How did you end up in the old Producer's Workshop space?
I'm from North Carolina. I worked in studios there. There was a studio called Altamont Recording. I worked there with David McConnell. Sparklehorse [Mark Linkous] did his last record there. I worked there for a few years, and it shut down. I started making friends with people in Asheville and doing work at Echo Mountain. That's a gorgeous studio there.
I always hear that. Everyone says it's great to work out of.
I love it. While I was doing that, I met this guy named Gary Jules who did [Tears for Fears'] "Mad World" in Donnie Darko. He did pretty well in the '90s. I ended up working for him in his home studio. We worked on a film score and a record that's still not released, and that's been six years! He basically said, "Look, you need to go to L.A. You're young, and I've got great friends to introduce you to." He brought me out here, and I made friends quick. I was looking for a mix room; something small. I was just doing a lot of mix work, but I wasn't tracking a whole lot at the time. I came across this Craigslist ad. It said, "Recording Studio." There was only a picture of the building outside.
Not too appealing.
No, it wasn't. The rent was friendly, it was in Hollywood and had parking, and so I called the guy. He came down here and walked me through with the lights off. He didn't know what it was, and I didn't know really what it was, but I knew that it was a classic studio. It had the smell and the look. There was no doubt in my mind. I said that I wanted to sign a lease that day.
How many years ago was that?
That was in November of 2010. It turns out that the friendly rent was because this place was a dump. It was in really bad shape. We had to put a lot of money into it to make it functional. We re-did the control room. The place was never ever grounded. It was done with residential two-ended electronics. I had that fixed, and we treated this room again. It was so dead, and all the carpet was mildewed. They had commercial-grade carpet from floor to ceiling in here. It was nice for like '90s punk. If you're wondering why a lot of those Epitaph records sound a little harsh, it's probably because they were mixing in this room!
You're cranking up the 3 kHz.
That [frequency] was gone in here. I opened it officially about six months later. We're just trying to get the word out. I get a lot of calls from people who worked here when it was Westbeach. They have no idea that it's open again as a studio. I've gotten some work from some of those folks. The first thing that I did when I found out what this place actually was, was to call up Bill Schnee. I had lunch with him and Rick Ruggieri who was an engineer here, and RCA. Rick did a bunch of records here. They both worked on Aja with Steely Dan. They told me a ton of stories and gave me a wealth of knowledge. I feel like part of my job is recording and making records here, but the other part is that I'm really trying to preserve the history here. It's sort of fallen between the cracks. Lee Sklar was in here working on a record this summer. He hadn't been in here in 30 years. I asked him if he remembered the studio. He said, "I was in here a hundred times. I was in here when Elvis died, when we found out." He said that this studio is just as important as Capitol or Sunset Sound or any of the others.
The ones that have stayed open.
Exactly. I would keep the name, but if you try to Google Producers' Workshop, just think about it! You wouldn't be able to find this studio. I work with Steve Lillywhite when he's in town. We re-mixed [The Pogues'] Peace and Love. They never loved the mixes; it was a very high-endy sounding record, and the vocals were never that great. We re-mixed the record and Rhino released it. He and I mixed some 30 Seconds to Mars and a few different projects from the UK.
What's the console?
I bought a 1977 40 channel API. Actually it's a very early Datatronix-era [the company that bought API at that point] console, most has original cards. It was originally a split 24 and 24 console, with no monitor section. We are currently restoring the last 8 channels. I've been told this may have been one of two 48 channel API's made in that era. The other being at RAK in London.
What kind of work are you getting?
Yeah, there are a few bands in L.A. that I'm producing. The Diamond Light, with Trevor Menear from Chicago. He's a great blues guitar player. I did a Brian Wright record that came out on Sugar Hill. Joe Purdy's got a record that's unreleased which is coming out that I did. I worked with The Cult, with Bob Rock.
Wow, how was working with Bob Rock?
Bob is the coolest. The thing about him is that he just gets dirty. He gets in there with the band, plugs in, jams, gets the pedals going, tweaks the amps. He's a really motivational producer. It's really fun.
What were you guys working on?
They were just writing. The Romantics have been in three or four times.
