Donn Landee, a key figure behind the shaping of Van Halen’s sound, has died from natural causes aged 79, Van Halen News Desk reports.

The recording engineer was a longtime collaborator with Ted Templeman, Van Halen’s original go-to producer, and was a pivotal figure in the building of the band’s 5150 Studios in the early ‘80s.

Landee was involved in recording the band's 1978 self-titled debut album as they carved out a reputation as one of rock’s brightest new stars, and remained part of the band's inner circle for their next seven studio albums.

When Templeman jumped ship to produce David Lee Roth's debut solo album, Eat 'Em and Smile, Landee assumed his place at the helm, co-producing 1986's 5150 and OU812 two years later.

The first Van Halen record he was not part of was 1991's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, after he abruptly left the music industry. He would, however, go on to remaster a slew of VH records later down the line.

Landee was also the one who came up with the name 5150, which he’d overheard on police radio. It referenced the California Welfare and Institutions Code for involuntary confinement of a mentally unstable person deemed to be a danger to themselves and/or others, which was ideal, given that Eddie had dubbed the studio an “asylum.”

“It was all Donn’s magic,” Eddie Van Halen told Guitar World of the mammoth task of building 5150 Studios. “When we needed to find a console, Donn said that United Western Studios had a Bill Putnam–designed Universal Audio console that we could buy that he was familiar with.

“We went to take a look at it, and it was this old, dilapidated piece of shit that looked like it was ready to go into the trash. Donn said, ‘Let’s buy it,’ and I was going, ‘What the hell are you thinking?’ Donn used to work for the phone company, so he was an expert at wiring things.”

Vitally, this desk was almost identical to the desk that Templeman had used to record their first five albums, and Landee’s know-how helped turn Eddie’s home-studio dreams – originally intended for demo recording – into a stunning reality.

“Donn was involved with the design. I certainly didn’t know how to build a studio. It was all Donn’s magic,” Eddie told GW.

“We had grown really close and had a common vision. Everybody was afraid that Donn and I were taking control. Well…yes! That’s exactly what we did, and the results proved that we weren’t idiots. His approach to everything was genius.”

Donn Landee might not be a household name, but he had his finger on every single guitar riff that turned the band into megastars, and the band recognized his talents ten times over.

Recently, Alter Bridge became a rare group outside of the Van Halen family to record at 5150 Studios, with Tremonti left to reflect on the “emotional” honor of tracking at the fabled home of EVH, which took a white lie to build.

World-renowned metal producer and engineer Terry Date hasn’t just amassed a profoundly impressive discography (Soundgarden, Deftones, Prong, White Zombie, Slipknot, Dream Theater, Limp Bizkit); he was also the man behind the desk for Pantera’s first four major-label albums – Cowboys from Hell (1990), Vulgar Display of Power (1992), Far Beyond Driven (1994) and The Great Southern Trendkill (1996).

He looks back at his fondest memories of working with Dimebag Darrell in the studio – and why sometimes he was just trying to keep up…

How quick was Dimebag in the recording studio?

“He was incredibly fast. Walk is a really good example of the way he worked in the studio. Once we were done with Vinnie’s drums, Dime laid down his first rhythm track really quickly; I mean, he probably did it in about half an hour. Then it took us the rest of the day to do the double and then the triple of it.

“We spent massive amounts of time making sure the double was the same as the first one. All the attacks were exactly on time, and all the palm-mutes on the back of that main riff were also dead on time. This way, when you listen to that riff, the thump when he palm-muted the strings at the end of it almost becomes three-dimensional.”

“In fact, if you’re sitting in the right spot, you could almost hear it behind your head. We spent hours making sure that was exactly right, and then we had the triple to do on top of that. And then Rex came in and basically quadrupled that riff on the bass. [Laughs] That song took a whole day to do the rhythm guitars and bass, I believe.

“That’s typically how it went as far as his rhythm; the first track would be recorded pretty quickly, and then mirror imaging took longer because Dime wanted it so tight. Plus, because we were recording on tape, you couldn’t get it close and then use a computer to manipulate it. This was real hands on strings, so it took a while. But it sounds real too, and that’s always a good thing!

“All those years I worked with Pantera, we recorded those songs on 24 tracks of tape, and that was it; we didn’t link two machines together. I was looking at the track sheet for Walk the other day, and it was pretty amazing – seven tracks of drums, three tracks of rhythm guitars, one track of lead, maybe three tracks of vocal and a bass. And that was it!”

What was the recording approach when it came to Dime’s solos?

“On the early records I’d be with him while he did them, and Vinnie would be in the room, too. On later ones, I would back off a little bit and let Vinnie and Dime work together, because their level of communication was non-verbal.

“Dime would play a part; Vinnie would just give him a look and Dime knew exactly what he meant! Or Vinnie would go, ‘Do that Randy Rhoads part there,’ and Dime would know exactly what he was talking about. So I was like, ‘I’m not getting in the way of that!’

“I’ll sit in the back of the room and make sure the technology was on their side, but that brother-to-brother communication was really special. That probably started on Vulgar, and it was definitely Vinnie and Dime working on the leads together on the next two.”

“Our basic formula – the way we worked on his solos – was always the same. And, once again, remember we were working on tape. We would dedicate four tracks for the lead and get three really good takes of the whole thing. We would then go through them and comp the best parts of each of those takes onto the fourth track.”

“It was always a comp situation; you and I know what that means, but the kids nowadays probably have no idea what I’m talking about! [Laughs] [Note: Comping means to combine the best parts of multiple recorded performances onto a single track.]

“We’d always be experimenting, too. I remember one time he wasn’t getting a sound he liked for a solo, so I said, ‘Maybe we get a different pedal.’ Dime goes, ‘Gimme 15 minutes.’ He ran home and came back with a grocery sack full of old, rusty pedals he had lying around his rehearsal place at his mom’s house. He just plugged them all in, turned them all on and goes, ‘How does that sound?’ And, I said, ‘That’s perfect!’ [Laughs] It was that kind of shit.”

What was your favorite moment working with Dime in the studio?

“The one that always sticks with me is probably more of a ‘me’ thing than a ‘him’ thing, and I apologize if it is! Somewhere around Vulgar he would occasionally get frustrated with me because I couldn’t keep up with what he was doing, guitar-wise. He’d be playing a part, and I wasn’t able to recognize what notes or chord he was referring to.

“Even though I don’t play guitar, I’d watched so many hands over the years I knew what was going on; but Dime was so far beyond me musically, I was doing everything I could to just keep up with him and make sure he was moving as fast as his mind worked. For the most part it was fine, but there were times where I’d get stuck and hold him up.

“So, one day Dime finally said, ‘Alright, every night from here on in, after we’re done recording, I’m gonna give you guitar lessons.’ I said ‘OK,’ and we started that night. We sat down and he started to teach me how to play Johnny B. Goode. We did it for about five minutes and he looked at me and said, ‘Fuck it, we’re done!’ [Laughs]”

Record producer Terry Date has worked with a who’s who of hard rock and heavy metal, lending his expertise and sensibilities to acts like Soundgarden, Dream Theater, Deftones, Slipknot, and Limp Bizkit.

However, his work on Pantera’s first four major-label albums – Cowboys from Hell (1990), Vulgar Display of Power (1992), Far Beyond Driven (1994), and The Great Southern Trendkill (1996) – is particularly notable for capturing Dimebag Darrell’s mastery and distinctive tone on record.

As Date reveals in the latest issue of Guitar World, recording Dime's legendary solos was a fairly linear process. However, it did involve keeping an open mind to different tones, and a healthy dose of experimentation to achieve the best result.

“Our basic formula – the way we worked on his solos – was always the same. We would dedicate four tracks [on tape] for the lead and get three really good takes of the whole thing,” he explains.

“We would then go through them and comp the best parts of each of those takes onto the fourth track. It was always a comp situation.”

The super-producer also recalls a memorable anecdote from his studio time with Dimebag, when the Pantera guitarist wasn’t quite achieving the tone he had hoped for and decided to take matters into his own hands.

“I remember one time he wasn’t getting a sound he liked for a solo, so I said, ‘Maybe we get a different pedal.’ Dime goes, ‘Gimme 15 minutes.’ He ran home and came back with a grocery sack full of old, rusty pedals he had lying around his rehearsal place at his mom’s house.

“He just plugged them all in, turned them all on, and goes, ‘How does that sound?’ And, I said, ‘That’s perfect!’” he says with a laugh. “It was that kind of shit.”

For more from Terry Date and the ultimate Dimebag Darrell tribute, pick up issue 587 of Guitar World at Magazines Direct.

Grammy-nominated producer Dan Nigro, has played an integral role in the careers of two of pop's brightest stars to emerge over the past couple of years: Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan – and their masterfully crafted albums, Sour (2021) and Guts (2023), and The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (2023).

With Rodrigo heralding the new vanguard of pop-punk and Chappell Roan bringing the queer experience to the forefront with cleverly crafted, '80s-tinged pop, Nigro – who was formerly a guitarist in ’00s indie band As Tall As Lions – has established himself as a producer capturing the zeitgeist, and doesn't shy away from a guitar solo – even if it's counter to his own instincts.

“My brain is like, ‘Guitar solos are dated because I listen to Metallica and Metallica's guitar solos are from the ’80s’,” Nigro tells Rolling Stone’s Brian Hiatt.

“It's always great as a producer and a guy in his 40s to work with the younger artists and have the fresh perspective that's not dated to me.

“That's why I love working with Chappell and love working with Olivia, because their reference points are always current because of their age. And so I'm always learning.”

Solos appear across Nigro's productions – most notably the octave fuzz rager on Olivia Rodrigo's bad idea right? and the '80s-indebted lead on Roan's sleeper hit, Pink Pony Club.

“I was listening back to earlier versions of the song when it was just her and I riffing on ideas,” recalls Nigro of making Pink Pony Club. “I was like, ‘What was it before?’ Because I would work on the production, and then I'd send her a bounce and be like, ‘Here's where I'm at with the song.’

“I remember when she heard the part after the bridge, she was like, ‘No, I want a guitar solo.’ So I was like, ‘Wait, what did I have before the guitars? I don't even remember what was before the guitars.’ Because even in my head, the guitar solo has always been there, which wasn't the case. It was like a synth solo.”

Nigro explains that even though the song does have guitars in it – “the chorus hits with big, dirty guitars” – Roan was the one who pointed out that it was begging for a full-blown solo.

“I remember I went in, worked on it, and sent her a version. She was like, ‘It needs to be more melodic.’ So me and Sam [Stewart, guitarist of the band Lo Moon, who also played on Roan's debut], workshopped what you hear now. I think it was a second pass that we made it super-melodic, and she loved it.”

Speaking of Chappell Roan collaborators, guitarist Devon Eisenbarger recently revealed she was out doing a show with Katy Perry in Italy when she got the call to join the Good Luck, Babe! hitmaker's band.

Tom Dalgety made his name producing Royal Blood’s monster debut album, but in the decade since, the English record producer and engineer has gone on to shape the sound of modern rock.

Not only has he produced blockbuster records for The Cult, Ghost and Pixies, he has also had a hand in their lineups, introducing guitarist Chris Catalyst to Ghost leader Tobias Forge, and Emma Richardson to Black Francis and co. He’s even referred to as the “Fifth Pixie”.

Whatever he’s working on, one thing’s for certain: it’s going to play host to some killer guitar tones (and, in the case of Royal Blood, bass-emulating-guitar tones). So when Dalgety speaks, we listen.

In a new interview with Boss, the esteemed producer has revealed the gear he used to create guitar sounds over the years, and why focusing solely on your guitar rig misses some of the most important aspects of recorded guitar sounds – something he badges “the biggest mistake guitar players make” during the recording process.

“Be wary of trying to emulate guitar sounds from your favorite albums with just an amp in the room,” he says.

“The recording chain should not be underestimated. For example, you can add a lot more distortion and harmonics with the mic preamp and completely transform the sound of an amp with EQ. So much tone-shaping is done post.”

As someone who has spent hours, if not days, attempting to create a mix-ready guitar tone from the off, these are wise words. It’s why you’ll find guitarists obsessing over types of microphone, interface preamps and rack compressors – although the beauty of modern-day amp modelers and multi-effects is that you can experiment with digital equivalents to your heart’s content, often within the hardware itself.

Dalgety goes on to highlight the integral role EQ plays in producing recorded sound, and why placement in the signal chain is key.

“I think the ubiquitous heavy metal scooped-mid guitar tone sounds way better when chopping out midrange on the console rather than using the amp EQ or EQ placed before the amp,” he says.

“EQ-ing at different points in the chain creates completely different results. One of the biggest mistakes guitar players make is trying to emulate the sound of recorded guitar using a live rig.”

If you haven’t been involved in a mixing process before, you’d be amazed by how much high- and low-end is shelved from an in-the-room amp tone. Low-mids are removed, highs are tamed, and the whole lot may well be run through saturation and compression to sweeten the dynamics and harmonics.

In short, there’s a lot of extra gear involved in getting a final guitar sound on a record – so don’t go interfering too much with the raw sound.

In previous interviews, Dalgety has highlighted how he sometimes overdrives recording desk preamps, and runs DI boxes into the red to get the tones he seeks.

Elsewhere in the Boss conversation, he names the pedals that have formed important parts of the records he has worked on.

The PS-6 Harmonist is highlighted as integral to Royal Blood frontman Mike Kerr’s bass-meets-guitar tone, while the band also experimented with an AC-3 Acoustic Simulator, and even a Boss BD-2 on vocals.

Dalgety goes on to rave about the HM-2 Heavy Metal, which, besides the classic Swedeath tone (as heard on Ghost’s Rats), he uses as a Rangemaster-style treble boost.

But his deepest Boss cut is the MZ-2 Digital Metalizer, which he used for wide harmony guitars with Ghost.

“That’s a lesser-known vintage BOSS pedal with chorus and doubling modes,” he says. “I bought mine from a shop in Bristol called Heron Music, which is owned by my friend David Simpson.

“David was Killing Joke guitarist Geordie Walker’s tech. I went into Heron one day, and he told me the MZ-2 was a cool way to get a Geordie-style sound. It’s not exactly his sound – that was created using some obscure, hard-to-find gear – but it’s that kind of thing: wide and chorus-y.

“I’ve since used the Digital Metalizer on many recordings. My favorite example of the MZ-2 is the guitar solo in the Creeper song Cry to Heaven.”

Producer extraordinaire Rick Rubin played a pivotal role in popularizing hip-hop with his groundbreaking work with Run-DMC, Public Enemy, and LL Cool J. One of his key contributions to the genre is his work on Licensed to Ill, the Beastie Boys' debut album, which gave rise to the hard rock crossover No Sleep Till Brooklyn.

While Kerry King's blistering solo steals the spotlight, Rubin holds his own on rhythm guitar – including the now-iconic opening riff.

“It would have been a Gibson SG Junior,” Rubin tells Rick Beato, when asked what guitar he used for the session. “It was the guitar I had in my punk rock band, and that was still my guitar – and that's the guitar when my apartment got broken into New York, got stolen.”

Though Rubin describes his guitar part as “pretty rudimentary,” it helped set the tone for the rap-rock fusion from the start, and was designed to complement the rap and flow.

“That was recorded at Chung King House of Metal [the acclaimed New York studio that operated between 1986 and 2015, frequented by countless notable hip hop acts],” he recalls. “I think our focus really was on the words and the vibe of the raps. And in this case, it was just like a rock track. It was more like a vehicle for the vocals.”

According to Rubin, the blend of rap and rock felt “completely natural,” resulting from him being an avid fan of both genres.

“It was just no-one had done it. But it wasn't extraordinary in any way,” he says matter-of-factly. “In reality, a lot of people listen to all different kinds of music. This is the result of that, and the fact that it was popular tells you there were a lot of people who liked those two things, too.”

Despite Rubin's assessment of his own skills, his guitar performances inspired a generation of artists, including The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins, who cited Rubin as “one of the most inspirational guitar players of my childhood”.

Elsewhere in Beato's Rick Rubin interview, the producer reveals how he shaped the sound of Slayer’s Reign in Blood record by “playing Metallica as an example of what I thought was wrong”.

Across his career, Rick Rubin has had a hand in a broad array of genres, from funk with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and fully fledged electric guitar rock with Aerosmith, all the way to hip hop with Beastie Boys and LL Cool J.

He’s also been involved in the world of metal, having first embarked on an exploration of the genre when he linked up with Slayer to produce their third studio album, Reign in Blood, in 1986.

Speaking in a new interview with Rick Beato, Rubin reflected on the experience, and recalled how he singled out one of the genre’s biggest names as an example of what he thought shouldn’t be done when he set about producing his first metal album.

“The first record I made in California was Slayer's first album,” he begins [at approx. 43.18]. “I asked [engineer and regular collaborator, Andy Wallace] if he wanted to engineer the record.

“He came to where I was living, which was on Broadway in this weird loft. I remember Andy came over, and I played him a few different records – AC/DC, Metallica – and I had a theory.

“Now, this is not based on being a musician, this is based on being a fan: when I hear very fast music like Metallica – and the sounds are big – the whole thing gets blurry, and you can't really hear it.

“If the sounds are big, there's not enough space for those big sounds to live next to each other, right? There's no punctuation. It just becomes a blur. I played him a Metallica record as an example of what I thought was wrong.”

Rubin took issue with the tempo of ’Tallica’s tracks, which he believed were simply too fast. What the band gained in speed, they supposedly lost in clarity. As such, he asked Wallace whether there'd be a way to bring a similar level of intensity at differing tempos to produce a more defined metal sound.

“I said, ‘Would it be possible to record in such a way that was hard sounding, but everything was short?’ Because I didn't want it to be a blur of bass,” he admits. “I wanted it to be a pulse. He said, ‘I think we can do that.’”

The result was what has now become widely regarded as a quintessential thrash metal record, and a certified classic of the wider metal genre.

From Rubin’s perspective, his inexperience with metal actually turned out to be a benefit when it came to producing Reign in Blood, and this – paired with his decision to ignore popular metal norms – ended up shaping the overall sound of Kerry King and co's record.

“Not having the experience of the right way to do it was part of the key,” Rubin reflects. “If I was an experienced heavy metal producer, I would use the tricks that I'd used on other heavy metal records, because that's what people do.

“You learn other ways to do it. I didn't have the baggage of what the old way of doing it was.”

Visit Rick Beato’s YouTube channel to watch the full interview with Rick Rubin.

Josh Scott has built one of the most successful independent pedal firms in the world by giving away his knowledge and recommending his rivals. Instead of being laughed out of the industry, it’s made him a hero to indie builders, a trusted resource for players and the internet’s go-to pedal historian, educator and tastemaker.

His knowledge – the product, as he tells Guitar World, of an obsessive personality, blue collar work ethic and misspent youth flipping pawn shop treasures – combined with a world-weary wit and an ability to tell a good story, has helped power JHS’ influence to once unimaginable heights.

If you’d told us the internet would sit through Pedals: The Musical, assemble a flat pack Notaklön (for fun!), watch Behringer clips in their millions, or that one day an endorsement of the DigiTech Bad Monkey would generate headlines, $500 asking prices prices and the guitar equivalent of Dutch Tulip mania – well, we’d have quietly checked your meds.

But that is the result of the authority Scott now holds in the pedal space. That same reputation that has led him to work with many of his musical heroes – from John Mayer to Wilco and Spoon. Then there are the musicians who have put JHS’ US-made units on their ’boards – not insignificant names, from Radiohead to Matt Bellamy, Billy Corgan and Mike Campbell.

There are now 5,000 pedals in Scott’s personal collection, many times more JHS pedals in the world. And north of 100-million views on the firm’s YouTube channel. But it all started with one pedal: a broken Boss Blues Driver.

We sat down with Scott to talk about his pre-JHS days, the Bad Monkey mania and whether the pedal market has finally reached ‘peak boutique’.

Tell us about your life before JHS and pedal-building. Did you grow up in a musical family? What was life like as a kid?

“Well, I grew up in rural Northwest Alabama. And when I say rural, I mean very rural. I lived on a mile-long dirt road – basically, a horse ranch with no neighbors. So I, when I got into guitar, that's what I did and I got really fixated. I, even early on, had a pretty obsessive personality. I would just do something all the way.

“So it was horses at one point, and then it was basketball, and then the guitar came along and, man, I would get off the school bus, and I would play guitar from like 3.30 to 10/11 PM, every single day.

“I was just obsessed with guitar and there was something magical about music, being in such a rural place. I remember holding a Radiohead record, or Oasis, and being like, ‘Oh, I can see England…’ For me, that was crazy, because I'm in Alabama. I've never traveled.

“So that's early me. I get into guitar at like 15, just the typical thing where friends start horrible bands and play cover songs. And then it evolves into being on the verge of record label scenarios around ’99 – and then I just bailed on that. It wasn't what I wanted. And I ended up just playing for people, on tour, session work, stuff like that. Nothing prominent, but I made a living.

“I lived a normal life with guitar as the ‘part-time, financially, full-time mentally’ thing. [Then one day] I had a guitar pedal that broke, and I fixed it – and there I go again, I fixated!”

When you repaired that first pedal – a Boss BD-2, in 2007 – were you already a collector? How did you build that knowledge?

“I just became really obsessed with how these circuits worked. I started taking stuff apart, I got a couple of textbooks. I just kept going with it, and people wanted to buy stuff I was modding. I never had a business plan, but my curiosity created a career.

“I wasn't a collector. I was a pretty basic guitar player who was really curious about the differences in pedals. So again, this is a pre-social media world. I was on eBay looking for old vintage stuff.

“[Before that] I made a business out of going into pawn shops and knowing more about their guitar stuff than them, pre-internet. I actually made a lot of money. I supported myself, basically, by flipping gear, so I developed a good ability to know what stuff was.

“In that sense, I had a lot of knowledge about pedals and what stuff was worth. I would get in the car, and drive to adjacent cities, five, six hours, and find stuff. Just out prowling for stuff to flip.”

Can you recall your best gear flips or finds?

“I remember being in Louisiana and stumbling across a mint-condition, custom-color Fender P-Bass. I think I bought it for like $400 and sold it for $6,000 – stuff like that.

“That wasn't every day, but it was those pawn shops that did not have eBay yet. They didn't have the control. Once they all learned, that whole career was gone.”

When did you start to feel like JHS had properly arrived? That it had found a home with players?

“I remember Premier Guitar reached out to us and did a builder profile, I think it was in 2012. We were very small, still, but that was a moment of, ‘Well, I guess the world's taking it seriously.’ I see so many similarities with [EHX founder] Mike Matthews [Scott is, quite literally, writing the book on Electro-Harmonix at the moment - Ed]. I just hope I don't start chewing on cigars – but I have that driven thing. I want people to like what we do.

“Then seeing a famous guitarist use your stuff is a good feeling. We don't really take that stuff and shove it down people's throats like an ’80s guitar magazine – but we love it, and it's encouraging.

“I mentioned being in Alabama and listening to records. When a lot of those bands started using my stuff, that was a surreal, circular moment. I remember seeing a photo of Noel Gallagher with our pedals, or Radiohead. So those are more distant. I've still never met Noel – probably don't want to – but Radiohead, they're sweet guys.

“Then the more special stuff has been artists like Wilco and Spoon. I made the Colour Box because of their records, and then they got excited about it and toured with the prototypes of this idea that came from their music. It was like this strange, backwards, full-circle, weird moment and really beautiful. Where the idea that inspired it, ended up using it.”

So it’s not so much meeting your heroes, but collaborating with them.

“Yeah. And that's a very rare experience, so I don't take that lightly at all. Then other special things have been, you know, working with John Mayer closely, getting to know him, building weird stuff. Building tons of stuff no-one's ever seen, just for the heck of building it, has been amazing.

