Recording, production and technology
925 articles
Fears... Hopes... Dreams... They're All Centred On That Recording Test
Report and Interview by June Harris, Disc, 2 April 1960
To find out what it is like on the receiving end DISC sent June Harris along to take that first and biggest hurdle of a pop singer's ...
Interview by June Harris, Disc, 10 February 1962
SNUFFY GARRETT, the 22-year-old A& Rhead of Liberty's chart-hitting teenage artists at present over here with the label's top seller, Bobby Vee, wants to record ...
George Martin: The A&R Manager Behind The Comedy Successes Forecasts...
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 9 March 1962
...Cribbins, Drake, Sellers, Milligan, Bentine Have Bright Disc Futures ...
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 13 April 1962
PUZZLING, isn't it, that no one has thought of an award for the wives of hit parade stars — to be presented when they inspire ...
Frank Ifield: It Was All The Better For That Ifield Smile!
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 10 August 1962
Recording manager NORRIE PARAMOR reveals a secret behind the No. 1 hit ...
Doug Sheldon: We Can Produce That American Sound
Report and Interview by June Harris, Disc, 8 September 1962
LAST WEEK I was allowed to listen to something very new on the British recording scene, something that could have repercussions throughout the industry and ...
The Beatles: At a Recording Session with the Beatles
Report and Interview by Alan Smith, Mersey Beat, 3 January 1963
THE SECONDS tick away, high in the control room at EMI's recording studios in St. John's Wood, London. Through the glass panel I could see ...
Heinz, Joe Meek: Faith Plus Enthusiasm: Heinz' Success Story
Interview by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 17 August 1963
SO HEINZ crashes handsomely into the charts. After the false start of his debut solo disc, 'Dreams Do Come True', his "heartfelt" tribute to Eddie ...
Mickie Most: Do-It-Yourself Mick!
Profile and Interview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 5 October 1963
AFTER A MINOR record success with his 'Mr. Porter', Mickey Most looks all set for a far bigger success with the follow-up 'The Feminine Look', ...
Quincy Jones, Sarah Vaughan: Music In The Making: Quincy Jones — Sarah Makes It All Worth While
Interview by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 12 October 1963
Quincy Jones, who spent last week in London enjoying the sights and sounds by day and night, is one of music's all-rounders. Bandleader, composer, arranger, publisher, ...
The Beatles, George Martin: It's The Beatles! To Each — Quick Wits And A Mind Of His Own
Report and Interview by Tony Barrow, Liverpool Echo, 26 October 1963
Concluding the story of LIVERPOOL'S FAMOUS FOUR ...
The Ronettes, Phil Spector: The Ronettes
Profile and Interview by June Harris, Disc, 9 November 1963
A two-week British tour is planned for end of January ...
The Crystals, The Ronettes, Phil Spector: The Ronettes hit and Phil's flips
Profile by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 7 December 1963
BACK IN 1958 Estella & Ronnie Bennett bought a disc between them called 'To Know Him Is To Love Him'. So did their cousin Nadra ...
Profile and Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 25 January 1964
THERE WAS a time when Phil Spector would have been Beau Spector and the rage of Bath. His clothes alone would have made him famous. ...
Phil Spector: Man Of The Moment Spector Wants To Be Controversial
Interview by June Harris, Disc, 1 February 1964
PHIL SPECTOR checked the gold watch hanging from the chain of his elaborate black brocade waistcoat, and remarked: "It's 6.30 a.m. in Los Angeles, and ...
Interview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 8 February 1964
ONE OF the mystery men of the U.S. recording scene is currently here in Britain following the interests of his artistes. His name is Phil ...
The Searchers: Here's What Makes Searchers a Hit
Interview by June Harris, Disc, 7 March 1964
WHAT MAKES a hit disc? The singer, the song, the producer, or a combination of all three? More particularly, what makes The Searchers such a ...
Report and Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 15 August 1964
ARE THE Record Companies losing their grip? There are eight British records in the Top Ten. Of these eight, only three have been recorded by ...
Jack Nitzsche, The Rip Chords: Jack Nitzsche: Dress For 'Nitchie'
Profile by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 26 September 1964
— Orange Jeans, Black Jersey, Green Jerkin ...
Jack Nitzsche, The Righteous Brothers: Jack Nitzsche: Disc Producer To Film Gerry...
Interview by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, 3 October 1964
HAVE YOU heard about Electronovision? If not, you soon will. For American composer-arranger Jack Nitzsche is in London this week lining up appearances in the ...
The Kinks: 'All Day And All Of The Night'/'I Gotta Move' (Pye 15714)
Review and Interview by uncredited writer, Beat Instrumental, November 1964
TWO ORIGINAL numbers from Ray Davies, Kinks' lead singer and rhythm guitarist — and the top side could well prove at least as big as ...
The Bachelors: Shel Talmy: "British records lacked feeling"
Interview by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, 13 February 1965
THE INTERNATIONAL boom in British pop music produced few stories as strange as that of the independent record producer Shel Talmy. He's a 26-year-old American ...
Gene Pitney: Flashback for Gene Pitney to The Most Ridiculous Session Ever
Interview by Ian Dove, New Musical Express, 5 March 1965
WORD WENT around very quickly about the "most ridiculous recording session ever." Accountants blanched as they put the cost in their account books. Heads of ...
The Yardbirds: How to be an overnight success... in three years
Interview by Nick Jones, Melody Maker, 27 March 1965
SINCE THEY started at Richmond's Crawdaddy Club three years ago, THE YARDBIRDS have had more than their share of bad luck. ...
The Beach Boys, The Lettermen: Nobody bugs the Gutsy Greek — the sten guns see to that
Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 1 May 1965
NICK VENET went into the American record industry when he was 18 years old for this reason: "I wanted," he said, "to do something devastating; ...
The Beatles: Making A Gold Record
Report by Derek Taylor, KRLA Beat, 5 May 1965
ST. JOHN'S WOOD is very much London. Solid and a little old. But nice and comfortable, and not yet shabby. The buildings have dignity and ...
Report and Interview by Richard Green, Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 8 May 1965
DYLAN NOW is big business! He ambles and shambles (apparently) through a business that needs his sort of way-out personality. He parries questions, mumbles inconsequently, ...
The Rolling Stones: We Go To The Rolling Stones' Secret Record Date
Report by Louise Criscione, KRLA Beat, 2 October 1965
THE ROLLING Stones were in the U.S. for just two short days. They flew all the way over here to cut some tracks at the ...
The Beach Boys: Head Beach Boy: Brian Wilson Turns Serious
Interview by Jamie McCluskey III, KRLA Beat, 6 November 1965
A FUNNY THING happened to me as I was sidewalk surfin' the other day. At the crucial moment, just when I was about to hang ...
Wilson Pickett: Master of Beat and Soul
Interview by Kevin Swift, Beat Instrumental, January 1966
THE WILD sound of Wilson Pickett is still fairly new to our hit parade. 'Midnight Hour' and 'Don't Fight It' have put him in the ...
The Rolling Stones: Stones Report: "We've put a keyboard on every new track"
Interview by Kevin Swift, Beat Instrumental, February 1966
DECEMBER saw the end of a hectic tour, there were no more one-nighters to do. But it wasn't the end of the Stones' work Stateside ...
The Small Faces: Small Faces get hung up — on sounds
Interview by Nick Jones, Melody Maker, 12 February 1966
Have the Small Faces gone commercial? "We've gotta make some bread" says Steve Marriott. "If we can score two or three big hits, then we'll ...
Larry Marks: A Record Producer Speaks
Interview by Eden, KRLA Beat, 5 March 1966
ONE OF THE most important men in the record industry today is the record producer. He is the "man behind the scenes" on all of ...
Sonny & Cher: Charlie Greene and Brian Stone: What It Takes To Have A Hit Record
Interview by Eden, KRLA Beat, 12 March 1966
IN THIS second article in our series on record producers, we are going to speak with three of the top young producers in the field ...
Sonny Bono, Sonny & Cher: Behind the Scenes with Sonny Bono
Interview by Eden, KRLA Beat, 16 April 1966
AS WE PROMISED a few issues back in The BEAT, in this next-to-last article in our series on record producers, we are going to speak ...
The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: Some Producers' Hints From Beach Boy Brian
Interview by uncredited writer, KRLA Beat, 30 April 1966
FOR THE LAST few weeks, we have been speaking with various record producers exclusively in The BEAT in an effort to take The BEAT'S readers ...
Edwin Starr: A Record Is Made — with Sweat and Soul
Report by Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, 20 May 1966
EMOTION FILLED the control room at Golden World Records out on West Davison. Driving, big beat sounds were coming through the four speakers hanging on ...
Report by Nick Jones, Melody Maker, 28 May 1966
NOW YOU'RE NEVER ALONE — WITH A SITAR ...
Phil Spector, The Teddy Bears, Ike & Tina Turner: More Spector Magic out of the Hat
Profile by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 11 June 1966
PROBABLY, PHIL SPECTOR was the only person in the world who could have produced a record for Ike and Tina Turner that could make the ...
The Beatles, George Martin: The Beatles: Ringo Played Cards As Others Sang 'Paperback'!
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 17 June 1966
...reveals GEORGE MARTIN, the Beatles' recording manager, in an interview with Alan Smith. ...
Profile and Interview by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 18 June 1966
KIM FOWLEY sat in the Angus steak house munching buttered toast and drinking milk, happily unable to communicate with the waiters. He was wondering — ...
The Beatles: Norman Smith... A&R Man
Interview by Kevin Swift, Beat Instrumental, August 1966
UNTIL RECENTLY the name Norman Smith was synonymous with the Beatles, Cilla Black, Manfred Mann and many other famous recording names. He was the sound ...
The Beach Boys: Brian Tells About His Music, & Why The Beach Boys Stopped Surfing...
Interview by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 13 August 1966
Brian Wilson never appears, nowadays, with the Beach Boys — but he couldn't stamp his individuality more strongly on them if he was up there ...
The Beatles, George Martin: George Martin: Make Them Top Here!
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 19 August 1966
NMExclusive: 'Submarine' recording hilarious recalls A&R manager GEORGE MARTIN to Alan Smith ...
Musicassettes — a Revolution in the Recorded Music Field
Report by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 27 August 1966
LET'S TALK about musicassettes! Might just as well get in early on this revolutionary form of prerecorded music because like it or not, there's going ...
The Who: Sound sense Studio time
Report and Interview by Nick Jones, Melody Maker, 10 September 1966
What Are The Who Going To Do Now? ...
Chris Farlowe, Mick Jagger: Jagger Talks About Farlowe LP
Interview by Keith Altham, New Musical Express, 4 November 1966
MICK JAGGER'S latest line in telephone impersonations misfired last week when he rang to talk to me about the Chris Farlowe LP he has just ...
The Beach Boys: Meanwhile... What's BRIAN Doing Back at Base?
Interview by Tracy Thomas, New Musical Express, 18 November 1966
WHILE THE Beach Boys are rocking Europe, BB-mastermind Brian Wilson, has not been resting on his and their laurels! ...
The Doors: Paul Rothchild Speaks, March 1967
Book Excerpt by Paul Williams, Outlaw Blues, 1967
This interview was taped in Englewood, New Jersey, in March 1967, shortly after the release of the first Doors album, which Paul Rothchild produced. Last ...
Obituary by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 11 February 1967
SO JOE Meek is dead. Dead in tragic and rather sordid circumstances. While the enquiries go on, while the circumstances are fully investigated, it is ...
Obituary by uncredited writer, Disc and Music Echo, 11 February 1967
JOE MEEK, man behind the mammoth-selling 'Telstar' and many other hits, who was found dead with shotgun wounds in his Holloway, London, flat on Friday, ...
The Monkees: Boyce and Hart: What It's Like Cutting The Monkees
Interview by Eden, KRLA Beat, 25 February 1967
"WE'VE HAD many, many funny experiences with the Monkees in the studio, beginning with the first session we ever had with them. We met them ...
Donovan, Mickie Most: Most on Donovan
Interview by Kevin Swift, Beat Instrumental, March 1967
IT'S A FACT. Not many artistes give a thought to the guys who produce their records. Listeners seem to be as bad. Do you think ...
AIR — The Top Men Behind The Hits...
Interview by David Griffiths, Record Mirror, 22 April 1967
BACK IN the old days of show business (until the early Fifties) an artiste never got to make a record unless he was already established ...
Report by Derek Taylor, Disc and Music Echo, 22 April 1967
DEREK TAYLOR reporting from Hollywood on a meeting of the giants ...
The Beatles, Cilla Black: AIR: George Martin — 700 Hours To Complete Sgt Pepper
Interview by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 22 July 1967
IF I WERE a recording manager, I'm sure you'd never catch me on the hop if you asked how many number ones, or top ten ...
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, August 1967
WHO WILL be the big soul singer, the one to last and last? We have James Brown, Joe Tex, Wilson Pickett and the subject of ...
Georgie Fame, Denny Laine, The Moody Blues: Denny Cordell: The Man...
Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, 5 August 1967
...behind Procol Harum, the Move, Georgie Fame and Denny Laine talks about why he is a record producer ...
Jeff Beck: "I Don't Suppose I'll Get Married — All I Want Is My Music" Says Jeff Beck
Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, 26 August 1967
WHAT ARE the rewards of two years as one of the top guitarists in the pop business? ...
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 26 August 1967
"ELVIS," SAID Nancy Sinatra, as she drew back the curtains and looked out at the sun shining down on Los Angeles, "is at once a ...
Booker T & The MGs, Steve Cropper: The Stax Story: Steve Cropper (part 1)
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, September 1967
This Steve Cropper interview begins a series on Stax Records in Memphis. ...
Booker T & The MGs, Steve Cropper: The Stax Story: Steve Cropper (part 2)
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, October 1967
IN THIS FINAL installment of the Steve Cropper interview, Steve gives some excellent advice to guitarists who want to become studio musicians. We hope you ...
David Porter, Isaac Hayes, Sam & Dave: The Stax Story (Part 6): Porter & Hayes, Producers
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, February 1968
ISAAC HAYES and Dave Porter have written about one hundred and fifty songs together for Stax artists and also produced most of them. So far their ...
Cream, The Youngbloods: Felix Pappalardi: Solving Modern Recording Problems
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, March 1968
FELIX PAPPALARDI is a producer, but mainly a musician in the same sense that Steve Cropper is a producer-musician (see Steve Cropper HP Sept.). Before ...
Profile by Peter Jones, Record Mirror, 30 March 1968
LEE HAZLEWOOD is the 38-year-old one-man army and musical talent who turned Nancy Sinatra into one of the world's most popular recording artistes — and ...
The Coasters, Tom Dowd, The Drifters: Atlantic's Tom Dowd: The Real Music Man
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, May 1968
TOM DOWD is a walking encyclopedia on the history of American pop music. In fact, Tom Dowd created twenty years of pop history since he ...
Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, November 1968
WILLIE DIXON was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1915. He came to Chicago in 1935 out of curiosity and the hope of making a better ...
Interview by Alan Walsh, Melody Maker, 9 November 1968
BOB DYLAN'S John Wesley Harding album was probably the most eagerly awaited record of the year. ...
The Asylum Choir, Marc Benno, Leon Russell: The Asylum Choir: A Home Set Up Beats the System
Interview by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 25 November 1968
ROCK ARTISTS have been spending increasing amounts of time in recording studios during the past couple of years. Many contemporary albums now require several months ...
Herman's Hermits, Lulu, Mickie Most: Mickie Most: Making Hit Records for the Government
Interview by Alan Walsh, Melody Maker, 18 January 1969
ALAN WALSH TALKS TO MICKIE MOST, THE MAN BEHIND THE HIT MAKERS ...
Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield: Jerry Wexler: 'Team Work Is Secret Of Atlantic's Soul Success'
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 1 February 1969
Label chief JERRY WEXLER talking to Alan Smith ...
Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 29 March 1969
NME's Richard Green talks to their producer, Bob Johnston ...
Booker T & The MGs, Carla Thomas: Stax Horns Into the Pop Market for Sound Success
Profile and Interview by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 22 June 1969
MEMPHIS — A run-down movie theater in a threadbare black neighborhood is the home of Stax Records, a label whose 40 employees and 10 or ...
Desmond Dekker: Sweetened Ska Beat Could Sweep The Country Claims Desmond Dekker's Producer
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 26 July 1969
ARE DESMOND Dekker's 'Israelites' No. 1 and his latest release 'It Mek' only flashes in the proverbial pan, man... or could a hybrid mix of ...
Kim Fowley, The Hollywood Argyles: Kim Fowley
Profile by Mike Gormley, Detroit Free Press, 14 October 1969
EVER HEAR OF a guy named Kim Fowley? Fowley was the MC at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival, which was a good job for ...
Aretha Franklin, Arif Mardin: Arif Mardin: The Turkish Tycoon of Soul
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 8 November 1969
HOW DOES a Turkish bebop pianist become one of the world's leading producers of soul music? ...
Cold Grits, Eddie Hinton, Sam & Dave, Jerry Wexler: Muscle Shoals, Alabama
Report and Interview by Ritchie Yorke, Hit Parader, 1970
THERE WERE only seven people on Southern Airlines' Boeing 727 flight number 63 from Atlanta to Muscle Shoals, via Huntsville-Decatur on a recent Wednesday afternoon. ...
Phil Spector: The Musical Guts Behind Spector
Profile and Interview by uncredited writer, Beat Instrumental, January 1970
PHIL SPECTOR is alive and well and living on Sunset Boulevard in his beloved Los Angeles. He's producing records again, having come out of retirement ...
Report and Interview by Ian Dove, Billboard, 24 January 1970
NEW YORK — Synthesizer inventor Robert Moog plans to have Moog "performing instruments" on the market within three to six months, priced up to $2,000. ...
Eddie Holland Is 300% Happier Now
Interview by Loraine Alterman, Rolling Stone, 2 April 1970
DETROIT — Edward Holland learned a lot at Motown besides how to make hit records. Edward Holland learned the art of the controlled interview, an ...
