Recording - August 2017 - 14

The session was tracked and mixed by engineer
Vance Powell, who boasts an impressive list of credits-most famously his work with Jack White, as well
as projects with Willie Nelson, Jewel, Jars of Clay,
Buddy Guy, Keb' Mo', Kings of Leon, Tinariwen, and
more. He's equally at home with vintage hardware
and modern software, and is able to intertwine the
two seamlessly.
While Dave cued us in to the production of From A
Room: Volume 1, Vance offered up some great insights
into the recording and mixing processes.

D AV E C O B B
Dave, thanks for taking time to chat with our
readers. Let's dive into the new Chris Stapleton
album, which was not only done at your studio,
but most of it was cut live?

CHRIS
STAPLETON
Live From Studio A
Producer Dave Cobb and engineer Vance Powell
on doing things the hard (easy) way
I n t e rv i e w s by Paul V n uk J r .
One of the top country albums on the charts for the past 7 weeks (as
of this writing) and peaking at number 1, Chris Stapleton's From A Room:
Volume 1 was tracked live as a band, lead vocals and all, with only minimal overdubs. The title doesn't just refer to "a room", but to A Room-RCA
Studio A in Nashville, home to countless hits. It was formerly owned by Ben
Folds and now the playground of producer Dave Cobb, who produced and
plays on the record and whose discography includes Waylon and Shooter
Jennings, Rival Sons, Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, Zac Brown, and Lori
McKenna, just to name a few.
14

RECORDING August 2017

Dave Cobb: Yeah, we'd done Traveller, the record before, here at RCA Studio A. It was going to get torn down.
A philanthropist, Aubrey Preston, bought the studio, and
now it's in a historically preserved state so hopefully no one
can ever tear it down. Shortly after that, the previous tenant
had moved out, so they called me and asked me, "Do you
know anybody who might want to move into the space?",
and I said, "I'll take it!" They thought I was crazy.
Chris and I decided to go back to this same setting
where we'd done Traveller. That's why the new album
is called Live From A Room... it was recorded in Studio
A. [Studio A] was built at the time when Nashville was
making a lot of money off the "countrypolitan" sound.
They were doing strings, choir, full band, and singer,
all in one room. The room is very large, and built for
a lot of people to record completely live, with no separation. We love recording that way, and our engineer
Vance Powell isn't scared of bleed!

Backing up a little... How did you get into this
crazy business of music and become a producer?

You lie a lot. [laughs] You just lie! One day, you just
say you're a producer, and people either believe you or
they don't. There's a lot of truth to that, which is funny.
I was in bands, I was signed and toured tons. Eventually I wound up producing a couple of friends of mine's
bands. Those bands got signed, and I got serious
about it. I moved to Los Angeles from Georgia, met
my wife, and I wanted to stay home and not go out
on tour. I love being in the studio; I've been producing
since 1998 or 1999.

How do you see your role as a producer vs.
being a musician or an engineer?

I've always seen myself as a "fifth member" producer. I love Jimmy Miller, who produced the best era of
the Stones (to my personal taste), from Let It Bleed to

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