Okay, you ready? Yep.
We're rolling.
We were just kids... with nothing
to lose and nowhere to call home.
But we had these songs...
And we had these dreams.
So we threw it all in the back
of an old van and just started driving.
Our destination - Sound City.
Watching the world through a
windshield, there's no looking back.
We left everything behind.
When you're young, you're not
afraid of what comes next.
You're excited by it.
We were driving a van that could
break down at any moment...
Going on tours that could be
canceled at any moment...
And playing music with people
who could disappear at any moment.
We had no idea that the next 16 days
were gonna change our world forever.
But I remember pulling into the
parking lot and thinking, "Really?
This is Sound City?"
You know, it's weird, like,
when you walk into Sound City,
you either love it or you hate it.
Looks kind of dumpy.
It's a shit-hole.
Everything was secondhand.
It was something of a time
warp, I think, or something.
Brown shag carpet on the
wall - that's the kind of thing
that you would do to your van.
It was like, "Well, the place
is already kind of trashed, so
anything goes, you know?"
It was dirty.
Didn't really feel like I wanted
to sit on any of the furniture.
You could record there and
not come back for 15 years and
walk in, and it's the exact same
as the last time you were there.
The parking lot used to
flood, and it used to make a
wave that came up the hallway of
Sound City.
Sound City was like, you
know, you could put your
cigarette out on the floor.
A bottle of Jack Daniel's got
spilled all over the carpet.
"Who cares? It's Sound City.
Who cares?"
I always say, you could, you
know, piss in the corner and
nobody would complain.
It was just a little more
fucked-up than I thought it
should be.
But walking down the hallway and
seeing all of those platinum
records on the wall...
Tom Petty.
Fleetwood Mac.
Rick Springfield.
Neil Young, man.
Cheap Trick.
The Chili Peppers.
Rob Halford.
Pat Benatar.
Kansas.
Guns n' Roses.
Nine Inch Nails.
Nevermind.
Hot-blooded
Foreigner.
Slayer.
Ratt.
Johnny Cash.
Carl Perkins.
Metallica.
R.E.O. Speedwagon.
Time for me to fight
Michael McDonald.
Mick Fleetwood.
Buckingham Nicks.
Like a rainbow in the
dark
Stevie Nicks.
Masters of Reality.
Frank Black.
Brisbane.
Rick Rubin.
Kyuss.
Weezer.
Dude, how many fucking amazing
albums have been made there?
Vincent Price, Telly Savalas.
We would record anything.
Anybody would walk in the door
that could pay the bill.
Tom is this big, tall, lanky,
gomer-y kind of guy that just
fell off the turnip truck.
He wants you to think that,
anyway.
First time I was ever walked
in a recording studio.
First time I'd ever even seen one.
Southern man
I was with a west Virginia
holding company that was
buying little businesses.
Joe Gottfried and another guy
had started Sound City in 1969.
He was actually the vocalist for
the U.S. Army.
When he was in the army, he was
stationed at a hotel in
Manhattan.
A friend of his, Joe Leahy, who
was a big-band leader and had
done music for CBS, and they
were the two main guys in the
studio when I came in, in 1970.
Keith Olsen was the
chief engineer.
The only reason why the
studio business survived was
because the building ownership
was Tom, and Tom would not
foreclose on them.
They were about one week away
from being closed by the IRS.
They owed taxes.
It was kind of chaos, to be
honest with you.
But there was an opportunity to
get into the entertainment
business.
This is Beatle land, formerly
known as Britain, where an
epidemic called "Beatlemania"
has seized the teenage
population, especially female.
The big pot at the end of the
rainbow is signing an ex-Beatle.
We'd have had a zillion dollars,
you know?
Hi-fi and stereo equipment
created an industry with an
annual income today of
$2.5 billion.
Somebody at Sound City came
up with this idea - "We could
start a record company".
So that was my goal, to
produce some records and have a
hit record and make a lot of
money.
That was the whole reason we
bought it.
Sound City - it was funky.
It was in the Valley, but we
only used the Valley to get to
Hollywood.
The Valley was just this flat
expanse of too many houses
already.
You know, so it was, like, kind
of not happening at all.
Neil Young pulled in fast in
a very old car, smoke billowing
out of every window.
Behind him was two L.A.P.D.
officers, guns drawn.
You know?
Okay, move over to the rear
of the car.
Place your hands on the trunk.
I attracted police a lot
because of the cars that I was
driving.
And I didn't have a license, you
know, because I was Canadian.
I wasn't even supposed to be
there.
About five minutes later,
they just got in their cars and
drove off.
I made the record in my
house.
Most of it, I did in my house.
And then we went to Sound City
with Briggs, my producer, and we
put down a piano song called
"Birds" there.
Then, we did the vocals, and
then they sounded so good that I
said, "Well, hell, let's just
sing everything".
So it's really a hybrid record.
I can love
I can really love
I can really love
My dad and Joe were partners
in crime. They were very close.
They were thick as thieves.
Tom was, like, the business
guy and stuff like that, but Joe
was the heart of it all, really.
Sweetest guy in the universe.
Absolutely one of the nicest,
truest people I've ever known.
He wasn't a guy in a suit who
was counting money and just
trying to rip off as many
musicians as he could.
That wasn't his thing.
He loved the fact that bands
were coming in and making great
records there.
Joe was always, like, positive, more
optimistic. Always, "The next big thing's
gonna be out there".
Joe gave me time to learn and
to hone what I do.
He was quite a guy.
When we bought the studio, we
were struggling for a year or
two, and we could see we
couldn't just get the premier
acts.
You needed state-of-the-art
equipment to get the top acts
with the top budgets.
So it was my goal to do that.
This guy, Rupert Neve,
designed these next-generation consoles.
I had flown to England, and I
saw one once, and they were like
this, you know, built like a
brick shit house.
He was, you know, a genius
engineer.
There's only four like this in
the world, and this is the only
one that was custom-ordered from
the factory by Keith.
There is something about
the Neve sound
that my ear has always been attuned to.
They're mathematically crisp
and very, very good.
They're just very solid.
It's like a tank or something.
The Neve thing is - there
just weren't that many made,
because they're so handmade.
This Neve board that you talk about,
you know, this is not my world.
Engineers have to spend, like,
hours on the
kick-drum sound.
Please, I would rather have a
blood transfusion.
But I do remember that there was
something different about the
sound of this board.
And then of course, everybody -
"Oh, my god, it's a Neve board,"
I'll never forget them saying.
A recording console is like
the center of the spaceship.
If you're gonna fly to Mars, you
got to have something with all
the master controls.
It looks like, you know, the
Enterprise on steroids, from a
long time ago.
A desk that's like a giant
stereo, except instead of doing
bass, middle, and treble, it's,
like, you can do that on each
drum, you know, each mike, each
thing.
All the microphones in the
studio are routed into that
console.
From there, you can change E.Q.,
add effects, change the levels.
And that goes into the tape
machine, where it's recorded.
This board, if you put a
fader up and turn the mike pre
up, and somebody hits a tom-tom
or a snare drum, it sounds
great.
It sounds wide-open. It sounds huge.
If you turn the mike pre up too
loud and it distorts, it still
sounds great.
That's analog.
It's how it sounds.
Especially Neve's, you know.
I mean, everything is just better.
The human voice sounds better.
When you got harmonies going
together, they kind of meld
together.
You come on with a come-on
You don't fight fair
The Neve console really
embellishes things in the
context of rock 'n' roll.
It's good on drums.
It's good on bass.
It's good on guitars.
It's the facilitator.
It's a pretty badass console.
Hit me with your best
shot
It's unlike any other Neve
console that I have ever worked
on, and I've been lucky enough
to work on a ton of them now.
It would always be the
greatest-sounding desk I've ever
tracked on.
