Tell me about your studio, Cyclops Sound. I know there's a little backstory here.
I moved down from Seattle at the end of 2010, and I was looking for a place, because I'd had a studio in Seattle. I tried recording in a couple rehearsal facilities next to speed metal bands, but it didn't work out. I was talking to my buddy, Jason McGerr [drums, Death Cab for Cutie], telling him I was having a hard time finding a space in L.A. and he said, "I think our singer, Ben [Gibbard], had a space over in the Sound City complex and has left." I called, and it was totally empty; a 1,000 square foot space! I snagged it, and I've been here for four years now.
It was already built out by Ben?
Yes. Thank you, Ben!
People send you sessions to track drums on here. Has that become the norm for you?
Luckily, I still get called to play on records in other studios, but 25 to 30 percent of my work is here. It's mainly a producer coming over with an artist – maybe a bass player – and we'll track the rhythm section to what they have in Pro Tools. That's a lot of it. When they send me a song and say, "Do your own thing," those are actually the hardest, because nobody's here to answer questions. I have to get them on Skype or email, so it takes a little bit longer. I engineer those, so I'm over by my kit with screen share. It's a lot of work, and it takes me out of the headspace of just playing.
Did you learn engineering by doing it? Or did you have friends, engineers, and producers help you along the way?
Both. On sessions, I'm always driving the engineers crazy, asking them questions. If there's a sound I'm really digging, I'm always asking them, "What are you doing?" Most of what I learned early on was from working with Jon Brion [Tape Op #18]. He's such a gear nut. I learned so much hanging out with him and talking about gear. Learning the history of "what this mic does" or this compressor or that mic pre. Over time, I would think, "I like that drum sound, so I should buy that piece." By working with different people, I learned different things.
Jon Brion has obviously been able to marry the gear to the music. Buying a piece of gear doesn't mean anything; it's who's driving.
Especially with drums, it's the source. Whatever the source sounds like, that's what it's going to sound like. At least that's what I think when I'm recording with people. I try to make the drums sound – to my ears when I'm sitting behind them – the way that a mic would hear it. If the snare drum is super ring-y, I'm assuming the mic is going to hear that. Over time I've learned that's not necessarily true, but with real close mic recording it is. It makes sense. If the mic is right on the drum, it's going to pick up whatever's there, depending on the way you hit it. Obviously, drummers are all different. Everybody has a different balance to how they hit the cymbals, toms, and snares. You can get away with minimal mic'ing if you're the type of drummer who plays with a good balance and you're not bashing your cymbals. The one mic that we used on the majority of what I've done with Jon Brion is a [Telefunken ELA M] 251. It's like drummer's perspective, by my ear. If you have it on the right side – if you're right-handed – it's the perfect situation. It takes a general picture of the kick and snare, and it's beside your head so it gets the hi-hat out a little bit. Then you fill it in with all the other mics. That's the theory with that kind of recording, but it's a very specialized type of drum recording that he does. Most people want a stereo image, so they'll put up stereo overheads and do the kick thing where you have the inside kick, and the outside kick. I work a lot with Joe Chiccarelli [Tape Op #14], who's an amazing engineer. He has all the different options available. He's done enough records, where he knows that down the line they might want to go for some other sound. If he has multiple room mics, and different perspectives on the drums that aren't just up close or ambient, he can adjust to whatever gets put on the music later. I've learned from that. Every single time I record, I'm amazed with these guys. I don't understand what they do, but it's incredible to me.
It's often the combination of people in the room that ends up yielding particular results.
I did a session where Al Schmitt was engineering. He's a legend. He was like, "Come in for a bit. Check it out." It sounded amazing; it sounded like a beautiful acoustic drum kit. I asked him what he was doing, and he said, "Nothing!" Bob Clearmountain's [Tape Op #84] the same way. You ask him what he's doing, and he's like, "I'm not doing anything!"
Just get out of your own way…
Let the drummer do his job, which is to make it sound really good. It's an acoustic instrument. The way you mic it will obviously affect the sound; but generally, if you're a drummer who makes your instrument sound good it should be pretty easy.
What do you think it is about your approach that has kept you working?
I don't know.
You do a lot of different kinds of music. You've played in very diverse situations, so you certainly haven't been pigeonholed. You're bringing something else to the table.