“Those are fun and special, because, when someone's music was impactful to you, and you get to interject your creativity in some way around it, that's really cool. There's that [philosophical] term ‘simulacra’. I won't bore you, but it's where the thing created to represent something becomes part of the thing. That's what it feels like with some of these artists. You get an idea, and that idea ends up inside of the original inspiration, like this loop.”

The other side of your role is as the pedal world’s de facto historian, educator and tastemaker, via JHS’ YouTube channel. You talk about being driven. Was that always part of the plan?

“No, it really wasn't! It came really from being frustrated. I really hated demoing pedals because I felt like a car salesman… I hated sitting there and, basically, copying Andy [Martin] from ProGuitarShop… It wasn't very fun. It looked okay, but nobody watched them.

“Then, in my office, I would pull out a guitar every once in a while and just play a riff on Instagram and it would get, like, 20,000/30,000 views. Nick [Loux, Creative Director at JHS] came in one day and he's like, ‘I'm spending so much time crafting something, and you just stand there [and get more views]! Let's just start a YouTube show, and you just talk about history, like you're doing on Instagram…’

“And when we started, there was some skepticism. I remember getting messages like, ‘Hey, I see what you're up to...’ But it was like, ‘No, I'm really just talking about other companies because I think they're cool.’ People couldn't handle that. There were companies that thought I was trolling or scamming them.”

No way…

“The Behringer episode was one of the first to explode, and I heard through the grapevine that the CEO, Uli Behringer, lost sleep over that episode. He came into the office and he could not comprehend why a pedal company would tell you to buy other people's stuff – and I love that. When I found that out, I was like, ‘I'm on to something!’

“It's this giving culture that I love. Like, give and support everyone. It fueled me. I was like, ‘Oh, I'm breaking something down here. This is really fun.’ You have to be secure in yourself, which goes back to [the fact] I'm not intimidated to tell you to go buy a Keeley pedal, you know? If that tears my business apart, then my business sucks. That's how I feel.”

You’re really no snob when it comes to brands, either. You’ve championed Danelectro, Boss and DigiTech, alongside Behringer. What are the qualities that you look for in the gear you recommend, regardless of the name on the pedal?

“I've never been asked that! I’ve never thought about it, either... I guess, if I enjoy it. I think back and some of the stuff I love is so dumb. I know it's practically stupid. Some of it is not made well, but there's something about it that makes me enjoy guitar.

“At the end of the day, whether it's a $10,000 Klon or a $19 Behringer pedal, there's so many spaces in between that just get me excited about something. It can be a riff, or an old memory. That's a big deal: nostalgia. So, yeah – if it makes me smile, or makes me curious, or makes me wonder how they did something, or what's the story. I think that's all it takes for me. That's worth my time.”

There is a level of hype and hysteria that can follow some recommendations – most notoriously, the Bad Monkey. Guitar World has played its own part in that process, no doubt, but have those experiences made you question your role, or hesitate in your recommendations?

“The first thing I would say is, for every Bad Monkey video, there were 10 videos no-one watched. There’s the Bad Monkey with a million views, or Behringer with two or three million. Then there's other videos that got like 30,000 views. And I don't understand.

“I look at Bad Monkey, which is the most ridiculous thing that probably happened on our channel to date and I think it was just the absurdity of it, how silly we made it – there's bananas. We went over the top, because we're like, ‘This is so stupid!’

“The Bad Monkey idea, I just sketched it out real quick and we filmed it. It wasn't even really planned, which is funny, because most things are planned… [But] I didn't think the Bad Monkey would do that.

“I didn't go into that episode, like, ‘Here it is!’ I just did what we normally do. In hindsight, there is a little extra ‘spice’ on that episode and I guess it's just where we were that day. But I have done the same things for other stuff, and it wasn't perceived the same way.

“The Bad Monkey stuff was insane. The prices were so ridiculous. This is a pedal that no-one's really cared about for 20 years. They're littered all over the Earth. It's just such a weird thing.”

Looking at the new pedal market, it feels like we’ve hit ‘peak boutique’. A bit like the craft beer thing, where the shelves are filled with colorful products, many of which taste the same. Do you anticipate a fallout for pedal builders?

“Yeah, I actually just finished writing a piece about this and it’s called, ‘Are there too many pedals? A brief look at the supply and demand of the guitar pedal industry.’ It's a very popular question, but I actually think we're in the healthiest state that guitar has been in…

“‘Saturation’ in economics can actually just mean that an industry is very healthy – that it has widened itself to the point where it's bringing in new people. And I use this comment in the article: ‘one of the biggest pedal YouTubers is a harpist [Emily Hopkins].’ I think that's speaking to a widening [market] instead of this weird collapse. So saturation can be very good.

“But it thins the herd and… I wouldn't call it a bubble, but there is a reality that we're in a moment in pedal history where having a very small company is going to be hard, because the saturation demands a certain level of thought, execution, business management, creativity – that's difficult.

“So To be honest, when JHS started, I don't know how it worked in the beginning, because it was so bad. Some of the stuff wasn't made well. I'm aware of this, but it was allowed because it was a little bit like the Wild West… a frontier. [Now] I think that I would say [the market for] guitar pedals, it's in maturity.

“I don't think it's in decline. Guitar pedals aren't going anywhere, because we're still buying Telecasters, at the end of the day. But this is a very important question, especially to people new to the industry. There should be some concern. I don't think there's a bubble bursting, but I do think it's harder than it's ever been.”

On your point on widening the market. Part of that could be the emergence of new effects. We've had a lot of recreations, or tweaks on classics, but we need new, original sounds – which is clearly much easier said than done.

“Yeah, it's so hard. And to do that, you cannot create a new thing in the space you are in. You have to pull ideas from different spaces.

“We have the phaser, because Oberheim made it for synthesizer. That's one small example – and that's actually not that wide of a gap. But then you have the electric guitar because of telephones. You could trace it that far.

“To have a new thing, you don't sit in the thing and come up with it. You have to find people. You need Joel Korte, who designed drones, to come and do Chase Bliss. That's where that happens.

“People misunderstand the ‘creative genius’ nonsense. It actually is cross-thinking: you get the new idea, because you're not staring at a guitar. If we just stare at a guitar, we're screwed. And that's [always] been the story of the guitar – when people don't look at the guitar, but they're doing other stuff, the idea comes.”

By now, Andrew Watt is best-known for working alongside some of the biggest artists in the world. From recently scoring a global hit with Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars' Die With A Smile to collaborating with an enviable list of talent from rock’s heyday – The Rolling Stones, Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop, Pearl Jam, and yes, even Paul McCartney. So what’s truly setting him apart as a producer? Pushing even established artists out of their comfort zones.

“You lose your shit privately,” he tells Variety. “Because Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Elton John, Eddie Vedder – they’re fully capable of producing an album by themselves. They understand song structure, mix, a good snare-drum sound, they’ve done this forever. So none of them needs a producer – but they are choosing to hire a producer.”

While Watt cut his teeth producing contemporary pop artists like Post Malone, Lana Del Rey, and Miley Cyrus, his rise into the upper echelons of producer stardom happened in true Hollywood fashion. While recording with Malone, the the pair went to Sunset Boulevard's legendary rock nightclub, The Rainbow, where the Sunflower hitmaker spontaneously decided to buy a photo of Ozzy Osbourne right off the wall.

“I [then] said, ‘We should do a song with Ozzy!’” Watt recalls. Next thing you know, Osbourne and Malone duetted on 2019's Take What You Want, which led to the Prince of Darkness commissioning him to produce his 2020 album, Ordinary Man.

Another dream collaboration was working with the Stones – a gig that not only saw him produce their 24th studio album Hackney Diamonds, but also co-write two songs and enlist McCartney and Elton John to play bass and piano.

“I just tried to produce from the front row [of a concert] and think, ‘What do I want to hear?’” he asserts.

“I came with no baggage, so asking Mick or Keith to do something that they wouldn’t normally do – anyone around them would say, ‘They’re never going to do that.’ But I just asked. That’s how songs like Rolling Stone Blues happened [the Muddy Waters classic that inspired the band’s name, which they had never recorded until Watt got involved].”

And as for recruiting The Beatles' bassist? It all came down to a simple question. “It was the same thing when I asked Paul McCartney to play bass on a Rolling Stones song: silence for 10 seconds, then ‘Yeah, I’d love to.’” He adds, “Just ask the question! The worst that can happen is no.”

In other Andrew Watt news, the super-producer will be performing alongside Zakk Wylde, Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens and Wolfgang Van Halen in a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Producer Andrew Watt has gone from being a music fan to recording, collaborating, and even playing guitar on stage with Pearl Jam, Iggy Pop, Ozzy Osbourne, Elton John, Miley Cyrus, Post Malone, and The Rolling Stones. However, his humble beginnings include trying to impress his bar mitzvah guests with his guitar skills.

Entitled “Andrew Rocks”, the bar mitzvah took place at the Copacabana in New York, and featured a stellar setlist.

“I played a whole concert when I was 13,” Watt recalls of the event in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

“I think we played Come Together by the Beatles, a song called Are You Gonna Be My Girl [by Jet] that was really big at the time, Ziggy Stardust. There’s a great picture of me on my knees ripping a guitar solo, and the guitar is bigger than me.”

Watt has come a long way from the bar mitzvah gig. He produced Hackney Diamonds, the Stones' 24th studio album, and their first album since 2005's A Bigger Bang. He's also the producer behind Pearl Jam's recently released Dark Matter.

Speaking of his reputation for recording quickly, even encouraging improvisation and playing guitar along with the artists at times, Watt says, “If you’re talking about a band like Pearl Jam or the Rolling Stones, who wants to hear those bands polished? No-one.

“Those are two of the greatest live bands of all time. So, let’s record them live. Let’s have the edge. There’s other artists that I work with that don’t sound as raw, that take more time, that aren’t recorded live. It goes artist by artist.

“You’re there to produce. What good am I if just yes ‘em to death, right? I put [who I’m working with] right out of my mind. Otherwise, how could you possibly do anything besides just be a fan in the front row screaming?”

As to whether there are any plans for him to produce another Stones album, Watt remains coy. “You know, the last album [Hackney Diamonds] took 18 years to make. So that would leave them close to 100 years old by the time we finished a second one. I’m hoping for a faster timeline. There’s nothing on the books right now, but you know, it definitely has been discussed.”

Having worked with the likes of Prince, Van Halen, The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac and countless others across his career, it’s fair to say legendary front-of-house mixing engineer Dave Natale has been exposed to some great electric guitar tones.

He’s also been exposed to some very, very loud guitar tones along the way, too, and the question of which specific player is the loudest he’s ever worked with was put to Natale himself in a recent Rick Beato video.

When Beato asked who the loudest guitarist he ever mic’d up was – and who had the loudest stage volume – Natale immediately replied with one rather surprising name: Jeff Beck.

“Jeff Beck’s amps are pretty, pretty loud,” he says, “but he turned them around so they’re off-stage.”

In response, Beato recalls the time he saw Beck play live, and recounts seeing his stage set-up, which featured two Marshall combos and two Marshall half-stacks – one of which was facing backwards – that were all mic’d up.

Of course, it sounded “phenomenal”, but according to Natale, it was actually the ones that were facing backwards that were cranked the loudest.

“Jeff was the kind of guy that would come out and just turn knobs. It was exactly the same every day, every time,” he explains. “Because of that, different amps would sound a different way every day.

“Did any one sound bad? Not with him playing it. But it was different,” Natale continues. “The ones facing backwards were loud – like, unbelievably loud – to get sustain. I would use those a lot of times.”

Natale worked closely with Beck, and as such he holds his playing and legacy in especially high regard.

“It’s hard to describe,” he says of Beck and his music. “The feeling of when Jeff was playing, and you were standing there… To me it was like, the sound that I just heard – your hand shouldn’t be there, it should be here. How did you do that?

“The only hand you could see was [his fretting hand], because this one [the picking hand] had the whammy bar in the palm of his hand. He’d go on the volume control with his little finger, and he was fingerpicking.

“But having two Marshalls turned up the whole way… you know, that definitely adds to it.”

Visit Rick Beato’s YouTube channel to watch the full interview.

Raphael Saadiq is one of the biggest and best hip-hop and soul producers on the planet. The American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and studio wizard first rose to prominence in R&B group Tony! Toni! Toné! before going on to work closely with artists as globally revered as Beyoncé, Stevie Wonder and Mary J. Blige, as well as releasing five albums of his own and overseeing the music for a number of films and television shows.

The multiple Grammy winner’s name can be found on many hit recordings, from D’Angelo and Whitney Houston to Bee Gees and Kanye West, which means he’s no stranger to working with some of the most famous musicians on Earth.

This year, the Californian veteran is being awarded his own limited-edition Fender Telecaster, which features a top bound ash body, a maple neck, a slab rosewood fingerboard and vintage-tall frets. With a Dark Red Metallic finish, a black gloss painted headstock and a customized pickguard tying in with one of his most seminal releases, it’s also one of the most eye-catching Telecasters you’ll find being released this year.

“For me, having played bass first, the Telecaster felt like a tougher instrument that would allow me to play hard,” Saadiq tells Guitar World. “Coming from bass, I tend not to play soft. I like the feeling of a Telecaster against my body and the tones seem to match what I’m looking for – whether it’s the country twang or whatever else.

“I’ve played a Tele on every record I’ve been on; I’ve always played Teles. It ended up being a natural fit that worked out better than the Stratocaster for me. Obviously, I think the Stratocaster is a beast of a guitar, but they also make me play a little different... I just love Teles!”

The one-ply acrylic pickguard is a throwback to the outfit he was seen wearing on 2002 solo debut Instant Vintage, with the depth of its cardinal red tint elegantly emphasized by the golden floral embroidery.

Its inclusion on his first signature model serves as a meaningful reminder of where his solo career started, commemorating an album that holds a very special place in his heart.

“Instant Vintage is a fan favorite and a very important album for me, which ended up with Grammy nominations,” he says. “I wanted to give something back to the people – something that was quite close to me.”

The clothes seen on the cover were custom-made by “two beautiful ladies in New York and Atlanta” as very much a last-minute consideration, Saadiq explains. By his own admission the original plan was something far less dignified and elegant, and a lot more provocative and out there.

“When I did the original photo session, I had a completely different look,” he laughs. “I had a Mohawk, my shirt off and these leather pants and boots, sitting in this chair like Al Green.

“A friend of mine, Ray Murray from [acclaimed Georgian production team] Organised Noize, said he was unsure about the pictures – that I looked too crazy! Then he started telling me that he felt my album sounded like ‘instant vintage.’

“All of that happened in the space of three minutes. I cut my hair the next day and decided to rename the album. Then we took that one picture with the circle around my eye, after the original sessions had been scrapped. It became an iconic cover for an iconic record.”

You roped in Eric Gales for the video to promote the new guitar. What do you love about his playing?

“My favorite thing about Eric goes way beyond his guitar playing and songs. It’s just the vibration of who he is as a person, and how he became a guitar. He took all his emotion and expression and threw it into the guitar.

“He shocks himself when he plays – you’ll see him doing a certain thing and then stopping to say, ‘Oh my God!’ He’s so good he manages to surprise himself. On top of that, he’s a really good dude and a good person.

“He makes records and sings. He can play a solo or a chord and drop his E-string down to a D just for a moment. He’ll happily change tunings in the middle of a song. I’ve never seen anyone do it like that before. I really liked his last album Crown, especially songs like Survivor, Stand Up and The Storm.”

You had some input on the two single-coil pickups. What exactly were you looking for?

“I’m not great with that stuff beyond knowing about the difference between humbuckers and single coils. My experience of guitars is mainly picking them up and playing them. But the one player I grew up listening to was Tony Maiden from [American funk group] Rufus. He was the first person I paid attention to who was playing a Tele.

“After that it was all about Prince, because he really loved Teles. You can hear that twang on songs like When You Were Mine. His tones would just bite you – it almost felt like a bass to me. Then I started watching Hee Haw as a kid, seeing all these country guys playing.”

So how would you describe your approach to guitar playing?

“I love playing rhythm guitar – I’m probably more of a rhythm guy. I play more solos nowadays using different kinds of effects, but I come from more of a rhythm background. There’s something about a Tele when you plug into a Fender Twin. It just bites you in the middle and front, and then there’s that twang at the back.

“A Tele is all I need to walk out onto a stage. It took quite a bit of confidence having been a bass player to walk out there with a guitar. But I decided to become a lead singer and play guitar, like a frontman. I had to become comfortable with that. The Tele is what made me feel like I could do it. 

“I remember Carlos Santana giving me a lot of confidence around the time I was switching. I was hanging out at his house for a week or two. He was like, ‘No pressure to come up with music; let’s just hang out and play!’ 

“I’d play bass and he’d play guitar, telling me about Woodstock and what it was like for him. I guess they were doing some kind of fun drug and he didn’t think he was going on until much later – but then all of a sudden they said, ‘You’re on in 10 minutes!’ and he was like, ‘Woah!’

“He was telling me all these stories while soloing. And then after a while he said, ‘Okay, let me play bass and you play guitar.’ Initially I said I couldn’t – but he explained that whatever I played belonged to me. I could own it. I feel like I took that with me when I became a guitar player.”

You worked with D’Angelo on tracks like Lady and Untitled (How Does It Feel), both of which ended up becoming big singles for him. There’s a really noticeable behind-the-beat feel to a lot of his early tracks.

“Yeah, it was just me and D’Angelo, really. We’d split the parts so I played drums and bass on Lady, with him on keyboards. We just fell into this groove with it, but without paying too much attention to how much we were behind.

“I guess we were sort of playing a game to see who could get the furthest behind without getting off beat. That was the game – but we never spoke about it or planned it. We were just feeling it out, laying back on the groove and the chords while staying locked in with the drums. It’s something we took from [producer/rapper] J Dilla, may he rest in peace. 

“Me and D'Angelo had only just met when we were making Lady. We wanted to contribute something to hip-hop, taking influence from that as well as Steve Cropper and all those cats who played soul songs like Knock On Wood.”

Out of all the names you’ve worked with, Beyoncé could very well be the biggest. What does she look for when it comes to collaborating in the studio?

“Mainly I think she’s looking for partners who are into music the same way she’s into it. There are a lot of great musicians and top-line writers in the organisation around her, working with her every day. It’s a great team.

“It’s like having a great general manager who puts all the right people on the football field or basketball court – the ones who will deliver. So Beyoncé works at the highest level and looks for people who can do the same. And that’s exactly what great musicians should be doing.”

You also worked with her and Stevie Wonder for a cover version of Luther Vandross’ So Amazing. That must be pretty high up in terms of life achievements.

“Yeah! Stevie is a legend. He’s the guy who drops you great information about practicing. He told me I needed to do five hours a day to get good at piano. You have to put the time in.

Working with him always includes a lesson or two along the way. That’s what I love about working with him. He’s just one huge vibe – a great historian and musical mastermind. He carries so much information and he’s generous enough to share it all with somebody like me. 

“It gave me great confidence to work closely with him in the studio, talking about some of the legends he’s hung with like Eddie Kendricks, David Ruffin, Four Tops, Smokey Robinson, James Jamerson…

“I got a real good scope of Motown through Stevie. When you put the stories with the music, it really gives you the confidence to reach out and do what you want to do.”

It’s not just straight soul and R ’n’ B on your CV, either. You’ve worked with musicians as varied as Courtney Love, Paloma Faith and Bee Gees.

“It all made sense because even with artists like that, I found we all listened to the same music... and a lot of it was Black. I find we’re all cut from the same family tree. Especially with Bee Gees, they’re basically a Black group from Australia! 

“Working with Barry Gibb for the short time I did, he had so many inspirational things to say. He was always telling me there’s a way to conduct yourself in a session.

“You might want to say, ‘That take wasn’t good,’ but he learned over the years – working with Barbra Streisand and people like that – to say, ‘That was good, but we can get a better one!’ He was full of tips like that – things that helped everybody keep working throughout the day. 

“You pick up so many different things from the greats. And they always say if you want to one of the greats, you have to study the greats, not the amateurs. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with many of them and he’s definitely one of the great ones.”

Then there’s your production and songwriting credits on releases by artists like Kanye West and John Legend.

“I’m working with John on a new album right now. He comes from that school of songwriting and adding samples, guitars; there’s always stuff to add when you’re making songs that will be national or worldwide.

“It’s not about making records for one demographic. It’s about making a record that you really love. The best records come out that way – you have to love it before the fans love it.

“Those are the records that become the biggest ones; it’s a huge listening experience stretching from America to Africa and Europe. So me and John are just in the process of getting together and talking about the next record. 

“It’s a bit like Quincy Jones – he had this big Rolodex and could put together a beautiful team to make music. That’s what I want to do now: find the right people and make live records the way Quincy did with Rod Temperton, Bobby Watson, Greg Phillinganes... a good community of people.”

Studio sessions were a lot more loose and free in those days. There was a lot more time devoted to trial and error, embracing experimentation.

“Yeah, that’s just what it was like back in the day. I wasn’t around, but another Telecaster hero of mine, Ray Parker Jr., was always telling me about sessions where they’d hit five studios and bring all sorts of people in.

“You’d bring different talents into the music. I don’t really believe in old school or new school – you either went to school or you didn’t. That quote comes from Isaac Hayes;  he told me that.

“I’m a person who went to school and tried to invite people to it. That’s how to keep things fresh and keep pushing forward. It might sound like an old idea, but old ideas can become new ideas.

“I try to bring that into the world. That’s what we did with my Tele. It looks like it’s from another world, but it’s also from this world.”

So what kind of rig are you plugging your signature Tele into right now?

“I usually have my Fender Twin with a Rat and a Jimi Hendrix Fuzz Face. I really love my Cry Baby wah and that’s about it, with a little bit of reverb from the amp.”

How many Teles do you own in total?

“I have around six in total. That’s how I got the sound for my Tele. I worked with the Fender guys to get them to dial it in like this or that. There’s one Tele, I think it’s from 1973, which I got from Chicago Music Exchange. I walked into the room, played it and it sounded so good clean. I know that if a guitar sounds good clean, then it’s going to sound great with more bite. 

“I didn’t just want to be buying guitars for no reason, though, so I told them, ‘If I feel I can’t live without this guitar, I will call you and have you send it to the next city!’ And as soon as I got to the next city, I phoned them and bought it.

“It’s the one I really love. I asked Fender to make my signature speak in the same way: to bite, open up and blast how I like on the front pickup and get really twangy and funky on the back. 

“I also wanted it to look cool; that’s why I didn’t put my name on the headstock. It’s an image from my Jimmy Lee on the backplate. I feel like people can play that guitar and it will have all the looks and sound you need. It’s a four-way device that can do it all.”

So would that 1973 Tele be the oldest guitar you own?

“It would be the oldest Tele, but my oldest guitar is a 1962 Strat. I probably have eight Strats in total. And as for all my basses and guitars, there are probably around 300.

“Someone I know was messaging someone about my new guitar, and said it’s a really nice-looking guitar. I asked, ‘Who are you messaging?’ and he said, ‘It’s Eric Clapton!’ 

“I think he saw the video of me and Eric Gales playing together and said he was a big fan of both of us. I mean, wow – that’s one of the greats. It was nice of him to say that and show some love. So my plan is to send one of these guitars out to Clapton and another to Buddy Guy. I’m sure neither of them need any more guitars – but why not!”

• For more information on the Limited Edition Raphael Saadiq Telecaster, head to Fender.com.

Bob Heil, the audio industry legend who pioneered the Talk Box – and worked with the likes of Peter Frampton and The Who – has died aged 83.

The news was shared via a social media post published by Heil Sound (the company Bob founded in 1966), which revealed Heil had passed away surrounded by his family following a year-long battle with cancer.

“Today we say goodbye to our beloved founder, Dr. Bob Heil,” the statement read. “Bob fought a valiant, year-long battle with cancer, and passed peacefully surrounded by his family. Bob’s impact on professional and live sound cannot be overstated. 

