Paula Salvatore with Patrick Kraus and Ursula Kneller

In Dave Grohl's documentary, Sound City, viewers were treated to stories from the vivacious, smart, and funny Paula Salvatore — the manager of Sound City Studios for nine years. But what one might not learn from that appearance is that Paula has since run the famous Capitol Studios for over 25 years as the Vice President/Studio Manager. This year [2016] marks 60 years of Capitol Studios, as well as the iconic Capitol Records Building they are housed in, so I dropped in to talk with Paula and some of her colleagues, including Patrick Kraus (Senior VP, Head of Studio, Production & Archive Services/Universal Music Group) and Ursula Kneller (Director Special Projects/Universal Music Group). Capitol Studios remains very busy under Paula's management, and as Don Was says, "She's as good as they come, man. She's wonderful. She runs a tight ship, and the studios are in tip-top shape."

You’re one of the better known studio managers, and you are running a famous studio. But I guess it was the Sound City film that really gave you some visibility.

Paula Salvatore: I know. I think I’m the first woman to get in a movie for running a recording studio. Isn’t that funny? I beat Rose Mann-Cherney, my mentor.

How many active studios are there in the building, not including mastering?

Patrick Kraus: We have five actual studios. A couple are production suites, which are basically spaces for people to write.

And the mastering studios as well, how many are there?

PK: Five of those. PS: Two of them have Neumann lathes.

Are you specifically on the studio end of it, as far as management?

PS: We oversee it all, but we have a guy who manages and books the mastering. It all funnels to Patrick. That’s why I brought him in here. He’s the leader.

Paula, how’d you end up managing studios?

PS: When I first came out from Rhode Island to California, I really wanted to be a musician. My dad had gotten me a sewing machine instead of a piano, so I went to school in Boston for fashion design, because it was right next door to the Berklee College of Music. I thought, “Okay. I’ll meet musicians. I’ll sell them clothes if I have to.” That’s what I came out to do in California. I started sewing for a few companies. We did clothes for the group Angel. I’d accidentally sewed my finger, and the girl managing was like a tyrant. I decided to hang it up and go get a job at Music Plus [record store] on Ventura, next to Du-par’s Restaurant. It’s now a Trader Joe’s or something. That was fun. I got to meet the Toto guys. Every rock star was coming in, plus all the people from CBS Records. It was great. I started playing softball with a studio team, and a friend that worked at Music Plus with me introduced me to some people. He brought me to a studio called Sound Labs. I went in there and was like, “Oh, my god. This is so great.” They were doing vocals, and I came out to use the bathroom and saw the office. I was like, “Oh, they have offices! I don’t have to be a musician to work here.” I had a boyfriend at the time who talked me into working with him, so I could go on the road with him. That didn’t work out. I said, “You made me quit my job!” I went back to Music Plus, feeling like, “Woe is me. What am I going to do?” My friend said, “You know, this girl just quit Kendun Recorders in Burbank. She was in traffic.” So I called my friend, Vini Poncia, who’s a producer for KISS, Ringo Starr, Melissa Manchester, and artists like that. I said, “What do I need to learn to work at a recording studio?” He said, “Oh, 24- track; Dolby, non-Dolby.” I said, “Okay, that’s good.” So I called them, out of the blue, and said, “Hi. I know 24- track and Dolby.” They said, “Well, funny. We just did lose somebody.” I went over there, and they said, “Okay, we’ll get the manager to come over.” I’m sitting in the waiting room and this very distinguished woman comes out. She’s like, “You don’t really have any experience. You sewed and worked at a record store.” I said, “You know what? I have no bad habits. I’m ambitious. With those other girls, you’re going to have to retrain them. They’re going to give you attitude.” So they hired me that day! She said to go down and talk to the president. My timing was impeccable. I was working there for a year. They had mastering with Jo Hansch, and Kent Duncan cut Stevie Wonder’s Fulfillingness’ First Finale. Quincy Jones was doing George Benson’s Give Me the Night there. It was a happening studio. After a year the woman that was the manager got into an accident, so she decided to take time off. They brought in Rose Mann[-Cherney] from Record Plant. She was just amazing. We sat around a table and learned so much together. I did that for almost three years. Then I left because of a relationship break-up, and I’d kind of had it with music. I went back to the clothing mart downtown for six months and then I realized, “Oh, my god, these women are nuts.” So I went to an AES show and ran into an engineer. He said, “They’re looking for someone at Sound City.” I went there and took the job. I was working nights there, and days downtown. The manager there was a producer, and since he didn’t come in enough I got the job as manager.

