How was it working with Andy Johns [producer] on Television's Marquee Moon?
I loved Andy, but you know he came in and we took him by surprise.
How's that?
I think he was used to being involved with bands that were three sheets to the wind as part of their philosophy. And then he came down and we were really interested in the vision about sounding like us. I think that threw him. Plus we picked this place that he was aghast at because the board had no EQ. It was A&R Studios on 48th Street, where the Musicians' Union is now. It was the Ramones's place — that's what we were thinking.
There's a story that you showed up and the drum kit was all mic'ed up?
See, Tom [Verlaine] doesn't remember this, but this is my memory. The day we were supposed to arrive, we get there at one o'clock with our guitars and amps and crap like that and the drums — which was a rental kit — were supposed to have been delivered the night before and it was set up. We were lookin' at it and saying, "Hmmm... that's interesting." There were mics on it and everything. But there was no Andy! So we're waiting, like two hours! And Andy comes in, "Oh I'm sorry I'm late, but I was here last night. I got a head start. I wanted to see the place and I set the drums up and put some things on tape." And we said, "Well who played the drums?" And he said, "Well, I did. Just as a test." So we said fine, let's play it. And he put the thing on and there it was, sort of the John Bonham-y sound — distance and thunder looming. We looked at each other you know... I mean, I like that sound but... Tom said, "No! Pull that all down! That isn't it! That's not what we want at all" and he [Andy] was like, "Really? But that's who I am. Isn't that why you hired me?" And we were like, "No Andy, we hired you because you're famous for recording great guitars and drums. We want great drums too, but smaller, drier."
Focused in a different...
Yeah focused. We don't want the drum kit competing with the guitars. So he got really upset and Tom and him went off into the hallway and had a tête-à-tête, and he came back and he sort of understood. He kept going, "Oh, it's a New York thing. Like a Velvets, New York thing." You know, sort of like, "Oh you want to sound bad!" or something like that. And we're like, "Yeah, okay Andy." You know, "You'll find out!"
It was kind of left alone, so the record ends up being very timeless. You could record that album today — you could've recorded that record a few years before.
Well, we were really concerned about making a record that just sounded like we already sounded. Basically I was the guy asking all the questions, "Oh, what are you doing to that, Andy? What knob are you turning now, Andy?" At one point he turned to me and he said, "I can explain it to you, or I could do it and you're paying by the hour in this studio, so which is it going to be?" "What signal path are you using?" — the most annoying question you could ask of somebody who's in the middle of turning knobs — "What's that signal path?"
"What'd you just do?"
Yeah, "What'd you just do? Can I hear a choice?" We had to rent things. When it came to the mix it was sort of like, "Well, we've got two Pultecs." One has to go on the vocal, and you know, it was like, "Which do you want on the guitar? Who gets the Pultec or who gets the LA-2A?" or what have you — the choice signal path.
Who recorded Adventure? [Television's second album]
John Jansen. He worked with Hendrix a little bit. John was also terrific. You know — business-like, corporate, coming in at the right time. The sound — I mean the color tones are more...
There's more variety and just a little more playing around with what the studio can do. The first record was an attempt to get the studio out of the picture and make it a straight...
That's a good assessment.
Later on when you guys did the self- titled record in '91 — where did you work on that one?
Sorcerer [Sound]? I think it was also called Acoustilog [Their parent company]. It just went out of business, down on the Lower East Side. They had two rooms — in the basement they had a big room and on the fifth floor they had the second room. We worked upstairs. During the recording they actually came in and redid the main room, and they were building walls and changing the shape of the room. So we would come in and they'd promise to be done by our start time, but you'd come in and the room would be a different shape, the next day, with the drum mics set up. It was very, very strange.
But did it feel noticeably different in the sound?
Not so noticeably, but yes, you wondered and you'd listen to things and say, "Hey is there a little more high end there?"
Yeah that's funny. Did you spend a decent amount of time on that one?
I think that a traditional length of time was always a six- week project. You know, two weeks tracking, two weeks overdubs and vocals and then two weeks mixing. So six weeks.
At that point coming back together and working, did you notice if processes in the studio had changed a lot over the years, the way everybody wanted to work?
