Were the Bees your first recording project?
We had three or four projects before the Bees. My first bit of recording training was with a man called Max Brennan at my home on the Isle of Wight. He had a studio in his front room — that was my source of inspiration for getting a studio in my bedroom. Later the Bees started recording in a shed in a field on the Isle of Wight with minimal equipment. I think I had a Roland VS-880 [digital recorder] and then it progressed from there. I got a Soundcraft Ghost [console] and later an old '60s Swedish desk. Lots learned in the last few years.
What's the Swedish desk?
It's made by SBC, the Swedish Broadcast Company. There are Germanium [transistors] inside, 20 channels and it was built like a tank for Swedish radio — there's not a huge amount of them around. It's built very well, so it has lasted. I've got an RCA 77-DX from Capital Radio. We did a radio session and they ran out of mics, so the guy there got something from the basement and he thought it was rubbish. I took it off his hands for 100 quid. [$160 USD] Mint condition — a beautiful mic.
The first Bees record you recorded by yourself on the Roland. On the second album you ended up at Abbey Road. How did that happen?
The change from the shed to the greatest studio in the world? It was daunting on the way in, but the inspiration that you feel in that place is pretty instant. The engineer, Alex Scannell, was really sound and everyone felt at home straight away. We got cracking by getting the old sound with the old setup. We got the EMI TG console out and bypassed the newer Neve in there. Everything went from the incredible mics we were using (from the Abbey Road collection) straight into the TG console, either via the [Revolution] REDD preamp and a Fairchild compressor, or maybe a Pultec, straight into the Studer [tape deck]. It was incredible. Then back into the TG again [to mix]. We made the chain as simple as possible, but that got all of the old boys in Abbey Road quite excited. I had some good teachers while I was in there.
But how did you actually end up in Abbey Road? Was it thousands of pounds a day?
It is. I'd bought a pair of HHB Circle 5 speakers years ago with my advance from my first album. They served me quite well until one of the cones went. I sent it back, but when [the company] returned it, I had trouble with mixes after that point. It got to be so much trouble that I said to my manager, "I'm actually up for going to a studio." I really wasn't up for the big studios at that point because the shed worked. We had a Mercury Prize-nominated album via the shed and it was a beautiful place. I said, "I need some help." He said, "What studio do you want?" I said, "I'll have Studio Two in Abbey Road," joking to him. He said, "That's possible. We're on Virgin. It is the EMI group and they do own Abbey Road." He asked and they said, "That's not a problem." All of a sudden we had six weeks in Abbey Road — three weeks recording, three weeks mixing. After all that, I came back home and discovered that HHB had wired the "repaired" speaker out of phase. That's the main reason we went into Abbey Road!
Did you sell enough of the second record [Free the Bees] to pay EMI back for being in Abbey Road?
That will never, ever happen. We left it right there. I've been there once — that's enough.
What's the Isle of Wight like?
Quiet and pretty laid back. All the band and our crew are from the Isle of Wight. It's not too far away from the pace here in Bolinas. You make your own entertainment there. It's quite an inspirational place — plenty of time to do music.
How far are you from London?
After the ferry ride, an hour and a half or two hours. We're not far away — off the south coast [of England].
Listening to the Bees stuff, everything feels like it exists at a particular place within the stereo spectrum. Is it a lot of mono tracks?
It's a rarity to record in stereo. I think I'm about to experiment with things like stereo piano. There will be three or four mics on the kit — you can play with that with panning. The panning part of mixing is one of my favorites. Each channel on the desk has got a phase switch on it — not the preamp phase, but you can change the phase afterwards. I've been playing with phase and panning. That's the bit that I will probably spend the most time on during mixing.
When you track, do you usually track the reverb with an instrument?
No, rarely. I do with guitar. I've got some nice springs, plates and an EMT 251 at home. Everything's added afterwards, generally. The vocals might go through a [Roland] Space Echo.
What are you mixing down to?
