Early on at Abbey Road you worked with Roy Harper on Stormcock?
I did the first ever session on the 16-track desk with Roy Harper in the number three studio. That was a good one. I was the first to actually get my hands on that board, the 16-track.
Was it working okay?
Yeah, it worked fine!
I guess they had a lot of technical staff there to ensure that.
Yeah, in white coats. It was really the first opportunity I had to do some engineering experimentation.
Who was producing on that?
I think it was just him. I don't remember anyone. Perhaps Peter Jenner or Andrew King — they would wander in and out...
Were they managing him at the time?
Probably. Those guys seem to have been involved with every Harvest [Records] act in one way or another.
I wasn't aware you worked on Pink Floyd's Meddle also.
I didn't! They gave me a gold album by mistake. [laughs]
Okay! So instead of sending you [a gold award for] Atom Heart Mother — they sent you Meddle?
That's right.
I do know that you mixed Atom Heart Mother. One thing I've heard some people complain about was that they felt like the orchestra kind of lagged behind the band since they had the tapes done and played the orchestra over it.
It was a very difficult part — the brass. I mean you can hear how difficult... it was a stunning arrangement. It was, you know, I mean given today's technology of course you can tighten up every note and get everything lined up exactly, but yeah, it's not perfect.
Yeah.
But what records were in those days?
Being that it was such a long piece, did you mix it in sections and splice together?
Yes! Almost certainly that way. Anything that had a complicated mix like that — you would mix until you made a mistake, and then stop and then run back and, "That was good except this and so-so..." I did quite a lot of records like that.
On that song there's the weird talkback voices, like the "silence in the studio" thing. Where did those come from?
I remember it was Nick Mason's voice, "Silence in the studio." It was just a snippet that somebody picked up on and said, "Let's take that and put it in there." I don't think it has any conceptual significance.
Yeah. I was wondering if it was like, accidents and then you keep them...
Yeah, it probably was. Trouble is it's 33 years ago. My memory fails me on that one, I think! [laughs]
During the mixing, was Ron Geesin [arranger/co-writer with Pink Floyd] there or was it just you and the band?
I don't think Ron was around particularly for mixing. You know, I think his job was done. But I remember we had two completely separate gos at recording the brass. The first go was determined not good enough and we got the whole section back in again.
No small expense.
I sensed that Ron wasn't a particularly experienced conductor. I'm not saying he wasn't a very talented guy, but I think possibly if an experienced conductor would have come in it might have been a good idea.
There are ways to conduct an orchestra in a such a way that you can pull them forward. It's one of the skills of conducting, actually. It's one of the things that makes you realize how difficult it is, really.
You've worked with Andrew Powell on orchestral dates. Have you used him recently?
Just the last album, which was The Time Machine.
You must be happy with his work.
Oh yeah. The album I'm doing now is much more electronic. It's a new direction
You heard one track that has got guitar all over it... that's an exception to the rule — most of it is synths and computer generated.
You're working within Nuendo — are you mixing within Nuendo?
Yes. It's great. I actually feel that the formal process of mixing has gone away, it's just really mixing as you go. Pretty much all the level changes that need to be done, you do it along the way.
The working mix kind of becomes...
Becomes the record, which I like. I mean the whole idea of doing a recall and setting up all the outboard and just doing all that just to tweak one little vocal thing you'd probably say, "Oh! The mix is fine!" It really is realistic to do that now. Just call it up, get it changed and save it again and "done."
Are you using any analog processing? Are you putting things out and bringing them back in?
Not so far. It's just possible that I may choose to, at least on some of the tracks, just choose to break it out and go to a commercial studio and just make use of the outboard. Although I think the mix will still basically be the same.
Right. Earlier you were saying, "P.J. knows computers better than me"?
Well, you know, computing is a youth culture, I think, and he's a good deal younger than me. It's a part of the brain that doesn't work for me or something. He's just very fast.
Do you like having someone to help you engineer?
Yeah, this whole album has been a series of collaborations, really. Computer guys have taken the traditional role over. Although it's my studio and I set up the gear and get the project happening and stuff, you can only have one hand on the mouse at any given time so why not give it to somebody who can do the job twice as fast?
We're talking about freeing the mind up to be creative, too. It probably allows you to step away more.
