Headliner issue 10

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CONTENTS #10

06 SWIVEL ON THIS

30 BJÖRK IN NEW YORK

Our Grammy-winning columnist looks at the pros and cons of the latest (and greatest?) streaming platform, Tidal.

Front-of-house engineer, Dave Bracey, heads Stateside with Björk, whose new album is an absolute belter.

08 SONIC VISTA INSIGHTS

32 SHOW REVIEW

Our correspondents in Ibiza give us something to really think about.

Inspiration. What is it, and where does it really come from?

Gary Spencer descends on a very hot Webster Hall in New York City to check out Lenny Kravitz’ sold-out show.

10 HUMMINGBIRDS & YELLOW THINGS

34 FLYING HIGH

Entertaining Irish artist, McMahon, talks about his new EP, and a very last minute gig with Tom Jones.

12 BLACK ROCK STUDIOS

We head to the Greek Island of Santorini to check out this stunning studio facility, and find out more about its songwriting camps.

15 WOOLF WORKS

36 NEWTON’S LAW OF SOUND

Snake Newton gives us some fantastic audio tips, and shares a story or two about working with Duran Duran, and Jessie J. 38 10 MINUTES WITH...

ROMESH DODANGODA

The talented twosome behind the score and sound design of this new ballet with an electronic twist, take us through the fine details.

We sit down with this renowned producer to find out what ingredients he puts into his mixes to make them really kick.

20 ON TOUR WITH SLASH

40 SOMETHING TO SHOUT ABOUT

Doug Redler has only recently taken over as guitar tech for Slash, but he’s already travelled the globe!

22 ROCK & ROLL WARDROBE

Gary Spencer takes us through the quirky fashion sense of one of the world’s greatest musicians, Prince.

23 WHERE DID IT ALL GO RIGHT?

Def Leppard frontman, Joe Elliott, gives us his opinion on the band’s new album, record companies, and stadium shows.

26 C O V E R S T O R YBROOKE FRASER

We catch up with this talented, internationally acclaimed songstress in London, to discuss touring, slight clumsiness, and a brand new way of working the stage.

26 | BROOKE FRASER

Off to London’s Music Bank Studios we pop, to chat to Noel Gallagher’s monitor man, Nahuel Gutierrez.

The Royal Albert Hall plays host, once again, to the Teenage Cancer Trust concerts. We get the lowdown from sound designer, Liam Halpin.

42 THE FABRICS OF FAME

Charming Italian artist, Giulia, is as dedicated to fashion as she is music, and looks at the similarities between the two arts.

44 FESTIVAL FEVER

Festivals across the board are now expected to deliver quality audio to the masses, all the time. But how?

47 INTO THE THINK TANK

We drink coffee with Jonathon Holder & The Good Thinking, whose production focus is all about the performance.

50 GRUMPY OLD ROADIE

This issue, Robert is ranting about British politics. Enough said.

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FROM THE EDITOR This issue, we talk to the lovely BROOKE FRASER, who’s just completed a sizeable tour of the USA. This super-talented New Zealander is a megastar in her homeland, and across Australasia, and has been making some serious waves Stateside and throughout Europe.

We discuss her new album, Brutal Romantic, which is full of melody with a fresh electronic feel, and find out aboout her new approach to live performance, where she is really moving out of her comfort zones.

We also catch up with the very entertaining Def Leppard frontman, JOE ELLIOTT. Joe is one of the legends of our industry, and speaks candidly about songwriting, those things we used to call record companies, and keeping a band together for some 40 years.

In the US, our correspondent, Gary Spencer, heads to Webster Hall in New York to check out a sold out LENNY KRAVITZ show; we get the lowdown on the new (and incredibly cool) BJÖRK live shows from her front-of-house mainstay, DAVE BRACEY; and DJ SWIVEL delves into the good and the bad of Tidal, the new hi-res streaming platform spearheaded by artists such as Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. Is it a game changer, or just Spotify on steroids?

23

Read all this and more inside, and thanks for choosing Headliner.

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// DJ SWIVEL //

SWIVEL ON THIS

S

o by now you’ve all likely heard of Tidal. If not, let me catch you up. In early April, Jay-Z and an all star cast of co-owners (including Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Chris Martin, Usher, Madonna, and quite frankly, too many to name here) launched a new music streaming service called Tidal. The aim being to take the control away from the record companies and Silicon Valley, and put it right back where it should be, in the hands of the artists. Tidal came in with a crash, and had quite a polarising response. Many of us were excited, but the loudest voices were of course the critics, who weren’t too fond of a panel of multi-millionaires putting on an event to essentially ask for more money. As I’ve discussed in an earlier edition of this column, artists are more and more feeling like they’re getting the short end of the stick when it comes to music streaming services and the royalties they are paid. So, can Jay-Z usher in a new era of the music business where artists get a much larger amount of control, and in turn, a bigger piece of the pie? Is Tidal as disruptive as Jay-Z claims? Let’s explore...

First, what is Tidal’s value proposition?

Well, aside from some exclusive content from some of music’s biggest talent, curated playlists, and a doubly expensive lossless tier to stream higher quality files, there isn’t much difference from some of your other favourite streaming services.

There is no free option on Tidal, like you get with Spotify, and some other services, and the entry level pricing tier is about ten bucks a month, and that allows you to stream MP3 quality files. And for twenty bucks a month, you get the same service, but with higher quality lossless audio files.

Here’s the problem I’m seeing with that.

06 HEADLINER

“THE PERCEIVED VA L U E O F M U S I C H A S L A R G E LY D I S A P P E A R E D , WHICH MEANS MAKING A LIVING IN MUSIC IS N E A R LY I M P O S S I B L E F O R ALL BUT THE TOP TIER OF MUSICIANS.”

The vast majority of listeners are listening on little earbuds which makes hearing any difference between a high quality MP3 and lossless audio incredibly difficult; and secondly, most of us have capped data plans from our mobile providers.

Streaming hours of lossless audio files (which are about ten times the size of MP3) to your phone on a three-gig data plan is going to get awfully expensive.

Beats (or whatever Apple will decide to name it) has curated playlists, so nothing new there. This leaves exclusive content as the only real differentiating feature holding any value, at least to me. The question there is, can Tidal maintain exclusivity?

The fact is, most artists are under contract to the major record companies who all own various pieces of some of the other streaming services. I think it will be highly unlikely that the labels will offer all their music to Tidal first, which leaves just the biggest artists who have control over their own masters and, I suppose, Roc Nation, Jay-Z’s label. But even when Jay is dealing with the music he controls, I don’t think he’ll give exclusivity to Tidal for more than a week or so. The thing is, the streaming side of the music is getting bigger than ever, and unlike iTunes’ virtual monopoly on digital music sales, everyone jumped into streaming early to ensure no one service could hold a monopoly. If the market share for music streaming is spread across four or five services, it will make sense for labels and artists to let everyone get their content in order to maximise the audience. So, unless you can’t wait a week or two for that new Rihanna single, or, I hate to say it, find an MP3 rip online, Tidal isn’t offering a ton of added value over any other service.

What I do find commendable though is these artists are taking a stand to

re-establish the value of music. As a professional in this business, this is a positive thing for all content creators, and really anyone who makes a dime off the music business. But I’m not sure consumers care about rich artists making more money, and I think for the average listener, there’s a major disconnect between them and your everyday working musician, just trying to make a living.

The perceived value of music has largely disappeared, which means making a living in music is nearly impossible for all but the top tier of musicians. So while Tidal is a step in the right direction, the younger generation of listeners have been brought up for the last fifteen years in an era of free music, and I don’t think the value is there to get them to change their perceived value of the product we all sell.

Bottom line, if you’re a paying Spotify customer, then maybe that exclusive content is enough of a reason to make the switch. Tidal won’t cost you any more, and it does look like you’ll have access to some really great content, so for some, Tidal will be a welcome change. For most, I think it’s just more of the same. Having said that, I’ve spent enough time in the studio with Jay to know that he’s a brilliant guy, and has a pretty solid batting average when it comes to his business deals. So I would never count him (or Tidal) out. But I think this group has an uphill battle to grab some of the market share from the established services.

W H AT D O YO U T H I N K? Message me @djswivel on Twitter with the hashtag #swivelonthis to let me know your opinion!

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W H A T I S I N S P I R A T I O N ?

W O R D S | LO U I S H E N RY SA R M I E N TO I I & J O N AT H A N T E S S I E R

08 HEADLINER

/ / S O N I C V I S TA I N S I G H TS / /

“ S O M E C A L L I T O U R P R E- C O N S C I O U S , OTHERS CALL IT THE UNIVERSE, BUT WHOEVER, AND WHEREVER IT CO M ES F R O M , I T ’S T H E R E .”

T

he phenomenon of inspiration is familiar to everyone, and one that affects many disciplinary fields: music, literature, management, psychology, education, engineering, religion, and so on. It can be seen as a minor motivation tool, such as preparing dinner, or even as a gigantic epiphany, like inventing the lightbulb. But what’s fascinating about the psychology of inspiration is that it does not depend on the mind, but more about the mind’s relationship to the external world.

Inspiration can be associated to motivation, creativity, inventiveness, and awakening.

Some define it as a sudden burst of ideas, a mental kick-starter, or even a ‘prophetic enlightment’. The Greeks saw inspiration as the fruit of beauty, truth and goodness; a divine gift bestowed upon us from the Gods (namely Muses, Apollo and Dionysus). Monotheist practitioners would describe inspiration as ‘a message from God’, and it has been proven that artists, writers, and musicians find inspiration from multiple sources, including nature, technology, history, human relationships, paintings, songs, poetry, novels, and many other creative well springs.

The external world is the environment outside of our mind. For example, our habits, our interests, our relationships, our experiences, and our routines, all have an enormous influence in the way inspiration is contrived. If ideas are the foundations of our creations, then inspiration is the silent whisper from our subconscious that feeds these ideas. But who is this whisperer? An angel? A brain cell? Zeus? Some call it our pre-conscious, others call it the Universe, but whoever, and wherever it comes from, it’s there. And it did not come out of nowhere.

In the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, academics studied the construct of inspiration, and came up with the following conclusion... There are three aspects of inspiration: ‘Inspirable’, which is a personality trait; ‘Inspired’, which is a temporary state; and ‘Inspirational’, which is a social evidence.

A person deemed ‘Inspirable’ is someone that constantly seeks inspiration through openness, research, and curiosity; a person that feels ‘Inspired’ is momentarily enlightened with an idea; and to be ‘Inspirational’ means that 09 HEADLINER

a person (or a person’s work) inspires other people. Thus, one aspect is a habit, the second is a state, and the third is a social consequence.

Furthermore, psychologists have observed that inspiration is related to perceived competence, self esteem, optimism, psychological resources, self determination, idiosyncrasy, gratitude, temperament, evocation, motivation, and life satisfaction.

They also noticed that it was more linked to character traits than being in the transient ‘inspired state’, implying that waiting to be ‘inspired’ isn’t sufficient to attract inspiration.

Therefore, these important character traits include openness to experience, compassion, emotional intelligence, the ability to witness virtue, work mastery (i.e. to know your craft), creativity, competence (i.e. the ability to deliver), absorption (i.e. integrating new knowledge, like a sponge), and perception (i.e. to have the ability to see things for more than what they are). These are all key elements to a personality that unlocks inspiration.

H

ence, from the seed of inspiration, it germinates the idea, and feeds the creative process, which can be explained in four stages: preparation (i.e. research and practice), incubation (i.e. testing, failing, achieving, advancing), illumination (i.e. finding the key idea that unlocks the bigger picture, in music it’s when the song ‘pops’), and verification (i.e. when the idea comes to life). As we can see, inspiration does not stop after the initial idea is introduced to the subject’s mind; it is reintroduced throughout the creative process, namely within the illumination stage.

To sum it up, inspiration comes from being inspirable, which leads to getting inspired, and becoming inspirational. Therefore, waiting around to be inspired, without working on being inspirable, actually hinders inspiration.

It’s like waiting for a plane at a train station, it won’t show up. If you want to use the tool of inspiration to its full capacity, you need to make inspiration a habit, a part of your everyday life, and this can only be achieved through hard work and indomitable resolution to elevate your art, your mind, and yourself, on a higher ground. www.sonicvistastudios.com

“IF IDEAS ARE T H E F O U N D AT I O N S O F O U R C R E AT I O N S , T H E N I N S P I R AT I O N IS THE SILENT WHISPER FROM OUR SUBCONSCIOUS T H AT F E E D S T H E S E I D E A S .”

H U M M I N G B I R D S & Y E L LO W T H I N G S McMahon could be one of the most promising artists to come out of Ireland in some time.

He has already opened for the legendary Tom Jones in his hometown of Cork City, and armed with a new EP full of eclectic songs, and a voice that has more than a hint of Van Morrison, the future looks bright... And yellow, perhaps?

A

s we sit down with a bottle of white wine in London’s Soho House, I open the conversation by asking McMahon about his new EP, titled Hummingbirds & Yellow Things.

“Well, I have parrots, and yellow is my favourite colour,” he says, adding that he has a strong songwriting partnership with his good friend, Darren Kirwan. “Darren is involved with a lot of the writing; we seem to have this connection, and we work well together. And I do love yellow.”

McMahon’s musical journey is pretty extraordinary, to say the least. He didn’t learn the guitar until he was twenty, but he was penning songs three weeks later; and it’s not surprising that his material is eclectic, either (which it really is); his influences span as wide as Eminem and Phantom of the Opera.

“My producer said he couldn’t place me in a category or a genre, which he thought was an incredibly good thing, and I guess it is, really.

My grandad loves a couple of the tracks [on the EP], and then my eight-year-old cousin loves one of the others, but they would both hate the ones they don’t like, if that makes sense?” he continues, laughing, and admitting

10 HEADLINER

he can’t understand the menu. In fairness, nor can I, so we order the burgers. “So, everyone has a favourite song, you know? There’s rap on it, there’s love songs, there’s blues, jazz, Irish music. It’s a mix of a lot of things, but it’s just music to me.”

Hummingbirds & Yellow Things is quite stunningly put together, and was recorded at London’s Sphere Studios with multi-Grammy Award-winner, Andy Wright, and Gavin Goldberg, both of whom McMahon now cites as ‘dear friends’.

“Gavin and Andy are a great pairing, and they’ve been a real Godsend to me. I bring a palette of sounds to them, and they help make it great. You have to have a trust, but at the same time, if I don’t agree with them, I just tell them to fuck off,” he explains, with a smile.

“And they like that about me. Andy will sit and say to Gavin, ‘do this, this, and this’, then Gavin will do it, and they’ll bring it back to me, and I’ll want to tweak it, you know, but in the end, it’s a joint decision, until we have the end product. Nobody in Cork that I know has ever come to London to work with these kind of guys, you know?”

