Headliner USA Issue 20

SoundOn is TikTok’s all-in one platform for music creators

Paul Watson CEO

Keith Watson Chairman

Rian Zoll-Kahn COO

Dan Gumble Head of Content

Colby Ramsey

Group Editor

Alice Gustafson Editor

Adam Protz

Senior Writer

Rick Dickerson

Reviews Editor

Marc Henshall

Head of Digital

Grace Mcguigan

Artist Relations Manager

Rae Gray Head of Design

Welcome to Headliner USA

Issue 20.

For the cover feature of this edition of Headliner USA we had the privilege of speaking with one of the most influential figures at the heart of one of the world’s most exciting musical movements. As president of Warner Music Latin America for the past three years, Alejandro Duque has been central to the company’s success in this field, but his lifetime immersed in the culture has given him a unique perspective not only on how the scene has evolved into a global force over the past decade, but also its potential to share international music trends for many years to come.

As he describes in our interview, the microscopic attention paid to the various regions, scenes, and genres developing in Latin America has resulted in a vibrant, thriving ecosystem for the artists and creators involved. Significant interest in artists and collaboration from across the US and Asia continue to accelerate the popularity of Latin Music, yet interestingly, Duque tells us, the UK market has proved the toughest market to crack so far. He describes this as his biggest challenge and opportunity. As a nation that is so renowned for its trailblazing role in setting music industry trends, it seems unlikely that the UK will pass up the opportunity to

get involved in such a phenomenon as it evolves the world over.

Elsewhere in this issue, we explore the theme of musical evolution through the eyes of numerous perspectives. Legendary songwriter, producer, and musician Fraser T Smith, who has worked with the likes of Adele, Stormzy, Sam Smith, Kano, Dave, and many more, opens up on his new solo album Django’s High, which sees him draw on all of his experience to create arguably his most ambitious outing to date.

We also hear from the next generation of DJs starting out their career with JBL, as we discuss the challenges and opportunities facing new talent in today’s industry, as well as the tech they require to ensure their music connects with their audience.

Enjoy.

Dan Gumble Head of Content

By Dan Gumble

By Dan Gumble

By Dan Gumble

By Adam Protz

The power of high-res audio 82 BRINGING ‘WORLD CLASS CONCERT SOUND’ TO MARSHALL STUDIOS

86 FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES

DiGiCo equips new Nashville club 92 REACEYUNG

On the inspiration behind ‘Heart Of Lou 2’

GLP BRINGS ‘MUSHROOM’ STAGE TO LIFE AT COACHELLA 2024

MIXING ‘SHOGUN’ WITH LECTROSONICS

JEAN-MICHEL JARRE

The sound of the ‘Bridge From the Future’

s by ALICE GUSTAFSON

BLOOM TWINS BEATS NOT BOMBS

Ukrainian-born sisters Anna and Sonia Kuprienko, aka Bloom Twins, open up about moving to the UK aged 16 (not knowing a word of English), their debut EP, Transformer, and the influence of their Ukrainian identity in their music.

Since emigrating from Ukraine to London at age 16, the Bloom Twins have made waves in both the music and fashion scenes. As classically trained multi-instrumentalists, the twins have used their platform to draw attention to important issues such as mental health and freedom of expression. With their recent singles,

Bloom Twins continue to establish themselves as influential voices in the music and fashion industries. By using their talents to address pressing social issues and incorporating hidden messages in their work, they aim to inspire fans around the world to unite and make a difference through resilience and the power of music.

we could. So I guess what our parents played ultimately started as our fresh start into unknown music. And for us, it was The Beatles.

only incredible stories, but also learning curves, and are something that you take within yourself when you write songs. We thought we were ready to perform in front of everyone, given we had been doing it for over 10 years doing classical music. So our idea was to sing blues songs at a blues bar and do it with musicians we’d never met before. We thought, ‘It’s like karaoke with musicians, so we’re just gonna have fun’. We sang and we were not perceived in this blues era – very quickly we were booed off the stage.

What are your early memories of music as children?

AK: The thing is, we were never really exposed to Ukrainian music, oddly enough. During our childhood we were going to classical music school and our mother was teaching us how to sing – it was all classical music. Our dad would listen to Rolling Stones and The Beatles – every freakin’ weekend [laughs]. So we never really listened to Ukrainian music, unless it was folk or something – we were exposed to classical music and English music. I guess the whole destiny brought us to London!

SK: We started singing before we could talk! We were exposed to classical music and hours of working every day. Anna trained in piano for seven hours a day, and then we would have classical singing. Basically, we were not allowed to listen to any other music, and that actually opened up the door to this mystery of listening to anything

You emigrated from Ukraine to London at age 16. How did you find it navigating living in a new country at such young ages?

AK: It’s a really hard path because we need visas to be able to stay here and all that stuff, and London is very expensive, so you need to figure out how you’re going to pay for stuff. So when we got this chance to go to London, we didn’t think twice about it. We thought, ‘We’re gonna fly to London and then overnight it’ll be a success’. Because you’re 16 years old –you don’t know anything [laughs]. We were sold instantly.

SK: The journey was long and quite fascinating. We learned very fast that dreams come with a lot of work and a lot of luck, and with some occasional screw-ups. To me, that was the greatest gift of this journey – to understand that screw-ups are not

AK: Then we had a showcase, and bear in mind I hadn’t touched a piano for years. They put a piano in front of me and said, ‘You play piano. Why don’t you use it?’ I’m like, ‘Okay, I guess it’s gonna be the first time I’m gonna touch one in years’. No pressure at all! I could sense that if this song was not going to work out, we were going to be sent back to Ukraine, and by this time, I’d fallen in love with London. By the way, we did not speak a word of English. So all these meetings with labels were prepared in advance by us memorizing all the sentences as a way to communicate. I created a to-do list: What do we need to fix? We need to learn English; we need to write songs that are bangers. I somehow was able to write something on piano, even though I’ve never written anything on piano – I was classically trained reading music from a music sheet. We showed it to our managers and they saw something in it and said, ‘Okay, I guess we’re not going to send them back to Ukraine’. So every day, we would be watching American and English TV shows and would write down all the words that we didn’t know, and at the end of the day, we would go through all of those words. We had this rule in the house where Russian and Ukrainian languages were not allowed. This is how, from almost zero knowledge of English, we went into this basic English in a month. But we were stressed out! This is the best way to learn anything: if you’re stressed and there is no other way, you will learn things fast.

Tell us about the influence of your Ukrainian identity in your music and how your work has changed since the war?

SK: Our parents formed a folk band, which is quite traditional Ukrainian music, with their own twist. That’s something we took with us when we moved to London, and we didn’t realize how much of it was embedded in our careers. Our politics and our stance started when the first invasion of Ukraine started, which was in 2014. When we released a cover of Get Up, Stand Up by Bob Marley, we were showing that it’s not okay to just come into somebody else’s country and take part of that. We were standing by that from the very beginning. Then when the war started, it really struck a chord in us. I personally looked at everything that I’ve been doing – music included – and I asked myself, ‘Is that enough? Am I doing enough? Is my music enough?’ I realized that I am a musician, and everything that I do is artistic. You try to change people’s hearts, or to make them not be indifferent, or to make people hear your point. Potentially, that can result in a change in the hearts of others, and we can stand together and be stronger. That’s something we took with us.

Your debut EP, Transformer, is out now; it’s made up of powerful anthems about resilience and selfreclamation. Tell us about how the EP came together and how these themes developed?

AK: We went to L.A. right after the war in Ukraine started and we were supposed to release more music during that period, but it felt so weird for us to be releasing this happy music when there’s stuff going on in Ukraine. So we scrapped the whole idea and went to L.A. We met this guy, Sam Nelson – he’s an incredible writer, and we bounced some different ideas off him. The first time we actually worked with him was Beats Not Bombs, which is the second song from the EP. As we were singing the song Sonia said, ‘We need to sing those BVs in the choruses like we’re drunk and loud’. He just stopped right there and, ‘Wait a second. This is a great title for your next song’. I think we had an hour left, so we said, ‘Let’s quickly write the song,’ and legit in an hour, the whole song was done. It’s probably one of my favorite songs from the EP - and Transformers

Your song, Transformer captures the journey of bouncing back from life’s toughest moments; what were you thinking about when you wrote this?

SK: I’ve been reading a lot of things that people say on the web, and they’re like, ‘It’s a tough relationship; it’s the need to transform’ – everything like that. I was quite confused with that – I don’t think that’s what it is. I believe that every song that I ever liked was always something that you find within yourself, and that’s something that you feel. This song means the world to me. I love so many songs that we’ve written and I’m very proud to say that this EP might be the best songs we’ve ever written, or maybe some of them, will ever write.

AK: The beauty of songs is that people can relate to a song differently and take something else from it. For me the song Transformer is about Ukraine as a country transforming into

a better, stronger, kinder place. When you put yourself into a challenge, there are two outcomes: either you’re going to be destroyed, or you’re gonna come out stronger and better. That’s how I look at Ukraine. When you go through so much crap, you need to look at your situation from the comedy perspective, in a way. It’s like what Mr. Bean said: ‘If you look at your life closely, this is a tragedy, but if you step back and you look at it, it’s a comedy.’ That’s how Ukrainians deal with a lot of stuff. They’re very kind. They’re very welcoming, but they are also super strong and resilient because so many things happen to them, and now they’re super strong. But imagine what will happen after the war finally ends. They’re going to be even stronger; they will transform into this beautiful country that people will know about forever.

You have used your platform to draw attention to important issues like mental health and freedom of expression, so in terms of performing live and expressing yourself through music what does the phrase Play Out Loud mean to you both?

AK: It means a lot because one of my favorite things in the world is writing music and getting high on writing something really good. Another thing that I really love is playing live with people. It’s connecting with people and getting their energy from the audience. Honestly, it feels like you’re God! I know you’re not God, but it feels like you are so elevated. You see all these people look at you and you know every single one of them knows your songs, and they possibly relate them to a really important time in their life – their first kiss, their first dance, their first breakup. When you look at that, you see a lot of people connect with you in this specific moment. This is the strongest feeling you can ever get. It’s about speaking up. When you’re playing live, it’s about speaking up about important messages and connecting with the audience. It’s togetherness.

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ALEJANDRO

INSIDE THE LATIN MUSIC EXPLOSION

For the past few years, the Latin music market has been taking the world by storm, with artists from across the globe seeking to collaborate with the region’s biggest stars and exploring the various ways in which they can tap into this vibrant, lucrative, and ever-expanding movement. Headliner sat down for an exclusive chat with Warner Music Latin America President Alejandro Duque, fresh off the back of big changes at Warner Music Group which now see him report straight into the company’s CEO Robert Kyncl. We get an inside look at the evolution of Latin music, the A&R culture within the business, and why its international appeal shows no signs of slowing…

Alejandro Duque has spent his life immersed in the world of Latin music. From as far back as he can remember, he has hopped between recording studios, record company offices, and live shows across the Americas. The son of a music industry executive and possessed of an innate passion for artists and records, a life in the business was perhaps unsurprising, but his rise through the ranks to the role he occupies today was certainly never a given. Neither was the Latin music explosion that would ignite around the turn of the

decade, influencing and informing music and culture on a worldwide.

“This is the only thing I’ve ever done,” Duque states as he recalls his music industry roots. Joining Headliner via Zoom from Miami, he speaks freely and easily about everything from his personal background to culture and the signing and development of artists at the company. The slight awkwardness that can come with interviewing label chiefs of such stature is disarmingly absent.

“My dad was in the business, so when I was little, I would see him doing his thing and one of the things I enjoyed most as a kid was going to recording studios after school and just generally annoying people [laughs].

“I went to Berklee College of Music Business and from there I moved to Colombia where I started out with Universal. I was there for almost 16 years. I did everything from being in the digital business – ringtones back then [smiles] – and then I moved from Colombia to Argentina where I oversaw the entire commercial area of the company. After that I moved to Miami, where I was head of business development for Latin America, and then I moved to the Universal Latin Music Label as Managing Director. That was a very interesting point in time. It was prior to the Latin explosion - maybe a year before. The label was going through a lot of transition, which I was heading up. And within six months of joining, we had a monster hit with Despacito by Luis Fonsi and that really opened a huge space and interest for Latin music.

“I worked with Luis Fonsi and we signed artists like Karol G, Sebastian Yatra and Feid. It was quite a journey. We built a really exciting roster and had many hits. I was there until late 2021 and I had been in conversations with Max Lousada and Simon Robson, and they invited me to join Warner Music. I thought it was a really exciting challenge. So I took that big step, and it’s been three years this month since I joined.”

Like most movements that draw significant attention, whether domestically or internationally, the blanket term of ‘Latin music’ scarcely does justice to the rich variety of artists, genres, and cultures that reside beneath it. According to Duque, the widespread adoption seen over the past few years coincides with a period of diversification across Latin American music cultures unlike anything seen before.

“Maybe four years ago you looked at the charts in Mexico and Chile and they were exactly the same,” he says. “Look at them today and you are probably going to find three songs in common across the Top 50. What’s been happening is that markets have started really supporting their domestic movements and talent. That’s made Latin a much more complex segment of the market. The movements are so different and so unique.

“The most evident one to point out is in Mexican music,” he elaborates.

“The original Mexican musical movement has been adopted by younger audiences and younger artists, and they have given it a modern spin. There is a whole movement going on with artists like Natanael Cano, Junior H, Peso Pluma and it’s gained huge traction both in Mexico and the United States.

“Then there is Reggaeton, which was very specific to Puerto Rico and Colombia, and we have in our roster artists like Myke Towers and Blessd. But now you have Reggaeton Mexa coming out of Mexico, artists like Bellakath and YNG Lvcas, and Reggaeton coming out of Argentina and its urban artists, like Tiago PZK. You have Reggaeton from Chile with artists like Gino Mella and Jairo Vera, you have Reggaeton coming out of Spain with

Quevedo and Soge Culebra. And all of them are having equal opportunity to be successful and impact global charts.

“I’m particularly excited about Reggaeton Mexa because, in my view, Mexico can be late to movements, but when they arrive, they hit massive, and I think they are going to have a huge moment with Reggaeton Mexa.”

As for what is fuelling the appetite around the world for Latin music in its various forms, Duque points to a number of contributing factors.

“There are obviously huge Spanishspeaking diasporas around the world, and one of the things artists have done really well in all of the different Latin genres is that they collaborate a lot. They interact a lot, they support each other. That has enabled Latin music to grow to a point where artists from across the world are paying a lot of attention and want to collaborate with them. You start seeing these collaborations that wouldn’t have happened a few years ago, and now you are seeing massive general market artists collaborating with Latin artists or doing Latin versions of songs. That’s becoming much more common. And it’s very well received by audiences in Latin America.

“Also, Latin America is a massive touring market. There are a lot of people and a lot of markets in the region, so artists can make a significant amount of money touring there. It’s a premium touring market so if you can build a connection with Latin audiences through collaborating with Latin artists you have a great shot of selling big tickets and being successful. All of these factors have contributed to it, and also the fact that artists in different genres and markets continue to reinvent themselves and put different musical propositions on the table. That is maintaining people’s interest.”

Over the past couple of years, major mainstream acts have been redoubling their efforts to connect with audiences in this part of the world in order to capitalize on the lucrative opportunities available. This, Duque explains, isn’t always about collaboration. Engaging with the culture, he says, is just as vital as connecting with a popular artist in the region.

“Mainstream artists are looking for connections with Latin cultures,” he asserts. “We saw Bruno Mars in Brazil last year, where he really adopted Brazilian culture, and he had a massive year. And Fred again.. just spent a month in Mexico doing pop up shows and really immersing himself in Mexican culture. He earned this nickname Alfredo Otra Vez, which is Fred Again in Spanish, and that has become a big thing in Mexico. Through this kind of adoption of - or interaction with - Latin cultures, they are managing to feel local and develop these audiences.”

Unsurprisingly, the diversification of style and genre in Latin American music since the start of the 2020s is mirrored by change in the way labels seek to uncover and develop talent. As each territory continues to carve its own creative paths, labels are increasingly having to establish a forensic level of expertise of the locality.

“As I said, a few years ago the charts

looked the same, and the signing approach was about looking for a certain level of performance across the whole Latin American region. We don’t do that today. Today we really look into specific markets and the different genres and movements taking place within them. Then we try to identify those movements and identify who the most relevant artists are, and they are the ones we try to get behind.

“The process has changed significantly,” he continues. “It’s become much more specific. And the way we have built our teams is that we have genre experts in each market who understand the

movements, the culture, that speak the language. Because it’s not just about speaking Spanish. It’s about speaking the Spanish that the Mexican music artists speak as opposed to the Spanish the Mexican Reggaeton artists speak, or the Spanish the Puerto Rican artists speak. They are completely different; the way they communicate with audiences is different; their narratives are different. We really work to understand and respect that to avoid a cookie cutter approach and to be able to work in a tailor-made way for each artist and movement.”

Photograph Credit: Warner Music Latina

With so many distinct movements rapidly gaining popularity under a singular banner, the risk of dilution from the corporate end of the music business can often loom large, as profitability and mainstream success overshadow artistic autonomy. It’s a concern Duque is all too aware of. As he puts it, striking the right balance between growing the roster’s audience without compromising its integrity is his number one priority.

“The biggest challenge we face is how do you keep it authentic,” he states. “How do you enable and guide the artist into new territories and new audiences without cannibalizing their existing ones? That’s a huge challenge because there are significant cultural differences between the markets. So, as you grow into other markets you don’t want to alienate your existing followers.

“We try not to force collaboration,” he adds. “We try to generate spaces where artists can meet and engage, and then collaboration comes through

that, rather than skipping that process and just forcing artists together.”

Another core focus for Duque is making sure that emerging artists understand what Warner Music Latin America has to offer as a major company in the face of increasingly popular independent routes to market. Central to this is the company’s ability to be flexible and nimble in its proposition.

