Recording - February 2012 - 15

Eddie Kramer
When the Beatles recorded “All You Need Is Love”, when Led Zeppelin recorded “Whole Lotta Love”, and when Jimi Hendrix recorded “Purple Haze”, the man at the console was Eddie Kramer. The list of bands and artists who have Eddie Kramer’s credits on their records is long: The Rolling Stones, Kiss, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Peter Frampton, Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck, Brian May, Carlos Santana... As if that wasn’t enough, in 1969 Eddie Kramer recorded at the historic Woodstock festival. Jimi Hendrix died soon after the opening of Electric Lady in 1970, but Eddie Kramer worked there until 1975. Although he’s best known for his contributions to Classic Rock, he nevertheless has worked on recordings like Disturbing The Peace by Albatross, the album that introduced Steve Vai before he played with David Lee Roth and Whitesnake, or recordings like Among The Living by Anthrax. Where did it all start for you? Eddie Kramer: I grew up in South Africa, and luckily my family loved music. I listened, from Bach to Bartok, and my ears were always open to new sounds. I studied classical piano, at one stage I was going to be a concert pianist. Unfortunately I was never very studious, but I still love classical music, I listen to it every day when I‘m in the gym. As a teenager I fell in love with the Jazz of the day, especially Bebop, artists like Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson. From there it was natural to get into Rock n’ Roll because in the ’50s, in South Africa, we grew addicted to shortwave radio that played the music of North America, like Elvis Presley and especially Little Richard who rocked so hard on the piano... At the beginning of the ’60s I went to England, just before the Beatles became famous, and in addition to music I took an interest in electronics, then I finally figured out how to take my then minimal talents into the recording studio. Is it time to look back? In 2012 I’ll have my 50th year in this industry, which seems ridiculous to me, and I’ll be 70, which seems even more ridiculous. Jimi Hendrix also would be 70—hard to imagine what he would have done!

I’m finishing a book called From The Other Side Of The Glass, as well as a documentary movie based on my photographs, with which I focus on what I call the Golden Years of Rock ‘n Roll, meaning from about 1967 to 1972. I have an extensive collection of photos of the bands with which I was working, like Led Zeppelin, The Stones, Hendrix, Traffic, etc.. For the moment I have a temporary website, www.kramerarchives.com, where many of them can be seen. How did you start working as a sound engineer? I started as what they called a “tea boy”, basically a messenger, toilet cleaner, and served a lot of tea to various

I was fortunate that in each of those studios there was an engineer who mentored me, Bob Auger at Pye, and Keith Grant at Olympic—I owe a lot to both of them. When I got to Olympic, in 1966, the studio moved from the center of London to a new studio across the river Thames where they built a whole new studio, which was a big jump, and as soon as we opened the doors, in 1967, we were in great demand, especially by rock bands. Jimi Hendrix was one of our first clients. Jimi and I got on very well, right from January of 1967, and the rest is history. How did you record Jimi’s guitars? Do you have a few days? [laughs] There is so much to talk about, but let’s see if we can be brief. Hendrix came to the studio all prepared, with a clear understanding and vision of what he wanted the final product to be. My job was to interpret what he played, maybe enhancing it a bit, making it more exciting, expanding the sounds he gave me. But it all starts with the musician. The producer and engineer are only as good as what they’re given. When you listen to Hendrix with a 100 W amp, flat out, then you hear him play at low volume achieving a different tone, the fact is that he is a master at manipulating those sounds from the same amp. The guitar is like a toy in his hands—he had complete command of the instrument, the tone, the technique. There was no separation between what was going on in his mind and what came out of the guitar. So our job was to capture that and all the other sounds, drums, bass, on only four tracks, and make it big, full, interesting. I believe we achieved this, with a fabulous Helios console at Olympic in what was one of the best sounding rooms in the history of recording. The quality of his songs, maybe even more than his ability on the guitar, has allowed the transcendence of his music. What do you remember about Hendrix’s focus on songwriting? Chas Chandler, Jimi’s producer, was used to making pop records, due to his background as the bassist of the Animals. He left the Animals and became a record producer. He was looking for talent and happened to find Jimi in New York, brought him to England, put a band together, and made the charts within a few months. Very impressive.
RECORDING FEBRUARY 2012

clients, really learning from the ground up. In those days there were no schools for audio engineers like they have them now. In the US there are about 400 music schools! I have lectured in many of them, like Berklee, Full Sail, Expression Center for the New Media, and I continue to tour all over the the US. But as you can imagine, you had to start at the bottom and work your way up to the top of the profession, in various studios. The first was Advision Studios, where I learned to make mono recordings, cut discs, run a 35mm projector, etc. Then I went to Pye Studios, then I briefly had my own little studio, before I went to Olympic Sound. That’s where my “real” work began, I think of what came before as a preparation.

http://www.kramerarchives.com

Recording - February 2012

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