A Studer B62 [tape deck]. It finishes off the sound nicely. I like the 1/4" [tape] thing, what it does. The last album [Octopus] was [tracked] on an Ampex MM1200 as well, so it was tape all the way through. But after recording this album I have changed my views on Pro Tools, so I might be having a little bit of digital in the future.
Going into this, you said, "No Pro Tools. Don't even bring it in." Now the tape machine is powered off.
My first experiences of Pro Tools was during radio sessions. A couple of times the rig went down and we lost the session — a complete scare of everything being lost in one second. But recording this record, the sound is perfect. I've got no problem with the sound. After all of my time and effort maintaining an early '80s Ampex, I can't handle it anymore — I need things to work.
What about all of the editing? You're not simply using the Pro Tools as a tape machine replacement.
It's magic. We're putting so many playlists down, editing, picking and choosing. I'm going to have to learn that you can't do that too much — you start losing a bit of flow to the track. If a band is good enough and you can record them all at the same time without doing editing, then that's going to be the ultimate way of tracking. But it's been a joy to use. It's so quick and easy to use for editing. They've got me.
You said you even liked some of the plug-ins?
The spring reverb in TL Space is really nice — that's it so far. It's the early stages of finding out what Pro Tools can actually do, but I like it.
Obviously you're open to working in a more traditional studio environment, but you also enjoy this crazy, haphazard house setup too.
The room sounds great. There is enough separation between everything. The RCA mixer sounds great and the mics we're using are excellent.
Let me see if we can get Devendra out here for a sec.
DB: Hey guys. I'm gonna straddle this wooden horse.
Why did you ask Paul to do this record and what do you like about working with him?
DB: Just look at him! How can you not love this guy's sparkling, celestial smile. I hope there's a picture of this. He's never had a sourpuss on that mug this whole time we've been tracking. I think he's easy to work with and hard to work with at the same time. We never pick out a studio. We always build it ourselves and use our friends who have incredible gear. That, combined with Paul's fucking unbelievable capturing of something that sounds old but is totally modern, is the dualistic tip of the pyramid. I heard Paul's music, and I had never heard anything that sounded so good that was new. I could not believe that it was new. It's really the essence of Tropicália — into all world cultures, but making it your own. That's why I chose him. I heard "Chicken Payback", "Listening Man" and "I Love You". I was totally hooked. Every other Bees song was exactly jiving in what I always wanted to do with full band stuff. He's the kid who doesn't even need his friend to get on his knees behind the bully and push him over. He just has to shine those pearly whites and it's over.
Now that you picked him and you have been working together, has it met your expectations?
DB: Yes. It's met them and made out with them. It's taken my expectations for a ride.
PB: The tracking has gone well and I can already hear that mixing is going to be so much easier. The bass tones, the drums and the guitars — everything is sounding so good and we haven't even started yet. The panning and phasing — that's the bit that really creates the sound and that hasn't even begun.
Are you going to do the mixing elsewhere?
DB: Yeah. I have to go to the Isle of Wight. It's a sign of how much I trust Paul that he's going to take it first and work with it. It's the first time I've ever done that, given the songs unmixed to someone to begin mixing without me being there. But I trust him and his aesthetic enough to give it a shot. It's totally exciting too — trusting someone, but not knowing what's going to happen. It's going to bring a different color to it. We're sketching, taking these black and white photographs and he's going to do the airbrushing on it.
A lot of these songs came in rough and you guys are working on them together. What is Paul bringing to that part of the process?
DB: It doesn't hurt that he's the best singer, piano player, guitar player and drummer that I've ever met. He's a real musical polymath. When we were back in L.A. I was still writing the songs, but it was a much earlier stage. It was really easy to have Paul there. While I play guitar and sing he can play the drums or throw in a harmony really quickly. He's got perfect pitch — very James Taylor/ Phil Collins of him. British people — they've got these great voices. He also gives me a lot of space. It's a co-produced thing.
Do you do all the vocals in the Bees?
PB: Mostly, yeah — but everyone sings. It's changing for the next record.
DB: The new record is unbelievable. You've got to hear the new record. It's like Pink Floyd, The Kinks, Fela Kuti and Motown...