“Our distribution company ADA, which serves independent artists and labels, is very closely tied to label services,” he explains. “The way we work is that we are very respectful of artists who want to take that path, but we also want to stay very close and try to provide different levels of service as they need it. We have many cases of artists who started out independently who we may have had a distribution deal with, but as they have reached certain levels of success, they need an infrastructure, more support, but are not willing to sign an ‘old fashioned’ deal.

“So, we have been able to design deals where we can provide those services at a label level. They have different economics where the artist is able to retain their independence and vision, and that has yielded very positive results. And in some cases, it’s resulted in the artists coming to us and saying, ‘let’s do a label deal’, because they’ve seen the value added at each point. It gives them more confidence and trust when they are making that move.

“It’s not a bad thing at all that artists have that mindset and want to take those paths. We are always looking for opportunities where we can help them grow fast and engage different audiences.”

For artists looking to grow their audience and register on the radar of labels, be they indie or major, Duque notes that the best advice he can give is to engage their audience as closely as possible while retaining their authenticity.

“THE STREAM COUNTER CAN SEND ARTISTS ON A CRAZY SEARCH FOR THE NEXT HIT. EVEN IF IT COMPROMISES THEIR AUTHENTICITY.”

“What really excites us is when we see audiences reacting to an artist and the movement that artist represents,” he says. “The key is to start building an audience that is engaged. It doesn’t have to be the biggest audience, but there needs to be engagement. A lot of people today are fans of songs but not necessarily fans of artists. We strive to make fans of artists.

“One artist can do something that will connect with an audience, and another artist could try the exact same thing, and it doesn’t work at all,” he continues. “The key is to remain authentic. It sounds easy, but the reality is that the markets and the real-life stream counter can send artists on a crazy search for the next commercial hit. Even if it compromises their authenticity. You may get a hit, but what about the next one? And the one after that? You have to make sure that you know what you stand for and who your audience is.”

One market that hasn’t adopted Latin music in quite the same way as others is the UK. To Duque, it remains arguably Warner Music Latin America’s biggest opportunity.

“The UK is the hardest market for Latin music,” he says. “That presents a huge opportunity. As to why, I think it’s a really interesting question. The mainstream media hasn’t really adopted Latin music there. From a streaming perspective there is consumption; Latin acts are selling tickets; and there is a big Spanish speaking diaspora in the UK. I think the big difference is that in places like the US they have really adopted the Spanish language into mainstream culture, which hasn’t really happened in the UK.”

For the remainder of 2024, Duque is overseeing a hefty release schedule, which promises to deliver yet more hits domestically and worldwide. He anticipates an acceleration of both the diversification of music coming out of the region and its adoption in

new territories. In short, he sees no reason why the global phenomenon that Latin music has become over the past half decade won’t gain even further traction in the next.

“We are seeing Latin artists collaborating with Indian artists,” he observes. “Global trends driven by the sheer size of the markets. As they are both growing, they start collaborating, and that cross pollination starts to happen. That will keep the movement going. It’s already changing and will continue to change. And Latin music still has a very long way to go in terms of consumption at global level.”

WMG.COM

roW d s by ALICE GUSTAFSON CANNONS HEARTBEAT HIGHWAY

You’ll already know the synthy, dreamy song, Fire For You from Netflix’s Never Have I Ever, but who is the band behind it? In this Emerging Headliner interview powered by JBL, your new favorite band, electropop trio Cannons, (Michelle Joy: vocals, Ryan Clapham: lead guitar, and Paul Davis: drums, keys) explain the unusual way they met, how they bubbled up into the collective pop culture consciousness after landing a dream sync, and how new album, Heartbeat Highway was inspired by life on the road.

Ryan and Paul; you’ve known each other since you were kids. When did you start making music together?

RC: In our teens, as soon as our parents could get us some instruments. For me, personally, it was maybe sixth grade going into seventh grade, I got a guitar. Paul lived – literally – directly across the street and his parents ended up getting him a drum set and his two brothers, a guitar and a bass as well. I would knock on Paul’s garage door – we were a true garage band. We played many different types of music as well: metal, punk, emo, screamo, you name it – all in the garage.

You found Michelle via a Craigslist ad. Did you have high hopes about meeting someone talented on the classified ad site?

RC: It’s definitely the norm to meet like minded musicians and all that jazz, but Paul and I never had luck on that. It was always almost comical…

PD: We had some really interesting encounters…

RC: The cool thing about where we were at with Cannons at the time, was Paul was getting really into doing home production, so we already

“OUR LIVES COMPLETELY CHANGED AFTER NEVER HAVE I EVER.”

had some songs made and we didn’t actually have to go in person and rehearse the songs in front of somebody. So when we found Michelle on Craigslist, we were able to send her a track that we had worked on, she put her vocals on it and sent it back and it sounded really great. There was a good topline there and the tone of her voice really fit the style of music that we were writing at the time, and our writing now. To this day, we don’t ever go into a writing session anticipating an outcome to sound a particular way. We just knew when we heard her voice – we love her voice. And she’s an alright person too.

Things really picked up for Cannons after Fire For You from your second album, Shadows, was prominently featured on the Netflix series, Never Have I Ever. How did they use it in the show and how did that change the trajectory of the band?

MJ: They used it in the most important scene of the show, which was really awesome. It was when the couple that you had been wanting to get together for the whole series finally had their moment, and they used the whole song, so it was kind of a music video for the song. I don’t think there was any audio or anything over it, it was literally

just Fire For You blasting. That week, it went to number one on the TV Song charts and on Shazam, and our lives completely changed after that. It was a very surreal moment that took a while to sink in for me. What a wonderful sync; we’re forever grateful for it.

You generated 20 million streams independently and were then signed to Columbia Records after Fire For You reached number one on the Billboard Alternative Airplay Chart. What was it like to suddenly get label interest?

MJ: We had pretty much every record label that we could think of – and more – show up in our email inbox right after that. We spent quite a few months meeting with a bunch of different labels and Columbia just stood out to us.

Your fourth album Heartbeat Highway is out now. What is the concept of the album and how did it take shape?

MJ: We don’t really ever start out with a concept, we just enjoy the process of letting whatever is supposed to come out of us creatively, happen. We’re always writing and we’re continuing

writing throughout the tour. Naturally, with us being on the road for quite a bit of that year, we started thinking about titling it Heartbeat Highway, because we had spent so much time on the road, following our hearts and what we feel like we’re supposed to be doing. We did want a song that was called Heartbeat Highway on there, and naturally, somehow it worked out that one of the last songs that we worked on, came into being and tied everything together nicely.

What song are you each most proud of on the album?

RC: I like the song, Sweeter. When I was showing the album to some close friends before it actually came out, a lot of them were like, “That is the quintessential Cannons sound right there.” I would be gravitating more towards the song Sweeter than maybe Heartbeat Highway

MJ: I’m going to go with Sweeter too. That’s my mom’s favorite song on the album, and the same for a lot of my friends that have heard the album too. I don’t know why exactly, but I do love listening to that one over and over.

PD: I’m gonna go with Heartbeat Highway, just to change it up a little bit.

“SINCE THE BEGINNING, WE HAVE PRODUCED AND WRITTEN AND DONE EVERYTHING OURSELVES.”

It’s for sure one of my favorites on the album. The lyrics on that are probably my favorite of all the tracks.

The song Heartbeat Highway was produced by Cannons; was the whole album also produced by the band?

RC: There is one song called Bad Tattoo, which was not produced by us, but for the most part, the entire album was produced by us. Paul does most of the production, if not all of it. We did some co-writes on this album, which was the first time we ever did co-writes, which was fun, and not fun all at the same time. That’s because we’ve been a trio doing this for a decade now, so we all trust each other, and to bring somebody else into the mix and literally lay out your feelings on the table and hope that this person can also vibe with you can be a challenge sometimes. But the outcome was really good.

MJ: And writing the song in a day – that’s the hard part.

RC: That’s really hard. A lot of the time, even when a band is starting their first album, you have these riffs and melodies that you’ve been creating for years – a long time – and then all of a sudden, you’re expected to go into a writing session with somebody that you don’t even know and come up with a song in a day, and sometimes that’s all you get. I’ll go home and I’ll be like, “Damn, I wish we came up with this different melody for this song,” or I’m sitting here playing guitar and I can think of 10 other parts, as opposed to the part that I laid down in the studio. So that’s always challenging.

MJ: But the good thing is that since the beginning, we have produced and written and done everything ourselves, so we can go back and change.

PD: That’s when it becomes handy to have your own producer.

Do you have a Cannons HQ or home studio?

PD: Yeah, at my house I have a designated room for my studio.

RC: I think the studio is a band member at this point. Because if we were to do this live, it would be more or less

the same process. It would be trial and error of actually just meeting up in person and doing it. But because we’re fortunate enough to be able to have Paul in the studio, the studio is a band member. He does a great job!

PD: What’s his name?

RC: Stu! [laughs]

In terms of the equipment you rely on inside your studio, what is a piece of kit that’s proved to be essential to your music-making process?

PD: JBL 308P MkII powered studio monitors. I have been blasting some of my favorite music from them. They’re extremely loud, they’re very, very crisp, and you get a really nice frequency response from them. I love them. They sound great. I’m looking forward to testing them out more on some new sessions we have coming up. I definitely like what I hear and the bang for your buck is pretty great – they’re really modestly-priced. They’re very easy to set up too: just one plug for plugging into my interface, and then another plug for power, and that’s it!

RC: I liked the low end response. Very nice. Paul has a go-to song that he likes to play on his speakers, and it sounded really good when I heard it.

Do you have any plans for new music?

MJ: We are currently working on new music. Once we get back from this tour, we do have a bunch of festivals and one-offs that we’re going to play, but in between that we’re going to continue to write and shape up a lot of the song ideas that we have brewing inside ‘Stu’.

SMALL NEVER SOUNDED SO BIG.

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MNEK THE POWER OF PROUD SOUND

Launched in 2019 by award-winning artist, songwriter, and producer MNEK, in association with Warner Chappell Music, PROUD SOUND is a four-day songwriting camp aimed at supporting LGBTQIA+ talent. MNEK and Warner Chappell also partnered with YouTube Songwriters for this year’s edition. Those who have participated in the camp have hailed it as a safe and supportive environment in which they can freely flex their artistry and collaborate with an assortment of creatives across a variety of styles and genres. Headliner was granted an exclusive invite to this year’s camp for a chat with MNEK, Warner Chappell Music VP of A&R and Global Creative Paul Smith, and a number of those taking part to find out about the impact of PROUD SOUND on the next generation of queer talent and what needs to be done to create a more inclusive music industry.

Tucked away in one of the control rooms at London’s Miloco Studios, the home of this year’s PROUD SOUND songwriting camp, we await the arrival of Uzo Emenike, aka MNEK, and Paul Smith. It’s the penultimate day of the camp and we are informed that they are still in session with a group of artists, producers, and songwriters at the time of our arrival but should be joining us shortly.

Set up by MNEK in 2019, the initiative has garnered rave reviews from its participants, many of whom have returned for the 2024 installment. Its aim is simple: to uncover and champion the most exciting new queer talent in a space that is safe, supportive, and nurturing. Long-established, hugely successful professionals boasting credits with some of the biggest artists on the planet mix with those seeking their big break. It’s a unique networking opportunity, as well as a chance for the emerging generation to learn from more experienced heads, and for those already dining at the top table to reconnect with the grassroots.

As promised, we are soon joined by our hosts, with MNEK and Smith each greeting us with a warm embrace, evidently in high spirits. There is an easy rapport between the pair, each happy to discuss not only their aims and ambitions

for PROUD SOUND, but also their respective routes into the industry.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” MNEK smiles, summing up how the camp has been so far. “We want it to be a recurring thing in our industry, where we can bring in established queer writers and producers alongside up-and-coming talent. It’s been great to have some international people here as well. We’ve had Nemo who won Eurovision and they have written some incredible stuff. It’s just been great. I love doing this and doing it with Paul has been brilliant.”

Among those in attendance this year – some of whom we speak to after our conversation with MNEK and Smith – are Lauren Aquilina (Rina Sawayama / Ava Max / Little Mix / IVE), Ryan Ashley (Anne-Marie / Sigala / Becky Hill / Mahalia), Jon Shave (Charli XCX / Joel Corry / Madison Beer / Zara Larsson), and Fanny Hultman, to name a mere few.

“Me and Warner Chappell held a camp in association with Pride in London and that was the embryonic stage of what would become PROUD SOUND,” MNEK says, explaining the origins of the initiative. “By the time 2023 came around we started up again and opened up the floor to up-andcoming songwriters, as opposed

to just those who were published or in deals. That’s great and all, but what about the people who might not be able to have these same experiences? Where you can just freeball and make friends with the sole intention of making music, whoever it is for?”

“Uzo always said he wanted to make a safe space for queer songwriters,” Smith adds. “You have situations where sometimes queer songwriters walk into a room and don’t feel like they can be their authentic selves, so creating that space where people can be proudly and unequivocally queer without hiding who they are when writing songs is really important.”

Having been working with MNEK for the best part of a decade, Smith was keen to involve Warner Chappell with PROUD SOUND from the very beginning. As he puts it, the camp offered something new and vital to the programme of songwriting camps the publisher organizes every year.

“Obviously we are a major publisher, so we run camps of different varieties for different reasons,” Smith elaborates. “I’m Uzo’s publisher, and when he came with this idea it felt very important to me to make sure we could support it in any way we could.

Photograph

“We have a lot of queer talent signed to us, both on the record side and the publishing side. On the publishing side, I work with Uzo, we work with Jon Shave, all the way through to Tayla Parx and Justin Tranter in America, and we are really blessed to represent the George Michael estate. We feel blessed to work with so much queer talent. It’s our responsibility to push that forward and make spaces available and represent people who need representation.”

This need for greater queer representation in the studio is also mirrored at corporate level. As Smith and MNEK note, there is a distinct dearth of LGBTQIA+ talent across the industry’s boardrooms, which in turn can deny creators the opportunities they deserve.

“There is not enough queer representation in the industry,” Smith affirms. “I can think of a few of us

but there’s not enough. With any minority, if you can see someone who is in a position of influence and they are in front of you, and they give you something to work towards then that’s massive.”

“Also, I’ve been a creative half my life, and I’m entering this as an aspiring executive myself,” notes MNEK. “This event is held in collaboration with my label MUZO BY UZO, and that is something where I am trying to develop talent of all persuasions.

“I’m very blessed to do what I do, to start companies and launch initiatives like this. I’m not here to put a spotlight on me as an example of someone in that realm, but there are other things to do than just making music. There is having the brain for the music, understanding how it’s supposed to come out. Me and Paul, as two black, queer men, are right here at the intersection. That’s two

minorities in one. To see any type of understanding of our experiences or the way we view the world would be ideal. We just hope it’s more balanced and that there is now room for anyone who feels ostracized or counted out in this industry, because there is such a broad persuasion of people out there.”

Our conversation shifts to MNEK’s formative years as a songwriter and his experience of navigating the music business for the first time. Having started writing almost 15 years ago, songwriting camps like this would likely not have existed, or at the very least been fewer and farther between. As to whether or not he personally would have benefited from a PROUD SOUND all those years ago, he is considered and philosophical in his response.

“Well, I was 14 when I got into the industry, and a lot of that time wasn’t spent fixating on my sexuality,” he says. “I wondered about it, but I was quite sheltered. I found music from a really young age and was making it in my parents’ garage, putting it on Myspace and doing sessions, while my friends were discovering their sexuality. I didn’t really have any idea about that stuff.

“By the time I turned 18 I was like, ‘Oh, so I like boys [laughs]!’ I don’t know if the two were ever linked, but once I realized that, I knew I wanted to be able to write songs about being queer and about my experience. But I felt limited as far as the type of rooms I could feel comfortable doing that in was concerned. I was almost undercover.

“I did a song with Gorgon City called Ready For Your Love and that was about me coming out as a young man. But it was done in a way where you didn’t realize that right away. I was very mindful of my environment then, and maybe if I was in a different situation I would have written it differently. I’m still proud of it – that’s not the point – but you think about how comfortable you feel for even daring to make the suggestion. I have no regrets as to what it could have been like for me getting into the industry, I just know that if I can have any part in improving things today and giving room for another experience that’s great. And there are 18 people downstairs right now making great music and friendships.”

Which brings us back to the present. As MNEK rightly states, it’s not just music being made in these rooms but friendships and opportunities. And crucially, MNEK points out, each is designed to extend far beyond the confines of these walls.

“Sometimes there will be an idea that needs some finishing so more work is necessary,” he tells us. “And I’ve definitely spun the block on a few people in here separately, and I will do that every year. I want to invite people who are great by themselves but who I can also work with beyond a meek Pride Week [laughs]. There are 365 days in the year.”

Before we part ways, Smith introduces us to some of this year’s participants. Without exception, they are emphatic in their passion for all that PROUD SOUND represents.

“I find that, without realizing it, when you go into rooms day in, day out, with people you don’t know, there is this low-level stress of knowing you have to come out to a set of new people,” says Jon Shave. “With some people it’s really easy and with others it can feel more complicated, or I can feel more shy. But here the

dynamic is different as that is completely eradicated. It creates a much freer atmosphere.”

Likewise, Fanny Hultman is effusive when describing the importance of the camp.

“This is everything,” she beams. “If I’d have heard about this when I was younger… to have this representation would be giving me life. I get emotional thinking about all the songs coming out of this camp that younger generations will hear; they will represent something that those young songwriters don’t yet know how to phrase.”

For now, MNEK and Smith are focused squarely on the artists and sessions at hand. Before conversations about the future of PROUD SOUND can take place, there is still another day and half of sessions to complete. They are, however, sure that they want to continue to expand and diversify.

“There are certain genres that are still rampant with homophobia, like R&B, hip-hop and country,” says Smith. “But I read something that said music by queer artists is up year-on-year and that the two biggest genres pushing it forward were hip-hop and country. If we can be in a situation where we can put different genres to the fore that would be great.”

