LC: I see you have Pro Tools here.
I'm slowly learning Pro Tools as I go — I've never been a digital guy. I wanted to get the body of the song on tape to get that nice tape sound. Drums, vocals, guitars, bass, and main keyboard will go on tape. That's what I need the eight channels for. Then, ideally, I'll start doing tracks in Pro Tools, like claps, backup vocals, and little parts that don't need a lot.
JB: So you can get more than eight tracks.
Yeah, I can get as many as I need; but I honestly still don't know how to do that. I'm learning Pro Tools as I go, and I haven't been home much. I have some time coming up where I'm going to finish up a new record. It's been slow.
LC: You're known as a pretty productive guy. Do you think it is going to get worse now, having a home space? Do you think you'll be even more productive?
No, I've always had a home space, but it's always been a bedroom or something. This was the first one where I could alter it to how I wanted, and to be officious in it being a recording studio. The funny thing is I got all this gear in, then I came down here and for two months just couldn't do shit. The well was dry. My buddy was like, "Give it time, it'll happen. Keep going down there and smoking weed. Eventually it'll click." That's kind of what happened. I wrote a bunch of shit in a row. You guys will appreciate this. I got one of these [neon signs] for me and Dave Sitek a while back.
JB: "Don't record over stuff!"
I had to turn that on when I got too high down here so that I didn't accidentally record over tracks. All of a sudden I'm like, "Fuck, did I record over the drums?" I'd have to re-record the whole song. I bought a tape deck remote for use by the drum kit; now when I'm here by myself I don't have to keep getting up and running back and forth. I'm always working in a small space, but that fucking thing [the remote] doesn't have an RTZ [return to zero] on it, so it's moot. I still have to get up because the readout is here, and I can't see that from the drum kit. My eyes are shot because I'm getting old, so I have to get up and make sure it's zeroed, and then I can go back and hit record.
LC: How well is your dog trained?
Yeah. "Buddy, RTZ!" I'd have to keep putting snacks on it. The tape repair guy would be like, "Well, here's your problem. It's full of spit."
JB: So you've done most of the Damaged Bug records at home on this setup?
All of them, so far. I've done a couple of Thee Oh Sees records on this as well. I did Castlemania on this machine, and Dog Poison might have been on this machine. Dog Poison might have been 4-track though. I don't remember, honestly. Thee Oh Sees has always been recorded with Chris Woodhouse, for the most part. I like to have somebody available so I can go and play. We've been working for months on these songs, and it's nice not having to do double duty. Also having an extra person there behind a piece of glass and not having to run back and forth makes a huge difference. When I'm doing songs at home all by myself, it's really nice to have this setup. I dig it.
John's home studio, Stu Stu Studio
JB: Chris Woodhouse mixed a lot of these home recordings?
Chris mixed the last Damaged Bug [Cold Hot Plumbs]. We went up to the studio at The Dock [Sacramento, CA] to mix. He's obviously a much better mixer than me, although I've taken a lot from him. He showed me subtractive mixing, and helped me wrap my head around gain staging. I was always an additive mixer, like, "Oh, it needs more mid-range?" He'd say, "No, take away everything but midrange, and that will stick out in the middle more." That way I'm not having an incredibly noisy record. We'd always have everything pedal-to-the-metal, blasted really hot. I'm backing off of that a little bit; I'm trying to make things actually sound good, rather than hiding them with the forgiveness of compression and smashing it to tape.
LC: It's a balance.
For sure. Everything I have is solid state, somehow. I like a lot of tube gear, obviously, but for some reason the gear that stuck out for me with Woodhouse at The Dock, and at Panoramic House, tended to be solid state when we did a little taste test. It depends what it is, though. I think it's time for me to get more tube gear. Half the rack shit I have is garbage too. I found some shit in the trash, like the [Yamaha] SPX-90. This thing is shockingly great-sounding.
JB: It's got cool choruses and flangers.
It's a weird, weird effect. But my console's only got two sends on it, so you've got to limit yourself.
LC: You should track right through it.
I do that a lot. I used to do it all the time, but then Woodhouse talked me out of it, because I can have more options. Now I'm leaning back to tracking with an effect. Fuck it, I know what I want it to sound like. Ideally it would be nice to have four effects sends and options, but I need to get better shit before I start focusing on that. I'm a real one cord kind of guy. It goes from this hole to this hole, and then you're done. This is my first time ever having a patchbay.