McMahon has already supported some top artists, including Imelda May, and legend of

the Welsh valleys, Tom Jones. These major shows took place in his home town, at Cork’s Marquee venue, as the manager, Peter Aiken, happens to be a big fan.

“I was driving up the road to Tipperary last year, about an hour outside of Cork, and I got a phone call,” McMahon announces. I can’t help but smile, as I have no idea what’s coming next. “So, I hear this guy claiming to be Peter Aiken, asking if I’d support Tom Jones for him that very night. I said, ‘yeah alright’, who’s this, like? Because I thought it was my uncle winding me up, like. And he says, ‘excuse me?

It’s Peter Aiken’. And I said, ‘Ohhh, is it?’ So I said ‘yes, I’ll support Tom Jones’, and swung the car round. I only had two hours until the soundcheck, and in that time, I went home, showered, got my clothes, and flew into the Marquee. The sun was beating down, and I did it! What an experience that was! Tom was amazing, and I hung about with him for about twenty minutes afterwards, and he said he liked my music, so I gave him an EP, and said there might be one or two tracks for him to sing on there. He had a laugh at that.”

We suddenly regress seven years, and McMahon tells me about a terrible car crash, which left him blind in his left eye, and

// MCMAHON //

“WE’D LEFT PHUKET FIFTEEN HOURS BEFORE THE TSUNAMI HIT ON B O X I N G D AY, S O T H AT FREAKED ME OUT B E Y O N D B E L I E F. . . ”

without his sense of smell. Wow. But he’s not interested in wallowing in any self-pity; yes, it’s ‘a life long sentence’, but ‘every cloud, and all that’, he insists, and proceeds to tell me the truly remarkable story about how he got his record deal with Terry McCabe’s Manchesterbased label, All In Recordings.

“Then I got some money, I went to Thailand with my writing partner, Darren, and we were in Ko Pha Ngan. Now, the last time I had been to Thailand was with an ex-girlfriend, and we’d left Phuket fifteen hours before the tsunami hit on Boxing day, so that freaked me out beyond belief... And this time, a typhoon hits,” he says, with what I assume is an ironic smile. Again, I’m speechless. “So anyway, we’re in Ko Pha Ngan, and it’s maybe 5am, and Darren and I are having a beer in a café before we go home, and we met up with these two lads, one of whom was Terry McCabe, and the other was Scott Ogden. Both of them lived in Manchester. They took us back to their hotel and said we should stay there, and so we thought, ‘why not?’ It was nicer than ours, so we got a room. I had a litre of vodka and a guitar, started singing my own version of the Joan Osborne song, One Of Us?, and Terry loved it, as it was one of his favourite songs.

To cut a long story short, I played them some 11 HEADLINER

of my own songs, and Terry just said, ‘mate, I own a record label in Manchester, I’ll give you a record deal’.

“Now, Darren and I both laughed, and didn’t believe them at all! But I did believe him when he flew me back to Manchester from Australia! [laughs] They took me into the studio, and they have taken care of me ever since, like I can’t explain; this EP is all thanks to them, and that chance meeting in Thailand, helping me to fulfil my dreams... Well... It sounds like a movie, doesn’t it? [pauses] You know, we’d probably get the copyright to that now, wouldn’t we? [smiles]” Divine intervention at its best! And to top it off, McMahon has just spent some quality time working on his single, Nicola, with Mick Hucknall. Mick has added some production to the recording, and mixed the song for McMahon in his home studio.

“Andy got onto Mick, and Mick loved the song, so he asked me to head over to his house.

We opened up the track, I sung a few bits again, and doubled the backing vocals, and we recorded together,” McMahon explains.

He’s now buzzing – could be the wine. “I was soooo nervous, but I nailed it, first go; I got there at 10am, and was out of there by 1pm.

He thought that it was also great that I had a

writing partner, and of course, hearing that from one of the greatest soul singers in the UK isn’t so bad now, is it?”

True enough. The EP and the single were both released on May 31. So what’s the next step? “[pauses for a while] I really don’t know, because it’s a mysterious world, isn’t it?”

McMahon replies. Was that a question? Not sure. “Look, all I can do is live every day, and do my best every day. The music is going well, I have some festivals lined up in the summer, and a lot of gigs in London once the EP is released. I’ll play Cork, Dublin, Belfast, and I’ll be gigging all the time. Oh, and my website will be updated constantly, so you’ll probably find out everything before I do!”

On that note, I bid McMahon farewell.

He’s off to the other side of London to play some guitar with a friend, no doubt with a story or two to boot. We recommend Hummingbirds & Yellow Things extremely highly. Go grab a copy. www.mcmahonmusic.com

// LEONIDAS CHANTZARAS //

BLACK ROCK STUDIOS You’ll be hard pushed to find a more idyllic location for making a record than the beautiful Greek Island of Santorini, which is home to Black Rock Studios, a stunning recording facility owned by recording engineer and producer, Kostas Kalimeris.

We catch up with studio co-founder, Leonidas Chantzaras, about the inspiring songwriting camps that he and Kalimeris have put together, to create opportunity for budding writers from across the globe.

Leonidas Chantzaras started out as a musician, and signed to two labels in the ‘90s.

He released some singles, went on tour, but in his own words, ‘didn’t blow up’, so by the end of the ‘90s, he’d turned his hand to writing and production, and signed his first publishing deal.

He then created a production company, and was responsible for plenty of major international releases, before signing another publishing deal, this time with Chrysalis, which saw him cut deals in several new territories,

notably Japan and the Asian market, an area where so many Europeans are finding success today. This period ultimately raised the A&R and manager in Chantzaras, who now manages a variety of eclectic writers, but still keeps his hand in on the production side of things. Then he met Kostas Kalimeris...

“Kostas showed me Black Rock Studios in 2008, and my second thought was that we had to do a songwriting camp there,” Chantzaras explains. “I had been to a lot of these things, so I could pick out the good and bad points, to avoid the same mistakes I’d seen made before, and we started in 2011 with Black Rock.

Honestly, no other studio in the world has this type of location, so with that, and with all my contacts, it was a successful camp right away.”

Songwriting camps don’t always come in the guise of the Black Rock camps. It seems to be all about the writers here, and real opportunity.

More impressive still, the duo aren’t interested in taking any cut of the productive pie.

“WHEN THE SONG IS DONE, AND DELIVERED TO US, WE WILL PITCH IT FOR FREE, TO GIVE THE W R I T E R S O P P O R T U N I T Y. ”

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// LEONIDAS CHANTZARAS //

“The camps had to be seen as a service that we provide, whereas the majority of camps you see today consist of a publisher inviting his own writers, and pushing them forwards, but the Black Rock camp is not guided by any publisher or interest,” insists Chantzaras.

“Kostas and I teamed up to create a great camp with all our knowledge and know-how, so we provide the fantastic studio, and all the infrastructure; and when you are invited as a writer, you arrive on the island and we take care of everything, so you don’t have to think about anything else. We take care of the hotels, spots to eat and drink on the island, the lot; and we get nothing of the copyright written there. We are the service provider of a perfectly run camp, that’s it.”

Sounds a great idea to me... What’s the catch? “[laughs] I just invite writers from all over the world, no matter what publisher they’re with, and through my network, we get the right people along, and put the right people in the right sessions together, which is another thing that typically goes wrong at many camps,” smiles Chantzaras, explaining that he has seen many people get frustrated when they’re made to work with writers that are perhaps not on their level. “You have to keep the writers satisfied, and leave them with a good feeling.

We plan it so well, and we invite selective people - people that match - so we’re always confident they’ll get a great result, based on our knowledge.”

But it doesn’t end there... Chantzaras also offers his A&R experience as part of the 13 HEADLINER

package, and almost acts as a label on behalf of the camp attendees.

“When the song is done and delivered to us, we will pitch it for free, to give the writers opportunity,” he says, adamantly. “So the writer gets a full service: our expertise and briefings, plus the perfect pitch opportunities.”

Black Rock Studios’ main room, which has been graced by international stars such as Joe Bonamassa, Justin Bieber, and Iron Maiden, is kitted out with a set of Genelec 1035B studio monitors, and ‘because they work so well’, it was Genelec that the studio chose to talk to about getting behind the Black Rock initiative, which would mean kitting out eight more songwriting rooms.

“When we started the camp, we looked for supporters, but we didn’t want to go fishing; Black Rock already had the big Genelecs in the main room, so Kostas reached out to Genelec once more, and they were very happy to get involved,” Chantzaras explains. “All eight writing rooms had to be equipped with speakers, and more importantly, the right speakers, so we’ve now got a total of 10 sets of Genelec’s 8000 series; it’s a mix of 8040s and 8050s, and they are perfect for the camp.

Furthermore, we have MIDI keyboards, microphones, and preamps, so the producers that come in to work with the writers only have to bring their laptops and sound cards.”

According to Chantzaras, Genelec speakers are the most neutral to work with, and the whole combination of price, quality, and range, is what has always attracted him to them.

“The quality you get out of Genelec is super, and the whole overall sound is great; when you see what you get for your money, it’s even more exceptional,” he insists. “If you are looking for affordability and sound quality, they are the brand to go to, no question. We wanted to try a few sets out as we’ve got many different sized rooms, all of which are writing rooms, not pre-designed recording studios, so to have that flexibility on the studio monitor side was a fantastic help.”

The next Black Rock camp takes place in October, and Chantzaras is confident it’ll run as smoothly as ever.

“We have had some very successful writers and producers make connections in our camps, and that in turn has led to some big and successful things,” he says, proudly. “This year’s Eurovision winner, for example, one of the co-writers is a guy that came to a camp with us; and on another Eurovision, when Denmark won, again it was a girl that came to our writing camp that wrote the song. Also, a girl called Layla Samuels, who also attended the Black Rock camp, is now one of the top writers in the German market. I could go on, but you get the idea. People get a lot out of these events.”

It certainly seems so. Thumbs up to the Black Rock team for their refreshing attitude, too. They currently run two songwriter camps each year, and to find out more, go to www.blackrock-studios.com. www.genelec.com

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www.audio-technica.com

// MAX RICHTER //

W O O L F W O R KS

F

or the past two years, renowned composer, Max Richter, has been working hard on scoring Woolf Works, a ballet commissioned by the Royal Ballet and acclaimed choreographer, Wayne McGregor, which tells the tragic life story of Virginia Woolf, one of the foremost modernist writers of the 20th Century, who tragically committed suicide at the age of 59, back in 1941, after battling mental illness. We catch up with Richter in his studio to find out more about the production, and the score.

Woolf Works is McGregor’s first full-length production for the Royal Ballet, and is a ballet triptych, in which themes from three of Woolf ’s landmark novels (Mrs Dalloway, Orlando, and The Waves) are entangled with elements of her letters, essays, and diaries. Now showing at Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House, Woolf Works boasts around 100 minutes of music across three acts, and incorporates a full orchestra, live electronic music, and playback; or as Richter prefers to put it, ‘everything and the kitchen sink, really’.

“It really is a huge production, so a lot of time and concentration has gone into it from all involved,” says Richter, whose compositions are perhaps best known for their electronic musical vibe. “I always wanted to use the orchestra, and working with electronic music was always going to be a given, but I love working with environmental and location recordings, too, so I knew that was going to go into the pot, plus the texts, which were crucial here.”

The texts Richter refers to include what he describes as ‘an amazing BBC recording of Virginia Woolf talking’, where she read a piece of her prose out live on the radio.

“It was the only existing recording of her voice, so I knew I wanted to use that.” Richter explains. “Then, as another piece of text, we recorded [actress] Gillian

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// MAX RICHTER //

Anderson reading Woolf ’s suicide note to her husband, so there were all these different sonic things to be assembled into the score.”

Born in Germany, Richter has lived his whole life in the UK, and considers himself a Brit. He went to school in Britain, and, in his own words, ‘all my cultural baggage is British, really’.

“I always do more than one thing at a time, as it’s the kind of brain I have,” Richter smiles, explaining that this project has been his big back burner project for the last couple of years.

“I produce a lot of records, too, and always like to have several things on the go at once, but certainly in the last month or so, I’ve been spending a lot of time on this; and it’s been a lot of fun.”

S O U N D I N G B OA R D

distributed around the building, and the whole thing is run off a master time code; the conductor has a click track in his ear, so he can lock it all in.”

With any ballet, I would always expect orchestration, but not necessarily electronic music. Yes, it’s Richter’s niche, but how does he go about fusing those elements into this kind of production, exactly?

“Well, for me, the whole electronic side and classical side have always gone together. Even when I was a kid, I was taking piano lessons, then playing noisy guitars, so people got used to that being my language, Wayne [McGregor] especially,” Richter reveals. “It’s a little bit unusual, as normally when commissioning any ballet, the orchestra gets a big pile of paper, and that’s it, but in this case, it’s much more of a production process, and every little thing has to be right. And that [Royal Opera House] room is not built for amplified music; it’s an orchestral room, so it’s a completely different situation than going into a nice rock and roll venue. There are many more challenges.”

One key part of Richter’s workflow is his working relationship with Chris Ekers, sound designer for Woolf Works, and also his mainstay live engineer.

“Chris has been doing my sound for more than 10 years, and on this project he was “ I A L W AY S very, very important,” Richter confirms.

T H E P R O C ESS “This is not a standard gig, however; it’s DO MORE I ask Richter to break down the various a lot more complicated. It has its own different elements that go into scoring a infrastructure, and the sound guys at the THAN ONE production as complex as Woolf Works.

Royal Opera House are incredibly busy, “It’s a bit of a mix, really, but ultimately so the whole technical process has to be T H I N G AT A it all starts on bits of paper, then goes very carefully structured. What I find T I M E , A S I T ' S into [music notation software] Sibelius astounding is, Chris will spend a day for part production, then my copyist will miking up an entire orchestra, working THE KIND prepare everything for the orchestra,” he on our gigantic and complicated surround says. “In terms of the electronics, some of system, only to take it all out again, so the OF BRAIN that is made in a computer, but a lot of it venue can put on La traviata that night!

I H AV E . ” is made on old modular synthesisers and [laughs] And then you have to put it all step sequencers. It depends what kind of back in the next day! They’re juggling us, thing I’m doing, but the studio is a fairly and several other productions, so it’s really comprehensive writing studio with a lot of analogue kit around. quite mad in that way!”

Perhaps it’s a generational thing, as I grew up listening to vinyl, And on a project like this, Richter insists, it’s all about and that was enough for me! [smiles] communication. He and Ekers discuss the audio endlessly, then “The sound of the orchestra is obviously key, and that is Ekers ‘goes and gets it going’. achieved via an abundance of DPA microphones, and some “I am always giving input, but if I say I want it to sound, erm A.I.R mics as well. The thing is, for different kinds of material, [pauses]... you know, some strange adjective [smiles], then like the punchy stuff, you always go much more on the DPAs, as Chris will seamlessly convert that into 200 settings on a TiMax they’re so good for that kind of thing, and for some of the spacey, system,” he laughs. “It’s a totally different skill set to mine, and a airy things, it’s more about the A.I.R mics. The result is amazing whole different universe, actually. Chris is really my ambassador actually, because we have two fantastic orchestral sounds; you to the Royal Opera House when it comes to audio.” dial one up for one bit, and the other for another. It’s all very In terms of audio sources, there is a live orchestra, which is hands on, and the live mix is very complicated. They even have amplified as a way of tying it together with all the electronics, a guy sitting on the score next to the mixer reading out settings and several speaker systems that interact, which Richter cites as and solos as they go along, so it’s quite a choreographed thing one of the more interesting elements of the setup. in itself.”