There is a large number of
modules about which look the
same, but which are marginally
different.
The circuit was a microphone
amplifier circuit.
Cross-talk between circuits and
between buses was absolutely
paramount.
The way that transformer behaves
with DC flowing in it can vary
according to the material of the
core and the gapping of the
core.
If those things are properly
controlled, you get a very sweet
sound.
Rupert Neve is a fucking
genius.
At the time, that Neve
console cost $76,000.
To give you an example, I'd just
bought a house in Toluca Lake,
and I paid $38,000 for the
house.
My wife would've killed me if
she'd known I was doing that.
I thought, "If this place ever
goes under, that's the thing
that will pay all the debts".
The first track we cut on
this was "Crying in the Night"
with Buckingham Nicks.
Very first thing done on that
was that session.
That's how it started.
She was that kind of lady
Times were hard, whoa
We signed them to a
production deal.
They write their own songs.
So all we'd provide would be the
studio, the engineer, and the
tape.
Tom Skeeter and Joe Gottfried
were almost like parental figures to us.
But Keith's the one who got us
out to Sound City.
Crying in the night
She's back in town
When we first moved to L.A., we
didn't have a place.
We stayed at Keith's house.
They're starving and they're
broke.
Lindsey was painting, and Stevie
was cleaning Keith Olsen's
house.
I'd walk through with my
broom, and, you know, Keith
would go, like, "That's the
maid".
And I'd be like...
"I'm not gonna be the maid for
long, just so you know.
Just so y'all know".
But she'll leave you
Cryin' in the night
She will leave you
Cryin' in the night, whoa
It was obvious that Lindsey
and Stevie were really special.
Buckingham Nicks came out in
'73 to great critical acclaim
and then got dropped by Polydor.
The record label dropped
them, so they didn't have a
record deal.
So they were just hanging around
here.
She's a come-on lady
It was like our home.
It was like our home away from
home.
I was living in
Laurel Canyon, and I went to the
country store, which is exactly
the same now.
And someone I vaguely knew
was there.
He said, "Well, what are you up to?"
I said, "Well, I'm actually in
town to find a studio and cost
it out and see if we can afford it".
And he goes, "I'm just the guy".
This rock 'n' roll guy came
to us one day, and he said, "You
know, I hang out with all these
rock bands, and I go to the
clubs and all that.
If I can bring a band in here,
will you give me 10%?"
We said, "All day long.
Bring them in".
Mick Fleetwood came in to see
the studio.
I played him a couple of
tracks from Stevie and Lindsey.
Stevie and I were in
studio "B", in the back.
And I took a break, and I
wandered out.
And I hear our song,
"Frozen Love," coming out of
studio "A".
I open the door, and here's this 6'6"
guy just - just grooving on the solo.
And I'm going, "Who is that?"
I met Lindsey literally in
passing.
And I went off,
not even thinking anything other than,
"I've heard some good music that
was made in the studio that I'm
gonna use".
We made a deal to do
Fleetwood Mac's next album at
Sound City.
Joe was thrilled - "God, we're
gonna make our payments!"
Everything was good.
Fleetwood Mac had had
a few albums with Peter Green in
England that had been
successful.
Then after Peter left,
Bob Welch, who then joined the
band, was more of a jazz
guitarist.
Mick called me.
"Bob Welch just left the band".
I phoned Keith Olsen.
I said, "You know the tape that
you played?
Tell me, we're looking for a
guitar player".
And Keith's like, "Well,
there is a problem there,
because you will never get him
without taking her".
He's gonna have to take my
girlfriend, too.
And that was the beginning of
it.
We joined the band the first
day of 1975.
And then we go straight to
Sound City.
The first days in the studio
were just amazing.
Really exciting, completely
fresh, because Christine,
John McVie, and myself came from
a whole different sensibility
musically, really.
Rhiannon rings like a bell
through the night
And wouldn't you love to love
her
John McVie said to me, "You
know, we're a blues band.
This is really far away from the
blues".
And I said, "I know, but it's a
lot closer to the bank".
All your life you've never
seen a woman taken by the wind
It became pretty clear right
away how this all fit together.
And that isn't just musically.
It's just as people.
Something is translated, and
it is real and it is profound.
Just, in truth, out of
necessity.
It's powerful.
It's like true love.
Absolutely.
But what if that Neve board
hadn't have been there?
The main reason it was
important was so that we got a
fantastic drum track.
It's the drum sound.
Let's start there, 'cause it's
something we all love.
The drums and the feel of a song
are like the heartbeat of the song.
It can be the backbone of the
song.
It can be the foundation of the
song.
So that's the first thing you
do.
You set up your kit, and you
start putting up your
microphones.
A room like this has a really
nice decay.
So, you put mikes around the
room to capture that.
You put close mikes on the
drums.
You have all of those
individual mikes spread over a
number of tracks - 16 tracks or
So then you can bring the faders
up or down and balance those tracks.
Once you get a good drum take,
then it's like, "Oh, okay, great.
Now we got the beginning of a
song.
Now we can actually start
putting more shit on it".
With the lights out, it's
less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain
us
I feel stupid
The way to pick studios is
through blind-testing drums,
because you can record the
guitars pretty much anywhere,
and they could sound pretty much
like your guitars.
But drums really change from
room to room.
That room shouldn't, on
paper, be a great drum room,
because it's like a big old
square room.
Sound City was a Vox factory
in the '60s, I guess.
They built Vox amps there,
and then they built the
"A" control room in '64.
It's one of those spaces that
just randomly, haphazardly
turned out to be fantastic to
record a drum set in.
That room is the space.
It's, like, what happens between
the notes, what you're playing.
There's a sound that's pretty
magical.
Every room has their sweet
spot for that sound, you know?
This, I think, has always been
Sound City's real sweet spot.
And the freaky thing is,
no one designed it.
A lot of people claim they did.
But no.
It's just luck.
Luck and magic.
Not meant to be.
And you can't control those
things.
Selfishly, the drum sound was
probably why we went there.
I confess.
'Cause when the lovin'
starts and the lights go down
There's not another living
soul around
None of it is planned.
Sound City was welcoming, and we
knew that we had a home there.
It's a church.
By the luck of whatever, I have
the ability to open that door.
Say that you love me
From that Fleetwood Mac
album, then we'd get Santana and
Grateful Dead.
Once you have big hits like
that, that was huge.
Dancin' in the streets
Dancin', dancin', dancin'
The first real Heartbreakers jam
to just feel each other out
was at Sound City.
The studio was fine, but we
just didn't have our shit
together.
We weren't ready.
We didn't have the songs.
We didn't know how to play
that well.
This is how you make a
record.
It was cruel, 'cause it
sounded so real.
And you'd go into the control
room, and they'd crank up the
speakers, and you go, "Man, I
just - I suck".
I think the vocal mike is
just a little bit loud.
That no-frills, no effects,
no place to hide - everything
coming out of an amp or
everything coming right out of a
speaker or right off a
microphone - that approach,
that was Sound City.
By our third album, we wanted
to get, you know,
somebody that could make
a good-sounding record.
So we hired Jimmy lovine.
He'd been a recording
engineer, and he'd worked with
Lennon and with Springsteen.
And they were recording live
tracks.
They weren't overdubbing a ton of
stuff. You had to learn how to play,
and you'd go in and play it.
I hired Jimmy as an engineer to do
"Damn the Torpedoes" there,
but he showed up with an
engineer without telling me.
He manipulated his way into
being the producer of the
record, along with me.
Jimmy is brilliant. I mean,
he now owns the music business.
When we showed up with Jimmy
at Sound City, he was just
horrified.
Just horrified, like, "What is
this place?"
And the first thing he said to
me is, "I don't know that we can
make a record in here".
Somebody should firebomb this
fucking place.
