Would you call yourself a mixer, recording engineer, or producer?
I consider myself a producer, mixer, and engineer. I'm interested in working on interesting music, in whatever capacity I can best help an artist.
Who are some of these artists?
I've worked with The Smile [Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood with drummer Tom Skinner], Arcade Fire, Idles, and Pete Townshend, to name a few. Recently, I've mixed two live albums for The Smile, as well as produced and mixed the [self-titled] debut album for a new Irish band, Somebody's Child, who are brilliant.
How did you start in this recording world?
I was always into music from a very young age. My dad was a music journalist – a serious hobby – he interviewed a lot of amazing bands and used to take me along to gigs. I grew up in Helsinki, Finland, and came from there to study music at Goldsmiths, University of London. There I very quickly realized that I hated being in bands, but I was always the person recording the projects I was in and found the process very interesting. So, when I graduated, I set up in a small studio with a friend in Southeast London and started working!
Do you still have your own studio?
My studio, Hackney Road Studios, is in East London – in Hoxton, and I've been there since the beginning of 2018. Over the years, I've had different studios and different setups. I've also had the opportunity to travel the world and go to lots of incredible studios, which has been really fun!
You've worked a lot with Nigel Godrich. When did that start?
Yeah, I've worked with Nigel on and off for years. I met him originally through my wife [Laura Bettinson]. She's an artist, producer, and DJ under the name of lau.ra, and is in a band called Ultraísta with Nigel Godrich and drummer Joey Waronker. I met Nigel through that; we got along, and I started helping him out. At the beginning with Ultraísta I was helping on their live sound, went on tour with them, and we became good friends. It's not been constant, but we've worked on some great projects over the years, and he's been a great mentor and friend to me. To me, he is one of the greatest producers of all time. If you look at the records he's worked on, there are so many great ones! If someone's always in the room when great things are happening, then obviously it means they're doing something right. His aesthetic, his taste, and his approach are just so amazing.
What, in general, is his studio approach like?
Nigel's obviously a private person, and he believes in the magic of the creative process in the studio. I don't like to get too deep into that. He doesn't give many interviews himself. But one thing that stuck with me was something he said to me years ago, which was, "Stop worrying about making things sound good, and worry about making them sound interesting."
How did you end up working on The Smile's debut record?
I've been working with Thom Yorke for a long time, both in a live sound and a studio capacity. When they started working on that record with Nigel, I came in to engineer it.
Were there any challenges to working on that record?
The biggest challenge for me is working with such phenomenal musicians who operate at such a high level creatively. I wanted to bring 110 percent at all times to justify my position in the room, and I wanted to make the recording process as invisible as possible for them so they could enjoy playing.
What about working with Caribou [Tape Op #37]? How did that happen?
Dan Snaith is someone I've met a few times over the years. He came in to do a session for a new season of a show called "From The Basement" which I was engineering and Nigel was producing. We had a great time; it was a fun and relaxed session. Everything was quick and straightforward. Great musicians. I set the room up, they played the songs a few times, and we were done. I then co-mixed the tracks with Nigel.
Was there ever a gig you worked on where it was the opposite? More about constructing with Pro Tools and overdubs?
Yeah, absolutely. It depends on the project and what the right working methodologies are. Sometimes it's great having a bunch of people playing live in a room together, but on other projects we'll want something that is much more pieced together or something in between. I work with analog tape a lot, and I love to make tape loops. What I love about that process is it's kind of like sampling, but a different way from doing it in the digital realm. You'll get these interesting results where it doesn't quite sound like what it was originally. It doesn't quite sound like sampling, and that's usually when wonky, happy accidents happen. For me it's always about defining the sonic identity and aesthetic of a project and figuring out the working parameters. I always want the projects I work on to sound unique, and my goal is always for a listener to hear just a few bars of music and to be able to identify the artist.
What's your studio setup like?
Hackney Road Studios has two rooms, which I share with my two co-owners, Sean Woodlock and Bob Matthews. One room has a Neve V66 desk, the other one an SSL 4000 E Series console. We also have ATC speakers, Studer 16-track and 2-track tape machines, as well as a bunch of outboard gear. I'm pretty old school with my approach to gear. API and Neve preamps, Urei 1176 compressors, and Neumann microphones – the usual classics.
Do you use plug-ins much?
Not so much when I'm tracking. I do like to track with an analog front end. But as a project evolves from there, I'll start to use more plug-ins. Again, it depends on the project. Sometimes I'll mix completely in the box; sometimes a more hybrid approach is needed. It depends on what we're doing. But I'm happy to work with plug-ins and in the box. Years ago, I went to see Tchad Blake [Tape Op #16, #133] after he had made his transition to working in the box. I was amazed that he could make records sound like that in the computer, so, for me, he was one of the people who showed it's possible. With the amount of recalls that are required these days, as well as working in lots of different studios, some element of working in the box is almost a must.
Do you have a favorite set of plug-ins? Do you have a methodology for working with digital?
Good question. I guess it depends on what I'm doing. But similar ones to what most people are using, like Soundtoys plug-ins. They are so versatile and interesting sounding. I like the Valhalla plug-ins – so inexpensive and so amazing. I love their modulation plug-ins, like Space Modulator and Super Massive, and the VintageVerb plug-in as well.
Is there anything people should be doing more with gear, approach-wise, than the traditional means?