Paul McCartney: McCartney (Apple)
Review and Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 18 April 1970
McCartney is a warm pleasure PAUL TALKS ABOUT LP TRACK BY TRACK ...
Led Zeppelin: Sounds Like Another Platinum!
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 6 June 1970
Chris Welch flies with Led Zeppelin as they cut their third LP... ...
Freda Payne: 'Band of Gold' (Invictus 20201)
Review by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 25 June 1970
Thumpthumpthumphumpthumpthumpthumpthump. A drummer practices his part in a Holland-Dozier-Holland song. ...
Garnet Mimms: Reflections On Garnet Mimms
Overview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 4 December 1970
NEW YORK SOUL '64 TO '67 ...
Interview by Charlie Gillett, Rock's Backpages audio, 1971
The Land of a Thousand Drifters: Charlie Gillett talks with arguably the greatest recording engineer in rock and soul history about the early days with Atlantic, Leiber and Stoller, The Rascals and Stax.
File format: mp3; file size: 55.8meg, interview length: 58' 07" sound quality: ***
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 1 May 1971
BACK in 1963, the Ronettes were three highly-coiffeured teenage girls who swept up the charts on a furious wave of Spector sound. Their lead singer, ...
Steve Alaimo, Eddie Bo, Isaac Hayes, George Kerr, Allen Toussaint: Producer's soul
Overview by Tony Cummings, Record Mirror, 5 June 1971
ISAAC HAYES has really turned the world of soul production upside down. ...
Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Lindisfarne: Bob Johnston: The most envied man in pop
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 19 June 1971
Roy Carr talks to the man who records Dylan, Cash and Cohen ...
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 9 July 1971
FREQUENTLY, we receive letters from readers' asking us to write about the people behind the scenes in our music. For example, the features we did ...
The Beatles, Hurricane Smith: Beatles Were Awful... They Talked Their Way Into A Recording Contract
Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 10 July 1971
...says their former soundman NORMAN 'HURRICANE' SMITH to ALAN SMITH Former Beatles' sound engineer Norman "Hurricane" Smith talking about the world-dominating group with whom he worked ...
Profile by Charlie Gillett, Fusion, 23 July 1971
IF BRITAIN HAD a good system of radio stations, the history of the world might have been at least a little different. ...
The Beatles, George Martin: The Beatles: Produced By George Martin
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 21 August 1971
GEORGE MARTIN is probably the most shadowy character in rock and roll history. His influence has been immense, yet few people outside the immediate circle ...
Harold Battiste: All for One – A Study in Frustration and Black Organisation
Interview by Charlie Gillett, Cream, September 1971
HAROLD BATTISTE has worked on a lot of very big hits, but although you probably have some of them, it's unlikely you'll be able to ...
Led Zeppelin: Zeppelin: More Solid Than Ever
Report and Interview by Ritchie Yorke, New Musical Express, 25 September 1971
Ritchie Yorke, in Canada, attends a Led Zeppelin concert and, with Jimmy Page, previews the group's next album ...
Mountain... Involved In The Serious Music Of Today
Interview by Vicki Wickham, Hit Parader, October 1971
MOUNTAIN ARE Felix Pappalardi on bass, Leslie West on guitar, Steve Knight keyboard and Corky Laing on drums. They are tough, heavy, exciting, dynamic and ...
Paul McCartney, David Spinozza: Paul McCartney: Working with Paul — A Session Musician Speaks
Interview by Vicki Wickham, Hit Parader, November 1971
Paul pays attention to every detail when he records, it all comes out Paul McCartney, says one session musician. ...
Profile and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, New Musical Express, 11 December 1971
IF ANY one man personifies the solid beat of Memphis soul then surely it's Willie Mitchell. Not only has he turned out 14 hit albums ...
James Taylor, Peter and Gordon: The Producers: Peter Asher
Interview by Harold Bronson, Hit Parader, 1972
HIT PARADER: From Peter and Gordon, how did you get into producing? ...
Interview by Danny Holloway, New Musical Express, 5 February 1972
LOU ADLER is a music giant behind the scenes. He started his career writing songs with Herb Alpert, but the partnership split up because Alpert ...
Emerson Lake And Palmer, Yes: Ready, Eddie? An Interview with Eddie Offord
Interview by Mark Plummer, Melody Maker, 12 February 1972
EDDIE OFFORD SITS in his penthouse flat, way above the traffic that thunders down the Vauxhall Bridge Road past Victoria. ...
Interview by Danny Holloway, New Musical Express, 26 February 1972
"IT'S ALL BULL. Having offices and secretaries and all the moodies and the phones. It's just crap. It's nothing to do with making records. Making ...
Joe Cocker, Leon Russell: Cordell, the Coaxer Behind Cocker
Interview by Danny Holloway, New Musical Express, 4 March 1972
DENNY CORDELL roamed around the music business in London during the early sixties before discovering the Moody Blues and consequently becoming their producer. He assisted ...
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 4 March 1972
ONE OF that tiny but slowly-expanding number of albums which points out a genuine new direction for the future is Zero Time, by Tonto's Expanding ...
Harry Nilsson: Nilsson's New Album
Interview by Lon Goddard, Record Mirror, 8 April 1972
Producer Richard Perry talks to Lon Goddard ...
Special Feature by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 13 April 1972
WORD HAS filtered down to Allen Klein's New York office that George Harrison wants to get in touch with Todd Rundgren, the all-around rock and ...
The Rolling Stones: Eight Stone Exiles
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 29 April 1972
IT COULD TAKE the Rolling Stones' new double-album Exile On Main Street, says NME's ROY CARR, to awaken those members of the rock nation so ...
The Band, Todd Rundgren: Raving Over The Runt, Alias Todd Rundgren: Rock Whiz-Kid
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 29 April 1972
THE NAME Todd Rundgren may sound more like a catarrhal growl than the monicker of an aspiring 23-year-old young musical whiz-kid. ...
The Rolling Stones: Going into Exile — Producer Jimmy Miller talks about the Stones' new album
Interview by Ritchie Yorke, New Musical Express, 3 June 1972
The degree of enjoyment is the only yardstick to use ...
Interview by Ritchie Yorke, New Musical Express, 10 June 1972
In this final part of his interview with Ritchie Yorke, Miller talks about the many artists he has recorded, and in particular about tracks which ...
R. Dean Taylor: An Insider's View Of Motown
Interview by Larry LeBlanc, Hit Parader, July 1972
MOTOWN IN the Sixties. The image, if we can narrow it down to one, was slickly packaged blackness. It was Holland-Dozier-Holland producing bump-and-grind jukebox hits. ...
Todd Rundgren: Todd the Whizz Kid
Interview by James Johnson, New Musical Express, 29 July 1972
EVEN THOUGH his name may not mean much to the general public, Todd Rundgren is undoubtedly a success. ...
Profile by Greg Shaw, Fusion, September 1972
IT'S HARD to remember a time when the role of the producer wasn't considered just as important as that of the musicians in the making ...
Profile by Richard Williams, Let It Rock, October 1972
ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED MOMENTS IN late-Sixties rock comes at the beginning of 'To Be Alone With You' on Bob Dylans Nashville Skyline album. ...
James Taylor: Sessions: James Taylor's One Man Dog
Report and Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 23 November 1972
LOS ANGELES — James Taylor is a very slow songwriter. It takes him months to write enough to justify a session, but once he's in ...
Interview by Harold Bronson, Rolling Stone, 21 December 1972
Mickey Mouse? What can I say about him? When making an album with the band laying down a track in the studio, Mickey is always ...
The Strawbs: Strawbs: Glitter where a frown used to be
Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, February 1973
BLUE WEAVER'S doctor will be giving him some vitamin tablets at the end of January. He'll have earned each and every one of them. For ...
The Animals, Jeff Beck, Donovan, Herman's Hermits, Mickie Most: The Starmakers: Mickie Most
Interview by Val Mabbs, Record Mirror, 3 February 1973
Starting today, The Starmakers, the men behind the image, the men in control. This new Record Mirror series probes the lives and feelings of the ...
Heads Hands and Feet, Jerry Lee Lewis: Jerry Lee Lewis: The Session Men
Report and Interview by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, May 1973
"WHAT HAPPENS when some of today's great pop stars put a session together in London with a rock 'n' roll legend?" asks the ad for ...
Elton John: What do Bowie, Elton, and Mantovani have in common?
Interview by Harold Bronson, Music World, 1 June 1973
I DON'T KNOW why so many of the stars take up residence at Hollywood's Chauteau Marmont Hotel on the Sunset Strip. Perhaps it's because of ...
Suzi Quatro, Sweet: Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman: The Dynamic Duo Of Plastic Pop
Interview by Jonh Ingham, New Musical Express, 2 June 1973
Nicky Chinn is an ex-public schoolboy, Mike Chapman a one-time waiter. Together they're... The Dynamic Duo Of Plastic Pop ...
Al Green, Syl Johnson, Willie Mitchell: Willie Mitchell
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 22 June 1973
WILLIE MITCHELL. His name is synonymous with the rich brass sound that has become known worldwide as the Memphis Sound. For years, Willie as been ...
Carole King: Lou Adler — voice of a King
Interview by Caroline Boucher, Disc, 23 June 1973
IT WAS after making Tapestry that Carole King met her producer, Lou Adler, one day and just casually enquired how the album was selling. It ...
New York Dolls, Todd Rundgren: New York Confidential: the New York Dolls
Report by Ed McCormack, Rolling Stone, 5 July 1973
TIMES SQUARE, teeming with amazed tourists by day, becomes the city's funky armpit after midnight. So we step fast under the flaming marquees peddling fake ...
Allen Toussaint, Producing the New Orleans Feel
Interview by Barbara Charone, New Musical Express, 14 July 1973
QUESTION: What could Alvin Lee, Frankie Miller, Mac 'Dr. John' Rebennack, Robbie Robertson and Lee Dorsey possibly have in common? Answer: Allen Toussaint. ...
Chicago: A James William Guercio Enterprise
Report and Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 19 July 1973
CHICAGO, THE line goes, would be a useless slag heap of Midwestern has-beens went it not for the strong hand of their producer, a young ...
Allen Toussaint: Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky
Profile and Interview by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, 21 July 1973
THEY KNOW, of course, which one is Dr John. The Swiss photographers huddle around the stage, clicking their Nikons like American tourists determined to capture ...
Smokey Robinson: Miracles And Meditation
Report and Interview by Roger St. Pierre, New Musical Express, 4 August 1973
IT'S JUST on a year since Smokey Robinson split from the Miracles to spend more time as an executive of the Motown Corporation. Now, he ...
Alice Cooper, Lou Reed: Bob Ezrin: The Square And The Faggots
Report and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 18 August 1973
"DETACHMENT. Yes, that's it exactly. We were both talking about that. Lou said last night: 'This album is an exercise in detachment and apathy'. I ...
Lou Reed's New Deco-Disk: Sledgehammer Blow to Glitterbugs
Report and Interview by Larry Sloman, Rolling Stone, 27 September 1973
NEW YORK — At 10 AM on a muggy New York morning, in Studio A of the Record Plant, a slight, dark, intense young man ...
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 9 November 1973
IF YOU study Thom Bell's creative work, there is an undeniable classical influence in everything he does. The easy explanation to this is that the ...
Sarah Vaughan: Searching For That Natural Soul Sound
Interview by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 17 November 1973
MARSHALL FISHER, Sarah Vaughan's husband and personal manager, indicated that if I were to call round at the Mayfair Hotel an hour or so before ...
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 23 November 1973
THE DAYS are long gone when the total credit for the success of a record goes to the artist alone. Over the years, the role ...
The Beatles: The Act You've Known For All These Years: The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper
Retrospective by Mick Gold, unpublished, 1974
ALL ENTERTAINMENT HAS AN EXISTENTIAL dimension: all successful performances imply a life-style and a sense of values, a sub-structure of assumptions upon which the performer ...
Philadelphia Special: Gamble and Huff
Interview by Tony Cummings, Black Music, January 1974
ONCE, FOR A fleeting blink of times' eye, Philadelphia was the centre of it all. When the world danced the twist with Chubby Checker... everybody ...
Thom Bell, The Delfonics, The Spinners, The Stylistics: Philly Special: The Thom Bell Story
Interview by Tony Cummings, Black Music, January 1974
THOM BELL smiles a lot. And it isn't only his natural good humour which creases his handsome, bearded face into another explosion of laughter. Over ...
Al Green, Willie Mitchell, Ann Peebles: Willie Mitchell: Mr. Memphis
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 15 January 1974
WHILST THE Philadelphia Sound has undoubtedly been the top sound of 1973, the nearest rival to it has been the Memphis Sound as carried out ...
Mud, Sweet: The Sweet smell of success turns to Mud in the eye
Report and Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 9 February 1974
NOTHING WOULD please Nicky Chinn more this week than to see Sweet topple Mud from the top of the singles chart. One would think that ...
New York Dolls: Standing in the Shadow of Rock: Shadow Morton, Pt. 1
Interview by Lenny Kaye, Melody Maker, 2 March 1974
"I don’t consider myself a good producer. I’m one of the best." Shadow Morton, producer of the New York Dolls, talks to Lenny Kaye. ...
Interview by Lenny Kaye, Melody Maker, 9 March 1974
Part two of the Shadow Morton story by Lenny Kaye ...
Mott The Hoople, Procol Harum: Guy Stevens: Guy's Out For Glory
Profile and Interview by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 30 March 1974
GUY STEVENS is the kind of guy who might be buttonholing your young lady in the boozer. ...
Mike Harrison, Mott The Hoople: Guy's Out For Glory
Profile and Interview by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 30 March 1974
GUY STEVENS is the kind of guy who might be buttonholing your young lady in the boozer. ...
Ashford & Simpson: Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing
Interview by Vicki Wickham, Black Music, May 1974
NICKOLAS ASHFORD and Valerie Simpson have, of course, been writing great songs for years. Songs like 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough', 'Reach Out And Touch ...
Terry Melcher: Surf's Up! Terry Melcher's Nightmare Is Over
Interview by Tom Nolan, Rolling Stone, 9 May 1974
LOS ANGELES – Terry Melcher, a consistent professional, has participated in scores of hits with artists as diverse as Frankie Laine and the Byrds. Seven ...
John Cale, Brian Eno: Eno and John Cale: The Wild Bunch
Interview by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 18 May 1974
Martin Hayman jumps into the Tardis, goes into the future with typewriter over his shoulder and ends up on the beach with Eno, Phil Manzanera and ...
Interview by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, 18 May 1974
Producer Richard Perry talks to Robert Partridge ...
The Chambers Brothers, Raspberries: Superstar Producer Jimmy Ienner
Interview by Lenny Kaye, Rock Scene, June 1974
IT'S ALL in the moves. Willie, Joe and Pops of the Chambers Brothers are grouped around a microphone in the duskily-lit interior of Venture Sound, ...
Interview by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 8 June 1974
DENNY CORDELL is not at all like my image of him. Well in fact, I didn't know what to expect but he was not like ...
Profile and Interview by Robin Katz, Sounds, 10 August 1974
JOHNNY BRISTOL'S 'Hang On In There Baby' is currently moving up the American charts. It sounds very much like the Isaac Hayes-Barry White school of ...
Johnny Bristol: Hangin' On In There Baby
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 13 August 1974
EVERYONE SEEMS to be knowledgably tipping Johnny Bristol for the same sort of instant and long-standing success that Barry White and Isaac Hayes have enjoyed ...
Jimi Hendrix: 'Black Gold': New Hendrix in Old Tapes
Interview by Ian Dove, Rolling Stone, 26 September 1974
NEW YORK — The archaeological probing of the Hendrix tapes continues. Up in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, at the Shaggy Dog Studios, Alan Douglas — producer, record ...
David Bowie, T. Rex: Tony Visconti: Behind Bolan And Bowie
Interview by Ray Fox-Cumming, Disc, 28 September 1974
THIS IS a story of Marc Bolan and David Bowie – compared and contrasted. Bolan, the complete professional, who lost out through believing himself above ...
Allen Toussaint: Introspective Funk
Retrospective and Interview by Joe McEwen, The Real Paper, 2 October 1974
PRODUCER ALLEN TOUSSAINT hunches forward over the expansive 16-track control board and stares impassively through the glass at two singers in the orange studio beyond. ...
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 8 October 1974
THOUGH JOHNNY Bristol has been involved with recording success for years now, his past track record stems from his career as a record producer. But ...
The Rolling Stones: Chip Monck on TV: A Rocky Talk Show
Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 10 October 1974
LOS ANGELES — For 15 years Chip Monck has been making a solid reputation for himself as a backstage man, as a lighting designer, technician, ...
The Eagles, The James Gang, Wishbone Ash: Szymczyk's the name, producing's the game
Interview by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 2 November 1974
If you've got albums by the Eagles, Joe Walsh, James Gang, J. Geils Band, Wishbone Ash or B.B. King then you should know who Barbara ...
Bunny Sigler: A Philly institution
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 17 December 1974
WITH THE Philadelphia 'thing' still at its peak, it is especially worthwhile catching up on the happenings of one of the city's most important citizens, ...
Interview by Roy Carr, Rock's Backpages audio, 1975
A brief clip where Roy Carr listens as a drunk Phil Spector rants.
File format: mp3; file size: 4.3mb, interview length: 4' 29" sound quality: ***
Al Green, Willie Mitchell, Ann Peebles: Willie Mitchell: Memphis Maestro
Interview by Tony Cummings, Black Music, February 1975
Tony Cummings talks to WILLIE MITCHELL, man behind Al Green and that Memphis sound... ...
Mike Oldfield: Tom Newman: The Man Who Taped the Tubular Bells
Interview by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 8 February 1975
WHEN IT COMES to tape, who better to talk to than the guy who did the 2,000 over-dubs on Tubular Bells, engineer Tom Newman? ...
Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin: The Age of Atlantic: Jerry Wexler
Interview by Max Jones, Melody Maker, 15 February 1975
Max Jones talks to Jerry Wexler, famed producer of Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Maggie Bell, among others — and a vice-chairman of Atlantic ...
Bill Justis, Roscoe Shelton, Joe Simon, Ella Washington: Echoes: John Richbourg — Southern Soul Man
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Millar, Let It Rock, April 1975
Producer and DJ John Richbourg has been involved with the careers of Bobby Hebb, Joe Simon and many more. ...
Lee Dorsey, Labelle, Allen Toussaint: Marshall Sehorn: The Night They Drove Lee Dorsey Down...
Interview by Roger St. Pierre, New Musical Express, 12 April 1975
MARSHALL SEHORN had to get him out of jail. ROGER ST. PIERRE raps to one of the mainmen of New Orleans soul. ...
Johnny Bristol, Allen Toussaint: Johnny Bristol and Allen Toussaint: Producers 'N' Performers
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 27 May 1975
IT SEEMS that it's an increasingly notable fact that more and more producers, after scoring successfully in that field, are turning their attention to the ...
Dion, Phil Spector: Phil Spector: He's A Rebel
Report and Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Melody Maker, 31 May 1975
THE OCCASION is Professor Phil Spector's guest lecture at the Sherwood Oaks Experimental College record-producing seminar. Last time Phil talked at the school was in ...
Gloria Gaynor & the Disco Boom
Overview by Tony Cummings, Black Music, June 1975
"WE'RE PRODUCTION-orientated sure, but I can't agree that we're cynical in our approach. We simply carry our production techniques one stage further than the competition. ...
Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, King Crimson: Robert Fripp: Retiring Fripp
Interview by Jon Tiven, International Musician & Recording World, June 1975
Fripp's King Crimson brought a new meaning to the word "tight". For a short time the band represented a pinnacle of British rock achievement. Since ...
Earth, Wind & Fire, Ramsey Lewis: Earth, Wind & Fire: Sonic Elements
Report and Interview by Vernon Gibbs, Downbeat, 19 June 1975
PHILADELPHIA IS a violent town. In the hotel where Earth, Wind and Fire are staying, an enraged woman (who has been given a passkey by ...
Van McCoy, The Stylistics: Van McCoy: The Hustler
Interview by Tony Cummings, Black Music, July 1975
Disco hero of 'Hustle' fame... man behind the Stylistics' current success... and writer, producer, arranger whose hits go back 15 years. The legendary VAN McCOY ...
Elton John: A Million Dollar Friendship: An Interview with Gus Dudgeon
Interview by Jon Tiven, Circus Raves, August 1975
NARY A POTENTIOMETER breathed a word at the Caribou Ranch high in the Rocky Mountains. And the baffles relaxed as the massive array of equipment ...
Allen Toussaint: Feel Like Staying Home
Profile and Interview by John Morthland, Creem, September 1975
NEW ORLEANS, LA – Allen Toussaint has moved into the pop spotlight lately via Labelle and Paul McCartney but it's not his first time there. ...
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 16 September 1975
AFTER TWENTY years of giving others success, Quincy Jones is only now finally getting his just deserts — borne out by the rapid rise up ...
David Bowie, Elton John: Gus Dudgeon
Interview by Jon Tiven, International Musician & Recording World, October 1975
Jon Tiven talks to Gus Dudgeon about Elton, Bowie and recording in general. ...
10cc, Hotlegs, Jonathan King, Neil Sedaka: They're Not in Love: 10cc Eats Rubber Bullets
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 23 October 1975
LONDON — AFTER trying to crack the U.S. market for nearly three years, success came suddenly to 10cc this summer. 'I'm Not in Love', with ...
KC & the Sunshine Band, George McCrae: Sunshine Band Sees Daylight — That's the Way K.C. Likes It
Profile and Interview by Tom Vickers, Rolling Stone, 20 November 1975
SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA — K.C. and the Sunshine Band threw a down-home dance party on the Circle Star Theatre's usually sedate stage. Whistles turned to ...
Patti Smith: Somewhere, Over the Rimbaud
Profile and Interview by Susin Shapiro, Crawdaddy!, December 1975
NEW YORK – IT'S 8:30 a.m. on a fog-soup Friday, an indecent hour to be conducting an interview, much less making a record. ...
Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, Bruce Springsteen: John Hammond: From Billie to Bruce
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 6 December 1975
John Hammond recalls his 40 years atthe forefront of popular music recording ...
Linda Ronstadt: 'Heat Wave' – The Long Hot Sessions
Report and Interview by Todd Everett, Rolling Stone, 18 December 1975
"THE BAND HAD been trying to get Linda to add it to her set for quite a while," recalls pianist Andrew Gold, "but we never ...
B.T. Express, Gloria Gaynor, Tom Moulton: Tom Moulton, Father of the Disco Mix
Interview by Davitt Sigerson, Black Music, January 1976
TOM MOULTON is the behind-the-scenes figure of disco music. His name has appeared on the credits of discs by Gloria Gaynor, B.T. Express, Bobby Moore, ...
Faith Hope & Charity, Van McCoy, The Stylistics: Van McCoy: The World's Oldest Disco Kid
Interview by Tony Cummings, Black Music, January 1976
VAN McCOY has crossed the ten million sales mark with 'The Hustle', a dance tune which will rank in influence with 'The Twist'. Yet the ...
Dionne Warwick, Thom Bell: Dionne Rings The Changes
Report and Interview by Kevin Allen, Record Mirror, 10 January 1976
SINCE IT was the arranging/production and inspiration of Thom Bell which took Dionne Warwick (no final "e" these days) back into the charts after a ...
Kenny Gamble, O'Jays: The O'Jays: Loving the Music with Gamble & Huff
Report and Interview by Tom Vickers, Rolling Stone, 15 January 1976
LOS ANGELES — Walking by what used to be a restaurant at the Beverly Comstock Hotel in Beverly Hills, one wonders why they keep playing ...
Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 31 January 1976
TOM WILSON is an elegant, very tall (6ft 4in) black American, a former Harvard man who talks a little like Bill Cosby but whose pencil-thin ...
Profile and Interview by Vernon Gibbs, Penthouse, February 1976
HAVING EXHAUSTED the "Motown Sound" in the sixties, soul music is now dominated by the "Philly Sound" — a triumph of polish and strings. True ...
Burning Spear: Ruby's Dub Gems
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 21 February 1976
REGGAE IS in many ways a producer's music. More than any other ethnic music since Twenties hillbilly, it is a music that has been created ...
Thom Bell, The Spinners: Thom Bell & The Spinners: Looking For 'Hudson Bros.' Acceptance
Interview by Ian Dove, Phonograph Record, March 1976
WHEN THE SPINNERS recently celebrated 25 years together as a group, amid all the celebrations the soul quintet were quick to point out the part ...
Phil Spector: Upstairs, downstairs and in my mixing chamber
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 6 March 1976
DATELINE: MARCH 31, 1974. ...
The Beatles, Dion, George Harrison, John Lennon, Darlene Love, Phil Spector: Phil Spector Again
Report and Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 20 March 1976
Flourishing a revolver our weird hero enters his dark, refrigerated room to recount strange tales the likes of which may never before have been heard ...
Al Green, Willie Mitchell: Willie Mitchell: Changing Sounds In Memphis
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 22 June 1976
Willie Mitchell's distinctive Memphis sound has been the driving force behind many golden hits over the years. Now he feels it's time for a change. ...
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 26 June 1976
THOUGH SOUND recording celebrates its centenary next year, it is only in the past ten to 16 years that studio techniques have reached the present ...
Waylon Jennings' Are You Ready for the Country
Report by Stephen K. Peeples, Picking Up the Tempo, 7 July 1976
The Texas country outlaw's bid for a wider audience with Are You Ready for the Country gets a closer look. ...
Alan Parsons: Parsons Knows: The Tale of Alan Parsons and Edgar Allan Poe
Report and Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 10 July 1976
THE CONCEPT ALBUM, contemptuously rejected by many critics as the great bore of rock, has returned, and this work of producer Alan Parsons, supported by ...
Buddy Holly: Norman Petty: How We Cut the Golden Hits
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 September 1976
"I THINK," said Norman Petty, carefully selecting his words, "that if Buddy Holly was alive today, he would be on an equal basis with Elvis ...
George Chandler: Anatomy of a Soul Record
Report by Davitt Sigerson, Black Music, November 1976
George Chandler in the studio at Chipping Norton ...
Leon Ware: LA's Most Important New Writer/Producer/Performer
Interview by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, November 1976
LEON WARE'S songs have been recorded by an almost bewildering array of performers — including Ike and Tina Turner, Bobby Womack, the Righteous Brothers, Kim ...
Comment by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 27 November 1976
BY NOW we must all, surely, regard the coming of rock's New Wave as beneficial. Whether the currently fashionable bands prove to be the real ...
Interview by Robin Katz, Record Mirror, 1 January 1977
NORMAN WHITFIELD has always been a ghost-like character in terms of his presence to music. As a producer and writer he has always been a ...
Kiss: "Rock And Roll O-O-O-Over"
Interview by Dan Nooger, Circus, 17 January 1977
Kiss Captures the Searing Sound, Live in the Studio ...
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 1 February 1977
You Are My Starship was surely one of '76's major albums and earned Norman Connors the big breakthrough. He talks to B&S about his background ...
Rose Royce, The Temptations: The Norman Whitfield interview
Profile and Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 1 February 1977
With three of his productions currently in the top four singles in this country, the timing could not have been better for this exclusive interview ...
Carl Davis: Doing His Own Thing
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 26 April 1977
WHEN YOU talk about Chicago in a musical way, there are some names that spring to mind instantly. Curtis Mayfield, Chess Records, The Chi-Lites, Chaka ...
Kim Fowley, Helen Reddy, The Runaways: Kim Fowley: The Solid Gold Whipping Boy of Sunset Strip
Interview by Radio Pete, Rocky Mountain Musical Express, June 1977
COUNTLESS PEOPLE in the music business have called Kim Fowley everything from a "rancid little pimp" to a "cheesey hustler who pushes shit groups out ...
Allen Toussaint Listens to New Orleans
Profile and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 28 July 1977
NEW ORLEANS — Allen Toussaint is the Crescent City's premier composer/producer, and his success behind the scenes is obvious: he's written ten gold records and produced ...
Mink DeVille: Willie Deville's Organic Street Rock (the James Brown knee drops are killers)
Interview by Radio Pete, Rocky Mountain Musical Express, August 1977
MINK DEVILLE is a five man band whose guitarist, main writer, vocalist, and overriding consciousness is one Mr. Willy DeVille. Willy possesses that rare combination ...
The Isley Brothers: Ernie Isley: Pride of the Isleys
Interview by Davitt Sigerson, Black Music, September 1977
"THE ALBUM, 3+3, featuring 'That Lady', was in '73, but since 1969, we've been more or less involved with the Isley Brothers. My father was ...
Alan Parsons: when producer becomes star
Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977
LONDON — The question of mistaken identity still weighs heavily on Alan Parsons' mind, even though he's had two hit albums, Tales of Mystery and ...
Reflections on Solid State Neon Faces
Comment by Stephen K. Peeples, RePlay, 1 November 1977
SEATED AT A back table near the Golden Rooster's alleyway exit, my eyes fix a stare on the joint's '50s neon face (jukebox). Thirty years ...
John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen: Behind the Scenes: Iovine in the Right Place
Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, 17 November 1977
NEW YORK — In 1973, when he was working with producer John Lennon as assistant engineer on Harry Nilsson's Pussycats album, Jimmy Iovine looked up ...
Dennis Bovell, Matumbi: Dennis Matumbi in dub: a step by step guide.
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 3 December 1977
1. I'M PATCHING in the 16-track machine, the echo machine and the reverb into the plugboard. That brings the tape off the 16-track machine behind ...
Overview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 3 December 1977
Dub = Surprise Dub = Strobe (it flash your eyes/hypnotise) Dub = Pulse Dub = Frontier When you listen to dub:- ...
Interview by Cliff White, Rock's Backpages audio, Spring 1977
Womack talks about leaving United Artists for Columbia and cutting his recent album Home Is Where The Heart Is in Muscle Shoals; his plans for his next album Pieces, to be recorded in Detroit with producer Don Davis and Leon Ware co-writing; living in Los Angeles; his Zemaitis custom guitar; his approach to record production; his brothers the Valentinos and the European audiences’ demand for oldies like ‘It’s All Over Now’.
File format: mp3; file size: 30.7mb, interview length: 31' 56" sound quality: ****
Earth, Wind & Fire, Maurice White: Maurice White: From Sessionman To Producer
Interview by Sam Sutherland, Record World, 7 January 1978
EVEN IF Maurice had chosen to retire as a musician in the early '70s, his mid-decade emergence as a producer would guarantee him prominence: White's ...
Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 28 January 1978
SO NOW the whole Toussaint catalogue is available again, enabling listeners of taste to trace for themselves the development of the New Orleans man's approach, ...
The Clash: Cult Figure Cuts Clash To Suit American Dream Machine
Interview by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 25 February 1978
SANDY PEARLMAN IS A BRISK and lively talker. He can probably offer an animated dissertation of any number of irregular topics, ranging from advancements in ...
Al Green, Willie Mitchell, Ann Peebles: Willie Mitchell: Gettin' Hi High Again
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 14 March 1978
Willie Mitchell has virtually forsaken his own career in favour of running Hi Records and putting the label back up there... ...
Ralph MacDonald: The Percussive Roots Of Ralph McDonald
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 11 April 1978
Ralph's new album traces his musical roots from Africa to the Islands and America. Here he talks about his dual roles as artist and producer, ...
David Bowie, Elton John: The Producers: Gus Dudgeon
Interview by Fred Dellar, Sound International, May 1978
The producer's job is possibly one of the least-understood and most under-rated in the entire recording business. One usually thinks of a producer as providing ...
Blue Öyster Cult, The Clash: Blue Oyster Cult and Sandy Pearlman
Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 13 May 1978
ERIC BLOOM is adamant about the current position and status of the band he sings and plays for, the am-aaa-zing Blue Oyster Cult; they are ...
Profile and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 3 June 1978
Pete Silverton assembles a few views of Basher man, myth and magic ...
Etta James, Jerry Wexler: Etta James: The Queen Bee of R&B
Interview by Radio Pete, Rocky Mountain Musical Express, July 1978
IT IS almost impossible to write about Etta James and avoid clichés oft used in studies of jazz and soul artists. She's been exploited. She's ...
Freddy Fender: Behind the Scenes: Huey Meaux's bathtub sound
Profile and Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1978
HOUSTON — "Y'SEE, the Big Bopper needed a flip side to 'The Witch Doctor Meets the Flying Purple People Eater', so he wrote this tune ...
Quincy Jones: Feelin' Great In '78
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 18 July 1978
Quincy Jones finds that the ideas and his music are just flowing these days, he feels like a man on the sea, just going with ...
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 22 July 1978
TOMMY RAMONE don't wanna be a pinhead no more (that's assuming you thought he was a pinhead in the first place in which case ...
Kraftwerk: You're never alone with a clone
Interview by Tim Lott, Record Mirror, 29 July 1978
Tim Lott observes the kraft of Kraftwerk ...
Etta James, Allen Toussaint: Jerry Wexler: Producer with a Fan's Passion
Interview by Sam Sutherland, High Fidelity, August 1978
ON A BLEAK, sunless afternoon, Jerry Wexler sits comfortably in the shadows of a recording studio control room, listening to the playback of a vocal ...
Blondie, Rick Derringer, Suzi Quatro, Smokie: Mike Chapman: Producer
Interview by Harold Bronson, New York Rocker, September 1978
PRODUCER MIKE Chapman, once removed from his baronial digs in the hillier regions of Beverly Hills and ensconced in the recording studio, sheds his bemused ...
Boston's Return: More than a Followup?
Interview by Toby Goldstein, High Fidelity, October 1978
IN THE cramped basement of a small neat house in one of Boston's outermost suburbs, the leader of a six-million-dollar band is trying to finish ...
The Honeycombs, John Leyton, Joe Meek, The Tornados: A Tribute to Joe Meek— Far Out Before His Time
Retrospective by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 1 October 1978
THROUGHOUT his career, British record producer Joe Meek showed a strong and consistent fascination with outer space and supernatural themes. A kind of backroom electronic ...
Tyla Gang: Moon Proof (Beserkley)
Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 18 November 1978
THERE ARE certain musicians whose burden in life is to carry the can for mediocre past. Sean Tyla, late of Ducks Deluxe, is suffering from ...
Profile and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, 2 December 1978
"A Colchester farmer on his own accounts for 10,000 of the 400,000 advance orders of Boney M's 'Mary's Boy Child'. George Story heard the single ...
Jack Nitzsche, Graham Parker: Jack Nitzsche: The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Interview by Joel Selvin, Melody Maker, 23 December 1978
Pop legends don't come much more elusive than veteran producer Jack Nitzsche, who apprenticed himself to Phil Spector. After his success with Mink DeVille, he's currently ...
The Clashmen Meet The Pearlman
Report and Interview by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, February 1979
"It wasn't the easiest thing I've ever I done, that's for sure." I had Sandy Pearlman, Record Producer, on the phone from some unnamed restaurant ...
Blondie, Mud, Suzi Quatro, Sweet: Chinn & Chapman: Ballroom Blitz & Hearts of Glass
Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, March 1979
Mike Chapman began with Mud and Sweet, disappeared when glitter-rock went cold, and came back to make the new wave palatable for America with the ...
Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 12 May 1979
Words and puzzled expression by SANDY ROBERTSON ...
Jerry Wexler: Muscle Shoals Sound Studios: Jerry Wexler on Years in 'Boogaloo Country'
Interview by Sam Sutherland, Record World, 19 May 1979
WALK THROUGH the lobby of Muscle Shoals Sound Studios and, hanging near all those gilded singles and albums, you'll see the face of veteran producer ...
