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[RECORDING]
Furs Things First How the Psychedelic Furs’ first album in 29 years, the forthcoming Made of Rain, came to be recorded in St. Louis Written by
THOMAS CRONE
J
ason McEntire, in discussing the time spent with the Psychedelic Furs at his Sawhorse Studios, moves through the multiple rooms of his complex, which is located in an unassuming storefront in south city’s Mt. Pleasant neighborhood. He points to the places where various members sat and smoked, or where they tucked away to get some peace, or where singer Richard Butler holed up with a laptop in order to sketch out lyrical ideas. At one point, McEntire notices a couch where Butler’s bass-playing brother Tim sat for a good chunk of their sessions, simply plugging in there rather than in the primary working studio. Today, the studio’s house dog, a remarkably relaxed weimaraner named Joey, is sound asleep on the space, which is normally his own homebase. oor oey had to find other hangs during the Furs’ stay at Sawhorse, a fascinating experience that speaks well to the modern music recording landscape. As first reported by the RFT, the members of the Psychedelic Furs came to Sawhorse to record their first album in years, the forthcoming Made of Rain, due to producer Richard Fortus wishing to spend time in his hometown of St. Louis after an extensive year of touring with his longtime band Guns N’ Roses. Encouraged by his wife Stephanie, Fortus called on his old friend McEntire and signed on with the studio, with McEntire initially slated to be the album’s second engineer. When the group’s members were eventually able to settle on studio dates
Made of Rain, due May 1, is the first album by the Psychedelic Furs since 1991’s World Outside. | MATTHEW REEVES
“[Fortus] has this crazy, encyclopedialike inventory in his head. He’d say something like, ‘Have you ever heard of the Klondike 4000? There were only twenty of these made and I have two of the twenty.’ ‘Well, no, I didn’t know about that. How would I know about that?’ And every day I’d walk in and there’d be a new row of pedals.” that would accommodate their own touring needs, the recording process began in earnest, with the Butlers, drummer Paul Garisto and guitarist Rich Wood assembling at Sawhorse, and the band’s other members — keyboardist Amanda Kramer and sax player Mars Williams — adding their digital fingerprints elsewhere. McEntire calls the experience “a real feather in the cap” for his studio. It was also a long-running situation, dating back years. “They’d reached out to Fortus and he wanted to stay in town,” c ntire recalls. The first email was just to make sure the equip-
ment list would su ce. ou want to have a good amount of proper gear. God forbid they get here and say, ‘This is all you have?’ Fortus and I got together in March of 8 and were talking as far back as ctober of ’ , or even earlier than that. The Furs were touring, in and out. They were kicking demos around with Fortus and he kept saying, ‘Don’t worry, it will happen.’” Along the way, McEntire became the first engineer, to boot. According to Fortus, that was a natural outgrowth of working at Sawhorse. “What I liked most about Sawhorse is Jason,” Fortus says during
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a hometown break from his G N’ R duties. “He’s the biggest asset. It’s a nice room, but not real fancy. He’s a very talented engineer and I liked working with him.” According to Fortus, the decision to lay the record down in St. Louis made more sense than one might think. Though the Psychedelic Furs is traditionally thought of as a U.K.-based band, its members live across the U.S., making St. Louis a good central location to set up camp. “It made sense for us to record in St. Louis,” Fortus says. “Everybody in that band is spread out. One guy’s in the desert in California, one’s in upstate ew ork. ou’ve got Tim in entucky, I believe, and Paul in D.C., Mars in Chicago. It made perfect sense. Not that hard of a sell.” Fortus’ time as a collaborator with the Furs dates back a ways. His band Pale Divine (nee The Eyes) parlayed their too-brief run on Atlantic Records into an opening slot with the group, before Fortus would eventually split from Pale Divine to form Love Spit Love with Butler. Eventually, as that act ceased, the Furs would come back together, and Fortus served a stint as guitarist in the band before leaving for Guns N’ Roses and an insane amount of session and
FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 3, 2020
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