixers that are on, but the thing is, an artist looks at those things and there’s a little bit of shaking in their knees, you know? Whereas with myMix, it’s so approachable. Because the interface is so straightforward, it’s as easy as playing a video game!” www.mymixaudio.com

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10 MINUTES WITH...

ANDY BARLOW ANDY BARLOW is one half of acclaimed UK electronic music duo, Lamb, and a highly respected record producer. We pulled him off the stage and away from the console for a bit to quiz him on his go-to kit, his thoughts on hi-res audio, and his favourite filo pastry recipe...

You have built quite a reputation for bringing the best out of vocalists when making records...

Well, I take a lot of time and care when trying to help any vocalist realise his or her best performances. I took vocal lessons for a while, just so I could communicate better with vocalists, and learn what is possible. Just saying, ‘put some air around each phrase’, usually makes a vocal take warmer and easier to mix. Working with David Gray was a great example of this; he has one of the most distinctive voices out there, but I did feel that he only really had one setting: the fifth-gear, flat-out, ‘hellyeah, I’m David Gray’ one. So with this album [Gray’s latest, Mutineers], I really encouraged him to try on different hats: ‘let’s try this one in first gear a whisper’; ‘let’s try this an octave down, but in second gear’; ‘let’s try this a metre away from the mic so we can do a unison’. And I did lots of playing around with backing vocals, whisper overdubs, and so on, to work up a vocal in layers. It’s a filo-pastry approach, rather than doing the obvious take.

You’re on the road with Lamb now.

Is it difficult to juggle the artist and producer role, or is this something you’ve come accustomed to?

It’s definitely a different head space.

I have a little bus studio rig, which includes a small MIDI keyboard, laptop and drives, an Ableton Push controller, and some speakers. It’s really cool what I can get up to with this little but very powerful setup. The key for me working on tour is to start early; make myself set it up and get busy immediately. Leaving it for a week without being productive in the studio makes it almost impossible to regain the headspace needed for producing with all the distractions that touring has to offer.

What is your go-to kit in the studio?

My studio these days is mostly softwarebased, but saying that, I still love my Manley Vari Mu Compressor, API 512c Mic pre amps, and UA 6176 mic pre. I use Genelec and Event Opal monitors, and my room has been treated so I can trust what’s going on with my mixes. My go-to mic would have to be a Neumann M149, as it sounds awesome

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on pretty much everything; and I also have a pair of Coles ribbon mics that I use a lot, as long as the source is loud enough. DAW-wise, I now use Ableton for pretty much everything: producing, deejaying, Lamb, all live work. Then Spectrasonics, Native Instruments, SoundToys and Melodyne also get a lot of use.

You started out really young...

Yep, at fifteen-years-old I was working in my local music shop! I was also a tea boy in a studio, but really taught myself the toys and tricks. I bought a four-track, a sampler, and a couple of FX units, and spent a good few years learning how to breathe life into them. It was pre-Internet and all my mates were guitar or bass players, so I really had to work it out for myself.

I did go on a music production course in Manchester, but I got a job as an engineer after six months so quit the course and never looked back. I met Lou [Rhodes, the other half of Lamb] when I was eighteen, and when I was nineteen, we were signed and had our first album out on Universal. I fell into producing other artists when a band called Fink asked me to do a track, which then turned into an album. I love producing. I feel that being an artist and a producer both have qualities that I need to make me a better musician and producer.

What are the most significant technological developments that you’ve seen in recent years?

Powerful laptops with SSDs are just awesome now. We used to have a truck for Lamb backline - racks of compressors and FX units - but they’ve all been replaced by computers, so we can now take everything we need on a plane. It really opens up touring, and the places that it’s feasible to get to and play.

Does the ‘immediacy’ of how people consume music today concern you?

I have a six-year-old son who has his own playlists, and I love watching how passionate he is about music. I think there will be people who just download one track, but fans - people who come to see us live for example - will play the whole album as an experience. We

ANDY

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have started selling a lot more vinyl recently, which is a really good sign.

That’s very cool! Do you have a take on high-res audio, at all?