I said, "Yeah, I think you'll
be surprised".
We tracked live, and we
didn't edit from take to take.
So we had to get it right from
top to bottom.
When you're tracking live,
pressure's on the drummer
big-time.
Until you get that,
you've got nothing.
I just thought I should play
straight.
Throw it where the shaker's
trying to go.
Whoa!
It was emotional.
But, at the same time, I mean,
we all wanted to learn.
"Refugee," we played like
You're trying to get
lightning in a bottle.
That was great.
Yeah, I'm still not
comfortable for some reason.
I'm not quite on my thing here.
I think we should do one
more and listen.
Okay.
Then, you go back and play
the damn song again.
You don't have to live like
a refugee
You don't have to live like
a refugee
It might look easy, but if
you're trying to go for
greatness - and a lot of times
you're gonna fall short, and you
got to live with that, that
night - it's brutal, you know,
on your soul.
God damn you!
You're driving me crazy!
You are gonna drive me fucking
crazy!
Ohhhh
It's a tough room.
You know, music really isn't
supposed to be perfect.
It's all about people relating
to each other and doing
something that's really from the
soul.
You know, it must come from the
soul.
Oh! Oh! Oh!
Tom was great. You know,
his whole approach - low-key.
He'd come in like it was his own
garage studio.
Paula - she was kind of like the
field general. You know?
She was in the front lines, you
know?
Paula - she's great.
She was just unflappable.
You know, just nothing bothered
her.
Paula, I think, took over from
Jemima when Jemima left.
Jemima Eddy, aunt Jemima, had
this assistant who was a little
girl named Barbie who ended up
being Rick Springfield's wife.
She actually was answering
phones when she was, you know,
the bands, of course.
And then, after Jemima, there
was Paula.
I took one look at her, and I
was totally in love.
She was smoking-hot and as sweet
as can be.
Do you know where your
woman is tonight?
Think about it.
Paula Salvatore, italiano.
Yeah, italiana, italiana.
Every musician that went in
there thought that Paula was in
love with them.
I think.
Or maybe it was just me.
But I don't think so.
Do you remember Paula?
Yeah, I do, actually.
The girl that ran the studio?
Paula - dark-haired girl?
Curly?
I was "Paula at Sound City".
That was my last name for years.
Paula was, like, a one-woman
audience, you know?
Do you know where your
woman is tonight?
Whenever we'd get a mix or
whenever there'd be a
performance that I was really
proud of, I'd always go and say,
"Paula, come on.
Check this out.
Check out what we just did".
Paula would say, "I really
like this one," you know?
That could lift my whole day,
because I knew she didn't have
to say that and that she heard
music all day long.
But it made me think, like,
"Well, wow.
Maybe this one's good".
Paula sang on the first
Masters record, actually, yeah.
She and a friend did some backup
vocals on it.
A lot of girl backup singers
ended up, like, working and
being secretaries in studios.
When you need a backup singer,
just, you know, call the front desk,
and there's one sitting
there.
That was my dream, to play
music.
And I didn't get that.
You know, and before I knew it,
I was kind of in the thick of it.
It's totally attitude.
"I want to do this.
I'll do whatever it takes.
And I'm here".
It's a training ground.
You know, six months driving a
car, and then six months being
the night phone-answering guy.
And when someone above you quit
or got promoted or moved on,
then everybody moved up a step.
I hired Nick 'cause he could
make guac. Very important, you know.
I did.
I made guacamole all the time.
As a runner, I would go in
there, you know, and empty the
ashtrays and dust the console
and vacuum.
And that's when I started to
learn the board.
We had runners that became
engineers.
Then, they became producers.
Lot of people that hung around
here became really successful in
the record business.
You know, recording - it's a
different art form.
Down on South Street,
Philadelphia
When we came to Sound City,
the producer, Gary Lublow, would
say, "No, man, slow it down so
they can hear the fuckin' song".
We'd say, "This is punk rock!
We don't slow anything down!"
You know?
I don't care about you
Fuck you
You're getting 50 seconds'
worth of music with the same
amount of fucking notes, 'cause
we play them faster.
I saw a man that was sleeping
in puke
And a man with no legs
fallin' down Fifth Street
Tryin' to get something to
eat
I don't care about you
Oh, no
One of the greatest punk-rock
albums - they made The Record
at Sound City.
That sound comes out of his
face, man.
That's actually his voice.
I don't care about you
Gary Lublow had been the
producer on the
R.E.O. Speedwagon record.
But what he wound up being was
the engineer who fought with me
every day.
I became a producer by
default, because nobody knew
what a producer was.
The old definition of
"producer" was more watching the
budget, scheduling musicians,
scheduling studio time.
That's not what they did at
Sound City.
A producer works with the
songs.
You don't know how it feels
to be me
A producer says, "Hey, I
think this could be better.
I think that could be better.
I think that's amazing.
Why can't the rest of it be as
great as that?"
That's not easy to do.
Everything I try to do is
from a fan's perspective.
I can listen and go, "Hmm, this
part really speaks to me.
This part doesn't speak to me so
much".
It sounds like you're aiming a
little lower today than you
should be.
What balls, you know, to tell
rock stars that they got
nothing.
But let me get to the
point
Let's roll another joint
I like to push it during the
songs, you know?
Like, I'll hit the guitar and,
like, mess it up.
I want it to be on fire.
Working with Ross was intense
as shit.
We did 12 songs the first night
we were there.
And the whole time, he is
throwing potted plants at us.
I grabbed one of the candles,
and I threw it against the wall
as hard as I can.
Wax went across his face, and
he's like, "Aaaaah!"
Screaming into the floor.
It was so good.
You don't know how it
feels
The way I love the term
"producer" - it's someone that
puts, you know, a cake dish over
the bat phone, you know?
They protect you from the
outside world, and they help you
actualize the sounds in your
head.
Producer's job is really
easy.
He's the vehicle to get the
artists' creativity onto tape in
a way that is accessible to your
marketplace.
To be me
What you have to do is get
the listener to claim what
you've done as theirs.
A girlfriend - an
ex-girlfriend - it's always an
ex-girlfriend - hooked me up
with this guy that knew Joe at
Sound City.
And he said, "Joe's looking for
artists to sign".
I think we signed him, like,
in the middle '70s.
Joe's office was under the
car ramp that took the cars up
to the parking lot on the roof.
I actually thought
about not signing because of
that.
Love is all right tonight
He was turned down by RCA for
about five years.
I got into the studio when
the paying clients had bailed.
You know, "Tom Petty just
canceled.
We got studio 'A' for four
hours".
Joe took Rick Springfield
under his wing, and he kind of
developed him.
Got him acting lessons.
Got him an apartment.
Got him some little car.
Got him the "General Hospital"
thing that started his career.
Here's Bobbie, one of our
best nurses.
Bobbie Spencer, this is
Noah Drake.
How are you?
I'm very happy to see you
again.
The first steady money I'd actually
seen in my life was 500 bucks a week.
That was the first regular money
I'd ever had.
Joe came to me and asked me
to do these couple of songs.
Keith Olsen picked
"Jessie's Girl" out of the demos
they gave him.
I didn't get why he picked it.
I thought there were stronger
songs.
Rick didn't think I knew what
I was talking about.
Well, Jessie is a friend
And, oh, he's been a good
friend of mine
Keith didn't like my guitar
playing, so he had Neil Geraldo
play guitar on "Jessie's Girl"
and bass.
Being a record producer,
there's a time when you have to
say, "It would really be good
for your career if you let this
go that way".
Keith never liked my guitar
playing.
He's a prick.
Patricia had just finished
the "Crimes of Passion" record
at Sound City.
Then I just met him one day,
and that was - we just did it.
I mean, I probably knew him for
song.
He had this pit terrier, so
he would bring the dog into the
studio, and he goes, watch this.
