How did you end up near Nashville?
When I first started coming to Nashville, about 11 or 12 years ago, I fell in love with it because it's so laid back; this embedded balance with work and then having family time and living life. My wife and my kids would make these trips with me, and I would do week-long writing trips. A guy had built a studio out in Gallatin and was selling it; there were some intriguing pictures online. On one of my trips I came and checked it out. I was thinking, "Well, that studio's pretty close to what I would imagine building." I brought my wife out here and we checked out Gallatin. We ended up buying a house before the guy committed to selling the studio. June of 2019 was when the trucks and everything got here and unloaded. I was starting to think I was maybe going to lease a room in Nashville, but the studio worked out.
You'd had a studio at your home in L.A., right?
I did. I had a studio for a number of years that I had built. Then, for the last seven years, before we moved, I was leasing out the front room at Can-Am [Studios], Chris Lord-Alge's place. I took what I had learned from my first studio, as well as the Can-Am space, and built a dream setup at this new studio.
What are the differences between having a space in an existing complex, like Can-Am, and in having your own personal space?
There are advantages to both. There have been times I've gone to work in studios that had different people working in different rooms, and there's this cool energy that can happen. People bump into each other, "Hey, come play on this song," or, "Come check out what we're working on." There are a few places like that in town, such as Sound Emporium and Blackbird. Of course, L.A. has a ton of them. But, for my own purposes, having my own studio and all the gear I've collected over 20-some odd years, I can have gear set up at all times; drum mics, all my guitar amps I want mic'd, and keyboards up. I work a little faster because I know what I can get out of my own gear. I can create an atmosphere. When artists or musicians step into a room, each room creates an atmosphere. I've always enjoyed trying to create an atmosphere that made me feel good, and hopefully made other artists and musicians feel good when they stepped into it.
When we walk into an empty studio as a freelancer, we've got to plug everything in!
Yeah, exactly. "Are all the channels on the console working?" I've had great experiences going to a studio that I'd never worked at before. If there are limitations, I work within those limitations, and that becomes part of the adventure.
True.
It took about three months for the studio to be built. I was making records in a small room at my house on a laptop, while also using a couple of keyboards. I was thinking, "Maybe I should just go the route that everyone else is going!" But I'm grateful that I have the room and have gotten to make a lot of cool records. The Lake Street Dive record was the first record I ever made there, so I learned the room on that record. Fortunately, it worked out!
Did Lake Street Dive come about through the Live From Here broadcasts, working as the Musical Director?
To be honest, I think Live From Here helped me seal the deal. I'd been planning to make a Lake Street Dive record three albums ago. At the time I was doing a bit of A&R for Warner Records, so I became good friends [with them]. I've always been a huge fan of Nonesuch [Records] and everything they represent. I would bug [former label president] Bob Hurwitz, "Hey, can I get a meeting with Lake Street? I'm a huge fan of the band." For whatever reason, the timing wouldn't work out or they'd already committed to a producer. Doing Live From Here, with Rachael [Price] being a frequent guest singer, we got to know each other on a personal level. That show brought it to a point where she felt comfortable with me and could vouch for me. It's a hard thing for a band to commit to a producer. My credits are a bit of a head-scratcher. There are some that maybe make sense for Lake Street Dive, and a lot that don't if you're just looking at credits. I don't know if it was an audition, per se, but it worked out that we went in and cut one song, "Making Do," in October of 2019 at a studio in town called Welcome To 1979.
Yeah, I'm friends with Chris Mara [Tape Op #104].
Yeah. Incredible spot. We went in for three days and tracked one song. The chemistry and the vibe was there. Then it was a matter of figuring out a chunk of time that we could all make the rest of the record. I had a couple of trial writing sessions before they got here. I was also working with an engineer, Lawson White, who I'd never worked with before. Coming from a situation in L.A., where I had only worked with two engineers – Adam Hawkins and Brent Arrowood – since I made the Fiona Apple Extraordinary Machine record in 2005. Brent is the guy who wired and assembled my studio here in Gallatin. He knew every piece of gear that I owned and knew how I liked to work, so it was perfect. He even got the studio integrated with [Audinate] Dante [media networking technology].
You're coming at this more as a musician, composer, and producer. Have you always had engineers to help you out?