Well, I travel a lot, so I do love the portability of mp3 players. Saying that, hard-drives are so small and cheap now, it’s really no excuse not to have the music as high-res. I really try and listen to FLAC or lossless files whenever I can, especially in the studio, but I think it’s very important to get tracks remastered for iTunes, and things like that, in order to squeeze as much quality out of the format as possible.

There’s been a serious demise in major recording studios worldwide; how can we ensure that fantastic facilities like The Church, for example, keep their doors open for many more years to come?

I loved recording at The Church. The acoustics of the room were a huge feature on David [Gray]’s record. Saying that, other than recording strings or a drum kit in a professional studio, I’m more than happy in my home studio where I don’t really want for anything.

Lamb and I come from quite a DIY ethos, and I like the option of always having the session ready to go, even at 4am, if inspiration strikes. However, I do believe studios like Abbey Road and Air should be protected, supported, and encouraged to remain recording studios. It’s a shame that economics and the seemingly never-ending desire for ‘luxury flats’ is a massive threat to such great spaces.

I’ll second that... Finally, Andy, how can we improve the music industry?

We need to pay the artists, otherwise they will have to do something else with their time. As much as I love Spotify as a punter, when I see our statements from them, it’s a joke how little they pay out. www.lambofficial.com www.andybarlow.net

“MY SIXYEAR-OLD SON HAS HIS OWN PLAYLISTS, AND I LOVE HOW PASSIONATE HE IS ABOUT MUSIC.”

Q &A

DAVE RUSSELL always wanted to work in a recording studio.

After landing his first studio runner role, he climbed the rungs of the audio ladder at a phenomenal rate, eventually landing what would be a life-changing role at London’s Whitfield Street Studios which, through acquiring a string of American clients, paved the way to a life in Los Angeles, where he’s either mixing hit records from the comfort of his home studio or (wait for it...) hanging out in Lady Gaga’s tour bus or hotel room, working one-on-one with the superstar, and capturing all her musical ideas on tape (well, computer). Headliner investigates...

You’ve had quite a musical journey, which all began with a love of audio...

Yeah, a friend of mine got me into a studio for the first time in the ‘90s, and I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I got on a course in London at the School of Audio Engineering (SAE) in 1995, and a couple of months before I passed, I went round to the top twenty studios in the city, walked in, and handed in my resume! They were all quite full at the time, and the last studio I managed to walk into, a guy, Richard Pearce, called me back in the day after. The reason I got a job there was because I was ex-military, and his father was in the military.

I remember he said to me, ‘I know that you guys are extremely punctual, and extremely respectful, why don’t you come and work for me? ’ So I did.

It wasn’t so luxurious at the beginning, though... [laughs] I was fixing air conditioning, making the tea, cleaning the toilets, the normal stuff you do when you’re at the bottom! But about a year in, a couple of guys came in from Sony from Whitfield Street [Studios], and I was assisting them mixing the halftime show for Simply Red during [European football tournament] Euro 96 that they’d recorded up in Manchester. They put a fantastic word in for me to all the manag-

ers at Whitfield Street, and within a year, I had a runner’s job there.

A month on, that turned into an assistant’s job, then eventually an engineering role. They had scoring, orchestras, and a great mixing room, and I picked up a lot of clients there.

Which ultimately took you to Los Angeles, right?

It did. Within five years, I got the offer to work for some Americans in LA, and I’ve been here ever since!

I struggled to like LA at first: the food and lifestyle is so different to London, where people are more direct, and LA is so much more laid back. But it grew on me, and it’s fantastic here for creativity, and the weather has a lot to do with that!

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I can believe it... And now you’re making music with Lady Gaga on a daily basis! [smiles] Well, I am full-time on the road with Gaga when she’s working, yes, and that’s a project that’s taking up most of my time. She’s writing new material now, and we have actually just finished doing a little bit of music for a documentary called The Hunting Ground; we recorded a full band and a string section for the end credits for a little song that’s in that. It’s an excellent documentary focusing on sexual assault in some of the establishments around America, and it’s literally just been at Sundance Festival, so that’s been a lot of fun doing that. When I’m not working with Gaga, I’m working with other artists; I’ve done a couple of mixes for Leona Lewis recently, and I just did something for Paloma Faith, plus I’m also working with AJ from the Backstreet Boys on his solo project, which is going really well. I love the variety, and to be able to change genres and artists really keeps you on your toes.

