[ image 154-putney-hero-vert type=center ]In the past few decades, something wicked has crept out of the Central Jersey swamp, slowly rising into the foothills and beyond. Horrific sounds that meld flesh and circuitry in a cyber-metallic world of one man's creation. Well, one man and his trusty staff of engineers, the musicians, and the machines. Will Putney has helped usher in a modern heavy music golden age through his ground-breaking production work with the likes of Vein.fm, Knocked Loose, Thy Art Is Murder, and his own bands Fit for an Autopsy and END. If anyone has perfected the science of modern precision combined with old-fashioned bludgeon, it's Mr. Putney. He even won a Grammy with Ice-T's Body Count in 2021. We sat down at his Graphic Nature Audio in Kinnelon, New Jersey, to try and make sense of the audio carnage, as well as the surgical skills required for maximum impact.
What was it like growing up in Sayreville, NJ? Did you come from a musical family?
I grew up in a pretty normal household. No musicians in my family, but it was always in our house, and I was drawn to music early. I played piano a lot as a kid, but never saw it as a career path. It was always just a hobby and a passion, up until my early twenties. I did well in school, and it was always, "You're going to be the doctor in the family." I didn't even know this existed. [points in direction of his console] I only figured out later in life, "Wait, that's somebody's job!"
What was the local music scene like?
I was always in bands. I came up in the New Jersey hardcore scene with my first real group of friends when I got out of middle school. That time ['97 to '99] was an awesome explosion of local music. Later, I was booking shows, running a little record label, and it was cool to be on the ground floor for a lot of these seminal bands [The Dillinger Escape Plan, Deadguy, Ensign]. I was very active in music, but, again, it was just all for fun. My family was still, "You're going to be a doctor when you grow up." [laughs]
It sounds like you had a strong math and science background.
I got good grades and gravitated towards that. We were talking about going to the Ivy Leagues, but financially it didn't make a lot of sense. I wound up going to school in Hoboken for biomedical engineering at Stevens [Institute of Technology], which is a great school. That was my career path at the time. They had just started a music program, and I was there for one of the first years. I was taking recording classes and music theory as electives between science classes.
Do you feel there's an intersection between science education and music?
Every producer that I like is hands-on and has both sides of the brain working. There's a very technical, analytical side to engineering and, obviously, the creative side of it. There are the people that are off on Mars and couldn't do a math problem, and then these unbelievably clinical engineers who can't write a song. So, if you're going to be a one stop shop and do it all, you need both sides of the brain working. I figured out early, "Oh, there's this other part of recording that isn't just fun and jamming with a band." There's a lot of computer work and science behind audio. If anything, it trained me to analyze and think critically. Also, to problem solve in a different way. If I had only been a musician since the age of 13, I probably would've lacked some of my skills in the studio today.
Around this time you got a taste of working in the corporate world.
I worked for Lysol, or rather the mega corporation [Reckitt] that owns them. I was in a microbiology lab, and I found out pretty quickly that it wasn't creative. At that time, research and development was nonexistent for a lot of companies. It was more about re-engineering current products. "How can we make this work better and cost less?" They were interested in mechanical engineers because they needed to make things work cheaper. The repetition and monotony got to me pretty quick and I realized I couldn't do that my whole life.
If you're going to be doing repetitive monotonous work, it's got to be in audio!
Yeah. I'd rather do it a million times here. [laughs] But the landscape is always changing for a producer, and every band is different. Every dynamic is different. I'm always trying to go for a new thing or sound with a band, and it's always an exploration. That is non-existent in that [corporate] world.
Escaping Lysol, you began interning with Gene Freeman [a.k.a. Machine] at his Hoboken-based studio, The Machine Shop.
One of the recording classes that I was taking shared a building with Machine's studio. I had one foot out the door on the science degree, and I was wondering, "What else is there?" Machine had just had a kid, and he needed an intern to babysit the abandoned studio while he took some time off. Everybody in that building knew that I was a big fan of his records and the genres that he worked in, and at the time he was one of the more sought-after producers in heavy music. I was very hungry to grab that position, and he was great. It was a very hard job in the beginning. I was green, and the hours were long. I think the guy before me was Josh Wilbur [Korn, Lamb of God]! I'm trying to replace a guy who had worked under Andy Wallace [Tape Op #25]. So, the learning curve was fast there, but Machine was very accommodating to me using the studio during downtime and learning on my own. It was a big catalyst for me.
So, you were able to start recording your own projects?
Within a couple weeks I already had a friend's band in there. I was just figuring it out, watching him, and sponging up everything I could. There was not a lot of sleep, because I would work a 12-hour day with him and then go and work on my own project until I passed out on a couch. Then I’d wake up and do it all again.