And he'll throw it a basketball.
And it would take the basketball
and go pghh!
And, you know, puncture it with
his teeth.
With my dog, Ron, the sound
guys would get this laser light
and run it up and down the walls
of studio "B".
And he'd take chunks out of the
wall, and put holes in all the
walls.
So, we get ready to do the
take.
All of a sudden, the dog comes
into the studio, sits down, puts
his nose right in my crotch.
It's like, if I screw up, he's
gonna bite me.
What the hell is going on here?
And she's watching him with
those eyes
I made it through the take.
Might have even been the one we
used.
It was pretty funny.
Never moved.
He sat right there.
It was fantastic.
You know, I wish that I had
Jessie's girl
I wish that I had Jessie's
girl
We signed a lot of acts.
Every one you signed, you
thought, "This is gonna be the
big one".
You know, "This is gonna be it".
I was the only one that
really finally paid off for him,
you know?
Nominated for best male rock
vocal performance, singing about
Jessie's girl, is
Mr. Rick Springfield!
The first check we got from RCA
was over a million dollars.
It's mind-blowing.
I think Joe had pretty good
karma, and this magic studio
sprung up out of this ass-ugly
complex in Van Nuys.
And all these people just
started coming.
It was amazing.
All during the '80s, we were
booked solid. You listen to one of these
stations where they played
rock 'n' roll, 7 or 8 out of the
Sound City.
Describe Hollywood in the
'80s.
Hollywood in the '80s -
I don't remember.
It was all, like, you know, the hair
bands. It was all the makeup, all the
pretty boys, you know.
'Cause I'm a wanted man
I was wondering who ever used
the board after us if they had a
burning sensation the next
morning.
Then they'd know we were there.
Some kind, some kind
of friend you turned out to be
I only did one record at
Sound City.
It was more family than any
studio I've ever been to.
You know, "family" might be a
bit heavy, but it was a warm
feeling between us and the
people that worked there.
Dio, "Holy Diver".
Yeah, you know that record.
Stand up and shout
Let it out
Stand up and shout
Paula was Italian.
That's an in.
Ronnie and I are Italian, so we
got on with her great, and they
just let us do whatever we wanted.
It was so cool.
We were having such a good time
at Sound City, almost like it
was a hang, and we just had to
play.
I think it was a lucky thing,
I think, for all of us.
I met Barbara there - I met her
for the first time in front of
that board.
Baby's got the cold feet
Oh, baby, stay
We got all night
I have a lot of stuff that
formed me in that place, in
Sound City.
You know, you're in your 20s
and you don't realize that this
might not last forever.
... On my knees tonight
Tonight
You don't know what's coming
after.
Considering its quality and
size, the compact disc most
certainly will become a part of
our lives in the future.
It's all based on something
called "digital sound," an
innovative technique that uses
lasers.
We've been sold a bill of goods
about digital being so great.
"You can duplicate it forever,
and you never lose anything".
The industry is behind it
unanimously. 11 companies,
from Mitsubishi
to Sony, have all agreed on
using the same compact disc and
the same equipment.
Everybody thought that was
great.
But the thing that was wrong was
they'd already lost everything
when they did that.
It plays, theoretically,
pure, perfect sound forever.
In the beginning, when they
created the algorithms that
decide how music is recorded
into the digital domain, there's
a mistake in it.
So, of course, you can duplicate
this.
You know, it was kind of a
mirage.
The official company
spokesman, Mr. Spock,
Leonard Nimoy.
The sound is great.
We've been using it on the
Enterprise for decades.
It's about time it got to
earth.
Everything changed.
You had a lot of things coming
at you at once.
The techno side of it...
This guy named Roger Linn,
who is a friend of ours, I
remember Tom and I once went
over to his house, and
Jim Keltner was there.
And there were all these wires
and gadgets out on the desk.
Roger was tinkering.
"What are you doing?"
He goes, "I'm building a drum
machine".
All the drum samples
were my own drums.
You had to be a drummer to
sample drum sounds in those days.
Hey
I got really, really good at
it, and I really loved it.
And it's just a tool.
It's just another way to make
music.
Don't come around here no
more
Digital was in its infancy.
In the '80s, everybody was
trying to be state-of-the-art.
People were saying, "You only
have 24 faders, and we want 32,
We want 72".
Whoop-de-doo.
Getting stronger
Don't come around here no
more
Keith Olsen left Sound City
and built a studio right next
door.
That was the weirdest thing, you
know?
You'd go out in the parking lot,
there'd be Keith Olsen.
I did this thing with
Rick Springfield.
I told Joe Gottfried, "I want
you to build me a studio.
And I will give you the specs,
and I'll put in the gear".
He told me one day, "You got
to see this studio I built".
You know, and so I go in, and
he's got a board with one fader.
And I said, "Well, what do you
do with that?"
He goes, "That's all I need".
You know, "It's all in the
computer".
He goes, "Wait till you hear
what I'm doing".
You know, and I thought, "Well,
I don't give a fuck".
Hey
I want some shit to play with.
You know, I want to turn knobs,
and I can't trust this.
Keith Olsen clearly had a lot
to do with making Sound City
what it is.
But then, if you went to his
studio next door, it was nothing
like Sound City.
It was the precursor to the
digital studio.
That was an interesting time
in music, where sequencers were
starting to come out.
Now you can record audio
into the computer. Wow.
We could manipulate it in ways we
never could've done on tape before.
And then you can think about
stuff in different ways.
It was a whole new world.
Here I go again on my own
Going down the only road I've
ever known
But here I go again
In the '80s, everything was a
lot more digital.
Things started to get more
processed.
Everything started sounding
really overproduced, with a
cannon-shot snare.
Here I go-o-o-o-o
Sound City couldn't keep up.
Joe was way over his head,
and not just with the studio.
At that time, we made a lot
of mistakes.
We'd spent a lot of money
chasing other acts.
And then, one day, Rick decided
he wanted to go with the
younger, better manager, in his
opinion.
I was kind of talked into
switching managers.
And, um, I didn't do it very
well.
It was supposed to be that
Joe was like Colonel Parker, and
Rick was Elvis, you know?
That's the way we all thought
about it, you know?
Rick Springfield made some
money for Joe and stuff, but Joe
became like a second father to
him.
Rick was his baby.
This guy talked me into, you
know, dumping Joe.
And there was a lot of untruths
told, you know?
Joe was completely shattered
when it happened.
It shattered me, too, but not
personal like it did to him.
It was really a bad day for
him, you know?
That happened, then drum
machines and all that stuff.
And, you know, synthesizers and
stuff like that started taking
over.
It just got a little haywire.
By the late '80s, Sound City,
it just couldn't compete.
I guess there was a time when
studios got nicer and nicer.
Like, some studios had hot tubs.
But, at Sound City, you just
wanted to work and get the hell
out of there.
It was not a place you wanted to
spend time.
And it seemed like it would've
been so easy to clean it up.
But just no one took it upon
themselves to do that.
Aaaaaaaaaah
I got up, after nine years at
Sound City, $29,000 for the
year, no health insurance.
Joe took it away.
He couldn't afford it.
And then when Joe wouldn't give
me my second week vacation,
that's when I said, "I'm
leaving".
By the time I got to
Sound City, it was really dying.
We had a tech who was dealing
drugs, receptionist who wanted
to hang out with Keith Olsen
more than be at the studio.
So I got rid of her.
I remember Keith telling me
I was wasting my time and the
studio would be closed in
six months.
I told him to go fuck himself
and get out.
I took the last 200 bucks out of
my checking account and bought
paint, and we painted the walls.
Sound City was dead.
It was dead.
To be honest, I don't even
remember how the fuck we picked
Sound City.
It's a gritty place, but we
were used to living on the edge,
so it's just like - it was
roomy.