“Driven by a lifelong passion for sound, Bob’s pioneering work revolutionized how concertgoers experienced live sound. Bob created and developed numerous pro sound innovations and products over the years, some of which are preserved in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. 

“While Bob’s presence will dearly be missed, we are immensely proud and happy to honor and carry on his legacy.”

Heil is widely credited for setting the blueprint for live sound systems in rock music, and leaves behind a profound legacy. Having first experimented with amateur radio and electronic design as a youngster, Heil eventually went on to found Heil Sound in ‘66.

Through it, he sought to create larger, better live sound systems than what was available at the time. His first notable gig came in 1970, when he asked if he could provide a PA for a Grateful Dead show (via MusicRadar). The band’s regular sound operator was also unavailable, so Heil stepped in to fill his spot.

Owing to the success of Heil and his sound system, the electronics expert would then be invited on tour with the Grateful Dead, and would expand his body of work to include collaborations with The Who, Joe Walsh, Peter Frampton and Jeff Beck.

Along the way, he also befriended Pete Townshend, who brought Heil onboard in a bid to create the quadraphonic sound system he wanted to use on The Who’s Quadrophenia album tour.

One of his most influential innovations was the Talk Box, which was originally created for Joe Walsh in 1973. Despite being built for Walsh, it would later be championed by Peter Frampton (who used it on Show Me the Way), Slash, Richie Sambora and countless other guitar greats.

In 1988, the manufacturing rights were sold to Dunlop, which continues to make the Talk Box to Heil's spec in the present day.

Several musicians have paid tribute to the late Heil. On Facebook, Frampton wrote, “I am so sorry to hear of the loss of my friend for so many years, Bob Heil.

“A musician, inventor, ham radio expert, Heil Sound and microphones. For me most importantly, he gave me a very important present mid seventies. The Heil Talkbox!! Can never thank Bob enough. Rest in power my friend.”

On his own Facebook page, Joe Walsh posted, “An amazing musician (especially behind the wheel of a pipe organ at your favorite old movie house), a mad scientist, a ham radio aficionado and evangelist, a tireless problem solver, a mentor to me and guide on my guitar journey, Bob was our wizard in the Midwest. 

“He was also my friend for more than 50 years. RIP, man. I love you and miss you already.”

Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford has discussed his feelings around the hiring of ‘ghost guitarists’ Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner on the band’s second album, 1974’s Get Your Wings.

Whitford and Joe Perry are interviewed in the new issue of Guitar World, which celebrates the first 50 years of Aerosmith’s tumultuous-yet-remarkable career and was asked about the band’s second album sessions.

As Whitford outlines in the piece, the session players, best known for their roles with Alice Cooper, were brought by producer Jack Douglas in to add a little fretboard flair to certain tracks, with Steve Hunter’s solo on Train Kept A-Rollin becoming the stuff of legend.

“It was Jack who had the difficult task of breaking the news to Joe and me, and of course, that went down like a lead balloon,” says Whitford.

“At first you fight, and you're a little bit angry, and then you get sad to where you're like really bummed out that you can't do it. And the thing was that we’d done some good stuff and could play good stuff, but the tracks required some real finesse, you know? 

“But I mean... listen to Train Kept A-Rollin today, those are some fucking genius rock leads. That was some great stuff and probably some of the stuff that they were most proud of out of anything they'd done. That solo is blistering.”

Whitford clarifies that Hunter also played on S.O.S. (Too Bad) (“fucking incredibly beautifully”) and says Same Old Song and Dance “was Dick, too” and – in a direct contradiction of popular myth (or, at least, Wikipedia) he notes, “I don’t think I made it onto Lord of the Thighs, either.” 

Despite his initial anger, Whitford says that Hunter’s involvement made him a better player.

“I had the unique pleasure of being in the studio when Steve came in to cut the ’Train solo,” says Whitford. 

“I listen back to it even today, and it's still a lesson on guitar. Since then, Steve has had so much influence on me as a player because his playing is very much up my alley. I continue to learn some of the nuances in his playing. And Dick was a bit more like Joe, so it worked out very well.”

It’s not the Alice Cooper duo’s only notable cameo on another artists’ material, either. Around the same time, Hunter and Wagner were also brought in to reinvigorate Lou Reed’s solo material – a move that resulted in one of the most underrated two-guitar solos of the '70s.

Hunter’s influence continued to reverberate throughout rock more than a decade later, as the guitarist’s ‘Hunter Burst’ Les Paul copy later passed into the hands of Slash, becoming “the seed of his Les Paul addiction”.

In the late 1980s, supercharged guitar theatrics were at their height. Most remember the soaring solos and rainbow-tinged guitars, backed by stacks of sizzling amps. But if we dial back the clock just a few years, the beginning of the '80s looked very different – and considerably less colorful.

Nevertheless, a lot of heat was boiling beneath the surface, and thankfully, Shrapnel Records founder Mike Varney was there to play point guard.

“I was a young guitar player, and the music industry in 1980 was not a very guitar-friendly environment,” Varney tells Guitar World. “Disco and new wave music were ruling the airwaves – some thought that heavy metal was dinosaur music and would never have a comeback.”

To combat the decline of guitar music, Varney sought to move from player to talent hunter: “I had several successes as a young guitar player, but in my search for someone to work with me, I determined that my value might be greater in finding a more talented group of guitar players and devoting my time to helping them to get more established.”

Varney was sharp-witted and had an eye for talent, but he also had the backbone to enact change, telling us, “My mission was straightforward: Jimi Hendrix was the guitar hero of the decade in the United States in the '60s, and Eddie Van Halen was the guitar hero of the decade in the '70s.

“People can argue about this all day, but that was my feeling going into 1980. I was excited that we were entering into a new decade of music, and I wanted it to be a decade of heavy rock and awesome guitar solos.”

As for how he transformed Shrapnel into a verifiable guitar institution, he says, “I received my degree in business administration, and one of the things that we studied was niche marketing. I decided that I wanted to be the first heavy metal-centric label in the United States and that the focus would be on guitarists of extraordinary ability. This was a niche within a niche. 

“Even though there were some signs that the glory days of guitar solos had gone, I wanted to hear more guitar solos.

“I figured there had to be some other people like me,” he continues. “I wasn't finding enough heavy rock records, and as a consumer, I was looking for the next guitar hero. As I tried to narrow the scope of my record label, it dawned on me that I could be the guy to discover the best new guitar players of the decade. I didn't have any competition I knew of, so it seemed like a great niche where I could dig in and do something I loved.”

Now 65, Varney can look back on a journey that began when he was 22 with pride. After all, the guitar scene as we know it today wouldn't look the same without Varney's efforts.

It would be easy to be boastful, but, despite his accomplishments, Varney reflects on his legacy with a measured approach.

“What I'm most proud of is that I was able to do this for over 35 years,” he says. “But I feel grateful more than proud. I'm so grateful I could do something I really liked for a long time. That's what means the most.”

How did you go about identifying talent back in the day?

“I was looking for guitar players who wrote cool songs, played undeniably great, and looked like they could be stars of tomorrow. And, most importantly, guitarists who were driven and very serious about playing and advancing their careers. I wanted to give opportunities to players who were 'lifers' and wanted to play guitar as a vocation and not as a hobby.”

Did you imagine the shred era would escalate to such grand heights?

“I didn't ever want to put a ceiling on it, and I just took things one guitarist at a time. By 1989, I had records from Paul Gilbert, Bruce Bouillet, Marty Friedman, Vinnie Moore, Tony MacAlpine, Jason Becker, Richie Kotzen, Greg Howe, Michael Lee Firkins, Joey Tafolla, and David Chastain, as well as Yngwie Malmsteen's first record with Ron Keel and Steeler. 

“By 1990, I felt that I had established Shrapnel as a premier guitar-oriented record label showcasing new guitarists of extraordinary ability. I imagined that it could become trendy, but I ended up finding more great guitar players than I expected to find.”

How do you measure the importance of Shrapnel within that scene?

“I'm not sure how important it was in the scheme of life, but it's important to me. I think it did help create the technical guitar playing scene. My United States distributor was doing very well with these records. The owner of the company had started a record label called Relativity. He told me several times after Steve Vai and Joe Satriani had such tremendous success that he saw how well his distribution company was doing with my releases.”

Marty Friedman has been vocal about his distaste for the term 'shredder'. And Jason Becker has said that while he feels differently now, he used to dislike it, too. What are your thoughts?

“To me, it's just a word. It depends on how someone says it. If someone is really into technical guitar playing and says that somebody shreds or is a shredder, that's the highest compliment. If someone is from the 'less is more' school, often less talented, and unable to play 'more', the term could probably be considered pejorative. But I hear it used more as a compliment.

“Some people equate the term with speed, but that's a narrow-minded viewpoint. This usually means a guitar player excels at a very high level.”

Do you feel the shred era is depicted fairly and taken seriously?

“It is taken very seriously by people who have discipline/stick-to-it-iveness and seek the highest learning opportunities. Usually, the haters will hate because they can't do it themselves. There are plenty of great guitar players who are not shredders, but that doesn't mean that shredders can't be great guitar players. Some of the best working guitar players came up through the shredding school and developed taste and professionalism.

“Professionals can hear what is needed; they might be backing a pop artist, and you would never know they have it in them. It would be distasteful to shred over the top of a ballad in the pop genre. But I'd say Van Halen was one of the few exceptions of a band that lasted decades and also had pop hits with shredding. You don't see that much of that today.”

What makes a great guitarist, and how has that changed since the '80s?

“I don't know if it has changed at all over time. Even in the '80s shred years, the best guitar players didn't lack taste. There was a lot more than speed going on there with most of them. I think tone, feel, taste, and how a guitar player approaches soloing are among the most essential attributes. I was looking for guitar players who other guitar players would want to be like.

“Getting traction out there is nearly impossible if you don't have a strong work ethic. In addition to having all the attributes I mentioned, it helps a lot if the guitar player has a quality about them, a presence if you will, that compels somebody to want to watch them. You don't have to be a model; you have to be able to command attention. Sometimes, it's as simple as being committed and playing with everything you have, and I don't mean just speed.”

Which players do you feel are your finest discoveries?

“I can't really say which ones are my finest discoveries, and I think if you asked 40 guitar fans, they would not say the same person. I tried to screen these guitar players carefully, and if I recorded them, there was something about each one that I felt was compelling. I'm happy that many of the guitar players I worked with have moved on and have substantial careers as guitar players.”

What is the ultimate shred guitar/amp combo from that era?

“That's a tough question. A lot of our guitar players played Ibanez guitars. A Marshall, JCM800, or a 50-watt Marshall JMP were the go-to amps for many guitar players. And B.C. Rich, Kramer, and Carvin guitars were also popular back then. Not many of my artists were Gibson players, although Gibson happens to be my favorite guitar company.”

How do you view the technical guitar scene today?

“I started Shrapnel when I was 22 in 1980, and now I'm 65. It seems inevitable that a person's tastes will change over the years. I still love technical guitar playing, but I listen to many other kinds of music, too. It's tough for me to listen to many of the newer technical players out there today as either they are just rehashing things Shrapnel artists did 40 years ago, or they've gotten faster and are playing seven and eight-string guitars.

“I can appreciate some of that stuff, but I don't enjoy it, as a lot of it sounds as if its sole reason for existing is to facilitate crazier guitar playing. I'm not looking for anything faster than the fastest things we put out, or that has so many time changes in it that they appear to exist to try to make something sound as complex as possible. I think part of it is my age!”

Three minutes and 44 seconds into Paul Simon’s You Can Call Me Al is a two-bar bass guitar solo that has confounded as many bassists as it has inspired. “That was my idea,” said Bakithi Kumalo of the wildly descending lick. “We were recording that song on my birthday, and there was space to fill, so Paul said, ‘Go ahead, Bakithi, do what you like.’ I just played – and they loved it. It was one take. Listening back, I didn’t know what happened; I thought it was from God, you know? I never planned it.”

Now for the tricky part: the second part of the solo is actually the first bar played backwards. Engineer Roy Halee simply flipped the tape over and spliced the two parts together. “People have tried to cop those licks, said Simon. “But it’s physically impossible.”

Throughout the ‘70s and early ‘80s, Kumalo cemented his reputation as one of South Africa’s top session bassists. Along with steady studio work, he often accompanied international artists on the South African legs of their world tours.

It was 1985 when Paul Simon travelled to Johannesburg in search of musicians to help him with his adventurous new project, the multi-platinum Graceland. One of the people he contacted was producer Hendrick Lebone. “I had played a lot of traditional South African music with Hendrick,” said Kumalo in the April '96 issue of BP. “He knew I was a good bass player, so when Paul said he was looking for musicians, Hendrick called me up.”

Kumalo and Simon hit it off from their first meeting. “I brought in my fretless, and we started to play some grooves, and it just happened,” said Kumalo. “I was tense at first – you know, I was working with Paul Simon! But Paul loved everything I played. Then he took me to New York to finish the tracks. All I could think about was meeting Marcus Miller and Stanley Clarke! I was really ready to come to the United States. I started to listen to British radio for an hour a day to get my English together.”

After they finished recording Graceland, Simon and company embarked on an international tour, calling at some of the biggest venues Kumalo had ever played. Of course, Simon wasn’t the least bit worried. “As a bassist in a live setting Bakithi is extraordinary. He’s a very good analyst of rhythm; he lays down a very fundamental groove, but there’s always space for the singer.”

Kumalo, on the other hand, was terrified. “It was scary! The first gig we played was in Germany, and I’d never played for so many people. I couldn’t face the audience; I just felt like crying. I was praying and meditating before the show: ‘Please, I don’t want to make mistakes!’ And when we played You Can Call Me Al, the people knew the bass solo was coming; I could see they were saying, ‘Is this the bass player on the record? We’ll find out when that solo comes!’ When it was close, they started to watch me. And, man – when I played that solo, I just knocked everybody down! After that, the other shows were like a piece of cake.” 

Kumalo’s played a Washburn B-40 fretless bass on Graceland. “It was the cheapest bass in the store because nobody wanted to play it. It’s very old. I think it was the first Washburn fretless, and I only bought it because I could afford it.” 

Graceland is available to buy and stream.

At the start of our interview, Neil Giraldo wants to first talk about Jeff Beck, whom he calls his “top, number one influence,” beginning with the British legend’s time in the Yardbirds. 

“Early on, I heard the way Jeff attacked the instrument – it was like a compressor,” he says. “It’s not that it was loud, but it was right there, always. There are so many beautiful things about his playing. He started out playing one way, but he evolved into a whole other type of playing. That’s such a special thing to be able to grow like that, and he did it spectacularly. He could play a symphony with one string.”

Giraldo never got a chance to meet his idol, but he segues to an amusing anecdote involving Beck. “My good friend Seymour Duncan made pickups for me, and he made pickups for Jeff Beck,” he says. “He sent me some pickups, I put them in my Strat, and I called him and said, ‘I love them.’ 

“Then Seymour called me back and said, ‘I’ve got good news and bad news.’ I was like, ‘Oh, shit,’ and he went, ‘The bad news is I sent you Jeff Beck’s pickups, and he got yours.’ I said, ‘But Seymour, I love these,’ and he said, ‘The good news is he’s not giving yours back.’ I didn’t have to give his back, either. I thought that was really funny.”

Giraldo likes to tell stories, and with 40-plus years as one of rock ’n’ roll’s top guitarists, writers and producers under his belt, he’s got a bunch of them. He’s been working on his memoir, which he says will unfold in two parts.

One half will be what he describes as “the playbook” in which he’ll detail the writing and recording of all of the records he’s been involved with; the second half will be “the story,” which will undoubtedly recount his personal and professional life with his wife of 41 years, superstar singer Pat Benatar (to whom he always refers as “Patricia”). 

“For Patricia and I to have had the kind of success we’ve had, so many things had to be aligned,” he says. “It almost sits on a metaphysical place. It’s truly remarkable.” 

In partnership with Benatar, Giraldo has sold more than 45 million records. The duo were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019, but they didn’t make the cut the following year. Their second time, however, was the charm, and last year the two were inducted into the Hall along with Dolly Parton, Judas Priest, Eminem, Eurythmics and others. 

Summing up his reaction to the recognition, he says, “Patricia has different feelings about it. I think of it this way: Anything that has words like ‘Hall of Fame’ in it is an honor, and you should respect that honor. 

“It’s interesting, though – I heard somebody once say, ‘I finally realized that rock ’n’ roll was important when that building was built,’ and I thought, ‘Wow, you are so missing the point.’ The other thing is, I felt like I cut in line. Where’s Son House? Where’s Wynonie Harris? There are so many great, brilliant artists that I could mention.”

At 67, Giraldo is at a good place in his life. In addition to writing and producing, he’s working on a screenplay, and he serves as chairman of a spirits company he founded, Steel Bending Spirits LLC, which supports the music community and up-and-coming artists. 

On the heels of their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, he and Benatar will hit the road later this year as special guests on Pink’s Summer Carnival tour, during which he’ll light up stages with the devastating licks and solos that have ruled radios since the late ’70s.

Guitar-hero worship is a funny thing. Based solely on his euphoric solo on Rick Springfield’s 1981 smash Jessie’s Girl, Giraldo should qualify as one of the all-time greats, yet year after year he’s rarely mentioned – make that never – on any guitar-centric “best” lists. Asked if he ever feels under-appreciated for his six-string abilities, he takes the high road. 

“I don’t feel any of that,” he says. “I was talking to Scott Kempner from the Del-Lords and the Dictators. He’s a true brother of mine. I said to him, ‘It’s interesting. I have all these favorite players, people like Roky Erickson, but nobody pays attention to any of them.’ And Scott said to me, ‘You know, you’re in that group too.’ 

“I said, ‘Don’t start that with me.’ And he goes, ‘No, no, it’s very important to be in that group. It’s a more important, exclusive club. You should be honored to be in that thing.’ After that, I thought, ‘It’s kind of cool to be in that group. Sure, why not?’

“As much as I loved Jeff Beck, I never wanted to be him,” he continues. “I wanted to be Pete Townshend. I wanted to be the writer. I wanted to play chords. I wanted to be the leader. And [with Benatar], I found my Roger Daltrey, so this is perfect. Truthfully.”

Before you hooked up with Pat Benatar, you played with Rick Derringer. How did your time with him prepare you for what would come next? 

“I can’t even tell you how much it prepared me. Rick auditioned over 200 players. I honestly didn’t think I’d get the gig. He taught me so much. I remember the first gig: I was used to playing in front of 300 people, sometimes 25 people. Now I’m playing in front of thousands. 

“After the gig, Rick comes out and goes, ‘What the hell happened?’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘You sounded terrible.’ I went, ‘Rick, I was really nervous. I swear, I promise it’ll never happen again.’ And it never happened again.”

You had to learn fast.

“It’s the cymbal at your head, like Charlie Parker. It’s the moment where you go, ‘I get it.’ What I learned from Rick was invaluable. Had I not been with him, I probably wouldn’t have been prepared for what I was going to do next.”

What was your audition for Pat like?

“It wasn’t an audition; it was a meeting. Patricia signed a record deal and started a project, but it was a massive failure. It wasn’t anything like she wanted; she was looking for something completely different. Mike Chapman, who produced Rick Derringer’s record earlier, saw me playing in the band. He was called in to produce a few songs for Patricia, but there was no band, no nothing. 

“The A&R person, Jeff Aldridge, called me and said, ‘Listen, can you please meet this person? She wants to put a band together. She needs a partner. Can you please meet her?’ I didn’t know that Jeff was going to be pitching me a girl. I went, ‘Oh, my God. How’s that going to work? This is just insane.’ 

“Then it dawned on me, and I went, ‘Pete Townshend. This is an opportunity.’ At my meeting with Patricia, I didn’t even bring a guitar. I sat at the piano, played stuff and talked to her about things.”

Musically, did she articulate what she was looking for? Did she have reference points?

“Yes. First of all, her reference is very schooled. She went to school every day, while I studied music on the streets. She liked all kinds of music. She liked Led Zeppelin. She liked the idea of powerful, guitar-driven music that she could sing over with lots of energy. But she didn’t know how to describe it to people. 

“When they heard her talk, they thought, ‘Why don’t you be more like Linda Ronstadt?’ That’s not what she wanted. She was looking for a partnership all along. She wanted to call it a band at that time, but it was already too late because it was established as a girl.”

Within a very short time, your songs were all over the radio. Heartbreaker, Hit Me with Your Best Shot, Promises in the Dark and so many others. The solos were shreddy, but you could sing them.

“Correct. I’ve never been a dweedler. What I would do is, I would take the last note of the vocal. I’d either start on that note or start a fifth up, and I’d take whatever that powerful note was and tell a story with the melody. Then I would end the solo so that the vocal could pick up where my conversation left off. 

“Now, it’s not premeditated. I did it for [Benatar’s] Precious Time. They said, ‘What are we going to do in the solo section?’ I said, ‘Let’s just play 32 bars.’ And they go, ‘What are you going to do in 32 bars?’ I go, ‘I don’t know. I’ll figure something out.’ I would name the bars or measures, and I’d say, ‘Let’s do 16. Let’s do eight here.’ I knew how I was going to start, but in the middle, I had no idea. I just did it.

“The other thing is, I can’t play with a very distorted sound. I love articulation. I mute strings hard with my right hand, and I use very heavy strings. I really bite down. It’s all part of that Jeff Beck thing, even though he was more slinky. I take that same attack approach with the front end – heavy strings, heavy muting and articulation. If I don’t hear the articulation, I can’t play a solo cycle. I can’t connect the story.”

Even when writing and demoing a song, you wouldn’t sketch out a solo?

“I would stick to the beginning of it and the thought of where it’s going to go. I wouldn’t write a part out intentionally. The Precious Time solo was a funny one. I was having a tough time in my life. I was miserable and drank too much. I came into the studio and I had a bottle of vodka with me. 

I told the engineer, ‘Just punch me in – I’m only here for a couple takes. I’ve had a miserable night. I didn’t sleep. Hit record. I’m going to do it a couple times.’ I did it a couple of times and said, ‘That’s it. Goodbye.’ That was the solo to Precious Time.”

Just think – if you were happy that day, the solo would’ve been different.

“Correct. But the whole thing is, it was a sad song.”

A lot of people still don’t know you played the solo on Jessie’s Girl. Did that ever bother you?

“Not at all. My life was moving so fast then. I had the Number 1 record with Jessie’s Girl. I think Crimes of Passion was right up there. I was getting ready to do John Waite’s solo record. Ozzy asked me to produce his record. There were so many things going on – I didn’t even think twice about it. What bothered me was seeing David Bowie doing the solo Stevie Ray Vaughan played [on Let’s Dance], because his fingers weren’t even close. That bothered me more than Rick miming my solo.

“I’ll tell you something funny: I play with Rick on stage whenever we’re doing shows together. His guitar player would always say, 'Can you show me how to play this part?' And I’d go, 'Sure.' And as soon as I played the song, I’d always turn my back on the part. [Laughs]”

You’ve never been tied to one particular guitar. You never came out with a signature model.

“Probably because nobody asked me. If you see pictures of me from the early ’80s, I was playing Teles all the time. You can really bite down on a Tele. I have one I call my Muddy Waters Tele. It’s like an orange-red and it’s just nasty. When you play it, it’s nasty. I’ve played Stratocasters, obviously, and early on, B.C. Riches.

“When I joined Rick Derringer’s band, I had one SG and he goes, ‘That’s not going to do. You could play a B.C. Rich, but you can’t play a Mockingbird because that’s what I play.’ So I played a [B.C. Rich] Eagle. I’m playing Les Pauls now because of the heavy strings I use. The scale of the guitar is shorter. It’s easier to bend strings.” 

You and Pat are going to tour with Pink this summer. Obviously, she’s a big fan of you two. Are you familiar with her stuff?