That sounds like your twenties. Going in there as a fan, what were some of the productions at The Machine Shop that caught your attention?
Every Time I Die [Gutter Phenomenon] and that Clutch record [Blast Tyrant] sounded great. He was on the forefront of digital, which I thought was cool. There was this Pitchshifter record that he made [titled www.pitchshifter.com] and Mindless Self Indulgence [You'll Rebel to Anything]; nothing sounded like those albums at the time. I'm not a huge fan of those bands, per se, but the production was unique and creative. We got in pretty early on that digital age, crossing into heavy music. It felt like the place to be to accelerate getting into that side of the genre.
The Machine Shop relocated to nearby Belleville, New Jersey, and you eventually began your own Graphic Nature Audio.
We wanted to expand the studio, because it was small. By then I had crossed into making my own records after a few years of assisting. We were renting drum rooms at the time, and we wanted our own spot. We found a place in Belleville where we had way more space; it was enough rooms for me, Gene, and any of our assistants, plus it had a good drum room. Machine was there for about four or five years, and I ended up staying for maybe 11. Gene wanted his family to move to Texas, so he pulled out and me and my guys renovated the studio and set it up to be our spot. It was a big warehouse in a semi-industrial area of Belleville. Not a glorious area, but to be five miles out of New York City? It was great, and we made so many records there.
How is gain staging important in heavy music? That seems counter intuitive.
It was something I cracked the code on, particularly when we're in the analog world. The dynamics of the music changes based off the level you're hitting with all your gear, and you can work that to your advantage in particular productions or mixes. Everyone's inclination is, "It's just crazy loud music. Turn everything up." I was that guy. "Oh, smash this. Let's smash that!" I was making worse-sounding records by feeling like that was the way to get the sound.
It was too blasted out?
A lot of the amount of gnarliness on a record comes from the design of the source tones more than actually destroying sounds with gear. If you buy a really nice EQ or fancy summing mixer, and then you "break" it by putting the levels too hot, you could be putting the wrong kind of damage on sounds. I realized that tweaking the gain staging throughout the process, with different busses and summing stages, is the ultimate way to control all of that chaos and violence that we hear on heavy productions. Once I figured that out, I was able to really hear what gear does and how it interacts. I'm definitely not saying everything has to be "safe," but it's the delicate use of that gear, and what we push into it, where your headroom actually exists in your signal flow. When you get a grip on that, you really do have a lot more control.
There's a YouTube video where you walk through your bussing process, and I noticed MIDI living alongside your live drum tracks. What's your philosophy towards reinforcing drum hits with samples?
I don't think there's ever been a production I've done where there aren't real drums. Obviously, it's very project dependent, but I'm using both tools to create the best of both worlds. There's no limitation on that for me. There's the purist who says, "You can't use samples. It's bad." I say, "Okay, your drums don't sound as good as mine." [both laugh] It's always about what makes the record sound the way it's supposed to. Everything in the studio, whether it's samples or plug-ins versus real gear, it's all about what's going to give me what I want, what the band wants, and what suits the project. I'll use anything. If it's what solves the problem, I don't care what it is. I've had records where the drums are basically "real." And then I've had records where the drums are very much not. I always use those tools to tailor what we're trying to accomplish with a project.
You don't get pushback from drummers? "Hey, I stomped that kick drum hard. Why did you have to add MIDI?"
It does happen, where people are surprised by what goes into making a record. More so with bands that are less experienced and haven't seen behind the curtain. "What's your favorite record? This one? Okay. This is what they did too." Generally, the rapport with all the bands I work with is good because they trust me to do the thing that they're looking for. So, the process of it, no one really cares.
I have a guest question from Taylor Young [Tape Op #148]: "As a producer, how do you balance the cleanliness and perfection of a technical band like Northlane versus the looser, harsh styles of The Acacia Strain or Harm's Way?"
A lot of that comes from knowing the genre well. I have to understand the landscape of what kids who listen to this style want to hear, and then think of how we can apply something raw and organic to give it its own thing. I've been lucky to work myself away from the more over the top, “everything sounds the same,” style of records over the years. I don't have to force uniqueness into those productions, and then be told that it doesn't sound cool by the kids who just want one thing. It was a big turn off to me, and it's part of why I moved back to working with more live-feeling hardcore bands. Every Time I Die or Knocked Loose, these bands sound like a band. Much of the sterile nature of heavy music comes from being a little overly clinical in that style of engineering and editing, as well as being too precise for the sake of it. It's never been my approach on any record I've done, and I think leaving some of that looseness intact has been a big part of it.
Every Time I Die [Low Teens] and Knocked Loose [A Different Shade of Blue], both incorporate some pretty radical tempo changes and chaotic riffing. Are you working to a click with them?