How many years were you at Sound City?

PS: Nine. From ‘81 to ‘90.

A lot of great records got made there.

PS: Yeah, it was crazy. Rock and roll is fun but long hours. Sound City was broken all the time. The owners weren’t putting a lot of money into the studio, so they’d get the weekend guy to tar the roof. It was nuts. In 1990 my boss said, “Go talk to Rick Plushner at Neve and tell him that we might get a console.” We didn’t have a dime, you know? We couldn’t even tar our roof that kept it from flooding! I told Rick, “Let me take you to lunch. I’m not buying anything.” Every time Sound City was going to buy a new console, they said, “We have this money coming from Korea.” We’d always have this money coming, and then there would be a world event that would stop the money. It was the craziest thing. Rick called me back and asked, “Do you mind if we take two people from Capitol Studios to the lunch?” I’m like, “Yeah, but I can’t pay for them.” I didn’t know they were checking me out. I was off the wall, talking about Sound City, life, and I even said how late I went in. I’m glad they didn’t tell me, because I would have been much more reserved. They weren’t looking for that. PK: Right. Who was it from Capitol? PS: Jeff Minnich. Back then Charles Comelli was the director here, and Jeff was the chief tech. Jeff’s now running all the digital archiving of the Fox networks. He’s a genius. He built Studio A. He was here for 20 years. A week later, Ellis [Sorkin] from Studio Referral Service called me and said, “I heard they’re looking for a manager or director at Capitol Studios.” I’m thinking, “I just had lunch with those guys! They didn’t say a word.” I was really offended. Then Jeff Minnich called me and said, “Hi. Would you like to go to lunch?” He took me out with the VP of Capitol Records. I said, “I’m going to Europe for the first time for a month.” It was not even September 1st. “If you were to start working at Capitol, when would that be?” I said, “October 15th.” No one’s canceling my trip. They said, “Come over to check it out.” The girl working here was running mastering, and they suggested I talk to her. I came in here and I was already having heebie-jeebies. It was not Sound City. There was no long hair. There were no rock and rollers. I remember thinking, “Am I ready for this?” This girl sits down with me and said, “You know, this is a corporation, Paula, and things don’t run like an independent studio.” I said, “Okay, fine.” I went right out the door and said, “Who’s that woman, and who is she to me? If she’s anyone over me, I’m not coming.” Jeff said, “No, no. She’s equal to you.” I said, “Okay.” Then he took me around. Jeff is very studious. They called him Spock. We walked around, and then he brought me to the second floor, where I met Bob Norberg. There was one runner with long hair. I asked, “Do you work for us?” He said, “Yeah.” I was just so indoctrinated from Sound City, you know? Finally Jeff brought me to the E floor, and he said, “What do you think?” I said, “It’s big! It’s very big. And nice. I’ve got to think about it.” I really was freaked out. They said, “What do you need to live on?” Guess how much I was making at Sound City, after nine years. Take a guess. PK: In 1990? PS: Yes. PK: $35,000. PS: Well, I was making $28,000. They asked, “What do you need to live on?” I said, “Between $30,000 and $40,000.” They said, “Okay, we’ll give you 40.” I said, “Do you want to know before I go to Europe?” He said, “That would be nice.” It was that weekend and I said, “Yes.” It did take me calling in to Joe [Gottfried, co- owner of Sound City] and asking if I could get my second week of vacation. He said he couldn’t do it. I said, “All right, I’m gone.” It was a hard move, but it was the best move I ever made.

Much more stable, right?

