| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| bradsears |
Posted - 09/24/2008 : 09:30:21 AM
Daniel Johnson kindly sent in the full transcript of the interview he did with Adam for the respected recording magazine Tape Op. In his words:
"More importantly though, the editor gave me permission to let you guys have the full, uncut piece and that puppy has got TONS of interesting swervedriver stories and info that I've never read anywhere else. To give you an idea, I interviewed him for a cumulative 6 hours and so that is a transcript of most of that. I was asked to wait a month or so before turning that over to you, so look for it soon."
Here it is in its 21 page word doc entirety. We all owe Daniel and Adam thanks for this.
http://www.swervedriver.com/Franklin_Full_Interview.doc |
| 20 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Jet Age Eric |
Posted - 10/14/2008 : 11:32:23 AM
The Kevin Shields piece ran almost 7 years ago and I no longer have the files. I think someone posted it years ago, but now I can't find the link. I THINK it's in the new TapeOp book, but I'm not even sure about that.
Briefly: Kevin used Alesis Midiverb II reverse reverb all over the place, vocals were actually the result of, like, a dozen takes running simultaneously during mixdown, whereas guitar parts were generally limited to a few tracks. Kevin was insanely nice and grounded. I didn't expect him to be uncool, but I didn't expect him to be so cogent either.
OT (or back ON T), has anyone heard Motorway on the Magnetic Morning MySpace page? I think it's the best thing from Adam in 10 years. -E
quote:
Originally posted by chris
quote:
Originally posted by Jet Age Eric
I've written severalpieces for TapeOp (Kevin Shields!) but felt like an utter moron when I saw the piece on Adam and realized I'd dropped the ball. I was thrilled to see it was a GREAT piece, and the unexpurgated version is even better. Thanks! -E
Any chance you could share the Kevin Shields piece with us Eric?
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| chris |
Posted - 10/14/2008 : 11:04:08 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Jet Age Eric
I've written severalpieces for TapeOp (Kevin Shields!) but felt like an utter moron when I saw the piece on Adam and realized I'd dropped the ball. I was thrilled to see it was a GREAT piece, and the unexpurgated version is even better. Thanks! -E
Any chance you could share the Kevin Shields piece with us Eric? |
| Jet Age Eric |
Posted - 10/14/2008 : 07:57:29 AM
I've written severalpieces for TapeOp (Kevin Shields!) but felt like an utter moron when I saw the piece on Adam and realized I'd dropped the ball. I was thrilled to see it was a GREAT piece, and the unexpurgated version is even better. Thanks! -E |
| sparksneon |
Posted - 10/10/2008 : 11:08:01 PM
Great piece. Thanks for posting. |
| roarvis |
Posted - 09/29/2008 : 1:13:35 PM
This was great, thanks for posting. |
| Hairyhaw |
Posted - 09/26/2008 : 10:37:12 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Tiger
great interview, one think i was very disappointed with was the lack of a proper mention of swervedriver in the Creastion records story 'my magpie eyes are hungry for the prize'.
Came to much the same conclusion myself. between '89 and '93 the author only seemed interested in the bidding war for Ride, Screamadelica and its impact, and the recording of Loveless, which narrows the field of view a little too much for what was going on at that time.
SWD and the Boo Radleys were pretty important (well, looking back through the eyes of a teenage country boy!) bands on the label then but I suspect the David Cavanagh regarded this period as a bridge between two periods he really wanted to cover - the build up of the label up to the House of Love - and then Oasis and the impact of that. He clearly had a lot of time for The Weather Prophets, hence they got a good amount of page space. Got the feeling he wasn't that into the Swervies - hence the lack of coverage. |
| Tiger |
Posted - 09/26/2008 : 05:34:49 AM
great interview, one think i was very disappointed with was the lack of a proper mention of swervedriver in the Creastion records story 'my magpie eyes are hungry for the prize'. As the book was basically about McGee it would have been excellent if this story made it in
'So you finish Ejector Seat. You must have been extremely proud and optimistic about it. And then Creation drops you.
Yeah and it was a big bummer to have it pulled. First A&M [Swervedriver’s American label] pulled out. I think the deal was they had three advances [owed to the band] and they paid two and after the second one decided they didn’t want to do the album. Then there was a domino effect of Creation saying, “Oh, shit. We’re not getting the funding now from A&M.” Because our deal was kind of fucked up, because Creation were basically getting most of the money anyway from A&M. So yeah, I remember everyone from Creation coming down to The Church for a listening party and going, “Yeah, it’s great.” But McGee [Alan] was having a breakdown and he couldn’t hear anything. He had listened to the album and it had given him a bad trip because “Ejector Seat Reservation” was about somebody tripping on an airplane – having a really bad time on an airplane – which is exactly what he had. He came out to LA one time to see us play at The Whiskey. And the next night, kind of overdid it, and was taken back to the airport in a wheel chair and flown back to England. So obviously he wasn’t the right man to hear it.'