In those two examples, the bands were demoed live. We would find where the energy and tempos of the song felt right. Then we would either lay down a tempo map based off of those performances, or not. There’re some songs on those records where I don't think it's on the grid. If those natural tempo changes feel correct, then they have to stay. Obviously, more metallic, clinical music needs to feel locked into a certain tempo. That's part of the genre. There's not supposed to be tempo movement, and it can even make it sound worse. I don't have a one trick approach. If it's a good band and they're rehearsed, they're going to execute it the right way.
You definitely have a knack for productions, like Fit For An Autopsy's "Two Towers," where it feels like many things are happening at once.
I think arrangement is a big part of it. Part of why The Beatles worked and sound so good is back to a classic arrangement in music. I remember when Machine and I were obsessed with some Jimmy Eat World mix, where the drums, guitars, and bass just worked. It sounded so good in that moment. I don't even remember which one of us did it, but we recognized it was an arrangement thing. Where the kick is, and how light the cymbals are being hit to leave space for the lead that sits perfectly. Where parts are panned, and the design of the band in the moment. With a lot of throw-everything-at-it, modern, heavy music where it's over the top all the time, there are too many layers. We get outside mixes that come in where we're like, "This can't sound good." There's too much happening. There's too much low end. There's too much busyness, and these flawed-sounding productions can stem from issues with arrangement.
And a band would never think of that.
No. Then I have to explain, "Hey, there are five things happening here, and the listener can only process two or three at a time." They're overloading a production just for the sake of doing it; it's not helping, it's hurting. When people are emotionally attached to a record, there's a reason. Is it the singer? Is it the guitar melody? Is it the vibe and the energy of the song? Lean into whatever makes that work. Everything else needs to get out of the way. It's filler, in a sense, and it can definitely be lost in the genre.
You recorded Knocked Loose's A Tear in the Fabric of Life EP since you relocated here to Kinnelon, New Jersey. As a conceptual EP, it really creates an aural car crash effect.
It was one of the first records I did here in the summer of 2020. We knew we wanted to go a little off the rails. The full length [A Different Shade of Blue] sounds great, but it leans more "normal" for lack of a better word. It's like a modern production that still feels raw. It hits the right way, but it's not crazy and broken. So, on this one, we went a little overboard on purpose. The songs are more tailored to fit with that style of production. This thing is supposed to be really dark, gross, and uncomfortable.
You've developed a close working relationship with STL Tones, even having your own signature Tonality guitar plug-in with them.
We've been working together for years, and they're just the most accommodating when it comes to designing software that translates to what an artist is looking for. The new ControlHub expansion that we've put out is a channel strip emulation that's specific to what I use here. Now I can pull up my vocal chain in a plug-in. A giant wall of analog gear is great, and I don't think anything beats the real thing; but, man, in a blind test I might be wrong. [laughs] If I was 18, I would kill for some of these plug-ins. It makes it crazy easy to produce records to the point where I don't think you'd need any of this stuff. [gestures to racks of analog gear] It's a luxury, but it's not required for record production anymore.
Even the SSL?
Torn Tone Fabric
Knocked Loose's Isaac Hale on recording with Will Putney.
You've worked with Will since Knocked Loose's 2016 breakthrough, Laugh Tracks. How did you connect?
By 2015, we were getting some buzz and our name was in the conversation. Will saw potential and liked what we were doing from the beginning. I had always been interested in going to work with a producer – a professional audio engineer – but not everyone in the band was down for that at the beginning. You can have different ideas of what a producer does and worry it's going to take creative control away.
Did you track all of A Tear in the Fabric of Life at the new location in Kinnelon? Will mentioned pushing things "off the rails" sonically compared to your previous output.
We did drums and some pre-production at his old location, and then we relocated and spent about a week and a half at his new spot. We spent a good amount of time with each individual tone, whether that's bass, guitar, or any extra effects, until the tone itself made us uncomfortable. We decided, "Every individual sound on this needs to be psycho." The rhythm guitar sound on A Tear in the Fabric of Life is way more insane and full of gain than the fuzz tone on the last full length. During some of the breakdowns there's a bit of pulsing between frequencies; it feels like it's alive [the outro of "Where Light Divides the Holler"]. There are a couple of points on the record vocally [the "Forced to Stay" outro] where we've got five or six different vocal tracks chained different ways with crazy reverb. Sub bass breakdowns with seven guitar layers. I think the mix is definitely one of the wildest he's ever done.
Having self-recorded Knocked Loose's early material, as well as your other bands, XweaponX and Inclination, what have you learned from Will as a producer?