“It means you get a picture in front of the audience, which is So what next for Max Richter? ‘the orchestra, plus,’ if you like; and then there is a lot of stuff “Well, I am just finishing a record, which has been quite upstage as well, which creates a very deep sonic image,” he unusual, as it’s really the first time I’ve done an album digitally, explains. “Then there’s all sorts of surround stuff, with a load of so that’s been quite interesting, finding my way round that sort subs all over the place, and we even have speakers in the ceiling. of workflow,” he says. “I also did a TV show for HBO last year In terms of what’s going into it, the orchestra is about half of it, called The Leftovers, and I’m starting another season of that and then there are loads of playback channels coming off various now, working to picture, which is always fun. All these different computers. There are a couple of guys in the pit playing live projects keep me busy, and most importantly, interested!” electronic music; they are almost part of the orchestra, playing keyboards and generating sounds from laptops; it’s halfway www.maxrichtermusic.com between electronic music and score, things like ticking clocks, and so on. All of this is going into one mix position, and being

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// CHRIS EKERS //

How Woolf really Works Chris Ekers is very much Max Richter’s right hand man, and has been for some time. We ask him to tell us a bit more about what goes on behind the scenes on and off the stage from an audio perspective...

WOOLF WORKS SOUNDS LIKE A BEAST TO MIX...

Well, the Royal Opera House is not designed for live sound, but I’m not sure any venue is, really. With its bowl shaped auditorium, the house is ideal for vocal performance (funny that), and acoustically, the orchestra sounds great too. But during an early and unamplified rehearsal, I began to understand the relationship and interaction of the space with the orchestra. It’s a very dead and soft sounding room, and the gold leafed curvature at the top of its 19th century proscenium and the oculus work well to bring the orchestra up and out of the deep pit in which they play, but there are significant dead spots towards the front of the stalls, and under the balconies. Like most theatres, the balcony fronts are superb reflectors back to the stage, which is great for opera, but obviously presents unwanted reflections from a proscenium mounted loudspeaker system.

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YOU KNOW THE ROOM PRETTY WELL, I’M ASSUMING?

Yes, I have worked at the Opera House before, and knew that using a centre cluster was the best way forward. In the past, I have put it in the usual place, above the enormous pit, which extends nearly six metres from the proscenium, but this time, given the very intense schedule of a repertory house, I decided to help with the load in logistics by hanging the centre cluster from a flying bar onstage. Max likes subs, and writes with this in mind all the time; and the orchestra itself does not generate a great deal of real sub, but his electronics do, so I use subs more as effect than as part of a full range audio package. By

// CHRIS EKERS //

driving the subs from an auxiliary output, I can be selective about what signals the subs get.

There are many loudspeakers dotted around the auditorium: eight-metre high columns each side of the stage, then speakers to feed the stalls, grand tier, and balcony. High up on the proscenium, there are a couple of loudspeakers, known as twiglets, which cover the slips at upper balcony level, then up in the Gods, the area known as the Amphitheatre, is almost a separate auditorium. With nearly one hundred loudspeakers to control, and with the primary loudspeaker system upstage of all microphones, plus the desire to shift perspective between the orchestra and electronic components of the piece, it was appropriate to chose the only tool currently available for the job, Soundhub TiMax2. With such a large and varied loudspeaker system, and with no specific loudspeaker management system in place, that was my obvious go-to.

IT ALL SOUNDS VERY COMPLICATED! TELL ME A LITTLE ABOUT THE ELECTRONIC ELEMENTS WITHIN THE SHOW...

Much of Act II [of Woolf Works] involves playback of heavy electronic music, which needed to be loud, or at least feel loud, and Act III, based upon Virginia Woolf ’s novel, The Waves, featured a near continuous sound track of the seashore. A venue like this is not used to high sound pressure levels, but Max had written it into the piece, and Wayne McGregor, the choreographer, wanted the audience to be engulfed by sound at times. So, as part of the sound design, and to help with ‘apparent’ level, I decided to hang two large sources upstage to hang two speaker clusters.

THE SCORE INCORPORATES A SERIOUS AMOUNT OF INSTRUMENTS...

It does! Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, six horns, three trumpets, two trombones, one bass trombone, one tuba, two harps, two bass drums, five robotoms, two electronic keyboards, a piano, glockenspiel, tam tam, xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, solo soprano... And a triangle!

IS THAT ALL?! HOW DO YOU BEGIN TO MIC THAT LOT UP?

[smiles] As with much of Max’s music, there are some very large moments for full orchestra interspersed by smaller soloist chamber music moments. With such a large orchestra, it wasn’t viable to close mic everyone, so I chose to loose mic each desk of strings, and used DPA 4099s on all the celli and double basses. All woodwinds were loose miked - one per player - as were the harps. Then there were two mics on the piano, and one on the celesta. The horns had three mics covering the six players, two mics for the three trumpets, and two mics for the three trombones, one mic on the tuba, and one mic for each percussion instrument.

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“ M A X ’ S M U S I C R E L I E S H E AV I LY U P O N T H E A C O U S T I C S O U R C E , A N D I T S A M P L I F I C AT I O N I S S I M P LY A U G M E N T E D R A T H E R T H A N F U L L S C A L E . ”

The Opera House has a large selection of quality condenser microphones, which were used across the orchestra. In addition, I chose to use DPA 4061s for the front desks of violins and violas to give me the ability to feature solos from these players, and help with the overall string energy when the brass and percussion sources really got going.

DPA really came into the foreground of orchestral miking in a live context once they developed a very nice, musician-friendly, way of mounting a miniature microphone onto a violin. This set them apart from all other manufacturers, and in my view, this practical approach, along with an excellent product, is crucial to their success.

Enter the DPA 4099, and all the various mounting options, and here is a package of tools you can adapt to lots of different miking demands. I chose to use 4099s to help get the gain and attack, and still remain useable through the subwoofers behind the players.

We’re using eight 4099s on the celli, six 4099s on the double basses, then two 4006s on the piano, and six 4061s on the high strings.

WHAT HAVE BEEN THE MAIN CHALLENGES TAKING THIS SHOW INTO THE ROH, AND HOW HAVE YOU OVERCOME THOSE?

It’s all about the schedule! Max’s music, as with much contemporary classical music, relies heavily upon the acoustic source, and its amplification is simply augmented rather

than full scale. I try to keep the sound natural where possible, and to give it space, and a reverberant tail. In this case, I think Max’s analogy is perfect: ‘we don’t want it to be loud, just widescreen’. The Opera house acoustic is dry compared to a concert hall, which is a good thing in some respects, but does not aid with the immersive spacial experience. The direct sound of these instruments through a sound system is often not pleasant, and a ‘space’ needs to be added to diffuse it and set it back. Using a reverb unit and using the dry to wet option is a useful technique, but you do need plenty of level into the device first. The other option is to use separate orchestra and reverb return sub groups, so that the direct and reverberant signals can be balanced accordingly. With such a dry room, and the loudspeaker system being upstage of the orchestral microphones, the house surround system was a useful tool.

Reverberation is about room size, reflections, and delay; and using a TC M6000 reverb unit and TiMax, and pushing signal through massive delay times, eventually we were able to give the Opera house a more spacial feel. It took a lot, though, and with an audience, it’s like a sponge... No wonder TV companies like to use it for award shows! www.roh.org.uk www.dpamicrophones.com

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Thinking. Inside the box.

// SLASH //

ON TOUR WITH...SLASH hile many people (us included) find it difficult enough keeping our instruments in tune, what kind of pressure must sit on the shoulders of the man responsible for keeping all axes in check for perhaps the world’s most iconic guitarist? We speak to Doug Redler, recently recruited guitar tech for Slash, who, despite having only been onboard since January, has already clocked up some mountainous air miles: 26 shows, 26 countries, 51 days. We’re shattered just thinking about it, so how has he held up?

“Pretty well, all things considered,” Redler smiles, adding that Slash is ‘always busy’. “I asked him at the end of the tour if he was going to take some time off, and he said, ‘yeah, tomorrow, then I’m off to Disneyland with the kids, and then on Wednesday, I’m starting another project’.”

Redler, 51, has more than 25 years of touring experience, which began with Bryan Ferry in 1988 - a world tour, playing arenas with one of his musical heroes. Not a bad start. Now, he’s in at the deep end with one of the hardest working musicians in the biz.

“The tour went very well, and we clicked, but it was tough at first,” Redler admits.

“Thankfully, Slash is a very nice, patient man, because you have to read these guys’ minds, and that can take years. In this situation, I didn’t have time on my side, and I tell you, it’s hard to tell what somebody’s thinking when they’re wearing sunglasses! Sometimes I’d look up and there he is, and I’d think, ‘we don’t change guitars here, what does he want?’, and he says, ‘well, I want to change guitars’, so I knew I’d better be ready next time!”

Every guitarist has go-tos and quirks, and Redler offers many tips on looking after a guitarist in his popular book, Guitarist’s Guide to Maintenance & Repair. So how gruelling a job is it, in reality?

“Well, people certainly think it’s glamorous and fun, but we went to 26 countries in 26 days, and we didn’t see anything,” he laughs.

“People assume you’re going to be partying 20 HEADLINER

with the band, and although it was a little more like that when I was in my ‘20s, now we just try to get some sleep and good food, and my book tells you all about that. A lot of my tips are based on mistakes I made along the way. Really, it’s just about getting up there and doing it, find a band you like, work for free if you have to, and just start lugging gear.”

The schedules are harder, these days, Redler says: long, 16-hour days, three hours of sleep each night (if you’re lucky), and plenty of 5am starts (no thanks). Throughout the tour cycle, in fact, he only had five days off!

“And really, that means five days where we didn’t fly or take a bus somewhere,” he laughs, pointing out that these flights weren’t all short-haul, by any means: LA to Japan,

“IT’S HARD T O T E L L W H AT SOMEBODY’S THINKING WHEN THEY’RE WEARING SUNGLASSES.”

// SLASH //

Q+A WHY GO WIRELESS? SOUND

Using the Lectrosonics system, it actually sounds like your guitar’s on a cable. It’s absolutely as good.

S P EC T R U M

It has a scanner in it, so I just press one button, and I have an open frequency. Easy.

RELIABILITY

We took it around the world, and I never had any trouble with it. Totally rock solid.

EASE OF USE

Wireless can be complicated, and a lot of techs don’t know how to put it in line, and it’s really something you have to keep up on. I watch it during the show to make sure I’m not getting hit, make sure it’s working well, and Lectrosonics makes it real easy for me.

Australia to South America, and a trip to Malaysia for good measure.

“It’s crazy, but it keeps you busy!”

Slash’s setup centres around his Gibson Les Paul, his Slash Custom Wah Pedal, which he keeps out on stage with him, and a small pedal board, which Redler operates from side stage throughout the show.

“Slash plugs into the Wah, then into two Marshall JCM800s, which are connected to two Marshall 4 x 12 cabinets, but the sounds he gets are all him; his tone is entirely unique, and sometimes I don’t know where it’s coming from,” Redler explains, with a sense of awe. “It’s mostly a boost pedal that I’m working with when he is playing a solo, and there is a little delay here and there, but before I got out there, I didn’t really know the music. I was never a Guns N’ Roses fan, and I didn’t know what the set list was, so I listened over and over again to Guns N’ Roses and the Snakepit stuff, and all the stuff he’s doing now with Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators, which is the new album, World On Fire, and I have to tell you, it is so unbelievable. A great singer, a great band, and great songs.

I just listened to everything, and I had some notes from the previous tech, which helped, but I would just stay at home and pretend I was hitting a boost or delay pedal, you know? It was a lot of work before I 21 HEADLINER

got in there, but I know what he’s doing now; it took a couple of weeks, and it was tough. I’m tuning guitars, paying attention to the songs, hitting the pedals in the right place - most of the time [laughs]. I messed up plenty, and if you do, you get a look.

He won’t say anything, but I know it, and I feel ashamed!”

Onstage, everything is still old school, but one box Redler is determined to tick is getting Slash on a wireless system.

“I was working with Dixie Chicks before this, and we had 10 musicians on wireless, and the sound guys absolutely insisted we used Lectrosonics, as for guitars, it’s simply the best sounding wireless system out there,” Redler insists.

“It genuinely sounds like you’re on a cable, and it’s also very easy to use; we had no frequency problems, and it was always easy to find [a frequency], plus it just sounded great. Ten people on wireless is a lot: we’re talking banjos, mandolins, guitars, basses, all sorts; and then when I went on to work with KD Lang, her front-of-house guy also said, ‘if you’re going on wireless for acoustic guitar and mandolin, it has to be Lectrosonics’.

“Slash has tried wireless, but never liked it... Someday I’ll get him on it!”

S U PPORT

For me, Lectrosonics are the nicest people to work with, and there’s always someone available on the phone, so you’re never alone if you do need help.

L O U D E S T S TA G E E V E R ?

T H E B L A C K C R O W E S . They have the loudest

wedges you’ll ever hear in your life! Ian McLaughlin of The Faces came and sat in with us in Austin, and when he sat down at the keyboards and hit the piano, it was so loud, I swear he was airborne! It knocked him right off the seat, it was amazing. He laughed, but he was also like, ‘what the hell?!’

MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT? D I X I E C H I C K S , supporting the Eagles at the

Nokia Theatre in LA. I was doing Emily Robertson’s banjos, guitars, and mandolins, and I’d never done it before. I always try to avoid banjos but they always seem to find me! She had three banjos, and each one had a Lectrosonics wireless pack on it. Each song had to have the right banjo, but I couldn’t get the right banjo in tune, and I didn’t feel good about it, so I grabbed banjo number two instead, and gave her number one. I’m tuning away with a clip-on tuner on the headstock, all still plugged in, and it was the last song of the night. The band gave me some really weird looks when they walked off stage, and I couldn’t understand why. I went into the production office and the lighting guy goes, ‘hey, good solo!’ And it clicked what had just happened... My tuning was going out to front-of-house with the band, and it took the sound guy a few minutes to finally mute me! So Emily had no banjo during the song, but at least I got to jam with the Dixie Chicks! www.lectrosonics.com

ROCK & ROLL WARDROBE YOU GOT THE LOOK WORDS | GARY SPENCER

I

wasn’t sure how to follow Mick Jagger and Stevie Nicks, my style icons in the previous two issues, and then, while flicking through some mind numbing gossip, I noticed that it was a certain man’s birthday this month, Prince.

