About seven years ago, you were in L.A. and a successful producer/engineer. You started out engineering, moved into production. You did Tool's early records and things that were beginning to get some notice. How did you end up in Weed?
I think I was planning on moving, and I had already bought a Jeep because I was looking at moving to Lake Tahoe. Then on a fluke, my father introduced me to a guy, Greg Shivy, who lived in Mt. Shasta and was a railroader. We corresponded by letters and then finally, I told him, "I'm selling my house and I'm moving up." We got married and I thought I was just going to retire, but it was right when System of a Down hit — the first record — and the Powerman 5000 record hit also and the phones started ringing a lot and they were really good record opportunities. I had to make the choice of continuing to work in L.A. and for a while and I did. For nine months I stayed in L.A.
While you were married?
Yeah, newlyweds. He was up here working too. Yeah, so nine months of that and it was obvious that we had to set up something here in the Weed area. I had all the equipment at Sound City in L.A. and I had wanted to set up a studio of my own, anyway. We looked at building a studio at our place because we have a fifty- acre ranch up here, but then all of a sudden this theater became available and it is just an awesome recording space. Weed is kind of a dead, dumpy little town in the middle of nowhere but the vibe is great. The people here are really open to unusual people with colored hair and tattoos. It doesn't freak them out.
Why do you think that is the case?
There is another town up the road from Weed called Mt. Shasta City that has all the really expensive homes and some celebrities live there and they're real stuffy, so Weed tries to compete with that in a way and they're like, "We're not going to be stuffy and we're going to let the creative people come in here and we want the artists to be here." They're really supportive, actually.
People have been really nice in Mt. Shasta and Weed. People will stop and say, "Hi. How are you doin'?"
Isn't that weird? When I moved up here, I was driving my Jeep and someone cut me off and I honked my horn and I was all pissed off. I was going to chase them and then I realized, "Oh geez. I'm going to have to see this woman who cut me off every day because it's such a small community." Road rage completely ended at that point. The whole L.A. thing — I had to get rid of it. Strangers wave at you when you drive by and I'm like, "Who are they? I've never met these people before." They're just friendly. I really love it. Once I moved up here I wondered why I didn't do it so much sooner.
Do you think you were at the perfect point in your career where you could make that jump?
I think so. I was lucky enough to have had some success.
Even if you built a barn studio out on the ranch, you would still get enough projects to justify setting that up, I would imagine.
Yeah, that is where I've lucked out, and this is working because of that. It's still working. It's pretty surprising. It's actually grown quite a bit.
How many rooms are there now?
There are four studio rooms and a brand new rehearsal room. The rehearsal room is in a big, old building that we recently acquired which used to be a church. It will eventually be a second, big tracking room, much like the theater. Right now there are four working studios. There's the Neve in Studio A, which is the original console we had installed in the theater, and that's an 8038. Then we have a brand new console installed up here in Studio B in the balcony — the SSL 9080 J — it's eighty channels. Then we have a Trident 80 series in the Studio D "Toy Box." And over in Studio C we have a TAC Matchless with a Neve BCM- 10 sidecar. Everything goes through the Neve.
I figured, and you monitor it through the TAC?
Yeah. It's an alright console, too.
So, that's four rooms with a fifth one on the way. How do they all stay busy? Last year we had two rooms — the Neve and one overdub room and we got so backlogged on projects, especially with mixing, because we would start in the Neve tracking room, move over to overdubs, then come back to the Neve to mix.
But there might be new projects tracking?
Exactly. I turned away seventeen projects in the last six months of last year, so it became very obvious that we needed to get a mix room and another overdub room. Because I have such a great team here we're able to run several sessions at once. The engineers that I work with — that I really trust — they'll run the sessions and I'll come in and I'll help with the arrangements and direct the technique for recording and check the overdubs. I'm able to bounce between rooms. It's really a great system.
There is a mix being finished down here right now...
There's a mix being finished downstairs, there's overdubs happening in Studio C and an outside project in the Toy Box today, so I don't have to be involved in that at all.
They're just renting the space?
Yes, but generally it's all in-house stuff that I'm producing or that I co-produce with my staff.
How do credits work? Are there some records where you're more hands on and you are the producer?
When I set up these sessions I try to be really clear with the clients who are coming in that the engineer is going to be credited with production also, and that we really work as a team. Everyone gets production credit and I also split points with them. I think that's a bit different than what other producers will do for their engineers, but I think it's really fair. They do add so much to the records.
Have you trained some of the engineers you're working with?
All of them except Rich Veltrop, who moved up here from L.A. He and I worked together in L.A. before, so we were familiar with each other. He was the first person to come up. He and I both developed this style of working and the new engineers have come in and adopted the same techniques, so we are all pretty interchangeable. Anyone can drop into any one session and know where everything is laid out on the console and where the Pro Tools files are set up. It's very consistent from session to session. Everyone has the same system. Oftentimes, one engineer will start a project and another engineer will finish. Or I'll have Kalé Holmes do all the tracking on one project and Rich will mix it, or vice versa. It works really great because their ears are fresh and you get everyone's perspective on it. I think that certain engineers are better with certain types of projects, so I try to match them.