“Sure. In fact, this is kind of funny. She had a drummer who’d been with her for a long time. I had him play on a holiday record I’m putting together. So when we saw Pink at the Rock Hall thing, I said to her, ‘Well, it’ll be nice to see… I can’t give you his name.’ She looked at me and said, ‘You’re not going to see him.’ I was like, ‘Oh, I guess there was a problem.’ I didn’t take it any further. He’s not in the band, obviously. But yes, Pink is tremendous. A tremendous, great singer.”

The Pink tour is mostly stadiums. You’re no stranger to outdoor shows. Do you ever have a hard time getting your sound right on stage?

“No, it’s not that hard. I don’t like pedals or effects. I used to use a harmonizer, early on, which was a stereo setup. I loved it because it was very clean. When I spoke to Mr. Eventide [engineer Tony Agnello], he told me the front end of that [H]949 [Harmonizer] sounded the way it did because a certain chip they used helped the front end of the sound. I liked that. Other than that, when I go out now, I have a little front-end mic pre and an amplifier and a delay. I really don’t need anything else. It’s all about playing.”

• Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo are on tour across the U.S. this summer. See Benatar/Giraldo for dates and tickets.

Influential SST Records producer and instrumentalist Glenn “Spot” Lockett, who worked with the likes of Black Flag, Minutemen and Hüsker Dü, has died at the age of 72.

News of Lockett’s death was confirmed by the label’s former co-owner Joe Carducci, who wrote a lengthy tribute on his personal Facebook page. According to Carducci, Lockett passed away at Morningside Healthcare in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, following a battle with fibrosis.

Carducci, who noted that Spot “didn’t dwell a lot on his personal history”, took the opportunity to reflect on the multi-talented musician and engineer’s life and legacy, writing, “SPOT was a musician and writer and photographer who spelled his name in all caps with a dot in the middle of the O.

“His principal sideline was as a record producer-engineer and an architect of the natural approach to recording a band in the punk era,” he continued. “When approaching the mixing board SPOT would assume an Elvis-like stance and then gesturing toward all the knobs he would say in a Louis Armstrong-like voice, ‘This is going to be gelatinous!’”

Spot was born in 1951 in Los Angeles, and began his musical journey when he started playing guitar at the age of 12. Some years later, Spot met guitarist Greg Ginn, with whom he began working as part of Panic – a band that eventually became Black Flag.

After playing bass for a brief while, Spot moved behind the studio desk and began his career as an influential producer, working for the Ginn-founded SST Records to produce Black Flag’s 1980 EP, Jealous Again.

Spot’s work on Jealous Again was followed by further Black Flag efforts Damaged (1981) and My War (1984), with the budding producer also working with other top punk talents such as Minutemen and Hüsker Dü throughout the ‘80s.

At the end of his career, Spot had helmed more than 100 records as a producer, with a number of punk’s most genre-defining records – and SST’s most well-known outputs – to his name. Standouts from his illustrious career include Hüsker Dü’s Zen Arcade, Descendents’ Milo Goes To College and The Misfits’ Die Die My Darling, as well as records from Saccharine Trust, Meat Puppets and Big Boys.

As well as a producer and musician, Spot was also a writer and photographer, having penned for L.A. newspaper Easy Reader and written his own book of photography in 2014, titled Sounds of Two Eyes Opening.

“I'll be going through his writing with an eye toward publishing a collection including his writings on jazz for the Hermosa Beach free weekly,” Carducci wrote in his Facebook post. “He spent recent years writing the novel, Decline and Fall of Alternative Civilization, and producing a radio-like dramatization of it which is online.”

The new tribute Pantera lineup – which currently comprises Zakk Wylde, Charlie Benante, Rex Brown and Phil Anselmo – is in the midst of a comprehensive world tour, having recently concluded their December run of festival dates.

When Wylde and Benante’s appointments were confirmed last year, it was accompanied with the news that the Pantera lineup would be embarking on a tour of South America, with further European and North American dates arriving soon after. Beyond that, the new Pantera tribute project was envisaged solely as a live-only experience.

Now, though, Pantera producer Sterling Winfield has suggested new material from the current Pantera members might arrive in the future.

Speaking to Reckless Rock Radio, the band’s longtime collaborator said it’s “entirely possible” that Wylde, Benante, Brown and Anselmo will continue playing together beyond their scheduled touring commitments, and may even release new music together somewhere down the line.

Though he stressed such discussions hadn’t yet taken place, Winfield went on to say, “It’s not unheard of, it’s not blasphemous. I will say that it is entirely plausible. 

“It is entirely possible, but at this point in time, I don’t know that anybody’s looking that far down the road,” he continued. “They’ve got a world tour to tackle for the next two years… [but] could it happen? Yes.”

However, Winfield did go on to say that he would feel uncomfortable if such material was released under the Pantera name, and that – though the four-piece would make “very badass music together” – such a move wouldn’t be “classy."

“It has to be done right,” he said of the potential for new material. “If it were to happen, I would not feel comfortable calling it Pantera. I don’t think that would be classy. I’ll put it that way and I’ll just leave it at that for now. This lineup could make some very badass music. And the music is all that matters.”

Though part of that hesitancy no doubt stems from a desire to honor the original Pantera lineup – and especially the memory of the band's late guitarist, Dimebag Darrell, and drummer, Vinnie Paul – Winfield also noted Pantera’s surviving members may now have developed an entirely new sound.

“[They] are different people now. They are not the same people from 20-something years ago,” he explained. “You mature. You grow up. You own your mistakes. You move forward in your life. That’s exactly what I see here.”

Elsewhere in that same interview, Winfield reflected on the lengthy selection process that took place before Zakk Wylde was recruited as the band’s guitarist, saying the decision to appoint the Black Label Society man was a “no-brainer."

“It always kept circling back around to Zakk,” Winfield admitted. “And after a couple of times, it was, like, again another no-brainer. Because he knew Dime better than most any other guitar player on the planet knew him. Is it gonna be Dimebag Darrell's exact notes and riffs and everything? No. It's Zakk Wylde, you idiots. It's Zakk.”

One name that was considered for the post was Mark Tremonti, though Tremonti himself recently stated he turned down the job because he didn’t believe he had the right “personality” for the role.

“You have to be a certain type of personality to take on that role,” Tremonti told Overdrive. “It's not just about the playing, it's very much the personality, and Dime had a huge presence.

“Put it this way,” joked Tremonti. “Nobody's gonna flip off Zakk Wylde onstage. They very well might do that to me, but there's just no way I would put myself in that situation.”

In the world of hard rock and heavy metal, English producer/engineer Max Norman needs no introduction – his impressive discography speaks for itself. From Megadeth’s Countdown to Extinction to Ozzy Osbourne’s Blizzard of Ozz, Diary of a Madman and Tribute, when it comes to metal, Max clearly has a Midas touch.

We asked the esteemed producer about the recording of Randy’s timeless solos on those now legendary first two Ozzy studio albums.

One of the things that truly stands out about Randy’s lead work on both studio albums is the passion and fire that each and every guitar solo exudes. How was that often-elusive ‘magic’ so successfully captured?

“There was a definite sense of occasion when it came time for Randy to record those main, middle-of-the-song solos. The way we did them was this: While Randy was rehearsing to record a particular solo, we didn’t sit around and listen to him; instead, we’d go up to the local pub for a few beers or whatever. 

“Then I’d go back, and he’d say, ‘OK, I’m ready to take it!’ You could see it in his face on the studio floor; he was steeling himself... getting ready to pounce. There was a palpable ‘Now we’re recording’ sense of excitement and momentum building up. 

“Randy wanted to capture a performance, and he’d attempt to get the solo within the first two or three takes in its entirety. If he didn’t, he’d say, ‘Go away for another hour and then come back – I’m not quite getting it right now.’ 

“But, for the most part, he would successfully record the whole solo to his liking in those first two or three takes. Randy was such a well-prepared and disciplined guy, he obviously wouldn’t say he was ready until he felt he really was. As a result, we’d grab each solo very quickly and it would be a very fresh, whole take.

“Randy had a very clear vision of what he wanted to achieve. To this end, he’d often play what most people would consider to be a perfect take and say, ‘No, that doesn’t feel quite right – let’s redo it.’ 

“Other times he’d say something like, ‘Goddamn, that felt really good, but I didn’t catch the harmonic I wanted on one note, and it’s got to be there.’ I’d look at him in astonishment, thinking, ‘Are we really gonna blow off this great take and record over it?’ He’d say, ‘I’ve got this,’ and then, sure enough, he’d play it again and nail that missing harmonic perfectly! 

“Randy’s incredible attention to detail, plus his wonderful combination of technique, feel, fire and musicality all still leap out and draw you in, even now, some 40 years later – that’s what makes him so unique. It’s astonishing to me that it’s been over 41 years since we did those records.”

Randy’s ability to double solos has long been ‘the stuff of legend.’ That said, I distinctly remember you telling me once that he actually tripled his solos.

“Yeah, if I remember correctly, all those main solos were triple tracked. I might well be proven wrong, though, as there are students out there who even can tell you what color shoes I was wearing on a certain day back then! [Laughs] 

“Anyway, like I just told you, the main solo was the end-result of a single performance. Then, once Randy had laid down the exact solo he wanted, he’d say, ‘OK, let me put a double on it,’ and we’d do another two. Obviously, we kept the first one in the middle, and panned the other two left and right while pushing them back by a few dBs, just to give the solo its overall tone.

“That said, on both those records, the outro solos are invariably ones that Randy just ripped out at the time. They were first takes with no rehearsal involved. They were done that way because we either didn’t have enough time, or because Ozzy said, ‘Keep that one.’ That’s another way of capturing the freshness, attack and the ferociousness of Randy’s playing. You can really hear it coming out too.

“You have to remember that in those days, when you hit ‘Record,’ it was a very finite thing, because we only had 24 tracks in total, and one was used for time code! As a result, we didn’t have the modern-day luxury of being able to say, ‘Yeah, keep that one, let’s do another 50!’ It was either, ‘Yeah, that’s good, we’re keeping it’ or ‘That’s not happening, let’s record over it.’

“Also, back then records were made very quickly, often in just three or four weeks. You didn’t have time to fuck around; you had to make decisions on the spot and then live with them because there wasn’t an ‘undo’ button. You didn’t get bogged down like people do nowadays by spending days, weeks or even months on a solo, a bass part or whatever. You just went with your gut and moved on!”

How “exact” was Randy’s doubling?

“I’m sure you know as well as I do that doing an exact double doesn’t help; it’s the differences between the two that ultimately makes them work together... or not! So once we had the main solo in the can, we weren’t listening for the accuracy of his doubling. Instead we’d be listening for the interaction between the tracks. 

“The unique movement the double gives the original when it’s mixed as a ghost behind it – the way certain notes flange, the way they hit together. We were listening for the resulting texture and the uniqueness the double adds to the main take. It was all about the sum of the whole, rather than just the separate parts.”

• Read more: Randy Rhoads’ first Guitar World interview from 1982

Tony Iommi’s guitar tech and close friend Mike Clement has been placed in a medically induced coma after taking a fall at his workplace. Iommi, who shared the news on Twitter yesterday (April 18) and offered his best wishes, said that Clement had suffered a “severe tumble” but there were signs that his condition was improving.

“Ongoing sad news about my tech and good friend Mick Clement who took a serious tumble while working at his business,” wrote Iommi. “He’s been in an induced coma and is thankfully starting to show signs of progress. Our thoughts are with his family, he has been a keyman with me for over 30 yrs.”

Clement has been working with Iommi since 1990. What he doesn’t know about electric guitar is not worth knowing. Before his time with Iommi, Clement worked with Motörhead for three-and-a-half years.

When Clement sat down with Thomann’s Kris Barocsi last year to share Iommi’s setup secrets, he said that his experiences with hard-hitting players such as Würzel and Lemmy were an education in string-changing efficiency.

“I got used to doing them very fast indeed,” said Clement. “I could get a string changed, stretched out and back to them before the end of a song.”

These skills, however, were not needed with Iommi. Describing Iommi’s playing as “very controlled”, Clement revealed that Iommi had not broken a string onstage in 25 years.

“He never thrashes,” said Clement. “It kind of goes with his personality and also because we think very carefully about the rig – the rig does all the hard work.”

After all these years, Clement performs much of Iommi’s setup by feel, using only a ruler to help set neck relief. The Thomann interview makes for fascinating viewing, with Clement discussing how, in Black Sabbath’s latter years, the band introduced more low tunings in concert to complement Ozzy Osbourne’s voice, and discussing some of the other essentials in Iommi's rig besides his Gibson SG Special signature guitars and Laney guitar amps.

Everyone at Guitar World wishes Clement a speedy recovery.

Rick Rubin has spoken about his experience watching the Red Hot Chili Peppers' first rehearsal after John Frusciante rejoined the band in 2019.

In a new episode of Chris Jericho's Talk is Jericho podcast (via MusicRadar), the legendary producer recalls being invited to the first Chilis rehearsal with Frusciante back in the fold, and shares an update on the band's forthcoming album, saying he and the band are “finishing” it right now.

“Frusciante's back in the band and it's unbelievable,” he says. “I [was invited to] the first rehearsal after John rejoined the band and it made me cry. It was so thrilling to see that group of people back together because they made such great music for so long together and it really hit me in an emotional way.” 

Rubin also offers a little on what we can expect the band's new album to sound like. When Jericho expresses his love of 2006's Stadium Arcadium, Rubin replies: “I think if you like Stadium Arcadium, you might like this.”

The producer also shares his opinion on what Frusciante does for the band's sound. “When Flea and John play together something magic happens,” he continues. “When Chad plays with Flea and John, something magic happens. When Anthony sings, based on what those guys play, it sounds like the Chili Peppers.

“There are some flavors on the new album and when it happens it's like, 'Oh my god – nobody sounds like that. It's so quintessentially Chili Peppers.” 

On the Chili Peppers' writing process, Rubin adds: “They have really good habits in that they write lots of songs which is something I think we developed from the beginning – this idea of overwriting.

“If there's going to be 12 songs on an album, they might write 50, they might write 100 to find those 12. They'll play them for me in rehearsal and we'll talk about them; about [each] song's strengths, weaknesses, how to make them better...

“I don't necessarily have the way to fix them, but I notice where the weakness are and just say, ‘This part going into this part doesn't sound so good – is there a better way to do it? Then they come up with a better way.”

While we've yet to hear new material from the reunited Chilis as a whole, John Frusciante teamed up with Flea earlier this year for a cover of Gang of Four's Not Great Men in tribute to late guitarist Andy Gill.

Despite the abundance of tips and tricks that are currently available on the internet, when it comes to learning how to set up your own six-string along the lines of late electric guitar icon Eddie Van Halen, there really is no substitute for learning how to do it from the man who spent 13 years doing it as his job.

Now you can do just that, thanks to a newly released video from FiveStarGuitars that sees Van Halen’s longtime guitar tech Tom Weber teach you his tricks of the trade, and that runs you through how he approaches setting up an EVH Frankenstein Custom guitar.

Ever the philosopher of the instrument, Weber begins his deep-dive by musing, “A guitar is an instrument that is built and measured in thousands of inches. It’s a very accurate instrument, until you add the one inaccurate thing that they all end up with – us.

“The frets are placed in exactly the right place, the strings are tuned to exactly the right pitch, then we put our mitts on them and pull everything all out of whack.”

First up on the itinerary is a good-old-fashioned restring – a task that sounds easier than it is, says Weber, given the presence of the guitar’s Floyd Rose tremolo.

According to Weber, a Bondhus T-Handle wrench is his best friend when it comes to changing electric guitar strings – in fact, he won’t work on a Floyd Rose without one – and says utilizing the multi-functional tool was one of the main things he learned from his days working with Van Halen.

At the other end of the guitar, Weber reveals he isn’t a fan of tying the string round the peg post, going on to say that the practice poses a number of problems when rapid-fire, impromptu string changes are required.

Instead, a simple two tuner-length worth of slack, with one loop over the top and the rest underneath, is Weber’s preferred approach.

Some nifty housekeeping pointers are also dotted about the in-depth video, including how to maintain the longevity of your Floyd Rose, with Weber revealing that, before he and Van Halen switched over to titanium parts, they would have to replace the bridge clamping blocks, on average, every two shows.

A handful of noteworthy intonation-related tips, truss rod tricks and tuning-based advice are also addressed in the 43-minute video, with Weber discussing all kinds of issues that guitar techs trouble themselves over, including the impact of heavy-handed fretters.

To end, Weber offers up a final piece of wisdom: “It’s the little stuff that makes all the difference in the world, and I can’t stress that enough. Hopefully everybody’s learned a little something today – the day we stop learning is the day we start forgetting stuff.

“Open your mind, open your eyes, pay attention,” he continues. “Everything does make sense on a guitar sooner or later.”

Despite watching the video more times than we care to admit, we still have a funny feeling that it’s going to be easier said than done to conjure up Weber’s magic touch. 

Recently, Weber put his own personal EVH-signed Kramer Paul Dean signature guitar up for sale, which was gifted to him by Van Halen himself following a chance encounter between the pair in 1998, almost 20 years prior to the start of their professional relationship. 

Any time we chat with an artist that’s worked with Shane Edwards, it’s virtually guaranteed they’ll gush about his beatmaking black arts like a tween girl gushes over her favourite boyband – entirely unprompted, too. 

Edwards started producing out of necessity, unable to afford any external help to lay down his own band’s material. But the Sydney-native stalwart soon discovered a love for the art that spread far beyond his own musicality. Today, he’s one of the most sought-after names in heavy music, thanks in no short part his unapologetically unique approach to the recording process – which has led to such instant classics as Hellions’ Opera Oblivia, Trophy Eyes’ Chemical Miracle, Saviour’s Let Me Leave… The list goes on. 

Hell, he’s even linked up with musical titans like Hans Zimmer, and put his own twist on a rendition of the Thai national anthem.

With stacks of new projects in the pipeline (including the tensely awaited fourth Trophy Eyes record), Edwards has many a late night behind the console to look forward to. He’s currently making the magic happen in Bangkok’s Studio28, where he recently set up shop after a storied six-year tenure holding down the fort at Karma Sound. 

In a bid to uncover some of the secrets behind his in-studio sorcery, Australian Guitar caught up with Edwards on a short break from recording with the Thai royal family – y’know, just a casual day on the grind…

Do you find that having a background as a musician helps you get the most out of the artists you work with?
Oh, 100 percent. I started out as a guitar player – I obviously still am, of course – and the feeling you get when you play a guitar is completely unique. So getting to translate that onto the record, really understanding what the person is playing and all the details they’re trying to nail… It really helps to know your way around the instrument. I play as many instruments as I can to get a feel for them, so that I can record them as best as I can. 

Are you the type of producer to become the unofficial extra member in a session?
Yeah, absolutely! Whenever I do a production job, I become like a silent bonus member. Because I’ve got to care about the project as much as they care about it – sometimes I care a little bit more than the band! I always base myself off the mantra that I like to amplify the band, not change the band. I like to bring them out of their shells, not to get them to shift or change or anything like that.

One thing I’ve gathered from interviewing some of the artists you’ve worked with is that you’re really good at pushing an idea to the extreme, and really trying everything that’s possible to get the best version of it on tape. How do you typically approach a concept that requires a lot of experimentation?
I like to break rules. For the Agnes Manners record [Fantasia Famish], we wanted something unique with the guitar sound, so we went to this old store and bought a cassette player with a jack input, plugged the guitar into that, bounced it off the tape and ran it into a cab – and it was the coolest sound I’d ever heard. I just like to try crazy things and break all the rules of recording.

So you start every session in the software as a blank canvas – you don’t have any go-to presets or chains that you key in when you’re recording. Why do you find it so important to start from scratch every time?
For me, every song is like a fingerprint – no two are the same. And although it does take a little longer, starting from scratch every time always yields the best results. Sometimes if, for instance, there was bass tone or something that sounded cool in an earlier project, I might open up an old session and see what I did, bring that in and tweak it. But that very rarely happens; I usually just attack everything as a brand new thing.

Especially when you’re working with a band like Hellions, or on the past two Trophy Eyes records for example, you’ve got these tracks where there’s so much going on – strings and horns and synths and all this other stuff – and then a full band of heavy punk musicians playing on top of all that. How do you go about creating such dense and dynamic soundscapes without the mix sounding muddy or overblown?
It’s very tricky. I used to mix in the box, and I found it pretty difficult then. But I mix on a console now, and that does half of the work for me with the separations and stuff like that. Other people can do it really well in the box, and I wish I could do it like them, but yeah, I’m a bit of an analogue-hybrid guy. I’ve got two Solid State Logic X-Desks and an API, all my tools… Yeah, it’s very difficult [laughs]. But usually in the analogue world, I can get that separation as close to perfect as possible.

Do you find that recording analogue helps in capturing the raw energy of a band?
Yeah. For me, the analogue gear gives me not just the right separation between layers, but the right saturation as well. I’ve spent a long time collecting specific pieces of gear to get it all done – I love the API sound, for example, that’s become a big part of my work. I got this console at the start of 2016, so Opera Oblivia [by Hellions] and Chemical Miracle [by Trophy Eyes] were the first two records I got to do with it. I just felt at one with it. So I’ve built my rig around that – I’ve added some clean SSL summing and a whole bunch of line amps, compressors… Y’know, slowly just growing and growing the arsenal.

Do you have any other secret weapons?
I cannot live without the Eventide H3000. It’s on every record I ever do, it’s the vocals on everything. People say, “Why don’t you just use plug-ins? Reverbs sound like reverbs!” And it’s like, “Yeah, but the Eventide speaks to me!” It’s so bright and transparent and shiny, and it just brings vocals to life. So I use that with everybody, and I typically use about eight to ten, sometimes twelve different patches out of it, and I print it in one at a time. And then I’ll mix it once it’s printed back into the system.

It really is a labour of love!
Yeah, man! Every one of my recordings, if you open up the mix sessions, you’ll see that the vocals are always all done with hardware – I don’t use any plug-ins after it’s been printed through the hardware. And all the effects are printed on hardware as well.

What’s the most intense record you’ve done?
Rue [by Hellions] was pretty big. The biggest session I ever did was mixing the Thai national anthem – that was something like 430 tracks of layered orchestral instruments. It was a big, big, big session. But other sessions are big in the sense that there’s more to do. 

I would say that Opera Oblivia is my favourite record of all time, because we did that in 21 days from conception to mastering. We were hyper-focused, but with an open mind. Again we had a totally blank canvas, and we just ran for the hills – and it just came out like that! It was one mix with no tweaks or adjustments. 

It was really funny because I had Trophy Eyes booked in the day after we finished Opera Oblivia, but they arrived a week early, so we were all hanging out together while Hellions finished up their sessions. We finished the final listening session at three in the morning one night, and then we started Trophy Eyes’ record at ten in the morning, seven hours later – so I had to delete everything about the Hellions session from my mind. 

While the 63rd Grammy Awards were a resounding success for guitar-playing artists, the Recording Academy's 15-second tribute to Eddie Van Halen drew considerable criticism from the rock world, including from the late guitar great's son, Wolfgang Van Halen.

Taking to Twitter, WVH wrote: “What hurt the most was that he wasn't even mentioned when they talked about artists we lost in the beginning of the show.

“I know rock isn't the most popular genre right now, (and the Academy does seem a bit out of touch), but I think it's impossible to ignore the legacy my father left on the instrument, the world of rock, and music in general. There will never be another innovator like him.”

He also revealed that he'd been asked by the Academy to perform Van Halen classic Eruption at the ceremony, though he declined the invitation.

Now, in a new interview with Variety, Grammys executive producer Ben Winston has issued a response, explaining the circumstances behind Van Halen's tribute.

“We had a call with [a rep for] Wolfgang before the show, and I asked him if he'd be willing to come on and play,” he says.

“He felt he didn't really want to do that, and I offered up eight or nine guitarists who maybe could. But instead, he felt like we should play a video of Eddie himself, because nobody could play like him, so that's what we did.”

