Tape Op Magazine - Issue #164

Interviews

Jordan Brooke Hamlin

By Ginger Beignets and Lisa Machac

Jordan Brooke Hamlin is multi-instrumentalist, engineer, producer, and owner of MOXE Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. Jordan's portfolio boasts collaborations with Grammy-winning legends such as the Indigo Girls and Brandi Carlile. In this conversation with Lisa Machac (of Omni Sound Project)...

Interviews

David Baron: Folk Rock’s Producing Powerhouse

By Jon Regen, Juan Patino

With a diverse discography that includes everyone from The Lumineers to Lenny Kravitz, David Baron has carved out a career as a keyboardist, producer, and arranger who can do it all. While he originally held court in his acclaimed Edison Studios in midtown Manhattan, the New Jersey native now lives...

Interviews

Clay Blair: Boulevard Recording Survives

By Larry Crane

I first met engineer/producer/studio owner Clay Blair some ten years ago, and we did a short interview that ended up running later as a bonus feature with Tape Op#111. His Hollywood-based studio, Boulevard Recording, is in a building with a long history, starting as Continental Recorders in 1966...

Interviews

Johnny Sangster: Producing Studio Magic

By Larry Crane

Nestled in a commercial building in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, you...

Interviews

Ivan Julian: Let’s Try It

By Larry Crane

I've long been a fan of the seminal punk records that Richard Hell & The Voidoids...

Interviews

Alvvays: Molly Rankin and Alec O'Hanley, with Shawn Everett

By Geoff Stanfield

We interviewed Molly Rankin and Alec O'Hanley from the Toronto-based Alvvays, and...

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FEBRUARY 28, 2026 INTERVIEWS

The Making of Blood Incantation’s <i>Absolute Elsewhere</i>

BY SAM RETZER

The inscrutably monikered Blood Incantation burst out of Denver in 2015 with their Interdimensional Extinction EP. Expanding their sound over two breakthrough full lengths and the "synths-only" Timewave Zero, the buildup to Absolute Elsewhere's recent release reached a fever pitch rarely seen in the cosmic death metalverse or beyond. Traveling to Berlin in the summer of 2023 to record at Hansa Studios [Tape Op #95] with Arthur Rizk [#150], Absolute Elsewhere is the band's "big album" that delivers a million surprises across two side-long tracks. The three weeks of sessions are lovingly presented in All Gates Open, an hour long documentary about the power of collaboration, inspiration, and rare record shopping. I spoke with guitarist/vocalist Paul Riedl, producer Arthur Rizk, and assistant engineer Aidan Elias about the making of the album and the soundtrack for the documentary, of the making of the album. If that's too much to comprehend… concentrate.

FEBRUARY 28, 2026 INTERVIEWS

Alan Parsons

BY ROBERTO JOHNSON, LARRY CRANE

I first met Alan Parsons in 2004, when I interviewed him for Tape Op issue #42. We've been lucky enough to work together on Recording Academy presentations and meet up socially a few times after that. I always thought we'd have fun doing a podcast, and as it was now 20 years later it felt like a good time. Alan had also built his ParSonics Studio on his ranch in California, and a deluxe box set reissue of the Alan Parsons Project's Pyramid album was coming out soon, so we had quite a lot to talk about. Enjoy!

FEBRUARY 28, 2026 INTERVIEWS

Alfio Annibalini: On & In Demand

BY ROMAN SOKAL, JADEN D

With roots in Toronto, the most populated and diverse city in Canada, Alfio Annibalini has been working steadily in recording, mixing, teaching audio, producing albums, and playing as a musician – currently with Rush's Alex Lifeson in Envy of None. He has an amazingly wide range of credits; from Danko Jones, to Big Wreck, to Voivod, to Philip Sayce, to the Arkells. He's a solid character and a survivor of an ever-changing music business for 25 plus years, with his skills always in demand. I first met him in 1995, during the production of the cult underground stoner/doom album SpaceJumboFudge by Sons Of OTIS. He has always long been on my "to interview" list, so I dropped him a line. Turns out he's lived in the same city I do, since 2018; the working class, musically rich-meets-gentrified city of Hamilton, Ontario, an hour west from Toronto and an hour northwest of Buffalo, NY.

FEBRUARY 28, 2026 INTERVIEWS

Amen Dunes

BY RYAN SOMMER, MICHAEL SCHMELLING

In an industry where evolution is key to an artist's longevity, Damon McMahon, known as Amen Dunes, is redefining his musical journey by coming home. The self-described "luddite" – who cemented his place in the underground music scene through a series of releases on Locust Music and Sacred Bones Records, 2009 through 2018 – was actually weaned on raves and hip-hop in the suburbs of NYC. We spoke about the writing and recording process for his recent album, Death Jokes, which involved the courage to see a vision past some embedded legacy views and, surprisingly, a personal connection and comfort found working with the software Ableton Live at home.

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COLUMNS

by Larry Crane

by Andy Hong

GEAR REVIEWS