How do you develop a trust with an artist like Gaga?

When she is inspired, I am there to capture her inspiration and the feel behind it, and she is constantly inspired and thinking about things, even after shows. We just get together and lay it down. There’s a bit of fixing as far as sonics goes, but with the DAWs now, you can get everything sounding fairly equal as long as you do sections of a song.

It’s hard to fix parts within a section, but sometimes different textures in different sections kind of work, so with the advent of technology, we are able to be on the road and record stuff; and it can stick all the way through to the end of the mix, so it’s pretty easy to make stuff sound cohesive.

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DAVE

RUSSELL

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What kit do you use on the road?

I have a touring rig that fits into pelican cases: I have some pretty good Neve mic pres, a decent compressor, and a decent mic; and when I’m out with Gaga I just roll around with her, pretty much set up in her hotel suite, and after she’s done a show or if she has a day off, we’ll just lay down some ideas and record vocals. When she feels creative, I’m there for her to lean on.

Tell me about your home studio, where I understand you do most of your mixing?

When I’m tracking, I go to some fantastic rooms, but I have converted my guest house into a studio with a bunch of equipment, so I can do stuff at home, and that’s been wicked. I have an SSL AWS900, and am using [Merging Technologies] Horus not only to capture my mixes, but also to sum: everything comes out of my DAW, out of the Horus [split out of all the outputs], then goes into my console, and then comes back into the Horus. So I am using it as a playback, summing-stroke-recording system back into the DAW, and that’s its primary role in my studio.

How did you come across Horus, and why is that your preferred setup?

I was working on Gaga’s last album, Art Pop, and we’d booked into one of my favourite studios in LA, Record Plant, but she couldn’t turn up for a day, so I spoke to my friend Jeff over at Vintage King, and I was in line for some new converters for my DAW, so he sent a bunch down, including Horus. I pretty much dismissed it at first, but when we tried Horus along with another bunch of top name converters, we realised it was actually murdering everything else!

Everything you put into it, you get out of it, and everything that was in the computer came out bet-

ter with it as well. You hear about transparency, but it’s more than that. It’s so detailed. We had some top converters there, aligned them all correctly, and did a blind test; we had a big console with all the converters up there on the groups, so you couldn’t tell which was which, and every time I kept going to the Horus. It really was night and day.

Have you ever taken it out on the road?

I would love to have one to go on the road, and I am actually considering getting a Hapi, which is Merging’s eight-channel version, for exactly that purpose, as the conversion is just absolutely stellar. The one word that keeps coming to mind with Horus is ‘real’. Whatever you’re recording, it captures, and you can also get your stereo imaging that little bit wider, too. I had a mix up recently with my other converters on, and you can basically A/B the Horus against the old ones. I could immediately hear this mid-range hump in my other converters that you just don’t get with Horus.

Everything is flat, and completely precise. It’s all nicely defined, and there are no modifications, there’s no rounding of anything, or character. What you see is what you get, and that’s what I love about it.

But do you love LA yet...?

I do! It’s really grown on me. The standard of living is fantastic, you can surf in the morning and snowboard in the afternoon if you really want to, and it’s full of fantastic studios and musicians. And when the weather is like this, it’s so conducive to being really creative. www.dave-russell.net www.merging.com

Q &A

BACKYARD BABY W O RD S PAUL WATS ON

DREGEN is one quarter of renowned Swedish rock and roll band, Backyard Babies, a melodic, guitar-based four-piece that formed in 1987, and have been going strong ever since. It might not be quite as rock and roll as it once was for this lead guitarist and vocalist – he has to drop the kids off before rehearsals these days, instead of turning up carefree on a cool moped – but even still, the band is still rocking out, and they’re currently working on a brand new album, which will be followed up with a European tour, and their first UK date in five years at Download Festival.

Headliner investigates...