PS: My dad was an insurance man. He said, “Paula, you don’t have insurance. Are you crazy?” Coming into this office, Studio A was brand new. It was a little slow. PK: It really is amazing, where we are at in this point of the business. You remember the ‘90s. All the mid-size studios went under, basically. The big studios had to cut their rates tremendously, and they didn’t have any money to invest. These places started to fall apart.

I used to hear about getting into here, way back, for peanuts.

PK: Then they couldn’t invest, or wouldn’t invest; but now our company is 100 percent behind this being successful. PS: It’s weird, they went through so many phases of “don’t put any money in.” Studio A was brand new. They were doing Star Search preliminary auditions. Studio B was busy with Dwight Yoakam and Pete Anderson [Tape Op #57]. Studio C had some things going on. I had never been in here before I was working here. I didn’t even know it as a studio. It died in the ‘80s. It got old. What happened was EMI’s CEO, Jim Fifield, came in with his wife and she said, “What are you doing?” She totally lambasted him about the condition of Studio A and said, “You have a legacy here.” They put in the millions and rebuilt this gorgeous room that you see now. It wasn’t until a month later, when we had booked [engineer] Don Murray and Dave Grusin – for this movie/musical called For the Boys with Bette Midler – that they opened the walls up. They’d taken away so much of the live room for the control room for Studio A that people were mad about that. How they made up for it was to open the walls into Studio B. We had a 60-piece orchestra every day, and the word went around town that we were doing this. We started getting scoring, TV shows, and records.

That’s amazing.

PS: The key was having music contractors in town know about us. Sandy DeCrescent did all of John Williams’ dates. She’s still doing it. She said, “I’m going to tell everybody, and I’m going to be here.” I still booked something with her last week, even though she’s retired. PK: It’s incredible, what a small business this world really is. Not even just in this town, but between New York, and here, and London.

I heard Paula mention Lee Foster’s name earlier. He’s on the other side of the country, managing Electric Lady.

PS: It’s like a small high school sorority club. When I go to Grammy events and see the same old people and clients, it’s like the days of Camelot or something.

I assume Capitol Studios has been staying consistently busy now.

PS: Oh, non-stop. Maybe there’s a day open, here or there, but we put a new console in Studio C. We have a new Neve 88RS in A as well, and we’re getting ready for our 60th anniversary. Ursula Kneller: Yeah, it’s the 60th anniversary of Capitol Studios, and also of the building itself. We have a whole campaign planned for this year, throughout the entire year. We just want to pay homage to our legacy, put on some memorable events, and celebrate the fact that we’ve been here for 60 years and are still thriving. The biggest event we have planned is this Capitol Studios tours and WAX Record Fair two-day event [which occurred May, 2016] with guided studio tours and interactive studio experiences. Outside we’re going to have food trucks, bars, live music, and the WAX Record Fair for vinyl enthusiasts.

Music fans love to see historic studios like this. It hit me after I got a tour of Abbey Road one time. I realized that most people can’t ever go in there and see it.

PS: Exactly. You take it for granted. UK: That was kind of our philosophy. We get people walking up every single day, asking to come in. When people walk through, they always want to go to the studios. This seems like a very fitting thing, to actually allow people to see these iconic studios and learn more about what we do. Paula’s going to tell all kinds of fun stories about what has that’s happened here. There’s obviously a demand for it, and we wanted to give the public a rare glimpse inside.

Just don’t let them into the underground echo chambers!

UK: They’d have to sign a really big waiver. PS: There was a time when too many people were going down there. Now we have new procedures in place.

What’s the day-to-day of running this place?

PS: I spend a significant amount of time on the phone, booking time, scheduling, and juggling things. We have a staff of four engineers – two writing room engineers and another four mastering engineers. Plus there is a tech department and our VP/General Manager/Chief Engineer. Everybody gets involved with the projects. We have six setup guys; every night they have to come in and turn the whole room around. We do all the setups the night before.

So things get prepared, and they have a list of what is needed?

PS: You walk in at 10 a.m. and just test the mics so that nobody’s waiting. We don’t want any downtime. We’re working with orchestras and such, and you have to be ready before the downbeat.