It was comfortable.
I think it was like 600 bucks a day.
accommodations.
I think maybe $60k was the
budget for the whole record.
We had these songs, and we
busted them out.
We had a pretty good idea of
what we wanted to do.
He's the one who likes
all our pretty songs
As much as we loved noise and
we loved crazy-ass punk-rock
shit, we wanted to be a good
band.
We loved The Beatles.
Don't know what it means
One of the craziest songs
that we recorded was "Lithium".
For whatever reason, the band
and Dave kept speeding up.
Not subtly, but a lot.
It would start out a certain
tempo and then keep going faster
and faster.
Racing along, basically.
I said, "Dave, have you ever
played with a click track
before?"
My heart just went crack!
Aaaah!
I was fucking - I just felt
like someone had stabbed me in
the fucking brain.
When you're a drummer, you don't
want anyone to ask you to play
to a click track, you know?
That human feel is what gives a
player their personality.
Some drummers don't really
know how to play to something
that's keeping them in line like
a click track.
I'm so happy 'cause
today I found my friends
Lo and behold, the first
take, man, he locked in like
he'd played to a click a
thousand times.
And I think we got the song,
like, the first or second take.
Yea-ea-ea-h-h
Yea-ea-h yea-ea-ea-h-h
And then, when I listened to
it, I'm like, "Well, now it
sounds like the fucking chorus
is slowing down.
It's okay to speed up a little,
isn't it?"
Yea-ea-h
Yea-ea-ea-h-h
I remember, every night, we'd
bring a cassette back from
Sound City to the Oakwood
apartments, where we were
staying, and listen to what we
had done that day.
Those imperfections, that's
cool.
And it makes it sound like
people.
And Kurt was entirely about
performance.
To us, it was most important
that there was an honesty and
truth to what we were doing.
I don't care
I don't care
I don't care
I don't care
I don't care if it's old
The music came through the
speakers in a way that was
primal.
You could hear the sweat in the
tracks.
You could hear Kurt's vocal
cords.
If you have, if you need
Looking back at Sound City, I
realize so much of that record
is about performance.
When we tried to record
"Something in the Way," the band
tried to record it live in the
big tracking room, and it was
just too, kind of, big and
bombastic-sounding.
That song had to be right
because it was such a delicate,
fragile composition.
Underneath the bridge
The tarp has sprung a leak
Kurt came into the control
room, and he started playing
the song.
He laid in front of the Neve on
this couch, and I turned off the
fans and the phones and
everything, and he played the
song just barely mumbling,
barely singing, and barely
playing that 5-string guitar.
And the drippings from the
ceiling
You had to focus on making it
correct and the way it should
be, which isn't necessarily
perfect.
It just feels right.
Something in the way
Mmm-mmm
That was when I first saw a
computer used with music,
because it was so hard to play
to that guitar.
I couldn't really figure out
how to get the performances
locked together without trying
to do crazy edits with him.
Somebody had told me about this
new digital machine.
So, this technician brought
in a computer and a screen, and
it was like the - it was
basically like Pro Tools or
something.
Mmm-mmm
It was archaic.
It was incredibly slow.
You can't do what you can these
days in Pro Tools.
You had this "render" button,
and it would take like two
hours.
We used to call it
"Slow Tools," 'cause it just
used to just slow everything
down.
And then, when you finally
listened to it, if you didn't
like it, you had to hit "undo"
and try another one and hit
"render" again.
It would take, like, another
two hours.
The computer was such a pain
in the butt.
It's just like, this will
just - this is a gimmicky
thing.
Good thing we have tape.
This will never take off".
When I hear
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" on the
radio, I remember those really
simple moments of being in the
studio.
And those 15 days or 16 days,
whatever it was, that board -
totally changed my life.
Nirvana!
Nirvana!
Nirvana!
Nirvana!
Here we are now
Entertain us
Sound City would not have
survived if it was not for that
record.
You know?
Nobody had ever heard of
Nirvana, but it went right up to
number one.
We knew right after that we'd
get a lot of business.
A denial
It was like Fleetwood Mac all
over again.
Joe was always really good
to me.
There was a plaque that he had
brought over to me when
"Nevermind" hit number one.
And we hung it on the wall, and
it was just a couple weeks later
that Joe actually passed away.
He was absolutely a beautiful
person, so absolutely a doll of a guy.
And I didn't - I didn't treat
him very well.
You know, with the separation.
And, um...
So I'm really glad we made up,
you know, before he died.
It was a sad day.
He helped a lot of people do a
lot of things in their career.
I remember coming back to
Sound City.
I hadn't been there in a while.
And the record had gotten big.
And they sent them a platinum
record.
I remember opening the door and
seeing that.
And it was such a huge moment
for me.
I was just like...
Because I remembered walking in
there for the first time and
seeing all of those other
records.
To me, Sound City represents
some sort of integrity like a
truth, which is very human.
Actual people doing this thing
that inspired millions and
millions of fans all over the
place to do the same thing.
That September, the phones
just blew up.
I mean, you come in the morning,
there'd be, like, 50 messages.
It's like this tidal wave of
interest, and it was a
no-brainer - Sound City.
We chose Sound City because
"Nevermind" was recorded there.
I had never been in a studio
before.
There was a lot of time spent,
like, cutting a tape at an angle
and taping it together.
It just, to me, seemed crazy. Like,
that didn't make any sense to me.
Killing in the name of
We did our record at
Sound City like a live show.
We brought monitors in, and
we invited a bunch of our
friends down.
I think we got half the record
in that one night.
Killing in the name of
Things got a lot more raw and
down-to-earth again.
I had started to get into
simplification and analog tape
and vintage equipment and that
kind of thing.
And so, obviously, all roads led
to a place like Sound City.
It became the center of my life.
I had a date for the 11th hour
Ohhhhhhhh
All the Catholics stuff, that was
all live to two-track, no overdubs.
After making records in the '80s
and working towards perfection
and click tracks, and all this
kind of stuff, suddenly to just
do, like, rocking out and have
it recorded, and it's all done,
it just felt really right.
Well, who needs that now?
Ah, who needs that now?
I kept working there pretty
much into the '90s with Rick.
All they kept on saying about
was, "Ah, there's no Paula.
This is really weird".
And I was just, like, "You know,
seriously?"
Shivaun was great.
She didn't take no shit off
nobody.
Yeah
You wreck me, baby
Yeah, you break me in two
Then, right after that, Rick did
a record with Johnny Cash.
He was the coolest guy in the
world, and he was really humble.
He was sick during the making of
that record, and there were
times where we would have to
take breaks, but he loved
recording.
He loved being an artist.
Too cold to start a fire
I'm burnin' diesel, burnin'
dinosaur bones
We kept on calling him
"Mr. Cash," and he would get upset.
He said, "No, call me Johnny".
So we all started calling him
"Mr. Cash" behind his back.
Johnny wanted to play with
a band, and he picked us, which
was totally off the map for me.
It was never like
The Heartbreakers playing their
normal stuff, because, for each
song, everybody would pick up
different instruments.
Gonna break my rusty cage
And run
One of my greatest nights was
when Carl Perkins came down.
I was the runner, and I'll
never forget sitting at the
front desk at Sound City and
Tom Petty and Carl Perkins and
John Fogerty walked in, and it
was just like...
"Wow".
Come on, go with me, babe
Come on, go with me, girl
Tom Petty never loses his
cool, and he walked out of the
control room totally calm, and
he just, like, slammed his hands
down on the table and goes,
"It's Carl fucking Perkins.
Can you believe it?"
Good ol' Sound City came
through for us again.
Other rooms in other studios
all around town started to shift
because more and more people
started to use Pro Tools.
Everybody just jumped on this
bandwagon of, you know,
"Everything's got to be
digital" - digital consoles,
digital tape machines.