When Prince was working out style ideas, he really worked them out; and intensely worked on his public style and persona as much as his songs and his sound. It was clear that Prince was well aware that, in image making, the clothes do make the man: ‘Clothes by Louis and Vaughn & Marie-France’ appears straight after the song credits in the movie Purple Rain. Remember the early Afro? Quickly changing to a Farrah Fawcett style blow out in the early ‘80s, always with that question mark and sexual ambiguity. But, although the Prince style was relatively feminine, his self-presentation was undeniably heterosexual. Women’s underwear, thighhigh socks, and heeled boots became an onstage staple, but on the subject of heels, Prince once said: “People say I’m wearing heels because I’m short. I wear heels because the women like ‘em.”

To many ardent followers born in the mid ‘60s, by the time the ‘80s came around, it was almost like Prince had indeed invented sex, certainly as far as the ‘80s musical landscape was concerned. No nods, winks,

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or metaphors; he became a megastar while singing about all kinds of deviancy, and dressed accordingly, turning the dirty-sexy look into a catwalk chic. Michael Jackson’s clean-cut, sanitised, and decidedly nonsexualised boyish weirdness, along with other major competitors at the time, The Police, ensured there would be no new rock God with swagger appearing until the KICK album with Hutchence and INXS. But up until Lovesexy in the late ‘80s, it all seemed a little bit trial and error; it wasn’t until the swashbuckling piracy (and New Romantic) of tight gypsy pants, flowy white silk shirts with pirate cuffs, matching large hoop earrings, and the hair, now long, curly, and carefree, that there seemed to be a confidence that the ‘look’ was right. Most people will tell you it’s the purple coat with the studded shoulder in Purple Rain that sealed Prince’s status as an icon, but I think it was the shirts that sealed it, always open to the waist with just enough accessories and wind machine stretching the fabric and the hair style.

In these years, it was glitter, glam, and bondage punk meets hippie-ish Hendrix, and Sly Stone funk, all with sail boats and pirates... And that was just one outfit! As each album and tour dropped, he would again re-invent himself, picking up the mantle from that other great clothes horse, Bowie. Prince also had the waist and frame

that would make anything, especially a tailored suit, look a million dollars. Who can make a made-to-measure suit and sceptre look cool whilst having the word ‘slave’ written across your face? Oh, and with a high waist and a polka dot here and there thrown in. I haven’t mentioned polka dots up until this point, but they were a major part of Prince’s styling for nearly a decade, using them in scarves, cravats, full suits in black, white, or even pink.

In the ‘90s, Prince would wear a lot of separates, and sometimes revisited the flared suit or double breasted jacket with a crop top and large earrings and sideburn facial hair. Hair styles by now had been cut at every angle, and chains and various accessories featured even loosely worn around the waist. The sexual ambiguity in dress style remained a constant.

These past few years, Prince has gone through something of a ‘back to the future’, revisiting the afro at the Billboard Awards in 2013, and also managing to re-work the bellbottoms and flares. It will be really interesting to see how he moves into his later years in terms of style. Being one of the beautiful ones, I’m going to take a guess that Prince will go to a more gentlemanly look with tailored suits, and maybe a watch chain... And, of course, the obligatory walking cane!

Def Leppard frontman, Joe Elliott, gets us thinking (and belly laughing), as we discuss his 35 years in the music industry. Six-album deals, record label road maps, sell-out world tours, and firestarting studio sessions (literally)...

W O R D S | PA U L WAT S O N P H O T O G R A P H Y | M A R YA N N E B I L H A M - K N I G H T

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// JOE ELLIOTT //

“EVERYONE’S ALL SUSHI AND COFFEE MACHINES T H E S E D AY S , A N D A L L T H E R E C O R D C O M PA N I E S ARE RUN BY BEAN COUNTERS.”

W

hen you look at bands that have truly stood the test of time, Leppard is most certainly up there. It’s been the same line-up for 23 years, and they’ve shifted more than 100 million albums worldwide, with two of their releases selling 10 million a piece in the US alone.

Add to that, their number 70 ranking on VH1’s ‘Greatest Artists of All Time’, and it becomes easier to understand why they’re not finished yet. Far from it, in fact. They’re just completing a new album (‘the most enjoyable we’ve ever made,’ according to Joe Elliott), and are in the midst of a sell-out tour of Canada, after which, they will hit the US, Europe, the UK, Japan, and Australia. All in a day’s work then, is it, Joe? “I would have ummed and aahed at that question 10 years ago, but you actually reach a point where being older becomes cooler, so we’re more popular now at 55 then we were at 45, which is pretty funny,” Elliott smiles, as I ask him about the band’s evolution. “Evolution?

Everything that’s evolved in this band has been organic. We’ve only had two line-up changes ever, and when we have made changes, it’s been down to absolute necessity. Pete [Willis, guitarist, ‘77’82] had to go, and with Steve [Clark, guitarist until his untimely death in ‘91] there was no choice. When Phil [Collen] joined, the band got better, and Vivian [Campbell, guitar] brings something to the band from a live perspective that Steve never did. Steve was an alcoholic, he had his illnesses, and his level of performance could be stunning, followed by unbearable, but with Viv, it’s always totally and utterly reliable.”

Elliott speaks so refreshingly openly. He reminds me that Campbell also sings, which Clark never did, and says that has added a totally new dimension to the band’s vocals... And it hasn’t gone unnoticed.

“We used to get annoyed when people said we were miming, but now we take it as a compliment,” Elliott laughs, adding that it’s ‘just ridiculous’ to think anything by Leppard would ever not be live. “I like to think any evolution has been natural. Maybe one of us nudges it along when necessary, with a new idea for a record, and then everyone else goes, ‘eureka!’, and we’ll try that idea, and it will either work or it will fall flat on its face, which I also accept as a good thing, because it means we’re not stagnant. When we did [the album] Slang, we were well aware a year before it came out how it would go down; we were telling people that we were going to call the album ‘Commercial Suicide’, because that’s what it was! From an artistic point of view, we’d never felt so elated in our lives, and that’s what an artist is supposed to do; that record wasn’t about supply and demand, it was, ‘if you don’t like it, don’t buy it’, which is the only way art should ever be.”

R O C K & RO LL Although Leppard have always made commercial rock music (Elliott cites the band as three-minute, four-chord experts), it doesn’t necessarily mean that leads to commercial sell-out.

“We write like that because that’s how we want to write; we’re always going to make that kind of music, and it’ll always be more sellable than pungent stench,” Elliott chuckles, recalling a number of his early influences: Slade, Sweet, Cockney Rebel, Queen, and AC/DC. “We’re never going to do Leonard Cohen or Tom Waits, or fucking Morrissey; it’s just not our thing. Look at Pete Townshend or Ray Davies - both those guys will always write in a certain way, and it’s the same with us. We have never been afraid of wearing our hearts on

24 H E A D L I N E R

our sleeves, and to deny our influences would be ridiculous; it’s why we got into music in the first place.”

One thing that has changed over the years is Elliott’s attitude to making records. A process that he and the band had traditionally found ‘a pretty tough slog’, is now far more enjoyable. Much of this is down to their multi-talented engineer-cum-producer-cum-live sound man, Ronan McHugh.

“We met Ronan in ‘98. We were working on the Euphoria album, and our second engineer, Ger McDonnell, was tempted away by Mike Hedges to work on some Coldplay or U2 gig,” Elliott explains. “We totally got that he couldn’t turn work like that down, and we were recommended [by Mike] an Irish kid who only lived round the corner from me, so I invited him up for a cup of tea and a chat, and we just liked him instantly as a person. We were running two studios at my place at the time: guitars and drums downstairs, and vocals upstairs, in a side room much like a phone booth. So Ronan started working on the vocals and the backing vocals, and integrated himself into the whole album. By the end of the project, we had him co-producing all the B-sides and bonus material that we needed – this is back in the days when you needed to have ten extra tracks for every single you released! [laughs] So he just became part of the team, and we kept him for the next album, X, where he worked in conjunction with Pete Woodruff.

“Then, all of a sudden, all these stories started to come out over dinner about his live work. He’d say, ‘When I was touring with Ash’, and we’d be like, ‘you do out front sound as well?’. And by pure coincidence, we needed someone to take the Japanese leg of the tour from [our then FOH guy] Brad Madix, who also did live sound for Rush, and the two jobs were overlapping, so we asked Ronan.

Everyone that works for us that was out front for his first show was just raving, telling us we had GOT to keep this guy, as he was so immense.

So we did!”

McHugh has been a mainstay for 16 years now (twice as long as the Beatles were together, Elliott points out). I find that interesting, particularly as studio and live are such different arts. Elliott concurs, and delves deeper: “There aren’t many people that can do what he does, and here’s the thing... A lot of people that work in studios are very precious, and people think the guys that go out on tour are road dogs and warriors, but really, Ronan is a hybrid of the two: he’s not completely nuts when we’re out on the road, and he’s completely not precious when we’re in the studio. He’s dead normal, and that’s why he can handle both arts.

He has a great sense of humour, and he is the most comfortable person I’ve worked with when it comes to singing. You’re not hiding behind a plank of wood; it’s you and your soul, bared to the world, and when it’s not going right, you’ve got to feel comfortable with whoever’s seeing you at your most vulnerable, and me and him just have the best time.”

H AP PY DAYS The new Leppard album is due for release later this year, and although Elliott has always said that he doesn’t believe it’s ever that easy to enjoy making an album, things have never felt rosier in the studio.

“You always have to suffer for your art, and when we made All Through the Night, we had the best time we ever had, but I just can’t listen to it; and with some of the albums we made with Mutt Lange, I would never want to relive what we did to get them, but after we listened to the records, we always thought, ‘wow, that really worked’,”

// JOE ELLIOTT //

“ I F YO U R F I R ST RECORD DOESN’T MAKE A P R O F I T, I T ’ S Q U I T E P OSS I B L E YO U WO N ’ T G E T TO MAKE A SECOND.” he remembers. “But with this new album, it’s the first time I’ve actually enjoyed making the record start to finish. In the past, I’ve never found the need to re-sing anything, but on this one, I have done that, and it made me realise, ‘wow, we are making this record and actually having fun tweaking it and improving it’. It’s a new experience for me, and it’s been a more organic approach. I was more relaxed, I breathed easier, and sang better, and the process was more pleasant.

We basically broadened our horizons.”

This album is also the first that the band have funded themselves, without the backing of a record company. But who needs record companies, Joe, right?

“Most people who work at record labels are fucking idiots,” Elliott insists. “They don’t know what they’re doing, so let’s at least be honest about it! Guy Stevens was a fucking idiot, but he was a great fucking idiot. He was a maverick; he produced Mott the Hoople, Free, London Calling for the Clash, but he would set studios on fire just to get the band fired up, you know? Those are the guys that you go, ‘God, he must have been a bit of work’, but everyone’s all sushi and coffee machines these days, and all the record companies are run by bean counters.

“We made our new record for the five of us, completely mentally and physically free of the shackles of making an album, and that’s why it was such a blast to do. When we went in, we were going to do an EP, but once we saw what we all had, by the end of the month we had twelve songs done! When you’ve worked with someone like Mutt Lange, you can’t then head into the studio with another named producer, because all you’re going to do is compare. We’d be saying, ‘he’s not the same’, or ‘he’s no good’, but at the same time, if you’ve worked with Mutt for 11 years and some of it didn’t rub off, you’d be a fucking moron! So between Ronan and us, we are where we want to be. As we speak, he is actively tweaking the new album as well as preparing for the tour!”

So life is good for Leppard, but what would Elliott change if he could, about our music business today?

“Well, the fact that the industry doesn’t really exist any more is the biggest thing I’d change,” he says. We both laugh. “It’ll never be the way it was, will it? And there is good and bad in that. Do I prefer taking my iPod with 22,000 songs around the world in my pocket, compared to packing three suitcases full of CDs? Of course I do, it’s fantastic!

Neither am I a snob that thinks MP3s aren’t listenable; I think they sound totally fine. If you’re listening to them and going, ‘ooh, it sounds dodgy compared to vinyl’, I always shout out, ‘Really? And how does it sound when you go jogging, then? How does your vinyl sound in the car?’ I’m not knocking vinyl, but it’s a medium that’s limited to your front room. I like the idea of taking my music around the world with me, as it’s what I do for a living.”

S TA D I U M F E V E R

And what about ‘the next Def Leppard?’ Where are the stadium bands of tomorrow coming from?

“Good question. If your first record doesn’t make a profit, it’s quite possible you won’t get to make a second. If that happened thirty years ago, there would be no Unforgettable Fire (U2), no Hysteria (Def Leppard), no Slippery When Wet (Bon Jovi); and those three bands 25 HEADLINER

Def Leppard

bought an entire block of Manhattan on the profits of those three records,” he exclaims. “It’s crazy that there’s not going to be anyone to take over. Bands that came out in the ‘90s and later have mostly already split, so who does take over? We’ve got Muse, the Foo Fighters, and Green Day, battling it out for the next generation of stadium bands; and then I come to a dry well, I’m afraid. That’s the biggest change for me: the continuum has disappeared and dried up. The road map that we were given when we signed to Polygram in ‘79 was just tweaked from the one given to Elton John when he signed in ‘69.

“You would sign for six albums, they didn’t expect your first three to sell, but they were happy to see what would happen. Elton John broke on his fourth album, so it worked; and then everyone broke on their third or fourth - Thin Lizzy, UFO, to name a few. When I was a kid, I discovered David Bowie, then realised there were five albums before Starman came out as a single, so I rush purchased his back catalogue!

The same happened with Alex Harvey; that was the road map, you’d be around for 10 to 12 years, disappear, then the next generation would come and make their own super heroes. That has GONE. I’m sure there are 16-year-old kids who would say, ‘I’m okay with that’, as it’s all they know, but if you have seen both sides of the coin, which I have, I know that my side was much sexier than the current one.”

We talk briefly about touring, and how Elliott is excited to hit the UK at the end of the year. Although it’s many months away, tickets have been selling like hot cakes, which, I guess, says it all about the success of this supergroup.

“Between us, Whitesnake, and Black Star Liners, December is going to be great for the British part of the tour,” Elliott says, with an air of confidence. Good for him. “The new album will be out around September time, so it’s a massive year for us; and it’s nice that we’re still in our game. The industry that we’re about to drop this record into is not the same as the one we dropped Adrenalize into, or even Slang, for what it’s worth [smiles], but we know the ramifications of what we’re going to do, and the limitations of what to expect. We know we’ve made a great record, regardless of how it’s received, and at the end of the day, we come from a generation where an album is an hour long with fourteen songs on it, and I think this next record will further prove that Def Leppard still produces really high quality stuff; we’re a genuinely top notch band, and we deserve to be still talked about thirty-five years on.”

