What got you interested in recording?
My dad worked for a big advertising agency in Chicago. He worked on campaigns like the Jolly Green Giant, the [Sugar Smacks] Dig'em frog, and the Pillsbury Doughboy. When I graduated from high school, I went to work for him at his audio-visual production company/ad agency, where they were making industrial corporate videos. This was before video was such a thing, so they used to use slides and even film. I did the sound parts of that, putting in the narration, editing the music, mixing it together, and balancing it. We had a very small recording studio in the basement of the office for recording voiceovers. I did my very first records there.
What setup did you have?
Originally, it was just a 4-track reel-to-reel and a Quad Eight mixing board, but then we moved to another building, built a bigger studio, and got an Otari 8-track. That's when I recorded the first Honor Role albums, as well as some of the avant-garde bands from Richmond. I would work all day on commercials, and at night bands would come and we'd record music. Then my dad's company merged with a bigger company and they wanted to move the whole studio to New Jersey. I had to decide, "Do I want to keep doing this, or do I want to make records?" Since I didn't go to college, I was thrust into the world of adults, working with people in their 40s and 50s in advertising. I was living in that world, but I also missed a lot; I wasn't playing in a band, I didn't have a girlfriend, I wasn't hanging out in the park with college kids skateboarding. So, when my dad sold the business, I started doing live sound here in Richmond, and working in other people's studios for bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Meat Puppets, and The Pixies.
You never had any formal training? It was all hands-on?
Well, I trained at a local studio here called Alpha Audio, and it was the only 24-track studio between [Washington] D.C. and Atlanta, [Georgia]. It opened in 1972, and it was designed by Joe Tarsia [Tape Op #68] from Sigma Sound [Studios] in Philadelphia. They taught recording classes there, so I was lucky enough to learn hands-on in a real recording studio, with a Studer 24-track. That was my model for what a studio should be; that place was legendary. I learned so much from being there.
How did you hook up with [Sound of Music co-founder] David Lowery?
David's band, Camper Van Beethoven, had broken up on tour in Europe, so he and Johnny [Hickman, guitar] moved to Richmond. Cracker didn't have their record deal yet, but David still had the key man clause with Virgin [Records], so he moved here and started writing songs. Virgin signed Cracker, and they went to California and made the record [Cracker]. When Cracker was on tour in Europe, David met this band from Germany called F.S.K. who asked David to produce their record. When they were ready to come to the States to do the album [Son of Kraut], David was in a grocery store in Richmond; the store was selling these cassettes at the counter, including one by this band I had recorded called Plate. David bought the cassette, listened, and thought it sounded good. So, he called me up. F.S.K. then came to Richmond to do a 15-day session, which was the longest I'd ever spent on a record by that point.
You were more accustomed to knocking sessions out in a day or two?
Yeah, I was used to that because no one had any money to record. F.S.K. were so cool. They were from Germany, were super intellectual, and they played this weird, avant-garde country music. [Singer/songwriter] Michael Hurley came in and played on a song, because we were huge fans of his and he lived in Richmond at the time. When F.S.K. came back to do a second record [The Sound of Music], we rented a studio, then started renting it month by month, and that eventually became Sound of Music. The second Cracker record [Kerosene Hat] came out, and the song "Low" became a huge hit single. Then we were like, "Okay, we're going to need to do more records for Cracker." They lent me my part of the money to become a partner to buy that studio. We also recorded Gutterball (with Steve Wynn), Edwin McCain, and bands from Charlottesville, North Carolina, Chicago, and all over.
Were you still recording local bands at this point?
Yeah, Richmond bands: Ladyfinger, Strike Anywhere, and Damn Near Red.
All 16-track?
It was originally a 16-track, 2-inch Studer A80, and the console was an MCI 428 – serial number 3! – which came from Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco. That board was used by people like War and the Grateful Dead. We mixed to a Studer 1/4-inch, 2-track, and then we bought ADATs, because ADATs were the new technology that everybody thought was going to be the thing. Actually, my only platinum record so far was recorded on ADAT.
Let me guess: Hanson?
Hanson.
How did that come about?
Well, our attorney, Craig Harmon, who was part of the Dave Matthews Band management team, saw Hanson sing the national anthem a cappella at an afternoon industry picnic at SXSW. They were already famous in Tulsa, [Oklahoma,] where they are from. Girls would scream when they would play at the mall, and people were starting to look at them. So, they came to Richmond; we took some tracks that they had started in Tulsa and finished that record, which was supposed to be their debut record. I remember we couldn't get the drum stool low enough for Zac [Hanson] to reach the pedal with his foot! He was ten years old at the time. As soon as we finished it, Mercury signed Hanson. They then took all the songs that we did and re-recorded them with The Dust Brothers for a gazillion dollars, which is the album that became Middle of Nowhere. The Hanson record we made cost $2000.
But those sessions you recorded were released soon after, right?
Yeah, they released our version of the record, which was called 3 Car Garage. It included "MMMBop," with our breakdowns and parts that were all used in their final version. When they released 3 Car Garage, that record went platinum in two weeks. People were buying anything with their name on it.
And you upgraded the studio gear around this time, right?
Dennis Herring [Tape Op #48] was producing the third Cracker record [The Golden Age]. They'd recorded the basic tracks in Nashville, but we were going to do all the overdubs on that in Richmond. Because the tape was 24-track, we had to buy a 24-track. So, we bought an Otari MTR-90, some Neve gear, and a 1957 [Neumann] U 47. That mic was $8,000 at the time. Ours supposedly came from an East German opera company.