Muscle Shoals: A Look at Who Makes It Cook
Profile by Sam Sutherland, Record World, 19 May 1979
THE MUSICAL traits that have earned the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section the respect and admiration of artists and producers around the world aren't obvious ...
Dyan Diamond, Kim Fowley, Helen Reddy: Kim Fowley: Prince Of Dog Food
Profile and Interview by Radio Pete, New York Rocker, July 1979
KIM FOWLEY has been called everything from "a rancid pimp" to "an egomaniac hustler who pushes shit groups out of the toilets of pop music." ...
Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, July 1979
I GUESS I WAS almost prepared. The stories in the English papers portraying him as a garrulous kinda guv, the bashful puppydog picture sleeves on ...
Ry Cooder: Bop Til You Drop (Warner Brothers Records 3358)
Review by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 July 1979
An Astonishing Digital Bop ...
Blondie, The Knack, Suzi Quatro, Sweet: Long Overdue Recognition For Producer Mike Chapman
Profile by Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle, 5 August 1979
WITH HIS productions of the multi-platinum Blondie LP, Parallel Lines, and Get the Knack, which earned a gold album faster than any other debut album ...
Electric Light Orchestra: ELO: Stringing along with pop
Interview by Jim Farber, Rolling Stone, 4 October 1979
Bev Bevan on the 'big sound' ...
Jack Clement: 'Cowboy' Jack Clement: The Nut With The Midas Touch
Profile and Interview by Martin Hawkins, Melody Maker, 13 October 1979
RECENTLY, the successful Nashville-based record producer and songwriter, sometime singer, and failed movie mogul. Jack Clement, made his first visit to Europe. At the age ...
The Clash: Guy Stevens: “There Are Only Two Phil Spectors In The World And I Am One Of Them”
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 22 December 1979
Selected tableaux from The Guy Stevens Story. ...
Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 29 December 1979
Mike Chapman began with Mud and Sweet, disappeared when glitter-rock went cold, and came back to make the new wave palatable for America with the ...
Brian Eno, Talking Heads: Brian Eno: Energy Fails The Magician
Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 12 January 1980
After spending the last decade redefining rock music, all Brian Eno wants now is an honest job of work and a place to lay his ...
Stacy Lattisaw, Narada Michael Walden: Narada's Awakening Continues...
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 29 January 1980
Narada's 1979 chartbusting Awakening album paved the way for 1980 success. Now, the talented performer reveals his plans for continued acceptance and his aspirations for ...
Buggles: The Age Of Plastic (Island ILPS 9585)
Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 2 February 1980
Music for radios ...
Interview by Kris Needs, Rock's Backpages audio, 9 February 1980
During this swift backstage chat, the Ramones talk about working with Phil Spector on their End of the Century album. They also talk about their current UK tour, how they're doing in the USA, and discuss leather jackets and winklepickers!
File format: mp3; file size: 13.3mb, interview length: 14' 34" sound quality: **
Chic, Sister Sledge: Sister Sledge: Sisters In Soul
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 25 March 1980
Just a year or so back, the sisters Sledge were considering going their separate ways. Happily, 1979 was a fantastic year for the girls and ...
John Cooper Clarke, Joy Division: Martin Hannett
Interview by uncredited writer, ZigZag, May 1980
(This article was credited to "Worried, Preston". We have no idea who Worried, Preston is. If you do, please get in touch — RBP Ed) ...
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 6 May 1980
TO GET some measure of Michael Jackson's success during 1979, you only have to look at the B&S Poll results because Michael walked off with ...
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 1 July 1980
Having first met as members of the Miles Davis Band, Mtume & Lucas immediately sparked a mutual creative change which has resulted in a plethora ...
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 19 July 1980
Bassist with Arnie Prole's Blues Band! Founding member of John Cooper Clarke's Curious Yellows! Close friend of Eric the Ferret! Producer of Spiral Scratch, Jilted ...
Emmylou Harris Buys Back the Farm
Interview by Steven X Rea, High Fidelity, August 1980
A GIANT cement mixer blocks the road, halfway up the snaking cul-de-sac that ends at Emmylou Harris' rented ranch house. Nestled in a leveled out ...
T Bone Burnett: Born Again, But Still Looking
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 8 August 1980
IT HAPPENS nearly every year, and usually when you least expect it. From left field, you find a new record and end up with a ...
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 12 August 1980
Chic's Bernard Edwards talks about the frustrations of being underestimated outside of the disco sphere; about the problems of producing the Diana Ross album; and ...
Electric Guitar Pioneers Leo Fender & George Fullerton
Interview by David Gans, BAM, 29 August 1980
An Interview With Two Gentle Giants of the Music Industry ...
Chic, Diana Ross: DIANA stop DIANA stop DIANA stop DIANA
Report and Interview by Danny Baker, New Musical Express, 20 September 1980
THE DPRESS CONFERENCE versus YOUR POCKET ...
Eumir Deodato, Kool and the Gang: Cruisin' with Deodato
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 21 October 1980
Eumir Deodato's interests have always spanned the whole musical spectrum, as reflected in his 1973 smash hit, 'Theme From 2001'. Currently, he's in the spotlight ...
Interview by Cliff White, Rock's Backpages audio, Summer 1980
Interviewed at New Orleans' legendary Sea-Saint studio, Dorsey talks about his recent motorbike crash, then looks back at his first hit, 'Ya Ya', and his subsequent recording career; keeping his automobile repair shop; touring Europe; his recent tour with the Clash; recording with producer Allen Toussaint; his Yes We Can and Night People albums, and the advantages of having a decent road band.
File format: mp3; file size: 29.5mb, interview length: 30' 43" sound quality: ***
A Short History of the Rock Guitar
Overview by Charles Shaar Murray, The History of Rock, 1981
BEFORE THE ADVENT OF ROCK, guitars were just guitars. Amplification made guitars more flexible, more assertive and more prominent, but even so the electric guitar ...
Steely Dan: Recording Gaucho: Doctors, Lawyers, and Gremlins
Report and Interview by Sam Sutherland, High Fidelity, February 1981
BEFORE THE multiple-platinum sales of Aja carried their music to a broad pop constituency, Steely Dan's Walter Becker and Donald Fagen had earned enviable, even ...
Fleetwood Mac: Tuning in to Digital Records
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 19 March 1981
IT'S NOT FOR ROCK-POP YET ...
Jack Nitzsche: Interview with Jack Nitzsche
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, unpublished, June 1981
KNOCKING ON HEAVENS DOOR… ST. GILES CRIPPLEGATE ...
Lee "Scratch" Perry, The Terrorists: Lee Perry comes in for a landing
Interview by Richard Grabel, New York Rocker, July 1981
HE GOES by many names. Scratch, the Upsetter, Super Ape, Pipecock Jackson. Lee Perry is one of the (some would say the) foremost producers of ...
Lamont Dozier, Future Flight, Zingara: Lamont Dozier: Me an' my piano...
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 28 July 1981
Despite a proven track record, the multi-talented writer, producer and artist, continues to strive for success, and STILL spends 4-5 hours every day sitting at ...
Dennis Bovell: Brain Damaged Goods
Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 15 August 1981
THE FINAL, apocalyptic scenes of Franco Rosso's excellent Babylon are based on a 1976 police raid on Cricklewood's Carib Club during a sound system session ...
Marc Bolan, T. Rex: Tony Visconti on Marc Bolan (1981)
Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, September 1981
Producer Visconti talks about the newly released T. Rex in Concert: the original stereo recordings, and what he did to improve them; on first meeting Marc in hippie club Middle Earth; why they stopped working together; the definitive version of T. Rex; Bolan vs. Bowie; Marc's charisma and arrogance; the 'Children of Rarn' demos; Bolan's ongoing legacy and the meaning of 'Metal Guru'.
File format: mp3; file size: 18.4mb, interview length: 19' 09" sound quality: ****
Captain Beefheart: Ted Templeman on Captain Beefheart
Interview by David Gans, BAM, 10 September 1981
What did you expect when you did Captain Beefheart's Clear Spot? ...
Dollar: Working For The Swanky Dollar
Interview by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 26 September 1981
DAVE McCULLOUGH unearths the grisly truth behind pop's most loving couple ...
Invasion Of The Walkmen People
Report by Cynthia Rose, City Limits, 16 October 1981
It was was back in 1964 when Andy Warhol married his cassette machine. "The acquisition of my tape recorder" he revealed eleven years later, "really ...
Interview by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, December 1981
Making Tracks with Adam Kidron, London's 21-Year-Old Production Prodigy ...
Ian Gillan, Bob Marley & the Wailers, Robert Palmer: The Producers: Steve Smith
Interview by Chas de Whalley, International Musician & Recording World, December 1981
STEVE SMITH is one of those comparatively rare creatures: a quiet American. No more, and quite possibly less than average height, he doesn't favour the ...
The Eagles, Joe Walsh: Bill Szymczyk
Interview by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, 'The Record Producers', 1982
THERE CAN'T BE too many people whose surnames have eight letters, none of which is a vowel, but it hardly needs to be said that ...
Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, The Record Producers (BBC Books), 1982
THE END OF 1981 sees Chris Thomas, ex-student of the Royal Academy of Music and also producer of the earliest (and best) Sex Pistols' records, ...
Profile and Interview by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, The Record Producers (BBC Books), 1982
IN MUCH THE same way as Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were the first American record producers, that accolade in Britain belongs to the man ...
Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 'The Record Producers' (BBC Books), 1982
WHILE THE NAMES of George Martin and Mickie Most are probably the best known among British record producers, Glyn Johns was making hit records with ...
Kim Fowley: Rock'n'Roll Survivor
Press Release by uncredited writer, unpublished, 1982
1957: Kim meets future Beach Boy Bruce Johnston and begins to write songs. ...
Book Excerpt by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, The Record Producers (BBC Books), 1982
ELVIS PRESLEY was the King of Rock'n'Roll – anyone who might care to dispute that should try reading another book, for without Presley, neither we, ...
Profile and Interview by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, The Record Producers, 1982
THERE HAVE been numerous record producers who have started their own label, including Phil Spector, Richard Perry, Tony Visconti and Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. ...
Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, The Record Producers (BBC Books), 1982
WHENEVER THE subject of record producers is discussed by anyone born before 1960, one name will always surface, that of Phil Spector. ...
Phil Spector: To Know Him Is To Love Him
Retrospective by Greg Shaw, The History of Rock, 1982
So much has been written about Phil Spector, yet he still remains an enigma. ...
Book Excerpt by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, 'The Record Producers', BBC Books, 1982
IF ANY PRODUCER could be said to have an instantly identifiable sound, aside from the obvious case of Phil Spector, it would be Richard Perry. ...
Book Excerpt by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, The Record Producers (BBC Books), 1982
RUNNING NORTH off Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood is a steep road which twists and turns upwards into the Hollywood Hills. ...
Interview by David Gans, BAM, 1982
The super producer talks about Little Feat, Van Halen, the Doobies, and staying sane in a world of crazies. ...
Interview by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 'The Record Producers' (BBC Books) , 1982
WHEN SIFTING through the potential candidates for a book such as this, it is obviously essential to reflect the present and future, as well as ...
Book Excerpt by John Tobler, Stuart Grundy, The Record Producers, 1982
CAREERS IN POPULAR music are often notoriously short, particularly in the most creative areas of activity, therefore it is of more than passing interest to ...
David Bowie, T. Rex, Thin Lizzy: Tony Visconti Talks
Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 'The Record Producers' (BBC Books), 1982
IN MUCH THE same way that George Martin is known for his work with the Beatles, anyone who has ever inspected the small print on ...
Mike Batt: The composer at the console
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, 9 January 1982
Karl Dallas goes Batty with the ex-Womble in a Berlin studio ...
Altered Images, The Human League: Martin Rushent: The Genetic Method
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 6 February 1982
Studio Svengali MARTIN RUSHENT earbashes hungry hack Adam Sweeting. ...
Interview by Mary Harron, The Guardian, 26 March 1982
Mickie Most tells Mary Harron why in the world of pop the producer reigns supreme ...
Brian Eno, Talking Heads: Eno: The Soul Inside The Shades
Interview by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 24 April 1982
Richard Grabel practises the pussyfoot with Brian Eno, the father of electronic pop. ...
James Chance & the Contortions, The Dictators, New York Dolls: Cassette rock comes on with a "Roar"
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 27 May 1982
IN THE competitive record business, how can a company that releases dated rock 'n' roll and aims well below the top of the pops prosper? ...
Interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages audio, June 1982
The always interesting art-rocker on Frippertronics and the artist/audience dynamic; his work with other artists (Gabriel, Bowie, Daryl Hall); on production, his Exposure album... and disco!
File format: mp3; file size: 17.1mb, interview length: 18' 39" sound quality: *****
The Human League: A Life In The Day Of Martin Rushent
Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 5 June 1982
MARTIN RUSHENT, producer of the Human League and Altered Images, talks to MARK COOPER. ...
ABC, Buggles, Dollar, Malcolm McLaren, Spandau Ballet: The Most Wanted Man In Pop: Trevor Horn
Interview by Fiona Russell Powell, The Face, July 1982
"Why does pop music have to be so naff?" asks TREVOR HORN, whose production work for Dollar, ABC and Spandau Ballet is an unequivocal answer ...
ABC, Buggles, Dollar, Yes: Trevor Horn: Clever Trevor!
Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 3 July 1982
TREVOR HORN IS A ROARING SUCCESS. HE WAS BUGGLES, PLAYED WITH YES, GAVE DOLLAR THEIR HITS AND HAS NOW PRODUCED ABC AND THEIR DEBUT LP, ...
Arthur Baker, Rockers Revenge: Rockers Revenge: The Big Bang Theory
Report and Interview by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 18 September 1982
Or... how a crate of records fell onto producer Arthur Baker's head and created a new jazz music and the beginning of Rockers Revenge ...
Interview by Sam Sutherland, High Fidelity, October 1982
The current quintet's long-awaited fifth album may be its last with Ms. Nicks ...
Ace, Paul Carrack, Nick Lowe, Squeeze: Paul Carrack: "Singin' Like A Boid"
Interview by Fred Schruers, Musician, October 1982
Keyboard specialist for Ace, Roxy and Squeeze, Carrack has brought his muscular, gritty voice and soulful hit tunes out of the shadows and up to ...
Profile and Interview by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 21 November 1982
LUTHER VANDROSS is singin' on top of the world nowadays, master of a string of professions: singer, songwriter, arranger, producer. ...
Mickie Most: The Midas Touch: Mickie Most
Profile by Steve Turner, The History of Rock, 1983
Record production made millions for Mickie Most ...
Interview by Sam Sutherland, High Fidelity, January 1983
From the dark, jaded regions of Steely Dan emerges an intellectual with an album about innocence, by Sam Sutherland ...
Vince Montana: Montana Climbing
Interview by Paul Sexton, Record Mirror, 8 January 1983
"WE'VE GOT an 18 lb turkey in the oven, the whole family's coming over." Is this a heavy vibe or is someone giving Vince Montana ...
The Cars, Ric Ocasek, Alan Vega: Ric Ocasek: Beat-Attitudes
Interview by Julie Panebianco, Boston Rock, 26 January 1983
A DIRTY white sofa is pushed away from the wall to make room for paint cans, brushes, and newspapers matted on the floor. The only ...
George Clinton: The Gangster Of Funk
Interview by Don Waller, L.A. Weekly, 3 March 1983
IF THE name George Clinton means anything to you, then you probably know him as Uncle Jam, the man with the plan, the songwriter-producer-vocalist-conceptualist for ...
Cream, Mountain: Pappalardi blazed new rock trail
Obituary by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 21 April 1983
FELIX PAPPALARDI, 43-year-old rock producer and musician, died from a gunshot wound in the neck early Sunday morning. He was allegedly shot by his wife, ...
The Equals, Eddy Grant: Eddy Grant: A Reggae Popster Makes His Own Breaks
Interview by Carol Cooper, Musician, June 1983
REMEMBER D.I.Y.? Remember all those fierce and earnest punk rockers who vowed to bypass the corporate monopoly and conquer the rapidly devolving Western world? It ...
Marshall Crenshaw Has A Field Day
Report and Interview by Karen Schlosberg, Creem, August 1983
WHAT A GUY. That phrase, always delivered with a flatter-than-thou Midwestern twang, is often bandied about within the Crenshaw camp. ...
The dB's, Pylon, R.E.M., Chris Stamey: Mitch Easter's Drive-In Studios
Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, August 1983
Producing the Post-Punk Pantheon ...
Interview by Graham K. Smith, Record Mirror, 29 October 1983
WILD MAN of rock? Maybe. Introspective wimp? Occasionally. All round good guy? Certainly! In his (so far) short stay on Planet Pop, reet petite Nick ...
The B-52s, Will Powers, Tom Tom Club: Steven Stanley: "Youth Sound"
Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, November 1983
Common Sense at Compass Point. ...
Jonzun Crew, New Edition, Maurice Starr: Michael Jonzun: Pack Jammin' from Roxbury to the Top Ten
Interview by Julie Panebianco, Boston Rock, 14 November 1983
AT THE END of the street on the top of a hill in Roxbury is a two-story, weather-beaten wooden house. The first floor windows are ...
Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins: Chips Moman's Memphis Revival
Report and Interview by Joe Sasfy, Country Music, January 1984
Legendary stars, legendary producers, legendary backup singers and a pretty hefty studio band all got together for Chips Moman's new Memphis album. The veteran producer ...
Luther Vandross, Dionne Warwick: Dionne Warwick: How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye (Arista)
Review by James Hunter, The Village Voice, 3 January 1984
Dionne's Hot Date ...
Hal Willner, Thelonious Monk: Interpretations Of Monk By Jazz, Rock Musicians
Report and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 28 January 1984
WHAT DO FELLINI soundtrack composer Nino Rota and the late jazz great Thelonious Monk have in common? ...