Follow Joe and the band on Twitter: @DefLeppard

B R U T A L R O M A N T I C W O R D S | PAU L WATS O N

// BROOKE FRASER //

“ I ’ M B R A N C H I N G O U T, G E T T I N G U N C O M F O R TA B L E , AND TEACHING MY MUSCLES NEW MEMORIES.”

N

ew Zealand-born Brooke Fraser is a hell of a talent. She secured a multi-album deal at just 18-years-old (2003), and her debut record, What to do with Daylight, reached number one and went Gold in its first week, eventually selling over 100,000 copies, and remaining in the charts for well over a year. Not a bad start, then! Tours in Australia and New Zealand soon followed, supporting first John Mayer, and then David Bowie; and her follow-up record, Albertine, went double-platinum within a month of its release.

In 2010, album number three arrived, and with it, much critical acclaim. Flags was somewhat of a game-changer, and also produced Brooke’s most successful single to date, Something in the Water, which was a hit all over Europe and Australasia, and has received over four million YouTube views.

Now she’s got a new record, Brutal Romantic, which, you could say, is a bit of a curveball. It’s a more powerful, layered, and electronic sound, yet it retains all the hooks and sweet melodies that are prevalent in her back catalogue. In Brooke’s own words, “it takes me out of my comfort zone”, but as far as I can see (and hear), that’s a very good thing. I’m in Dingwalls, right on London’s Camden Lock: a famous, dark, old school, slightly grubby, 500-capacity cauldron. I’ve just witnessed the last leg of Brooke’s world tour, and I’m about to find out a bit more about the girl behind the mic.

“When I was 12, I already knew I was a songwriter, but the performance side of it came later, as there was no-one else to sing with me at the time,” Brooke tells me, breaking into a wide smile, only minutes after delivering a flawless, hour-long set. “My first passion has always been getting into the bones and the DNA of the song, then working outward from there, whereas the performance part is something I have really had to work on, particularly with this tour.”

This is the Brutal Romantic tour, of course, which began in New Zealand and Australia, included a five-week run of shows in the States, and culminated... erm, here at Dingwalls. In the sudden realisation that I must be the first person to interview Brooke post-tour, I smile a little inside, and decide to ask her a little more about the change in musical direction.

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“With the new album, I’ve definitely been moving out of my comfort zones, not doing the things that I’ve always done for over a decade,” she explains. “It’s the same with the live show; I’m usually behind the piano or guitar, and now I’m moving around a bit, so definitely for the first few songs, I was like a baby deer - a fawn, not knowing what to do with its limbs! [laughs] And I had this internal monologue all the time, saying, ‘okay, go over this side of the stage now, put your hand out like a claw’; I was literally having to coach myself through this process, as my muscles weren’t familiar with it! A lot of music performance is about muscle memory, so for me, I am only at home when I am at the keyboard or playing the guitar, but on this tour, I’m branching out, getting uncomfortable, and teaching my muscles new memories.”

Nicely put. So how has she come on as a songwriter since the early days, where she supported the likes of John Mayer and David Bowie?

And was there ever a breakthrough moment of sorts, when she realised that she was a headline act in her own right?

“It’s funny, because at that stage, I was actually already headlining, because of the quick success in New Zealand, so stuff was already happening,” she reminds me. Of course. Point duly noted. “So I was already my own artist, but actually, I do wish I could say I’ve played as a support act for people many more times! I don’t know why, but it’s never really happened that way [smiles].”

I ask Brooke how she has gone about building her audience globally, and how difficult it was (or not) to take her sound out of one territory and put it into another.

“I think when you’re an artist from a small country, you’re starting from there, and you’re building all the time,” she says. “You’re aware of the restrictions, and of course you would love to do stadium tours with huge lighting rigs and full production all the time, but it’s just not a reality, so you build as you go: slowly, and in small increments. That’s been my story, really, until it came to this album, and this tour.”

The production on the Brutal Romantic tour is certainly very impressive, which, Brooke insists, “was super-critical, because the way the sound of the record is layered needed to be reflected in the lighting.” So how did you do that, then?

“Well, [fellow New Zealanders] The Naked and Famous and I share the same management, and I went along to their show in New York, and was entirely blown away by Liam Griffiths’ lighting design, so I thought I needed someone with that sensitive and creative approach to lighting. I really wanted Brutal Romantic to be an all-in experience, and I knew he could do it... So I asked him, and he did! Now I’ve got an amazing looking show.”

I ask Brooke what made her take the bold move to add electronic elements to her material, and whether it’s had the desired effect.

“Thinking about it, it stems from a moment on stage in Auckland; I was on the Winery Tour in 2012, in front of 8,000 people, and when I put down the guitar, I just started dancing like a maniac, and I remember thinking to myself, ‘there’s more in me than I’ve been

// BROOKE FRASER //

“ I ’ V E B E E N H O S P I TA L I S E D QUITE A LOT ON THIS TOUR, BUT I FIND IT ALL QUITE A M U S I N G , R E A L LY. . . ”

accessing up until now as an artist’,” she recalls, with a smile. “I guess that was one of the first times the whole concept for Brutal Romantic came to fruition. I remember feeling that I’d just found something new, which is really refreshing when you’ve been doing music for a relatively long time.”

S

he tells me she’s always been “a bit of a slow burner” when it comes to writing songs, often preferring to chew on an idea or thought for some time until it’s fermented enough to bring it into song form. So how did these new songs go down in the States?

“I remember my first show in New York, playing to 40 people in the Living Room in 2007; it’s always great to remember a first show in a city like that, and seeing how my audience has grown,” she says. This time round, she played The Bowery Ballroom and Williamsburg Music Hall. Quite a jump, then. “Yeah! And I knew this record would also be a leap for people, and there was always that risk I might lose some fans, but I also thought there was the potential to gain a lot of fans. As an artist, you just hope that if you make art, and it’s something you believe in, that the same people that have been drawn to you for that reason will stick with you. And I’m so pleased to say that they have, particularly in the States. To see people coming out that had bought the record, knowing the songs and enjoying them, was just so rewarding.”

At the same time, Brooke’s certainly no snob when it comes to venues; she’s all for playing the odd hell-hole from time to time..!

“Being some big star at home is one thing, but the rest of the world has no idea, so I am always a beginner in some places, and I think that’s really healthy,” she says, very frankly. “I hope there is always an element of that in me - to play shitty little clubs when I have to, and do the hard work - because you stay grateful for what you have, and I definitely appreciate how far I’ve come because of it.”

There’s also an element of philanthropy to Brooke. During the show, she spoke about her charity work in Rwanda, and the dozen or more children that she sponsors via kids’ charity, World Vision. I ask her to tell me a little more about that side of her life.

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“I think that as a human being, music is a big part of my life, but it’s not all of it,” she says, softly. “Ever since I was a kid at school, I’ve been aware that I am kind of ‘a citizen of the world’; I was born into privilege, as it were, just having been born in New Zealand. My parents weren’t rich or anything, I was just aware, even at 12-years-old, that I had resources that many other people didn’t have, and that always bothered me, so I wanted to do something about it.

World Vision has a thing called the 40-hour famine, which goes into schools, and I started doing that when I was 12... [pauses, and ponders for a few seconds]... I guess I had my midlife crisis at 12, didn’t I? [laughs] So anyway, from then, as other areas of my life have grown and developed, I think that has as well, and I find myself in the somewhat unique position of having a voice, no matter how small or large it may be, and wanting to use it. I am no Bono or Angelina Jolie, but if I can do my little bit, then I will. It’s a sense of perspective, you know?”

Brooke really is a breath of fresh air, both on and off the stage, and a pleasure to spend time with, as are the rest of her team. The show sounded superb, she worked the crowd as beautifully as she sang her songs, and her pitching was right on the money throughout.

From the gorgeous Arithmetic and haunting Brutal Romantic, to the up-tempo and super-catchy Kings & Queens and Something in the Water – unsurprisingly, a crowd favourite - it was as good a show as I’ve seen in some time.

“The two most important things to me are that people are incredible at what they do, and they’re not wankers,” Brooke concludes, beaming.

“You have to be in each other’s pockets a lot of the time, and fortunately, by and large, I’ve toured with people that are really skilled at what they do, and are also a good hang. I did manage to break my foot on stage in New York, though, at the Bowery Ballroom show, but luckily it was the second to last song, so it wasn’t such a big deal. Thinking about it, I’ve been hospitalised quite a lot on this tour, but I find it all quite amusing, really. No tragedies... so far!”

Brutal Romantic is out now. Go give it a listen. www.brookefraser.com

Q+A // LIAM GRIFFITHS //

THE LIGHTBULB MOMENT

A

fter heading into Manhattan to watch her mates, The Naked & Famous, play the city’s fabulous Terminal 5 venue, Brooke Fraser became mesmerised by not just the music, but the breathtaking lighting show she was witnessing. So much so, in fact, that she immediately marched over to the Lighting Designer, Liam Griffiths, and asked him to take the same GLP fixtures out on tour with her... So he did! We shoot the breeze over a couple of pints in London’s artisan, and at times intimidating, Camden borough, for the final leg of Brooke’s tour.

So, how’s the tour been going, Liam?

Great, actually. We just got back from two months in the US, and we did a month in Australia, then we also hit Singapore, which was really good. Australia is massive for Brooke, and always means really big shows, as she’s such a big name down there.

How is her music received over in the States?

Actually, the Americans were particularly into this album, which is a lot more electronic than a lot of Brooke’s previous material. This is the

29 HEADLINER

sort of music that I would buy. It really is very good stuff.

I hear you were head-hunted for this gig... [smiles] Yeah, I guess I was! Brooke came up to me at T5 in New York a while back, and was like, ‘Will you do my lights for me? Oh, and by the way, it’s okay, I do have a boyfriend!’ [laughs] What I like about Brooke is, she’s the kind of artist that lets me do my thing, whereas others can be a bit more involved, which isn’t always so easy to deal with, so it’s very nice working with someone who trusts you.

How cue-heavy is the show?

Oh, very! I have between 20 and 25 per song, so it’s a lot of bumps and stuff. Basically, I’ll enter a certain cue, and that will trigger my stopwatch, which will then count down, and then I know that I need to go to the next cue.

This London show is just a two-piece band, but we had a full band in the US and Australia, with the full production; Brooke’s husband is also a creative designer, so he sent me some ideas, and then tweaked them to come up with the main design. We had a gauze in front of the band, projecting from the back and the front, and we had the custom Brooke Fraser sign at the back, so this is a cut down version.

I can imagine. A little 500-capacity venue like Dingwalls is often really great for the fans, though I guess there’s no room for the huge GLP rig you took overseas? [smiles] Sadly not, no! Even my [Grand MA] lighting console is the baby version, which took a little bit of getting used to! But yes, it’s very similar to The Naked & Famous rig, and it’s been absolutely rock solid in terms of reliablity all over the world. As I’ve always said, those guys at GLP make some seriously good fixtures! At the start of the tour, I was using X4Ss, and then in Australia, I opted for the X4s, a much bigger light, which I really love.

We had half-a-dozen six-metre high poles in Australia, which was the biggest configuration we’ve used to date, and the lights were all spread out on those, which created a lovely effect. We had 18 X4XLs, three fixtures on each pole, and three poles per side, and the stage just looked immense. The GLPs were complemented by some Mac Vipers on the floor, then I used some BMFLs in the rig when in Singapore. The GLP stuff is the core of the rig, and it’s always so great to work with: efficient, simple, powerful, and most of all, extremely effective. www.stagetechniques.com www.glp.de

/ / D AV E B R A C E Y / /

B J Ö R K I N N E W YO R K

F “ P U T A PA I R O F HEADPHONES ON, GRAB HALF A DOZEN SMALL BEERS, AND G E T I N T O I T, I S A Y. ”

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ront-of-house engineer, Dave Bracey, first worked with Björk back in 2011, and now, after a year and a half musical hiatus, the quirky Icelandic artist is back with a brand new album, Vulnicura, and a whole new show. Bracey finds himself back at the helm for a series of gigs in New York City, with a streamlined setup incorporating some digital wizardry. Headliner investigates...

For me, Björk’s sound has always been unique, fascinating, and unpredictable, but always likeable. I ask Bracey what she’s like to work with, and whether she’s as interesting a person as I think she might be.

“She is probably exactly the way people think she is,” comes the response, with a smile. “From a working perspective, I find her very inclusive and respectful; she tells me what she wants me to do, and that’s my primary job, but the amount of respect through that process makes it a very pleasant working environment.

That doesn’t mean she won’t give me a bollocking if she needs to, but on the whole, it’s really good!”

/ / D AV E B R A C E Y / /

Bracey cites Vulnicura as Björk’s best album for a long time; it’s a break up album about one subject, the collapse of her relationship with artist, Matthew Barney. “It’s quite powerful in that respect, and I have seen grown men crying in the audience, believe it or not,” Bracey insists. “It even makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, occasionally.

Put a pair of headphones on, grab half a dozen small beers, and get into it, I say.”

Björk’s schedule is never insanely hectic, Bracey says. She is unlikely to do more than a couple of shows a week, though she is meticulous in terms of planning and rehearsing. She’s also found time to do a retrospective of her life, which was on at MoMA, an art gallery in New York City, in between the gigs. Impressive. The current stint of shows includes two at Carnegie Hall, two at the King’s Theatre in Brooklyn, and another two at City Centre, all of which are around 3,000-capacity halls.

“For this Björk tour, we wanted to be able to afford to take production from Wigwam [Acoustics, UK rental house] over to the US for a couple of months, so we had to be as compact for freighting as possible,” Bracey reveals. “Originally, Carnegie Hall said if the footprint isn’t really small, we would have to use their house console, but that was out of the question, which is why I went for a DiGiCo SD9, and just managed to squeeze into one, which is great.”

B

racey was one of the engineers that got heavily involved in DiGiCo’s console development when the manufacturer launched its first digital beast, the D5, and has been an advocate ever since. “If you’re comfortable with one [DiGiCo board], as long as the facilities exist on a smaller console, then there’s no reason you can’t downsize and do just as good a job,” Bracey says. “Moving from the SD7 to the SD9 was a great option, as the console brains are basically the same, and the sound quality is identical.”

Bracey embraces all the SD9’s onboard effects, for both their quality and overall convenience: “The effects are really lovely on the DiGiCo, so I don’t use any outboard on this tour, and every show I do is very snapshot driven,” he says. “I’d always seen the value in that level of automation in the live arena, as long as it was done correctly, not in the studio snapshot fashion, which many brands were doing in the early 2000s. I did a bit of work [with DiGiCo] improving that situation, and

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I use snapshots all the time today, though I am also constantly doing things manually on the console, too. The whole process of the way I update snapshots as I go is very similar to things I would do on an analogue console in the old days, so it suits me nicely.”

