LOOSEN UP YOUR CONCEPT OF THE STUDIO
LOOSEN UP YOUR CONCEPT OF THE STUDIO
Loosen up your concept of “the studio” and what you can use to record. Challenge what is considered an instrument, and scout unusual places to make noise in. For instance, if you have a singer under the kitchen sink, will they perform differently? If they are outside in a snowbank, will they perform differently? Inventory equipment you can use to record in unusual locations, and figure out how to take advantage of the space you already have.
Gear is amazing, but the real heart of the recording comes down to the people. We love the gear, we love the studios, but the music comes first. In order to create the best recording possible, you must preserve the humanity in the music; this often seems at first like a mistake.
Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” has “mistakes” left in, either purposefully or otherwise. For example, there is a great vocal “preecho” that is a technical mistake called “bleed through,” which has now become an iconic part of the recording. You can clearly hear Robert Plant sing, “way down inside,” before you actually hear him sing it, near the four-minute mark.
To really hear the human making the music is the connection we all subconsciously strive for. When I produced Skunk Anansie’s 1995 album, Paranoid & Sunburnt, the band’s singer, Skin, was emotionally caught up in the performance of “100 Ways to Be a Good Girl.” You can hear it in her voice. And even if there were any technical imperfections, we would have kept the take because it is real emotion. In Tool’s “4 Degrees,” singer Maynard James Keenan makes a grunting noise in the background at 5:30. It was an outtake that I left in the final mix, because it added a realism to the scene.
You should also think how using unconventional sounds will help your recordings stand out and bring more meaning to the music you’re making. Just because you don’t make these sounds during rehearsal doesn’t mean you can’t preserve them in your recordings.
Scott Walker famously hired a percussionist to drum on a side of pork for his 2006 album, The Drift. For sessions with Swedish metal band Avatar, we professionally recorded them slapping their own bare butts at Castle Röhrsdorf in Dresden, Germany for their 2016 Feathers and Flesh concept album.
The most important aspects of production are psychological and not technical; focus on your performer’s experience in the moment as much as the sounds they’re making.
While listeners may not be able to distinctly hear the sounds of band members slapping their own asses, they will likely be able to connect on an emotional level with the vibe of people having fun and experimenting within the medium of recording.