I mean, they hadn't decorated
since 1974.
They sure as shit weren't gonna
spend 20 grand on a fucking
Pro Tools rig, you know?
When you came to work at
Sound City, you knew what you
were getting.
It was a tape-based studio.
At some point, it became
cultural - "We're against
that".
Starts from the runner all the
way up to all the engineers and
the studio manager.
They were just against it.
Like, digital sucks.
You know, bring them in the
room and mike them up and just
let tape roll.
Well, I've got a secret I
cannot say
Blame all the movement to give
it away
That's what Queens was all
about. We were not only analog.
It needed to be live.
It needed to be something you
could be proud of that you had
done, you know?
It was just what you had to do
if you were a real musician.
Whatever you do
Don't tell anyone
Sound City was a place where
real men went to make records.
It wasn't gonna be easy.
But, you know, all good things
take an effort.
And make a mark on the tape.
And that is gonna be where I'm
gonna cut.
When you have to record on
tape, it's pretty difficult to
manipulate the sound.
We do the same thing there.
You have to really focus,
one, on how it sounds going in,
and then, two, the performance
has to be amazing.
Okay.
Part of making it in the
record business back in the old
days was that there was
something you could do and
nobody else could do that.
Pro Tools has enabled people -
any average, ordinary person -
to achieve those sorts of
results now.
To do that same thing with
Pro Tools - there we go,
done - it's really that simple.
When Pro Tools came in, it
freaked me out when I realized
that you could drag music onto
the grid and make it sound
perfect.
The good thing about the
digital technology is if
somebody makes a mistake, like
the bass player hits a wrong
note or something, you might be
able to fix it much easier than
we used to.
The not-so-great is, it's
kind of enabled people that have
no business being in a band or
the music industry to become
stars.
I heard some young guy in a
band say, "Well, you don't have
to practice anymore.
You know, you just slice it up
in the machine," meaning the
computer, "and it comes out
perfectly".
Somebody like Andrs Segovia,
you know, who played the guitar
beautifully.
There's no machine is gonna do
that.
I am not a Pro Tools fan.
But Trent and Atticus, they
really use it as a tool, and a
real creative tool.
I never went into the kind of
fear of, "It's cheating".
I never use samplers as a way to
sound like the real thing.
It was really amazing, 'cause
here's a thing that can record
sound like tape, but you can
fuck with it in million
different ways.
It's just a wildly inspiring
tool, really.
I believe I can see the
future
I like to record it in analog
at the highest level and listen
to it that way.
But that's not what's happening
on the street.
That's not where our audience
is.
You want them to live their
lives the way they want to live
it.
I think it makes a lot of
independent music right now
possible.
It's one of the reasons why
we're able to make records for a
couple hundred bucks.
I think one of the big tape
manufacturers went out of
business, so that really pushed
everybody into the digital world
and the Pro Tools world.
The days of moving into the
studio and writing your record
and recording your record and
mixing your record, those days
are gone now.
They used to have $200,000,
$300,000 $400,000 budgets to do
an album.
Now the money is just not there
the way it used to be.
Budgets were so small, we'd
be tracking late five days,
It was always last-minute,
"Can you work this afternoon?"
or whatever.
So...
In the end, it was a little
hard to swallow.
You know, we started selling off
the gear in studio "B", 'cause
the studio was way behind on
bills.
Lover, there will be
another one
Who'll hover over you
beneath the sun
Most of the great studios
have gone out of business, and a
lot of what you hear on the
radio was made on people's
laptops.
I think Pro Tools just really
was, to a lot of people, was the
death knell.
It always was an insider
place - always.
But it could not survive against
Pro Tools.
You know, the internet's cool
for some stuff, but, like many
things, there's no bookstore,
there's no music store, and
there's no Sound City.
And show you the way to
go
It's over
It's over
I had heard that Sound City
was about to close.
Someone said, "You should call
Shivaun".
And I talked to Shivaun, and she
was in tears, man.
It was - it was heavy.
Sound City was my home.
And, basically, after all those
years - after 19 years, laid
off, no severance pay, no
medical, nothing.
Shivaun was like - she was
like a mom to me, you know?
I - I left my mom.
My mom was in Tennessee and then
I was out here, and Shivaun was
so cool, man.
I love her so much.
Shadow on the things you
know
Sorry.
Feathers fall around you
Yes, it's been hard.
It still - I try to move on,
but it's - it's hard.
It's over
It's over
Ooh, ooh
Looking back, I was just a
kid when I walked into
Sound City, and that board is
the reason I'm here right now.
I'd do anything for it.
This big room and that Neve
console is what got us all the
big rock 'n' roll bands.
We're digging out all this
stuff, and I never dreamed, in a
million years, I could find
this.
Here's the original order for
the Neve console.
Oh, my god.
Really?
Wow!
And whose signature - is that
Rupert Neve's signature?
Who's that?
I'm gonna give that to you if
you'd like it.
Tom, thank you so much, man.
You're welcome.
Historic document, there.
It really is.
Thank you very much, my friend.
Thank you.
Tom, that's great, man.
Wow!
That Neve console, we sold to
Dave, and that's how all this
all started.
All right. Let's do this.
To me, it's, like - it's a
living, breathing piece of the
music that we've made.
It's just as instrumental as any
instrument that's run through
it.
It's the sound of the records
that were made at Sound City.
This thing is a piece of
rock 'n' roll history.
I thought that board would
just go straight to the
Rock 'n' Roll hall of fame.
I thought no one was gonna get
that board.
I think they knew, like, I
wasn't just gonna bubble-wrap it
and stick it in a warehouse.
I was gonna fucking use it...
A lot.
Trying to pull it through a
window.
I spent so much time sitting
over here, playing with these
things.
Well, was it still sitting
there, Dave?
Yeah, you know, it had been
working.
So, the first thing I really
wanted to do was invite everyone
back to make this new record.
Giving that old board this new
life with new music.
Telling the story of Sound City
is one thing.
Plugging in and actually putting
it through the board and putting
it on a 2-inch reel?
That's what I'm talking about.
They don't talk much about
it
It goes back so many years
All the times we almost didn't
make it
We stayed clear
We walked through the
darkness
And made a pact not to dance
with the devil
Even when the devil seemed to
have a heart
He said we'd never be sorry
For what we've done
And we never allowed the devil
to come to the party
I messed up.
It's amazing.
Want to do another?
Sure.
You want to take it up
through verse one and verse two,
up to that first chorus?
Yeah.
What we're hoping to do on
this album is to catch a little
bit of that vibe that was
captured when all those classic
records were made at Sound City.
We'll try to put some of that
into this album.
... Sorry
For what we've done
And we never allowed the devil
to come to the party
You can't fix this
You lost a friend
Hearts breaking
Right and left
Fuckin' "A".
That girl can sing.
Any input from the foos?
Just go.
I'm not - just do what you do.
I am kind of radical, you
know.
Never dance with the devil
Keep running, yeah
There's a reason why these
people have achieved these
things that they've achieved.
You can hear it. You can see it.
Don't ever dance with the
devil
He will burn you dow-ow-n
You can't fix this
That's rad. Sounds rad.
And I get to do my snake
dance.
I'm just feeling very wonderful
to be in your studio with this
board and know that this board
was the first place that we did
"Buckingham Nicks".
"15458 Cabrito Road, Van Nuys,
California".
This is a letter that I wrote to
my mom and dad and my brother in
the middle of the making of
"Buckingham Nicks".
"Dear mom and dad and Chris,
Well, here I am once again at
the famous Sound City recording
studio".
"Sound City, Inc. "
Ta-da!
"I'm getting very tired of
sitting around listening to
Oh, well.
I know it will pay off in the
end.
It will all be worth it.
I hope that all of my little
family is doing fine and not
working too hard.
