simon dawson - recording the stone roses second coming

5/21/2018 Simon Dawson - Recording the Stone Roses Second Coming

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Simon Dawson: Recording The Stone Roses' Second Coming

Interview | Producer

that wasn't difficult. Technically, yeah, it was a bit of a feat getting the crossover at the mixing stage between the intro of 'Breaking Into Heaven'and the actual song -- just getting it to sit. !s far as the material "aul #chroeder had recorded was concerned, the $roblems were less acute.#ome of what had been recorded was scra$$ed and re- recorded, and the material which was reused had been recorded originally at%ockfield anyway, so there were fewer technical differences to match u$. !nd, as #imon ex$lains& ver the time I was engineering for "aul, Ithink the guys came to res$ect my o$inions. #o, when he left, it seemed like the natural thing to take over.

LIVE PHILOSOPHY

#imon also maintains that the various comings and goings in $ersonnel did not affect the $hiloso$hy behind the (". )ven before he had takenover as $roducer, the $lan had been to construct the (" from jamming and live $laying as a grou$& *e wanted it to sound more live and real,and we tried throughout the making of the record to $reserve as much of the band's live sound and feel as $ossible. +ou see, you very uicklyrealise with these guys that they love $laying and jamming. I've never $layed keyboards $rofessionally, but one of the first things that the bandgot me to do was jam along on the $iano with them. It was really exciting for me. he band came to %ockfield with all but two of the numbersthat made it onto the final (" already written '#traight o he /an' and '+our #tar *ill #hine' were written while there0, and s$ent hours

jamming the material in the studio, usually without click tracks, so that they could change tem$o and feel at will. ccasionally for exam$le,when recording '+our #tar *ill #hine', and '1riving #outh'0 they would jam to sam$led $ercussion loo$s. %eni's great at drumming to loo$s --you never get any flamming or anything, because he sort of drums around them. He's got a nice, loose, groovy feel, and it always works reallywell. In such cases, the band all used head$hones to monitor the loo$ so they could stay in time. *e did try using "! wedges to monitorsounds, but they didn't work -- we couldn't get them loud enough for the band without generating feedback, so we stuck to head$hones. heresults of the lengthy jams were, of course, recorded, as #imon went on to ex$lain& he whole record started with them jamming live to 1!s

-- in fact, Ian has got a $illowcase full of 1!s from those sessions -- because they like to ca$ture anything they can get.

/uch of the feel of the new (" derives from the 'live' $hiloso$hy. ne song, 'ightro$e', was jammed almost entirely around one mic, allowingfor no mistakes to be made while recording. #everal of the final vocal and guitar $arts used on the album are 'one-take' run-throughs -- forexam$le the vocal on 'ears', the backing on '1aybreak' that was done com$letely live, exce$t the vocal, which we did afterwards0 and themain guitar $art on '2ood imes'. Indeed, #imon sees '2ood imes' as an excellent exam$le of what they were trying to achieve& '2ood imes'is very live. !s I've said, the band don't usually $lay to clicks or anything, and '2ood imes' is a classic exam$le of a song which s$eeds u$ allthe way through, without it jarring on you. +ou never think h, they're s$eeding u$ -- the track just seems to grow naturally into that greatguitar solo at the end.

he 'kee$ it live' $hiloso$hy was even followed to the extent that technically $roblematic takes could be used in the final mix if the $erformancewas deemed worth it& #ometimes Ian'd $ick u$ a tambourine when he was singing, and that could cause $roblems. +ou can hear it a bit onthe beginning of 'ears', because that was a one-take vocal which had him with the tambourine and a harmonica all on one track. *eha$$ened to ca$ture that one day and we thought it was uite good. here were $laces like that where we thought, 'oh, we should fix that bit' --but for the sake of the $erformance, we went with what we had.

"TECHOLO!Y WORKS"

1es$ite the drive to $reserve the live feel on the album, #imon and the %oses were certainly not above using the technology that was to handin %ockfield to get the most out of the $erformances they recorded. ne of the keys to the way the album was recorded was the studio's 3evemixing desk, with built-in 4lying 4ader automation. ne anecdote shows how they worked to best effect, jamming to create somethinginteresting with a 1! machine in record0, and then using the desk facilities to $lace that material in the final mix. n 'Breaking Into Heaven',the song was going to be faded out at the end, but during one of the takes, instead of finishing the song, the band suddenly dro$$ed down intothis brilliant groove right at the end. I think it's $robably the best eight bars on the album. hat just had to go on. It was such a great groove thatI took that eight bars and edited it in at the front of the song as well. hat's how the main $art of the song starts now -- the vocal used to comein straight away, but now you get that great eight bars first.