Interview by Davitt Sigerson, High Fidelity, February 1984
What do Southside Johnny, David Bowie, and Diana Ross have in common? ...
Culture Club, Steve Levine: Steve Levine: Before and After Science
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 31 March 1984
Culture Club's producer STEVE LEVINE blinds an inquisitive Adam Sweeting with the new science of recording technology, and explains why he's embarked on his own ...
Interview by Paul Bradshaw, New Musical Express, 7 April 1984
BACK IN THE STUDIO WITH DENNIS BOVELL AND THE DUB BAND, BLACKBEARD IS HUNGRY TO PLAY, PAUL BRADSHAW READY TO LISTEN ...
Miles Davis, Marcus Miller, Luther Vandross: Marcus Miller Gets Around
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, May 1984
THE FUNKY THROUGH-LINE BEHIND LUTHER VANDROSS & ARETHA; THE JAZZY AGITATOR BEHIND MILES, GROVER & SANBORN ...
Interview by Julie Panebianco, Musician, July 1984
Hit Production from the Leaner Side of the Tracks ...
The System, Matthew Wilder: Rhythmic Self-Determination
Report and Interview by David Gans, Record, July 1984
Better songwriting through drum machines ...
Marcus Miller, David Sanborn, Luther Vandross: Marcus Miller: Bassline Return
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 14 August 1984
B&S EXCLUSIVE WITH MARCUS MILLER In this interview direct from the USA, the poll-winning bassman talks to John Abbey about his sparkling new album, the people ...
Les Paul: The inimitable Les Paul: retired since 1979, the Master Tinkerer is back in the groove
Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, September 1984
LESTER POLFUS may not be a name to conjure with, but Les Pau! certainly is. Among his many accomplishments: the invention of the Les Paul ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, September 1984
The mega producer talks about his record company ZTT: how the frustrations of producing Dollar and ABC led to his setting up the label; Paul Morley's role in it; working with Frankie Goes to Hollywood and the Art of Noise; the company's ambitions; the advantages and pitfalls of high recording technology; and his role as a producer. Plus Horn answers his own question: Did video kill the radio star?
File format: mp3; file size: 51.7mb, interview length: 53' 50" sound quality: ***
Earth, Wind & Fire, Barbra Streisand, Maurice White: Maurice White: White in Flight
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 11 September 1984
Maurice White talks to B&S — about EW&F's pause for thought, about his own solo album, about his productions for Barbra Streisand, and about some ...
Brian Eno, U2: The Life of Brian
Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 29 September 1984
Helen FitzGerald, the Emerald Isle's most astonishing export, gets all mysterious with ambient whizz-kid BRIAN ENO, who talks about life after the bush of ghosts, ...
The Beach Boys, Culture Club: Steve Levine's Cross-Cultural New Age
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician, November 1984
It's a Clean Machine, Very Clean: The Digital Powerhouse Behind Queen George's Platinum Throne ...
Miles Davis: Teo Macero: Thoughts of Chairman Teo
Interview by Max Jones, The Wire, November 1984
TEO MACERO is best known as the producer of dozens of classic Miles Davis LPs, from Sketches Of Spain to Star People. Here he talks ...
Bruce Springsteen: The Big Boss Groove
Interview by Adrian Deevoy, International Musician & Recording World, December 1984
AT 35, HE'S still claiming that all the world's a stage and all the men and women merely stage hands. He's still hauling that battered ...
The Crusaders, Lamont Dozier, Womack and Womack: The Producers: Stewart Levine
Interview by Chas de Whalley, International Musician & Recording World, December 1984
LET'S START with a riddle? How do you stop an American talking? ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 1985
The legendary New Orleans studio owner and producer talks about Crescent City race relations; NOLA vs. Memphis; the indie record business and, at length, about Aaron Neville, Professor Longhair, and the inability of the city's artists to sustain careers.
File format: mp3; file size: 44.7mb, interview length: 48' 47" sound quality: ****
Chuck Berry, Al Green, Willie Mitchell: Willie Mitchell (1985) [transcript]
Transcript of audio interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 1985
This is a transcript of Barney's audio interview with Willie. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Interview by Paul Sexton, Record Mirror, 2 March 1985
From downtown Croydon to uptown Philadelphia: Loose Ends star in a heart-warming crumbs-to-charts story. Screenplay: Paul Sexton ...
Obituary by Fred Dellar, New Musical Express, 23 March 1985
ROCK LOST another legendary face-moulder on 9 March, when Robert "Bumps" Blackwell died at his home in Hacienda Heights, near LA. ...
Lee "Scratch" Perry: Reggae's Mad Scientist
Profile and Interview by Chris Salewicz, Spin, May 1985
WHEN PEOPLE said to Bob Marley that his friend Lee "Scratch" Perry was mad, Marley would reply, "Him not mad, him just Scratch." ...
Philip Bailey, Phil Collins: The Second Coming of Phil Collins
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1985
A SEASONED PLAYER ENJOYS CHARTBUSTING NEW LIFE AS A SOLO STAR ...
Utopia: Better Living Through Electricity
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, June 1985
Todd Rundgren And Utopia Get Wired ...
Luther Vandross: Night time was the right time says Luther
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 11 June 1985
Luther Vandross looks like having his first platinum album with The Night I Fell In Love. "Life is the way I always wanted it," he ...
Scritti Politti: Green Machines
Interview by Adrian Deevoy, International Musician & Recording World, July 1985
"I'D JUST like to say now that I am not a knobist." ...
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 9 July 1985
David Nathan conducts a very sober and enlightening interview with the former Wild Man of Funk whose drug and alcohol abuse took him to the ...
Interview by Ira Robbins, Rock's Backpages audio, 5 August 1985
ABC mainstays Mark White and Martin Fry on the state of the UK music press (particularly Smash Hits); on the making of their first three albums; on producer Trevor Horn; on songwriting and lyrics; on avoiding pandering to American tastes; and on their great dislike of touring.
File format: mp3; file size: 37meg, interview length: 38' 31" sound quality: ***
Jimi Hendrix: Eddie Kramer: The Wizard Of Woof-Woof
Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, September 1985
If Jimi wanted to hear guitar played underwater, Eddie Kramer would turn on the faucet — and get it all down on tape. As told to Gene ...
Jimi Hendrix: Eddie Kramer: The Wizard Of Woof-Woof
Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, September 1985
If Jimi wanted to hear guitar played underwater, Eddie Kramer would turn on the faucet — and get it all down on tape. As told to ...
Jimi Hendrix: Alan Douglas Builds A Castle Made of Sand
Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, September 1985
The record producer had Jimi's ear just before the end. Now he's re-packaging it for the masses. As Told To Gene Santoro ...
David Bowie, Chic, Madonna, Nile Rodgers: Nile Rodgers: Sophisticated Funk
Interview by Gene Santoro, Downbeat, September 1985
IN FUNKLAND there are many traditions, only two of which need concern us right now. The first comprises guitarists who could be described as Rhythm ...
Walter Becker, China Crisis, Steely Dan: Walter Becker: Dr. Wu Goes Hawaiian
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, September 1985
STEELY DAN'S MYSTERY MAN REAPPEARS ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, October 1985
The New Orleans master talks about the music of his youth; the Second Line; the piano and Professor Longhair; black music in the south; the musicians he worked with, and what makes New Orleans music different.
File format: mp3; file size: 36.3mb, interview length: 39' 36" sound quality: ***
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, October 1985
The legendary Memphis producer talks about the rise of Southern Soul and the Memphis Sound, meeting and producing Al Green and making all those fabulous hits for Hi Records
File format: mp3; file size: 48.5mb, interview length: 50' 30" sound quality: ****
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, November 1985
Speaking at the Friars Club in midtown Manhattan, the great Atlantic producer recalls the black bands he loved as a kid and talks about Louis Jordan, Tiny Bradshaw and the birth of R&B. "Wex" also holds forth on the growth of urban black America; the influence of gospel on black pop; the importance of Western Swing; the other labels and white entrepreneurs involved in black music; discovering Stax and Muscle Shoals in the dog days of the early '60s; tying the knot with Stax... and getting back in the studio with Wilson Pickett.
ile format: mp3; file size: 43.7mb, interview length: 45' 30" sound quality: ****
Paul Hardcastle: Re-Mixed Blessings
Interview by Adrian Deevoy, International Musician & Recording World, November 1985
Paul Hardcastle is a lot more than '19'. He has a recording back catalogue, an album in the pipeline and a huge reputation as a ...
Billy Idol, The Psychedelic Furs, Donna Summer: Reel American: Keith Forsey's Disco Snarl
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician, November 1985
From Donna Summer to Billy Idol, from Psy-Furs to Simple Minds, the union of style and raunch. ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Musician, November 1985
Doctor of Applied Song Medicine, Studio Psychology, R&B Analysis and Chart Metallurgy... ...
Dan Hartman, The Plasmatics: The Producers: Dan Hartman
Interview by Chas de Whalley, International Musician & Recording World, November 1985
Dan Hartman takes Chas De Whalley to the US of AOR ...
Walter Becker, China Crisis, Steely Dan: Walter Becker: Breaking the Silence
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, December 1985
Steely Dan's Walter Becker Ends His Five Year Absence From The Music Industry ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, Summer 1985
The legendary producer gives a history of Memphis R&B, touching on (in no particular order) Stax, James Carr, Dan Penn, Elvis, the fading of the Memphis light and the perils of Nashville.
File format: mp3; file size: 82.2mb, total interview length: 1h 25' 35" sound quality: ***
Interview by Chas de Whalley, International Musician & Recording World, January 1986
Ken Scott muses on his journey from Bowie to Kajagoogoo. Chas de Whalley listens attentively ...
Interview by Alan di Perna, Musician, February 1986
THE CLUBHOUSE is up on the fourth floor of an office building Raymond Chandler might have called "reasonably shabby" fifty years ago. It's on a ...
Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins: Sunrise In Memphis
Report and Interview by Joe Sasfy, Musician, February 1986
Nashville's Hottest Producer, Chips Moman Returns to the Birthplace of Rock ...
Big In Japan, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Lightning Seeds: The Producers: Ian Broudie
Interview by Chas de Whalley, International Musician & Recording World, February 1986
Chas de Whalley talks about the prime of Mr Ian Broudie ...
Wally Badarou, Grace Jones, Level 42, Robert Palmer: The Producers: Wally Badarou
Interview by Chas de Whalley, International Musician & Recording World, February 1986
Wally Badarou gets together with Chas de Whalley and puzzles over their possible family relationship ...
Wally Badarou, Marianne Faithfull, Grace Jones, Level 42: Wally Badarou's All-World Keyboards
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician, May 1986
The Synthesizer Star of Compass Point on Getting and Keeping International Feel ...
Cherrelle, The SOS Band: Cherrelle: High Priority; S.O.S Band: Sands Of Time (Tabu/CBS)
Review by Fred Goodman, Musician, June 1986
WHAT HAS Prince wrought? Legend has it that songwriting and production duo Terry Lewis and James "Jam" Harris III, a. k. a., Jimmy Jam, were ...
Led Zeppelin: Chris Huston, Eddie Kramer's Co-engineer on Led Zeppelin II
Interview by Steven Rosen, Guitar World, July 1986
FOR MANY, the first two Led Zeppelin albums were Led Zeppelin. The enormous drum sound, those magical guitar tones and just the energy and volume ...
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 1 July 1986
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are currently the hottest producers in soul and here B&S goes back in time with the two men to discover ...
Interview by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 2 August 1986
"Sorry Lionel, but right now, we're busy with The Human League..." To turn down a job with Mr Richie these days you'd have to be ...
On-U Sound System, Adrian Sherwood, Tackhead: Adrian Sherwood: Ministry of Dub
Interview by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 16 August 1986
Producer ADRIAN SHERWOOD has spent a decade deconstructing and rebuilding music dubwise, from Ministry and New Age Steppers to Mark Stewart, Tack Head and Keith ...
Chic, Nile Rodgers: Source of the Nile
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 22 August 1986
Funk guitar specialist Nile Rodgers is also one of the world's great producers. Adam Sweeting reports ...
Poison, Ratt, The Who: Eleganza: Our Wacky, Wacky World
Column by John Mendelssohn, Creem, September 1986
IN THE EARLY '70s, we Americans called it glitter and the English glam, but by any other name it would still be mass transvestitism. It's ...
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, September 1986
FROM 'TENDER LOVE' TO 'NASTY', THEY'RE ALWAYS IN CONTROL ...
Robert Palmer, The Power Station: Robert Palmer: Rob's Revenge
Interview by Hank Bordowitz, International Musician & Recording World, October 1986
Every once in a while, Robert Palmer pulls another hit out of the bag, and silences those critics who accuse him of being a pop ...
Hipsway: The Producers: Paul Staveley O'Duffy
Interview by Chas de Whalley, International Musician & Recording World, October 1986
Chas de Whalley, Paul Staveley O'Duffy, and the Get Down Mixdown Factor. ...
David Bowie, Chic, Duran Duran, Nile Rodgers: Nile Rodgers: Man of the Moment
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker, 4 October 1986
Buddies with Bowie, big pals with Duran, mate of Al Jarreau, is there no-one NILE RODGERS doesn't know? Adam Sweeting charts the changing life and ...
Mantronix: Will Hip Hop Eat Itself?
Report and Interview by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 22 November 1986
Where is it? New York city. How is it? Bloody hot in here. Why is it? Because MATRONIX, pure-steel technologists of studio and vox, have ...
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Musician, December 1986
"THERE'S A lot of pollution out there," says Daniel Lanois, drinking tea in the gazebo of his Santa Monica hotel one September morning, before continuing ...
Cliff Richard, Tina Turner: The Producers: Terry Britten
Interview by Chas de Whalley, International Musician & Recording World, December 1986
The man who made AOR respectable? Terry Britten confesses all to Chas de Whalley ...
Sound Of Silence: The Rise Of The Compact Disc
Report by Jack Barron, Sounds, 13 December 1986
You don't have to be a classical fanatic or yuppie stadium rock lover to appreciate compact disc – the quiet revolution has hit the indie ...
Interview by Simon Witter, Rock's Backpages audio, 1987
The First Gentleman of New Orleans on the city's music then and now, on Ernie K-Doe, Irma Thomas, Lee Dorsey and the Meters, and on songwriting, producing and performing.
File format: mp3; file size: 66.4mb, interview length: 1h 12' 30" sound quality: ***
The Beatles, Happy Mondays, New Order: CDs: The Slipped Disc
Report by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 27 February 1987
Compact Disc has brought the second coming of The Beatles and the promise of a revolution in the rock industry. But is it a sound ...
DAT: How Japan has got the trade taped
Report by Mark Cooper, The Guardian, 27 February 1987
There's another audio revolution on the way, and it could pose a piracy threat to the music business, says Mark Cooper. ...
Los Lobos: A Story of Survival
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, April 1987
YOU CAN'T say Los Lobos is special just because they've been together thirteen years, or because most of the band has known one another since ...
Profile and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 23 April 1987
The Grammy Award-winning producers who made Janet Jackson a 'Nasty' superstar have been turning out lots of hits lately ...
Miles Davis, Marcus Miller, David Sanborn: Marcus Miller: Bass for All Seasons
Interview by Gene Santoro, Guitar World, June 1987
What is it about MARCUS MILLER'S eternal thump that makes him Miles' choice bottom and the Bee Gees' top choice? ...
Davy DMX: Now the beat is dope
Interview by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 6 June 1987
New York — urban hell special!: DAVY D, Run DMC/Beasties support star and longtime New York DJ, entertains DELE FADELE with a shot of drug ...
The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu: Physical Graffiti
Interview by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 4 July 1987
THEFT, NOISE, FUN, SEX... UH... THEFT... THE JUSTIFIED ANCIENTS OF MU MU HAVE JUST PUT OUT AN ALBUM WITH A SWEAR WORD IN THE TITLE ...
Peter Gabriel, Random Hold, David Rhodes: David Rhodes: Atmospheric Guitar for Peter Gabriel
Profile and Interview by Mark Dery, Guitar Player, September 1987
DURING HIS RECENT So Tour, poker-faced Peter Gabriel offered fans a glimpse of his slapstick side. During 'Big Time', while Gabriel brayed in mock-macho tones ...
Steve Hoffman: The First Genius Of CD
Interview by Tom Graves, Rock & Roll Disc, October 1987
MCA's Remastering Genius Discusses His Archival Work And His New Position At Dunhill Compact Classics ...
Report by Simon Frith, Jon Savage, The Observer, 18 October 1987
SIMON FRITH and JON SAVAGE on more copyright complexities ...
Ry Cooder, Jim Dickinson, Green On Red, The Replacements: Jim Dickinson and the New Low-Fi
Interview by Tony Scherman, Musician, November 1987
Wherein a dangerous redneck weirdo becomes studio godfather to post-punk's finest. ...
Report and Interview by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 14 November 1987
This is a journey into sound. A journey into the hip-slanging, writ-wrangling, song-stealing, dub-dealing world of sampling. It is also fast becoming a journey to ...
Special Feature by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 19 November 1987
Eleven, years ago, the enigmatic leader of the Band walked away from the rock world. Now, after some years of wild living, he's joined with ...
M/A/R/R/S: Sound Wars: M/A/R/R/S Vs. Stock, Aitken, Waterman
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, December 1987
At what point does sampling cross the fine line between flattery and theft? The battle between Stock Aitken Waterman and M/A/R/R/S may be the first ...
Stock Aitken Waterman: Stock, Aitken and Waterman: Let the Kids Decide
Interview by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 19 December 1987
Messrs. STOCK, AITKEN AND WATERMAN were this year's answer to Swain and Jolley, only (surprise surprise) they don't see it that way. SEAN O'HAGAN hears ...
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, January 1988
Remixed albums are big business. Call in a remix engineer and squeeze more sales out of the same songs. Ideal for injecting added danceability. Useful ...