He continues: “I would have loved for it to be longer than it was, but Eddie was the only person in the whole 'In Memoriam' to play their own music, with no other faces being seen. I felt that was an appropriate tribute to him, but if Wolfgang didn't, I'm sorry about that, of course. It's such a horrific thing to lose a parent. We did the best that we felt we could.”

Wolfgang did say in his previous tweet that he “didn't realize that they would only show Pop for 15 seconds in the middle of four full performances for others we had lost”.

Among other rock 'n' roll heavyweights to chime in on the subdued EVH tribute were Eddie Trunk – who accused the Academy of reaching “new levels of shame and disrespect” – and former Van Halen vocalist Gary Cherone – who argued that a guitarist who “literally changed the course of rock 'n' roll [deserved] more than 15 seconds at the Grammys”.

Producer and electric guitar player Steve Albini is known for being a unique figure in the world of record production, but when it came to working with Nirvana on their 1993 album, In Utero, he laid down a proposition that even the band members couldn’t meet.

On the night before the band was scheduled to begin recording, Albini, who at that point was known for his work with the likes of the Pixies, Jesus Lizard and PJ Harvey, among many others, propositioned members Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl: if any one of them could beat him a game of pool, he would do the album for free.

If Albini won, however, Nirvana would have to double his fee.

Albini recalled the story in a new interview with Kerrang!. “I did that with every band I worked with, and no one ever took me up on the offer,” he said. 

“It’s not like I’m a particularly good pool player, but I have an equal chance of winning in a fair game,” he continued. "Ultimately, it wasn’t going to make that much difference to my life if I got double the money for the session or worked for free. But I guess Nirvana were a little more risk-averse than I was.”

As for what made the trio so unwilling to take Albini up on his wager?

“We were paying him $100,000,” Grohl once said. “Anyone who’s got the stones to gamble something that large must be amazing, so everyone said no.

“Plus,” the drummer added, “he had his own stick. We didn’t want to fuck around with that.”

Whether for his frenzied fretting and boisterous bass work in bands like Eleven, Queens Of The Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures, or for his genre-defining wizardry behind the console as a producer and engineer, there are plenty of reasons why Alain Johannes is such a revered name in rock, grunge, punk, and pretty much any genre of guitar music that made it through the ‘90s. With his latest solo album Hum doing the rounds, we caught up with Johannes to glean some of his signature bright, energetic wisdom.  

When you’re making your own music, do you follow the same formulas you would as a producer with any other band, or do you need to approach it from a different perspective?
I approach every project in the way that I feel is most natural – my resonance and my empathy and my desire to connect to the project as a part of it, whether as an assistant, a guide or a team player, or a family member to the music – which means that every time I work on a new record, it’s a different set of things that happen. I don’t have one definitive way of doing it. 

First of all, I need to resonate with what the artist I’m producing wants to achieve, and figure out what my role is in helping them do that. Sometimes it’s intensive, and sometimes it’s very mild. It might just be that I need to make a happy environment for them to feel creative in, and make sure that creativity gets documented and recorded properly. Sometimes they want me to get in there and contribute to the writing and the arrangement and all of that stuff.

When it comes to my own stuff, I think I’ve prepared my entire life by loving and learning other instruments. I’ve spent years collecting equipment, and I’ve got my setup to a very efficient point – I can just go into the room and there’s five or six different microphones ready in different positions, and depending on what instrument I’m using, I’ll choose what microphone to use. And all the microphones and the instruments and everything – the percussion and my horns, my 60-plus stringed instruments and all the exotic instruments – they’re all basically living in this space, just ready to be grabbed. 

I love flowing with whatever the music dictates, or whatever my instincts are telling me to do. For example, on a couple of tunes I used a banjo, because I’m yet to purchase a hurdy-gurdy but I wanted that kind of medieval, pagan feeling. And I totally knew that if I tuned the banjo in roots and fifths and played it with a bow, with that midrange that it has, and get a couple strings droning in the same note, I would get that feeling. And I just love that kind of spontaneous, improvisational kind of approach – it happens really quickly and there’s very little thinking to it.

Do you it difficult to be objective when you’re in that position?
I don’t, because for some reason I’ve got this view towards my music that it’s something that already exists in the ether – I’m just receiving a transmission from the universe that I’m supposed to decode through my particular filters. I don’t really look at it like, “Oh, this is mine, I did this” – I mean obviously, y’know, it says ‘written and performed by Alain Johannes’ on the sticker, but it’s not mine to claim – the music is there, and I’m just here to help it come into existence. It feels natural to me that way, and it helps me be able to look at it afterwards and go, “Yeah, this is music!” It just happens to be mine, y’know? 

I don’t want to attach an ego to it – whether it’s good or not, or whatever – I’m really trying to just document the feeling I have and my state of being in a particular time.

The first takes are always some of my favourites. The closest I can get to the exact moment song appears is usually the best, because it has the most energy to me – it has the particular kind of that energy that I like, which I listen for in other music as well. And y’know, I know full well that if I start to obsess over a tone or a guitar solo, and then I might do ten takes of it before I realise that the first one was the one that felt the best for the song. Learning that throughout the years was crucial – especially when I was younger, because y’know, when you’re green to it all, you think that there has to be a process and it has to be arduous, and you have to torture yourself, and only through blood, sweat and tears can you get amazing results. But that couldn’t be less true. 

I’ll tell you what though, starting the record is always the hardest part. I can’t will that to happen – I can never convince myself to just sit down and go, “Alright, I’m going to start making music now,” because if I’m going to come up with a good idea, then it’s going to happen at whatever spontaneous moment it’s going to happen in, y’know? And to put a timeframe on making an album just doesn’t make sense. A good album might take four days to make, like Spark, or 14, like Fragments – or other records I’ve been a part of where it took ten months or whatever.

What is it about the way music was made in the ‘90s that makes it so beloved amongst people today?
My first recordings were in the ‘80s, straight out of high school, and so that time period was particularly exciting for me. But my approach was just what everybody else was doing – and everybody was doing it that way. You can spot an ‘80s-sounding song a mile away. And I think the way things changed in the ‘90s was a reaction to that – and MTV, and a lot of the things that happened in the cultural shift back then. And also, the energy in Seattle at the time – there was just this amazing pool of talent that happened to be there for some reason. I don’t know if it was the environment that fostered it – a little darker and colder, more melancholy, and just more interesting than what came from a lot of the happier pop or hair metal or whatever else was happening at the time. 

I think the way that a lot of those records were made – especially in some of the earlier studios that still had the analogue technology, before everyone went digital – they made them more timeless sounding. It’s like jeans, a t-shirt, a leather jacket and a pair of boots: there aren’t too many distinctive features about that outfit, but it’s always cool – that kind of stuff works almost any time, anywhere – you can wear that and just know you look stylish. And when you record music without too many effects and you’re just capturing the energy, it tends to have a more timeless kind of sound. A lot of those recordings in the ‘90s were very full-sounding and very powerful, but they didn’t have a lot of fat around the edges.

I mean sonically, y’know, you can’t really pigeonhole it – it’s more the feeling of the music that you look at and say, “Oh, that’s from the ‘90s.” There was just something in the air at that point in time; especially in Seattle. The movement and the name ‘grunge’ was ascribed to it after the fact, but it just happened to be one of those moments and places.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about making music?
I think this constant surge towards autonomy is so overdue. Music used to be so prohibitive, y’know? You could rehearse and do demos and stuff, but to actually go and make a master recording, you had to hire a studio and pay for engineers, producers, maybe session musicians… So pretty early on, Natasha [Shneider] and I started keeping some recording gear around – enough to get things going that we could make good recordings on our own. And I think the key was having our own studio when Eleven was born, thanks to Chris Cornell inviting the president of A&M over, him liking our music and giving us a record deal, and then letting us use the budget for the album to buy the gear that would become the studio in our house.

Australia’s indie-rock scene has never shone so brightly – with artists like Didirri, MANE, Timberwolf, Lilac Cove and Oh Deliah constantly making waves with their bewitching beats and heart-melting hooks, it’s undeniable that now is the best time to be a fan of all things vibey. One thing all four of those artists have in common? They’ve all had their visions brought to life by Kiah Gossner, a multi-award winning producer, engineer, mixer, songwriter, bassist, conductor… The Adelaidian maestro basically does everything – and he does it all pretty damn well, if we may say so ourselves. 

Splitting his time between Mixmasters Studio in Adelaide and Studios 301 in Sydney, Gossner is fast becoming one of the most sought-after names in Australian music. And before his schedule becomes truly chaotic with every last rocker in the country desperate to get their tunes in his hands, Australian Guitar sat down with Gossner for a chat about how he makes his magic happen.

Congratulations on being nominated for Best Studio Engineer by the South Australian Music Awards! How does it feel to be recognised for such an honour?
It’s a funny one. It’s really nice to be acknowledged for the work you do, but I don’t know – I know heaps of great producers and engineers doing a lot of cool things, and they aren’t any less talented or worthy of acclaim because they weren’t nominated for an award. I find awards in general a little bit of a weird thing. But it is really nice to be acknowledged for the stuff that I’ve been working on, totally!

Is there a pressure that comes with having the “award-nominated” or “award-winning” distinction under your belt?
I’m just going to keep doing what I do, and if people like it, that’s wonderful! I don’t feel any extra pressure from the normal day-to-day. It’s nice to get some kudos for the stuff that I do – that gives me some confidence that I can keep doing what I do, and hopefully people keep liking it!

On top of everything you do behind the console, you’re a pretty seasoned musician yourself. Do you find that your creative skills as a songwriter help to inform your role as a producer when you’re working with other artists?
Totally, man! I feel like I really came into this role as a producer and engineer from being a session musician first, coming up and being on tours with different acts and being exposed to a heap of different styles of music. I went to the Conservatorium and studied jazz, and that was kind of like my foundation, but I was also brought up playing in folk bands and indie bands and all that kind of stuff. And then I ended up working as a session player for just about every kind of genre you could think of, and as a producer, that’s a been a huge gift. 

My education started with being a big music nerd, and I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to follow that as I go deeper into my career. The other big thing is all the people you meet in music – I’ve met a bunch of really wonderful, interesting, creative human beings, whether they’ve been collaborators or mentors or friends, people to get beers with or people to get cups of coffee with… That pathway and that experience, I guess, has been such a wonderful thing

Especially in recent times, you’ve worked on everything from electro-pop to acoustic rock. Do you feel comfortable working in basically any genre?
If you asked me that question a year or two ago, I would’ve said, “Yeah, I feel pretty comfortable in any genre!” And that’s still somewhat true, but I just feel like my tastes are refining a bit more and more. I guess it is still quite varied – I mean, I recently wrapped up a work that’s, like, contemporary classical and avant-garde jazz, and I also wrapped up a work with Didirri, who’s an folk-indie artist, and Timberwolf, who’s doing this slacker-rock/psyche thing – so it’s still varied, but I feel like I can definitely hear my own sounds shining through within those different genres.

I guess when you first start producing, it’s this funny thing where everyone’s like, “Oh, you’ve gotta find your voice!” But I think that coming from a really diverse background, my voice is kind of this weird amalgamation of heaps of different things. I don’t want to come across as egotistical or anything, but it’s quite versatile, because there’s just been heaps of different music in my life, ever since I was young. And sometimes it’s a curse! I’ll find myself hitting my head against the wall over a record, going, “Why can’t I make this work!?” And then I’ll just have to take a step back and go, “Okay, I’m being too broad, I need to focus in on this particular thing and really make that come out in the music.”

If there’s one thing that stands out about your catalogue, it’s how you build up these really spacious, sprawling soundscapes where there can be four or five instruments all taking up equal space, but never overcrowding the mix. How do you about creating that feeling of roominess in your recordings?
Well firstly, thank you, because that’s something I do really try to achieve. I hate things getting too busy, but I also love having lots of layers in a song. It’s a fine line to walk, and you can very easily tip it over the edge. As a producer, I love exploring all the ideas. I’m always like, “You’ve got an idea? Cool, let’s take that in every direction we can!” Because that could be the thing that really makes a song. And so you end up with a session that’s full of ideas, and then it’s about going, “Okay, which of these ideas are driving the narrative? What’s supporting the story, and what’s the best way to communicate that story?” 

The question we always come back to is, “What’s the song’s best life?” And there are more questions within that. What supports the song the most? Is it the vocal, or is it not the vocal? Is it the guitar that’s doing all the work here? Maybe it’s a string part – do we need to get some more strings in to make it this really epic Hollywood thing? What are we trying to achieve with all these parts? What does the song need? For me, the process is to find those key things, and then mix around them. 

Lilac Cove is a good example – that track [“Through The Walls”] has heaps and heaps of layers, and especially towards the end of the track, there’s heaps of automation going on to kind of move things out of the way and then bring them up. But when you listen to it, it doesn’t sound like all those things are moving, it’s just that your attention shifts slightly. It’s kind of like the camera moving around on a set – when it pans out, you get a broader image, and then it will narrow in on something. I’m a very visual person like that, so I think having that perspective in an audio sense is very important. Microphones are cameras, and they’re capturing the scene that the song is trying to portray.

Do you have any secret weapons in the studio?
I’m a big analogue nerd – which can be, like, dangerously expensive [laughs]. I work between two studios – if I’m in SA I’ll be working out of Mixmasters, and if I’m in Sydney I’ll be working out of 301. They’re kind of like my two homes, and I’m very lucky because they’re both very well-equipped. But secret weapons… Anything that breaks up and gets distorted or saturated, or saturates things. I’m a big fan of doing weird things with tape, like running drums through a cassette or recording guitars with a tape deck at 15 ips and getting things all smushed up. 

Anything that’s saturating something or taming transience, or, giving some colour to a mix – that’s my entire vibe right there. I’m a big fan of distortion and all that kind of stuff, too. A lot of my catalogue is pretty pop, indie and folk-heavy, which is funny because you don’t really think about distortion on pop songs – but y’know, I don’t think I’ve ever put a bass down without distorting the heck out of it. Snares, kicks, vocals… With a lot of vocals that I put down, to get them to sit in front of the mix I’ll saturate them and push them forward and do all that kind of stuff. I like to freak things out a bit and really push a piece of gear to its limits, if I can.

"I came well prepared for my off-Broadway debut,” grins Tom Morello, when asked if there were any pre-show nerves before his three nights at the Minetta Lane Theatre last September. 

Part spoken-word and part music, the shows offered a remarkable insight into his journey as one of the most important guitarists to emerge in the '90s, delving deep into the noises and activism he’s been associated with over the last three decades. 

Released August 31, Tom Morello at Minetta Lane Theatre: Speaking Truth To Power Through Stories And Song will be undoubtedly prove popular among fans of the Rage Against The Machine guitarist - who, let’s not forget, has also been productive in other projects including Audioslave, Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band, The Nightwatchman and more...

“The show documented in the Audible release is a combination of shredding guitar and a lifetime of anecdotal stories,” continues Tom. “It’s about how I got shredding on guitar and why I bothered to begin with.

"Speaking to an audience and telling tales is something I’ve been doing around campfires for decades now, so there was some familiarity in that regard. And then when it came to plugging in and ripping some solos, that was something I was pretty comfortable with, too...

“It weaves a lifetime of music in there, reliving experiences from when [Tool guitarist] Adam Jones and I were in a high school band together - to the acoustic song Garden Of Gethsemane that I wrote for Chris Cornell, to the thundering EDM-flavored rock of The Atlas Underground. The show follows a path in music and activism... the patchwork quilt of what has been my career.”

There’s some really insightful guitar wisdom in there - some of our favorite quotes including “make a mistake, repeat it 16 times, make it the cornerstone of the song” and you explaining how every inch of the guitar became fair game for creating sound and texture...

“Over the course of the last few years, whether it was from doing the MasterClass or the photo-pictorial book coming out soon or my first signature Soul Power guitar with Fender, I’ve been exploring ways to be present and create new music while also sharing some of the wit and wisdom from the years. 

"Having spent a lot of time with friends in bands and managers in the music industry, people have always said ‘Tom Morello can sure spin a yarn!’ A big part of my solo show is speaking to an audience and connecting in a way that goes beyond just playing music. 

"There’s a human connection from the tragedy, triumph and comedic terror that comes with a lifetime of rock ’n’ roll. It felt like a great way to connect with fans during this time.”

One sneaky fan managed to film some of it and stick it on YouTube - from what we’ve seen you brought your Arm The Homeless electric guitar, your favored Marshall amp and cab and a nylon string for the performance element...

“Yeah, very sneaky! On my four Nightwatchman records of folky Americana, I’ve always used nylon-strings. That one goes back to my apartment in the early '90s, when I couldn’t annoy the neighbors any more after writing those RATM riffs on a cranked Marshall. 

"I’ve gotten very accustomed to riff writing on acoustic. And then when I began the coffee house circuit so to speak, in my later-life career as a singer-songwriter, that was always the guitar I felt most comfortable with. I think it’s an Ibanez something or other. It gives a slightly different take on the Woody Guthrie style of folk strumming.” 

And while we’re on the subject of gear, a lot of people were surprised to hear you had used a Les Paul for overdubs on Killing In The Name, Freedom, Township Rebellion and more...

“Yeah, I think I put that on my Instagram. During the first three months or so of this lockdown, it felt like the driest creative period of my adult life. From the time I was 17 to the beginning of the COVID lockdown, I’ve had a creative motor in me that would not stop. 

"And then I came to a dead stop at the beginning of this [pandemic], I’m not sure why. About three months in, I began playing a lot and recording remotely with friends again - I put out that song Stand Up with Dan Reynolds from Imagine Dragons, Shea Diamond and The Bloody Beetroots. 

"I put out an acoustic song, You Belong To Me. I’ve been working pretty tirelessly on a new body of work to maintain my sanity and maintain my connection with an audience during these troubled times.”

Back to that Les Paul, though, we love the fact you bought it from West LA Music in 1992 because it was the same color as Taco Bell hot sauce...

“Yeah it was [laughs]! That was a staple of the diet at the time. I have a few guitars but I’m not a guitar collector with a capital C. If a guitar speaks to me, then I’ll keep it and that Les Paul did... so featured in a lot of major jams over the years. 

"I haven’t changed anything on it. I don’t really do that sort of thing. It is what it is, and wasn’t particularly expensive, so let’s just go with the sound it already has. I look at the guitar as not so much a tool as it is a collaborator. 

"It brings its own personal chemistry into that creative relationship, whether it’s a $40 pawn shop guitar or something you chose because it was the color of hot sauce, you plug it in and see how it sounds. You let that be the North Star that guides your creativity on that particular day.”

On the Audible recording, you don’t waste much time before introducing some pretty ambitious Whammy screams. The late, great Dimebag Darrell once described the sound to us as stepping on a cat...

“That’s exactly what it is… when done correctly [laughs]! It takes intense years of practice to get the right kind of cat, though. I was looking for some kind of alley/tabby mix right there and that’s what you get. It’s all in the nuance of how the cat screams! I only use one version of the Whammy – the original is the only one in my arsenal, so I don’t know about the other models.”

Well, you’ve been very loyal to your main rig over the years. But is there anything new you’ve tried and been impressed by?

“The market is not something I follow closely, but I’m actually stood in my studio right now, looking at stuff that I have been fiddling with on newer recordings. One is the little Electro-Harmonix POG [octaver] pedal, the tiny one [most likely Nano or Micro – Ed]. It tracks pretty great for when you are riff-writing on the sixth string - you kick it in and suddenly it sounds like you have three or four distorted basses playing at the same time as you. 

"There’s also this thing called a Data Corrupter [made by EarthQuaker Devices], which is in some ways this errant Morellian solo gone off the rails kind of thing. You just step on it. I have no idea how to use it – I just twist all the buttons around randomly and all hell breaks loose. All you have to do is just hope that you are recording!”

You once told us you spent eight hours a day as a teenager trying to play like Randy Rhoads on Mr. Crowley. You’ve guested with him live before but it must have been pretty mind-blowing to guest on two tracks on his new album – namely Scary Little Green Men and It’s A Raid?

“I’ve had the good fortune of sharing the stage with Ozzy a few times. I actually got to play Mr. Crowley with him, which was incredible. Of course, it was an honor to rock with The Prince Of Darkness again. 

"As for what I contributed on those songs, I went down there and they had some tracks going. I’m trying to remember the order of it all because it was recorded some time ago. I really loved the sound that was coming out of the speakers and the fellow who was producing the record was a young guy [Andrew Watt] but a genuine Ozzy and Black Sabbath fan. He was steering the whole project to the things us Ozzy and Sabbath fans love, and I was happy to participate in that.”

You’re a very schooled player - having spoken of your admiration for Allan Holdsworth and Al Di Meola in the past. Are there any new techniques or exercises you've been working on over lockdown?

“Rest in peace, Allan Holdsworth! There are two new things I’ve been working on to expand my creative life during lockdown. One is recording... I have a studio at my home but I am not an engineer. 

"I have a 96 year-old mom who lives on the premises, so we’re super-locked down here. Nobody comes in and nobody comes out. Usually the only knob they let me touch in the studio is the volume knob. So I’ve been recording all my new guitar parts on my iPhone. I just hold it up to the amp. It makes me think I’ve wasted money on mics, because it sounds pretty fucking good...”

And what’s the other? 

“I’ve also been playing a lot with my nine year-old, who is an aspiring guitarist who loves Led Zeppelin. So I’ve been really learning those songs to teach them to him. I know the riffs and I’ve jammed a few of them in different bands, but I’ve really been immersing myself in the subtleties of Jimmy Page’s playing. It’s been very eye-opening and has made me want to incorporate some of that into my own playing. 

"We’ve been learning a lot of the voicings and stuff from The Song Remains The Same record where he’s covering multiple guitar parts while weaving his way through the songs. I found it really interesting. 

"E Street Band notwithstanding, I’ve always been the only guitar player in a band. So it’s been good to see how he breaks down these often-complicated interlocking parts and makes a powerful and compelling single guitar performance out of them. We’ve been doing that a lot. The live versions of Stairway and Whole Lotta love on that are masterclasses for that style.”

There’s such a wealth of young talent out there - it must have been really exciting to see Nandi Bushell’s cover of Cochise with the Soul Power signature you sent her...

“That’s true. I think there’s a very different emphasis on guitar playing nowadays compared to when I was coming up. A lot of young people’s first inclination is to be a producer before a musician - you can make [The Beatles'] The White Album on your phone now. 

"Those who play guitar look at it as part of their compositional arsenal, as opposed to the eight hours a day shredding. But then there are those, like Nandi and others, who recognize the purity and authenticity of holding a guitar in your hands, stepping on the distortion pedal and just rocking the fuck out. There’s nothing like it in the world. 

"I’ve been keeping that banner alive but thank goodness for these younger players. That’s one of the reasons why I did the Audible thing or MasterClasses or released the Soul Power guitar...”

Well, it’s hard to imagine what your life would have been like if you hadn’t picked up the guitar...

“Exactly. The guitar really matters to me. It’s such an important instrument on the face of the planet but to me personally [as well]. While guitar music may not be choking the top of the charts as it once did, it is no less great or important than it’s ever been.

"Like you said, Nandi already has been putting that guitar to use. Her cover of Cochise blew my mind! One of the stories I relate in the Audible thing is the whole battle of the bands thing where we might not have been the best musicians on stage, but we were inhabited by the holy spirit of rock ’n’ roll. 

"When I left off the rise and the roof came off, I could feel the power of rock coursing and channelling through me. It was my revelatory moment, when I knew this is what I wanted to do. It’s certainly the same with Nandi. It’s not like she just plays the songs well... it’s more than that. The holy spirit is still there in people of all ages!”

Tom Morello at Minetta Lane Theatre: Speaking Truth to Power Through Stories and Song is available now on Audible.

If playing the guitar has taught us anything, it’s that we all make mistakes - and that being open about them and learning from them is the key to our progress. 