Bracey admits he ends up with ‘a strange looking top layer with lots squeezed together’, but thankfully, downsizing hasn’t really affected workflow. “It’s amazing how discretionary you can be when you know you’re going to be looking at 24 faders, not 52, all night,” he laughs. “But it works great, especially for this show; trimming it back is an

“THIS COOL SETUP HAS GIVEN US A BIT OF BREATHING SPACE GOING INTO THE SUMMER. IT’S A GREAT SOLUTION.”

interesting discipline, and I think it’s always good to test yourself!”

One thing that Bracey did need to do was find a way of generating more channels.

To achieve this, he recruited the help of Wigwam’s Alex Hadjigeorgiou, who together, created a seamless digital concoction. “I now use two DiGiGrid MGO interface boxes, one from a main computer, and one from a backup computer; they go through an EXBOX MADI redundancy switcher, which then goes into an Optocore DD2,” Bracey explains, and pauses for breath. I do the same. And in layman terms, Dave? “Well, it acts just like a digital stage box really, instead of analogue. It’s a great way of injecting a MADI stream into the Optocore loop. The only way you’d normally go into the Optocore loop is via DiGiCo’s converters, be it AES inputs, Aviom Cards, or analogue; there are many ways of getting into their stage box, but there has never really been

a facility there to take another MADI stream in, which is what Optocore have done.”

Got you. Bracey is referring to Optocore’s DD2FR-FX unit, which is the manufacturer’s optical MADI device. “Essentially, instead of having a stage box rammed with 56 inputs, we’ve suddenly freed up 10 inputs in that stage box,” Bracey continues, perhaps conscious of overloading me with technical data. “So now when Björk comes along and says ‘ooh, Zeena Parkins is going to come on and play harp on two songs’, I no longer get embarrassed and scratch my head as to how we are going to create some more analogue inputs. The whole idea is to keep the rig as tight as possible, and this cool setup has given us a bit of breathing space going into the summer, knowing I can accommodate whatever the artist might want to decide to do on the fly. It’s a great solution.”

A

s this new setup has essentially been implemented at the eleventh hour, Bracey took a trip to Brighton to see Björk’s team prior to heading Stateside, to make sure everything was running perfectly.

“We have a few days rehearsal in New York before we do the shows, but I don’t think any of us in this industry like to take risks that close to a show when implementing new gear,” he admits, very matter of fact. “Phase one was to put it together down in Brighton with tour management before rehearsals, as when you have 15 strings players coming in to learn the songs, it’s not the best environment to deal with technical issues!

“When things are software driven and you need everything to sync and talk to everything else, you really don’t know until you hook it all up for the first time. But that’s the way of the world, these days; it’s more about networking. What I do know is, I have complete faith in this package, and I’m no longer spending nights in arenas trying to get rid of horrible buzzing sounds off of a PA! It doesn’t exist in our world today, everything works or nothing works!”

We are pleased to report that this definitely works. Our US correspondent, Gary Spencer, saw her perform at the recent Governor’s Ball in New York, and says she was phenomenal.

Glad to hear it! www.optocore.com www.digico.biz www.bjork.com

WORDS | GARY SPENCER

I

Show Review LENNY KRAVITZ WEBSTER HALL, NYC

t’s really difficult not to like Lenny Kravitz. He has always had enough rock star swagger about him that makes the men want to be him, and just enough sensitivity that a woman could spend a raucous Saturday night with him but still feel comfortable introducing him to her parents.

Tonight, in a cauldron hot Webster Hall (Mr Kravitz apparently insisted on no A/C), his likeability monitor is being seriously tested, as the dripping in sweat crowd are kept impatiently waiting for his much prolonged entrance. And then it happens. The band slowly drift onto the stage, and the unmistakeable strut of Lenny Kravitz saunters ever so slowly but purposely up to the microphone.

We kick off with a nice little song off the new album, Dirty White Boots, though all doesn’t seem well in Lenny land just yet; the band are not as tight as you would expect from such a masterful pro, and his frustration is evident. But then the crowd parts, and Lenny raises his hands and declares, “New York City!”, which is met by a roar that almost drowns out the opening chords to the smash hit American Woman, and suddenly the band are tight as a snare drum, inspired, and feeding off their leader and the hot, pulsating theatre. The sweatercomfy It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over is up next, but before the familiar melody kicks in, Lenny proudly states that he “still believes in love”. As he delivers the lines, “So many tears we cried”, no doubt mind images he has of accompanying ex-wife, Lisa Bonet, at the previous night’s Met Gala. Dancing Till Dawn is up next, and again the band stutter, as Lenny demands a song restart by famed drummer, Cindy Blackman Santana. This time, it’s spot on, and by the end of the song, everyone seems a little more chilled.

At this point, my eyes start to drift around the stage and take in the other band members, of which there is a considerable number. Eleven, to be exact, and there are a couple of amazing trumpet solos by the somewhat lent-on Ludovic Louis, and Karl Denson’s Saxophone is utterly brilliant at times. There’s no point in me even mentioning Gail Ann Dorsey (though I just did); she’s always there underpinning the groove, as she has done for so many great artists over the years. The three backing singers - sassy, sexy, and very ‘70s - shimmer and sway effortlessly through every number, all with ranges that are very rarely tested by these songs, but with gusto and guile all the same.

We saunter through, it seems, the Rolling Stones-inspired Always On The Run, Sister, and the crowd pleaser, New York City, but it’s Mama Said that reminds the crowd that they’re still in the presence of a superstar, and Lenny and the band don’t disappoint on this one, with rousing guitar solos all round. The ever commercial I Belong To You leads us into a 20-minute rendition of Let Love Rule that had the crowd entirely entranced, up until the chugging guitar riff of I Want To Get Away screamed out around the theatre. Kravitz is in full flow now, belting the vocals, and sensing he has the crowd set up nicely for the encore. And so he has. Here comes Are You Gonna Go My Way? It’s a hit, whatever way you play it, in any year; it’s just a great balls to the wall, rock pop anthem, and every fan knows every word. Lenny is beaming now, and as the show winds to a close, he looks up to his fans on the balcony, waves feverishly in appreciation of their support, and struts purposefully around his band mates. One by one, he sides up to them and plants a huge kiss on their cheek to thank them for their efforts. As I said, it’s hard not to like Lenny Kravitz.

// NAHUEL GUTIERREZ //

F LY I N G HIGH

N

ahuel Gutierrez hails from Madrid. He flew from Spain to London on October 25, 2001, in search of ‘a proper PA company’ to work for.

He washed dishes for six months, learned a little English, and then stumbled upon Britannia Row. A six-month stint in their warehouse provided a solid audio education, and after working systems and front-of-house for the firm over the next couple of years, an opportunity to take the next step came along, working monitors for Oasis. This was 2004, and Gutierrez has been working with Noel and co. ever since. Today, he is a permanent fixture with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. Headliner interrupts band rehearsals at Music Bank in South London to find out a little bit more...

So much is said (and likely fabricated) of the Gallagher brothers, so I’m keen to find out what kind of relationship Gutierrez has with Noel, having known him now for over a decade.

“Oh, it’s definitely a laugh working with him, and we do have a good working environment, but he is ultimately here to do his job, so it’s very much a working relationship,” comes the response. “It’s not a case of, ‘let’s go out for a drink after a show’ with Noel. It’s just not that type of gig.”

Gutierrez got his break under the Brit Row banner, after earning his audio education in the rental company’s warehouse, and then as system tech and front-of-house man. It was in 2004 when he first ‘babysat’ monitors for Oasis.

“I owe a lot to [Brit Row owner] Bryan Grant; he helped me out in a big way, and then in 2008 it was a bit of a role reversal, as I became the main monitor guy, so I was getting paid by the band, and I was suddenly a Brit Row client, which is quite funny,” he smiles. “It was always amazing, atmosphere-wise, working with Oasis, and believe it or not, everyone got along! It was magic, for the most part.”

Talking of magic, it was during that year that Gutierrez had ‘a moment’, when Oasis played three sell-out shows at Wembley Stadium.

“It just suddenly hit me that I was a 27-year34 HEADLINER

old dude from Spain that had only been in England six years, and here I was, mixing the biggest band in the world in one of the best stadiums in the world,” he says, with more than a hint of reflection. It’s clearly a memory that he treasures deeply. “Bloody hell, I could almost cry thinking about it, to be honest! Seeing myself in that environment, and doing a good job... It was just amazing.”

I suggest it can’t always have been a walk in the park - this is Oasis, after all! I ask Gutierrez to give me some stories, as I’m sure he’s got one or two in his locker.

“There was a really fun one with the High Flying Birds in Korea a few years back,” he begins. Good. “We were playing a gig, and it was Noel’s birthday, so there were a few banners going around, the fans were going crazy, and all that. But two songs before the end of the night, right in the middle of the crowd, a big cake suddenly appeared, complete with candles! And even more incredibly, it made it all the way to the stage! We couldn’t get our

“ I T WA S A L WAY S AMAZING WORKING WITH OASIS, AND B E L I E V E I T O R N O T, EVERYONE GOT ALONG!”

// NAHUEL GUTIERREZ //

“RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CROWD, A BIG CAKE S U D D E N LY A P P E A R E D , COMPLETE WITH CANDLES...”

heads around it, how this girl had one, got the cake in, and two, stayed in the middle of the crowd for a good hour and a half, got the candles out, and... Well, it was so funny, and also very bizarre!”

Not exactly the rock and roll story I was after, but I’ll take it! We begin to discuss the High Flying Birds setup, as we make our way into Music Bank’s sizeable rehearsal space.

“Noel is very old school, and you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” Gutierrez chuckles.

“He’s very much a wedge man on stage, and although there have been a couple of attempts at getting him on in-ears, in honesty, on stage, he has never even put them inside his ears!

He does have two really nice sets of [ JH Audio] in-ears, which he uses with his iPod, but in terms of the show, his world has been the same for more than twenty years. He doesn’t feel the need for change, which I get, and even knowing there are benefits to using in-ears, he just likes it on wedges.”

The rest of the band, however, are all on in-ears: JH Audio JH16s, to be precise, which Gutierrez insists are the best choice when it comes to isolation.

“For me, JH Audio is the brand that pays the most attention to detail. The company is definitely ahead of the competition in terms of the sound, but it’s not just about that,” he says, running an acoustic version of Champagne Supernova through Noel’s pair of wedges, which I am now standing in front of, feeling very, very cool. “I remember when I was doing Oasis, just looking at some of the IEMs, and the finish of the product, it just didn’t feel that they actually cared about what they were doing, or making.

With JH Audio, you also have the beautiful finishing, and all the canals for the drivers.

Customer experience is also a big JH strong point; they’re really nice people, and they’re great if you have an emergency, as support is always on hand. I guess JH Audio is like the Apple of in-ear monitoring!”

There are two keyboard players in the High Flying Birds: one main player on stage, and one off stage triggering samples. Both are on JH16s, as is the bass player, who tends to wear one ear in, and also has wedges; and the drummer wears one JH16 in all the time to 35 HEADLINER

receive the click. Gutierrez and all the techs are also on JH16s, for communication, and overall reference.

“It’s still a loud stage, as the drummer makes a real racket, so it can sometimes be a case of fighting frequencies,” Gutierrez admits, adding that the drummer has a very good ear, knows what he wants, and also has experience working in recording studios. “He is quite demanding, really, and he needs to hear everything all the time, and see what everyone is playing; and of course, with people’s dynamics, that’s not always possible, so we have given him his own eight-channel mixer and a pair of stereo wedges, and he’s basically mixing his own monitors. I send him a feed of every band member, and I use a little automation to regulate those levels. Now he is much happier.”

I spy a little DiGiGrid MGB by the console, which I am assuming Gutierrez is using for playback. That, and recall, he confirms: “I use it because it’s the best way these days to get a 96 kHz MADI recorder. I have 64 channels going from the desk into the DiGiGrid, and then into the computer. Then I use Reaper to recall, and then I play the 64 channels back into the desk. It means I can work with the band when the band’s not here, if that makes sense? Thanks to DiGiGrid, I can fine tune and EQ some of the stuff before they get here. It’s a very reliable piece of kit, and it’s very small - a tiny little box you can go anywhere with. You just run a Cat-5 cable, and

that is the real winning part of the whole thing.

I just have my laptop, and don’t need any more interfaces: one tiny little box with four BNCs gives me all these channels of 96 kHz MADI! Pretty amazing, really, and I’ve not had a single hitch. All I would say is, get a fast hard drive, and then you’re good to go.”

As I observe Noel’s pedal board, I spot a Boss tuner, a chorus, and various distortions.

As I continue listening to a perfect stereo image of the day’s rehearsals blaring out of his wedges, I ask Gutierrez to give me one more road story before I leave.

“Well, every time Oasis played Manchester, something happened, but I remember a real nightmare we had at Heaton Park, where the audio generator went down, and the band had to come off stage twice, both times just two songs in,” he reveals. “They were not happy, as you can imagine, but with a bit of trickery, we managed to lose a few subs and a few strobes, and ran the audio through the lighting generator and finished the gig. Noel still wasn’t happy, so decided to announce to the crowd that the show was free, as they weren’t getting the full Oasis experience, and told them to claim their money back from the band’s website. A lovely gesture, and it’s a measure of the man, but I’m sure that caused a wave of terror for the promoters!” www.jhaudio.com www.digigrid.net

// SNAKE NEWTON //

NEWTON’S LAW OF SOUND Snake Newton is finally off a plane, and on UK soil. He’s just back from working a few shows with Duran Duran, his front-of-house mainstay for the past 10 years, though he’s also partial to churning out the odd live album or two for his New Romantic pals, thanks to a dabble in studio recording in the early ‘90s. When he’s not at the helm for Le Bon and the boys, he’s on the road with Jessie J, one of the most dynamic vocalists of the noughties. We ask him to share some of his stories, audio tips, and processing secrets...

YOU GOT INTO LIVE SOUND BY ACCIDENT, REALLY, DIDN’T YOU?

Oh, it was a pure fluke! I was in bands myself very early on, from 18-years-old, and I was a bassist and keyboard player, and occasional trumpet player. I wanted to get my band noticed by getting a good sound, so I built a PA, under the assumption that all bands had their own PA. I was wrong. People started noticing the band, but not for the music, just for the sound, so people began renting my PA off me. I literally didn’t know there was a rental market until it presented itself to me on a plate!

AND WHAT HAPPENED NEXT...?

Well, I got out of the live game around 1990, and dabbled in the studio realm, and then I got into a pretty bad accident in 1991, and broke my back. Around this time, I was getting bored of the studio, as I didn’t find it a very immediate place to work. You know, recording the same guitar part 50 times and deciding which was the best, or comping a solo out of 75 different bits, isn’t the greatest experience! [smiles] So I dipped in, shall we say, to the studio scene, but then got 36 HEADLINER

out of it again. I moved back into live sound around 1993, and that’s pretty much me today, though I do still have a studio.

WHAT KIND OF STUDIO PROJECTS DID YOU WORK ON?