Moving right along, I just want
to say that I certainly do miss
you all and wish you could be
here to hear some of this stuff.
Lindsey may go down in history
as one of the greats in guitar
playing.
It really is quite amazing.
Well, no more news as of yet.
So much love to you all, and
hold good thoughts about this
thing.
I love you. Stevie".
I think it really is a
testament to how many people
actually did love Sound City and
do love that Neve console and
want to be part of history.
I was bragging to everybody.
"Guess who I'm calling tonight?
Rick fucking Springfield".
I've always just been a big
believer in the power of the song.
To me, the highest I ever feel
is in the middle of writing a
song that I think I've hooked
into something, you know?
I had an idea.
I don't know if it would work.
But would you want to try
something?
So, if we played over the riff,
it goes...
That'd be really cool.
Let's try it from the top and
see how that sounds.
Yeah. I think it's a great part.
It's got "Rick Springfield"
written all over it.
It's awesome.
I love it.
It's got that stress rock.
I like that.
I just want to go hang out in
the studio.
I just like the process.
I love doing things on the fly
and in the studio...
I'm just trying to think what
would be nice to - if we - to
get back into that section.
...And just kind of play
arrangements in a repetitive
fashion over and over and over
until some little change
happened.
What did you just do?
You did something kind of cool.
"D", "A".
A little happy accident or
whatever, and it's like,
everyone, "Oh, what was that
that just happened?"
That's part of the arrangement
now.
Oh, that'd be so great, and
then right out of there, you
just fucking go, "Aah!"
It's the perfect pair of
pants.
It really is.
But the good thing about
learning while you're recording,
what you sometimes accidentally
get is something good if you
don't have any idea what you're
doing.
And the sense of discovery,
like, is a big part of it.
Everybody gets it all at
once, and that's the first time
you ever played it, and it's got
everything new for the first
time.
It's like your first anything.
And that's the cherry of all
time.
What if we tried doing the
Rick part as a pre-chorus?
Yes! Ha!
That's so good!
'Cause then it goes into the
chorus.
That's awesome!
Better be good now, Pat.
I know.
I can't say that I like her
manner
I can't say that I like her
face
I'm carved up on a silver
platter
Serve warm
She's a real head case
I won't wait for an
invitation
I can't stand for the
sacrifice
I won't die as an unknown
soldier
I won't even try
We came in, we practiced the
song, played it a few times -
kind of a bunch of times - and
we did it live.
How special was that?
Just like the man that
never was
Just like
Just like the man that never
was
Just like the man that never
was
All the elements of it - the
playing, the writing - it's
something that will pull you out
of bed every morning and make
you resist going to bed at
night, 'cause you want to keep
working on it.
Music's been that for me.
I am the man that never was
Great. Thanks.
There's darkness in you, boy.
Oh, yeah, a lot of darkness
in me.
It's dark and so cool, man.
I've spent a lot of time in
front of that board.
Thanks, Dave.
It's a great enabler.
Great, man.
Anybody that's been to
Sound City knows exactly why I'm
making this record.
They get it.
I have an idea.
Why don't we just start it
Lee Ving style where you go...
Oh, I'm on it!
Your wife is calling
Tell her I'm not here
Your wife is calling
Just having one beer
Your wife is calling
Da uber frau
Your wife is calling
Be home in half an hour
Your wife is calling
You say something, dear?
Your wife is calling
Just having more beer
Your wife is calling
You've not to fear
Your wife is calling
Lift your voice, sing for
beer
In the studio, you're trying
to boost your own performance
from the energy that you're
feeding from in your partners.
Your wife is calling
You can't do that if you're
standing there alone.
Your wife is calling
Your wife is calling
Your wife is calling
Your wife is calling
Your wife is calling
Fuck, yeah.
It's a conversation, and that's
a musical relationship that I
think everybody searches for.
I think the downside these days
is thinking that, "I can do this
all on my own".
Yes, you can do this all on your
own, but you'll be a much
happier human being to do it
with other human beings, and I
can guarantee you that.
How would you define "feel"?
Feel is - is just a part of
who you are.
It just comes from where you -
where you're coming from.
It's just the way your heart
beats, you know?
Everybody's heart beats a little
different.
Everybody's got a little
different feel.
"Feel" doesn't mean you're in
time.
You know, 'cause something might
have a really out-of-time kind
of feel.
It might be gloriously out of
tune and just be awesome.
It's a chemistry - something
that happens between people.
Feel is not something that you
learn in a book.
Feel is something that you find
as a musician.
It's like when you take in a
breath, your body swells up.
When you exhale, it collapses a
bit, and sometimes music does
that so subtle.
But feel is being human.
No two musicians are the same,
even if we're playing the same song.
No two musicians do it the same
way.
It's so hard to be understood
in life, and that's why, when
you meet someone where you
understand each other at that
moment, you sort of want to hold
on to it, you know?
When someone has great feel,
whether it's a drummer or a
guitar player, it kind of makes
you fall in love with their
personality.
You realize what a beautiful
person they are, you know?
There's a lot of people
growing up now that won't do
studio time and have never
touched a compressor that's the
one that's being emulated as the
picture on their plug-in on
their laptop.
They're missing out on
something.
You know?
Trent is using technology as
an instrument, not as a crutch.
He doesn't need it.
He's one of the most brilliant
people I've ever met in my
entire life.
He's the person that could
inspire the digital end of this
conversation.
Hey, you guys, no fucking way
with the smoke machine.
There's no fucking
way that's gonna go down.
I'll take the smoke machine
in here.
My grandma pushed me into
piano.
I remember, when I was 5, I
started taking classical
lessons.
I liked it, and I felt I was
good at it.
I knew, in life, I was supposed
to make music.
Feels like a need a
differentiator there - a cool
bass part.
The sound I have is not right.
That's not helping things at the moment.
I could do better than that.
Are you hearing something you
want to try with the bass here?
You're not stepping on my toes.
I practiced long and hard and
studied and learned how to play
an instrument that provided me a
foundation where I can base
everything I think of in terms
of where it sits on the piano.
I sort of liked that, at one
point, it kind of got there, and
then it backed off.
It can kind of brood and be
really simple and empty and sort
of kind of like lift the curtain
on it, and it can expand.
All right, can I just say
that that is fucking awesome?
That, right there, sounds so
fucking beautiful.
I really like the sound of these
three things together.
I think it sounds really cool.
Okay, then let's keep doing
it that way.
This whole thing should just
sunrise.
It would make it beautiful,
you know?
It sort of, like, evolves until
it hits this point and maybe
goes zoom!
When I'm writing music today,
rarely do I sit down and think,
"Oh, this should resolve to that
suspended... "
You know, I don't think of that
shit.
But, subconsciously, I know I
do.
And just when you've sold that
enough, that's the time to
change to an ending and sort of
like let it rip a little bit.
You know what I mean?
I like having that foundation in
there, and that's a very
un-punk-rock thing to say.
But understanding an instrument
and thinking about it and
learning that skill has been
invaluable to me.
Ah.
That was pretty good.
Sounded pretty good to me,
too.
I've found now, as processors
have gotten faster and
programmers have gotten
smarter...
...There's some pretty music
tools that are showing up in the
digital world.
Yeah, take me to the top of
the drop.
The tools are better.
You know, tools are much better
today than they were five years
ago - certainly, 30 years ago.
Now that everyone is empowered
with these tools to create
stuff, has there been a lot more
great shit coming out?
Not really.
You still have to have something
to do with those tools.
Rad.
Yeah, just, you know...
You should really try to have
something to say.
It all started with this idea
that I wanted to tell the story
of the board.
The conversation became
something much bigger.
Like, in this age of technology,
where you can simulate or
manipulate anything, how do we
retain that human element?
How do we keep music to sound
like people - that feeling that
I got when I was young - "Oh,
I can do that, too"?