Arthur Baker, New Order: Arthur Baker: Legends of Arthur
Interview by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 9 January 1988
What do current chart hits by New Order and Wally Jump Junior have in common with a new House version of John Coltrane's masterpiece 'A ...
Steve Winwood: The Lord-Alge Brothers — The First Family of Engineering
Interview by Tony Scherman, Musician, March 1988
The three stooges of the studio get the last laugh. ...
Bryan Ferry, Madonna: Pat Leonard: The Madonna Method
Interview by Alan di Perna, Musician, May 1988
PRODUCING BRYAN FERRY AND ARRANGING MADONNA IN THE WORLD OF HIGH-STAKES HIGH-TECH ...
Report by Len Brown, David Quantick, New Musical Express, 14 May 1988
The best-selling 12" of all time! Two million copies worldwide! Five years on from its original release (four spent in the Top 200), NEW ORDER'S ...
Narada Michael Walden: Riding On The Freeway Of Love With Narada Michael Walden
Interview by John Mendelsohn, San Francisco, June 1988
Grammies, Platinum Albums and Adulating Superstars Wont Deter Him From Being A Regular Artist Kind Of Guy...Maybe ...
Jack Nitzsche, Phil Spector: Phil Spector: Jack Nitzsche remembers the Wall of Sound
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Goldmine, 17 June 1988
NOW IN HIS 30th year in the music industry, Jack Nitzsche is one of the great composers and arrangers of our time. In this decade ...
Morrissey, The Smiths: Hate Male
Interview by Len Brown, New Musical Express, 2 July 1988
The Smiths were "like a life-support machine" to Morrissey. Without STEPHEN STREET – co-writer/producer of Viva Hate – it's conceivable that Les Miserable himself would ...
Report and Interview by Holly Gleason, Billboard, 16 July 1988
LOS ANGELES — With the success of Dwight Yoakam's gold albums (Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. and Hillbilly Deluxe), producer Pete Anderson has found a beachhead ...
Let's Active: Mitch Easter of Let's Active
Profile and Interview by Christine Natanael, Reflex, September 1988
"AS A KID, I was sort of a science nerd," says Mitch Easter. Despite his Einstein-like beginnings, this young boy from Greensboro, North Carolina would ...
The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: Dr. Eugene Landy on Brian Wilson (1988)
Interview by Andy Gill, Rock's Backpages audio, 25 September 1988
The notorious Dr. Landy talks about his long association with Brian Wilson, going back to helping produce 15 Big Ones in 1976: his own background in the music business with Frankie Avalon and George Benson; becoming a psychologist; what was wrong with Wilson, and how he fixed him; the Capitol reissues of the Beach Boys' catalogue; his break with Wilson, and being called back by the band; dealing with Wilson's health issues; the complexities surrounding the production of Wilson's first solo record; the involvement of his wife Alexandra (who appears here), and his on-off relationship with the Beach Boys.
File format: mp3; file size: 83mb, interview length: 1h 26' 30" sound quality: ****
Fleetwood Mac, Foreigner, Whitesnake: Does Keith Olsen really believe in this stuff, or what?
Interview by Alan di Perna, Musician, November 1988
IT'S EASY to sneer at the increasingly predictable formulas that sell records in the millions these days. What's hard is to actually believe in the ...
Interview by Alan di Perna, Musician, November 1988
"WITH ALBUMS, you can't just play it straight on every track. If a song wants to be a hit, if it seems like — done ...
Profile and Interview by Andrew Smith, International Musician & Recording World, November 1988
The Spirit of Eden LP is both a logical step and a radical departure for TALK TALK. Andrew Smith thinks it may prove controversial... ...
Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 8 November 1988
When the likes of Gladys Knight, Whitney Houston, the Jacksons and Kool and the Gang amongst numerous others come knocking on your door, who do ...
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, January 1989
HAL WILLNER, UNRIVALED KING OF THE "TRIBUTE" ALBUM, TURNS TO DISNEY ...
Rush: The Appliance of Science
Interview by Roy Wilkinson, Sounds, 28 January 1989
Rush grapple with hi-tech again on their new live double album, A Show Of Hands. Roy Wilkinson hears of their love-hate relationship with computers ...
Mel & Kim, Pet Shop Boys: Phil Harding and Ian Curnow: Production Lines
Interview by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 4 February 1989
PAUL MATHUR TALKS TO PHIL HARDING AND IAN CURNOW, KEYWORKERS IN THE SAW HIT FACTORY ...
Harold Budd, Brian Eno: Brian Eno: Musical Revolutionary
Interview by Gene Santoro, Pulse!, March 1989
Stellar producer; influential recording artist; pioneering shaper of sound: BRIAN ENO is all of those things and more. ...
The Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Rick Rubin, Slayer: Rick Rubin: Mental Metal Master
Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 11 March 1989
From rap to metal, LL Cool J to Slayer, producer Rick Rubin has shaped the definitive street beats of the decade. Paul Elliott hears the ...
Profile and Interview by Len Brown, unpublished, 14 March 1989
IN AN UPSTAIRS storeroom at Hannibal Records HQ, the quarterback-sized Joe Boyd sits on a sack. Around him are boxes, piled high, brimming with the ...
Phil Spector: He's a Rebel By Mark Ribowsky (E.R. Dutton, $18.95)
Book Review by Alan Betrock, Rolling Stone, 23 March 1989
Haunted Spector ...
Interview by Sean O'Hagan, New Musical Express, 8 April 1989
First grabbing the world's ears with their remix of Eric B And Rakims 'Paid In Full' the COLDCUT crew of Matt Black and Jonathan Moore ...
Report by Mark Kemp, Option, May 1989
"You see you misunderstood A sample's just a tactic. It's a portion of my method, A tool in fact. It's only of importance When I ...
Thomas Dolby: Has The Man of a Thousand Faces Spread Himself Too Thin?
Interview by Alan di Perna, Musician, May 1989
1. OPEN ON long shot of Hollywood skyline. Grimy fog and half-hearted drizzle give the city the mean, seedy look it always has when the ...
Ziggy Marley, Tom Tom Club: Ziggy Marley: His Own Man
Interview by Alan di Perna, Musician, July 1989
Ziggy Marley, with a little help from his friends, is moving out of his father's shadow. ...
The Beastie Boys, Rick Rubin, Wolfsbane: Rick Rubin: Fang of Def
Interview by James Brown, New Musical Express, 8 July 1989
Five years ago RICK RUBIN was the 21-year-old student behind Def Jam — the label that brought you the twin rock-rap assault of Licensed To Ill and ...
Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Traveling Wilburys: Jeff Lynne's Guitar Craze
Interview by James Hunter, Musician, August 1989
A Wilbury explains why Tom Petty's solo album sounds the way it does ...
Sampling: A Creative Tool or License to Steal?
Report by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 6 August 1989
Guitarist Leo Nocentelli vividly remembers his first exposure to sampling in 1982. "I was on a session and the guy pressed one note on the ...
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, September 1989
Three years. Four producers. Nine studios. A million pounds. One album. When Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal began recording the successor to their nine million-selling ...
Guy, Teddy Riley: Teddy Riley: Swingin'
Interview by Steven Daly, Blitz, September 1989
A meteoric rise has seen Teddy Riley, at the age of 22, become one of theworld's most sought-after producers. ...
Pete Townshend, The Who: Pete Townshend: Alive and Kicking
Interview by Pippa Lang, What Hi-Fi?, October 1989
Pete Townshend's zest for gigging is as strong as ever. But so is his passion for the digital trickery of computer composing, as he tells ...
Black Box, De La Soul, Stetsasonic: Sampling: Bite This
Report by Frank Owen, Spin, November 1989
When De La Soul sampled a Turtles oldie, the Turtles weren't flattered. So they sued. Does their legal action threaten the existence of hip hop? Is ...
The Carpenters' Richard Carpenter (1989)
Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, November 1989
Richard takes us, in depth, through the Carpenters' career: listening to pop radio as a kid, and learning piano; the family move from Connecticut to California; their first groups; signing to A&M, and first single 'Ticket to Ride'; co-writing first hot 'Close to You' with Burt Bacharach; the family vocal blend; the succession of hits, including 'We’ve Only Just Begun', 'Superstar', 'For All We Know' and 'Rainy Days and Mondays'; 'Goodbye to Love', and Tony Peluso's guitar solo; covering older songs; Karen qualities as a singer and drummer, her solo career, anorexia and death.
File format: mp3; file size: 84.4mb, total interview length: 1h 27' 52" sound quality: *****
The Jungle Brothers: Nature Study
Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 28 November 1989
WITH THE 1990's fast upon us, mass culture — both in fashion and music — seems desperate to see out the last decade of this ...
Daniel Lanois: Chairman of the Boards
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 30 November 1989
Daniel Lanois, rock's premier producer, steps out with his own album ...
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, 1990
The man known as "Q" talks, between mouthfuls, about meeting Stravinsky; trying to put Michael Jackson together with Prince; the people he has known, from Dinah Washington to Colin Powell via Miles Davis and many others; and on the state of black America.
File format: mp3; file size: 39mb, interview length: 42' 37" sound quality: ***
Interview by David Toop, The Times, 2 February 1990
David Toop meets Daniel Lanois, the hit producer of albums for U2, Peter Gabriel and Bob Dylan, now a performer himself on record and visiting ...
Profile and Interview by Mark Cooper, The Guardian, 8 February 1990
From Satchmo to Wacko Jacko, Quincy Jones has worked with them all. Now, he tells Mark Cooper, it's time to take stock. ...
Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones: Quincy Jones: The Mighty Quince
Interview by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 17 February 1990
QUINCY JONES, producer of everyone from Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson, is now mixing jazz and hip-hop and working with Jesse Jackson and New Order. ...
Quincy Jones: Mr Jones, I Presume!
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, April 1990
THE THREE DUMBEST questions you could possibly ask this month are, "Do the ambulance workers deserve more pay?", "Is Mike Gatting a pillock?" and "Does ...
Lee "Scratch" Perry: Lee Perry: Man, myth and magician
Profile and Interview by David Toop, The Times, 13 April 1990
Jamaican musician Lee Perry, re-emerging after a long period of semi-retirement, talks to David Toop ...
Interview by Andy Gill, Q, June 1990
THERE ARE SEVEN of us round the microphone, and I, for one, am a little nervous. I should be, too: three of the voices present ...
Interview by Alan di Perna, Musician, July 1990
BOB CLEARMOUNTAIN exudes a calm, deliberate air as he moves around the cluttered interior of a recording truck parked outside L.A.'s Universal Amphitheatre. Politely negotiating ...
Interview by Steven P. Wheeler, Music Connection, July 1990
FOR OVER 25 years, English-born Ken Scott has been in recording studios working with the legends of rock. Throughout the Sixties and Seventies, Scott was ...
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis: Jimmy Jam (1990)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 3 September 1990
The Flyte Tyme production man talks about working with Alexander O'Neal and Janet Jackson; about his and Terry Lewis' production approach and methods, and lists some of his favourite producers.
File format: mp3; file size: 18.6mb, interview length: 20' 20" sound quality: ***
Prefab Sprout's Jordan: An Interview with Paddy McAloon
Interview by Tom Doyle, International Musician & Recording World, October 1990
The new Prefab Sprout album, Jordan: The Comeback, is a veritable potpourri of styles. Tom Doyle talks to mainman Paddy McAloon about singing, songwriting and ...
GBH, Haircut 100, Judas Priest, Metallica, Musical Youth: Metallica: Taking the Mick
Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 22 December 1990
He's very large, he's very hairy, he's got a massive... motorbike — and he's been soundman to some of the greatest acts in Metal. GBH, ...
Interview by Andy Gill, Rock's Backpages audio, Spring 1990
Don (left channel) and David (right) Was talk about their early Detroit influences; seeing John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk; going from Island to Geffen, and Born to Laugh at Tornadoes; studio techniques and proto-sampling; their new album Are You Okay?; current American culture; singers Sweet Pea Atkinson and Sir Harry Bowens; keeping a big band on the road; comparisons with Steely Dan; becoming more cheerful than back in '81; producing Dylan's Under the Red Sky, and Don winning a Grammy for Bonnie Raitt's Nick of Time.
File format: mp3; file size: 61.5mb, interview length: 1h 04' 05" sound quality: *** (background noise in second half)
Retrospective and Interview by John Pidgeon, Classic Albums (BBC Books), 1991
IN 1983, AT THE age of 45, Tina Turner could lay claim to a handful of hit singles, the first of which had come in ...
Was (Not Was): Was it Good for You?
Interview by Gavin Martin, Vox, January 1991
Far-out funksters Don and David was have worked with all the greats: The Stones, Dylan, Madonna — and Jonathan Ross. Gavin Martin caught them relaxing ...
Butthole Surfers: FU Proof Technology
Interview by Roy Wilkinson, Sounds, 12 January 1991
DEEP IN the heart of Texas, a marriage seemingly made in hell continues to flourish. ...
Mantronix: Mantronik the Dance King: No Messin'
Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 5 March 1991
THERE'S LITTLE disputing the massive force Curtis Mantronik and the whole Mantronix aggregation have had on dance music in the '80's. Through early releases such ...
Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 2 April 1991
"Yo Jeff, man, I'm sorry, what can I say? I wanted this interview to happen as much as you did, but Hank's just too busy ...
Public Enemy: Hank Shocklee: Turntable Terrorist
Interview by Mark Kemp, Option, May 1991
WHEN NEW YORK hiphop filtered down from Harlem and the Bronx into the suburbs of Long Island around the turn of the last decade, a ...
The Doors: Paul Rothchild: Open Doors
Retrospective and Interview by Tom Doyle, Melody Maker, 4 May 1991
As producer of nearly all of The Doors' albums, PAUL ROTHCHILD knew Morrison and the band better than anyone else. TOM DOYLE relives the invention ...
Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine: Samples of things to come
Interview by Martin Aston, The Independent, 13 June 1991
Martin Aston on Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, at work in the garden shed ...
Bill Inglot: An Analog Heart In A Digital Domain
Interview by Tom Graves, Rock & Roll Disc, August 1991
THE NAME Bill Inglot became synonymous with the CD medium in the earliest days of the new digital technology. Working most often with Rhino Records, ...
Primal Scream, Andrew Weatherall: Andy Weatherall: Mixed Emotions
Interview by Push, Melody Maker, 17 August 1991
In his first ever interview outside Bocca Juniors, ANDY WEATHERALL talks to PUSH about being the most sought-after remixing whiz-kid of the Nineties and his ...
The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rick Rubin: The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Now That's Blood Sugar Sex Magic!
Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 21 September 1991
After a long series of wrangles with their former record company EMI, the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS are back! They're back with a new Rick ...
Interview by Cliff Jones, Melody Maker, 26 October 1991
For every minute of music you hear on TALK TALK'S new album, Laughing Stock, there's an hour of music abandoned. CLIFF JONES talks to MARK ...
Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 31 October 1991
NOW THAT the compact disc has supplanted the vinyl phonograph record, consumers can brace for another technology war. Next year, Philips Electronics N.V. and Sony ...
Interview by Mark Dery, Rock's Backpages audio, Winter 1991
The great guitarist and inventor talks about the basis of his style; the making of 'How High The Moon'; co-inventing The Chipmunks; his influence on other musicians; the development of sound-on-sound and multitrack recording, and pays a heartfelt tribute to Mary Ford.
File format: mp3; file size: 51.4mb, interview length: 51' 06" sound quality: ***
Joy Division: An Interview with Martin Hannett, 29th May 1989
Interview by Jon Savage, Touch-Vagabond, 1992
JS: How did you come across Joy Division? ...
Leftfield: Bobbing to the top of The Next Big Thing List
Interview by Andy Crysell, Mixmag, January 1992
IT'S NOT often that a band with no definite plans for their next release, without even so much as a recording contract, land a page ...
Ice Cube, Bill Laswell, N.W.A, Public Enemy: Fear of a Rap Planet
Report and Interview by J.D. Considine, Alan di Perna, Musician, February 1992
The biggest style of the last decade has a problem with attitudes. By J.D. Considine ...
Madonna, Roger Waters: Pat Leonard: The Song And Dance Debate
Interview by Robert Sandall, Q, February 1992
"MY BACKGROUND and my real musical desires lean far more toward Roger Waters than they do toward Madonna," Miss Ciccone's principal songwriter, keyboardist and MD, ...
Interview by Cliff Jones, Melody Maker, 1 February 1992
When Teenage Fanclub step into the studio, the rules are simple: use old guitars, old amps and old recording equipment "to make a record we ...
Giorgio Moroder, Donna Summer: Giorgio Moroder: Throbbery With Intent
Retrospective and Interview by David Toop, The Wire, April 1992
David Toop takes the pulse of disco pioneer GIORGIO MORODER ...
Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 7 April 1992
Jeff Lorez travels to Oakland, California to talk to writer/producers Foster & McElory about the apparent True Brit in their new "Funky Divas" album for En Vogue — and to the ...
Interview by Tom Doyle, Melody Maker, 18 April 1992
As the man behind Curve, Ride, the Valentines, JAMC and more, producer ALAN MOULDER doesn't seem to be able to put a button-pushing finger wrong. ...
Masters at Work: Dope: Masters At Work
Interview by Kodwo Eshun, Mixmag, May 1992
MASTERS AT Work are Kenny "Dope" Gonzales, 21, and Lil' Louie Vega, 25. They're two of the hottest producer-remixers of the moment. ...
Pete Rock & CL Smooth: Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth: Rock Steady & Smooth Talking
Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 5 May 1992
Who helped revive PE's international status? Who brought weight back to Heavy D? Who have one of the hottest rap albums around? Pete Rock & ...
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 16 June 1992
Jam & Lewis have been voted the best songwriters in the B&S poll of the second year in succession. However, in a chaotic year, the ...
Guy: Teddy Riley: The Life of Riley
Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, 16 June 1992
Poll winner Teddy Riley talks to B&S about the Guy split, Michael Jackson, his new record label and technology. ...