Back in March, we ran a piece about the tonal secrets of The Smiths How Soon Is Now? - and were pleased when the track’s esteemed producer John Porter got in touch to point out some of our errors!

That main rhythm guitar? It was recorded with a combination of a Jazz Chorus and DI (then fed to the famed three/four Twins), via a Drawmer noise gate, while Porter maintains - in contrast to his good friend Johnny Marr’s assertion - that he played the slide part, using his ’54 Tele in open-A tuning, a tweed Fender Deluxe and an outboard UA1176 compressor, along with some harmonizers to get that beguiling train horn sound.

Keen to pick his brain, we asked Porter if he’d like to share some more of his experience in recording and arranging the indie classic. Read on for his detailed account of The Smiths’ most famous studio session, those tones and his thoughts about the song’s legacy.

How did How Soon Is Now first come about?

“We were in JAM Studios [recording William, It Was Really Nothing and Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want]. By that time, we had a good process. Johnny and I had a musical connection, a good short-hand. It didn't take us long to get things into shape. 

"We still had another day or two, so I said, 'Well what else you got?’ He played this little lick that was very similar to William, high and kind of fast. Now I had a bit of a bee in my bonnet about this, in that all of their songs tended to have lots of chord changes, whereas I was into black music, James Brown and The Meters and funk bands and the blues, where you'd stay on one chord for hours. 

"So I said, 'OK, let's just have a jam, but stay on one chord.' In those days they used to tune to F#, so they were doing this and it was nice just to hear him playing one chord."

Is that what became the main intro part?

“Yes, but at this stage, there was no 'song'. It  was just trying to do something that was a bit different. So I said to Johnny, 'That first lick you were playing, let's take that two octaves down and make it into a B-section. Stay on this one chord for ages, until you get bored of it, and then go into that.' 

"So that became the B-section and that is essentially the song. Once we had that, they recorded the sections twice, by which point I thought, 'OK we've got something here.' 

“It was all on two-inch tape and Mark Wallis was the engineer - a great engineer - so I then took the master tape and I went through the two takes and I took out all the bits that weren't any good and edited all the bits that were into one thing and that was the basis of the song. 

"That point was where the tremolo got introduced. It was like, 'This is kind of cool, but we can make the guitar sound better.' Johnny says different, but I think the initial guitar was into a DI, because I always took a DI when I recorded because it gives you so much more leeway afterwards, and I think we also always used the Roland Jazz Chorus.”

Why did you use the Jazz Chorus as a go-to amp?

“If you needed constant rhythm, just strumming, the Jazz Chorus used to give you this sort of harmonic sound. If you turned it up loud, you could hear things being suggested. We would sort of hear what was suggested by the guitar and say like, 'You hear those two notes coming up?' Let's bring those out and play those on top.'

"So I think the initial guitar was a Jazz Chorus, just doing a stereo Roland Jazz Chorus-thing and a DI. Then I put the Jazz Chorus through this noise gate on the drum and triggered it with a cowbell and that gave us the basis of the tremolo. At some point, we put the DI out through the [Fender] Twins. 

"I remember there were three Twins, but Johnny says there were four. One was a blackface, but I also have a vision of a blonde Twin. I don't know why there would be so many Twins unless they were Johnny’s. 

"We would hire stuff now and again, but I don't know why we would have hired three or four, but I may have done. My good pal Alan Rogan [best known as Pete Townshend's guitar tech] had lots of great amps and I used to get stuff from Alan and bring it down.”

So how did you use the DI signal you sent to the Twins?

"We went out into the studio and I asked Mark to play the track and we would try and chase it with the speed knobs. He had to give us plenty of the Linn drum cowbell in the headphones and we'd try and chase this thing. 

"Johnny was doing one and I was doing the other. We would do that until it dropped out and Mark would keep punching us in then stop and saying, 'No, it's gone out.' Then punch in again and we did that until we got a couple of passes and had this sound. 

"At some point, I said, 'Let's shore-up the B-section.' I was always into Leslies, so there's a Leslie guitar on slow, playing that. Then this thing had a bit more of a life of its own. All of this stuff was done without any vocals at all. ”

How did the famous slide part come about?

“The song was all on the I but it had these ‘III IV’ chord changes every eight bars or so. Morrissey would never allow backing vocals on Smiths records - I think only one time, maybe, with Kirsty [Maccoll on Ask] - and I thought it was missing out this huge area. 

"I started thinking, well, if The Beatles had done this, they would have done some 'oohs' and 'aahs' or something at that point in the song, so I would get Johnny to do a guitar part that would be the equivalent of having a backing vocalist. 

“I think I did the slide at that time [Marr has said he thinks he played it], on those III IV chords using a ’54 Tele and an MXR Dyna Comp. I was thinking of The Beatles doing an 'aah'. I think there were two passes because there were two notes and one of them was minor third and one was a major third, so unless you're a monster guitar player, you've got to slide at a huge angle, to change the interval between the two notes.

"I also always had harmonizers going, one up and one down, and so I harmonized on the root note add9 and on the third note, above it, and I think I harmonized something underneath. It was weird, but it sort of worked and then we bounced it all together.”

There are a lot of other textures and minor guitar licks dotted through the track, too. What led to those?

"I got Johnny to jam all the way through the track. I said, 'Play something, all the way through. Play a solo' because that wasn't Johnny's thing. So he played and I went through and erased it until there was a bit that I liked and I wound up with these three little half-a-bar licks that were really interesting. 

"I took one of them and put it in the AMS [DMX 15-80] - I was a big fan of AMS samplers and the Digital Delay, which you could sample with, so I put this little lick in the AMS and then got Mark to play the track back and I just pressed the button at various points and this little lick came out.

"The other thing we always did was harmonics: we'd find a lick on the harmonics and generally retune the guitar to get the harmonics at [the 12th fret] or wherever and put that down and, possibly, then recorded backwards echo on the harmonics. Then, I think, we all went home! [laughs]” 

“Morrissey came in the next day. He had this book of lyrics. We'd put a track up and he'd open it and just start singing… he hadn't written it for the tune or anything, he would just try stuff. 

"Quite often, his phrasing was so unconventional anyway that it didn't really make a difference. He found some words that seemed to work and sang it and I think we only did it one time and then he said, 'OK?' at the end and then went off.”

What happened next? 

"This was Sunday night, so Mark and I did a mix. It was all on this Harrison desk. It wasn't computerized so Mark and I were all-hands on. Somewhere around halfway, I said, let's have a breakdown, so Mark and I pulled all the drums and the bass down quickly, so it was just the guitar going 'dang-danga-dang', like a re-intro. 

"So that was all done on the mix. Then I had all these AMS delays. I was getting a sound on the delay on the guitar and then get a piece of tape to stop the fader going too far, having found the maximum level for it, so I could then flick the fader up to the tape and then pull it back down again. 

"I was doing this thing, like 'a shave and a haircut, two bits', the New Orleans [call and response couplet] thing. I was doing that with these four faders, which were just delays, so that was all added to the nonsense and we did the mix.” 

What was your reaction to the first mix?

“I thought, 'This sounds fucking great. This is a breakthrough for The Smiths.’ It must have still been relatively early on the Sunday evening, because I remember I called Geoff Travis up and said, 'You should come down to the studio, we've got something really exciting.' 

"I was really buzzed by this, I think Johnny was, too, and Geoff came down with Scott Piering from Rough Trade. I said to Geoff, 'What do you think?' and he looked at me like, 'What's this?' I was kind of enthusiastic and he took the wind out of my sails, completely. Scott, on the other hand, was saying, 'Yeah! This is fucking great, man!' It was this weird thing, where Johnny and I were really jazzed. 

"Scott was American, and I, as I said, wanted something that could cross over in America, and he was going, 'Yeah!' But Geoff was giving me this stony look. [Travis maintains he often tried to be impartial in the face of the studio adrenaline]

"The next day, I got a call from Geoff, saying, 'Look, I'll put that track out as a B-side. But Morrissey doesn't like the 'OK' at the end… you'll have to take it out,' which in those days meant I had to completely remix it. It wasn't on recall, it wasn't a computer mix, so I said, 'OK…’”

So where and how did you do the second and final mix?

“I booked in at Eden [Studios] and because it was a computerized desk, an SSL, some of the things that Mark and I had done, I could refine much more. It didn't have to be all in one pass and the breakdown was much easier to do with a computerized desk, because you could mute the drums and the bass with a click, rather than having to whip it all down as quick as you could. 

"So I did the mix again. I was quite at home with an SSL - you could plug it all in to be triggered by the dynamics, so lots of stuff was being triggered by the drum. Every time you would hear this particular drum, it would open a gate and send to an echo, which would then go off to a delay. I was setting these incredibly complex chains of stutter at a level that as soon as you could just hear it, that was as loud as I would make it. 

"I did the mix and sent it off and, within a week or something, it came out. I thought they were crazy putting this out as a B-side, or I think it was as an extra track or something [as a bonus track on the 12" version of William, It Was Really Nothing]. 

"I thought they'd wasted it and I was a bit pissed off at Geoff. So it came out as a B-side at one point and then I got the word that they were in the studio with somebody else."

Did Geoff or the band ever explain why you were fired, or rather, not rehired?

“He did. He said he thought I was having too much influence on the band and that I was changing their sound too much, which in one sense, to me, was an affirmation that I actually did have something to do with it[s success]! They did get me back in later for a couple of singles. Johnny and I remained close friends. He was like my younger brother, I felt, we were really good pals, so Johnny and I would hang out and he used to tell me what was going on. 

"I think he probably called me and said they were going in the studio with somebody else. I think Morrissey didn't like the fact that Johnny and I were so pally. If we were in the studio for two days, then most of that time would just be Johnny and me. 

"Once Mike and Andy had done their thing they would go and Morrissey only came to sing. So I was pretty deflated. I thought they'd wasted it. Subsequently it came out again and then it came out again as a single and gradually over the years it became a stand-out thing, you know? But it still sounds good to me. I'm quite surprised at how good it does sound - that guitar sound.”

Got a question for your favorite guitarist? Let us be your go-between. The concept is easy — you submit your queries and we pass them on to some of the world's greatest guitarists. Only the sharpest and funniest questions will be used.

This month, we're giving you the chance to ask audio engineer, songwriter, musician, and producer Alan Parsons anything you want! Talk about his gear, the Alan Parsons Project, what it was like to work with the Beatles and Pink Floyd, his favorite track on Wings' Wild Life album and — of course — his upcoming album, The Secret!

Just email your questions to GWSoundingBoard@futurenet.com and write "Alan Parsons" in the subject line. Remember to include your name in the body of the email, so you can get credited in the magazine and impress your amigos!

Geoff Emerick, the audio engineer who worked with The Beatles on several of their most seminal albums, died yesterday, October 2, at the age of 72, after suffering a heart attack. 

Beginning with his work—as a 16-year-old assistant engineer—on their 1962 single, "Love Me Do," Emerick's relationship with the Fab Four continued for nearly the whole duration of their storied career, through "Hard Day's Night," Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and up until their final sessions as a group, which produced Abbey Road.

Emerick's willingness to break EMI's longstanding studio rules regarding matters such as microphone placement, and his penchant for using unorthodox recording techniques, played a huge role in making The Beatles' increasingly complex creative vision into reality. It was Emerick who captured John Lennon's vocals through a rotating Leslie speaker on "Tomorrow Never Knows," and spliced together two different takes of "Strawberry Fields Forever." 

Though Emerick walked out on the band during the tense White Album sessions in 1968, he was persuaded to return by Lennon and McCartney the following year, first for the "The Ballad of John and Yoko" single, then for the Abbey Road sessions.

Emerick was on hand to capture "The End," fittingly, the final track the four Beatles ever recorded together. The legendary engineer discussed the experience of recording the song's legendary sequenced guitar solos with Guitar World back in 2009. 

“Paul went first, then George, then John, and they repeated the sequence in that way twice,” Emerick explained. “They knew they had to finish up with something big, and the solo was just the thing. Originally they couldn’t decide if John or George would play it. Eventually they said, ‘Well let’s have the three of us do it.’

“Hearing that performance was unbelievable. And it was all done live, in one take. They rehearsed it beforehand, and the execution of it was absolutely on the money. And when it came time to record it, Yoko, who was in the control room, started to follow John into the studio, and he said ‘No, love, not this time.’ He wanted it to be just him and his mates.

“When they were finished, everyone beamed. I think in their minds they went back to their youth and all those great memories of working together as a band. Suddenly there was just this great vibe in the studio. It was just superb.” 

Electricity can do strange things.

When it was added to the guitar, some years ago, it opened up new possibilities for players of the old box o’ six strings.

The following sonic scientists, using varying proportions of technique and effects, set out to discover just what these possibilities were.

The result? Guitars that don’t sound like guitars!

10. Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago”

This is a rare occasion—Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck playing guitar together in the Yardbirds. Before the solo kicks in, the two guitar heroes, in tandem, unleash 15 seconds of controlled feedback that sounds like an air-raid siren. Think context: this was the 1960s, before everyone started using signal processing.

09. Johnny Marr “How Soon is Now?”

What is that pulsing sound in the Smiths' coolest song? Marr cranking the tremolo setting on his Fender Twin to make his one-chord riff sound like an automated machine. Actually, the effect was studio enhanced: he re-recorded the part with five twins.

08. Eddie Van Halen, “Eruption”

Again, it’s the context, man. In 1978, Eddie’s fingerboard tapping and whammy-bar divebombs were like the shape of video-game soundtracks for years to come. Then, of course, every guitarist in L.A. jumped on the bandwagon, and before long things got much more sophisticated than Space Invaders.

07. Paul Gilbert, “Solo” from Live Extreme, Vol. 1

Some players use effects as tools. Paul Gilbert uses tools as effects. One pick wasn’t enough to get the tremelo-picking sound he wanted. The solution? A cordless drill, on whose bit were mounted three picks. This produces overtones that make it sound as if he’s playing in unison with himself, if that makes sense.

06. Tom Morello, “Revolver”

The intro sounds like R2D2 on a bad trip, while the start of the solo calls to mind a factory treadmill. It just goes to show that if you give a man a DigiTech Whammy pedal, an Ibanez Talman with a sturdy toggle switch and few Allen wrenches, he can make all the same noises as a turntablist—and then some.

05. Buckethead, “Dead Man Walking”

From Praxis Transmutation, this is the next level of video-game soundtracks played by electric guitar. The masked man’s hyper-frenetic tapping here out-blips a computer in heat.

04. Jimi Hendrix, “The Star Spangled Banner”

Jimi performed this at the height of the Vietnam War, and his revolutionary use of feedback and tremolo bar was the perfect musical correlative to “bombs bursting in air.” When you first listened to this, did your mom come into the room and ask if the stereo was broken?

03. Steve Vai, “Next Stop Earth”

From his solo-debut, Flex-Able, this gem finds Vai imitating the inflections of a human voice via finger slides, micro-bends and a wah pedal. Can you tell he used to play with Zappa?

02. Fred Frith, “Should Old Arthur”

On his 1974 album, Guitar Solos, this former member of obscure prog-rockers Henry Cow pioneered the concept of “preparing” guitars: tuning them to unorthodox pitches, attaching alligator clips to the strings, and playing them by any means other than picking. This particular track sounds like a drunken ghost talking.

01. Adrian Belew, “Elephant Talk”

When Belew joined Robert Fripp’s reformed King Crimson for 1981’s Discipline, he stunned guitarists by harnessing the effects in his rack to sound like a herd of animals. In this case, an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff running into a Deluxe Electric Mistress flanger helps transform a guitar into a roaring elephant.

Sir George Martin, the producer whose groundbreaking work with the Beatles helped change popular music forever, died Tuesday in England (March 8). He was 90.

Martin died "peacefully at home" according to Adam Sharp, founder of C A Management, which represented Martin.

The news was announced Tuesday night on Twitter by former Beatle Ringo Starr, who wrote, "God bless George Martin. Peace and love to Judy and his family, love Ringo and Barbara. George will be missed." In his next tweet, Starr added, "Thank you for all your love and kindness."

Although Martin worked with countless other artists during his long career—from America to Cheap Trick to Jeff Beck—his legacy truly rests on the seven years he worked with the Beatles.

"If anyone earned the title of the fifth Beatle, it was George," said Paul McCartney in a statement. "From the day he gave the Beatles our first recording contract, to the last time I saw him, he was the most generous, intelligent and musical person I've ever had the pleasure to know."

"[He] was like a second father to me," McCartney added.

In the past, McCartney lovingly called Martin "an old shoe."

"I like 'em, you just put 'em on and there's no problem," McCartney said.

"George Martin made us what we were in the studio," John Lennon said in 1971. "He helped us develop a language to talk to other musicians."

At the suggestion of Beatles manager Brian Epstein, and despite not having met them or seen them perform live, Martin signed the Beatles to EMI Records in 1962. He and the band quickly entered the studio and got to work. Up first was the band's early version of “How Do You Do It” (which became a hit for Gerry and the Pacemakers), “Love Me Do” and “Please Please Me.”

In live performance, Lennon would handle "Love Me Do'"s payoff line, “Love me do,” switching to his harmonica in midsentence to play the tune’s signature melodic refrain. This was fine onstage, but it wouldn’t fly in the studio.

“‘You’re going to have a song called ‘Love Me waahh,’ ” McCartney recalled Martin saying. The harmonica could have been dubbed onto the track afterward, but Martin saw no need to take this laborious and time-consuming step for an unproven pop group. Instead, he had McCartney sing the vocal line while Lennon wailed away on his harmonica. “I can still hear the shake in my voice when I listen to that record,” McCartney said. “I was terrified.”

Released on October 5, 1962, “Love Me Do”/“P.S. I Love You” failed to generate much interest outside of the Beatles’ hometown of Liverpool. But greater success came with the follow-up single, “Please Please Me”/“Ask Me Why,” which on February 22, 1963, reached the top spot on singles charts compiled by Melody Maker and New Musical Express. With a hit group suddenly on his hands, Martin worked quickly to get an album in the shops.

“It was obvious, commercially, that once ‘Please Please Me’—the single—had been a success, we should release an LP as soon as possible,” Martin said. “I asked them what they had which we could record quickly, and the answer was their stage act.”

Martin remained a guiding force for the Beatles throughout their entire existence. He produced all but one of their albums (excluding Let It Be) and wrote several of the band's orchestral arrangements and instrumental parts. He even recommended that a string quartet be used on McCartney's “Yesterday.” He played piccolo trumpet on “Penny Lane,” conducted the strings on “Eleanor Rigby” and wrote brass, violins, cellos and vocal arrangements for “I Am the Walrus."

Martin also produced two landmark albums by Jeff Beck—Blow by Blow (1975) and Wired (1976)—not to mention UFO's No Place to Run (1980) and scores of other albums.

Martin and McCartney worked together several times after the Beatles' 1970 breakup; he produced McCartney's hit 1973 single "Live and Let Die" (and composed its musical score) and his popular 1982 album Tug of War, which included "Ebony and Ivory." Below, check out a video that shows Martin and McCartney working together—and reliving old times—during the making of Tug of War.

Martin was born January 3, 1926, in London. He began playing piano when he was very young, and he joined the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy in 1943. After WWII, Martin worked in the BBC's Classical Music Department and eventually switched to EMI, where he produced records for British comedians including Peter Sellers and Dudley Moore. Then came the Beatles ...

Hello, gang!

Today I have a video blog for you.

Since this is the "Session Guitar" column, I thought you might be interested in seeing and hearing some of the thought process involved in a song production breakdown!

What you will be watching is a screen shot of the session files for a song called "Getting Out of My Own Way." You'll see each individual track played or programmed in creating a successful production. The song was recorded in 2012. The singer/songwriter is Jennifer Vazquez, a very talented vocalist and writer from Da Bronx, NY.

The song ultimately found its way into the movie Sleeping with the Fishes on HBO and won several awards along the way. The movie was written and directed by Nicole Gomez Fisher and stars Gina Rodriguez from Jane the Virgin.

Lesson here: You never know where your work will be heard, so always do the best you can!

I played, recorded, arranged and mixed the song entirely "in the box" using Nuendo and several choice plugins, especially the Universal Audio Powered Plugs.

Here's the production video:

There's also a second video of the actual song and video. This is where you want to go to hear the actual final mix. Check it out below:

Thanks again and enjoy the vids!

Ron Zabrocki is a session guitarist from New York, now living in Connecticut. Says Ron: "I started playing at age 6, sight reading right off the bat. That’s how I was taught, so I just thought everyone started that way. I could sight read anything within a few years, and that helped me become a session guy later in life. I took lessons from anyone I could find and had some wonderful instructors, including John Scofield, Joe Pass and Alan DeMausse. I’ve played several jingle sessions (and have written a few along the way). I’ve “ghosted” for a few people who shall remain nameless, but they get the credit and I get the money! I’ve played sessions in every style, from pop to jazz.

Brendon Small, creator and primary musician behind Adult Swim's Metalocalypse, and producer Ulrich Wild (Pantera, White Zombie, Slipknot, Deftones) are hosting a two-day CreativeLive course today and tomorrow, November 5 and 6.

You can watch all of “Toontrack Presents: Studio Pass” noon to 7 p.m. EST (both days) via the video player below.

Small and Wild will show how they engineer and mix the music of Metalocalypse, explaining the recording techniques used for the drums, bass, guitars, vocals and effects of the fictional show’s real-life band, Dethklok.

“Toontrack Presents: Studio Pass” will live stream for free; enroll at http://cr8.lv/uwbsstudiopass (or just watch below!)

Wild is a Grammy-nominated producer, mixer, engineer and songwriter specializing in rock and metal. Born and raised in Switzerland, he immigrated to the U.S., where he now lives as a naturalized citizen in Los Angeles. Wild worked with Pantera, White Zombie, Deftones, Staind, Static-X, Powerman 5000, Breaking Benjamin and Strung Out.

Over the past few years, Wild’s productions have included widely diverse acts from Dethklok and Otep to Stolen Babies and Emilie Autumn.

Small is best known as the co-creator of the 1999 animated series “Home Movies” (along with Loren Bouchard) and Metalocalypse (along with Tommy Blacha) and as the creator of the virtual death metal band Dethklok.

Stay tuned to CreativeLive’s ‘Music & Audio’ channel right here.

Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream

The Allman Brothers Band At Fillmore East has been considered rock’s best live album since its 1971 release.

Recorded March 12 and 13, 1971, at the New York club, the album captured the original Allman Brothers Band at the peak of their powers, playing with verve, grace, intensity and seemingly telepathic communication.

Guitarists Dickey Betts and Duane Allman finished one another’s phrases, spun beautiful leads off each other’s riffs and prodded themselves to guitar heights that have rarely, if ever, been equaled.

Over the years, different versions have been issued, including the expanded The Fillmore Concerts, but the holy grail for Allmans fans has been hearing the many unreleased tracks from the shows, mostly stemming from Friday, March 12, as most of the album was culled from the final night.

A new deluxe set, The 1971 Fillmore East Recordings, delivers almost all of the music played by the Allman Brothers at the Fillmore East during these shows in great, remastered sound. The set consists of six CDs or three Blu-ray discs, which are mixed for Surround Sound and bring the band’s performance to a shimmering new life.

Duane Allman famously invited several guests, including soprano saxophonist Juicy Carter, harmonica player Thom Doucette and percussionist Bobby Caldwell (the drummer from the headlining Johnny Winter And), to sit in, much to the consternation of producer Tom Dowd. Dowd convinced the band to banish the horns for the second night and chose different versions of songs or edited out most of the guests’ contributions, which can now be heard — and mostly prove Dowd’s point.

The final performance captured on the collection came a few months later, on June 27, 1971, the closing show of the Fillmore East. It includes promoter Bill Graham’s entire, ecstatic introduction, which concluded with “We’re going to round it out with the best of them all, the Allman Brothers Band.”

We spoke with compilation producer Bill Levenson about the release.