Let's go do it.
My musical foundation was
The Beatles.
Everything I know about playing
guitar and song structure,
composition, all of it, it all
started with The Beatles.
I like the chandelier, too, man.
It's a nice touch.
Um, so, we don't know what
we're doing...
...so we can just do
anything.
Just - yeah.
I think he knows how you feel
when you play with him. I don't know.
I can't really describe it.
I drop from the most nervous
I've ever been down to like,
"Oh, this is - okay".
Yeah!
Yeah.
Mama
Won't you set me free?
Mama
Let me be
About halfway through the
session, I kind of looked over
at Krist when we were playing,
and we were going for it.
And you know, Krist was moving
the way he used to move, and you
were getting into it...
...and I was playing.
And I thought, "Oh, my god!
This is like Nirvana!"
And then, "Wait.
Paul McCartney is here?"
This is the best way to make
records, when you get people in
a room together and you don't
know what's gonna happen.
You just hit "record" and keep
your fingers crossed that it's
gonna explode.
Mama!
The limitations of this - it
forces you to make decisions
based on what's most important
to translating that song.
If we start...
Gah gah gah gah
Gah gah gah
One of the things, I think,
that makes good music is some
sort of restriction.
And then you want to go to
the - should we - and then go
into the...
And that's where 24-track
mentality comes in.
You commit to what it is.
With Pro Tools, you can always
come back to it, or you can
change it or you can add to it,
to try and make it work.
You know?
'Cause you're not being forced
to make choices - creative
ones.
Maybe then go to the...
"A"
We don't know what's gonna
come on top of this
But something is
That, we'll find out later
And then go to the riff
Breakdown
Like the intro.
I think you should go to that
"A" maybe one more time.
It's such a lift.
Yeah.
After staying in that "D" for
so long, it just has such a
great impact when it goes up
there, and it's so quick.
It's just four times through.
If this mike was in the
room
so it's live.
That's all right.
Do it. Make it simple.
Make it fast.
Don't overthink it.
Let it, like, come straight out
of you, and do it.
Dear mama
Set me free
Oh, mama
Let me be
Oh, mama
Watch me run
Mama
I wanna have some fun
Whoo ooh-ooh-ooh ooh ooh
Whoo ooh-ooh-ooh ooh ooh
Well, mama
Don't let me down
Mama
Wanna go to town
Yeah
Magical.
You didn't even know what the
hell you were doing, but it's
genius.
Exactly.
That's my autobiography.
"I didn't know what the hell
I was doing".
"I wasn't thinking: The
Krist Novoselic story".
"What was I thinking?"
"I wasn't thinking".
There's a lift.
Yeah.
It would be nice if this
would sort of...
Yeah.
"Ah".
Maybe even if it came after the
lift.
Ah
You let the lift happen.
And then take it further with a
chord - vocal chord.
Yeah.
Ah
Whatever it is.
Ah
Who sings? You do?
Me and you.
Krist?
No.
No. I'm just checking.
How long do you want to
be here?
Are you double-parked?
Just checking.
So, let's just try it, and then
you tell us what's wrong with
it.
Yeah, let's tell
Paul McCartney what to do.
Ahhhh
Ahhhh
Sounds pretty cool.
Should we do it in the other
section, too?
Okay.
Why can't it always be this
easy?
It is.
Yeah-eah
Whoo-ooh-ooh
Ahhh
If you want to take a ride,
you got to cut me some slack
Don't get me wrong
I might not come back
Getting a chance to play
music with the person that is
the reason why I'm a musician,
and recording through the board
that's the reason why I'm here
today, it was a huge full-circle
moment for me.
I think it's really
important - and it's a lesson I
didn't learn until in my late
teens - is that whatever bands
that you love, go find out what
bands they love and what bands
turn them on.
And then you really start
getting into the human aspect of
it, because the further back you
go in time, the less technology
you had and, consequently, the
better records that you had.
There's this incredible library
of music, thank god, that is still there.
Ahhh
If you want to take a ride,
you got to cut me some slack
Don't get me wrong
I might not come back
Whoo ooh-ooh-ooh ooh ooh
Whoo ooh-ooh-ooh ooh ooh
Be true to yourself and make
the music that you love.
Go out and play.
Turn people on to your music.
Spread it yourself.
Don't think it happens any other
way.
Let me be
Let's rock, let's play, let's
record, let's play it back.
"Wait till you hear this".
I can't wait to get in my car to hear it.
I'm gonna play it for my friend.
I'm making a copy.
I'm gonna blast for fucking
to it.
Mama, ma-ma-mama watch me
go
Mama, watch me rock
Wanna have some fun
Just wanna have some fun
Yeah, set me free
Set me free
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Ohhhhhh, yeah
Whoo
What was the name of your
first band? The Icy Blues.
It was called Bloodfest.
Yeah! Good name.
My first band was called
Fury, and we were a Kiss cover
band.
Which was your favorite?
My favorite Kiss record?
Yeah.
Oh, I - I could never
choose.
What was your first band?
My first band was Autocracy.
Huh?
A band called The Senders.
The Pixies.
The Pixies was your first
band?
Absolutely.
No band before that?
No.
Really?
Yeah.
Wow.
I'd been in practically every
other kind of band - blues
bands, punk-rock bands, standard
rock 'n' roll bands, top-40
bands, jazz-rock fusion bands.
In New York, I had a band called
Daybreak.
Did you have a band?
Had a band.
What was the band?
The Pricks.
Made sense to me, too.
Okay, so, coming up on the
right, you know, we have the
Budweiser brewery, which...
on a good night...
smells like someone burping
right in your face.
The thing that was cool about
the brewery is, like, every band
that came there always wanted to
go take the tour.
So they would always go over
there and come back with cases
of Budweiser and then sit around
and get hammered all the rest of
the night.
But that smell - I'll never
forget that smell when the front
doors of Sound City were open on
a good, windy day.
The smell of hops would just
fill the whole building.
It was just, "Ew, what is that?"
Beer smells like poop.
You know, apparently, Budweiser
smells like poops.
And the funny thing I
remember, when Gladys Knight and
The Pips were there, and they
walked out and they went,
"Whoo-whee! Is that you?"
You know, they were, like,
kidding each other about it.
But it was pretty strong -
pretty...
See? Smell it.
Hmm.
There you go. You got it.
Gonna be a good night.
Heard a song on the radio
just after school
Back from the '80s,
before Reagan was cool
The band wore leather, and the
boys were lookin' so pretty
They rocked all the clubs
down on Sunset
Doin' all those things
that we try to forget
When they screamed out there,
the guitars sounded so pretty
If it sounds as good in your
room as it does in your car
You're on your way
to be a rock 'n' roll star
It's a good thing to say,
"Hey, boys, you're gonna go
far
I wanna play a song,
everyone sing along
Standin' on the stage
with the lights turned on
Wearin' those trends
with all my friends
Rockin' all night
like it'll never end
With all our dreams
hangin' on one little ditty
Yeah, we got it on 2-inch tape
down at Sound City
I wanna play a song,
everyone sing along
Standin' on the stage
with the lights turned on
Wearin' those trends
with all my friends
Rockin' all night
like it'll never end
I wanna play a song,
everyone sing along
Standin' on the stage
with the lights turned on
Wearin' those trends
with all my friends
Rockin' all night
like it'll never end
All those epic songs
with a phrase so witty
There's always room for two to
a car that offers no pity
All our dreams
hangin' on one little ditty
Yeah, we got it on 2-inch tape
down at Sound City
Oh, yeah
Got it on 2-inch tape
down at Sound City
Whoo-hoo-hoo
Got it on 2-inch tape
down at Sound City
Yeah, yeah, yeah
We got it on 2-inch tape
down at Sound City
Contaminator