Backyard Babies have been together for 27 years... Is that some kind of record for a Swedish rock band? [laughs] I think it’s just U2 and maybe a couple of other guitar

bands that have stood the test of time that long, so maybe it is! And to be honest, we certainly wouldn’t have lasted as long as we have if we hadn’t taken a break from each other a few years back [in 2010]. We took a holiday, then another holiday, and another, you get the idea... [smiles] But sometimes you need to take a step back, to keep things fresh, you know? We were like an old marriage: living together, but no sex anymore!

Thankfully, we’re very happy playing together and writing together today; we’re making new music again, and it’s the freshest we have sounded in some time, which is great.

Backyard Babies got signed back in ‘94 in Stockholm, but you had a few irons in the fire at that time, didn’t you?

Yeah, I’d started a side project band called The Hellacopters. I did two albums with those guys, and it exploded, but so did Backyard

Babies, so I had to make a choice. It was the right one for me, as we’ve been touring ever since. I am an only child, so I don’t see Backyard Babies as a band, they’re more like my brothers. And when they do stupid stuff – which they do - you stand up for them, as it’s family. Once you’re in, you can’t get out... It’s like a gang!

You’ve made a lot of records over the years. Do you still go about it the same way?

Pretty much, yeah. I think it’s a little sad that the album as a product is waining, though. Yes, sometimes I shuffle on Spotify, but I still play a lot of vinyl, and listen to albums the whole way through. I am a Gemini, so slightly schizophrenic! Half of me is a little conservative, as in, ‘a rock band needs to be drums, guitar, bass, vocals’; but the other half is very interested in the future. I am not a bitter person that thinks the industry was better before, it’s just

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very challenging and interesting nowadays; and people love music more than ever, although we don’t sell albums like we used to... None of us do.

Who first inspired you to pick up a guitar?

I grew up listening to Jimmy Page, Ace Frehley, Steve Jones, and Keith Richards. I remember working for three summers straight when I was a young kid, and I saved up to buy a Gibson Les Paul, then I bought a Marshall amp because it’s what my heroes had. I was struggling with my guitar playing from ‘89-94 because I couldn’t find a sound; I struggled with lead guitar in general, as I have never had very big hands, but then I got mesmerised on a trip to London to watch a garage rock band called The Cramps. Their female guitar player, Poison Ivy, totally blew me away with her style and playing, and as I was only fourteen, I guess I was a little bit in love as well! But she was playing this cool Gretsch Country Gentleman semi-acoustic guitar, which inspired me to go home and trade my Les Paul for one of those.

I actually remember coming down to rehearsals, counting in a song, then I just hit one chord and every fucking thing in that guitar just flew away, because nothing on those things is stuck on or drilled in! [laughs] The strings basically hold the bridge down, so it really didn’t fit my aggressive rock playing! Then I went back to the guitar shop and found a Gibson ES335 - basically a Chuck Berry guitar - and I started to play that, and found my sound really early.

They look great, too, don’t they?

They do, and because the neck is thin all the way down, it’s great for lead playing for me. As I had no money at the time, I sold my Marshall amp as well, then I found an old used Fender Bassman, which is actually a bass amp, but that combination with a 335 really suited me, and that’s what I still play today, twenty years later. Fender also has a cool Supersonic head, which they make 4 x 12 cabinets for, so I run one of those, and one ‘60s Bassman amp, and all I really use aside from that

/

DREGEN

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is my Jim Dunlop Crybaby and a few delays. It’s old school, really.

You also toured quite extensively as a solo artist last year, right?

Yeah, it’s been in my head for years, making a solo album! I hooked up with an old friend of mine. He had some success in the early ‘90s with a band called The Wannadies, who did You And Me Song. The singer-songwriter of that band, Pär Wiksten, wrote and produced the album with me; he’s a great guy. I more or less formed a band, really, to do it. When you have played with the same musicians for many years, sometimes you need to work with other musicians on different projects, which is what I did. Twenty years on the road means you meet a lot of musical talent, and I remember when I wrote a song slightly heavier than a Backyard Babies song, I called in a drummer that I knew would work for that style. That’s cool, and the band supported the project, of course. I used lots of different musicians, and I did the guitars and vocals. It was a lot of fun.

The band is hands-on with production, and you guys have always used Genelecs for monitoring. Why is that?