“I definitely want it to be an ongoing thing where we do more than one a year, maybe outside of London,” adds MNEK. “I want to continue to partner with people on this and build awareness of PROUD SOUND. I want it to evolve with Warner Chappell. And I want it to just grow and continue to lift the culture. That is the most important thing.”

@PROUDSOUND_ WARNERCHAPPELL.COM @MNEK

Photograph Credit: Paradise Agency

MYTH OR TRUTH?

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WORDS BY ALICEGUS

BRIAN ROTHSCHILD THE LENNON BUS

Founded in 1998 by Yoko Ono and Brian Rothschild, the Lennon Bus was born to provide opportunities for students from all backgrounds to create original art and media, and to carry John and Yoko’s legacy forward. It all started, says Rothschild, after he tried (and failed) to get Yoko to green-light a John Lennon sample on behalf of Fugees’ Wyclef Jean.

Long before the Lennon Bus, Rothschild’s background was as a keyboard player and songwriter – one of his first jobs being an accompanist for different musical groups, shows and for a children’s theatre, which led to him writing a musical for them to perform as part of a summer program for kids in downtown Hartford, Connecticut. Later, he took an interest in technology, and invested in a studio in his house. It was then that he became involved with a successful management company that was overseen by music manager David Sonnenberg, who was responsible for the careers of artists including Meatloaf, John Legend, The Spin Doctors, The Fugees, The Black Eyed Peas and Kesha.

“I had been working with him in different capacities,” reflects Rothschild, “and we always talked about having songwriting contests that would give access to songwriters who didn’t have connections in the music industry. That was something that came and went because we got a lot of unsolicited cassette tapes in those days!”

Rothschild was asked if he could try to secure the rights to sample a John Lennon song on behalf of Wyclef Jean: “In that capacity, I reached out to the lawyer that represented the Lennon estate and Yoko Ono, and got back a request to meet Yoko at her apartment in The Dakota to discuss this, which I really couldn’t believe,” he admits. “I was really taken aback by that, and I was pretty nervous about it! I went in with my beatbox and the song cued up to where Wyclef wanted to use the sample, and sat down in the kitchen. Yoko came in and I had a sip of tea and I explained what the usage was. I played her that little bit of music, and that took all of 60 seconds. At that point, she just kind of sighed and then we sat there. It was a little awkward for me so I just blurted out, ‘We’ve also talked about having a

songwriting contest; what do you think about creating a songwriting contest with John’s name on it that would give access to people who don’t have connections in the music business?’ She kind of sighed and we chit-chatted for a very brief amount of time, and then I was gone within about 10 minutes.”

Feeling like things hadn’t gone well, he headed back to his office, which wasn’t far from Yoko’s home.

“I got a call and somebody buzzed me and was like, ‘Yoko Ono is on the phone’. I had already told them what had happened so I just thought that they were teasing me or pranking me. They were like, ‘No, you have to pick up – it really is her’. I didn’t quite believe it. But anyway, it was her, and she said two things: ‘That first idea with the sample – no, I don’t want to do that. But that other idea that you mentioned; let’s talk about that’.”

And thus, the John Lennon Songwriting Contest was born in 1997, which is still going today. As Rothschild was getting that initiative on its feet, he had an idea: what if he put a recording studio on a John Lennon Songwriting Contest bus in order to drive it around the US to promote the contest?

“And that’s what we did!” he smiles, although sharing that it was not without its challenges. “I had never put a studio on two wheels before, but I got some great help from some initial sponsors and we made it happen. For the time, it looked amazing, but it had some issues right out of the gate. The installer was very accomplished in putting in recording studios, but had never done something that was on a moving vehicle, so it took a while for us to get everything just right. But it looked great and it worked well enough that we launched it on Good Morning America. And we had Wyclef from the Fugees on – who did not hold a grudge,” he grins.

Last minute, they had the idea that it might be nice to invite some students from New York City public schools on board, and in the course of the two hours of the show, they created an original song that they revealed in the last segment.

“It went really well, and it was fun,” he says. “The kids had a great time and I got a lot of positive responses from the public, different organisations and school districts, the mayor of Boston, the superintendent of schools in L.A. and parents. Lots of people were interested in it – teachers especially,” he notes. “It revealed itself as something that was even more than I originally expected. I put this together thinking it was just going to be there for the spring of that year, and then we would take it apart,” he says. “It wasn’t going to be a forever thing, but I was smitten with it and I just couldn’t let it go. After a few years, it spun off as its own entity.”

Indeed, since 1998, Lennon Buses in the US and Europe have impacted millions of students while delivering unique experiential programs at schools, colleges, universities, community events, festivals, and on tour with headlining artists. The bus visits schools, universities and university campuses, with a special focus on under-served populations.

“WHAT MAKES IT SPECIAL IS HAVING JOHN LENNON’S NAME ON IT AND HAVING YOKO INVOLVED IN IT. THEIR LEGACY AS SOCIAL ACTIVISTS AND PROPONENTS OF PEACE IS EXTREMELY MOVING.”

“I, of course, feel like it’s the greatest mobile production studio in the world,” he beams, “but what makes it special is having John Lennon’s name on it and having Yoko involved in it too. Their legacy as social activists and proponents of peace and equity is extremely moving, so having the mission of the bus be dedicated to those that don’t get as many opportunities as others might, is very important. At this point in time, students, girls, young people of colour and from marginalised communities have a really small percentage of roles and careers in audio and video entertainment. A big part of what we’ve been doing with our partners, including Genelec and the NAMM foundation, is using the bus to introduce career paths to students who may not otherwise be aware of those career paths.”

As Rothschild mentioned, Genelec has a long relationship with the Lennon Bus, which first had a 5.1 system, but more recently installed a Dolby Atmos-certified 7.1.4 Genelec monitoring system which is made up of 8341As for LCR and surrounds, 8320As for ceiling channels and a 7360A subwoofer.

“We get to work with many of the best manufacturers of audio and video gear in the world who believe in the mission of the bus. As technology has evolved, the Lennon Bus has evolved.

Genelec has been an amazing partner for all of our studio monitors,” he enthuses. “They’ve been a big part of the success of the studios,

which are fully professional. I could go on and on and on; it’s become a passion project!

“The first installation was the 5.1 system,” he explains. “As Genelec was creating new generations of monitors, we were updating the studios. That’s one of the fun, cool things about the studio and is one of the things that is important as it relates to the next generation. It certainly would be sufficient to just show up with a working studio – there’s great value in that, but there’s something extra special about showing up with the latest and the greatest that the industry has to offer so that the next generation can see the state of the art equipment. If we’re talking about wanting to inspire career paths, we want to be showing what is most current in the industry.

“Over last summer of 2023, we began to do a major revamp of the Lennon Bus in the US, and a big part of that was putting in this Dolby Atmos mix room in our front studio with a 7.1.4 system. We did that and it came out phenomenally, and then we still have the 5.1 room – the bus is separated into two studios that you can separate with these really cool sliding glass doors,” he explains.

Rothschild reports that the students are always impressed by the high end system aboard the bus: “They are blown away! At this point, it’s not like everybody who comes on knows what an Atmos system is, but that’s one of the points of having this as a mobile facility: to have students be able to sit down,

listen and hear in a way that they haven’t heard before and to take turns sitting in the sweet spot and listening to what’s going on.”

And it’s not just students hopping on board. Recently Wu-Tang Clan member RZA mixed his new orchestral composition in Atmos on the bus. “We had worked with WuTang Clan and with RZA previously and he’s been a big supporter of the Lennon bus,” nods Rothschild.

“He had just finished working on an orchestral piece that he recorded with the Colorado symphony orchestra. He had those stems, so we went on tour with Wu-Tang last year and recorded some new Wu-Tang tracks. We really were focused on mixing in Atmos on our Genelec monitors for this new project called A Ballet Through Mud It’s beautiful. It’s very romantic. It doesn’t happen to be anything like a hip hop track at all. That was the very first thing that we did. It was mixed by an amazing Atmos mix engineer named Pietro Rossi, who has been involved with the Lennon Bus for a long time. As we travelled with them, he was doing mixes along with our creative technology officer, Jeff Sobel, and then RZA would come on board regularly to go through the mixes and make suggestions. We have those tracks right out of the gate to share with our visitors and with students to give them that Atmos experience.”

“THOSE LITTLE WINS ARE SO MUCH BIGGER AND FEEL SO MUCH MORE EXCITING BECAUSE YOU KNOW THAT YOU’RE THE ONE WHO’S GOT THERE.”

In this tenth LD Systems Live Sessions, powered by Headliner, Australian-born London-based pop artist Elle Murphy performs original song Rose Tinted live at Signal House Studios. Elle performs through an LD Systems MAUI G3 rig and MON 15 A G3 Stage Monitors, and caught up with Headliner after the performance…

These last few months I’ve been busy working in the studio on my new EP. It’s still pop, but we’ve gone a little bit more R&B with it. So mainly just working on new music, not as much performingso I’m dusting off the cobwebs a bit for this interview!

Can you give us some backstory to your original song, Rose Tinted?

like. I didn’t expect to fall for someone in those two weeks, and so the song is just about a holiday fling / summer romance but having way stronger feelings than just a fling, so being confused with that, and trying to figure out what happens next.

What’s it like being an independent artist in today’s industry?

How did you find performing through the LD Systems rig?

I found it really easy to use the LD Systems rig. I didn’t use headphones but could hear the quality of the speakers. It’s amazing and everything was super smooth and easy as far as the setup and my performance went. I really enjoyed performing through the system and I would recommend it to other artists who are performing and figuring out which equipment is good for them. I definitely had a great time!

I’m from Melbourne in Australia and instead of doing a massive 30 hour flight to London, I did two weeks in L.A. just to get a feel for it and see what it’s

I’ve had a little bit of time with a label and most of my time independent. It’s a grind, and can be a bit of a battle and uphill slog, but I feel like those little wins are so much bigger and feel so much more exciting because you know that you’re the one who’s got there. You’re in control of completely everything as well, which is extremely exhausting –having to wear a hundred different hats – but so important because if you do get a major deal that works for you, then you know exactly what work needs to be done to make it successful and to know what’s going on behind the scenes. What have you been up to recently?

Words

FRASER T SMITH MAKING

DJANGO’S HIGH

On July 12, award-winning producer, songwriter, and musician Fraser T Smith released his second solo album under the Future Utopia moniker Django’s High, a deeply personal project written, performed, and, for the very first time, sung entirely by the man himself. Headliner caught up with him for an in-depth look at how the record came together and the “terrifying and exposing” experience of placing himself front and center for the first time in his 20-year career…

“I could be killing my career,” considers Fraser T Smith, an hour or so into our conversation about the making of his new Future Utopia record Django’s High. “I could be putting this stuff out and everyone I trust and respect could turn their back on it. And maybe turn their back on me. It sounds like I’m catastrophizing, but often as an artist you have to go to those depths.”

It’s a profound moment of candor from an artist held in almost unimpeachable esteem in the UK music scene. His fingerprints are detectable on many of the most defining musical moments of the 21st century so far. In the studio he has written, produced and performed on juggernaut hits for the likes of Adele, Sam Smith, Kano, Stormzy, Dave, and Kasabian to name a meager few. Each has hailed him not only as a valued collaborator, but a trusted confidante.

It would be easy, perhaps lazy, to assume that a figure of such standing might be immune from the fear and vulnerability he describes upon releasing his second solo album. The fact that he isn’t, or at least feels he isn’t, is testament to the seriousness with which Smith takes the Future Utopia project. Particularly with regard to Django’s High, which could arguably be described as his first solo album in the truest sense of the word.

This, it must be stated, is not a slight on its predecessor. A highly conceptual album, 12 Questions saw Smith put 12 questions on the human condition to an array of artists and contributors whose musings were set to a genrespanning, at times kaleidoscopic musical backdrop.

Credit: Miranda Penn Turin

While driven by Smith, his role was still essentially that of a producer, with lead vocals and performances provided by a sparkling roll call of contributors new and old (Kano, Bastille, Tom Grennan, Idris Elba, Albert Woodfox, Es Devlin, Kojey Radical, Ghetts, Arlo Parks, and more). With album number two, however, he knew he wanted to test himself like never before by taking a central role with minimal outside influence.

“12 Questions came about from me knowing I wanted to do a project but not knowing what it would be,” says Smith as he joins Headliner via Zoom from his Henley home studio, taking us back to the origins of the Future Utopia concept. As anyone who has spent time in his company will recognise, there is an ease and humility in his manner that is immediately disarming. He speaks eloquently and thoughtfully about the work that has made his name, all with an acute awareness that those heady achievements have no bearing on how listeners will receive his solo endeavors.

“I didn’t know whether that was going to be like a Netflix documentary, I just had this idea that I would ask these amazing people 12 questions, like What Is Love? Why are we so divided

when we are so connected? And at that point I was asking myself if I was brave enough to release a solo record. What would it look like? And it transpired that with that record I was like the behind-the-scenes producer who put it all together, but I still got a lot of my trusted collaborators on that record, whilst reaching out to people you wouldn’t necessarily expect to have on the same track. So, there was this juxtaposition of Es Devlin and Dave, or Dan from Bastille and Tom Grennan. And the more time I spent on it I really wanted to take it live and push what it was that I was doing.”

It was in the live arena that Smith began to toy with the prospect of carving Future Utopia into a more singular form.

“We did an amazing show just at the end of lockdown at Bold Tendencies in Peckham,” he continues. “We had a d&b audiotechnik Soundscape immersive audio system which was amazing, and I was just doing it on my own in a Rick Wakeman-esque

kind of way. I invited collaborators to come up on stage and perform the songs and I just loved the experience. And it was like, how do we keep this going?

“We then took a smaller version of the show out to play Primavera and Glastonbury last year. And after that I knew, I didn’t want to make 12 Questions Part 2. I felt I had to evolve and the best way to do that was by pushing myself out of my comfort zone, which meant singing, playing all the instruments, and writing all the songs, trying to understand what Future Utopia could be in a singular sense. It was almost doing the opposite to 12 Questions. The challenge was adding a few things from 12 Questions that could seep into Django’s High, which for me was the psychedelic, trippy chordal element and the ‘70s rhythm section. But it’s a new body of work that we are able to tour, and people are reacting really positively to it.”

Image

The incendiary result of total creative autonomy colliding with a sense of anxiety not previously experienced in his musical career, Django’s High is a vibrant, sonically expansive piece that sees all of Smith’s technical skills in the studio utilized to the fullest. Its cinematic scope is evocative of, as he describes it, a “psychedelic spaghetti western”. On opening track Looking For A Way Out (Of Del Rio) you can hear the heat of the desert, feel the rattle of the snake.

Crucial in helping Smith overcome the trepidation he felt during the process of making the record was co-producer Serge Pizzorno of Kasabian, in whom he found something of a kindred spirit. Having worked together on Kasabian’s 2022 album The Alchemist’s Euphoria – the first to feature Pizzorno as frontman following the sacking of Tom Meighan after he was convicted of assaulting his fiancée Vikki Ager in 2020 – Smith knew that they each had a unique perspective of what it meant to take the spotlight for the first time in a 20-plus year career.

“The freedom of making this album was incredible,” Smith beams. “Creatively I had the time of my life, but the anxiety of questioning what it was I was doing and hearing my vocals play back… at the beginning I wasn’t a fan of what I was hearing. It felt exposing and terrifying. On a project like this I could easily have walked away from it and thought, ‘maybe I’ll get back to it’, but never really get back to it. I was so on the edge of listening back and going, ‘I think it sounds good, but I could just be going mad’.

“That’s why I really wanted to work with Serge on this. Serge is my mate and was always going to be a champion, but I knew that it was important to get

another perspective on it. He was able to give me encouragement and strength when I really needed it. Especially when you are in the studio on your own and haven’t done this before. I could tell Serge was feeling that way on The Alchemist’s Euphoria. It was as if we’d both been there for each other. I was there saying, ‘this sounds phenomenal, it still sounds like Kasabian but version two’, and being very honest and pushing him where he needed to be pushed. That was his role within this album. I just trust him so much as a multi-hyphenate individual who can be as strong live as he is in the studio as he is on camera as he is in fashion. He really is an exceptional creative and human.”

As for the process of piecing Django’s High together, Smith explains that he always had a sonic blueprint in mind, undertaking a highly regimented routine to keep the ideas flowing.

“I had the expression ‘psychedelic spaghetti western’ in my head and I wanted it to be a shorter body of work that was a bit lighter, set in the desert, and wouldn’t have anything that would disrupt the pallet of sounds,” he elaborates. “The pallet of sounds were breakbeat-y drums that felt like they could live on a spaghetti western with a ‘60s plucked bass, Ennio Morricone-style vibrato reverbed out guitars, and my vocals which would be heavily processed, and lots of BVs. That was the MO of the record. This wasn’t me thinking, I’m going to write four singles and strap eight tracks on to make up the numbers. It was always about the body of work.

“I FEEL LIKE I’M STANDING ON MY OWN TWO FEET NOW.”

“MAKING MUSIC SHOULD NOT ONLY BE FOR THE MIDDLE AND UPPER CLASSES.”

“The process was really interesting,” he continues. “It was almost like an experiment where I would get up really early in the morning, let the dogs out, have a quick cup of coffee, and then give myself a very short amount of time to sing loads of melodies. I basically set myself a target – this sounds crazy – of 15 minutes to record some chords, a beat, a quick bassline, and a vocal melody. I did that over and over again, every day for about 30-40 days. Then I went back through and picked out the things I like.

“When you just go into the booth and sing whatever comes into your head you can come up with some really good stuff. If you work really fast you can almost trick your conscious brain into taking a backseat and then the subconscious brain comes. Then the challenge and the thing that takes time is dissecting the good bits and the bad and then writing the lyrics.”

In a variety of ways, Smith says that making Django’s High has provided him with a sense of what it means to be a new artist in the 2020s. He’s candid about a recent social media post he shared announcing the cancellation of some shows because of low tickets sales.