Report by Johnny Black, Q, July 1992
The sound of compact discs was hailed as a technical miracle. But is it? Classic albums get re-issued on CD and we're told they're better. ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, 27 July 1992
Gabriel talks about his Real World studios and record label and its association with WOMAD; his recording methods and his new album Us; being in therapy, his marriage breakup, and his children... and Rosanna Arquette; his early love of soul, and seeing Otis Redding; surviving punk; his dislike of the "World music" tag, and records soundtracks for films such as The Last Temptation of Christ.
File format: mp3; file size: 90.6mb, interview length: 1h 34' 21" sound quality: ** (wind and trains)
Lindsey Buckingham: The Speed of Sound
Interview by Alan di Perna, Musician, August 1992
Lindsey Buckingham gets tight with tone ...
Essay by David Toop, The Wire, September 1992
"Whoever doesn't like what I did, 20 years from now they can go back and redo it."Teo Macero, discussing his method of recording Miles Davis ...
Report and Interview by Helen Mead, i-D, September 1992
First they were DJs. Then they were remixers. Now they're producing bands and creating the British dance music of the future. Oh, and they still ...
Boyz II Men, Toni Braxton, Bobby Brown, TLC: L.A. & Babyface: Reid All About It
Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 9 September 1992
As if to ridicule the cynics who suggested that they'd passed their sell-by date, L.A. & Babyface are back with a bang and leading a two man assault on the music biz. L.A. Reid talks ...
Hal Willner: Alone in the Dark
Interview by Gene Santoro, Musician, October 1992
SIXTY YEARS ago the Marx Brothers shot Animal Crackers in Astoria, at Paramount's East Coast studios. Last spring, Master Sound Studio, part of that now-refurbished ...
10,000 Maniacs, Robyn Hitchcock, The Sugarcubes, XTC: Paul Fox: College Rock Wizard
Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Musician, October 1992
PRODUCER PAUL Fox came up as a keyboard player in the skinny-tie era. "When I first moved to L.A., there was a big banner on ...
Brian Eno: Taking Modern Culture By Strategy: Brian Eno
Essay by Mark Sinker, The Wire, October 1992
2005 note: It’s not a sensible criticism of a conjuror that his craft does not involve actual real magical powers. Eno is fascinated by the ...
Steve Albini, Big Black: Steve Albini: Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 21 November 1992
Big Black (1981-1987) were one of the most influential bands of the Eighties. Industrial music, "skronk" rock, New York noisecore, British indiepop, Nirvana, Ministry, Suede, ...
Blackstreet, Teddy Riley, Wreckx-N-Effect: Wiley Riley
Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 1 December 1992
Jeff Lorez caught up with Teddy Riley when he was "on a kind of break", having just completed the Wreckx-N-Effect album and preparing forthcoming work ...
Flyte Tyme 10th Year Anniversary, 1982-1992: The Jam & Lewis Story
Report by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 29 December 1992
I COULDN'T believe that I'd actually asked for a hotel wake-up call for 3:45am! By 4:30am I was struggling to keep my eyes open in ...
Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 29 December 1992
To mark the tenth anniversary of Jam & Lewis's ultra-successful Flyte Tyme Productions, Jeff Lorez flew to Minneapolis and spoke to Jimmy Jam for more than eight hours over two ...
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis: Terry Lewis (1992)
Interview by Steven Daly, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 1992
Part One: Terry on setting up Jam & Lewis' Perspective label and producing Sounds of Blackness; what he and Jimmy ask of their acts; the duo's work ethic; looking back at The Time; on "attitude" records and revealing their artists' personalities; sustaining success and originality; race and the music business, and their role as producers. Part Two: Terry talks about producing his wife Karyn White; on what Prince and Madonna do which sets them apart; on Johnny Gill; on appealing to more than one age group; turning down established stars; on Ralph Tresvant and New Edition, and about the enduring talents of Janet Jackson.
File format: mp3; total file size: 52.4mb, total interview length: 54' 13" sound quality: ***
Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 19 January 1993
Jeff Lorez continues his in-depth report on the tenth anniversary of Jam & Lewis's Flyte Tyme Productions. ...
Nirvana: Never Mind The Bullets
Interview by Edwin Pouncey, New Musical Express, 27 February 1993
Deep in the woods of Minnesota, a sleepy CHRIS NOVOSELIC is just finishing a major magazine article on the Bosnian/Croatian conflict, while Steve Albini helps ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 30 March 1993
Smokin' weed in the MOMA courtyard: growing up in NYC and the people he grew up with; meeting the Erteguns; writing for Billboard; the early days at Atlantic and working with Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and more...
File format: mp3; file size: 46.7mb, interview length: 48' 38" sound quality: ***
Frankie Knuckles: Bare Knuckles
Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 13 April 1993
He wasn't exactly the most prolific remixer last year, but B&S readers still voted him the best in the business. He bares his soul to Jeff Lorez ...
Cathy Dennis, Janet Jackson, Madonna: Shep Pettibone: Spontaneous Combustion
Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 27 April 1993
No amount of studio technology can ever compete with the priceless element of spontaneity to set things on fire, says Shep... ...
David Bowie, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, The Rolling Stones, Run-DMC: Pete Rock and CL Smooth
Interview by Frank Broughton, Mixmag, May 1993
MANAGER ADOFO Muhammad is talking up his brother and CL Smooth's success. "The unique sound is all incorporated in Pete Rock's flow — his art. ...
In Pursuit of Pure Sound: The Story of the Audiophile Record Label, Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs
Report by Tom Graves, American Way, 1 May 1993
HERB BELKIN, EXECUTIVE vice president of ABC records at the time, remembers the day in 1977 when two young audio engineers came into his office ...
Jerry Wexler: Crossing The Divide
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Independent on Sunday, 30 May 1993
GET JERRY WEXLER started on the big bands of the Thirties and Forties and you'll never hear the back of it. Most ageing music moguls ...
Interview by Fred Goodman, Musician, June 1993
Hands-off from Muscle Shoals to Stax to New York City ...
Interview by Jon Young, Musician, June 1993
"THE TITLE is sarcastic," says Prince Be softly. "On the first record, we tried to show bliss by example, through utopianism. This time we tried ...
Interview by RJ Smith, Details, July 1993
Rick Rubin built a recording empire from a dorm room at NYU. With Def American Recordings, he's taken the sound of the streets to the ...
Interview by Nick Coleman, Time Out, 18 August 1993
From Sly and Robbie to Mick Jagger and Public Image, record producer Bill Laswell's client list is as varied as the sounds he pulls out ...
Daniel Lanois: The Book of Daniel
Interview by Fred Schruers, Musician, September 1993
Dan Lanois The Musician Eclipses Lanois The Producer ...
Interview by Tom Doyle, Melody Maker, 9 October 1993
In the second of an occasional series, TOM DOYLE takes a sneak look at the day-to-day making off an LP. This time, DEAN GARCIA talks ...
Marcus Miller, David Sanborn, Luther Vandross: Marcus Miller: Back to the Future
Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 12 October 1993
CATCHING UP with Marcus Miller is no easy task. Forget about trying his home in New Jersey because he's hardly ever there. Chances are you'll ...
Teenage Fanclub: Diary of an LP
Interview by Tom Doyle, Melody Maker, 23 October 1993
It's that occasional series again: this time, a peep at the diary of TEENAGE FANCLUB's Raymond McGiniey during the making of Thirteen. TOM DOYLE is ...
Tony! Toni! Tone!: Hitting the Wonder button with Soul's Hottest Retro Pioneers
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Musician, November 1993
"WE GOT one little trick we use when we're making records," says Tim Christian Riley. Tim and his cousins Dwayne and Raphael Wiggins comprise the ...
Depeche Mode's Martin Gore and Alan Wilder (1993)
Interview by Steven Daly, Rock's Backpages audio, Summer 1993
Messrs. Gore and Wilder talk about the stresses of recording their latest album, Songs of Faith and Devotion, and the band's internal dynamics in the studio; the effect that living in L.A. has had on singer Dave Gahan; electronic versus traditional musical instruments. Martin Gore also discusses his songwriting; the band's development from the early days... and fatherhood. Alan Wilder talks about touring, the future of Depeche Mode and his place in the band.
Part 1, Martin Gore: File format: mp3; file size: 29.3mb; Interview length: 30' 29"; sound quality: **½; File format: mp3; file size: 46.1mb; Interview length: 48' 03"; sound quality: ***
The Shangri-Las: Shadow Morton (1993)
Interview by Tony Scherman, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 1993
The legendary songwriter/producer takes us back to his days in the Brill Building: the Shangri-Las' '(Remember) Walking In The Sand'; the people who surrounded him: Leiber & Stoller, Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich, George Goldner, Cynthia Weill & Barry Mann, and Seymour Stein; Kama Sutra and Red Bird records; the insanity of the scene, and his personal style. He also talks about his Brooklyn and Long Island childhood, his alcoholism, his break from music and surviving his aneurysm.
File format: mp3; file size: 118.3mb, interview length: 2h 03' 14" sound quality: ** (background noise)
Interview by Ian Christe, Warp, 1994
MICROPHONE CONNOISSEUR and billiardsman Steve Albini has recorded albums for the Pixies, Nirvana, the Jesus Lizard, and PJ Harvey. He doesn’t know when to keep ...
Dr. Dre, Snoop (Doggy) Dogg: Dr. Dre On How To Make An Album Doggystyle
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, February 1994
DR. DRE ISN'T a good advertisement for music school. "With all these players out here, why should I waste this much time learning how to ...
Interview by Tom Doyle, Melody Maker, 5 February 1994
Producers Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade have made a career out off getting excellent guitar sounds to tape, lending their skills to the likes of ...
Al Kooper: Interview: Al Kooper, WMMR Studios, PA.
Interview by Peter Stone Brown, unpublished, March 1994
THIS INTERVIEW was done the last week of March in 1994 at what at the time, the studio of WMMR, once the number one FM ...
Suede, T. Rex: Tape Heads: Ed Buller meets Tony Visconti
Interview by Tom Doyle, Melody Maker, 12 March 1994
While even the most basic recordings get increasingly hi-tech, many modern producers are still searching for the vibey sounds of yesteryear. In the first of ...
David Bowie: Tape Heads: Ed Buller meets Tony Visconti, part 2
Interview by Tom Doyle, Melody Maker, 19 March 1994
In the second and final part of our head to head interview featuring legendary T Rex/Bowie producer TONY VISCONTI and Suede and Pulp producer ED ...
Aphex Twin, µ-ziq, Daniel Pemberton: Up to something in the bedroom
Report and Interview by David Toop, The Times, 29 April 1994
They're hot in the clubs, but low in social skills. David Toop meets techno's bores with attitude ...
Interview by Tom Doyle, Melody Maker, 14 May 1994
BLUR's Parklife is selling by the truck load, has loads of fabulous tunes on it and is really very good. TOM DOYLE talks to producer ...
Report by Alan di Perna, Musician, June 1994
MUSIC, OF course, has always been interactive. People dance to it, make love to it, sing along with the lyrics and figure out the chord ...
How Technology Will Kill The Music Biz
Special Feature by Frank Broughton, i-D, June 1994
In the future, there will be no record companies or record shops. In fact there will be no records. Instead, sound will be transmitted straight ...
Dr. Dre, Warren G: Warren G: Nuthin' but a G thang
Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 14 June 1994
Dre's l'il bro is carving his own particularly effective niche right now. Jeff Lorez gets some long distance information with Warren G. ...
Future Sound of London: The Future Sound of Technology
Interview by Tom Doyle, Melody Maker, 25 June 1994
For Brian Dougan and Gary Cobain, THE FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON is the medium for pushing the frontiers of studio recording, live performance and video ...
John Fogerty, Randy Newman, Prince: Lenny Waronker: All In The Family
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, July 1994
Warner Brothers President Lenny Waronker is not your Average Corporate Cheese ...
Paul Oakenfold: Pick and Re-Mix
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 15 July 1994
Paul Oakenfold's new record has only his name on the cover. But he isn't a musician. He's the emperor of DJs ...
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, August 1994
From Get Back to Backbeat Glyn Johns and Don Was Have Produced a Rock 'n'Roll Hall of Fame. ...
Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, The Source, September 1994
A thirst for reckless beats and raw grooves fuels the Beatnuts in their quest through the urban badlands. ...
Snap!: In tune with pop's crackle and Snap
Interview by Paul Sexton, The Times, 2 September 1994
Record sales of more than 15 million and a growing reputation for trend-setting have made two German former DJs a global sensation. Paul Sexton met ...
The Sabres of Paradise, Andrew Weatherall: Weatherall Storms
Interview by David Bennun, Melody Maker, 24 September 1994
ANDREW WEATHERALL has towered over the British club scene since he first found fame as a DJ in the acid house explosion. He created 'Loaded' ...
Alex Chilton, Jim Dickinson: Jim Dickinson: Earth Father
Retrospective and Interview by Robert Gordon, MOJO, October 1994
Backwoods, Mississippi. Home to Jim Dickinson, the revered producer and professional redneck whose work spans the story of Southern music from Sun Records to Big ...
Retrospective and Interview by Cliff Jones, Melody Maker, 1 October 1994
Seven different studios played host to OASIS as they attempted to record their debut album, each witnessing its own catalogue of disasters. CLIFF JONES traces ...
Sinead O'Connor: Diary of an Album
Interview by Tom Doyle, Melody Maker, 15 October 1994
With all the demos recorded in a single night's session, it was inevitable that SINEAD O'CONNOR'S Universal Mother would be recorded and mixed simply and ...
Everybody's A Musician: Interactive CD-ROMS Encourage Listeners To Get In The Act
Essay by Charles Bermant, Chicago Tribune, 20 November 1994
IN 2019, THOSE WHO observe the 50th anniversary Woodstock celebration from the comfort of their own homes probably will have the richer experience. ...
Interview by Michael Lydon, unpublished, 1995
AT 94, JESSE STONE, arranger, bandleader, and song writer extraordinaire, has spanned the entire 20th century of African-American music. ...
Joe Meek: Various Artists: It's Hard to Believe It - the Amazing World of Joe Meek (Razor & Tie)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Spin, 1995
WHO WAS Joe Meek? A cut-price Spector crafting pocket symphonies in his North London studio for a stable of dodgy pre-Beatles combos? Yes, but the ...
Future Sound Of London: Future Pop
Report and Interview by Andrew Smith, The Face, January 1995
When Future Sound Of London played live in New York last month, they were at home in London, connected to the venue only by a ...
Oasis: The Making of Definitely Maybe
Interview by Lisa Verrico, Vox, January 1995
From fourth on the bill at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut to the fastest-selling independent debut album in the UK, it's been a staggering year ...
The Stone Roses: Diary of an LP: the Stone Roses' Second Coming, Part One
Interview by Tom Doyle, Melody Maker, 14 January 1995
After years of rumour and speculation, THE STONE ROSES Second Coming album has finally made it into the shops. TOM DOYLE travelled to Rockfield studios ...
The Stone Roses: Diary of an LP: the Stone Roses' Second Coming, Part Two
Interview by Tom Doyle, Melody Maker, 21 January 1995
Following last week's look at life with THE STONE ROSES during the making of Second Coming, producer SIMON DAWSON takes TOM DOYLE track by track ...
Suede: Introducing the band techs
Interview by Tom Doyle, Melody Maker, 4 March 1995
Behind every guitar hero, there's a guitar tech sorting out his inputs from his outputs. TOM DOYLE meets the men who help put Suede on ...
Interview by Tom Doyle, Melody Maker, 8 April 1995
It was a long journey from simple demos in '92 to Number One album in '95, but producer MARC WATERMAN was there piecing together ELASTICA's ...
Brian Eno: The Oblique Strategist
Interview by Andy Gill, MOJO, June 1995
You’d like your album smoothly airbrushed with the minimum fuss, and expertly streamlined to slot into a tidy marketing profile? Don’t phone Brian Eno then. ...
Al Green, Willie Mitchell: Willie Mitchell: Tell’Em Willie Boy Was Here
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, MOJO, June 1995
Willie Mitchell, maestro of the Memphis soul sound that gave the world Al Green, has his lifes work celebrated by the box set Hi Times: ...
Interview by Tom Doyle, Melody Maker, 3 June 1995
Fifteen years of experience has carried producer JOHN LECKIE from a-song-a-day sessions with John Lennon, to hours spent pouring over the endless noodlings of The ...
Interview by Tom Doyle, Melody Maker, 17 June 1995
From four-track bedroom demos to finished masters. SUPERGRASS' debut LP, I Should Coco, has been guided by the hand of producer SAM WILLIAMS. TOM DOYLE ...
Toerag Studios: 'Rag Against The Machine
Report and Interview by Cathi Unsworth, Melody Maker, 17 June 1995
If you dig the sound off an unfettered rumble — be it Jon Spencer, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dick Dale or The Sex Pistols — then ...
Interview by Calvin Bush, Muzik, August 1995
New York's Todd Terry is a giant of house music. He's also the subject of controversy and slander over his DJ sets and remix attitude. ...
LTJ Bukem: "Don't Miss Out on a Good Thing"
Profile and Interview by Bethan Cole, Mixmag, September 1995
That's what everyone's saying about LTJ Bukem — the man whose pioneering, melodic take on breakbeats has catapulted him into the drum n' bass super ...
Grateful Dead, John Oswald: John Oswald/The Grateful Dead: GrayFolded (Swell/Artifact S/A1969-1996)
Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 12 October 1995
SOME DEADHEADS are already calling this the best Grateful Dead record ever; it's certainly the most monumental tombstone imaginable for Jerry Garcia, an utterly convincing ...
PM Dawn: Is P.M. Dawn's Prince Be the Brian Wilson of Hip-Hop? God only knows
Interview by Amy Linden, Rolling Stone, 19 October 1995
PRINCE BE sits behind the console of a studio in midtown Manhattan. "I am actually aching to stop working," he says with a sigh, leaning ...