What size room were you working in?
The first Brook Road studio, circa 1994, was a pretty small space, but there was an apartment above where bands would sleep. There were not that many studios. If you lived in Nowheresville, you'd have to go to a city with a recording studio to make a record. The way people made records back then was so different, because you would go make a record for two weeks straight.
Was this the Sparklehorse [Tape Op #12] era?
Yeah, Sparklehorse's Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot was the very first album technically done at Sound of Music. We had opened as Sound of Music on January 1st, 1994, and we started on that record that day. Mark [Linkous] didn't have a record deal yet, but he had a publishing deal, and it had all been coming together. We worked on that album for eight months, off and on, before he got signed to Capitol [Records], and then we finished that album. There were a lot of producers and engineers that worked there at the time, and that had a big impact on the growth of the studio. Then, in 1996, David found a building that would become the main Sound of Music for most of the time we were there; almost 15 years.
Was that Sound of Music #2?
That would have been technically two-and-a-half, I guess.
You've moved the studio nine times. That's insane.
Yeah, something like that. During that period, we also took over another studio nearby. So, we had a Sound of Music Annex that had a Tascam 16-track, 1-inch tape recorder, and that's where a lot of the early records for the Jagjaguwar label were made. We did cool records for Dexter [Romweber] from Flat Duo Jets there. Around 2000 we got the Otari RADAR system, which was for people that had been used to making records analog but now wanted to make their records digitally. There was no computer, it was just a big box that looked like a tape recorder.
What appealed to you about the RADAR?
It sounded so good, and we had to use the mixing board. That's the main difference when you go from tape to computer. It was still very hands-on. In the old days, with tape, we had to bring all the faders down when we changed songs. In a way it was awesome, because every time we started over again it was a new song. Digital is always where it's left last, for better or worse; it's always the same as we heard it the last time.
So, the RADAR gave you the all-hands-on-deck approach.
Yeah! In the old days, mixing was about figuring everything out later. Now, with Pro Tools, we're almost always editing and mixing as we go. But the thing about recording that a lot of people don't understand is that if you're doing an overdub, the mix that that person is listening to is crucial. If they're playing bass, they need that kick drum loud. If you're working on the mix all the time, and it's automated, you have to turn all the automation off when doing overdubs. You have to make sure that what you're playing for the musician is what they need to hear. If it's the vocalist, they need to hear plenty of the instruments to hear pitch. Back when we had to make everyone's headphones mix all the time, we were super aware of that.
Otherwise they're overdubbing to what is basically a rough mix, and they're playing along with all the tambourines and background vocals.
Yeah. A cool thing about tape was that if you were using the board, say track 16 had a flute on it for one song. You'd try to keep things organized, but you couldn't always record the same things on the same tracks. When you'd switch to the next song, and it's the bass on track 16, well, maybe you had reverb on the flute. So, then you turn the bass up and it has this weird reverb on it, and you think, "Whoa, I'd never have thought to put reverb on the bass, but that sounds awesome!" Those mistakes don't happen as much now.
You've got to love the happy accidents! How long did you use RADAR?
We used it for almost ten years, and it kept us from having to have to get Pro Tools, because we eventually got automation for the console. We had this Mackie automation system on the RADAR, and it allowed us to automate volumes. We left the faders on the actual board in the middle, and we had this little tiny mixing board that was really just a controller. Having that kept us from having to use Pro Tools.
Why the resistance to Pro Tools?
Because it didn't sound as good, and we couldn't do the things that we needed to be able to do, like input monitor switching and zero latency recording. We grew up understanding the simple act of punching in somebody's vocal, where they would have to hear some of the tape to know where they are. But, before we'd record them, we needed to put it on input so they could hear their voice, so they could tell if they were in tune or not. Correctly punching in is a basic engineering thing that 80% of the people who use Pro Tools don't even know how to do. And they didn't even have an input button on Pro Tools for the longest time. It took a while before Pro Tools was "pro" tools!
Tell me about the studio fire.
In 2007, the building next to Sound of Music – owned by this slumlord that owned 150 condemned properties in Richmond – burned to the ground. By the time the fire department got there, a transformer had exploded and the trees were on fire. It was crazy. We had to move out for nine months. Luckily there was a two-foot wall between the buildings, and that saved the studio. But they had to come into our building to fight the fire, which meant they had to cut a hole in the roof, and for three hours hoses were pouring this insane amount of water inside.
Were you able to salvage much?
All we had time to grab before we had to get out was the U 47, the RADAR hard drives, and the office computer. That's it. The firefighters covered the consoles and the piano up with tarps, and it wasn't until the next day that they let us back in. I remember going in with a flashlight, into the room where we kept our tape library, and watching a red [Fender] Precision bass float by me like a shark.
You kept recording, somehow, and around this time also opened the studio in Europe.
That was Sounds Like Music, which was originally in Amsterdam, [Holland]. It allowed us to work with a lot of cool artists, including Gitbox, Sukilove, Mint, and Neeka – Belgium's Joni Mitchell – who also came to Richmond to record with us. We eventually moved the Amsterdam studio to Belgium, and then to Nijmegen in Holland, on the Dutch/German border. Then we bought our first building in Richmond in 2015, and that was a big move. It was a 12,000 square foot space, and that was a further step into having more and more live events, as well as more video productions.
That seems to have been an important component of Sound of Music, for at least as long as I've known about it.
