There's a documentary film called Born Fighters that shows you and Dave Edmunds working on some Rockpile material at Eden Studios in the late '70s. There's a lot of drinking during the sessions, but the playing and synergy are fantastic. It got me wondering how your philosophy of studio work has changed over the years.
Well, quite a lot really. Back when the Born Fighters documentary was made, our philosophy was to get absolutely sloshed and go in and knock out a record! I used to record like that all the time, and some of the things we did were quite amazing, given the circumstances. But then I went through a period when it really just didn't work and I realized I had to rethink the whole thing. I suppose the main difference now is that I do much more pre-production than I used to do. I rehearse and rehearse the stuff I'm going to do — not to define a way of doing the song, but to know the song inside out. I work with very good musicians nowadays, and they know how I work. I find if I know the song really well, I can feel very free about changing it or trying different ways of doing it. And if the band doesn't know the song very well, you sometimes stand a chance of finding really fantastic little mistakes, because we record everything live, including the vocals. I mean, a mistake is a mistake. If something is bad then you do it again or you cut it out, edit it or do something like that. But the little flaws in the playing I think ought to be welcomed, and they can create a real atmosphere — it becomes more like a jazz recording. The trouble is that a lot of people don't like hearing that in records — it makes them really nervous. The general public has gotten used to hearing flawless recordings. You can make a perfect-sounding record in your bedroom, and unfortunately most people do. Even if it's a really dreary song, you can make it sound like it's all going on. If everyone's record is "good" it means that it all kind of sounds bad or bland. So if you hear a "bad" record, something that sounds really funky, it can sound like a work of art. Don't get me wrong, the new technology is great. It's not like I'm a Luddite — "Oh, we should all still be recording onto wax cylinders" — or something like that. I like the new technology, but I think one shouldn't be a slave to it. One should use it to make the music come alive as opposed to just making it sound perfect.
Neil Brockbank is a heck of an engineer. How did you meet him and when did you start working with him?