“We were very open about that on social media and wanted to put that out, as I wouldn’t want anyone to think that just because I’ve worked with Britney Spears that thousands and thousands of people will want to come to a Future Utopia show,” he notes philosophically. “We are still unknown at

the minute and that’s cool, that’s how it is for every band. If anything, I’m out there campaigning for people to get behind record shops and small venues and the smaller stages at festivals, to get behind these younger artists.

“I’m very fortunate, I’ve been doing this for 20 years producing other people and have a catalog that brings in a wage where I can go out and do it, but it’s really brutal for young bands. I’m very passionate about the fact that making music should not be for the middle and upper classes because of that landscape. It’s opened my eyes to so much, and that’s positive.”

The fact that Future Utopia is, as Smith puts it, relatively unknown, especially in comparison to some of his biggest clients, seems to have lit a fire in his belly; a determination to attack the market with the drive of a newcomer with zero tolerance for resting on his laurels.

“We don’t take anything for granted,” he asserts. “We are at the beginning of our journey. We are there doing the load out at the end of the night, taking the merch down. You know, at the age I am and the point of my career I’m at

with working with and performing with other artists… [pauses for a moment] I had the privilege of playing guitar with Kasabian at Knebworth in front of 100,000 people. It’s the biggest rush ever. But then performing at certain festivals in front of 40 people, when it’s the music I’ve made, it’s a different sort of buzz.

“With Kasabian it’s amazing, but I don’t have delusions of grandeur – I’m there doing a job. The 40 people that came to see us at the festival have come to see something that is ours. And it’s not about scale, it’s about how we can connect deeply. We aren’t chasing a TikTok moment, and when you do it the hard way you find fans for life. Don’t get me wrong, we are on socials and if something blows up it blows up, but we aren’t chasing that.”

It may only be a few days since Django’s High was released but Smith is already working through ideas for album number three. He knows not whether it will be another outright solo effort, or whether it’ll contain elements of collaboration, but he is certain that there is plenty of room for Future Utopia to grow into.

After a morning-long conversation that feels as though it could extend long into the afternoon, duty calls for Smith as a performance at Rough Trade East later that evening beckons. But before he bid us a warm farewell, he leaves us with a statement of intent.

“I feel like I’m standing on my own two feet now,” he says with a smile. “I know it sounds weird, but I’ve been doing this for 20 years now and I’m not sure that I have up until this point. I also think it’s important to allow Django’s High to settle, but there will be many more albums. And I want to keep building this world of Future Utopia.”

@FRASERTSMITH

ALIEN: ROMULUS

RUPERT COULSON

Words by ALICEGUS T A NOSF

In space, no one can hear you scream. But on the big screen, it needs to be quite the opposite. Engineer Rupert Coulson, who recorded the score for Alien: Romulus (the highly anticipated seventh installment in the Alien franchise – which serves as a standalone film set between the events of 1979’s Alien and 1986’s Aliens) explains how he balanced the sci-fi score mix around the on-screen carnage.

“You have to have the picture,” he explains of the recording session in Abbey Road’s Studio One, “because you get the dialogue, and weaving stuff in and around the dialogue is important. You can’t rush over the little bits of information in the narrative that are communicated to you with the dialogue.”

And that’s not even factoring in an 80-piece orchestra and choir, although director Fede Álvarez and composer Benjamin Wallfisch were in good hands with Coulson, who has worked with some of the finest

producers, composers and artists during his career so far, including Sir George Martin, The Rolling Stones, and on film scores including Rocketman, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Ex-Machina, Annihilation, MEN, and more recently, Civil War. That’s not to say that grappling with such a large orchestral ensemble in a huge space doesn’t come without its challenges:

“It can be tricky,” he nods, speaking to Headliner from his mix studio in Canning Town, which you can find him in almost every day – “mixing

my little head off and keeping myself amused,” he says. “Ben and Fede had a lot of stuff going on all the time in Alien: Romulus because not only will there be an 80-piece orchestra, there’ll be loads of synths going on, various pads, huge drum sections, percussion, more track lay and we did some choir as well. So squeezing it all in can be quite tricky. That’s where you earn your money!”

Set between the events of Alien and Aliens, the most recent addition to the franchise concerns a group of young space colonists who, while scavenging a derelict space station, come face to face with the most terrifying life form in space. The trailer hints at a rewarding payoff for Alien fans: claustrophobic, dark scenes aboard a ship visually reminiscent of the original film’s Nostromo, a dangerous mission that is certain not to end well, face-huggers, chestbursting, things that mostly come out at night and yes, screams in space.

The franchise’s legacy is something that Álvarez and Wallfisch made sure to respect, nods Coulson: “I hadn’t seen any of it until we got to Abbey Road where we recorded in Studio One, but once you started to see the look, the graphics and the production design, it was really reminiscent of Alien and Aliens. It has quite subdued lighting – it’s not bright and brash. I was looking at some of the shots and I thought, ‘Oh,

that looks kind of familiar,’ because everyone loves the original, right? It wasn’t until I was talking to the director that he said, ‘We went out of our way to pay homage to the production design of the first movie’. It puts you back in that place, which is great, and when you see it, your brain goes, ‘Oh, this looks right’. It looks authentic, and it’s nicely paced, it wasn’t just: on your marks, get set, bloodletting! There is real suspense and an unknown young cast, which was what the original was as well, I believe. [Alien director] Ridley Scott didn’t want huge stars to be bigger than the characters in the movie.”

Coulson notes the musical callbacks to Jerry Goldsmith’s iconic avantgarde score from Alien, describing the deliberate use of certain musical themes by Wallfisch: “That way of harking back to that first movie is carried on in the music as well,” he explains. “In the original score, Jerry Goldsmith used these woodwinds and flutes that Ben and Fede were

quite eager to get in as another hark back to Alien. When you hear them, you know something bad’s gonna happen. There was a flute with an oboe doubling it an octave down, and Ben was quite eager for those to be sent around the surrounds,” he adds. “He had a whole spreadsheet on the delays and where they will be panned, which is great because the flute would come from the front and then move around the room. It’s very effective.”

Recording the score for Alien: Romulus was a massive undertaking, utilizing the full capabilities of Abbey Road’s Studio One. “We had a huge orchestra in there,” Coulson explains, “following the classic orchestral seating arrangement. First violins on the far left, second violins, violas, and then cellos on the far right with basses behind them. Then brass is arranged with horns on the left, and trombones, tubers and trumpets on the right, with woodwind in the middle.”

Photograph Credit: ©Disney

Coulson discusses the challenges of recording in such a large space: “Usually with most film scores, and especially action ones like this, there’s a lot of running, chasing people getting dismembered, etc. So, that equals loud brass on most occasions, apart from the spooky discovery moments where there’s the woodwind figure. We screened off the woodwind to try

and protect them from the avalanche of cacophony coming from the brass. I mean, they’re delightful in the way they’re playing,” he insists, “and there’s lots of proud, robust moments from the brass section, but most of the time, you record the various sections separately. On any given cue, you’ll probably do the strings first, then the woodwinds and then the brass afterwards. But

as there isn’t always the time to do that on every single cue, sometimes we would do everyone together but with the woodwinds being screened off and protected a bit, so you’d still have control over them later and they didn’t get completely obliterated by the louder instruments.”

“THAT WAY OF HARKING BACK TO THAT FIRST MOVIE IS CARRIED ON IN THE MUSIC.”

To capture the intricacies of the orchestral score, a sophisticated Decca Tree mic array was used, comprising a stereo mic formation made up of three omnidirectional microphones laid out in a triangular formation to capture strings immaculately.

“The Decca Tree is over the conductor in a left-centerright configuration,” Coulson explains. “Then in between the conductor and the back desk of strings, you’d put a mic halfway along, and the same on the other side, and halfway between the conductor and the last bass player you’d have another omni mic over the section. Ben was quite eager to have specific Atmos mics, so we spent quite a long time on that because Ben likes to create that sense of space. So we would have mics that would specifically go to the side surround speakers, and the more mics you have, the more sense of space you can create. You’re kind of replicating sitting in the middle of the orchestra by having specific mics go to specific speakers later on when you’re mixing, which works well. Abbey Road is a brilliant old space,” he smiles.

Working on Alien: Romulus presented unique challenges, especially in mixing the contrasting elements of horror and suspense. The film’s narrative demanded music that complements the onscreen tension without overshadowing it. Coulson describes his approach:

“In the more explorative moments where they are plodding through the deserted, dusty spaceship, we were trying to get the feeling of suspense where it’s not on the nose where you’re saying ‘something bad is gonna happen’, but in those moments where they are discovering stuff, we create atmosphere and push it away from the speakers to make it more ethereal for the listener and make it immersive. So you are in the moment, but it’s not distracting you from what’s actually happening on the screen. You’re being enveloped in suspenseful music, but it’s not distracting you from the narrative.”

The centerpiece of Abbey Road’s Studio One control room is a 72-channel Neve 88RS console with a unique and comprehensive surround monitor section, with Neve’s SP2 scoring panel for recording and monitoring multiple stems. The 88RS/SP2 combination is acknowledged as the ideal film scoring solution – as well as Abbey Road, it’s found in all four of Hollywood’s top scoring stages (Fox, Skywalker, Sony and Warner) plus London’s AIR Lyndhurst – and is the setup behind the orchestral sounds in the vast majority of box office hits. The studio also boasts 48 channels of remote Neve microphone pre amplifiers and ProTools HDX – all which were essential for recording such a large ensemble.

“You’ll mix all the spot mics so you monitor them on one fader – even though you’ve got probably 80 mics,” he explains about his use of the rare Neve console on Alien: Romulus

“You’d have one mic per desk of strings. I think we had 14 first violins, so that was seven first violin mics –one per pair of players. We’ll have one fader with all the first violins on. With the woodwind, we had a mic per player because of those little flourishy moments and you want to be able to manipulate and get closer in on the sound a lot of the time to really get that articulation close up.

“In a lot of film scoring, you’re pushing stuff away so it doesn’t get in the way of the dialogue, but it is nice to be able to bring stuff close to you when you need

it, so I like to have a mic on every woodwind player,” he elaborates.

“With the brass, I usually have a mic per brass player because it’s great to be able to beef up the low end on the spot mics. I ended up winding loads of low end into the spot mics so when you marry those up with the room sound, you get the brass to sound massive, which is great for managing loads of mics. Monitoring-wise, if you cut down the number of faders it’s easier for my little brain to keep up with,” he laughs.

On what makes the 88RS/SP2 combination so well suited for film score recording, Coulson explains:

“It’s the ability to monitor in surround, to have control over what is going to the surround and how it’s going to

52 RUPERT COULSON Alien: Romulus

Photograph Credit: ©Disney

the surround. There’s four surround speakers in the control room, so you can place stuff behind you and out to the sides as well, so you get a good representation of what it’s going to sound like when you’re mixing as you’re scoring it. That’s always great for the executives in the room so they get a good idea of how it’s going to sound when it’s been polished up. It makes them happy. And if you make them happy, everything’s good!”

The combination of the 88RS and SP2 panels provided Coulson with the flexibility needed for such a complex project. “With Neve consoles, they’re the last one standing,” he asserts. “Neve has stayed at the pinnacle. I know that the 88RS in Studio One is going to be updated soon, as is the one at AIR Lyndhurst – because they are of an age, those desks. But luckily, Neve is still around and keeps going forward, designing newer and better ways to record film scores and for recording in general. They keep

moving the bar higher to make sure that the music recording business has the tools to do what it needs to do.”

Coulson is an in-house engineer at AIR, which is home to a 96 channel Neve 88R with 48 channels of Neve AIR Montserrat remote mic preamps in Lyndhurst Hall and a vintage 72 Channel AIR Custom Neve a7971 in Studio 1. “It’s great for scoring because it’s very flexible, which is really useful if you’ve got people in booths, the orchestra out there, people up in the galleries, and you might have a singer in a booth or someone smashing three shades of shit out of a drum kit,” he says of the 88R. “The flexibility of each channel being able to route various EQ and processing is really useful.”

Coulson is one of the few engineers to have experienced all three incarnations of AIR Studios, from Oxford Street studio, to AIR Montserrat and ultimately moving with them to

AIR Studios Lyndhurst. Reflecting on his journey alongside AIR, Coulson shares:

“It’s been a hell of a lot of fun. I had a great time. I worked hard, but I’ve had a stroke of luck along the way. I got the job originally because I worked with a guy who was an old friend of the manager at Oxford Street, so that was quite lucky. But once you’re in, there’s a lot of work to be done. The studio at Montserrat needed someone to man it to be this assistant engineer, and I was asked as I’d been at the Oxford Circus location for about a year. I was flown out to do that for about a year in total. I did two stints. The second stint was doing an album with the Rolling Stones, which was hilarious on many levels,” he grins, knowingly.

Alien: Romulus will be released in UK cinemas August 16.

byCOLBY RAMSEY

THE HEAVY LIFTING

CHRIS EDRICH

Hailing from France and now calling Ireland home, front-of-house audio engineer Chris Edrich mixes for some of the hardest-hitting artists in European metal and its progressive and post genres: Devin Townsend, Leprous, TesseracT, The Ocean, Alcest, Klone, and many others. Compact modeling amps offer guitarists and bassists far more control than walls of amp cabinets, and drums become the main shaper of the acoustic environment onstage and in the seats. To optimize this environment for bands and audiences alike, Edrich chooses AUDIX microphones including the D6 on kick drum, i5 on snare top with D2 on snare bottom, D4 on toms, SCX1 on hi-hat, SCX25A studio condensers as overheads, and even the ADX60 boundary mic in an unexpected place. Edrich tells Headliner what he’s learned as a self-taught engineer, and about his AUDIX setup, in this interview…

How did you first become interested in audio engineering?

I started as a musician myself, playing guitar in a small band in the northeast of France. When we started recording our first songs, I found myself very interested in that process. Just witnessing all the steps it takes to record a track, let alone mix an entire album. I just got the bug and started recording other local bands. Also, as we did a lot

of touring at the time, I was doing sound for small venues on the side. It might have just been a kick drum mic and vocals, with all the other sound coming from backline. As I got more and bigger gigs, this became my full-time job. It’s a classic way to start for self-taught engineers, which is what I am. I didn’t go to audio college or anything like that. I learned everything in the field.

Photos: Ekaterina Gorbacheva

Do you do any studio recording when you’re not on tour?

Up until Covid, front-of-house was my main gig. Because of the pandemic canceling all tours, I went into full studio mode for at least a couple of years. Now, I have more reasons to want to be home, like family. So, I’m striking a balance of about 50-50 live and studio work. Before Covid, I did something like 250 shows per year. It was a lot of fun, but certainly a grind.

In what applications do you use AUDIX mics?

The most frequent is drums. Across different bands I’ve worked with, I find that if someone has an endorsement deal with a different brand of microphone, it’s usually vocalists. Drummers, on the other hand, are more open to suggestions and trying new things. If they have an endorsement, it’s with a drum company.

I’m also lucky to have the trust of enough artists that they’ll try my

suggestions, such as using AUDIX mics. Take Devin Townsend. His only goal is to get the best result possible. He doesn’t care too much about things like brand sponsorships. He was open to trying AUDIX at my suggestion because I said I could get the best results from it. With him, I’ve managed to get the whole band on AUDIX. The switch was not that much of a negotiation. I also toured recently with a British band called TesseracT. They have other partners, but I was still able to mic the whole drum kit with AUDIX.

Is your kit miking a pretty standard configuration of, say, D6 on kick, i5 on snare, D2 and D4 on toms, and so on?

Yes, with some important notes. I use the D6 outside the kick, but inside the drum I have the ADX60, which is a boundary microphone. It’s very tiny and easy to place, and gives me a nice, bright attack because it’s a condenser. It’s a great complement to the D6, which gives me the big body of the kick.

On the bottom of the snare, I use the D2, which people think of as a tom mic but is in fact great in this application. It has a lot of air but not too much aggressiveness in the high-mids.

For spot mics — hi-hats, splash cymbals, that kind of thing — I use the SCX1 pencil condensers. I used to use the ADX51 for this, but the SCX1 gives me similar results in an impossibly compact form. They’re fantastic.

I use the SCX25a as overheads. I discovered those while recording the second album of my band. The studio we were at owned them, and mainly used them to record acoustic piano. But for cymbals, they’re the best overhead sound I have ever heard. I wanted my own pair for a long time, and now I have them! They’re the crown jewel of my kit.

“I USE THE SCX25A FOR CYMBALS; THEY’RE THE BEST OVERHEAD SOUND I HAVE EVER HEARD.”

The SCX25A is known as a studio condenser. Do you use it onstage?

Yeah. They work great live. They bring me a very nice stereo image of the drums without bringing in problems like phasing relative to close mics. As overheads, they have a similar quality to what I like about the D2 on snare bottom — that air. Everything over 10kHz is crisp without being harsh. It’s a very produced sound that I have to do almost no work to get.

As far as rejection goes onstage, they’re as good as a condenser can be. I’m pretty lucky in that with most of the bands I work with, drums and vocals are almost the only stage sound. Guitarists, for example, are usually playing through modeling amps such as the Kemper or AxeFX, going straight into the console. So, there’s not a lot to bleed into the drum mics, but it also makes getting a great drum sound that much more important.

I can even compress the SCX25As a little bit, while getting virtually no bleed from outside the drum kit. I realize they’re very well known as piano mics and used in audiophile reference tests, but they’re my favorite drum overheads ever. I think people should be more aware of them for that.

Do you find that the SCX, and AUDIX mics in general, let you do less EQ and dynamics processing after selecting the right mic for the source?

Absolutely. I don’t need to EQ as much as I used to. It depends on the band, but often I’m doing close to nothing after the fact other than the usual low cut on everything except kick.

Let’s shift gears and talk about any recent use of AUDIX in the studio.

Early this year, I finished mixing an album for a French band called

Alcest. They’re a sort of fusion of shoegaze with black metal. I had mixed their Live at Hellfest concert, which was aired by European TV channels in 2022 — it’s on YouTube now. I had gotten a lot of great feedback on the sound, which led to me working on this new album.