Mostly B sides and promo stuff, though I’ve done a few bits for Duran Duran, such as the last live album, and a film for them that was done with David Lynch which was really good. I find it very interesting mixing in 5.1 rather than stereo, especially with something arty. I’ve also done some TV stuff as well, for Sky Arts, and quite a few online streaming bits and bobs, but certainly no A list albums, or anything like that.

ARE YOU A KIT FANATIC?

Well, I bought some random things for the studio more than anything.

Originally, I had a few plugins such as the Waves Renaissance, and the Waves standalone de-esser, but that’s going way back, and it was all in Native, as funnily enough, I’ve never mixed in Pro Tools in the studio, I’ve always been a Steinberg user. But it was during this time that I kind of fell in love with plugins. I bought a package, and then I ended up buying the [Waves] Mercury bundle, the Studio Classics, and I bought them on TDM as well, which is where they existed for my live shows on my console. But my love of plugins stemmed from the studio, and that led onto the thought

process of, ‘how do I deal with this in a live situation without this plugin or that plugin?’ It allows me to translate to the live realm, stuff I’ve used in the studio as a workhorse.

PLUGIN TECHNOLOGY HAS EVOLVED DRAMATICALLY IN RECENT YEARS. WHAT ARE YOUR GO-TOS TODAY, AND WHY?

For me, there are two types of plugin that I use: one is what I consider the tools, the hammer and chisels, such as the standard EQs, and bespoke plugins that Waves have created from scratch, such as the Q EQs, which I am a big user of, as I am their de-essers. Secondly, there are the emulations, which are the new holy grail; these are the things that take a huge amount of time and resource to create, such as the PuigChild - the plugins that are modelled on hardware units. And if you’ve used these bits of kit, you’ll know how extremely close to the original they all really are. That kind of precision is quite amazing, actually. [Waves] Tape Saturation, and the Kramer Master Tape, the permutations of what those analogue bits of kit could do, and how they sounded under stress, is the really tough thing to translate. Saturation is the word, actually; that kind of detail is what a lot of the older plugins missed, but the newer ones now are really catching up on. Some of the time, I want a clean, utilitarian thing, and go to the Waves 1176 models, and I have to say, the new

// SNAKE NEWTON //

SNAKE'S GO-TO PLUGINS

the crap out of it, which is, of course, the way you’d use it in the studio to get the colouration. That is the secret of getting them to sound like the original units, and hats off to Waves for that.

DO YOU HAVE A STANDARD VOCAL CHAIN, OR DOES THAT DEPEND ON THE ARTIST?

K R A M E R M A S T E R TA P E

Everyone’s vocal is different, but generally speaking, I’ll use the 1176, followed by the C4 or C6, or maybe just a de-esser, depending on how smooth the artist’s vocal tonality is. A lot of the time, I’ll use a C4 or C6 with just one band activated - an upper mid band - to get rid of any shrillness that appears when they dig in. I set the 1176 to fast, so it’s almost working as a limiter, really.

WHAT SHOULD AN ENGINEER NEVER DO?

U LT R A M A X I M I S E R

[laughs] A couple of things, actually! Use your ears and don’t look at the screen.

I’ve seen people that have done what’s right and because it ‘looks wrong’ on the screen, they’ve changed it. That is crazy.

In the old days, on a tom, you might dig out 15dB at 250Hz, add 4dB at 80 or 100Hz, and add another 6dB in the high end, so you might have a 24dB difference between 300Hz and 6k, but you never saw it on a screen, so you never thought of it. These days, I’ve had people lean over my shoulder and said, ‘whoa, that looks like the Himalayas!’ I say, ‘well, how does it sound?’ and I always get, ‘well yeah, it sounds good’. What the hell does it matter what it looks like? You don’t listen with your eyes, do you?

WHAT ABOUT JESSIE J? SHE MUST HAVE A VOCAL CHAIN AND A HALF!

C 4 M U LT I B A N D COMPRESSOR

dbx 160 is just awesome. It’s been a longtime hardware favourite of mine, and that is seriously impressive.

All these model units have really taken shape.

The Waves Fairchild is another good example: when you drive it hard, it feels like it’s being driven hard. There are plugins out there that claim to be a Fairchild, and I’ve listened and just thought, ‘what?’ Because it doesn’t sound anything like it. It might have a similar attack and release envelope, but it doesn’t do what the box does; and clearly Waves have put a great deal of time into that, and have actually figured out what the box does when you’re smashing

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Oh, her voice is a beast! [laughs] I have a TC Electronic BBMaxx hardware unit on it, which has de-essing and dynamic EQ built in, then I have the Waves 1176, a Waves de-esser, and a C6. Basically, the channel goes into a group, so the backing vocals and lead vocals share the group, and they’re dynamically EQd together.

The classic problem is, when we have live BVs, sometimes there are three of them, and Jessie, and the playback rig, which has album stems of the BVs. When they stack up tighter, that is a lot of female voices at the same time, and that can be tricky, as they don’t all happen in a perfectly constructed manner, so I have a C6 and a de-esser on the group that they all go to, to tame them as a unit, because if she stops singing, and the BVs are behind, the whole vocal mix falls away.

AND YOU STILL HAVE TO KEEP HER LIVE VOCAL ON THE TOP, RIGHT?

Yes. The BVs have to be prominent, but her voice has to sit on top. So the C6 will basically sit on the upper mid, and it’ll be working fairly hard when she’s singing, and when she stops singing, it drops away. Great bit of kit. The BVs automatically pop up into the space she’s left. And on Jessie’s voice, there is an L1 [Ultramaximiser], too. It’s a brick wall, really! She is an extremely dynamic artist, that can go from a whisper to the most gnarly monster of a top note that will ever come out of a woman’s mouth in the space of a bar! That is not something you can control without an L1, so her chain has an L1 last in the channel.

WHAT’S BEEN THE BIGGEST SHIFT IN TERMS OF LIVE SOUND IN THE LAST 20 YEARS?

Probably virtual soundcheck, or the ability to record and play back, which I developed very early on. I am totally the automation person I am today because of that, and I trust the process. I’ve spent 15 years recording the band and playing it back through the rig, developing scenes for every song, and although it doesn’t work for every band, the more you get into artists like Duran Duran, everything changes from song to song, and if you don’t do that, it’ll sound like a pub version of the band. So much of Duran Duran’s sound is due to the production; the first album was very dry, and post punk electro if you like, with pop tunes, and then you get to A View To a Kill, which was done for the James Bond film, and we moved into the era of big reverb, and the drums on that, there is more gated reverb than there is drum! [smiles] If you did that song without that effect, it’s not the same. For that, I use a Waves gate following an RVerb, which is triggered in the old school way, off the snare and off an auxiliary. So it’s the ability to cue every song, and make it happen that way. I don’t do my masters automated, but pretty much everything aside from the lead vocal is automated.

I look at every song as a piece of music, and then the lead vocal goes on top of it. The ability to listen back and make decisions on a song by song basis is a huge bonus in today’s industry. www.waves.com

10 MINUTES WITH...

R O M ESH DODANGODA After ‘being in a band for a while’, ROMESH DODANGODA began to develop a serious passion for recording, and hasn’t looked back since. He takes us through his go-to kit, some recent projects, and offers us a few words of audio wisdom...

So you’re quite the analogue fan, Romesh...

Yes, I am! My control room is based around an Audient ASP8024 mixing console, which I absolutely love to work on. There’s also a lot of outboard that I use for tracking from manufacturers such as Chandler’s, API, SSL, Retro, Empirical Labs, and so on; and I mix in the box these days, as I’m sometimes working on multiple projects at the same time, so I need to have very fast recall. I’ll sometimes use an SSL Sigma, which is a great unit for getting that analogue console sound with an in the box mix.

My convertors/clocking is by Antelope, and I also have an SSL Alphalink if I need more I/O. The studio is basically setup so that everything hits the console for tracking, so I can EQ, and blend mics together, you know? All the buss outs then feed the Antelope, and the returns come up on the large faders on the Audient for monitoring. Having it set up this way means I can do no latency headphone mixes.

Do you mix much on headphones?

Oh, a lot. I remember getting introduced to Audio-Technica’s ATH-M50s by some friends of mine in bands who were always talking about them. At the time, I was looking for a new headphone to use, so I got a set sent out to me, and have loved them ever since! I use them pretty much every day at some point, and in my opinion, everything about them is great. The sound is, of course, really good, and they’re not at all hyped, which is key, and then there’s the build quality of them, which is just excellent.

The other thing about working with the M50s is, I find I can wear them all day and they don’t feel uncomfortable. I suffer no fatigue as a result, which is perfect.

What’s your preference on the DAW front?

For me, it’s Steinberg Nuendo v6. I have been using Nuendo since v1, and I am very familiar with it; I really like the features. I have Logic and Pro Tools as well, but if any sessions come in for me to mix in those formats, I usually get it consolidated, and carry on in Nuendo.

What are the most significant changes in terms of technology that you’ve seen in studio world over the last few years?

I guess the biggest change was me moving from out of the box to in the box mixing. I remember printing mixes, and the mix was almost a performance in itself! [laughs] The mix would be printed to DAT, and there was usually no need to recall it after. Changing my workflow to in the box was difficult at first, and I couldn’t

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10

get things to sound how I wanted them to, but the technology and software that’s available now has really made in the box work for me in that I can work on a few projects at once, and it’s so easy for me to recall something if I need to run off a radio edit or instrumental quickly.

Sometimes, I might start mixing a song, and if it’s not quite working for me, I might move onto another song and come back to it. Having the ability to pick up where I left off is great.

You’ve just finished mixing the latest Bring Me The Horizon live DVD. Do you approach mixing a live recording differently to something that you’ve tracked in the studio?

Definitely. With mixing a live DVD, its more about creating a mix that represents the show, and something that captures the atmosphere, especially as it was at Wembley Arena. I wanted to make sure it had all the energy and impact of something that was tracked in the studio, but it also had to sound live. I mixed the DVD to the video edit, which allowed me to watch the show and mix it to the picture, and I used a lot of automation on the ambient mics to really get the crowd nice and loud. It’s always a bit tricky, as if you have them up too much, the band starts to sound a bit washy, so I used a lot of automation to find the right balance. We also did a 5.1 surround mix of the show at Abbey Road Studios, which was really enjoyable.

Do you have a rule of thumb in terms of building your working relationships with artists, and ensuring they’re always comfortable in their working environment?

There’s no rule as such, but I just find it’s important to understand what they are trying to do, and then work towards making that happen.

I think if you can do that, then you will have a great relationship with the band. The studio is a fun place to be in, and as long as the band is having a good time then you should be able to make a great record.

Finally, do you have any dos and don’ts you could offer our more technically inclined readership on mixing? [smiles] I would say try and treat your room, and learn your monitors. It’s really important to have your room treated well, otherwise you might not be able to hear what is actually going on, which can cause problems in tracking and mixing. www.audio-technica.com

39 HEADLINER

ROMESH DODANGODA

“AS LO N G AS T H E BA N D I S H AV I N G A G O O D T I M E , YO U S H O U L D B E A B L E TO M A K E A G R E AT R ECO R D.”

// TEENAGE CANCER TRUST //

SOMETHING TO SHOUT ABOUT

“S U P P O RT I N G T H I S C H A R I T Y, GIVING THEM THE B EST P R O D U CT I O N W E CA N , I S ACT UA L LY V E RY R EWA R D I N G.”

E

very year, a plethora of world-renowned artists gather at London’s Royal Albert Hall to raise money for the fantastic Teenage Cancer Trust charity. This year marked the event’s 15th anniversary, and the week-long spectacle, spearheaded by Who frontman (and patron for the charity), Roger Daltrey, included a bunch of eclectic performances from Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller, Van Morrison, and Tom Jones. “It’s a bit like a festival, really,” says sound designer for the event, Liam Halpin. This, he reveals, is why a state-ofthe-art networking system was required, along with a neat little ‘shout system’.

“Although we’re not in a field, these shows always feel very much like a festival,” says Halpin, who’s been working on the event for the past six years. “The Royal Albert Hall is a venue I know well, but it’s also acoustically challenging, so communication is always key.”

A year ago, system provider, Entec, was aware that something needed to be

41 HEADLINER

done for the networking side of things, Halpin explains, and that prompted the creation of an Ethernet network.

“We thought that if we were going to do networking for the amplifiers, we may as well do the Dante return system,” Halpin explains.

“We had a band request the myMix system just before we started building the system, and when we saw it, we immediately realised it would make a fantastic shout system, so we factored it into the design of the network.”

Deploying myMix has allowed Halpin and his team to decentralise the system, which means a far greater degree of localised control.

“The myMix basically just piggybacks onto the network that we already have installed,” he continues. “We have compatible ports on all 24 of our network switches across the network, a [DiGiCo] SD7 at front-of-house, and a six-channel comms system which the myMix is also locked into, so during a busy line check, the front-of-house and monitor guys are able to talk into a mic and still have a direct link to the patch guys running around on the radio comms system.”

I think I follow... And what other key benefits does myMix bring to the table?

“Well, before myMix, we had a 20-channel rackmount mixer which took up 10U of space, and now it’s condensed down to a 2U drawer with two myMix units, all driven off POE switches that are all over our network. It’s great, because we can just plug it in and go, and not worry about power supplies.”

At pretty much every festival, Halpin says, increasing channel counts have become an ongoing frustration, as “pretty much every engineer sets up in a similar way”. So which way is that, then?

“Well, let’s say you’ve got a touring band; they’ll normally set up their shout system within their monitor console, and then place shout mics around the stage for the techs, but when using myMix, it becomes very easy to decentralise that,” he explains. “If you want a little bit more of yourself or somebody else in your shout mix, and the monitor engineer is busy dealing with the artist - who ultimately is the boss - you’re just not going to get what you need, whereas with myMix, it allows us to have that control for each user, and I have to say, it works fantastically well.”

Musically, the Teenage Cancer Trust events are always eclectic, which Halpin thinks is part of their charm. That, and the venue, of course, which is one of his favourites: “It’s always a challenge doing a week of shows, but I do have a lot of fondness for the Royal Albert Hall, and the fact we can do a whole range of shows, from Van Morrison, to The Who and Stereophonics, is great. We even had Bullet for my Valentine one year, which was effectively a metal show, and we always have a comedy night, too. It’s a mix of theatrical, seat-based shows, acoustic-led music nights, and right up to rock and metal, so to deploy a system and support the charity, giving them the best production we can, is actually very rewarding.

