We're here in the new studio [N.J. Rec. Rm.] so maybe you want to tell us about that first. What inspired you to build your own studio?
Well, this is actually the same room where we did A Prayer for Every Hour in '94 on just a 4-track. It's the same room we've always practiced and prepared in and actually done some other tracking for some other albums. Back then it was a matter of moving boxes out of the way and cleaning the room before we would set up for a practice. And then ask my mom to not sew upstairs while we were trying to do some quiet vocals. There was just junk everywhere. I'd been doing recording on that [Tascam] 388 over the past couple of years. You have to try and get everybody to be quiet and then when I got a little bit nicer microphones you could still hear the cars driving by and all that stuff.
What did you record on the 388?
A third of each Tri-Danielson!!! record, the one that was entitled Bro. Danielson, so the kind of more down home sound was done on the 388.
Did you mix it with the built-in mixer?
Yeah. [laughing] Just straight to DAT. I've been wanting to get a more controlled environment and was looking around at places in the area. We all grew up in this house, all the kids are moved out now and so my parents gave me this side of the house. We ripped the ceilings out and put in all new ductwork and put two layers of 5/8'' sheet rock in the ceiling so my mom can actually sew upstairs and we can record down here. There's a faint vibration of the sewing machine but it's okay. I love it because it's the same place where we've written everything and, like I said, recorded some stuff. So now I'm writing and getting ready to do two new Danielson full lengths and an EP. And we have our own record label [Sounds Familyre] so we're doing all kinds of other projects as well.
Do you think maybe in twenty years you'll still be in this room?
I actually hope to build a building in the side yard over here. I already have it planned out. We're going to dig down and have these underground bunkers two stories down so that from the outside it looks like a humble little one floor but it will go down a couple of floors unless we hit water. [laughing]
You said you're a carpenter. Did you build this studio on your own?
Pretty much. My dad and my brother Dave helped a lot putting up the ceiling.
Did you have any models in mind or acoustic treatments?
No, we just tried to keep from hearing the sewing machine upstairs, that was the first step. This floor was really poorly built. It was really squeaky. That's another reason why I ripped the ceiling out. I glued every single rafter and then screwed the floor down upstairs and I insulated it like mad.
But it still has a nice live sound?
Yeah, it sounds so much better than it did before. The biggest thing was taking all the metal ductwork out of the ceiling. I replaced it with this sort of insulated ductwork, the coil stuff. There's a lot of light, a good view. It's half underground so it's pretty soundproof from outside, except for the windows, which I found out how to build boxes for. It's quiet here, there's hardly any traffic. Birds are the biggest problem and they're not such a problem, anyway. There's birds on all sorts of Danielson recordings. Actually this was another room, the control room, and we took out this portion and put in a wall here and put in a door and a window.
Did you choose analog because of preference or because of price? Are you planning on putting any computers in your setup at all?
I have a computer in there. I have the 16-track 1", the [Tascam] MS-16 and I have the Pro Tools [Digi] 001 together. I'm trying to make them become friends, that's the battle right now. We just started here with the 16-track, that's a new member of the family. And I'm slowly acquiring things. I'm getting a Soundcraft board from Rafter Roberts in San Diego, a 16-channel. I'll use that to track as much as I can onto the reel- to-reel. Then the thing I'm extremely nervous about is transferring that. The 001 converters are pretty weak. I've had people recommend a rack of eight converters you can get, but the thing is I still only have eight good converters and eight not so good ones.
Any good preamps?
No, the Soundcraft board I'm getting I figure would be the cheapest way to get 16 pretty decent preamps. And just use that for tracking. I'm still gathering. It's a slow and steady process.
Are you going to mix on Pro Tools?
That's another thing. I've mixed a lot on Pro Tools 'cause usually I would track to the 388 and then dump that in and then add tracks. The albums I've been working on the past year or two were done that way. The 388 is a great thing. I'm still unsure if I want to run stuff back out through the board and mix that way, which some people like. I read all these theories and then just do what I like. I'm a little suspicious of this bounce to disc thing. I can't help but think it gets flat.