When we started recording, I was working with them remotely and exchanging files. I recommended changing a few microphones to AUDIX. In spite of the remote setup, the raw tracks I got were great and the mix went smoothly. This has happened with a few bands now.

What advice would present-day you give to yourself when you were starting out?

Ask more questions. Making mistakes is actually valuable,

because you’re always going to keep them with you and learn how not to make them again. But then, a “mistake” in one context can be just the right move in another.

Because I am self-taught, I’m always happy to answer whatever I can for people who were in my position and genuinely curious. I learned the theory by doing the practice.

Photo: Ekaterina Gorbacheva

JOE ELLIOTT

DEF LEPPARD | LEAD SINGER | 8424 CONSOLE

Our Engineer Ronan and I wanted a Neve, and we identified the 8424 - which is a magic desk. I have one in my studio here, and Ronan has one in his studio - it works really well.

‘YOU HAVE TO BE A CHAMELEON’

GRAYSON BARTON

US engineer, producer, and musician Grayson Barton is one of the busiest men in the business. As the owner of Starscream Studios, he finds himself spread across the live industry, the studio sector, and even the world of live streaming in both audio and visual capacities, often juggling multiple projects at any one time. Here, Headliner finds him on a rare day off on his tour with rapper and streaming sensation T-Pain to discuss his unique career so far and how Earthworks Audio mics have transformed his approach to his craft…

“It’s been great,” Grayson Barton beams as he joins Headliner via Zoom on an early morning in Atlanta. It’s a precious day off for the US polymath and yet he’s already taking a chunk of his free time to chat with us about how the current tour with T-Pain has been going. “This is his third sold out tour in a row, so it’s been an exciting journey to

be on with an artist who had huge popularity, then kind of went away for a minute, and is now enjoying this incredible resurgence. He’s one of the kindest people to work for and he’s trusted me with not only being his monitor engineer on our first tour, but then moving out to be his FOH engineer over the last two years.”

It’s easy to see why he’s struck up such a relationship with T-Pain and his team. He could hardly be more enthusiastic about not just the tour, but the passion he feels for his work in general. As we discover during the course of our conversation, his infectious positivity has led him down all manner of creative avenues.

“There are great benefits to working with the same artist over a prolonged period of time,” he continues. “T-Pain loves technology; he loves getting his hands dirty. He comes from writing and producing his own music, so if you don’t know what you’re doing you can’t BS your way through with him! It’s very refreshing and rewarding because he’s on your level

talking about the tech, talking about the production.”

To understand how Barton arrived at a point in his career where he is in demand from almost every quarter of the industry, we need to go right back to the beginning.

“When I was eight I used to make fake radio shows with the tape recorder,” he recalls. “Then I got into playing guitar and toured in some pop punk bands. We always had a hard time getting quality audio so that got me thinking I’ll become a studio guitar player, and then I was like, maybe I’ll just become an engineer. So, I went back to school for audio and graduated from audio college.

“After that I helped out at a lot of churches just to get involved in different productions. A lot of really cool people gave me opportunities in the church world, and you just keep saying yes until you have to start saying no, which is kind of how this business works.”

This approach saw him cross paths with one of YouTube’s most popular drummers and drum-related content creators, Casey Cooper (COOP3RDRUMM3R). It would result not only in one of the most important working relationships he would forge, but in the creation of his very own business in the form of Starscream Studios, a multi-purpose, multi-service operation that caters for everything from studio recording services, to live engineering and AV streaming solutions.

“When I was in school, I was tearing down this building and working it up to be a recording studio,” he says. “I was reading books on acoustics and building rooms and just trying to better understand it all. Anyway, I started helping and volunteering at this church and it just so happens Casey Cooper goes there. He’s a drummer there and we hit it off immediately. I had no idea this guy had a huge YouTube following and he’s super humble, doesn’t even bring it up. I was like, ‘oh you do drums on YouTube? There’s this drummer I’m watching there called Cobus’. And he was like ‘oh Cobus is super cool’, and we’re just there watching YouTube videos and I’m sitting with the most subscribed YouTube drummer in the world [laughs].

“So, a friendship started and he helped me with my studio, which became Starscream. I was just trying to work on records with people willing to give me a chance. And after a little while Casey needed some help over at his studio, so I would go there and start mixing for him for his YouTube channel.”

“EARTHWORKS ARE INNOVATORS FROM TOP TO BOTTOM.”

It is through Cooper that Barton first came into contact with Earthworks Audio microphones – a brand that he insists has revolutionized his working process.

“The first time I used Earthworks was working with Casey,” he recalls. “I’d used a lot of mics but getting to use their tom and snare mics, it was clear they were a different level. The way they have the rejection built into their mics for drums specifically is incredible. And in the studio, you’re able to get a much purer signal - I’m not having to go in and clean it up and gate it out. It was very refreshing right off the bat. Even this cool stainless-steel look.

“They’re innovators from top to bottom, so anytime you’re like, okay we’ve reached the limitations of what mics can do. they always come out with something that’s crazy, and it’s a crazy affordable price.

“They just released their new kick mic, the DM6, and I was blown away. It’s the quickest mic you can put on a kick drum and not have to tinker with EQ and go crazy with. It’s just a good sounding kick drum mic right away, and that’s what you want as an engineer.”

One Earthworks model that left an indelible impression on Barton was the Ethos mic, which he and Cooper tested in highly unconventional circumstances. The pair decided to record a cover of The Beatles classic Hey Jude using the Ethos and no other mic whatsoever. Barton picks up the story.

“It was the most daunting task ever,” he laughs. “We’re going to cover a Beatles tune with one microphone, like,

this is not a good idea! There was lots of trepidation when Casey brought that idea to me, but I was like, let’s do it, I trust you! So, we went through the process, and it was amazing. Even the drum kit – it’s just one mic. That’s when I became a big fan, like, their mic can do anything!”

This talk of boundary pushing and innovation brings us round to Barton’s own ethos of always looking to expand both his professional horizons and his skillset.

“You have to be a chameleon,” he states. “And the minute Covid hit you had to do anything you could to keep working. There were moments during covid where people wanted me to learn how to do streaming software and that’s something I still do to this day. Obviously I bring audio to the table in that, but I wanted to bring excellence to video as well, so it’s about learning to say yes until your calendar just can’t hold it anymore!”

He also describes how the pandemic instigated a major surge in DIY content creators upping their production values.

“Covid created this wild, magical convergence where we saw pro level gear being brought down to a consumer level of price,” he continues. “To get the highest quality image and audio on a stream was really difficult before Covid but all those things became more affordable. And once people have that level of gear they want to use it to the fullest, so that’s where a production company or an audio engineer gets to step in and help improve what you’re doing.

“In places like houses of worship they’re streaming on a weekly basis, and before Covid it’d be like, there’s a single camera shot and one live room mic and that’s fine. Now, if you don’t have four nice audience mics and you don’t have everything fully mic’d, a couple of camera shots, and a little movement on the camera, it’s like, ‘oh man what are these people doing’!”

As we finally free Barton to enjoy the rest of his day off there’s just time for him to fill us in on what else he’s been working on, as well as what he has in the pipeline.

“I’m always looking for opportunities to get my hands on,” he says. “I was out with country artist Russell Dickerson for a little bit recently. A buddy of mine is his tour manager. I love those guys from the country world, it’s really different from the hip-hop world so it’s always fun to step in that for a minute. It’s a completely different world and you get to stretch and sharpen your skills.

“At Starscream we recently did a live performance showcase where we gave people an opportunity to show up and see new artists that are starting out. We brought a local band in and a local singer-songwriter and said we want you to do a couple takes and we’re just going to take one solid take, no comps, mix it up, put a little sauce on it, and put it out.

“As always, it’s a lot of irons in the fire. That’s how this thing works. You’ve got to keep them going and keep them all hot.”

INTRODUCING THE DJS OF TOMORROW

NEXT GENERATION

A black spiral staircase loops around beams of ascending light pulsating from the centre of HARMAN UK’s Hertfordshire HQ demo space. It’s an atmospheric, open plan facility that showcases the full extent of the company’s live sound solutions. A wall of speakers from JBL’s ONE Series portable PA range paves the way to a mini stage and DJ booth. An array of AKG mics and headphones are on display, while a Soundcraft mixing console takes pride of place at FOH position. In essence, anyone from performers to engineers can walk straight in and get hands-on with anything they may require to enhance their sound in the live arena.

Which is precisely why we are here today. With a specific focus on the DJ market, five of the industry’s most exciting new talents are here to put the aforementioned JBL ONE Series through its paces. Indeed, each of the DJs present this evening are at the start of a journey which JBL may well be a part of. All five will perform a 20-minute set through a different model from the range, demonstrating the power and versatility on offer by way of vastly contrasting styles and genres.

With a variety of column speakers built to accommodate every demand, the ONE Series has been built with world class sound and maximum durability at its core. From the tour bus, the back of a van, or simply carried by hand, each of these systems are designed to cope with the rigors of the road with zero compromise to the integrity of the audio.

Upon arrival, the five DJs, Amy Francesca, Groovin Rue, Alice’s Wonderland, JLV, and YDLR, are greeted by the HARMAN team and given a demonstration and presentation on the history of JBL and its expansion into the realm of portable PA. It’s an engaging session that draws audible approval from the evening’s performers, with each expressing their enthusiasm and excitement at hearing the systems they are about to deliver their sets through.

Kicking proceedings off is Amy Francesca, who sets the tone for what’s to come with a sparkling set drawing heavily from her love of hip hop. It’s a set that shows off the power and dynamism of the JBL IRX ONE she’s using to the fullest.

As she explains to us after her performance, she’s looking to take her career to the next level, having built

the foundations for a future in music by gaining as much live experience as possible.

“I’ve always been on a journey of selfdiscovery,” she beams. “As a kid I was more interested in watching music TV than kids shows. R&B was where I started, and I fell in love with artists like Ashanti and Ja Rule. In my final year of uni, I was looking at how much it would cost to get my own equipment, and my student finance had dropped so I was like, let’s get some stuff! Then during lockdown, I spent a lot of time developing my skills.”

She also cites the discovery of DJ Siobhan Bell as a pivotal moment in her progression as a DJ.

“She was well known in the UK scene and has moved to America now doing massive things,” Francesca continues. “She was one of the first females I saw in the DJ world doing brand bookings and runway shows. As soon as I saw her do that I was like, I think I can do this! I then found other women who DJ doing what I aspire to do, and I felt more confident to really push myself to where I am now.

“As for what’s next, I definitely want to step into the festival scene. And brand bookings. I’m really interested in brands like JBL and how they market their speakers. I always want to be a part of that journey, reaching out and working with these kinds of companies.”

Which brings us to her impressions of the IRX ONE she’s just taken to the stage with.

“The speakers sounded absolutely amazing,” she says. They were even more powerful than I was expecting, and the sound is just so clear. I have absolutely no complaints about that system!”

Up next is Groovin Rue, a lifelong music fan who has only taken to DJing over the past two years, having discovered the On The Rise DJ Academy during lockdown.

“I signed up for a few classes and haven’t looked back,” he smiles. “I’m really enjoying it, have had loads of opportunities, and I’m here today because of JBL and On The Rise.”

In the two years since he started learning his craft with On The Rise, Rue has cultivated a frenetic set centred around a blend of soulful house and UK garage. It goes down a storm in the room, and he’s keen to shine a spotlight on the EON ONE MKII he’s just powered it through.

“I’m not going to lie, I felt like I was in a club,” he laughs. “My legs were

shaking, that was the vibe I had. I felt like I was out raving! I want to find out more about some of these speakers. Sometimes you think you need big speakers, but you may not always need that. The system onstage tonight was incredible and so much more powerful than I was expecting. These JBL systems can be affordable if you are getting the right size for your setup, so I’m looking forward to diving into the different systems and options they have. If you are a mobile DJ, you can get an amazing and affordable setup here.”

He’s also quick to highlight the role On The Rise has played in filling him with the confidence to pursue his dreams of a career behind the decks.

“Being in that environment was great for building confidence and meeting like-minded people, doing sets together,” he says. “It’s really given me a confidence I didn’t have before.”

Another member of the On The Rise community is Alice’s Wonderland, whose career cadence chimes Rue’s. The night’s third performer, she has been honing her skills for the past two years since gaining as much live experience as she can in a bid to bring her distinct style to new audiences. A key focus, she explains, is the Asian DJ scene, which she is

looking to place front and centre of her work.

“I play a lot of commercial music but I’ve recently started looking at shining a spotlight on East Asian music and DJs, as I don’t think there is enough of a spotlight on Asian DJs,” she asserts. “That’s my passion. It seems like there are hardly any Asian DJs out there if

you look around on social media, etc. I’m half Asian and I think we need more, as there are actually a lot out there who are very talented but not well known.”

From the outset of her journey into DJing, Alice has been acutely aware of the importance of networking and creating her own opportunities.

“IT FELT LIKE I WAS PLAYING A CLUB IN IBIZA!”

“I’ve been consistently going to networking events and putting myself out there,” she tells us. “With DJing you really have to put yourself out there; you can’t sit around waiting for things to happen. And academies like On The Rise really help with building connections and getting bookings. It’s not always easy but if you bring something a bit different you can stand out.

“Last year I was probably performing twice a week at places like The Slug and Lettuce and occasionally private bookings. But I’m trying to move away from pubs and doing different events. The next step for me is finding places I can go to exercise my creative freedom.”

Which brings us to her performance tonight. Playing through a pair of PRX ONEs, she is effusive in her praise for the system, describing it as amongst the best she’s encountered to date.

“This place is amazing,” she smiles, looking around. “It was fascinating to hear about the history of the company and the scale of venues and places that JBL systems are used in. It’s great that they are bringing these systems to the DJ world. The PRX ONE I used today sounded absolutely amazing. It was the best sound I’ve had to date. It felt like I was playing a club in Ibiza!”

The continental club sound she describes is one with which our next DJ is closely associated. A significant figure in the DJ community of his hometown Utrecht in the Netherlands, JLV is a DJ and music producer who has performed in clubs across Europe and Asia.

Prior to the pandemic, he was a regular fixture on club line-ups across his homeland and other European cities, yet the lockdowns that temporarily brought the industry to its knees prompted him to double down on his career as a producer. What began as a side project of sorts has now become a central focus, but with post-Covid normality more or less restored, he is determined to get back on the road and behind the decks.

“I started out with discovering dubstep,” he says of his musical grounding. “That got me into electronic music and then it was producers like Avicii. I saw these DJs doing everything on their own and creating something beautiful. And I’ve always been a bit of a nerd so I really liked working with software. That’s where I slowly developed into a music producer. It started as a hobby and eventually turned into a career.

“I saw these artists that were making really good music playing as DJs, too,” he continues. “I was

inspired by that to also start learning about DJing and seeing what’s possible. I started out at the local bar and won a DJ contest, so I got to be the resident there. I learned a lot from that, playing long hours. That’s how I developed into doing house music sets and trying to play as much as possible.”

One of the most distinctive aspects of JLV’s set is the almost exclusive use of his own original music in favour of incorporating household names, although he does drop a couple of crowd-pleasers towards its climax. His thumping 20-minute segment feels almost as though it’s been lifted directly from one of his homeland’s superclubs.

“Clubs are definitely my spiritual home,” he says. “It’s where I have the most experience. When I play house parties that’s the type of music that I play. And there are often bigger artists playing in and around that scene and you can really tell the difference in the level people play at. I get really inspired by that.”

The PRX 900 system he has just played through certainly lends itself to the club-focused sound that has become his signature.

“It sounded so powerful,” he says. “I really didn’t expect a system like that to sound so big with only a few speakers. You can feel that they can handle everything well. I already had an appreciation for JBL speakers and the brand but after today I’m even more impressed.”

Closing out the evening is polymath YDLR. A vinyl DJ, she is also a singer, songwriter, and actor. She too has passed through the On The Rise DJ Academy, although her path into DJing arose almost by accident.

“I was meant to perform as a singer last November but I got laryngitis so I couldn’t sing,” she recalls. “But the place I was performing at had turntables so I jumped on and spun some vinyl, and decided I really wanted to do this properly. So, I went to the On The Rise Academy and have been learning from there.”

“I DIDN’T EXPECT A SYSTEM LIKE THAT TO SOUND SO BIG WITH ONLY A FEW SPEAKERS.”

Much like her On The Rise peers, her attention is squarely focused on gaining experience as a performer. Events such as this, she states, are vital for her development.

“Because I started on vinyl and that’s all I’m doing at the moment, I need to get out there more,” she asserts. “Things like today are really good for me to get more exposure and experience. My mum is a designer, and she has been having monthly pop ups so I DJ every month there. It’s just about seeing what opportunities are out there and making the most of them.”

This opportunity has also introduced her to a brand she may well seek to carry with her as her career enters its next phase. Using an EON 700 system for her set, she is effusive in her admiration not only for the sound of the speakers, but her experience with the brand in general.

“I didn’t have any idea how long JBL has been going for and how far reaching their products are,” she says. “The demonstration was great as their equipment is amazing. And the EON 700 on stage sounded absolutely amazing. It was so good. And it was powerful without being

overbearing. You don’t feel like your ears are being attacked. The sound is so clean.”

As the evening draws to a close, the warmth and encouragement shared between all five DJs is palpable. Each is embarking on a new phase of their development, and on this evidence, JBL could well play a part in propelling them on that journey.

JBLPRO.COM

Photograph Credit: Jon Gorrigan

Photograph Credit: Rene Huemer

MIXING PHISH AT SPHERE

INTO THE VOID

In the last issue of Headliner, we learned how FOH engineer Garry Brown used Lawo mc² 56 mixing consoles on Phish’s four-night, 68song run at Sphere in Las Vegas – delivering an enhanced concert experience that left audiences captivated. Here, monitor engineer Robert ‘Void’ Caprio discusses his workflow using Lawo desks, and reveals some of the challenges associated with mixing a band that refuses to do things the conventional way…

Tell us who you are and what you do.

