A little over a decade ago, the A Band Called Death documentary brought cheers and tears to music fans worldwide, telling the fantastic tale of proto-punk band Death’s rediscovery. Having been fortunate to attend the swanky premiere party on Sunset Strip, I first met the children of Death frontman Bobby Hackney Sr.: Urian (“I was young as hell!”), and his brothers Bobby and Julian. Years later, their band, Rough Francis, has landed with Drag City Records, and Death is once again reborn as a family affair. At the center of it all is The Box, the Burlington, Vermont, studio that Urian built himself, with a little help from his family, local audio guru Dale Epperson [Tape Op #33], and beloved mentor Kurt Ballou [#76]. Sit tight, grab a Nintendo 64 controller, and step into The Box!
What were your early experiences with recording gear and learning music?
My dad had gotten a Peavey 12 channel mixer, a 1/4-inch tape machine, and a few mics in Detroit in the early ‘70s. He and my uncles [Dannis and David Hackney] would record Death demos with that, but I’ve only seen pictures of it. By the time I was born, dad had a Tascam DM-3200 with the nice MU-1000 VU meter that he still has in his studio in Jericho, Vermont, today. This was when he was more of a reggae star, and Mikey Dread came through to work on music. Dad had also visited Studio One in Jamaica, which inspired how he built his room. Egg cartons and carpet on the wall. The room is so dead sounding that when Death is practicing it’s super loud!
I imagine The Box has more of a big room sound?
I built the studio out all by myself, and the live room is pretty close to the “golden ratio.” I had been experimenting with the phase of two Earthworks TC30 mics on either side of the room that are exactly the same distance from the bass drum. I put a small piece of foam between them and the wall so they wouldn’t function as PZM mics. Just messing around with getting big room sounds and extending the sound of the room. That led to my “Stay Inside” Nirvana ["Stay Away"] cover, which became a viral YouTube hit. By the way, those “fake '60s tracks” that you and Tim Boland made for the Death documentary were so great; I love The Who one! I learned a lot about recording by imitating and mimicking things I liked.
Thanks! It’s tough to emulate Keith Moon in BFD drums. The Box was previously the Rough Francis rehearsal room?
Even before that, it was a CD duplication plant run by the former Rough Francis bassist. He had a Digidesign 002 with Pro Tools LE 7. We started practicing here, and then we just infiltrated. [laughs] Pro Tools LE 7 is still the most reliable version of the software I’ve ever used. I sometimes had to slam the Digi 002 on the table to get it to work, but that’s where I started learning how to make dubs on a digital console.
That’s like the anti-dub mixing board. Walk us through your studio space here at The Box. There’s a level below the control room?
Downstairs. We have an art studio, ping pong table, and it’s a great drum room. I can fish a line from upstairs to mic it up. I have a workstation down here where I do all of my soldering, and there’s the skate ramp. [a small quarter pipe up against window]
How do you keep from crashing through the glass?
[laughs] We usually put something behind it, but we’re pretty safe.
You have quite a number of drum kits. Did any of them belong to Dannis [Death's drummer]?
No, Dannis still has all of his kits, except I wish he hadn’t sold his Simmons...