Tell me what kind of equipment you have.
We have a fairly soundproof control room, good enough, that's for sure. I'm not a big equipment guy. My goal is to have a set of equipment that I don't have to think about. I'm excited to get the Soundcraft board. Right now I'm borrowing this Mackie, but with the Soundcraft I'm going to feel a lot better. Like I said, I really do like Pro Tools, I really like the control it gives. I don't have a lot of equipment stories because I'm still in the building process. I don't really have any fun microphones or anything. I have the [SM] 57s and I have this Rode NT1000.
A lot of your records are recorded on 2".
[Tell another Joke at the 'Ol] Choppin' Block with Kramer was recorded on 2" 24 and mixed in analog. Straight to DAT. That was in 1997 when mixing to DAT was the standard. And then the next two records, part of the concept was this three in the one, there were three lineups of Danielson and each line up was recorded in different locations. Bro. Danielson was recorded on the 388 here; Daniel Sunship was recorded in this big old church with a pipe organ. They ran wires across this small field to the studio on the second floor. It's pretty amazing with this giant cable going across. And then they would record in there to a 16-track 1".
Who was engineering that one?
It was my friend Adam Omeljaniuk and we've been friends for a long time. He did sound for the Knitting Factory. He and Kyle Kutchler, they engineered it. And then when it came to mix there we had trouble with the mixing board and it was just a disaster. Everything was hooked up wrong. Everything was tracked onto tape and it sounded great and then it was just this nightmare. I ran out of money and we kept on going down there and mixing and we'd take it back here and it just sounded completely different. It was really disheartening. I actually called Kramer and he said bring the stuff up and we'll mix it here and he did it for free, pretty much. It was like $100 or something. It was really amazing that he did that. He and I mixed them at this small little home studio in New York City. And the third tier was with the full family and Kramer came down to the studio in Springfield, PA which is 20 minutes from here and that was 2" 24-track. Mixed it there to DAT.
So each one was a different experience.
Yeah, that was kind of the idea. I had no idea what it was going to be like. Especially since they're all up against each other, it's 1-2-3, 1-2-3. So the mastering job was not an easy one. Alan Douches at West West Side. He did Chopping Block and both Tri- Danielsons!!!. He's amazing. He did a great job. And then Fetch the Compass Kids was done with Steve Albini, which was actually back in Springfield. We flew him out here 'cause it was cheaper to bring him out here than the whole family to go out there to Chicago. So we went back to that studio and again it was a disaster. [laughing] The machine, we were halfway done, we did all this tracking for a couple of days and it sounded amazing, and then there was this warble that had developed and we didn't know if it was on the tape or on the playback. So I was pretty panicky. It ended up just being on the playback so we just took the tape to another studio. Actually, we had 3M guys come in and all that and nobody was able to fix it. I felt sort of responsible 'cause it was a cheap studio and it worked before. So we ended up just stopping. We certainly couldn't mix it there, anyway. We decided just to wait. Chris and I went out to Electrical Audio and I tracked my vocals and we mixed it there. In the big room.
You mentioned before that Albini and Kramer were your heroes.
My two heroes and I've worked with them both!
You think they are different styles?
Oh yeah, I think they are. Left and Right. [laughing] Just in terms of two opposite ends. Maybe more just in philosophy. I love them both, I guess I just like extremes, in general. I really appreciate the studio as another instrument, the Phil Spector thing. I really see Kramer as following that idea especially the mixing process. Really kind of mutilating and taking things out and just using that as another part of the creative process. And Steve just kind of capturing what's in the room.
For Fetch the Compass Kids there were a lot of intricate changes. How would you go about recording that? Was it mostly live?
Yeah, we record almost everything live. Not the vocals. We do both the drum kit and the percussion kit, my acoustic guitar electrified through an SVT mic'ed and then Chris plays the Farfisa through that bass cabinet and then Megan plays glockenspiel and that's all done live. And then there's violin and vocals and little things here and there are overdubbed.
