How did you meet Dave Jerden?
About 12-13 years ago I was working on a Billy Idol record over at Track recording studio. It was a two- room facility, so while I was working with Billy Idol in one room, Dave was in the other room doing the Jane's Addiction record Ritual de lo Habitual. That's when I actually met him, and he asked me to come on over and hang out with him. He'd come over and watch me work. And it was like 6-9 months after I finished working on the Billy Idol record that I got a call from Dave's manager asking me if I would be interested in working exclusively as his engineer. And I said, "Yeah". [laughter] It was actually quite ironic, because if I could have any engineering gig, it was the gig I wanted the most — you know it kinda came out of the sky.
What was it like working with him for all those years?
Honestly, it was like going through a doctorate program in how to produce records. Dave had worked with the Rolling Stones, Jane's Addiction and Talking Heads. He was just a reservoir of knowledge on how to make records, going back 25-30 years. As I worked with him on a daily basis, practically everyday, 6 days a week for 10 years, it was like going to the best producing school you could ever imagine. Each record was different and we'd run into different challenges with every record. We had to approach every artist differently, depending on the type of material, the songs and how much development they were in need of.
Could you anticipate where he was going with particular tracks?
Definitely, by the end of the 10-year period. I pretty much knew what he would say in most situations. There'd still be occasions where, wow, he'd say something that would blow me away, out of the blue. Most situations I could start moving in a direction without him even saying anything. I would just know what he wanted.
Tell us something about the notion of guitars that developed between you and Dave Jerden.
It's interesting. The very first day that I worked with Dave Jerden I was scared. I thought, "What if he doesn't like what I do?" And when it came to recording guitars, it's very funny, because obviously there's a bazillion different ways you could do it. Mics — cabinets — amps — how many mics you use, where you put them. And I was just feeling a little intimidated and not even sure what Dave wanted. So it came to recording guitars, and I decided well I'm just going to go out there and put one SM57 right on the speaker, straight on run that SM57 to a Summit tube mic pre thru a Summit tube compressor and straight into the tape machine, and keep it simple. When I put up the guitar sound Dave started shouting, "What's that guitar sound!" I told him it was just a 57 pointed straight at the speaker and then run through some Summit gear. And he goes, "Th.. th.. that's the guitar sound I've been wanting to hear for 15 years! Keep on recording guitars like that." [laughing] That day and that incident is the way we based a lot of our guitar recording from then on. It was almost always a guitar amp with a 57 on it, but we would change things. Use different amps, cabinets or guitars, stomp boxes, or layer things — record multiple passes — and put them on top of one another. But we never ventured much from using just that one SM57 thru the Summit gear. And that's the sound you hear on Dirt. It was funny how it worked out that way. But that's how I had been recording guitars prior to working with Dave. Doing things simple. Although, early on, I didn't always have access to good equipment, like the Summit tube gear, which definitely makes a big difference. And man, that is a rock and roll guitar sound.
Tell us about working with the Offspring. After having a hit record they changed their production team and hooked up with you and Dave Jerden.
One funny thing about doing an Offspring record is that we'll get the entire song recorded — we'll get the drums, bass and guitars all done and then we'll come to do the vocals on a song... [laughs] and Dexter will say, "I need to sit down and write the lyrics for the song before we can get started." My assistant and I would look at each other wondering how he's gonna write the lyrics an hour before he's going to sing. [laughing] But he'd pull it off brilliantly every time. It's rather amazing. Some stuff he has a rough idea on when he comes in, as far as lyrics go, but other songs he might not have anything yet. He'll just sit down and bang 'em out and when you read them you know just about every 12 year-old kid in America is going to relate to what he's saying. Noodles is a great guitar player as well, along with Greg on bass and Ron on drums. They are all great musicians and great guys to hang out with. Those were two of the most enjoyable records I ever made.
What was it like working with Anthrax?
