Hillary first came to Tape Op's attention when she e-mailed us, from New York, with some hot "snapple-micing" tips (see the letters in issue #3). I was impressed with her rockin' producer/engineer rÈsumÈ which included the Ramones, the Godrays, Murphy's Law, Tribe 8, L.E.S. Stitches, Spook Engine, and more. We managed to meet up face-to-face for an interview at the palatial Tape Op digs while she was in Portland visiting for the holidays.
So how did you get started in recording? Were you in a band?
I've never played music. I've always just listened to music. When I was in grade school I wanted to take up trombone lessons and the teacher said, "Your arms aren't long enough." I know now that it's more like, "Your a girl, you can't do that." I was kinda discouraged. I just loved music and when I was in college I was studying communications and I took a sound production class, like razor editing and that kinda stuff, and I read chapter one of the book about what a producer is and I thought, "This is what I want to do."
Did you study all that stuff at school?
Not in college. I got a degree which was more production orientated and I did a lot of video. After I graduated college I took a short 8 week basic course on the theory of recording. It wasn't even that technical. It was more like there are these steps in recording and this is how it's done. I was living in Maryland and I got a chance to run a studio in New York, turn it into a business, and learn engineering at the same time. I just jumped at it 'cause I wasn't doing anything exciting in Maryland.
How did you end up with the chance to do this?
Friends of mine had recorded at the studio [Spa], where I'm working now, and the guy who was the assistant engineer at the time ended up clicking with the band and they needed a soundman--so they took him. The studio owner, who was friends with the band's manager, said, "If you take him you need to give me somebody." The manager knew that I wanted to get into recording and said, "Well, go up for six weeks." It ended up being more than six weeks.
How long have you been there now?
Three and a half years. After I was there for six months I started engineering--just small bands. The studio is a small 24 track; a midsize studio for Manhattan. It's pretty much a word-of-mouth kind of place. I was doing real assisting--answering phones, making coffee, emptying the trash and also setting up mics; all the stuff an assistant does
At the same time I was running the studio: learning about where to buy equipment, if something breaks--who to call.
So they gradually eased you in to recording.
It was just me and the owner and one engineer but he wasn't involved in the business aspect. I pretty much taught myself all the aspects of the business of recording.
What was the first session you recorded?
A lot of the times there's a crossover, when you're still assisting, of when you're assisting and when you're actually engineering. "You want me to get the sound? I'm just the assistant." It might have actually been D-Generation. They just came in to do one song for a demo. They're a big, New York based rock band. They opened for Kiss! I pretty much just started engineering--not really working with a separate producer but working with the band, just giving them suggestions--not even really co-producing. I just worked with a lot of New York local bands that I liked. "Come in and record. I'll get you a good rate on the studio and I'll do it for free."
You were coaxing people that you knew or had seen.
A lot of the bands hadn't recorded before; or if they had it was just 4 track stuff. I thought, "This will be great for them. They'd be able to learn what all these other bands are doing out there." It was a way for me to get more experience doing it. We'd go in, off-hours, late at night or in between two lockout sessions or something.
For cheap.
Has the studio always had a 24 track there? I assume it's a 2" Studer.
Yeah. We also have an 8 track digital (Roland DM-80).
Hard drive?
Yeah, the Spook Engine record was done on that. An experiment on how to make 8 tracks work. A couple of songs were done on the multitrack and then were bounced.
Was that a neat experience?
That was a very long process. That record took 3 or 4 months to make. I'm used to doing a 4 song demo of a band in two days. It might sound like a long time to some people who think, "We can just go to the studio and record and be done in four hours."
They're usually kidding themselves. You did some stuff with the Ramones?