I’m Robert ‘Void’ Caprio, and I’m the monitor engineer for Trey Anastasio of Phish. I mix monitors for him during the Phish shows and for his solo acts as well.

What does your day-to-day look like, and what are some of the challenges that you face?

Mixing monitors for Phish and Trey is a moving target. There’s no setlist with the band; everything is always just, ‘who knows what’! Trey will call an audible for something and a five minute song can turn into a 30 to 40 minute jam. So there’s no

snapshots, there’s nothing preset on the console, and everything is always live. My fingers are always moving around changing things and there’s a lot of effects used, so there’s lots of changes dynamically throughout the set and within each song.

The challenges are relatively few in the sense that there’s nothing really drastic that changes. It’s all very, very subtle, but frequent. So it’s not a lot of things - just a lot of little things.

Being at Sphere, we have some challenges acoustically, because the stage is 80 milliseconds ahead of the

Holoplot speaker system. But with the band all being on in-ears, we’ve been able to basically isolate them away from that, and also use some of the Holoplot beam steerage to focus away from the stage. So even though the PA is technically behind the band, we’ve been able to compensate for that. We’ve been having some fun trying to figure out ways to minimize the effects of that kind of thing, and like any other situation, we have to rise above it and find a way to solve any problems that might pop up.

What are the main differences between mixing FOH and monitors? Is there greater pressure involved when mixing monitors?

“FOR ME, GIVING MY ARTISTS THAT DEPTH OF THE MIX WITHIN THEIR EARS IS PARAMOUNT.”

Can you tell us about your workflow on the Lawo mc² 56 console, and which tools or features you find really useful?

The fidelity of the console itself is the main attraction, and being able to really focus on each individual instrument to build a mix as a whole, really makes a big difference. We’ve been able to use the flexibility of the Lawo mc² 56 console – the dynamics, the EQ, and everything else that’s built in – to really accentuate and focus on all the different elements of the band. They’re so dynamic that the mix is always changing, and there’s always a movement going on.

The Lawo mc² 56 consoles allow us to get that fidelity to really make all the individual parts speak, and poke out of the mix where they need to. As a monitor engineer, width is very easy to achieve; that left-right balance is relatively easy to get going. But for me, giving my artists that depth of the mix within their ears is paramount. And so the Lawo console in particular, mainly due to its dynamics, enables me to bring that depth to the mix and really layer things up; I can put that vocal way out front and get everything else sitting in the back, with some stuff in the middle. That’s the key.

I actually do quite a bit of both front of house and monitor mixing. When it comes to Phish, my job is simplified slightly in that I’m only mixing for Trey. I do supplemented mixes for some tech guys as well, but my main artist focus is only on Trey. My esteemed colleague, Mark ‘Bruno’ Bradley is mixing for the rest of the band, and so my challenge is just to always have the ideal mix happening for Trey. I need to be laser-focused on him throughout the set, and just watch what he’s doing. I watch how he’s playing and see if I can feel his movements dynamically as he’s playing guitar and everything else. And again, with the band being so dynamic, with drums, bass, keys etc., it’s always a moving target, and so that’s the challenge.

When mixing front of house, it’s a very different thing; you’re kind of just trying to give a blend of everything. The audience doesn’t necessarily know that something may or may not need to be louder or softer. However, the Phish fans are very particular, and they do catch a lot of things that some audiences don’t. In general, front of house mixing is a little less focused on any one thing in particular, whereas with monitor mixing and Trey, I need to focus on each individual thing at certain times. But I was actually very surprised coming into this camp as to how much fun that is, and how different it is. I don’t use any snapshots. Every show is different and they’ve never played the same show twice, so with it being so different and dynamic, it’s actually a lot of fun.

Photograph Credit: Rene Huemer

THE LONG AWAITED KIASMOS II

KIASMOS

Kiasmos were taken completely unawares by the unexpected success of their debut album, a huge catalyst in the careers of both members. It also left the duo unsure how to approach a second record. The side project/supergroup of producer and songwriter Janus Rasmussen and BAFTA-winning composer Ólafur Arnalds, they released the self-titled Kiasmos back in 2014, and 10 years later, Kiasmos II is finally here. The pair chat to Headliner about the surprise journey making electronic music for fun has taken them on, and how they found their flow again to create this brilliant new record.

“I was in an electro-pop band, as the singer and synth player,” Rasmussen says when asked about how he met Arnalds. “We played a lot downtown in Reykjavik, at a venue called Oregon. And Óli was the in-house sound technician. At one point, we released an album and went on tour around Iceland to promote the album. We brought along Óli because he already mixed us a few times. And in the van, while we were bored driving between cities, we discovered that we had a similar interest in a type of club music that was going on at the time; fast and darker club music. So we started

hanging out and making that kind of music. And we even made some beats in the van on the tour.”

There are some who may be less familiar with Kiasmos but are acquainted with Ólafur Arnalds, not least because his solo piano music helped pioneer an entire music scene and genre alongside his contemporaries Nils Frahm, Dustin O’Halloran, and Peter Broderick. There may be only two full Kiasmos LPs, but there are six Ólafur Arnalds albums on top of innumerable EPs, soundtrack albums and collaborations.

The fascinating thing about the debut and breakthrough Kiasmos album was how it intersected so naturally with this scene, dubbed ‘neoclassical’. Not merely because half the duo was making this music anyway, but other electronic artists also seemed to be circling in its orbit: Jon Hopkins’ IDM and techno albums would also include solo piano pieces, Rival Consoles is a label mate to Kiasmos on Erased Tapes records, and Max Cooper often performs at similar venues such as the Barbican in London.

Regarding the album unexpectedly lifting off the way it did, Rasmussen says, “It hit the right timing, the sound was just fresh at the time.” Arnalds adds, “I think it’s opened up a new avenue for my whole career. It’s inspired a lot of the stuff that I’ve then gone on to do with other projects. I think it’s really good to have this variety in what we do. It’s good to take a break from whatever you’re doing like the solo stuff that I work on way more than a full-time job; every now and then to step away from it and work on another project.”

With the debut, self-titled album (or Kiasmos I as you could perhaps call it now) leading to countless

festival bookings around the world and becoming a highly influential phenomenon in the dance music genre, you could be forgiven for thinking Kiasmos would have had more urgency to make and release a follow-up. But its 2014 release means it’s now been 10 years since that release, with only the four-track Blurred EP in 2017 to fill the gap.

“We’ve been writing it for a while, on and off, and tried a few times to really get into the groove of making an album,” Rasmussen explains.

“The oldest song on the album is from 2017 and then we didn’t write much for the album for another two, or three years. Then we went on a trip to Bali to write some songs and three or four tracks there, and then another two years had to pass for us to meet up and finish the album. But once we decided we wanted to make and finish the album, it all came together pretty quickly.

“There was a little bit of expectation with this album that wasn’t there when we made the first one. Back then, we barely knew what we were doing, so we just made whatever we wanted. But with this new album, people already have an idea of what Kiasmos is, so we always want to do something new.”

“It’s not a project we want to do unless it feels right in that moment,” Arnalds adds. “We can’t be doing it because our fans or management are asking for it. It has to be because it’s exactly what we want to do creatively and energetically. Because we also have the realization that once we start down this road, we’re going to be on it for a little while. When you do an album, there’s usually a year of touring, and you need to be ready for that and actually want to do it.”

The greatly anticipated Kiasmos II announcement was quickly followed by the arrival of lead single Flown , accompanied by a gorgeous black and white music video in which an elderly gentleman has become obsessed with building a functioning pair of wings, sharing a spiritual moment with a crow in the process (as you do). It’s instantly one of the very best tracks the pair have put out — the percussive, plucked instrument intro will already have your hairs standing on end before the bass and beat hits, and this is all before a classic, descending Arnalds piano motif arrives with strings swirling around.

Photograph Credit: Maximilian König

Photograph Credit: Maximilian König

Arnalds then talks about how Flown is a great example of his creative process with Rasmussen, saying, “It’s a fairly standard way for us to start a song where Janus brought a few beats he’d been working on, and we listened to them all, to see which one would give us the most instant inspiration to create a song around. I then found the main chord structure using a weird, plucky string-like instrument that I had been experimenting with. We simply spliced that together with the beat that Yanis brought. Then we spent the rest of the time together making the rest of the song elements, like the piano melody, strings, and other synths, and working on the beat together.”

One new element for Kiasmos II was recording in Bali, bringing back field recordings and new sounds. Rasmussen then talks about some of

the other new audio joys they brought to the table. “For the newest songs, we used a lot of new synths, including the Osmose from Expressive E, which we used quite a bit towards the end. We also used the C-15 from Nonlinear Labs, both of which have a more digital sound, even though we’re known for using very warm analog synths, which we also used on the album.”

Arnalds chimes in with some of the staples from his solo and Kiasmos work, including the “Korg PS-3100 synthesizer from the 1970s is something I use very frequently. It’s my favorite synth, and it’s featured in most of our music. The PS3100 was quite pivotal in the making of this new Kiasmos album as well. A lot of the piano on the album was recorded using my AKG C12A microphones, which I’ve had for a long time. I always use them for string recordings as well. For

the orchestral stuff, we used them as the main mics, as I was able to borrow a third one to set up a mic array. I also have the AKG C414s, which we used to record in Bali, including for some of the piano parts.”

Just like the first album, Kiasmos II feels like a seminal work. After 10 long years, it’s finally here for your listening pleasure. They are embarking on a huge tour of European festivals, Japan, the US and Mexico, and one of their biggest headline shows to date at London’s Troxy in September. Let’s savor this Kiasmos run while it lasts and put our hands together and pray it’s not a decade until the next one.

KIASMOS.IS

Photograph Credit: Maximilian König

MARSHALL STUDIOS

Legendary guitar amp brand Marshall Amplification has recently upscaled its Milton Keynes HQ to incorporate a top of the range recording studio, as well as a 250-capacity live performance space that can be utilised as both a live recording room and premium rehearsal space. Studio manager Adam Beer specified an L-Acoustics system to bring authentic concert sound to the venue, hailing it as the best solution in the business. Here, he explains why…

For more than half a century, the Marshall stack has served as an enduring symbol of rock music. From the early ‘60s to the present day, its instantly recognizable look

and notorious sonic power have left an indelible mark on the genre, becoming synonymous with rock ‘n’ roll and influencing legends of the genre like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Its legacy stands to this day, rendering it a true icon in the world of music beyond simply musicians and techies.

The Marshall Amplification headquarters in Milton Keynes, UK recently expanded to incorporate a top of the range recording studio, record label and live agency service. The facility features a world class, 250-capacity live performance space, from which artists can record and prepare for live shows supported by the world’s best sound reinforcement.

“Marshall started because artists needed amps,” says Adam Beer, studio manager at Marshall Studios. “And 60 years on, we asked ourselves what modern artists need. This led us to find a record label, a live agency, and now a recording studio, to enable up-and-coming artists to access the resources needed to become successful musicians.”

It was crucial to the Marshall team to retain a live element in the studio.

“In this live space, we host events, album launch parties, and performances from visiting artists. Our sound system needs to reflect the high quality of the building and the work that we do here, and the system that was previously installed was not up to our standards,” Beer continues.

Marshall connected with L-Acoustics Certified Provider Solotech to identify a solution that would meet their rigorous demands.

“Solotech were amazing to work with from the start,” Beer continues. “They quickly sent a project team who spent time getting to know the studio space and listening to our needs. They rapidly came up with an amazing plan to make the space work flexibly.”

“THE SYSTEM IS SUPER MUSICAL. L-ACOUSTICS IS THE PINNACLE OF LIVE SOUND.”

The solution Solotech deployed for the space comprised two A10 Bump, four A10 Focus, and two A10 Wide systems to serve as the main PA, along with four KS21 subs and one SB15M. One X8, and nine X12 were also specified for monitors. The whole system is powered by three L-Acoustics LA4X CE amplifiers and one LA12X CE amplifier.

“We wanted a professional, concert-grade sound system that would be creative and amenable to all musicians. It needed to be modern, fresh, and crisp. Our L-Acoustics A Series concert system is a perfect match.

“The system is super musical, and for me, L-Acoustics is the pinnacle of live sound,” Beer comments when discussing the new L-Acoustics professional sound system that now resides at the core of the facility’s impressive live performance space. The studio offers everything from recording, mixing and general music production, to being a podcast studio, a photography studio, or even a conference space.

The A Series, says Beer, has elevated Marshall Studio to a truly unique, multi-purpose space, serving as a live room for studio recordings, as well as a fully functional, top-class venue for live shows and events.

“So far so good!” enthuses Beer. “Everything we do in the live room can either be recorded to our DAW or to tape. If we do something live, we can capture a crystal-clear live recording via Dante.

“I really, really wanted this L-Acoustics system!” he concludes. “For me it’s the best sound reinforcement rig in the world. The speakers sound amazing; they are so clear, and Solotech were able to make sure I got just what I wanted. I couldn’t be happier!”

Photograph Credit: Matt Pogorelc, Quest Marketing

Words bY COLBY RA M YES

DIGICO

EQUIPS NEW NASHVILLE CLUB

FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES

Headliner discovers how a DiGiCo Quantum225 mixing console and L-Acoustics A Series concert sound system are supplying Grammy Award-winning country star Garth Brook’s sound at his new club on Nashville’s raucous Lower Broadway strip, dubbed the Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk.

As the only musical artist in history to have released nine RIAA Diamond-certified albums, Garth Brooks doesn’t just hold rank in the pantheon of country greats, he’s long been one of the world’s most beloved musicians.

So when Brooks and his wife, Trisha Yearwood, announced the grand opening of their four-floor,

55,000-square-foot Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk live music venue in downtown Nashville’s “Neon Neighborhood” of Lower Broadway, excitement ran high among the artist’s broad fan base.

The new venue is outfitted with an L-Acoustics A Series concert sound system and a DiGiCo Quantum225

console at front of house, complete with a MADI-ready MQ-Rack stage box. The full system was designed and installed by Clair Global Integration (CGI), the permanent installation division of the star’s longtime sound-reinforcement tour provider, Clair Global.

“THE PERFORMANCE OF OUR DIGICO DESK IS EXTREMELY IMPRESSIVE.”

The loudspeaker system is perfectly scaled to the venue’s dimensions, reflecting the long rectangular spaces characteristic of the area’s turn-ofthe-century urban spaces. Flanking the stage on the left long wall are one A15i Focus over two A15i Wide enclosures, and another hang of one A15i Focus over two A15i Wide, which provide coverage to either side and in front, towards both the main floor and balcony, carved out of what was once the second floor.

The design challenge here was to provide even and consistent coverage to both levels. To keep the volume reasonable but still impactful, 14 coaxial X8 loudspeakers are installed as balcony underfills, each powered by one of the 16 channels of an LA7.16i amplified controller, with the remaining two channels used to power X8 in the club’s elevated VIP areas on the main floor.

In addition, two KS21i subs are mounted behind the A15i hangs, along with four KS28 subs in customconstructed, four-foot-deep cavities below the VIP areas, which give those areas significant LFE impact but without rattling the seats. The rooftop bar, known as The Oasis, has a leftright sound system comprising an A10i Focus over an A10i Wide and one

KS21i sub on either side, all powered by an LA4X amplified controller. A nearby bar area is covered by eight X8 speakers with SB10i subs, also driven by an LA4X.

The venue’s mix position meanwhile is located at the back of the bar, near stage left. From here, freelance AV technicians like Nate Warren and Gianni Gambuzza, brought in by JAG Warner Productions, utilize the Quantum225 console to provide both the front-of-house and monitor mixes for four bands a day, each playing four-hour sets.

“The performance of our DiGiCo desk is extremely impressive,” says Gambuzza. “We run it seven days a week in the honky-tonk venue from 10:00am to 2:30am – more than 16 hours a day – and it never slows down on us! The sound of the console is very clean, especially when going through our L-Acoustics A Series system. I feel like I can push my mix to the limits while still maintaining tremendous clarity. And I don’t really need to do a lot of work once I get all of my inputs in; all I have to do is push my faders up to where I want them and it sounds just like a mixed show before I even get into tweaking EQ and compression.”

For Gambuzza, the Quantum console’s Nodal Processing has been a particularly loved feature.

“On Lower Broadway, we have such quick changeovers that, in the past, there have been times at other venues when I couldn’t give a band the best in-ear mix simply due to time and channel limitations,” he recalls. “Now, with Nodal Processing, I can really get musicians’ mixes dialed in and provide every band member a personalized touch. I can give a drummer a different EQ curve on their snare, give a bass player compression on their vocal, and give a singer a boost in the high end, all in their own individual mixes while not affecting anyone else’s, and without having to double up channels for monitors. It’s truly amazing for when operating on time restraints.”

He’s also a fan of the desk’s Mustard processing tube emulators: “I’ve found them to really warm up vocals and tone down the harsh mids of an electric guitar, and I can also use them to really drive a kick or snare drum to ‘pop’ out in the mix.”

Photograph Credit: Matt Pogorelc, Quest Marketing

Fellow engineer Nate Warren points to the desk’s talkback system as being a major benefit. “One of my favorite features is a talkback system using the macros for every musician’s mic to troubleshoot issues much more efficiently,” he shares. “I have macros set for bands that will mute their mic sends to all sources, other than me and themselves, and set my talkback to only their in-ears to quickly resolve any issues that arise without it being in the front-of-house and without distracting other musicians while they’re playing and interacting with the crowd.”

Warren notes that the console is set up with 48 stage inputs to accommodate the four-to-six member bands that perform there, plus eight more channels dedicated for internal effects returns and local inputs for the booth. The console is also configured to run up to a dozen stage wedges, but much more typically gets used to supply six stereo IEM mixes for performers.

