What do Bob Dylan, Lucinda Williams, LL Cool J, Ozzy Osbourne, Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, U2, Mick Jagger, AC/DC, The Damned, The Posies, and Rage Against the Machine all have in common?
They all belong to a long and diverse list of artists that have had David Bianco touch their music. I fondly remember my own daily ritual of going into Toast Recording in San Francisco, in 1997, to work on my band's (Black Lab) debut record for Geffen/DGC. David and I have been friends ever since. I recently caught up with him at his studio, Dave's Room.
What do Bob Dylan, Lucinda Williams, LL Cool J, Ozzy Osbourne, Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, U2, Mick Jagger, AC/DC, The Damned, The Posies, and Rage Against the Machine all have in common?
They all belong to a long and diverse list of artists that have had David Bianco touch their music. I fondly remember my own daily ritual of going into Toast Recording in San Francisco, in 1997, to work on my band's (Black Lab) debut record for Geffen/DGC. David and I have been friends ever since. I recently caught up with him at his studio, Dave's Room.
Your studio here in North Hollywood used to be Mama Jo's. Can you tell me a little about the place?
It was built in '69 or '70 and was built from the ground up to be a studio by Freddie Piro. He and a couple of techs had a brain trust, and they put it together with the right amount of fabric and wood in the live room, so you get a really good sound everywhere. It's got double thick walls with resilient channel, a serious build-out, and was a studio that was competing with Ocean Way and Sunset Sound and other big studios back in the day.
Who were some of the people that worked here?
Alan Parsons [Tape Op #42] liked it. He did some work with Ambrosia here. George Duke worked here. He actually four-walled the place for months and months at a time. I believe it was one of Neil Giraldo [Pat Benatar's husband and guitarist] favorite places to work. And Rick Rubin did some work here with Jack Joseph Puig.
Tell me about the setup here. There's no console, just a [Digidesign] ProControl, an Audient Sumo summing amp, and loads of nice outboard gear.