“There’s always updates to software, and new speaker cabinets being launched, and the system evolves every time I go in there, but that’s what keeps it exciting for me.” www.mymixaudio.com

// GIULIA //

/ T H E F A B R I C S O F F A M E /

I

and how the two industries are linked. She’s 50-50 partner in her friend’s talian singer-songwriter, Giulia, chose London as the fashion business, whose latest clothing line has recently caught the eye of musical hub to pursue her dream. She hands us a copy of Hollywood actress, Blake Lively. her new album, Turn Your Light On, and begins to tell us “The fashion industry fuses nicely with the music industry, and vice all about it... versa. As well as creating art, I wanted to invest in the talent I believe “I always compare albums to books, as they both tell a story,” in, and having someone as cool as Blake Lively, who is also a Chanel Giulia says. “Mine hasn’t got a beginning, middle, and end, ambassador, ordering half of our [clothing] line for herself is pretty as such, but it tells a story about me, what I have been amazing! For me, music and fashion always run in parallel; I’m no through, and what I have been thinking about.” designer, but I like to go to the fashion fairs, and help to choose the I ask her what the message of the album is. She pauses for fabrics. I’m pretty hands-on.” thought, takes a sip of Sauvignon Blanc, and Quite the entrepreneur – and one driven leans forward in her chair. woman. We move on to life back home, “It’s strong, flavoursome, dramatic, and “IT'S STRONG, and opportunity (or lack of) for Italian innocent... Like me,” she smiles. “It’s actually artists trying to make their way through the been a work in progress for five years, so it’s a F L AV O U R S O M E , younger and more naïve me, and also a more musical ranks. stronger, mature me, all mixed together.”

“It’s sad, because as an Italian person, you D R A M AT I C , A N D The album was officially released at want to be represented in your own country, the end of April on an independent label, but it’s just not possible to get what I want I N N O C E N T. . . to achieve out there,” she says, with a hint of but it was back in high school that Giulia melancholy. “Everything is controlled, and knew London would be her port of call to L I K E M E .” you don’t have space of decision; if you’re make a mark on the music industry. not coming from a talent show, you’re not “I thought about the US, but the UK is going to make it. Pop is the Italian thing, and like the United States of Europe, as anything they try to build you in a talent show kind of can happen here,” Giulia says. “The music way, with the fabrics of immediate fame. It’s very much a manufactured business is so cool here, and the biggest artists in the world come from scene: for the most part, you’re told what to say, what to sing, how to here; in many ways, it’s where everything started. It took time to develop behave, and what to wear.” my sound, and there are many new songs, such as Turn Your Light On, I have a feeling that Giulia certainly won’t be told to do any of the which is the first song on the record, and one I wrote just a few months above, by anybody... Right? ago, and we decided to add it to the album at the last minute.”

“Oh, no way! Fashion is so important within the music industry,” she And it’s a cracking song, too. Up tempo, poppy, powerful, catchy... says, laughing. “Like everything in art, it’s a tool to express yourself, and And, dare I say, commercial?

I am lucky enough to be able to do that both musically and aesthetically; “Yes you can, and thank you, it’s a song that means a lot to me, and it’s a really nice combination.” it’s the first single, too,” Giulia smiles. I ask her about her love of fashion,

42 HEADLINER

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/ / F E S T I VA L F E V E R / /

F E S T I VA L FEVER It’s fast approaching that time of year again... Festival season. We’ve been to plenty of these over the years, be it a boutique event (that closes the following year), a bizarre hippified folk gathering in rural England, or something substantial, such as V Festival, Hellfest, or Glastonbury.

Whatever the live event, one thing’s for sure, PA companies are facing more challenges when it comes to audio. Why? Purse strings are tightening, and crowds are more expectant than ever when it comes to ‘good sound’. We look at some of the technology that keeps everything ticking over nicely...

Powersoft is on the cutting edge, as far as amplifier technology goes, with products such as the X Series now being used to optimise audio at festivals and live events across the globe. It’s often about being on the ball when it comes to load in and load out times at these events, making sure patching, wiring, and overall PA setup is optimised.

Thankfully, efficiency is a word Powersoft knows all about, explains the company’s US sales director, Kurt Metzler.

“Something key to the X Series is its ability to take three-phase power directly, and automatically load-balance between those three phases,” Metzler explains. How does that work, exactly?

“Well, I look at it like a three-cylinder engine, where the pushing pistons provide the power, if that makes sense?”

It does. Metzler goes on to tell me that the maximum AC current draw can also be set on each Powersoft amp. So, if generator power is limited, for example, users can make sure no breakers are tripped?

“Exactly. And another key benefit to using our amps on major shows and festivals is the ability to re-route ins to outs through Dante,” Metzler says. “You can mix and match any input to any output, be it AES, Dante, or analogue, without degrading the audio signal.”

Just to be sure, we thought we’d check what some of the end users had to say,

44 HEADLINER

so we had a chat with Lithuanian rental house, No Noise, a recent adoptee of Powersoft’s X Series.

According to the company’s creative director, Lina Stanišauskaitė, X8 has helped transform workflow on all the live shows they put out.

“We have eight X8s, but what we actually get is 64 channels of 3kw/4ohm, so it’s 192 kw in total, which is fantastic,” Lina explains. “You get a lot of channels in a small package, and it’s unbeatable for transportation.”

No Noise also looks after Lithuania’s premier artist, SEL, and for the band’s upcoming tour, X8 will be at the helm.

“For SEL’s big concerts, X8 is a perfect fit; we use it on the entire system, be it a line array, subwoofer, monitor, or sidefill,” Lina continues. “As well as X8’s impressive DSP power and three-phase power supply, what really sets it apart is its phenomenal dynamic range. Even at high SPLs, big sound is very easy on the ear, and aside from the subs, we use FIR filters on everything.

“We never like to worship gear, but we think these amplifiers are the best on the market; and as the summer season unfolds, we’ll be investing in more X8.

It’s now the only amplifier we want to work with.”

Well, there you have it, a job well done! Make sure you check out our interview with SEL in the next issue. www.powersoft-audio.com

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/ / J O N AT H O N H O L D E R & T H E G O O D T H I N K I N G / /

I N T O T H E T H I N K T A N K

J

onathon Holder & The Good Thinking is one unique musical songwriting duo: Jonathon himself, a wizard on the piano with a voice that’ll blow your mind; and multiinstrumentalist and record producer, Andrew Hunt. The result? A pretty spellbinding fusion, actually. We catch up with the boys in North London over coffee, to discuss their record deal with new indie label, Marvellous Records, a cool recording session in St. Giles in the Field, and most importantly, the music behind the men...

“I have always had classical in me, so to speak,” opens Jonathon, a charming if not slightly manic character, dressed in colourful clothes, and sporting a grin from ear to ear. Like this guy already. “I had a few piano lessons, and I was really into The Beatles, but then I saw the [Ray Charles] movie, Ray, and it did something to me. I was suddenly skiing off piste a bit. I just got the 47 HEADLINER

vibe of it, the impression, but I didn’t want to play exactly like Ray Charles, and I think that’s why my sound has come out not so similar to anyone, you know?”

Holder’s right hand man, Andrew Hunt, is essentially the ‘Good Thinking’ part of the duo, and provides a different insight and approach to the dynamics and the recording of the music. “[smiles] When I work with anyone, they come round, have a few drinks, and listen to records, to see if we’ll get on; it’s the most important thing to me,” explains Hunt. “Can they sing? Can they write? Is there potential?

Great, if so, but it’s mainly about whether I can help them reach that potential, and if we don’t see eye to eye, it’s no good.”

So, Holder went round to Hunt’s place, drank some beers, and played a load of records; and when Hunt pulled out a copy of Ray Charles’ first record, he saw ‘that spark’.

“Listening to that record, I immediately understood where the emotion and feel of Jonathon’s playing came from,” Hunt explains.

“So we sat in a room, got another guy

involved, and wrote a single there and then, and the label loved it. They then just commissioned us to do an EP, and now that’s evolved into an album.”

“But that’s what I really needed, working with Andrew, as it kept me from bouncing off the walls,” adds Holder. They both giggle, like old school friends. “It’s the producer’s ear that really makes the difference, too. Andrew doesn’t listen to records the same way as us mortals. If I put on Ray Charles, I may love the piano, but he will spot vocal timings, and all sorts, which gives us ideas for the record. That, to me, is priceless.”

As a result of some repeated computer software failures, Holder and Hunt actually ended up doing a lot of the writing of the album on a four-track Portastudio. Although it wasn’t Logic or Pro Tools, as Jonathon put it at the time, ‘technology may fail us, but the talent will never let us down’. Did that ring true?

“It did! We wrote it all on a four-track, even the arrangements,” smiles Hunt. “I was initially on guitar, and Jonathon was on keys, but writing on guitar was fighting his playing, so

/ / J O N AT H O N H O L D E R & T H E G O O D T H I N K I N G / /

“A L O T O F T H E BEST MUSIC COMES OUT O F FA I T H A N D CO M PASS I O N .”

I went on to bass, and then it all started to click.”

One of the great things about their working relationship is the free musical reign they get with their record label, Marvellous Records. I guess it takes balls to support ‘real’ music in this day and age?

“Definitely,” Holder concurs. I ask him about his previous musical endeavours, and he beams (again). “Believe it or not, I played in a backing band for a hip hop artist, and we then started producing together. I was doing that nearly full time for a couple of years, and then moved on to house and dance music, too. Then, I knew I needed to crack on with my own thing, and thankfully that’s when the [record] deal opportunity reared its head.”

It’s certainly an eclectic mix, which made recording the EP particularly interesting. I ask the twosome to tell me about their recent recording project in St. Giles in the Field.

“Because it’s mostly just the two of us, the majority of the work was done at my studio, which is not very big, and has no real piano,” Hunt explains. “But I really wanted real piano, and to serve two purposes: as well as recording the single, we also wanted to do a very spiritual ballad of pure emotion, and finding an environment that could capture that was tough.

We looked at many studios, but every time, something wasn’t quite right, and then I met an old friend of mine up in London’s Centre Point Paramount Bar, which has a gallery, and as we’re walking round, I spotted St. Giles in the Field. She then tells me there’s a piano in there, and the guy is very accommodating, so we decided to check it out; and on arrival, we 48 HEADLINER

realised it suited both tunes we wanted to record perfectly. Because it’s in a church, we also filmed it, and Jonathon’s performances are amazing.”

I’ll second that. Hunt recruited the help of Source Distribution’s Andy Bensley to provide some key kit for the recording, including a set of Genelec monitors, Audio Technica ATH-M50x headphones, and some API kit.

“I know the guys at Source Distribution well, so Andy came down and specced it all for me.

All the mics were mine, and we pieced it with the API Box, where you have your four mic pres, and loads of line ins, so I could hook up all my pres, and it was spot on,” Hunt says. “The Genelecs have DSP software, and although they’re not necessarily my go-to monitor, when you’re on location, like this, it isn’t possible to go and grab your own speakers and set it all up, as you don’t have the time to treat the room, and you’re also in very close proximity with the live arena. What was great was, we were able to calibrate the Genelecs to be the best they could be in that environment, and that was such a bonus.”

To make it work artistically, Holder would have to feel entirely at ease.

“I wanted a setup whereby Jonathon only concentrated on his performance, and me,” Hunt explains. “It was just me, another assistant on site, Jonathon, and two film crew, and it worked great. His performance of the very spiritual, Nobody Knows, was a real highlight. I knew when he was in the zone that he’d nail it, which he did. It’s a unique, and very special recording.”

The song Nobody Knows clearly means a lot to Holder, too: “It’s such a universal thing, the lyric ‘nobody knows the trouble I see’... [pauses] I mean, I don’t know anyone who can’t relate to that, somehow, whether it’s a global issue, or just a little day to day decision you might make,” he says. “As a concept, that’s how I feel. I am not a Christian, but I love Christian music. I love Stevie Wonder, and even he is very religiously motivated, but I also love Bach, so that’s where my influences span the musical spectrum. A lot of the best music comes out of faith and compassion, and I don’t follow any organised religion; I relate to the passion, if not to the verse.”

I can almost feel the depth in Holder’s thinking, just by talking to him, and his passion is indeed unquestionable. The first single, It Shouldn’t Matter (To You), has now been mastered by award-winning mastering engineer, Mandy Parnell, and was released on June 8.

“Expect a very big sounding record with lots of backing vocals,” Hunt smiles. “It’s not a retro feeling album, the sentiment is very modern sounding; and it’s about building the tracks rather than comping. We rehearse, and make it solely about performance, working out parts as a whole, which makes a difference when you’re working with backing singers, as the mics respond differently. When you’re working with Jonathon, the performance is where you get the emotion from, not the programming.” www.marvellousrecords.com

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// ROBERT THE ROADIE //

GRUMPY OLD ROADIE

I

settled down for an interesting evening in front of the telly, tissues by my side, but then realised that I must have misheard the trailer and in fact it was only the ‘Election Special’ that I was getting so excited about.

As of today (mid April), no one really knows what’s going to happen, and it’s looking about as open a result as it’s ever been [here in the UK]. I’ve heard talk of all sorts of coalition possibilities, but the best one really has to be a Tory/Labour coalition to keep out Nicola Krankie and the SNPs. Just imagine what that would mean. They’d have to rebuild the House of Commons to fit the Coalition on the governing benches whilst leaving 30 or so seats for Nicola’s lot. Plus maybe one for Nigel [Farage] and two more for his Tory defectors?

Cleggy and his cohorts will be gone, banished forever into the depths of hell for being such a bunch of lying tossers. I don’t think the Irish lot actually come to take their seats. It’s a Ryanair thing, and they’d have to get up too early to catch the pre-dawn flight from Belfast.

So rolling the truck forward some eight weeks and two tours, it’s now May 26, and I was late finishing this column, which is quite timely, really, considering the split nature of the election results.

My ‘pre’ notes have turned out to become almost reality, and we ended up with… Erm, well, just more of the same, really! But it’s the voice of the people. Better the devil you know.

The Labour party have scurried off into a corner to re-invent themselves, trying to find a valid reason for people to vote them back into power. Whatever happened to the Labour ideal?

The fundamental principal of looking after the working class?

50 HEADLINER

Shouldn’t that be enough to get them into power and stay there forever? After all, there’s enough of us to vote them in. Clearly it’s not that, and the demarcation between the two main parties has blurred so much, I’d have a job to tell the difference between the manifestos if you gaffa-taped the front page!

The working classes could see Labour struggling to find valid reasons and policy just to get votes, so the working classes chose the safe option and voted for the alternative, or alternatives if you’re Scottish. Now there’s a thing.

The SNP control most of the Scottish seats now, and by default have their own form of diluted devolution without the pain of having to fund it. Smart move.

My own personal view is simple.

I choose to live here in the country that I was born in. It’s a beautiful place with trees and birds and Channel 4. The population is a melting pot of creed and culture where cynicism is a given. Sure, there are problems, and these problems need sorting. But at the end of the day, if I was that unhappy, I could just pack my bags and fuck off to somewhere with no

corrupt or inadequate government (if there is anywhere). And when I got there, I bet the load-ins would be crap, the voltage unstable, the local crew all drunk, the day rate a quarter of what it is here, with only three weeks of work a year. So I’m staying, whoever ends up fucking up the economy.

See you on a bus somewhere...

ROBERT THE ROADIE

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