“Although I have only been using the Quantum225 here for a few months now, I’ve had well over a dozen

guitar players specifically tell me that their guitar sounds incredible thanks to the DiGiCo audio engine,” says Warren. “This console and our loudspeaker system were absolutely the best possible choices for Friends In Low Places. As far as I know, we’re the only venue on Lower Broadway that has a DiGiCo desk paired with an L-Acoustics PA, and they both make such a huge difference in providing the very best sound for our patrons and performers.”

Photograph Credit: Matt Pogorelc, Quest Marketing

REACEYUNG

HEART OF LOU 2

St. Louis rapper REACEYUNG discusses his creative process and inspiration behind some of the most personal tracks on his sixth studio album, Heart Of Lou 2.

His old-school flow is unmistakable, and his hooks are as catchy as they come. Earlier this year, Headliner featured REACEYUNG on the cover as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of hip-hop, a conversation that spanned the past, present and future of the genre. At the time alluding to his upcoming sixth album project, Heart Of Lou 2, Headliner was keen to catch up with him around the time of the album’s release on July 21 to discover the inspiration behind some of the tracks.

Headliner quizzes Reace on his most personal, favorite songs on the record, to which he responds in earnest: “It’s really hard to answer that question, because each song

pulls directly from a personal account of my soul. That’s like asking if you got a bunch of kids, which one is your favorite kid?

“But to at least try to pick one, I will say Grandel Finish, which is the very last song on the album. The way that it swings; the way it feels; my subject matter; I really wanted to go out with a bang. I love all the tracks personally, but Grandel Finish is the one that does it for me because it just solidifies my legacy as far as where I am and how I’m approaching the record.”

Eager to delve deeper into his creative process, Headliner brings into question the first set of singles to drop from the album: Northside, produced by Mathew Thurman, Happy Box C, produced by Darrylbeatz and October 10th Pressure, produced by Shamar Daugherty.

As it turns out, north side is exactly where he shot the video and got the inspiration for the homonymous track: “The same people that designed Jay-Z’s mansion designed the art museum on the north side of St. Louis, and that’s where we shot it,” Reace reveals. “My man Matthew Thurman also produced Necessary Lessons from the original Heart Of Lou When he sent that beat to my phone, he had already named it Northside, so I didn’t want to stray too far from the origins of the track or where he felt he wanted to go with the production.

“As an artist, I just got a little creative. He already had the mattress set up; I just came in with my comforter and laid it over the top. I actually changed the hook on that record at least three or four times, and then I got more comfortable with it and it stuck with me, so I just rolled with it.”

Can’t Worry About It, one of Headliner’s favorite tracks from the album, is also one of REACEYUNG’s most personal.

“That’s kind of like a diary entry for me, man,” he ponders. “It’s just got so much feeling in it; it’s like staring in a mirror for me. When I pull from what’s happening in my life, that turns my records into a therapeutic, soothing little moment for me. The song October 10th Pressure is really just to relax my mind when October

10 comes around, because that’s the day that my grandmother was buried. Around that time, every year since her death I can feel myself becoming depressed, so I had to make a song to get me out of that mode when that time of year rolls around.”

While he has worked with an array of producers over the years, Reace has mostly stuck with St. Louis producers, in a bid to “give back to the city”. There’s no denying that here is an artist who loves his craft, his community, and collaboration.

“WHEN I HEAR A TRACK AND MY EYEBALLS CLICK AND MY NECK STARTS TWITCHING AND EVERYTHING WHIRLS AROUND IN MY BRAIN, THAT MEANS I’M READY TO GO.”

“My personal work process doesn’t change but the workflow changes when the producer changes. When I hear a track and my eyeballs click and my neck starts twitching and everything whirls around in my brain, that means I’m ready to go. The beat is how you get me to just be crazy right out the gate. Sometimes I can’t control it; I was at work one day and one of my producers sent me a crazy track, and one of my co-workers thought I was having a seizure. I wasn’t having a seizure,” he says with an excitable laugh.

While he hasn’t yet listened to Heart Of Lou 2 through Augspurger® monitors, famed for shaping the hip-hop sound since the ‘90s, Reace tells Headliner that he is looking to set up a studio session in Boston where he can hook the album up to these mega monitors and “just rock out.”

At the time of interview, Heart of Lou 2’s release is less than a week away: “It’s exciting but can get a little stressful around album release time,” says Reace. “Sometimes these music aggregators, they’ve got so much music to process that’s coming out into the world and they don’t really have time to really narrow down on your release, if you’re not a super big artist. It can be a little stressful but we’re all working through it. My biggest gripe right now is that we’re all going to be on schedule, and it’s looking good.”

And when it comes to his workrate, there’s certainly no rest for the wicked. Although massively

overworked of his own accord, Reace is acutely aware that his current momentum must continue.

“I gotta get everything in line,” he rounds off with an infectious energy. “After Heart Of Lou 2 I’m gonna jump to my next joint, Thoughts Of King Sullivan, and then Heart Of Lou 3, and we just keep this thing rocking. I’m picking the tracks for it right now, creating the playlist, and rocking with more St. Louis producers; I want to still stick with the traditional guys that I’ve already been rocking with. Either way, I’ve got two more albums coming and they should roll out within the next two years.

“We kind of live in a microwave society now where everybody wants the album right now, but I just want to give people time to appreciate the records and let it grow. Then I’m immediately going to jump to something else. I can’t wait to meet up with everybody in L.A. again and we’re gonna rock out.”

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THESOUNDS OFTITAN

“THE TITAN IS THE HUB OF THE STUDIO, GIVING US ACCESS TO OUR SYNTHS AND OUTBOARD, AND MORE OFTEN THAN NOT REPLACING THE MIXING DESK.”

Neil Barnes, a founder member of British electronic music group Leftfield, has installed a Prism Sound Titan audio interface in Leftfield’s London studio where it is acting as a hub for all the synths and outboard equipment. Headliner finds out more…

Designed to offer high quality analog and digital I/O for Mac or Windows PCs, Prism Sound’s Titan delivers sample rates of up to 192kHz via a simple USB interface. With its MDIO interface expansion slot that allows for direct connection to Pro Tools|HDX systems, Titan is a popular converter among recording professionals who use external hardware devices but want easy access to Prism Sound’s renowned sound quality.

“The Titan is the hub of the studio, giving us access to our synths and outboard, and more often than not replacing the mixing desk,” Barnes says. “The ADAT I/O is essential for connectivity to our Cranborne 500

ADAT, and we have the option of future expansion using Dante with further Prism Sound interfaces.”

Leftfield (originally comprised of Neil Barnes and Paul Daley), has been at the cutting edge of dance music since the 1990s, releasing albums that have become some of the most influential electronic records of all time around the world. Their debut album, Leftism, is widely regarded as one of the most boundary-pushing electronic LPs ever released.

In 2010, Barnes reignited the Leftfield name, and went on to release two new albums (Alternative Light Source and most recently This Is What We Do), touring the world with the full live band.

Leftfield records in a private two room studio in London that is equipped with an Amek BC3 32-channel desk and Tannoy, PSI, Amphion and Geithain monitors through a Trinnov. The Prism Sound Titan is now the main audio

interface, replacing a Prism Sound Orpheus which was upgraded so Barnes could benefit from the USB connectivity that Titan offers, and so that the studio could stay at the leading edge of quality that Prism Sound interfaces offer.

“We run a hybrid system, utilizing the best tools for the job,” Barnes explains. “We sequence with external devices like the Cirklon or Intellijel Metropolis or Logic and Ableton, controlling an array of synths, eurorack modules and drum machines. We have a fair amount of outboard processing that we access directly via the Titan analog I/O, or digitally through the Titan’s ADAT interface to a Cranborne Audio 500 ADAT. This means that come mixdown, we can compress and EQ stems and individual sounds out of the box which, to our ears, still does a better job. We use compressors from Chiswick Reach, AML, Manley, DBX, Empirical Labs and Chandler amongst others.”

As someone who was already familiar with Prism Sound technology, Barnes says he found installing the Titan very simple.

“It was a plug and play operation with the same form factor and connectivity,” he says. “We only had to change the Firewire cable to a USB. The Titan has no MIDI (unlike the Orpheus), so we have had to find alternatives. The quality of the Titan is such that we are comfortable sending stems and the mix bus to external hardware without worrying about the impact this will have on the sound. With most audio interfaces now using the same handful of chips for AD/DA conversion, it is the construction, software and most importantly the analog circuitry that defines the quality of the device. Prism Sound

has always been at the forefront in these areas which is why we choose to use them.”

Leftfield is currently busy preparing for live shows throughout the UK and Europe and has also just completed remixes of its single Full Way Round

“The Titan will be used on all Leftfield music going forward,” Barnes adds. “It is working seamlessly with all our computers and is sonically engaging and a joy to use.”

JEAN-MICHEL JARRE

Photograph

Jean-Michel Jarre has been a household name for almost half a century now. Since his home-recorded album Oxygene became a global phenomenon in 1976, he has continued to push the boundaries of studio production and live performance.

Jarre’s shows have redefined what is possible. The French electronic music icon has performed at the Eiffel Tower, in front of over one million people in Houston, and has even played in the Sahara Desert.

What is perhaps more astonishing is the fact that even now, his shows continue to be a showcase for new technology, or a sign of what is heading toward us over the “Bridge From the Future”.

Jarre’s latest behemoth of a concert saw him play to over 100,000 people at the opening of STARMUS festival, a science and music festival founded by Brian May and astrophysicist Dr. Garik Israelian. The festival took over Bratislava, in the heart of Europe, and Jarre’s ambitious opening set the tone for the week ahead, at a festival that “unites science, art, and music to explore critical questions about our planet’s future.”

Jarre had specified collaborators CODA Audio to provide the sound system, and Christophe Dupin and his team set about creating a streamlined system to transform a bridge in Slovakia into a world-class venue, for one night only.

With no support act (who needs one when you’ve got Brian May joining half way through your set?) I had arrived at the show shortly before Jarre got started. With the exception of a gentle, looped piece of music before the show, I had heard nothing of the system, and considering the ambition and location of the show, it would’ve been easy for me to assume that the sound was a case of “making do” in challenging situations. I would have been wrong.

CODA Audio’s system, made up of 288 speakers including AiRAY, CiRAY, N-RAY, SC2-F, and SCP models, blew me away from the first bar of the set. Which raised the question… where is the rest of it?

Photograph Credit: James Cumpsty

“TO

HEAR THAT THE SMALL SPEAKERS ARE NOT BEING USED AT ANYTHING CLOSE TO THEIR CAPACITY WAS EVEN MORE STUNNING.”

With such a visual spectacle, something we’ve come to expect from a Jean-Michel Jarre show, it is crucial that the audience’s view isn’t impeded, and the CODA system is impossibly compact, even with the ability to fill the Bratislava night with audio for tens of thousands of people.

Audio engineer Christophe Dupin explained more about the system: “All people say; ‘wow…it’s amazing.’ The small boxes are very punchy – we never heard this kind of power with the small boxes like that.”

The loudspeaker setup was made up of the main PA on stage, as well as two low-profile delays accommodating for the vast area of the gig.

Dupin explained, “with the AiRAY, only 12 boxes per side cover around 100 meters, and we use this system at only 40% because we want a lot of headroom. The music of Jean-Michel is very punchy.”

To hear that the small speakers are not being used at anything close to their capacity was even more stunning. Their tiny profile made sure the audience could enjoy fireworks, drone shows, and AIgenerated visuals as part of myriad visual spectacles.

At the first delay tower, only two extra AiRAYs (14 in total) and three CiRAYs are needed in order to cover a stunning distance. With textbook use of System Optimizer, CODA’s fittingly state-of-the-art prediction software, the system was able to provide not

just even coverage and impressive throw, but tonal balance throughout.

“When we set up some microphones,” Christophe explained, “we see that the tonal balance is always the same. We increased the distance, but didn’t lose tonal balance because of the SC2-F. We also used some ViRAY for side fill to provide precise balance.”

Much of this balance seems to come from the crossover in CODA’s signature technologies, across their range. The full-range loudspeakers in the range, including CiRAY, ViRAY, and AiRAY, are built to be used together and interchangeably. CODA Audio describes these systems as a “family” and there is no denying the flexibility they allow whilst providing loads of arrayable options.

“You’ve got five different boxes, but you know you have the tonal balance,” Dupin continued. CODA Audio manufactures speakers to be phase aligned in the mechanical domain, which helps to provide this consistency and stunning tone across the board.

The SC2-F and SCP subwoofers support this balance further, and they are virtually hidden out of sight for the audience. Unique sensor-control provides a fast transient response and, in layman’s terms, gets rid of a lot of the unwanted “mud” that some systems suffer from. The term engineer Dupin used a few times when I spoke to him was “punchy” which is definitely reflected in the subs, which helped to ensure that everything had space in the live mix, and that that frustrating low-end mess was avoided completely.

The engineers also discussed the convenience and neatness of the speakers and their setup, initially considering using AiRAY, but then settling on six CiRAY speakers for the first 25 meters, using just two channels of amplifier space. Eight T-RACK amplifiers were used in total to drive the systems, and CODA’s HOPS8 speakers were also used for monitors, providing the same sound profile and ensuring continuity throughout.

Ensuring blanket dispersion and the same stunning experience for everybody in this huge outdoor space is no mean feat. The setup stood out for many reasons, not least

of all the way it freed up the space for the intended visuals, including the drone show and fireworks.

Jarre’s set is unfathomably varied. Add to that the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra and a 19-piece chorus from the Slovak Philharmonic Choir, plus the iconic sound of Brian May’s guitar, and you’ll see the sonic challenge facing engineers (and the system). Even when Jarre took the chance to address the audience on the mic, the throw and diction meant that even those right at the back were able to hear with stunning clarity.

Like other CODA-assisted shows I’ve been lucky enough to see, Bridge From the Future was not just the largest stage ever constructed in Slovakia, it was an audio tour-de-force, and an example of everything we have to be excited about in the AV industry.

CODAAUDIO.COM

Photograph

James Cumpsty

A CENTURY OF INNOVATION

CELESTION AT 100

For 100 years, the Celestion name has been synonymous with unparalleled sound quality and technological innovation. From its iconic guitar speakers that laid the bedrock for the sound of British rock and roll alongside artists like The Beatles or Jimi Hendrix, to its pioneering advancements in PA transducers, the company’s journey has been marked by a relentless pursuit of audio excellence. As Celestion embarks on its centennial year of celebration, managing director Nigel Wood sheds light on the profound evolution that has shaped the company’s legacy and the pivotal role it has played in shaping the sound of generations of music.

What has most influenced Celestion’s evolution over the past century?

What’s really interesting about Celestion is, we started making loudspeakers 100 years ago, and all this time later, we’re still doing

that, still making loudspeakers. A lot of companies are 100 years old, but during that period, they’ve evolved into different industries or to do different things. But Celestion is unique. It’s stayed true to its core identity.

How did the birth of the electric guitar inform Celestion’s path?

It’s certainly shaped it in the past 65 years. It really started with Vox and Marshall amps: the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and then Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix and all the heavy rock and roll players that came after. That set the direction through the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s to today, and that was very important to us. Over recent years, professional pro audio and sound reinforcement have become as important to us as guitar amplification. The electric guitar was an important part of our history, but it is not the whole story.

How did business evolve as you narrowed your focus from finished products to transducers?

It totally transformed. When I took over 20 years ago, Celestion was making transducers and making finished-goods products. It was trying to do everything. And in business, if you try to do everything, you tend to fail, so you should always do what you’re best at. We realized that actually, there are a lot of people making speaker cabinets. It’s really competitive. But there aren’t that many people making transducers. We thought, “There’s probably more growth to be had making transducers,” so we decided to ease out of boxes to focus on transducers, and that was the start of the modern transformation of the company.

How have investments in R&D technologies influenced product design?

Making prototypes of mechanical products – and a speaker is a mechanical product – is very timeconsuming. It takes a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of resources. We realized that instead of making physical products or physical samples, if we can model our products in the digital world, we can be more efficient. We started developing our software tools 15 or more years ago,

and every year we’ve improved them, and it’s made the process much more efficient. Now we can talk to customers and say, “What is your application? We can give you a design in 10 minutes.”

Why have compression drivers been so successful for Celestion?

Fundamentally, making compression drivers is really, really difficult. But we like to say difficulty is our friend because if it’s difficult for us, it’s difficult for our competitors. If we can come up with a formula to make them consistent and reliable, and costeffective, we’re likely to be successful.

How would you characterize a company that’s able to design both the Greenback and the Axi2050 compression driver?

Celestion is unique in that it does make both guitar speakers and PA speakers, and the way we approach the design is different for each. But because we have the legacy of making guitar speakers for many years, we know what the secret sauce is, and it’s vastly different from PA speakers. That secret sauce we keep to ourselves.

What comes to mind when people say that Celestion is the voice of rock and roll?

Celestion was there at the birth of rock and roll. If you look at the classic albums of the sixties, maybe 90% of them used Celestion speakers somewhere in the mix. Even today, when you listen to the radio the proportion is probably the same: 90% of the guitar sounds are through a Celestion speaker (whether analog or digital). It’s quite a legacy.

How would you characterize Britain’s role in Celestion’s identity?

When people think of Celestion, they think “British,” and they think of England; after all, it’s woven into our heritage. And of course, British rock ‘n’ roll is famous across the world. All of our products are designed in the

UK and a majority of our premium guitar products are made in the UK. Additionally, an increasing amount of our premium PA product is made here, too, because that’s what the market expects. That Britishness is very important to us.

Are there any artists that stand out for you for any unique reason, or that you have special relationships with?

The list of notable artists is so extensive that it is hard to choose. During the past several decades, hundreds of the most famous songs and albums in the world have been created using Celestion speakers. The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Queen, Van Halen, AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses — the list goes on and on. This year, for our 100th anniversary, we have produced a book, A Century of Sound: The Story of Celestion, which I hope will be of interest to Celestion fans and anyone interested in the history of audio. The foreword was written by Brian May of Queen, who has been a Celestion artist for many years and is one of my personal favorites.

Some interesting items have come off your production lines over the decades, from toy ducks to ladies’ lingerie….