GUITAR WORLD: This set has been talked about for so long. Do you think it came out the same way it would have if you had done it any time in the last 20 years?

The main difference in the last year or two was the Blu-ray and Surround Sound. I don’t think we would have done that in the Nineties when we were first talking about it. I think that’s what doing it in 2014 brought us — a Blu-ray set.

And I’m very excited about the Surround Sound. The goal was really to put the listener in the 10th row of the Fillmore, with everything in front of you and the reflections and the audience behind you. I grew up in New York and went into the Fillmore. It had a distinct sound, a fabulous sound, and you can feel the auditorium in any album recorded there. I was trying to recreate being in the Fillmore, and I do think we were able to capture the magic of what was in that hall.

”

Among other things, you finally brought us the sax stylings of Juicy Carter, which we’ve only been able to hear dabs of before. It’s really interesting but not hard to hear why Tom Dowd was upset about his sudden appearance during a recording.

Yes. What really made it work was just to find the place in the mix where it was forward but not too forward, dissonant but not too edgy. To be honest, there are moments where we buried him because he was went off in really dissonant tangents. It’s still there; you hear if you listen, but he’s been pulled back. During these times, he was playing two saxes at once — baritone and saxophone — and some of the playing gets really out there.

It was really the magic of the fader.

This set scratched a lot of our itches, but a big one that remains is the first show, Thursday, March 11, which Tom Dowd said he recorded and which apparently featured a full horn section.

Thursday night is the blind spot for all of us. I’ve picked through the vaults hundreds of times, and there’s not even a hint of it existing, not even a reference somewhere. The only time it’s even mentioned is in a Tom Dowd interview, and he’s no longer with us to ask. But I am certain that there’s no tape, not even a tape that’s taped over … I just used everything we had.

Alan Paul is the author of the best-selling book One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band. You can read an excerpt about the recording of At Fillmore Easthere.

When witnessing the fury of a Metallica show, it can be easy to forget just how many variables there are when it comes to making it all work out just right.

Few people know this better than Bob Cowan and Adam Correia, Metallica's live monitor engineers. Cowan oversees James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich; Correia oversees Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo.

The video below, which comes to us courtesy of sonicscoop.com, is a fascinating glimpse into what it takes to be a live engineer for one of the world's loudest (and most famous) bands.

For more information, head HERE.

And check out the video here:

Sterling Winfield got his start in the music industry as a studio apprentice and live sound engineer in Dallas.

Those experiences led to his tenure as a staff engineer at Dallas Sound Lab and eventually recording and touring as a bass and guitar tech with rock and metal bands, including Damageplan, Hellyeah and Pantera, with whom he worked as assistant engineer on the Grammy-nominated album Far Beyond Driven.

His resume covers a broad spectrum of artists, including hip-hop, R&B, country, blues, choral, jazz and orchestral. He engineered progressive rock band Vangough’s latest release, Between The Madness, continuing a working relationship that dates back to the group’s debut album, Manikin Parade.

In this interview, Winfield talks about recording Vangough and the state of today’s music industry. He also looks back fondly on his time with Pantera.

GUITAR WORLD: How did your relationship with Vangough begin, and what made you want to work with them?

I was introduced to them by a bass player from another band from Oklahoma City. He said he had this really cool band and “they might want to work with you.” I reached out to Clay [Withrow, Vangough founder/vocalist/guitarist], he came down and we talked a little bit. He had some tracks he wanted me to mix. He brought his hard drive to Dallas and we started going through it and mixing. The relationship started there, five or six years ago.

You came up in analog, learned the ropes in real studios and made records when labels still ran the show. Now, with this leveled playing field and bands making no money, how can they hire you? There are no advances and most bands can’t afford a producer or engineer. What does this do to your bottom line?

It goes a little sideways and backward and “Let’s try this and see if it works.” When I say that the Internet has leveled the playing field, we’re getting down to what people really want to hear and not what they’re being told they want to hear. They’re becoming the real judge and jury. There’s still the Billboard Top 200, the Grammys, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the people that say, “This person is great and you should listen to them.”

People are sheeple, and they’re going to continue to perpetuate what we call pop, or popular music. But the real music fans, the people that love a band because they love their songs and want to own their pieces of music, that’s where the real demographic is in my mind, and they’re showing it. If a band goes out there and says, “We want to record an album. Let’s do a Kickstarter thing and see how much money we generate,” with $2,000 or $3,000 on a Kickstarter, you can make a damn good album.

I make myself accessible and inexpensive for the local-level unsigned bands so that they can get their music out there, because I do this for the music. If I were doing this for the money, I would have been a lawyer or a record company executive and I would have retired at age 30. But I love music and I love being involved with it. If you find people with good music and good songs, people are going to want to buy them and the money is there.

The money is already built into their music. They ask for it and it shows up. I’ve seen bands that are dirt poor and have badass songs and I go, “Here’s what you need to do. Talk to people who might want to invest in your song or your next gig. There’s Kickstarter and a couple of other sites where you can do these things.” Six months later, they come back, they’ve found an investor, they’ve got a Kickstarter, they’ve got the money, I record them and we do an EP. Not a lot of people are doing full albums like they used to, we don’t sit in a studio for six months or a year, but the money is there and the fans are willing to fork it over just to hear their stuff done correctly. It’s pretty amazing.

You toured as a guitar and bass tech. How did that make you a better engineer?

I never even thought about that. If nothing else, it really helps you learn a lot about yourself. You learn how to live in harsher conditions than you would at home, sitting in a nice, air conditioned studio. It makes your people skills be on point at all times. You’ve got to be able to trust a lot of people and have them trust you. There’s a brotherhood on the road. I never intended to make a career out of it. The studio is what I was meant to do. I knew I would never give that up. The road teaches you to think on your feet very quickly. It made me a better engineer, for sure, and helped me forge a lot of lifelong friendships.

What made Pantera such a great band?

They had the ability to not only talk the talk, but they could walk the walk, and they could walk it all over your fucking face. They had raw power. That’s what they were all about, just unforgiving. Pantera were the forefathers. They could assault your senses and have you beg for more. They had this energy, and they not only delivered these cutting-edge albums, but each one broke the last one’s mold.

They would put it behind them, go on to the next one and do something heavier. Each one topped the last thing they did. They were big and bad-ass and wonderful and that’s why I loved them so much. I was a fan way before I met them. I grew up listening to all their independent stuff, and although it wasn’t what they evolved into, I knew there was something there. They had one of the bars that a lot of bands get held to and accused of having as their influences, even if they deny it. It’s one of those things that you either love or hate. They evoked that passion, that spirit.

That’s one of the things I’m most proud of. It surrounds me every day. Yeah, we had our bad times, but what a cool ride and what a great family, because they were my family on and off the road. They were a great bunch of dudes. I’ve got nothing bad to say about any of them.

Does working with a band of that caliber make you more demanding of other bands?

Sure, sure. I find myself being the jaded old man sometimes, and disappointed, but all of that comes from within me. I have to realize that if I’m having a problem with somebody, the problem is with me. I need to readjust my thinking and know that this isn’t Dime or this isn’t Vinnie. I’m dealing with someone with completely different values and feelings, and I have to readjust to that situation. There have been times when I’ve worked with bands and told them, “You’re not ready for me yet. Go woodshed for six months and call me back.”

I’ve shut things down before and told bands that “I don’t think this is working out. It isn’t for me. I don’t think it’s for you, either, and I’m going to save you all a bunch of time and money right now.” We part as friends. I don’t take their money and blow smoke up their ass. In my mind, and in the way I do things, that’s the way it should be done. Don’t waste their time. Don’t take their money if you don’t mean it. If I tried to measure every band I work with to Pantera’s level, I’d never work with anybody again. Very few people have impressed me on that level. I can count them on one hand.

Those little goosebump moments and studio magic moments don’t come around often. When they do, I try to make them last as long as they can, but they're transient and fleeting, and I have to remain humble and teachable because I’m learning something too during this process. I’m just along for the ride, and I need to be happy and grounded where I’m at. John McBride said in an interview, “Any day I can make a living in the music business is a good day,” and he’s right, especially in the climate that our business is in. To be able to do that is a huge blessing and I try not to forget that.

Some days I do. I find myself snapping at some kid because he’s wandered in drunk or didn’t practice or whatever the case may be, and we’re wasting hours trying to find another guitar for him to play, but these guys haven’t been where I’ve been, so I can’t lay those expectations on them. I’ve got to suss out each individual situation and try to make it work.

Read more of Sterling Winfield’s interview here.

— Alison Richter

Alison Richter interviews artists, producers, engineers and other music industry professionals for print and online publications. Read more of her interviews right here.

This Wednesday, October 30, Jimi Hendrix's longtime sound engineer, Eddie Kramer; Jimi's sister Janie Hendrix; and American Masters: Jimi Hendrix — Hear My Train A Comin' director Bob Smeaton and producer John McDermott will take part in a live Twitter Q&A.

The Q&A, which will take place 9 p.m. EST/6 p.m. PST, will be hosted by @PBSAmerMasters and @JimiHendrix, live from the Grammy Museum.

Fans can submit questions NOW in the comments section of the American Masters website HERE.

Follow the discussion on Twitter under #HendrixPBS.

A couple of months ago, I started a studio diary documenting the process of recording a new album with White Wizzard. I covered everything from pre-production to instrument tracking.

Now I will discuss the final stages of music production — mixing and mastering.

After tracking all the instruments and vocals, the next step is to mix everything into a single stereo track. Sometimes a band may hire a separate mixing engineer and attend the mixing sessions. However, with the advances in technology, it's become very common for bands to mix with an engineer via email, depending on their budget. The band will send the individual tracks, then the engineer will mix and email the band with "mix references."

The band and engineer will then email back and forth until they are happy with the mix. With White Wizzard, we tracked with our producer in another state and after tracking, returned home. He then mixed the songs and emailed us the mixes so we could suggest edits. This took about a month to complete.

The process of mixing is very complicated and an art in itself. On a basic level, every track will be treated with different amounts of equalization (EQ), compression, reverb and effects. Then the volume will be adjusted to balance with the other instruments. For those who own recording software, you will know a lot more about the process. The main goal is to create a mix of instruments that works well and enhances the song to its full potential.

When every track is mixed, the final stage of the audio production is the mastering. As with the mixing, this is a complicated process that requires a separate mastering engineer. With mastering, you take each mix and sequence them to the correct order in which they should appear on the album. Each track will receive additional precessing, such as EQ, and compression and all the track volumes will be adjusted to a uniform level.

With the final master, your album is ready to be produced into a sellable product. Our album will be available on CD and vinyl as well as MP3. It was a great experience to record my first album with the band, and I am very satisfied with the results. If you read my previous studio diary, you will know I tracked all my guitars at my home studio; I even provided a video demonstrating my setup.

Now, with the finished mixes, I wanted to show you how I take my recorded DI guitar signal then re-amp through a Marshall JCM 800 and how it sounds mixed into the actual song.

To finish, here is a full track from the album, which will be released June 25 in the US via Century Media/Earache Records. Soon I will make some lessons demonstrating how to play some of the solos from the album. Cheers!

Will Wallner is a guitarist from England who now lives in Los Angeles. He recently signed a solo deal with Polish record label Metal Mind Productions for the release of his debut album, which features influential musicians from hard rock and heavy metal. He also is the lead guitarist for White Wizzard (Earache Records) and toured Japan, the US and Canada in 2012. Follow Will on Facebook and Twitter.

Warren Huart’s passion for music developed at a very early age, when his father introduced him to jazz and classical music.

Upon discovering rock and roll, he naturally gravitated to orchestral sounds and complex compositions; the works of ELO and Queen were influential for him as a listener, then a musician, and eventually in his work as a producer and engineer.

Huart’s ascent to the recording A-list included work as an independent artist, a studio musician — he still plays on some of the projects he records — and ultimately production, engineering, mixing and songwriting. His roster is diverse, including the Fray, James Blunt, Howie Day, Ben’s Brother and Aerosmith.

In this interview, Huart takes a look at the changing roles of producers and engineers, and talks about recording independent artists, including his work with singer/songwriter Jennifer Hope on her new album, Velvet Fire.

GUITAR WORLD: When did you develop an interest in being on the other side of the glass?

The terms producer and engineer — at that age, you may not understand the details, but you get the hierarchy. There’s the artist’s vision and there’s the producer and the engineer: Queen, Roy Thomas Baker and Mike Stone. I learned more about it as I got older. Now I understand that the engineer’s job on those records was of paramount importance. They were often the unsung heroes. Roy Thomas Baker and Jack Douglas were musicians turned engineers turned producers, and that’s my story as well. So Jack’s opinion is important not just because he’s my boss, but also because I respect him because he knows what he’s talking about and he’s done the jobs. He has experience.

Today, technology allows people to say that they do something for a living before they have the experience. My job is interpreting what the artist wants to say. I take what on the surface may seem like a crazy idea and make something that a large majority of people can relate to. That is the skill, and unfortunately, technology crept so rapidly in the last ten years. There are tools with which to do things, but a lot of things sound arbitrary because everybody uses the same ways to get from A to B.

The job of the engineer is maligned because, “I can use a plug-in or software to have my drums in time.” Led Zeppelin had the greatest drummer in the world and he was not on a grid. He would swing and make a groove in a way that only he could do. Software now would make him so in time that I could play drums as an average drummer, time him and myself up and it would sound close, when in truth he had a groove that no other drummer had. That’s what made him who he was. That comes through experience. If you put software through a computer and your first production is timing drums perfectly, how will you learn time and feel? You won’t. Hence, they all sound the same In the 1970s and 1980s, you knew who was playing on records because drummers had a sound. Now it may as well be the same drummer on every record.

You work with new, established and independent artists. How do you select your talent?

I love working with independent artists. One of the really wonderful things that the Internet has done, more than anything else, is being able to get access to everyone. I get e-mails from independent artists all the time, and the technology is at such a level that if you are skilled enough, you can work at a significantly faster pace. I can track something, give it to the engineer, have him clean it up and I finish vocals on another song at my house.

Because things are quicker, it allows me time to work with independent artists. Their budgets are smaller, but I can work with that and I love it. A lot of the industry is very silver spoon and nepotism. When I grew up, there were five of us in a two-bedroom house and we had no money. My dad was an artist, a painter, so it was feast or famine, and anything I have, I got from working harder than my peers. I wasn’t gifted anything. So I identify with those independent artists because I was that artist.

My skill set is such that I can take what you do and make it compete with major artists. Because of the Internet, if you record great music and find fans via blogs and websites, you can build a fan base. You can find 200,000 people who like a genre of music, and if you get those fans, you can sell music and shirts and do online stuff. When I was a kid, if you were in a weird rock band, there was no way to get to fans of that music.

Seeing avenues open now for those artists makes it exciting. Then it’s taking them to the next step, and I want to do that. I produce, and I want to represent them in the world of film and television to make money and get them out there. I’ve seen predatory people come along, take these artists’ music, put it in catalogs and give them no money. I want to help these artists grow.

Your most recent independent project is Jennifer Hope’s new album, Velvet Fire. What made you want to work with Jennifer?

I’m a fan of her albums, she writes charts, and her arrangements are unbelievably complex. I had one keyboard player, a well-known session player, and it bewildered him and led me to change keyboard players! Jennifer submitted her music to me. I was working with a website and I got hundred of submissions. I listened to everything. I was doing the Aerosmith album, which we worked on for nine months over the course of a year. The first three months were spent in Boston at the studio that Jack had designed for them, and it was a great experience.

At night, I would go back to the two-bedroom apartment that Jack and I shared and listen to submissions from hundreds of artists. I’ve since been told by the website that I’m the only person who has done that. They don’t want to work with producers anymore because they all look at pictures and decide what money they could make, then send letters of rejection. On submission sites, producers listen to what is. They want to spin what’s there and take ownership of it.

My job is how I can be of service to this artist and move them to the next level, not take all the glory for the least amount of work. When people send me music, it’s because they chose me. If it’s not something I’d do, I still send them some encouraging words. I’d be up until 2 or 3 every morning, listening to submissions. There’s a lot of good music out there; 85 percent of it was good. The other 15 percent was either not good or potential great. Jennifer fell into potentially great.

Jennifer was closer along than some artists and I thought I could do so much more to make her music more accessible. I didn’t do major stuff. There were no rewrites. It was all about presenting it in a different way. I played most of the guitars, bass and keyboards on a few songs, programmed some stuff, and did the string arrangements.

For want of a better phrase, I wanted to make it more pop, meaning accessible, but keep the slightly darker, edgier sound so that she wouldn’t lose her fan base from Cleopatra Records. She definitely had a story to tell and I didn’t want to turn it into something completely different. If I use an external mixer, when they do a good job I find myself saying, “He made it more of what it is.” That is a good metaphor for an artist with a developed sound. We weren’t trying to reinvent the wheel with Jennifer. We just wanted to make the best version of what she could be and who she is.

Read more of Warren Huart’s interview here.

— Alison RichterAlison Richter interviews artists, producers, engineers and other music industry professionals for print and online publications. Read more of her interviews right here.

Three seasons ago, NBC launched its music competition program, The Voice.

At the helm each week to produce and mix every song that is sold on iTunes is Bill Appleberry, whose studio credentials include triple-platinum R&B group Shai, Stone Temple Pilots, Puddle of Mudd and rock band Adema, whom he also discovered and developed. Appleberry also is a highly respected keyboardist, engineer and arranger.

Born and raised in Chicago, he began with drum lessons as a child and naturally progressed to keyboards. He played in jazz bands during high school, and then enlisted in the Marines, where he furthered his music skills in the Drum and Bugle Corps. He attended the School of Music in Norfolk, Virginia, and was stationed in Washington, D.C., as a member of the Commandant’s Own.

Post-service, Appleberry began working in a Virginia recording studio, Cue Recording, where he learned to produce, mix and engineer. In 1992, he engineered and programmed the album Super Natural, by the band Everything, featuring the hit single “Hooch.” The album was mixed in Los Angeles, and in 1998, admittedly bitten by the West Coast bug, Appleberry relocated.

Through an unusual twist of fate, an engineer friend introduced him to the A&M (now Henson) staff, and he was hired within 24 hours. Through diligence, military work ethic, talent and a lot of late nights in the studio, Appleberry’s name now appears on albums, remixes, soundtracks, television series and, of course, The Voice.

In this interview, he discusses how he applies his skills sets to different projects and how all of those skills come into play when working with contestants on The Voice.

GUITAR WORLD: Producer, mixer and engineer — define those roles as they apply to your skill sets.

I wouldn’t consider myself the textbook engineer. I approach the engineering side of things from a creative perspective, getting a cool sound. My production kind of starts with mixing in mind. I think of the end result from the top, and how I lay a track out and everything’s place in the spectrum, so it’s all like one big package to me. It took a long time to get there.

It was repetition. As with anything, the more you do it, the better you get — and trial and error. I’m 45, and I started when I was a teenager, so it’s interesting to look back. You try things, they don’t work out the way you wanted, you try differently the next time, and after enough next times, you learn.

When you’re hired for one skill, how do you keep the other hats on the shelf?

That’s another thing I’ve learned, and maybe it’s the military. The way you keep it on the shelf is you put your ego on the shelf too. Where I am in my career, I try to keep the ego outside the front door. As a producer, there are things you are responsible for, so if there’s something you feel passionately about, you have to fight for those things, but for the most part there’s probably more than one path you can take to get to the right outcome.

I try to create a very great team, an artist/producer relationship in the studio, because that’s important. You want to bring out everyone’s creativity. I lean more toward producing and mixing; however, I do engineer for other producers on a select basis. I like it, but it is harder for me to sit down in the engineering chair without taking on some kind of “let’s try this or that” kind of role. When I first got hired at A&M, because they hire from within, a lot of the runners who are trying to work their way up the ladder were a little upset, hoping they’d be the next one.

There was a guy, Tim Harkins, who didn’t like it very much. He’s now one of my best friends, and he’s my chief engineer on this Voice project and the manager of my crew, so we laugh about that. Funny how that works.

How long has it been since you toured? Your bio says you’re still open to it.

I started as a player and I will always love it. I toured in August of 2011 on a fusion tour in Australia for two weeks and that was a great time. If it’s the right thing for me and I can fit it into in my schedule, I will definitely go. When making the Stone Temple Pilots record, which took a year to make, the guys took two months off in the summer because they had to tour. Jakob Dylan called me and asked if I wanted to do a summer tour with the Wallflowers. The timing was perfect, and a week later I was on the road with them. I’m open to those calls. If it’s something I can do and I’m excited about it, I will.

Universal hired you in 2011. Did you have to think about it — going from independent to a staff job?

It’s not a staff job. I am still an independent producer. Tom MacKay at Universal Republic hired me to produce and mix all of the music on The Voice for them to release on iTunes. I have a lot of respect for Tom; he’s an amazing guy and great at what he does. I’ve learned a lot about the inner workings of record companies by working with him, and how to deal with multiple tasks at hand.

With The Voice, the interesting thing is obviously it’s television, and the workload is a tremendous challenge — I think I’ve done over 250 songs for them in the last year. I think Tom wanted to pick a guy that wasn’t emotionally going to have a meltdown, because it’s super-intense. I interviewed for the gig like I would any other record, and I am grateful for the opportunity. The timing was right and everything just kind of aligned.

I love the gig in so many different ways. I get to work with multiple people, which is very exciting. We approach everything like a record, so I keep all my skills intact and it’s great. It’s helped my career in a lot of ways because it forces me to make quick decisions with my records and I think that’s a healthy thing.

“As Universal Republic’s go-to guy on The Voice,” quoting your bio, you work “across the genres.” How is it different producing, let’s say, a balladeer, versus an artist who is all about beats and effects, versus a rock band?

In this business — at least it used to be, although I think it’s starting to loosen up a bit — you get a little pigeonholed from your last record. I had a hit with Adema when nu metal started to hit, so I became the nu metal guy and that’s the calls that come in. A lot of producers are super-musical and can do multiple types of music, but you get calls for the kind of work that you’ve just done and that’s kind of the way it is. With ballads versus doing rock songs, you have a lot more space and things are a little more organic and focused.

Hip-hop is beat-based; it’s groove and rhythmic phrasing. R&B is stacked vocal productions, which you might not necessarily have on a hard rock track, although with STP we did a lot of work with vocals and background vocals. Being a keyboard player and programmer is why I could cross over into the hip-hop world, but having played in rock bands I understand heavy guitar as well.

How do you work around the lack of experience with The Voice? What if it’s just not happening after a certain number of tracks? They can’t book another session.

You’re right, and part of that, I think, was how I actually landed this gig. Early on in the discussion about how to pull this off, I said, “We need to have a schedule: This person is in from 12 to 12:50 and a ten-minute break.” Out of the gate, we give these kids 45 minutes each, but it turns into an hour because I had to give myself some sort of time buffer, a couple of minutes just in case, to keep things on clockwork. Dealing with television, they go from recording studio to wardrobe to stage rehearsal and rehearsal with the band. Logistically, it’s crazy how things come together. Given an hour with a person who’s never been in a recording studio, if they’re having a hard time, I can navigate through that by coaching. I get as much as I can get.

You just have to know what you have and what you need to focus on. Certain people come through with one or two passes. You know you’ve got it and you could have gotten it in the first ten minutes, but you let them have the whole 50 minutes to have the experience and you walk out with eight stellar tracks. After a pass or two, it’s all fun and no pressure. The one thing I will say that’s a beautiful thing about this show is that as a producer working with 48 kids, I get emotionally attached to everyone. We get to know each other and we develop a stride.

These kids love to sing. They come in and sing this thing from top to bottom with no backlash at all. I’ve made records where you spend all day trying to get a verse, so it’s a pleasure to hear these kids and work with them.

Read more of Bill Appleberry’s interview right here.

— Alison RichterAlison Richter interviews artists, producers, engineers and other music industry professionals for print and online publications. Read more of her interviews right here.