I still record how you would at some dude's garage down the street. I have one interface, no outboard gear, and mostly stock plug-ins in Logic Pro. I will say that just by being at Will's studio, I caught on to certain techniques, whether that's the technical side of mic'ing cabs or the process of tracking guitars. Some people work best if they're doing a full take, and then others have to nail down a specific part. Through Will, I've become versed in the different ways that people like to record, and what works for each project.
It's a percentage better than if I tried to figure something out in the box. But does that translate to the listener? It's a lot of little moving parts that all add up. I have all this stuff because, in the end, for me, I can get it there better with outboard gear than anything I’ve tried in the computer. Every couple of years we test a [console] mix against one done in the box, and, again for me [in the box] still falls short. It doesn't mean if I put a different mixer here, with their plug-ins, that mine's going to be better. There are pop mixers who have incredible-selling productions who do them on their laptop. Sometimes I wish I could do that. I wouldn't need to deal with maintenance and my electric bill; it'd be awesome. But it doesn't quite get there for me like that.
Let's take a closer look at your setup here at Graphic Nature. What model SSL is this?
This is the SSL Origin, which came in after we built out the rooms. It's like a cut down 4000 series. Very simple by comparison, with the same style guts, EQs, and bus compressor. It's everything I wanted to use on an SSL, with a little less real estate taking up the room. Its new bus matrix is awesome. I realized that over the years I had been piecemealing together rack units for what should have been a console. I had all these summing mixers working in tandem to try to get the amount of routing that I wanted. This streamlined the workflow in a cool way.
How about these monitors? Are those subwoofers under them?
Yes, those are Amphion Two18s with the BaseTwo25 stereo subs. It's a very accurate low end representation. I was never a big subwoofer guy, because I thought it was overbearing. These are just extensions of the speakers. They take a lot of heat off of the monitors too, with the crossover removing some low end energy so the actual monitors sound better. They feel like speakers that go to the bottom. It's exactly what I wanted out of a sub, where there isn't a third box that has to work in tandem and create more problems.
Have you always been a UA Apollo user?
I never really put a ton of stock into converters. I thought it was snake oil for a long time. We made the switch over to these Apollo 16s because I thought it was more convenient to have that processing back when computers weren't really keeping up. Then I got the Burls [Burl B2 Bomber ADC and DAC] and I was like, "Okay, I get it now." My next upgrade would probably be to go bigger, a little more hi-fi on the converters for the full mix. My main mix, as well as everything else I record, is going through these, so I'm already noticing we're in pretty good shape.
Are all of these amp heads plugged in for live tracking and re-amping?
Yeah, pretty much. They all live on a patchbay, and then upstairs is an ISO box with some cabs in it. I'm probably not mic'd up right now since I just got home from tour, but usually if we're tracking guitars, it's really fun to shoot out amps. I can re-amp right here. We're always trying to use new amp/cab combos and playing to get a unique tone.
You won a Grammy for Body Count's "Bum-Rush." As someone who probably doesn't listen to deathcore around the clock, does winning a Grammy open up roads outside of this ecosystem?
Maybe? And it made my mom really proud! But I don't know what it changes, per se. People work with artists and producers when they hear something that they like. The space I exist in branches out, but just because I won a Grammy doesn't mean I'm doing a Bruno Mars song next week. There's still a degree of separation between what I do, what those people are interested in, and what I'm even interested in. I would like to move my career closer to being able to just purely work with music that I love. I don't have grand visions of number one records and more Grammys. I've been able to have a career in music, and that's a very rare thing to pull off. A couple of bigger bands with bigger budgets, sure. I'd love to do fewer records and spend more time on them. I've never spent two months on a record.
Is industrial music something that you have roots in? Your work with bands like Harm's Way [Posthuman] and Vein.fm [Errorzone] at times crosses into that zone.
There are different layers to what industrial music is to me. As a fan, I've never been in love with the capital "I" industrial thing. I do like the use of industrial music in more raw and aggressive music. I love Godflesh, and I'm a huge Nine Inch Nails fan, but I barely consider them a heavy band anymore. It just exists in its own space. There are new acts, like Street Sects and Author & Punisher that are giving a resurgence of heavy music in that world. Even HEALTH, who are almost pop, I like where that's going. I'd love to do a record with them.
Would you ever leave the state of New Jersey?
I love and hate the East Coast, and I'm sure most people that live here feel that way. I've traveled a lot touring and making records, and I have definitely seen other spots where I would much rather die than here in New Jersey.
But isn't this great? [gestures to trees and mountains]
Where we are now is great. I'm probably here for the long haul, but it doesn't feel like Jersey to me yet. This change of pace has breathed life into my New Jersey state of mind.
@willputney
graphicnatureaudio.com
Sam Retzer is a composer and former Hobokener in Brooklyn, NY.
samretzer.com