"There were places where we thought 'oh, we should fi that !it' !ut for the sa#e of the perfor$ance, we went with what we had%"

he 3eve $layed a vital $art in the sound, mixing and construction of the album, as #imon ex$lained at length. I'm definitely a 3eve man,having done most of my work at %ockfield -- they're really warm desks, and I know them really well.

he %ecall facility on the 3eve was really useful for storing settings. 4or exam$le, the )5 on some of the rhythm loo$s we used was really

im$ortant. ver a long $eriod of time, you might forget what you were after when you first set the )5 -- so being able to instantly recall thesettings hel$ed to establish continuity in the mix. he reason I used the com$uter the whole time -- and in fact, the main reason we went 67-track on a lot of the material -- was to build u$ the album. I didn't like to lose anything, any of the vocals or guitar. ! lot of $eo$le com$ile guitartracks from lots of different takes, and wi$e out what they don't use, but we archived more or less everything. I'd do mixes on the com$uterusing mutes and faders, and then if at any later stage 8ohn 9#uire: said oh, I remember doing something great with feedback there, I hadthe freedom to come back to it. *e could $lay about with takes and decide which ones to use later.

I asked #imon whether the album had been recorded to analogue or digital& I'm an analogue man, because that's my ex$erience, and digitalmachines are still extremely ex$ensive.

SI #D THE $#%ILY STOE && RECORDI! THE ROSES
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2/5

he guitar sound on Second Coming is much harder than on the first (", on tracks like '(ove #$reads' and '1riving #outh' $articularly, andthere is more use of distortion. !sked about the overall sound of the album, #imon is uite forthcoming. #onically, the album is much biggerthan the first album. he guys are uite into distortion -- different kinds of distortion. 8ohn, for exam$le, likes digital distortion out of an !kai#;


3/5

around with it. *hat, then, was the strange $inging noise on Ian Brown's song '#traight o he /an', if not a synthD he answer, it a$$eared,was a 8ew's Har$.

hat was uite funny. It was just lying around in the control room the whole time, and I $icked it u$ and started $laying it in the control room.Ian went oh, that sounds good -- go in there and $ut it on. !nd that was that.

O*t/oard gear

#imon has a sim$le answer when asked about the $rocessors and reverbs used on the album. *e just used the stuff in the racks at %ockfield-- we didn't hire any gear in at all. 4or reverb, we're lucky enough to have natural chambers down there -- four main reverby rooms, which weused mainly for the guitar and vocals. !lso, there's a drum room next to the studio, which we built a few years ago, but it's a bit too live fordrums -- the cymbals end u$ sounding way over the to$. But it does sound great if you $ut a s$eaker in there, $lay your stuff through it and micthat u$. I used the $air of 3eumann 7?s for that. #o we used that room like a fifth chamber. *e hardly used digital reverbs at all. *e've got a(exicon @@6, which I used a bit, but it was just that and the chambers really. I know that Bill 9"rice, who was called in to mix the album: useduite a lot of (exicon 67< in the mixes -- he had two of them, because we moved on to /etro$olis #tudios in (ondon for the mixing, and wedidn't have chambers there.

Sam0,ing

he band have got an !kai #;


4/5

he #tone %oses Ian Brown, vocalsJ 8ohn #uire, lead guitarJ 2ary '/ani' /ounfield, bassJ !lan '%eni' *ren, drums0 formed in the mid-;>77>, and a string of eually successful singles which culminated in/arch ;>>


5/5

$lay in the studio until %eni came u$ with something that sounded uite groovy with /ani. 8ohn detuned his guitar and came u$ with the riffthat goes through the verse, which I thought was great. *e worked from there.

he end was uite a $roblem for a while -- where it all breaks down and then builds back u$ again. I had the idea of building u$ a lot ofbacking vocals, lots of lines and harmonies, and it was difficult getting it all to sit. 8ohn had a guitar idea from one of the earlier versions whichthe band really liked, so he $ut that it in about three-uarters of the way through the build-u$. But he wanted something similar to echo that atthe start of the build-u$. #o that's how you got the $iano coming in at the start of that build-u$. 4or uite a while, the ending sounded uitemessy, but it all came together in the end.

THE HIDDE TR#C-his was nothing to do with me at all -- it was something they did before they came to %ockfield. I know I'm credited with the keyboards, but Ididn't $lay them on that I think %eni $layed the $iano, Ian $layed the violin, and 8ohn was $laying the mandolin. It was something they did lateone night when they were with 8ohn (eckie and he'd wandered in with his 1! $layer -- it was just a bit of a joke, I think.

I don't think it was su$$osed to be found that easily -- it was su$$osed to shock $eo$le who'd left their G1 $laying while they were studying orwhatever. he working title was 'he 4oF' -- well, I say working title... that was what was written on the box, anyway...
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simon dawson - recording the stone roses second coming

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