That’s right, and my solo album was also done with Genelecs – 8030As, which I absolutely love! I have been visiting a lot of different studios that work in the genre of hip hop recently, and the monitoring setups always sound great in the room, but they’re so oversized! If you go back twenty years, rock studios all had the little [Yamaha] NS10s, which were very straight speakers, and when you listened to them, although they were dull, they didn’t lie, and you knew if it was good through NS10s, it would sound far better on anything else. With Genelec though, it just sounds fucking great, and you know that if it sounds fucking great through a set of Genelecs, it will sound fucking great anywhere!

That’s the difference! They’re not as... [pauses] boring as NS10s - can I say that? [laughs] What I really like about Genelec is, you can actually get inspired using them, and that’s during the recording process as

“I AM A GEMINI, SO SLIGHTLY SCHIZO! HALF OF ME IS CONSERVATIVE AND THE OTHER HALF IS VERY INTERESTED IN THE FUTURE.” well as in the mix. It actually helps my workflow, and makes me want to play better, in fact. And that’s quite something.

You’re old school in your approach to guitar... What about recording?

The last album we did on two-inch tape was Stockholm Syndrome which was back in 2003 – that was the first time I encountered Genelec, too, actually – Joe Baressi (Queens of the Stone Age, Soundgarden) had a huge pair set into his studio wall – and I fell in love with the Genelec sound there and then.

But recording today, we’re all digital; everything is done on Pro Tools. I do like to use a lot of old gear for my guitar sounds though, so it’s a happy medium; I have always preferred old tube compressors, as they’re so great for analogue drums and guitars. It’s funny... If you go and buy a heavily used guitar amp from the ‘70s, it’s likely it’ll sound great and go strong for another hundred years, but if you buy brand new stuff... Well, it’s far more likely to break down!

So will guitar music really live forever, Dregen? [laughs] You know, rock music will always include distorted guitar in some way... They invented the wheel there, so it’s hard to make any new stuff, but yes, I think it will live forever. People need guitars...

Of course there will be pianos one hundred years from now, but there will also be electric guitars - loads of them! www.genelec.com www.dregen.se

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GRUMPY OLD ROADIE “AS ONE TOUR ENDS, THERE’S THIS DEEP PAIN INSIDE THAT’S CAUSED BY THE WORRY ABOUT FINDING THE NEXT.”

I’m sitting here on a tour bus heading for the last gig of the year before the Christmas break (ho fucking ho) and it occurred to me that the esteemed editor of this magazine probably won’t get around to publishing before Valentine’s Day, so rather than Season’s Greetings, perhaps I should wish you all a good shag? Maybe you’ll even get a chance to use that little device that Santa brought you for Christmas a couple of months ago - you know, the one with the batteries.

The last thing I want to do is offend you lovely readers, so ranting about New Year’s resolutions and drinking too much will be out of date by the time you get to this page in this issue. It’ll be more about the first buds of spring, the summer fashion collections, the general election. You know the sort of stuff.

Maybe some of us will have been lucky enough to have worked already in the New Year. Personally, I’m really worried about the workload out there at the moment. The last quarter of 2014 has been as bleak as I’ve ever known it. Just like the rest of you, I’ve got a mortgage to pay and a family to feed; and being self employed, I don’t get sick pay, holiday pay or redundancy, should my ability wain or my employer tire of me. Nor do I get overtime, ACAS, or a Christmas bonus!

Simply put, when one tour ends, I wait for the next, just like you all; and there’s this deep pain inside that’s caused by the worry about finding the next. It’s like a knot in my stomach - come on, you know what I’m going on about here. There’s just no guarantee for freelancers like me. Maybe costs are coming down a bit, with fuel playing a major part in saving us all (and the trucking companies) money, but let me remind you that fuel still ain’t that cheap.

When I passed my driving test in the 1970s, I used to put a quid in at a time, and that’d cover my driving for a week. Then it went up, and some crafty politician disguised the fact by charging by the litre, not the gallon. So we were all conned into thinking it was cheaper.

They’ll be charging by the pint soon, you mark my words!

So whenever you read this, and wherever you are, I hope that you’re fit and healthy, but especially that you’re in work. And not any old work, but on a tour that you’ll be sad to leave when it’s over.

Bye for now,

ROBERT THE ROADIE

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