How many people have come in who'd been here before at this point?
Recently Al Schmitt popped in with Niko Bolas to say hello to their old friend Vinnie Colaiuta, who was drumming on an upcoming album. The one person I'm dying to get in here, and we've barely missed each other, is Jim Keltner. I go to Pro Drum to get all my drum stuff. I know Stan [Keyawa], and we'll talk. He'd say that Keltner was asking if they'd heard anything, and they told him that they knew the guy who owned it. He played drums on [Steely Dan's] Aja and on some of Ringo's records in here. I can tell what was done here because of the drums.
Just a different tone?
Well Bill Schnee, the way he did things... all the deader, tighter drum songs, the bigger-sounding vocals, really chimey acoustics, and bright, bright piano were done here. It was Liberace's piano here. Liberace's manager [Seymour Heller] owned the studio.
That's funny. I didn't know that.
Then all the other songs that sound a little different were done at Sunset Sound. Several of the old engineers... Brian Christian I just talked to on the phone today. He was the tracking engineer for a while while James Guthrie was mixing [Pink Floyd's The Wall]. Guthrie was in one room and Bob Ezrin was going back and forth between rooms. Bob was in there a lot, and Brian was in here with Roger [Waters] doing crazy things.
It was kind of the wrapping up of The Wall here.
It was. The only thing that they did over at Cherokee Recording was drums. Everything else they re-cut. They re-cut the bass, the guitars, all the keys, all the vocals. "Mother" was done all here. That was Jeff Porcaro playing drums. They had two RVs parked right here because there was no lounge. He said that they re-did everything except for drums, and Jeff doing drums on "Mother." All the vocals, all the guitars... I've seen pictures of their guitars. It was literally a full operation. Brian was in here, and James was in there with Bob mixing. Brian did all of the Guess Who in Chicago. He did "American Woman," and he did Elvis's last record at Graceland [From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee] from a mobile truck. He's been calling me saying like, "I think I want to get back into music." Next week he's going to bring over some band he's recorded because he says he wants my input. I'm like, "You want my input? Come on, dude, you're a piece of history!" I'm going to try to get him involved with some bands that would love working with him.
That's pretty wild.
Yeah. I get calls all the time. "Is this the Producer's Workshop?" They'll come by and tell me some stories. One guy came by and asked if there were still glass shelves in the medicine cabinet. I was like, "Yeah, I guess." He goes in and checks and says, "Yep, we all used to do coke off these."
Pulling them out... oh brother.
Yeah. Mazzy Star did "Fade Into You" in here. Carly Simon and James Taylor recorded "Mocking Bird," and Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand's "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" was tracked here. Fleetwood Mac mixed Rumours here with Ken Caillat. Lindsey Buckingham started dating one of the receptionists at Producer's Workshop [Carol Ann Harris], and she even wrote a book about it! [Storms: My Life with Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac]
The thing that always boggles my mind is that if someone goes to build a new studio and want to make it "amazing," they make something so much bigger than this.
You know, I don't want anything bigger than this.
They were able to make a million classic records in a space this size.
I worked at Altamont before with a smaller room like this, and I far preferred it for my workflow and production. Over at EastWest, Studio Three — the "Pet Sounds" room — I prefer that. It's controllable. It's in your realm of reach.
Did you put any new tiles on the walls?
No, those are the same. The tiles in the control room are new though. They still make those tiles, the Armstrong tiles. The live room used to be more dead. They laid down carpet in here.
This is more like the original version? That's pretty funny.
This was probably early '70s. One wall was all treatment as well, which I'm actually going to put back up as well. I heard it when I was first in here, and I dug it. It's on the deader side, but it's cool. I've used it enough now to where I really love it, but I think I'm going to try to go back again, just to give it a little love.
It's got a tight kind of liveness to it. It's cool. Do the snares pop a little?
They do. The room also sounds much bigger than it is, which I love.
Sometimes people don't know what you can get out of this sized space. It goes back further into the building?
Yeah. There is the vocal booth; I'm putting amps in here today. There's drum storage back there. There's a plate room, and there's all kinds of tape in there. We throw amps back there and close them off. It's a little bit of a mess in here right now!
