You're originally from Newfoundland. You were taking psychology in school, and then you took a totally different turn into engineering.
Yeah. I always had an interest in music, ever since I can remember. I feel becoming a recording engineer/ producer is something that one trains for their entire life, and even once they become one it will forever be a learning experience. How many other careers on the planet give that opportunity? I did go to Recording Arts Canada, but I view it rather as a waste of time and money. The benefit of it was introducing me to Bob – as he was one of the lecturers – so I wouldn't have been an unsolicited resume when the time came. Prior to RAC, I did some university in other fields to appease my folks – psychology, philosophy, and naval architecture – but from childhood I trained to be a musician; classical piano and every instrument I could get my hands on. I started messing around with equipment and electronics – it also helped that my dad is an electrician who loved teaching me. I became involved in the sound system and music program crew at church. Growing up in the early '90s, I was mostly buying rock albums, and I loved them. I started dissecting sounds and effects, and anything I heard I'd wonder about. I knew from reading album credits that this was something I wanted to have my name in. The older I get, the more I look back on life and see so many scenarios that prepared me for this career. Scenarios that are worth so much more than formal education.
You studied naval architecture?
Boat building and oil rigs. I thought it was fun and I enjoyed it, academically, but I knew where my heart was. I'm so anti-recording school now, but it did give me opportunity and connection. My goal was to take a class and move back to Newfoundland to start my own studio, but I felt the need to send out some resumes here. I did that, and Bob Doige called me back. Grant Avenue was right in the middle of doing a Gordon Lightfoot record, when Gord had had a stomach aneurism. I never did move back to Newfoundland to start my own place. I got involved in a lot of projects here pretty quickly.
Grant Avenue has always had a high quality standard of engineer. What does Bob look for in engineers?
People will automatically assume that you get hired based on a course or great technical knowledge in this field. When they hired me, Bob said one of the biggest turn offs about my resume was the fact that I had taken a recording course. It took me a while, maybe a couple of years here, before I realized where he was coming from on that. The reason he hired me was because I had classical piano training; I knew how to read music, and that's a great skill to have. I knew how to solder; also a very good skill to have in this business. And psychology; that's the biggest reason he hired me, as I had one or two years of basic psychology knowledge. That is needed on a daily basis. He could have taught anybody how to learn the console and the gear. You can learn that from a book. But how to deal with people, deal with artists – with a singer who's having a bad day – and then how to deal with all the dynamics that are going on in a band itself – you need to be able to navigate that.
You've been here for how many years?
It'll be 18 in September 2020.
You're the longest-standing engineer here, right?
Other than Bob, yeah.
Could you describe the vibe of the studio?
I could write a book about that. When these guys [Bob Lanois and Daniel Lanois] decided to move the studio here in the '70s, at the time they were recording in their mom's basement in Ancaster [Ontario, Canada]. They outgrew that situation. They were working on projects with Raffi and Bruce Cockburn there. I'm sure it was a huge pain for them to convert this building from a house into an operating recording studio. They had to move plumbing and electrical. The number of miles of cable in this building for audio is insane. Their decision to put it here has made a huge impact on how people feel about it and why they like to come here. Aside from the history, the feeling when you walk in the front door is like you're coming home. Making music is such an intimidating process for a lot of people; even people who have been doing it for a long time. If they can do it in an environment that feels like their own living room, it takes down that wall. We feel sight line and body language among band members is important. The layout of the studio allows everybody to see each other's faces and read each other's body language. That certainly adds to the musicality of a performance. That has a lot to do with the charm of this place. We are pretty steadfast in that it's all analog gear, for the most part. That went out of fashion after some time, but it's back in trend and has come full-circle with the resurgence of vinyl and whatnot. We're finding that people are wanting to come here because of our old tube microphones, as well as the analog console. Most of our outboard gear is analog. Strange as it probably sounds, I feel this place is a living, breathing thing. Anybody else who has worked here probably feels the same way. It's so embedded in our fibers, at this point. We have been operating here since 1976, and I hope it stays that way for another 42 years or more.
You use a lot of analog gear still, but you use RADAR for tracking too?
Yeah. When I first started here, unfortunately they had just stopped using 2-inch tape for the everyday sessions because digital had come around. They were using Tascam DA-78s when I started, which I hate. They were terrible. Three machines running eight tracks apiece. The sync errors that I'd get every morning; I don't ever want to relive it. In 2005 we converted to RADAR, which is a Canadian-made digital hard drive [recorder] by iZ Technology. We had one of the first professional studio-grade ones here. We are on our second unit, and that's what we're still running now. Bob says it's the closest sound to 2-inch tape. That's what people are after, and operating it is very similar.
It operates in a linear fashion?
The transport system is still just play, stop, fast forward, and rewind. It does have some small editing capabilities. There are newer versions, which I haven't worked on yet, that are running Pro Tools in tandem with the operating system.
If you get called to do gigs in other studios, are you versatile on other systems? Would you be able to jump in on a Pro Tools session?
Not with the level of confidence I have here. For the most part, if anyone calls to work with me specifically, unless they're out of province or something, I ask if they would consider coming here. This is my wheelhouse. Doing sessions at other studios certainly requires some time to acclimatize to the gear, the room(s), the politics, and the overall vibe. Because I've been at Grant for so long most of my artists want to work here, so it's great for me. I have the technology portion down to a science, where I don't have to take any focus off of the artist ever, unless a problem arises that needs attention. If I were to go to another place to do a session, many studios are software based or in-the-box, and I don't want to be using a mouse or dealing with any pull-down/sub menus when I'm recording. I want my eyes and ears straight ahead, so I can gauge the artist's frame of mind through their facial expressions and body language. Plus, if an artist or a band are on the live floor, playing and they glance in at me – if my attention was on a screen or on anything but them, I believe that insinuates a sense of disinterest. At Grant, our RADAR can operate without a screen, and all of my tape levels, monitor levels, pans, EQs, sends, and so on are right in front of me when facing forward. The only time I have to turn my attention is if I glance to my left for a moment to check on any outboard gear I've patched in. I am confident and quick enough with our setup that if I have a band coming in to listen to a few takes of a tune, and I know for a fact there are some edits to do, I can have those done whilst the artist/band are putting down their instruments and are en route to the control room. If I was anywhere else, it would take me a while to be confident with the kind of workflow I am fortunate enough to have here. I am doing some mobile recording, so with that I'll use Zoom's LiveTrak [L-12]; the quality is outstanding. I'll use those for mobile, and I bring it back here to mix on our analog system.
You recently had some Massey Hall gigs [in Toronto], recording Gordon Lightfoot live. Was that with the Zoom system?
It was a totally different setup for those. With the Massey shows there's often a video aspect as well, and that gets outsourced to different companies. This last one we did was being covered by a crew doing a documentary. We subcontract Doug McClement at LiveWire [Remote Recorders] to provide the backline gear for us for that gig. He'll bring in his preamps and live mixing console. We take our feeds from the stage that we run into RADAR. We do a live mix using Doug's board that we send Gord home with, so he can listen to it that night if he wants. Then we do the final mix on our system here at the studio.
Do you have any particular gear at the studio that you always go to?