Lingerie is like, yeah, where did that come from? In one of our acquisitions, they put a garment manufacturer together with Celestion — at the time it was described as “intimate apparel”. During the ’40s, apparently, we also made cigarette lighters and cuckoo clocks! Here’s an interesting fact that probably many people don’t realize: Celestion probably has the world’s biggest musician endorsee program. In part because we’re at the heart of so many other brands’ products. With all of our guitar amp customers, all their players are naturally Celestion players, too. From that often comes a genuine endorsement and we’re thankful for that.

Celestion has been around for 10 decades and survived a war; what’s behind the company’s longevity?

Over the past 100 years, signal processing has changed dramatically since the days of those really old radios with low output and, by today’s standards, poor-quality sound. But at the end of the day, that signal still needed a transducer, and still needs it today. The technology has changed a lot, expectations have changed a lot, but there’s still demand for converting electrical energy into sound pressure. And in 100 years, that demand has remained. To survive in any industry, you have to innovate. You can’t stand still. As the market moves forward or in different directions, you need to understand where the market is going and adapt accordingly.

Will there be any anniversaryedition products?

We are developing a guitar speaker that’s heavily based on some of the original alnico G12s from the late ’50s and early ’60s, recreating the tone and the look of those very early guitar speakers that we developed 60-plus years ago. We’ll be showcasing that this year: it’s called the Celestion 100. We’ll also have some custom, limited-edition, 100th anniversary-themed guitars built by our friends at Fender, Gibson and PRS.

Celestion has been owned by tech giant Gold Peak Technology Group for more than 30 years. How has that partnership shaped the company’s successes?

Gold Peak Technology Group has always supported the business, strategically and through continued investment. A lot of companies get sold every five years, and it doesn’t give those companies stability. You can see when a company is about to be sold because they downsize and lay off employees, get short-term profit up, they get a new buyer in, and then it takes them three years to recover. Having a stable owner is very, very important – it frees us up to think

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about innovation and growth in the long term.

You’ve been at Celestion for two decades. What would you say that person in 2003 would be most surprised to learn about Celestion today?

Maybe the biggest surprise is how far we’ve come forward in technology. If I look back at 20 years, the design tools we had were comparatively Fred Flintstone-like. Now, it’s better quality, we get better results, we get better predictability. The products we make today are much more technologybased compared to 20 years ago. The Celestion empire back 20 years ago was mostly Greenbacks and Vintage 30s. We had relatively few PA products, really, as we were at the beginning of our journey into that market segment. But back then we realized the guitar speaker market is quite niche and very mature so it’s not likely to grow too much more. So, to grow the business, we entered another category, which was PA transducers. To be successful in that category we had to offer an added value. We decided that the value would be technology.

What foundations is the company putting in place to ensure it thrives another 100 years?

Every year we invest more and more in software tools, and from the software tools, we can make more innovative products. We know that by having these innovations in place, they all won’t be successful – because they never are – but even just two or three will make a big difference. That’s one of the key foundations today, and it will continue to be one of the key foundations of our success over the next 100 years.

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Featuring an advanced cooling system and components with superior thermal stability, PowerProX18 operates with its voice coil consistently at 20°C lower than competing products. The result is ultimate control over power compression, extreme reliability and a relentless high quality performance, even after 100s of hours of use. For more information, contact: engineering@celestion.com

THE POWER OF HIGH-RES AUDIO

INSIDE 2XHD

René Laflamme, partner, VP, and technical director at high resolution audio recording and mastering specialist 2xHD joins Headliner for an insightful look at the history of the company, the enduring power of high quality audio in today’s music industry, and the role of Merging Technologies solutions in his work.

Tell us about the origins of 2xHD. What is its mission?

I started a label called Fidelio Audio 25 years ago. The main goal was to capture acoustic music recorded analog in Church or Concert halls with the most direct signal path, with realistic imaging with only one stereo microphone. I was really impressed by the Opus3 record label on vinyl with one Blumlein microphone technique. I wanted to capture music to the best possible level and create a sound experience that will convey emotion and realistic imaging.

So I created my own tube microphone - an AKG CK12 capsule with custom OTL vacuum tube electronics powered by battery. I recorded many albums that way on a Nagra IV-S analog stereo recorder. 2xHD (Fidelio Technologies) was then created with my partner André Perry 10 years ago. Our aim at first was to remaster albums in high resolution download (DXD DSD) formats, offering great analog recordings of the past. We soon had so many customers asking about high resolution analog audio that we began recording and mastering new music in this way.

With 2xHD we also signed other labels like Naxos, Storyville, Jazzology, Resonance and many independent artists to release great music mastered by 2xHD. Over the past 10 years I have modified or customized much of the equipment needed for my mastering lab. The Nagra playback system and recorder was fine-tuned to my needs.

Tell us about your route into the industry and what led you to this area of the market?

I remember that at around eight years old I started to listen to music for at least four hours a day. I was moved by it and I also started to do some vinyl copy samples on cassette so I could play them on my walkman. I was always impressed by the sound and pleasure I had when I played vinyl.

Later I started to study electronics and my teacher was an audiophile with a Nagra IV-S recorder and a big custom-made OTL Tube AMP on Electrostatic speaker. This listening session changed my life forever. It was the first time I heard a system that was like the musicians were there in front of you. The Nagra IV-S on headphones was so spectacular with a pair of Neumann KM 84s.

How has demand for high-end audio albums evolved through the years? Has it changed significantly since the advent of streaming, or is it still a strong sector?

The sale of high resolution downloads are a little bit lower now since the popularity of the streaming, but not that much. The sound quality on a local hard drive with files on it with DSD or 192 is better and many customers also prefer to own the album. One thing that makes our download sales strong is that most of the albums are not available on streaming platforms. The vinyl market is also very important for us now.

How would you describe the benefits of high quality audio to music fans who have perhaps only known streaming in low resolution?

Are there any particular musical styles or genres that show greater demand for high end audio?

The higher the quality of your playback system, the more you will need the best quality recording, mastering and resolution. With high resolution there is no sense in the music coming from a digital source. Around 10 years ago digital recording didn’t compare to the original analog tape. Today there is still a difference but not quite so much, especially in the sense of the electronic brightness you associate with digital. We sell a lot of the Audiophile samplers of analog recordings I’ve done called Analog Collection Vol.1, 2 and 3. Those albums have all kinds of musical genres but are mostly acoustic, and it is available on all formats. It is less is more in a sense that it is a very direct recording done with one pair of tube microphones on Nagra IV-S and transferred in DXD if it is for download, or edited in analog if it is for vinyl.

Vol. 2 received seven Album of the Year awards and one Album of the Decade award by an audiophile magazine. Other albums that are popular are female jazz singers like Diana Panton or Shirley Horn. Jazz is very strong, artists like Bill Evans in particular. His release Some Other Time recorded at MPS Studio

Tell us about your relationship with Merging Technologies.

I bought my first Merging Pyramix Mykerinos working station back in 2008 with three dCS A to D converters to do recording at 352.24. I was one of the first to be working in that kind of resolution at that time. In the first year I did Dvořák’s From The New World with only a pair of Schoeps tube microphones for the full orchestra. That was nominated for best album and best sound of the year. I was very impressed that I finally had something in digital that I liked!

What role has Merging Technologies played in your work?

Germany in analog, or the famous Jazz At The Pawnshop (1976) audiophile standard that was recorded in a jazz club on Nagra IV-S with legendary Neumann U-47 in ORTF plus microphones for the ambiance - these are a great sound experience for audiophiles. We also released the outtakes from that session called Late Night Takes that was never previously released. 2XHD.COM

For my digital projects I have used Merging’s Pyramix software for the past 15 years. The next thing that made a great change was the Horus A to D converter in DSD a few years back. The first mastering I did was the Bill Evans Some Other Time download, which won many album of the year awards for sound. Without the Horus the sound was less sweet on the piano and the organic midrange it provided was charming over other converters.

The thing I appreciate the most now is the fact that the microphone preamps are so good that you can record in eight or more tracks, achieving a beautiful sound with just a Hapi II or a Horus. Most of the other solutions will have a smaller sound presentation or a more digital grainy presentation. You can do all kinds of genres or musical styles that will sound great, but with other converters would not sound as good.

Are there any particular projects you are most proud of, or have been especially memorable?

Dubois’s The Seven Last Words of Christ, which was recorded with a Casavant Organ in North America with the soprano Monique Page is definitely a memorable project. I recorded with a pair of omni microphones on Nagra IV-S. It is pure emotion when I play it to people. Also, Ave Maria with the cellist Vincent Belanger. Or my last recording of Rachmaninoff’s Sonata with the cellist Noemie Raymond recorded on a Merging Hapi II with a Telefunken 251 on custom Jecklin disk, which will be released this fall. The famous Bruce Swedien once said that a great artist with a great performance will leave you cold if the mix is wrong. It is what I experience everyday in the studio. You need to get it right to deliver the artist’s message directly to your heart.

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Collin O Malley

byCOLBY RAMSEY

GLP BRINGS ‘MUSHROOM’ STAGE TO LIFE

COACHELLA 2024

GLP’s JDC2 IP joined its impression X5 IP fixtures for a homogeneous art display at this year’s Coachella festival, as Headliner recently discovered…

In recent months, turnkey production design studio and rental company Maktive has invested heavily in GLP’s new impression X5 IP platform – sensing both the potential for deployment in the arduous weather conditions of the outdoor season and that the common chipset will guarantee uniform, homogeneous color.

As a result, when it collaborated with fellow design company DoLaB to present its unique MACROdose dance music stage for the first time at this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, it were able to integrate large quantities of its recently acquired impression X5 IP Bar 1000s, X5 IP

Maxx and JDC2 IP to animate a series of ‘fabric mushroom’ sculptures which looked like they had just sprouted out of the desert grass.

DoLaB itself is a collective comprising brothers Dede, Jesse and Josh Flemming which builds bespoke architectural and art pieces. The installation itself consisted of nine oversized, satellite-shaped sculptures distributed across a field, under which festival goers could get some shade, rest and dance. Maktive delivered all the lighting and took care of the programming.

“THE GOAL WAS TO KEEP AS MANY LIGHTS HIDDEN AS POSSIBLE, BUT OBVIOUSLY SOME FIXTURES NEEDED TO BE UNOBSTRUCTED.”

Maktive director Bryan McClanahan, who co-founded the partnership with Patrick Randall, explains that the two companies had collaborated on avant garde art projects in the past: “For Coachella we were asked whether we could come up with a couple of different scenarios with different lighting configurations.

“The goal was to keep as many lights hidden as possible, but obviously some fixtures needed to be unobstructed.” Those that they chose to reveal included FUSION by GLP Exo Beam 10 and JDC2 IPs. Meanwhile, up inside each of the mushroom type

shapes were the X5 IP Bar and also the X5 IP Maxx – part of a burgeoning fleet of GLP new generation solutions in its rental inventory.

The new JDC2 IP, offering more power and creativity than its predecessor, has excited the company the most however. Significantly, it offers the ability to create unique digital effects with an individually controllable pixel matrix. A powerful built-in dual-Cortex CPU with graphic processing offers over 100 GLP DigiFX, giving a range of digital content.

Credit: Jamal Eid

As for the X5 IP Maxx and X5 IP Bars, they were placed inside each of the mushroom-type shapes. “At Coachella they really got to shine,” says McClanahan. “The Bars themselves were mounted from the inside of a pole through the middle of the mushrooms, shooting outwards from the centre, and we mounted the X5 IP Maxx on the outer tips of the mushrooms shooting in. They did all the heavy lifting, illuminating the mushrooms with no uplighting – the mushrooms almost glowed from the inside out.”

It provided a perfect scenario for a star-studded line-up of artists, the DoLaB stage hosting performances from Chase & Status, Alesso, Anna Lunoe and DJ Tennis, plus back-toback sets by Kaskade and Alison Wonderland and an impromptu party hosted by Billie Eilish.

“We were able to provide the lighting entirely from the GLP catalogue,” concludes McClanahan. “And the fact we were able to match the chipsets meant we got an even homogeneous color.”

GLP.DE

Photograph

Photograph Credit: FX Networks

MICHAEL WILLIAMSON THE SOUND SAMURAI Words

Set in Japan in the year 1600, Shogun sees Lord Yoshii Toranaga fighting for his life as his enemies on the Council of Regents unite against him when a mysterious European ship is found marooned in a nearby fishing village. Wielding the right tools to capture pristine sound was essential for this epic action-packed series, explains Michael Williamson, C.A.S, who reveals how he made it through Shogun in one piece.

Williamson is no stranger to mixing popular TV shows over the last three decades, beginning with the iconic paranormal mystery series The X-Files in 1993, and more recently has been a go-to staple for contemporary horror maven Mike Flanagan on Midnight Mass and The Midnight Club , as well as mixing The 100 , Man in the High Castle and Yellowjackets , just to

name a few. Now, his talents turn to historical fiction on FX and Hulu’s reimagining of Shogun , in which marooned sailor John Blackthorne finds himself in the center of a power struggle in postmedieval Japan.

With dialogue and action constantly overlapping, Williamson turns to his time-tested Lectrosonics

wireless rig, consisting of original Venue and Venue2 modular receiver systems, SMQV and HMa transmitters, and ALP650 antennas. For communications, he sets up IFB-T4 transmitters and provides R1b receivers for all.

While Shogun is his latest accomplishment, Lectrosonics has seen him through every key hurdle in his career, starting his journey with the brand on The X Files:

“Mulder and Scully had the first pair of 185s I bought!” he laughs. Seriously, about two years into The X-Files, I changed up my whole rig. The actors were happier because everything was now a lot smaller. I was happier because I was getting better range and audio quality. Crews didn’t use a lot of radio mics back then — it was largely wired booms through much of the 1990s.

“The X-Files was a tipping point because the production didn’t want to raise the sound levels very much. They wanted to keep everything low-key and quiet to go with the mood of what you see. I wouldn’t say radio mics were in their infancy in the ’90s,” he considers, “maybe their adolescence. By then, they had got good enough to give us the first real shot at what we wanted to do. Vancouver is a less controlled environment than L.A., and we’re running around real alleys and hopping real fences. Until I got my Lectrosonics, it was always, ‘How is this even going to work?’ But I kept on pushing my Lectrosonics and it kept on performing. It still does today.”

Despite working on a lot of big productions in Vancouver, the enormity of his most recent project was a little intimidating: “We were amazed at the size and scale of Shogun,” nods Williamson.

“Much of Shogun was shot anamorphically, which means boom operators can’t get in where you want them unless they’re swinging 25-foot poles — which we actually did. That puts more onto the radio mics [wireless] to do the job. I was glad to have the ability to mix a boom and a wireless

“I DON’T THINK I WOULD HAVE DEPENDED ON ANYTHING BUT LECTROSONICS FOR MAKING IT THROUGH SHOGUN IN ONE PIECE!”

together and try to make it sound like one microphone.”

If all this sounds like shooting an action movie, it’s even more demanding. “There’s a lot of action in Shogun to be sure, but in most action films, dialogue is shot up close so you see the good-looking actors, and then you have the big, scopey fight scenes and chases,” explains Williamson.

“In Shogun, you could start with people waist-deep in water tugging something out, then they walk onto the beach, the shot gets closer in, and there’s dialogue the whole time. You have lots of actors walking back and forth with swords and shields and all the accouterments of 1600s Japan, and there’s dialogue.

“Capturing all that involves a lot of RF complexity, not to mention working next to a giant body of water, which can suck away a lot of your RF amplitude. I don’t think I would have depended on anything but Lectrosonics for making it through Shogun in one piece!”

On Shogun the team usually had three mixers, including Williams, working at the same time.

“Coordination became very quick, and we rarely ran into issues where we had to re-tune anything,” he says.

“The gear performing well was part of that, but it was just as much about good rapport in the sound department. Honestly, one of our bigger problems was with communication headphones from camera. They use this rather dirty drive-through technology that can wipe out IFBs if you get too close to them.”

One reason for Williamson’s confidence is Lectrosonics’ tenacity at finding, retaining, and isolating clean carrier frequencies — something he relied on well before Shogun. “On the first season of [the 2018 Netflix series] Lost In Space, not only did I have to wire the entire cast, but each actor needed their own IFB so they could talk to the director while they had their space helmets on. Grips and electric crew had to have IFBs to hear their various cues. It all got tricky because you’re working around camera and their wireless video.

“I thought we’d be running into some serious issues simply because of all the RF in the air. Again, I found the isolation of the Lectrosonics gear to be just great. I never got a single complaint from any of the actors about their comms.

“Over the years, I’ve been in lots of studios where there are multiple crews shooting at once, everyone is on wireless, and I’ve never had a problem with crosstalk — either getting stepped on or stepping on somebody else.”

Given Shogun’s maritime and seaside settings, Williamson also praises his Lectrosonics equipment’s ability to face the elements. “The resiliency of these things to winter and wet weather is amazing,” he says.

“When we were shooting The Grey [a survival movie about oil workers stranded in Alaska], we were about 10,000 feet up on a mountain. It was 20 degrees below zero. There was never a failure. We had failures with practically everything but our radio mics.”

When demands for extreme range arise, both the tenacious reception of the Venue systems and the high output power of the SMQV come into play. “On The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, we had a walk-and-talk where camera was using a 1000mm lens because the actors were almost a kilometer away,” recalls Williamson.

“You could barely see them, and I told production, ‘I don’t know if we’re going to be able to get the sound

on this.’ It turns out we had them right from the start all the way to the end of the shot. I was amazed at how Lectrosonics held up with no dropouts, noise, or interference.”

By way of advice to junior mixers who aspire to Williamson’s level of accomplishment, he highlights the importance of reliable gear. “When a production keeps adding more and more elements and things get complicated, I power through by keeping things simple,” he explains. “That’s where it gets fun for me. A lot of factors figure into that, but one is that you must be able to trust your equipment. That’s how you protect yourself. That’s how you move yourself forward,” he smiles.

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