Prosound News - April 2008 - (Page 90)

by Jeff Touzeau Raining with Talent FRANK VERONSKY W hile Joe Jackson’s songwriting has always been predictably brilliant, his strategy in recording his latest release, Rain, was slightly less conventional. Jackson teamed up with his old friends, Graham Mabey and Dave Houghton, the original rhythm section of the Joe Jackson Band, and holed themselves up in an East Berlin studio with what he considered to be the bare essentials: piano, bass and drums. Their objective was to record a collection of songs that rose above the mediocrity of many today’s releases. Sonically, Jackson had a simple vision: big. By sticking to sparse arrangements, simple instrumentation and selective overdubs, he surmised that he could deliver on this vision and put out a record that the entire band could be proud of. While Rain is a refreshing departure from his previous works, Jackson’s brilliance as a composer and performer is instantly recognizable as the album ushers listeners through a wide range of mood and tempo. On the Facility Where Rain Was Recorded: It’s a bizarre place. It used to be a major East German radio station that employed 20,000 people. Since we recorded the album, I learned that it was not only a radio station but it was also a center for the Stasi—you know, the secret police. So all kinds of people were once being bugged from this place as well! We used that studio because I moved to Berlin and I wanted to record in the place that I was living. By the time we went into the studio, I already had a very clear idea of what I wanted the record to sound like. So if we’d had done it somewhere else, I think it would have sounded pretty much the same. On Sounding ‘Big’: What is interesting about it is that I think it sounds really big. It sounds bigger than the last album I did where there were four of us. [Having fewer instruments] just creates a lot of space, and you really hear what everyone is doing. The sparseness, if you want to call it that, is very powerful. If you put a guitar in there for instance, it wouldn’t add anything that was really needed and would just clutter it up. When you take the guitar away, the piano sounds huge. Ultimately, we realized that what we out as quickly as possible. What I really enjoy is playing live to an audience. That’s where the magic happens for me. On Working with Graham Mabey and Dave Houghton: I know the way they play well enough that I am almost able to communicate with them in shorthand. I can say, “Do something like this,” and they know what I mean. They’re pretty sure to come up with something I like. I can also anticipate what they’re going to do. There is a great balance and a certain amount of freedom, but I am always in control because it’s my project and I am a dictator. But I am a benign dictator [laughs]. You can ask Graham and Dave. I think they would say that. On Recording the Piano and Bass Guitar: On piano, we use a combination of fairly close mics and distant mics. We always put a mic up at the top end—the area right at the top of the keyboard where there are no dampers on the strings. That is where you get a lot of air and a lot of harmonics shimmering around. Graham’s bass is recorded direct and as well as through an amplifier. There is a certain way he plays that is very clearly articulated, very deliberate, very driving and just smart. He is a brilliant bass player. In terms of the actual mics that we use, this is something I tend to leave to the engineer. On Knowing When It Is Right to Go into the Studio: I knew it was time to go back in when I felt that I had a whole album of songs that were the best I could possibly do. I really wanted to make an album where every track was great, and I could be proud of it. There are just too many people making albums with like one good track and 17 crappy tracks. I’m just trying to do my bit to the best of my ability rather than putting an album out that is half-baked. I waited until I felt that I really had a whole album’s worth of really solid, indestructible songs, and I feel that this is the one. Jeff Touzeau is a regular contributor to Pro Sound News and author of Making Tracks: Unique Recording Studio Environments (Schiffer) as well as another upcoming title, Careers in Audio (Course PTR). Joe Jackson all wanted it to sound like was that you are listening to a trio, but it is in a big space and you are sitting in the front row. That’s the kind of effect we wanted, and once we knew this, it went pretty smoothly. We didn’t have to work that hard to get these tracks down. I probably had to work harder than them. [My bandmates] are so good that I struggle to keep up with them sometimes. But then again, I’m not only the piano player, but also the singer. I have twice as much to do really, and the vocals are the hard part for me. On Creating an Eclectic Collection of Songs: Nothing is deliberate; it just comes out as it comes out. I just happen to be a diverse and eclectic kind of musician, and that’s the way it is. I just let it go where it seems to want to go, and then after the fact, the press can come along and pick it apart if it makes them happy. My writing process is quite mysterious, even to me. It’s always changing, and the songs all seem to start from different places: They might start with a bass riff, a little melody or a line of words, which could come from anywhere. They can come from something I April 2008 read in the newspaper, from something I overhead in a bar, or even with a title. That’s happened before. There are really no rules, and quite a lot of my songs are sort of pieced together over a long period of time. I could have an idea that could just sit around for a year or two, and then have another idea and think, “Ah, Idea B fits with Idea A,” and so on. So some songs, you could take four years to write. Others might come out all in one go. But it is very rare that I sit down and finish a whole song right there and then—that almost never happens. On Creating ‘Magic’ in the Recording Studio: People are always looking for magic and mystery and there is plenty of it, but people tend to look in the wrong places, I think. When I go into the studio, it’s to do a job that I know how to do. I go in having all the songs written, all the arrangements worked out and knowing what I want the record to sound like. It’s just a question of getting it done, because I don’t want to spend my whole life in a recording studio. My method has always to get in and get 90 prosoundnews.com http://prosoundnews.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Prosound News - April 2008

Prosound News - April 2008 Sound Business Contents Sound Retail Mojo’s Working at NY Noise Studio Showcase: Jungle Room Studios Software Tech Tracks Sessions Nomad Takes Root TCB at NYC’s JSM SoundScreen White Space Turning Gray Audio for Video and Broadcast Field Reports:Sony PCM-D50 Linear PCM Recorder; Holophone H4 SuperMINI Surround Microphone Sound Innovations: Earthworks Audio PianoMic System Frozen Liquid Live Sound Showcase: Jill Scott Centerstage Soundcheck Sound People View From the Top Product Spotlight Advertiser Index Company Index Classifieds Music, Etc.

Prosound News - April 2008

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