Tape Op Magazine - Issue #11

Interviews

Knitting Factory Studio

By Heather Mount

A studio manager juggles responsibilities and must also find the time and space for creativity. It takes a level head and a scopic vision to stay sane and to be brilliant. Knitting Factory Recording Studio manager Sascha Van Oertzen runs her Studio with an ease that only comes from mixing...

Interviews

Royal Trux: Their home studio fun

By Scott Simmons, Larry Crane

Jennifer Herrema and Neil Hagerty have led the Royal Trux for a number of years now. They pulled a coup of sorts when Virgin Records dumped a lot of money on them, put out two albums, and then dropped the Trux. Jennifer and Neil kept the house and full-on home studio that they bought with said...

Interviews

Ray Carmen: Ray Carmen & POP! Productions

By Rob Christenson, Rob Christensen

Ray Carmen has been a part of the underground "cassette culture" for over ten years. As might be guessed by the heading, Carmen's main forte' is pop, as in Byrds/Beatles/Monkees, but he does venture into other areas. He recently put out his thirteenth tape on his own POP!...

Interviews

DJ Shadow: Samplers, Turntables, & Downtime

By Eric Stenman, Jeff Gros

Home recording has taken some serious leaps during the nineties. A four track and a couple...

Interviews

Recording 1960's Avant-Garde Jazz in Chicago

By Steve Silverstein

While some of my favorite albums were made in huge studios with big budgets, I'm also...

Interviews

Neutral Milk Hotel

By Larry Crane, Leigh Marble

Neutral Milk Hotel began in the early 90's as a 4 track cassette project by Jeff...

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Abbey Road Pictorial: a week recording with Elliott Smith in London

BY JOANNA BOLME, JOANNA BOLME

This is a story about how I got to live my fantasy of walking through the door of the building at 3 Abbey Road and saying, "We're working in studio two." It's second only to the one where I walk through the door and the receptionist says "Good morning Mr. Martin." This was made possible by my generous friend Elliott Smith, whom I believe had a similar fantasy. We were joined by our buddies Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock, who took care of the recording duties, and Sam Coomes from Quasi, the best rock band in the world.

MARCH 5, 2026 INTERVIEWS

Butch Vig: Garbage and Smart Studios

BY JOSEPH CULTICE, JOHN VANDERSLICE, JOHN BACCIGALUPPI, TONY MICHELS, STEPHANE SEDNAOUI

Butch Vig has created a big name for himself in the recording world. In 1984 he and Steve Marker founded Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, and started working with tons of indie bands (like Killdozer, L7, Urge Overkill), including quite a few albums for records labels like Touch and Go, Slash and Sub Pop. As time went by his reputation got bigger, leading to work with Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana (Nevermind) and Sonic Youth (Dirty). Then, as if this wasn't enough, he and Steve put a band together with Shirley Manson and Duke Erickson and called it Garbage. When we got the opportunity to inter- view Butch, it was originally going to be in San Francisco. After some contemplation, John Vanderslice of Tiny Telephone studio and M K Ultra (himself a former Tape Op interview victim) came to mind. John runs a very analog orientated studio, so I figured with him chatting up Butch, who works extensively in Pro Tools, we'd get some sparks flying. And what happens? They got along like peas in a pod...

MARCH 5, 2026 INTERVIEWS

Scott Colburn

BY CURTIS SETTINO

In just a few short years, Scott Colburn's Gravelvoice Productions has been involved with a wonderfully diverse collection of artists and recordings. His Seattle, Washington studio offers an analog 16-track, digital editing, and plenty of charm. Scott engineers, produces, and contributes musically when needed. He's also an avid record collector and for years was known as Shaggy (a la Scooby Doo) because he looked exactly like him. To start off the interview, Scott agreed to answer some silly profile questions.

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COLUMNS

by Larry Crane