It's a unique place in that respect.
Is it? We're just kind of doing our thing and it seems like it's more of an old school way of doing things. I think if you hired a studio in the sixties it came with engineers and producers. When I worked in L.A. the studio owners would just provide the equipment and an assistant and no other services besides duplication. We do everything here. We even make merch. We have a video production company, which is really cranking right now.
So, if a band is in here working, they can also schedule in time to do a video while they're here?
Yeah — a lot of EPK [Electronic Press Kit] work, where the sessions are being filmed and edited together while the band is still here. During the mix, the final edit on the EPK is being done. The band is never really idle. There is always stuff to do. If they want merch designs we have a graphics guy who does that and we have a whole textile print shop. We're a full service facility.
When you talk about doing all this stuff — do they hire you to do these things or are there projects where you are investing your time and money?
I would like to do more of that, but right now these are pet projects. One is this band next door, Cog. They're from Australia. This is the second record that we've done. It's going to be nine months of making this record. It's awesome.
In a situation like that, are you working on a production deal with them?
No, they're paying, but I'm cutting them some slack because it's such a huge amount of time. We're also doing a full-length video documentary at the same time. Our videographer, Richard Valdez, went on tour with them in Australia and has all the footage from that and he's going to be cutting it in. It's a big project for us. It's a labor of love because I just love the music and they've become dear friends, too — which can also get you in trouble if you're trying to do a business — but if you have enough rooms like we have here, we can cut them a break and still generate enough income to keep the place going.
They're in a lower overhead room right now. You can have this other thing going on over here at full rate. That makes sense. How many engineers are on staff right now?
There are three engineers. There are two trainees, but I'm short an engineer. It's a weird thing, but I'm having auditions. I had a guy come up and do some engineering and I'm going to have another guy come up who I've been talking to. We may have already found our engineer.
It has to be somebody who wants to move to Weed. Is that hard? Do they say, "My girlfriend/boyfriend lives in L.A. or Nashville"?
They have to be ready for that and it doesn't pay a lot, to be honest. You get your points and you get your credit. If you're using it as a stepping stone, that's great. The overhead is so much lower living here. You could buy seven houses here for the price of one house in L.A. — with property! The quality of life is so good. The water is great. There is never any traffic.
If you're into snowboarding it's good.
It does snow a little bit, but it's not bad. You can have a family here. Engineer Jason Benham just moved up here from Fresno and he has a couple of kids and they have a house now, nearby. It's family time. It's great.
Outside of engineers, how many people are here full time?
We had fifteen people working here up until recently. The label was just sucking the money out of the studio so I cut four people off the staff.
What was the label called?
National Recorder. We're still going to be doing it but it's being rethought.
I've always said, "If you want to lose money, start a label."
No kidding! This is the second time I've done it too!
When did you do it before?
It started in 1990. I had a label called Third Hole Records and I signed a band named Big Elf — it was their first album.
I love that record.
You do? I love those guys still, today.
I didn't know that was your label. I had seen your production credit on it.
I should've known then — never do the label again! We're suckers. A friend described these bands as beggars, almost — you want to help every hungry band out there because you love their music and their passion, but you can't feed them all. Maybe you could feed a few. I have a huge amount of informational resources from setting up the label — and there are several bands who have made the trip out here just to sit in the office and use all the resources that we have for finding management, setting up their own tours or just connecting with the right people. If they're going to get distribution then I can tell them who to contact, but I'm going to have to pass on helping directly. I'll help as much as I can, but they have to make the phone calls.
Do you find yourself stretched too thin sometimes?
Sometimes, sure.
If you were overseeing three recording projects and you've got other business things?
It does become an issue. Now that the label is on hiatus it's a lot more comfortable and I'm spending a lot more time in the rooms. The records have always come out great.
It seems like a lot of the jobs that came down the pike, especially when you first moved, were coming from Tool, System of a Down type music — people listening to that going, "Wow. She knows how to make these bands rock." I know your taste is pretty damn broad, do you ever get tired of...
...of getting the Tool type bands?
"Oh, it's some really young boys with loud guitars." It seems like you're doing a lot of that music. You mentioned Lisa Haley [the King Cake zydeco album] came in. Is that a nice change of pace?
Yeah, I also worked with Johnny Cash and Tom Petty and his band — that's the roots, country thing I just love. I also love funk!
You worked with Prince in the past.
Yeah, right. I do get some of the roots stuff every once in a while and even some of the R&B, funk stuff comes through, too, but the majority is the harder edge stuff. I also love the jangle-y stuff and the retro '80s kind of thing that's happening now, too. I love quirky music, too. The weirder, the better.
Do you ever feel pigeonholed as a producer?