Yesterday, David Bowie stunned the music world by announcing his first new album in a decade, The Next Day.

If that wasn't enough, Bowie also released an official video for the album's first single, "Where Are We Now?," a plaintive, piano-based number on which the 66-year-old singer sounds world-weary. While a more mellow approach might be fitting for Bowie's 24th studio album, producer Tony Visconti says the lead single is in no way indicative of the rest of the album.

"It's a very reflective track for David," the producer told the BBC of the track. "Maybe the only track on the album that goes this much inward for him. It's quite a rock album, the rest of the songs, so I thought to myself: 'Why is David coming out with this very slow, albeit beautiful ballad? Why is he doing this? He could come out with a bang.' I think the next thing you hear from him is going to be quite different."

Visconti revealed that the album has been in the works for a couple of years now and should please Bowie fans of all stripes.

"I've been listening to this on headphones, walking through the streets of New York, for the past two years," Visconti said. "I have not tired of a single song. I think the material on this album is extremely strong and beautiful. If people are looking for classic Bowie, they'll find that on this album. If they're looking for innovative Bowie, some new directions, they'll find that on this album too."

While the world his been waiting for the glam-rock legend to break his silence for some time, the announcement, in typical Bowie fashion, has in many ways prompted more questions than answers. Why the long wait? Will he tour? Is he healthy?

Questions about Bowie's health have dominated conversations about the reclusive rocker ever since Bowie underwent emergency heart surgery for a blocked artery. While even his biographer was certain of Bowie's quiet retirement, Visconti assured readers that what we'll hear on record is a very healthy David Bowie.

"He's a very healthy man," Visconti said. "I assure you. I've been saying this for the past few years. I couldn't explain how I know that, but I worked with a very healthy David Bowie in the studio and a very happy David Bowie in the studio."

The Next Day is out March 12.

The Next Day Track Listing:

Standard Version:

• 01. The Next Day 3:51
• 02. Dirty Boys 2:58
• 03. The Stars (Are Out Tonight) 3:56
• 04. Love Is Lost 3:57
• 05. Where Are We Now? 4:08
• 06. Valentine's Day 3:01
• 07. If You Can See Me 3:16
• 08. I'd Rather Be High 3:53
• 09. Boss Of Me 4:09
• 10. Dancing Out In Space 3:24
• 11. How Does The Grass Grow 4:33
• 12. (You Will) Set The World On Fire 3:30
• 13. You Feel So Lonely You Could Die 4:41
• 14. Heat 4:25

Total (Approximately) 53:14

Deluxe Version

• 01. The Next Day 3:51
• 02. Dirty Boys 2:58
• 03. The Stars (Are Out Tonight) 3:56
• 04. Love Is Lost 3:57
• 05. Where Are We Now? 4:08
• 06. Valentine's Day 3:01
• 07. If You Can See Me 3:16
• 08. I'd Rather Be High 3:53
• 09. Boss Of Me 4:09
• 10. Dancing Out In Space 3:24
• 11. How Does The Grass Grow 4:33
• 12. (You Will) Set The World On Fire 3:30
• 13. You Feel So Lonely You Could Die 4:41
• 14. Heat 4:25

Bonus tracks:
15. So She 2:31
16. I'll Take You There 2:44
17. Plan 2:34

Total (Approximately): 61: 03

With a majority of today’s songwriters having powerful recording tools at their disposal, just a laptop’s click away, and the line between home and studio recordings blurring daily, writers/artists are now finding themselves, more and more, in the role of de facto producer when looking to capture their latest creations.

With that thought in mind, Songcraft’s “Becoming Your Own Producer” series will look to dissect, simplify and offer insight into the (sometimes daunting) process and art of DIY music production.

(In case you missed the previous installments of this series, check out parts one through five under RELATED CONTENT to the left.)

Mastering

Now, with final mix master in hand, we come to the last phase of our production process, mastering.

If you’re happy with the way your newly mixed track or tracks sound and you’re not planning to release the music commercially, it can be said that you don’t really need to have your tracks mastered. Consider the project complete.

If, however, you’re planning to send the music out into the world (iTunes, Spotify, CDs, etc), you’ll want to offer your material the benefits and the competitive edge that mastering can provide. As mastering is very much a specialized process, this is where veering off the DIY path is definitely a smart move. Do some research, find a qualified, professional mastering engineer in your city who has done work you like and put your music in their capable and experienced hands.

Here are some thoughts on what pro mastering brings to the sonic party:

• The basics. A professional mastering engineer’s main function is to sonically enhance/improve and (when needed) repair your tracks through the use of precision monitoring, EQ, compression and noise removal techniques. A good mastering engineer will always strive to do as little as possible to your music, intervening only when necessary.

• While working to enhance your tracks, the mastering engineer will also look to improve the sonic compatibility/versatility of your songs, so that your music will sound its best whether listened to via a high-end stereo system or a pair of earbuds.

• Another function of the mastering process is to increase the average volume level of your tracks while still retaining your music’s inherent dynamics. A good mastering engineer will achieve all through the judicious use of compression/limiting. When done correctly, dynamics will remain intact and your tracks will be comparable in volume to most commercially released songs. When done incorrectly, your tracks can sound overly loud, small and crunchy with little to no dynamics present (i.e. the gentle parts of your songs will sound as if they’re at the same volume level as the energetic sections). Be sure to discuss loudness vs. dynamics balance with your mastering engineer at the top of your session.

• When mastering an album of material (as opposed to a single track), it’s the mastering engineer’s job to compile and sequence the songs. With guidance from either the artist or the producer, the engineer will put the album tracks in running order, create the spacing between songs and make sure the volume level from track to track stays relatively consistent.

• In the final stage of the mastering process, the engineer will create a production master (usually a Red Book CD-R) that will contain your newly polished, “mastered” tracks. This master is what will later be used as the source for the creation of end-user products (CDs, MP3 files, etc).

So that does it for Songcraft’s “Becoming Your Own Producer" series. Hope you enjoyed it and found its breakdown of the DIY production process helpful. If you have any questions about mastering or any of the production phases previously discussed throughout the series, please leave a comment below.

Mark Bacino is a singer/songwriter based in New York City. When not crafting his own melodic brand of retro-pop, Mark can be found producing fellow artists or composing for television/advertising via his Queens English Recording Co. Mark also is the founder/curator of intro.verse.chorus, a website dedicated to exploring the art of songwriting. Visit Mark on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.

With a majority of today’s songwriters having powerful recording tools at their disposal, just a laptop’s click away, and the line between home and studio recordings blurring daily, writers/artists are now finding themselves, more and more, in the role of de facto producer when looking to capture their latest creations.

With that thought in mind, Songcraft’s “Becoming Your Own Producer” series will look to dissect, simplify and offer insight into the (sometimes daunting) process and art of DIY music production.

(In case you missed the previous installments of this series, check out parts one and two under RELATED CONTENT to the left.

Recording (Cont.)

Picking up where we left off in our previous post, we continue with the record phase of our production project.

• Follow the map. Now with drums, bass, a chordal instrument and scratch vocal in place, dig out the arrangement “road map” you created back in pre-production. Again, this document should contain a list of all the specific musical parts that will populate your song, the instruments that will play those parts and any/all additional arrangement ideas. Begin to overdub your parts one by one. As you record, listen not only for accuracy of execution but for passion and feel as well. Remember that sometimes the best takes aren’t always the “perfect” ones.

After you finish recording each part, edit as needed in your DAW but don’t overdo it; if something requires a lot of slicing/dicing it probably needs to be rerecorded. Once edited, rough mix each new part into your track. Spot editing and rough mixing as you go will give you an immediate sense of whether or not your arrangement is actually working as a whole. It will also lessen your workload down the line when you enter the mix phase of the project.

• Check ego at the door. While tracking, remember that everyone involved in the recording process, from producer to band member, is there to serve one master and one master only, the song. Acknowledge your limitations and always defer to the best player in the room for the sake of the tune. If the drummer can rock that odd little rhythmic guitar figure better than the guitar player, let him have a crack at it. If the arrangement calls for a part or instrument no one on hand can really play, don’t try and fake it, hire someone who can. There are a ton of great/affordable musicians out there who can use the work and your track will sound all the better as a result of their expertise.

Lastly, be open to experimentation. If any of your collaborators offer up arrangement suggestions, don’t dismiss their thoughts because they may deviate from your blueprint or vision of the song. Give things a try. Great producers will always harness the best ideas even if they’re not their own.

• Vocals. Once the instrumental components of your tune have been recorded, dismiss your scratch vocal track and begin the task of capturing final vocal performances for the song. There are many ways to record vocals. As such, it’s best to defer to the singer as to what approach they’re personally most comfortable with. If your vocalist wants to sing the song in sections, let them do so. If they prefer to sing the whole song in one pass, record three or four takes and edit together a “best of” comp after the tracking session.

As the singer lays down his or her tracks, once again, listen for accuracy (pitch/timing) in addition to passion and feel. As mentioned earlier, keep in mind the best takes might not always be the ones that are technically perfect.

Remember to try double tracking vocal parts if you’re looking for a fatter sound. When applicable to the genre, add backing/harmony vocals. If there’s more than one vocalist in the band, have someone other than the lead singer record the background parts as to add a different color/texture.

• The extras. Once lead and/or backing vocals are in the bag, think about any last minute arrangement or production ideas you may want to add to your song before moving on to the mix phase of the project. Often overlooked, simple percussion overdubs or subtle keyboard pads, etc can serve as valued additions to an arrangement, lending some polish to your track.

• Watch your back. Always remember to save your work during and after every recording session. Back up your files to multiple external drives and/or DVDs. A minute devoted to file back-up may save you hours of rerecording in the event you’re faced with equipment failure.

• As mentioned in the disclaimer at the head of last post, the art of recording is a subject as vast as it is varied. The suggested approach above is just that, a suggestion culled from my own experiences as a producer. There are, of course, many approaches both technical and procedural. Educate yourself and experiment to find the ones that work best for you.
• If you have any questions in regard to recording, leave a comment (above).

Next up, “Becoming Your Own Producer” starts twiddling knobs with the mix phase of our production process.

Mark Bacino is a singer/songwriter based in New York City. When not crafting his own melodic brand of retro-pop, Mark can be found producing fellow artists or composing for television/advertising via his Queens English Recording Co. Mark also is the founder/curator of intro.verse.chorus, a website dedicated to exploring the art of songwriting. Visit Mark on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.

With a majority of today’s songwriters having powerful recording tools at their disposal, just a laptop’s click away, and the line between home and studio recordings blurring daily, writers/artists are finding themselves, more and more, in the role of de facto producer when looking to capture their latest creations.

With that in mind, Songcraft’s “Becoming Your Own Producer” series will look to dissect, simplify and offer insight into the (sometimes daunting) process and art of DIY music production.

(If you missed part one of the series, it can be found right here.)

Recording

So you’ve done all your pre-production prep work and you’re ready to begin recording your song? Cool. Let’s dive in.

• Disclaimer Obviously, the art of capturing sound is a topic so vast it can never be thoroughly covered within the limited confines of this space. There are, however, many instructional recording resources available on the web and in print. Seek them out and learn as much as you can. Since recording is so intertwined with what we do as songwriters/artists, it makes a lot of sense to educate one’s self on the subject even if you never intend to take on any DIY recording projects.

• Monitoring. It’s very important that you become sonically familiar with the speakers you’ll be listening through while recording. You don’t necessarily need expensive studio monitors (although owning a pair couldn’t hurt), just make sure to listen to a lot of music on whatever speakers you’ll be working with before recording so you’ll know what things are “supposed” to sound like in terms of lower, middle and upper frequencies when evaluating your own work.

Truth be told, there are many factors that come into play with monitoring; the amplifier you pair your speakers with, the placement of your speakers in the room, the use or lack of acoustic treatment in the space, etc. Educate yourself on the aforementioned when you can but in the meantime, intimately knowing how other music sounds on your speakers in your space will, at least, give you a solid chance at crafting recordings that will translate decently in the real world.

• Take it from the top. As the saying goes, “garbage in, garbage out”. If you plan on recording a guitar that doesn’t sound so hot before you put a mic in front of it, don’t expect it to sound great when recorded. Make sure your instruments are up to snuff and sounding their best (fresh strings, tuned drums, etc.). These days there are a lot of affordable, quality instruments available. No reason not to use them. Same can be said of microphones. There are a slew of great mics on the market with very reasonable price-points.

• Mic placement. When preparing to record an instrument, mic it up (many good, instrument-specific web tutorials on this) and do a quick test record. Listen back. If the recording sounds close to what the instrument sounds like when played live in the room, great. If not, don’t adopt a “fix it in the mix” mentality, change the mic position and repeat the test process ‘till you achieve a recorded sound that’s fairly true to the instrument and pleasing to your ears.

• Drums, bass, rhythm. If you’re recording a song with live drums as the foundation (as opposed to drum samples or no drums at all) there are two ways to approach this task. You can record the kit yourself in your own space (there are many web tutorials on that subject) or you can book a commercial studio for a few hours to capture the drums, then bring those files back to your project studio and move forward with the rest of your production. I offer this second option, even within our DIY framework, because oftentimes folks find the concept of recording drums intimidating, beyond their skill-set or they may have other concerns such as noise level or equipment limitation issues, etc. If you can’t or would prefer not to record your own drums, find a reasonably priced, local studio and go there to lay down your kit. The studio will be glad to have your business and given its sonically-optimized setting, you’ll more than likely come home with some good sounding drum tracks.

When recording live drums, also record your bass and rhythm guitar (or keys) at the same time. This will hopefully make for a cohesive rhythm section. If capturing bass and your rhythm instrument while laying down drums is not possible for whatever reason (lack of physical space, technical limitations, etc), track drums only with just your rhythm guitarist or bassist playing along, unrecorded, for your drummer’s reference/benefit. Once you’ve got a good drum take, then overdub your bass and rhythm instrument(s).

• Scratch vocal. Now with a solid foundation in place (drums, either live or programmed, bass and a chordal instrument), have your singer record a quick, lead vocal. Since you’ll be re-recording this vocal part for keeps later in the process, don’t invest a lot of time perfecting the performance (although record it well, as you never know what kind of magic you might capture). This “scratch” vocal’s sole purpose will be to act as guide while recording the remainder of your music tracks, helping you, the producer, gauge if the support parts you’re laying down are either aiding or hindering the ever-important vocal line. If your tune is instrumental in nature, put down a scratch of your top-line melody for same purposes listed above.

Next time, “Becoming Your Own Producer” will add more cowbell as we continue discussing the recording phase of our production process.

Mark Bacino is a singer/songwriter based in New York City. When not crafting his own melodic brand of retro-pop, Mark can be found producing fellow artists or composing for television/advertising via his Queens English Recording Co. Mark also is the founder/curator of intro.verse.chorus, a website dedicated to exploring the art of songwriting. Visit Mark on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.

Hey everyone, welcome back! While this column has so far been about getting great guitar sounds from plug-ins and apps, this time around we’re going to focus on recording technique and some production tips to address some things that some folks often overlook when trying to achieve the sounds of their favorite records. These are techniques that I have used on many records, including the last two Bret Michaels albums, as well as the theme songs to Rock of Love, Life as I Know It and Speed Channel’s Supercross.

Songwriting Dynamics

When writing and recording songs, one of the things guitar players overlook most is learning about songwriting dynamics. Most of us get a guitar and want to instantly rock out at eleven. It’s not until years later that many of us learn that we don’t need the volume knob cranked all the way up or that we can actually achieve softer or harder tones by simply varying our picking attack. Fortunately, the recording process and technology these days affords players the opportunity to create dynamics without changing the volume on the guitar or drastically changing our picking technique.B ut it is the songwriting dynamics that make a song “move” and help strike emotion in the listener. You know the feeling you get when you’re anticipating the lead-up to the best part of your favorite song? You get to the chorus and you suddenly feel yourself driving faster or beating the steering wheel a little harder... Contrast and dynamic songwriting do exactly that.

A very standard pattern in songwriting starts with a huge-sounding intro moving to a downward shift in momentum (and sometimes volume) in the first verse. It then often builds up to another level in the pre-chorus and accelerates towards an even greater level that culminates in the huge release of the chorus. There are a wide range of other arrangements available, but this one will work best for today’s exercise.

So, how can you achieve this effect with a recording technique?

The Experiment: Doubling and Other Stereo Tricks

In the past, I’ve talked about doubling guitar tracks. I will go to my grave a believer that two guitars are better than one, despite the fact that some of my very favorite artists have made history by panning single guitars in simple mixes on amazingly dynamic songs (Van Halen). That said, let’s talk about four (or even six!) guitar tracks on your song.

It’s time to experiment a little. Say you have a simple song without an orchestra of guitar parts but you want to create the ascending feeling and crescendo that we’ve been talking about (think classic AC/DC or even Green Day tunes here).

Record your main part as-is and then double it. As I mentioned last column, back your gain down, probably more than you think you should, with layering guitars your gonna have that extra gain soon enough,trust me. Once you have your killer first tracks captured for the entire song, it’s time to pan them. The trick here is to not pan them hard left or hard right; give the tracks more like 10-and-2 positions. Manipulating the panning this way in the stereo field can create the illusion of small and big sounding guitars depending on how it’s employed, much more so than by playing with the volume.

The next step is to record two more tracks, but this time play only the intro, pre-chorus, and chorus parts (skip the verses). Here’s when it gets fun: While you’re playing the same parts and you want to use the same tone, you’ll need to change it up just a little bit. The first thing you may want to do is make your tone just a little brighter, or scoop out a few of the mids. Do not add more bass at this point as it will muddy up your tone. It’s also time to get to work with your plug-ins.

Most modern emulators have an SM57 model that I recommend as a default, but now that we are getting more complicated, it’s time to change it up. As we stack these guitar tracks, we won’t want them to be all as in-your-face as the direct SM57, so we’ll use another mic model. This time, choose a condenser mic model (an AKG C414 is a fine choice). Now this is where AmpliTube shines: The application lets you treat the microphones as if they were real! You get way more than the on- or off-axis options. You also are able to use two mics at a time, set their distances from the cabinet independently, and blend the two together any way you like. It’s a fantastic upgrade from the limited options of the past.

So now that you’ve changed your tone a bit, maybe added a touch of the gain back in, and placed your mics, you now have a new perspective of your same tone. Once you’ve finished the second set of tracks without the verses, pan them a bit farther apart then the first two, say at the 9-and-3 positions. The idea here is to not lay them in the mix with any more volume at all; you may in fact find that a little less volume with that different tonal perspective allows the two tracks to work together much better, while leaving the first set as the song’s anchor.

For the last two tracks of the experiment, go through the same process again, but now hit the gain as hard as you would live. This time, only play the intro, choruses, and whatever parts of the song must be the biggest and most exciting. After you nail those tracks, pan them all the way hard left and hard right. Set them in the mix again just enough to hear the difference and feel the track grow. As you hear each part progressively through the song, you should feel it dynamically growing bigger and wider, giving your song a new texture and life without cluttering it with an over-abundance of orchestrated parts. There’s a time and a place for orchestration, but we started with a “simple” song, remember? The key thing to remember is you must create an instrumental mix that will eventually have to respect the vocals. Slash is the master of making orchestrated guitar parts weave in and out of the vocal track without stepping on it. Throughout his career he has executed that technique like no other. But then again, that's about song writing and is a whole other set of lessons!

While the basic idea in our experiment was to stack the same parts to create a dynamic build, you could experiment with phrasing the part a little differently as you stack. Some examples of this are playing the main part with as many open chords as possible and then doubling with bar and power chords, or using an open low E on one set of tracks and an octave higher at the 7th fret on the A string on the next. Another technique used by bands such as Creed is to layer a set of tracks in dropped-D tuning, even if song isn’t written for it. Artists will often drop down and double the tracks even if there is only one D-chords throughout the song,the technique creates a heavier feel lending an amazing extra depth for choruses and intros.

Well, that’s a lot to think about and experiment with! As always, let your ears do the leading. I hope you find this helpful in achieving killer-sounding guitars!

Right now Pete is on tour with Bret Michaels. Check out www.bretmichaels.com for tour dates and be sure to stop by the official Pete Evick Facebook page at www.facebook.com/PeteEvickBMB to learn more about Pete.

With a majority of today’s songwriters having powerful recording tools at their disposal, just a laptop’s click away, and the line between home and studio recordings blurring daily, writers/artists are now finding themselves, more and more, in the role of de facto producer when looking to capture their latest creations.

With that in mind, Songcraft’s “Becoming Your Own Producer” series will look to dissect, simplify and offer insight into the (sometimes daunting) process and art of DIY music production.

Pre-Production

OK, so you’ve just finished writing a great song and you’re excited to begin getting it down. Before you hit that virtual record button, here’s a pre-production checklist worth a run-through to help ensure your new tune is ready to hit the hard drive:

• Is your song concise? Are there sections that could be discarded or shortened in efforts to tighten up the overall structure?

• Are your song sections ordered in such a way that’s consistent with the genre you’re working in (e.g. in the pop genre, having a chorus that repeats at logical points throughout the song)?

• Write your song’s structure down on paper (verse, chorus, etc.) and see if it makes sense from that perspective. If you’re still not sure your structure’s the best it can be, pick a similar tune from a favorite artist that falls within your genre and dissect that song’s structure on paper as well. How does it differ from your song’s make up? What structural ideas can you borrow from that model song and apply to your tune?

• Establish a tempo. Use your recording software’s click/metronome function and play around with how your tune feels when performed at different BPMs (beats per minute) till you find a tempo right for the song (more on tempo here).

• Establish a key. Many times, a song will be written in a key that may not suit the vocal range of whoever will be singing the tune on the recording. Play the song in various keys with singer on hand to make sure you have the right fit.

• Type up a lyric sheet for your song with chord changes included. Having this information in print will be a big help during the recording sessions to both singers and players alike. Typing the lyrics will also afford you, the writer, the opportunity to re-analyze, edit and improve your lyrics before recording commences.

• Record a demo. Before “official” recording begins, it’s helpful to get a simple version of your song down with just an acoustic guitar/piano and a vocal. This exercise will help you road test all the choices/tweaks you’ve made via the points listed above and will also give you a better sense of the overall quality of the tune when listening back. If the song moves you with just one instrument and a voice, you’ll know it’s ready and worthy of a proper recording. If it doesn’t excite you, better to learn that before you’ve recorded your 50th theremin overdub.

• Arrange. Begin to plan the specific musical parts that will populate your song and make decisions as to what instruments will play those parts on the recording (e.g. rhythm guitar parts will be played by acoustic guitars, bass lines will be played by synth bass, etc.). Try to create parts in addition to the basic — drums, bass, rhythm guitar/keys and vocal. Think of possibly adding some melodic lines played by different instruments that will artfully weave in and out of your recording, lending it some excitement and color. The possibilities are endless (but don’t go overboard). Get your ideas down on paper, creating a road map of sorts for your tune. Once you begin recording, this document will point your song in the right direction (despite any detours, welcome or unwanted) and will help get your song where you want it to go.

• Rehearse. If you’re planning on recording the basics of you song (drums, bass, rhythm guitar/keys) with a band live in the studio as opposed to building the song from the ground up in the overdub process, rehearse the players. Then rehearse them some more. If you intend to record to a click/fixed time, have the drummer practice playing along with said click at the song’s chosen tempo. When musicians are well prepared and know their parts, they tend to stop thinking their way through takes while recording and start to actually play/perform.

If you have any questions regarding pre-production, please leave a comment below.

Next time, “Becoming Your Own Producer” will “explore the studio space” with the recording phase of the production process.

Mark Bacino is a singer/songwriter based in New York City. When not crafting his own melodic brand of retro-pop, Mark can be found producing fellow artists or composing for television/advertising via his Queens English Recording Co. Mark also is the founder/curator of intro.verse.chorus, a website dedicated to exploring the art of songwriting. Visit Mark on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.