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| jamesg |
Posted - 09/25/2008 : 10:30:15 AM
Fanfreakintastic! Huge thanks to Daniel, Adam, and Bad Brad for sharing the whole thing. Great interview. |
| CEddy10165 |
Posted - 09/25/2008 : 08:54:45 AM
Thanks so much for sharing this. The best SWD related interview ever! |
| interloper |
Posted - 09/25/2008 : 08:36:38 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Hairyhaw
I imagine not a huge amount of thought was put into mike positioning on some of the tascam demo's that were flown into the albums, especially if it was an idea put down in a hurry.
Yes. Great accidents are bound to happen. |
| Hairyhaw |
Posted - 09/25/2008 : 07:00:25 AM
I imagine not a huge amount of thought was put into mike positioning on some of the tascam demo's that were flown into the albums, especially if it was an idea put down in a hurry. |
| mpavlic08 |
Posted - 09/25/2008 : 06:59:57 AM
A great engineer makes all the difference. You're right about having good ears and knowing where to place the mic. It's the same theory as guitar players. How many times have you seen people who think a $3,000 les paul will make them play/sound better? Trust me, give Adam a $300 Ibanez, and he'll still sound like Adam. Granted maybe he won't be able to do his whammy parts, but you get the point.
An engineer who knows his stuff is key. A thousand dollar mic placed in the wrong spot will not help. I recorded with an engineer who was amazing and had been doing it for 20 years. This guy could have used a radio shack tape recorded and made it sound good. I remember listening back to takes and he would hear an overdub and say "go back."
I would say "what are you talking about?" Sure enough he would go back and there was one note out of a whole choruse played off beat, and I would think to myself how the heck did he hear that. All in the ears and experience.
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| interloper |
Posted - 09/25/2008 : 06:41:49 AM
quote:
Originally posted by mpavlic08
I agree. A lot of musicians spend money on fancy Macs, guitar, etc. and forget how important it is to have quality mics.
Agreed. I've seen engineers with excellent ears make fantastic recordings with the most minimal amount of quality of gear. A shitty microphone placed in the correct position will sound better than a thousand dollar condenser in the wrong position. |
| mpavlic08 |
Posted - 09/25/2008 : 06:06:03 AM
I agree. A lot of musicians spend money on fancy Macs, guitar, etc. and forget how important it is to have quality mics. |
| interloper |
Posted - 09/25/2008 : 05:47:39 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Hairyhaw
really good article. Singing straight into the laptop?? And here was me trying to scrape the money together for an SM58.
My advice, save an extra few dollars and get into a Heil mic. Seriously, the difference is amazing. They make the basic Shure mics sound like toys.
http://www.heilsound.com/pro/products/index.php |
| Hairyhaw |
Posted - 09/25/2008 : 05:04:18 AM
really good article. Singing straight into the laptop?? And here was me trying to scrape the money together for an SM58.
The most interesting bit was reading about the songwriting process though. It's pretty different from the way I get my ideas together. Makes me think I need to change my approach. |
| interloper |
Posted - 09/25/2008 : 04:51:23 AM
Excellent. Perfect for an exceptionally boring work week.
Big thanks Brad Brains. |
| mpavlic08 |
Posted - 09/25/2008 : 04:02:37 AM
Absolutely fantastic. Hands down the best interview I've read with Adam. As a musician, I love reading these kinds or articles where the discuess gear, recording, etc. as opposed to the genre and label questions that so often show up with SWD articles. Well done! |
| roscoe_p_coltrane |
Posted - 09/25/2008 : 12:36:46 AM
wow. this was already the most in depth interview i've ever read with SWD.... and now it's just got even better. completely agree with mpavlic08... THANKS GUYS.
Edit// Just finished it. AMAZING. Thank you so much for this. |
| mpavlic08 |
Posted - 09/24/2008 : 09:38:28 AM
I would like to be the first person to extend my thanks to Brad, Adam, and Daniel for this. As every SWD fan knows, the world is not exactly overflowing with SWD articles,etc so anytime something like this or Jez's book pop up it's a great thing! |