David Bowie, Brian Eno: David Bowie & Brian Eno: The Outside Story
Interview by Mac Randall, Mark Rowland, Musician, November 1995
DAVID BOWIE AND BRIAN ENO EXPLAIN IT ALL FOR YOU — by Mark Rowland ...
Elvis Costello, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Why Are Records Too Long?
Report by Roy Trakin, Musician, November 1995
And other odd twists of the CD revolution. ...
Grateful Dead, John Oswald: John Oswald: Rites of the Living Dead
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, December 1995
Following the death of Jerry Garcia, John Oswald's Grayfolded, a digital reworking of the Grateful Dead's 'Dark Star', has assumed new, ghostly qualities. ...
The Grifters, Pavement, Sonic Youth: Memphis Sound Machine: Easley Recording
Interview by Robert Gordon, Spin, December 1995
Bands from Sonic Youth to Pavement have turned Easley Recording into the new lo-fi capital. ...
Interview by Andy Gill, Rock's Backpages audio, Summer 1995
Zevon talks about recording new album Mutineer using modern technology; his early musical activities including being musical director for the Everly Brothers; his various record labels; his songwriting viewpoint, and not being a cynic; his drink and drugs use, and detoxing; being happy with his career; the success of ‘Werewolves of London’; meeting Stravinsky; novelists he likes; his fascination with the dark side of society; albums like Transverse City and Mr Bad Example; classical and other modern serious music; the Oklahoma bombing; writing with Carl Hiaasen, and writing music for television.
File format: mp3; file size: 103mb, interview length: 1h 47' 16" sound quality: ****
Cypress Hill: Very Sane in the Brain
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, January 1996
Cypress Hill survives the rap race ...
Lou Reed, The Velvet Underground: Lou Reed (1996)
Interview by Jim Sullivan, Rock's Backpages audio, January 1996
Reed talks about sonic fidelity and recording new album Set the Twilight Reeling; working with partner Laurie Anderson and their relationship; his love of “real” rock; Mitch Ryder covering the Velvets' ‘Rock & Roll’ and new bands “doing the Velvets thing”; his controversial lyrics, parental advisory stickers and Tipper Gore; a recent biography of him; and Rudy Giuliani’s New York, good and bad.
File format: mp3; file size: 52.6mb, interview length: 54' 49" sound quality: **½
Charlatans, The (UK): Rockfield: Searching For Console Rebels
Report and Interview by Paul Moody, New Musical Express, 11 May 1996
Rockfield: you know, the legendary Welsh studio where Oasis, the Roses, Iggy et al record amid scenes of mayhem. Sort of. Well, it seems Bebop ...
Al Green, Ann Peebles, Willie Mitchell: Various Artists: Royal Memphis Soul – Hi Records
Review by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, July 1996
When Muscle Shoals went flabby and Stax couldn't pay their taxes, Hi Records took up the soul baton. Barney Hoskyns says hello to a collection ...
Arthur Baker, Afrika Bambaataa, Joe Bataan, New Order, Rockers Revenge: Arthur Baker: Legend!
Interview by Kris Needs, Muzik, September 1996
In the beginning, there was ARTHUR BAKER. And without him, dance music wouldn't be what it is today. For starters, we wouldn't have had 'Planet ...
Arthur Baker, Afrika Bambaataa, New Order, Rockers Revenge: Arthur Baker: Baker Groove
Interview by Andy Crysell, New Musical Express, 28 September 1996
This week Vibes hops across to the Emerald Isle to hook up with one of the founding fathers of modern dance, the fabulous ARTHUR BAKER ...
Retrospective by Jon Savage, Request, 1997
SO YOU THINK Giorgio Moroder and you think of Donna Summer's pornographic 'Love To Love You Baby' and all that followed, but there's more to ...
Guide by John McCready, MOJO, 1997
UNLIKE THE Hoover, a similarly undisputed brand leader which describes any vacuum cleaner as all vacuum cleaners do the same thing, all synthesizers are, over ...
Prince, Wendy And Lisa: Prince: The Purple Gang
Retrospective and Interview by Marc Weingarten, MOJO, February 1997
Outside the studio he was reticent. Inside he became the most ambitious, audacious auteur of the '80s. Marc Weingarten talks to his key collaborators to ...
Was (Not Was), Hank Williams: Don Was: What Was Was and What Was Is
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 23 March 1997
After years as a top producer and bandleader, Don Was lost his creative vision. Then Francis Ford Coppola and Hank Williams gave him an idea. ...
Retrospective by Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian, 18 April 1997
Lee "Scratch" Perry may not have invented dub, but, says Sean O'Hagan, he is its one auteur — his influence can be heard from trip-hop ...
Interview by Johnny Black, Rock's Backpages audio, May 1997
Purveyor of pap, or pop genius? The Rak man on 'House of the Rising Sun', Herman's Hermits, 'Hi Ho Silver Lining', Donovan and lots more
File format: mp3; file sizes: 45mb, interview length: 46' 50" sound quality: *****
Transcript of audio interview by Johnny Black, Rock's Backpages transcripts, May 1997
This is a transcript of Johnny's audio interview with Mickie. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Tori Amos, Armand Van Helden: Armand Van Helden: Widow shopping
Interview by Calvin Bush, Muzik, June 1997
"It's gotta be big" sang Tori Amos. And lo, it was! ARMAND VAN HELDEN's remix of the petite songstress put him right up there in ...
Report and Interview by Tom Doyle, Q, June 1997
BRIGHTLY EARLY most weekday mornings before 9am, when other rock stars still have at least a good six hours of kip ahead of them — ...
The Jungle Brothers: First among equatorials
Interview by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 14 June 1997
INTRODUCING... Native New Yorkers and old-skoolers Mike G, Afrika Baby Bam and Sweet Daddy Sammy B, collectively known as the JUNGLE BROTHERS ...
Retrospective and Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, July 1997
Now into his fifth decade at the doors of perception, label boss ALAN DOUGLAS hasworked with many of the century's underground greats, from Lenny Bruce, ...
Thomas Jefferson Kaye, Bob Neuwirth: A Movie For David Geffen
Retrospective and Interview by Al Aronowitz, The Blacklisted Journalist, 1 July 1997
I. WHEN I TELL people that Bobby Neuwirth was one of the hippest men I ever knew, they say, "Who?" They want to know didn't I ...
The Beastie Boys, Beck, Hanson, The Rolling Stones: The Dust Brothers: Brothers of Invention
Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Details, August 1997
They pulled poetry out of Beck. They wrung gold out of Hanson. Now they're remaking the Rolling Stones. Rob Tannenbaum meets the Dust Brothers. ...
Oasis: In The Studio With Oasis
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, September 1997
An interview with Oasis producer Owen Morris ...
Radiohead: Radiohead Get The Details
Interview by Mac Randall, Musician, September 1997
On tour in Spain with five musicians for whom the little things mean a lot ...
Steve Earle: El Corazon (E-Squared/Warner Bros.)
Review and Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, December 1997
Slice of Life ...
Special Feature by Craig McLean, The Face, 1998
It spans eight years, three continents and an aborted Fleetwood Mac cover. It features Richard Ashcroft, Thom Yorke and Mike D. How did DJ Shadow ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: John Lennon: So This Is Christmas…
Retrospective by Richard Williams, Uncut, January 1998
UP ON THE 17TH FLOOR OF THE St Regis Hotel in New York City, John Lennon is learning to type. P...I...M...P, he types. I AM ...
Jimmy Bowen and Jim Jerome: Rough Mix (Simon & Schuster)
Book Review by Ted Drozdowski, The Boston Phoenix, 5 January 1998
JIMMY BOWEN is the music-biz sharpie who made Nashville's country industry what it is today -- a multi-billion-dollar-generating machine. For that, he's both loved and ...
Bert Berns: The Soul Man with a Huckster's Heart
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, March 1998
HE WAS, said Jerry Wexler, "a paunchy, nervous cat with a shock of unruly black hair". He looked like a vaguely disreputable cross between Gene ...
The Beatles, George Martin, The Prodigy: The backroom boys who wield a big stick
Interview by Paul Sexton, The Times, 20 March 1998
Sir George Martin talks to Paul Sexton about the power of the producer ...
Jack Nitzsche: Ten Questions For Jack Nitzsche
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, MOJO, April 1998
HOW DID YOU first meet Phil Spector? ...
Jack Nitzsche: For Composer Jack Nitzsche, It's Never Too Late To Score With The Underground
Profile and Interview by Harvey Kubernik, LA New Times, 9 April 1998
"I think they wanted a score that was action and adventure. Scary suspense and all that shit. And I said, 'Fuck that. Let's put some ...
Producer in Paradise: Joel Dorn Revisits a Golden Age of Jazz
Report and Interview by Ted Drozdowski, The Boston Phoenix, 13 April 1998
JOEL DORN describes himself as "a stand-up guy. I grew up on the street corners and in the playgrounds, and I was raised to believe ...
The Beastie Boys, Money Mark: Money Mark: Tell 'Em About The Money
Interview by Simon Price, Dazed & Confused, May 1998
Mark Ramos Nishita — half-Japanese, half-Mexican, all genius — was born in Detroit, where they make the cars ("I remember a lot of snow... and ...
Mogwai: You're experi-mentalists!
Interview by Toby Manning, Jockey Slut, June 1998
MOGWAI HAVE APPROACHED A BUNCH OF "DANCE" ACTS TO REMIX THEIR GUITAR NOISE TERRORISM. LET'S SEE HOW THEY ALL GOT ON. ...
Walter/Wendy Carlos: A huge, ever pulsating brain
Retrospective and Interview by Mark Sinker, The Wire, July 1998
Mark Sinker reopens the music vs technology debate with Robert Moog, who invented the portable modular synthesizer to give the world an ever expanding index ...
Aretha Franklin: Arif Mardin: A Man For All Musical Seasons
Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, July 1998
READING THROUGH the list of artists that producer/arranger Arif Mardin has worked with is like looking at a chapter of history from American pop music. ...
Prince: An Audience With The Artist
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Addicted To Noise, August 1998
THE SECURITY GUARD in suit and tie who is watching the closed door to The Artist's upstairs dressing room on The Tonight Show set in ...
Big Brother & The Holding Company, Janis Joplin: A Shot From The Heart: Janis and Cheap Thrills
Retrospective by David Dalton, Gadfly, September 1998
IT'S 30 YEARS ago today since Cheap Thrills was released, but as soon as the needle touches the surface of the record (I’m sentimental about ...
Gloria Gaynor, Tom Moulton, The Trammps: Interview: Tom Moulton
Interview by Bill Brewster, djhistory.com, September 1998
The man responsible for the 12" record talks about his incredible career ...
Mikey Dread, King Tubby, Duke Reid, Scientist, Sir Coxone, U-Roy: Blood & Fire's Steve Barrow (1998)
Interview by Frank Broughton, Rock's Backpages audio, 10 September 1998
The reggae historian and Blood & Fire founder looks back on the evolution of Jamaica's sound system culture: early pioneers such as Count Matchuki; the selector/DJ split; Ruddy Redwood and the pre-release dub plate; sound system rivalry; Duke Reid and Coxone Dodd; and DJs and selectors becoming producers. Steve then explains how he got into reggae in the early-'70s and talks about Jamaica's relationship with hip hop. Finally, he talks about King Tubby and Scientist's dubs via an illustration of Bernard Purdie's 'Funky Donkey'.
File format: mp3; file size: 68.3mb, total interview length: 1h 11' 10" sound quality: ****
Leon Russell: Even Under the Guise of Hank Wilson, Leon Russell is a Legend in his Time
Interview by Steve Roeser, Goldmine, 11 September 1998
"How many days has it been since I was born/How many days until I die/Do I know any ways that I can make you laugh/Or ...
Overview by Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 27 September 1998
When it comes to top-flight recording studios, Los Angeles has no equal. A tour or some or the best facilities. ...
Report by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 20 October 1998
In one of the most startling comebacks in music history, Tom Cox is delighted to find that sales of turntables and crackly old vinyl records ...
The Beach Boys: Record Producer Nik Venet: 1936-1998
Obituary by Steve Roeser, Goldmine, Spring 1998
NIK VENET, an East Coast friend and mid-Fifties music scene contemporary of Bobby Darin who came to Los Angeles to become one of the key ...
Bob Dylan: A Session With Bob Dylan
Memoir by Happy Traum, Guitar World, 1999
IN OCTOBER OF 1971, I got a call from Bob Dylan asking me if I'd like record some songs with him for his Greatest Hits, ...
Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, The Source, 1999
WITHIN THE rhythmic belly of the Hit Factory studio, chunky-funky 21-year-old producer Rodney Jerkins is beginning to look slightly fatigued. ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers, Lee "Scratch" Perry: Lee Perry: Lost Treasures Of The Ark (Jet Star)
Review by Andy Crysell, New Musical Express, 2 January 1999
BOOTY RECALL ...
Interview by Marc Weingarten, Rolling Stone, 21 January 1999
Beck, Radiohead and Pavement producer Nigel Godrich explains ...
Prince Paul: The Director's Cut: Prince Paul's Prince Among Thieves
Review by RJ Smith, The Village Voice, 2 March 1999
NOBODY IN THE genre today sees more possibility in hip-hop than Prince Paul. I say that in the face of his tour de force A Prince ...
Freedy Johnston learns to let go
Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, April 1999
FREEDY JOHNSTON has this complicated relationship with control. He wants it over his music, for all the right reasons, but he knows from experience that ...
King Tubby: "This is a journey into sound"
Retrospective by Lloyd Bradley, James Maycock, MOJO, April 1999
Sonic visionary, dancehall supremo and obsessive money-launderer, he played the sliders like Jimi played a Fender. Lloyd Bradley and James Maycock chronicle the crowning glories ...
James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt: Peter Asher: A World Of Sound
Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, April 1999
"I ALWAYS found the studio a fascinating place," says producer Peter Asher, "and the process of assembling a track and figuring out what each musician ...
Interview by Amy Linden, The Source, April 1999
WITH SMASHES like Bobby Brown's 'My Prerogative' (1988) and Johnny Kemp's 'Just Got Paid' (1988), Teddy Riley invented New Jack Swing and forever changed the ...
Review by James Hunter, New York Observer, 24 May 1999
Backstreet Boys Play Coy, Robbie Williams Is a Joy ...
Missy Elliott, Timbaland: Timbaland and Missy Elliott: Partners in the Engine Room of Rap
Comment by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 1 August 1999
POP-MUSIC history tends to focus on glamorous vocalists and visionary songwriters, but the evolution of black pop is another story: it's as much about changes ...
Aretha Franklin: Jerry Wexler: Aretha And Me
Interview by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 13 August 1999
JERRY WEXLER, co-founder of Atlantic Records and in-house producer, was picking himself up off the floor of Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama when he received ...
Blur, Madonna, William Orbit, Beth Orton: William Orbit: In Orbit with Madonna
Interview by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 12 November 1999
Wizard producer William Orbit is the cockney behind the sound of Madonna. He's also created an unlikely techno album of his own, reports MAX BELL ...
Reeves Gabrels: Building …hours
Report and Interview by Mike Mettler, Sound + Vision, 1 December 1999
AVANT-GUITARIST Reeves Gabrels began his ten-year-long collaboration with David Bowie in 1989 with the hard-edged Tin Machine project. He has since garnered a reputation as ...
The Beach Boys, Phil Spector, Brian Wilson: Phil Spector and Brian Wilson: The Nutty Producers
Retrospective by Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian, 16 December 1999
Without Phil Spector and Brian Wilson, the 60s would have sounded very different, says Sean O'Hagan. ...
Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans: Bobby Sheen
Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 2000
WHENEVER HE MADE records under his own name, Bobby Sheen, who has died aged 57, was out of luck. But as Bob B Soxx, the ...
Duane Eddy, Lee Hazlewood, Nancy Sinatra: The Very Special World of Lee Hazlewood
Interview by Kieron Tyler, Record Collector, February 2000
He sings, produces, writes and arranges, and had no. 1 hits with Nancy Sinatra. Kieron Tyler meets the legendary genre-straddling icon. ...
The Bee Gees: How the Bee Gees got into Disco: An Oral History of Main Course
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Q, April 2000
NOTE: This is a considerably extended version of the piece published in Q. ...
Bow Wow Wow, Joan Jett, Darlene Love, Tony Orlando: Kenny Laguna: Laguna Tunes
Review by Eric Weisbard, The Village Voice, 29 April 2000
IT'S TEMPTING TO imagine that Kenny Laguna invented the lifework he chronicles in the songs and liner notes of Laguna Tunes, that this parade of ...
David Toop: Tokyo without a map
Report by David Toop, The Wire, May 2000
Sonic Boom curator David Toop visits the Japanese capital to network with a gaggle of young electronic sound artists, and finds the megalopolis as perplexing ...
Profile by Michael A. Gonzales, Vibe, June 2000
IT'S 7:30 a.m., but Patrick "Sleepy" Brown is full of energy as he promotes his solo debut, For the Grown and Sexy, on New York ...
Jimi Hendrix: Black Secret Technology
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, July 2000
Hendrix wasn't just the original firestarter, all flash and dazzle. He was a scientist of sound. ...
Top of the Pops albums: Better than the real thing?
Retrospective and Interview by Kieron Tyler, MOJO, September 2000
Bikini models, Kraftwerk covers and dodgy Mick Jagger impersonators. Kieron Tyler examines the 95p world of the Top Of The Pops album phenomenon. ...
Jack Nitzsche: Legendary Music Arranger and Composer, Jack Nitzsche Dies
Obituary by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, September 2000
Legendary arranger and award-winning composer Jack Nitzsche died at Queen Of Angels hospital in Los Angeles, Calif. , on August 25, 2000. Nitzsches death was ...
The Clash, King Tubby, Bob Marley & the Wailers, Lee "Scratch" Perry: Reggae: Back to the Roots
Essay by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, September 2000
According to the remixologists' gospel, the dub virus was so successful, it took out the word and eradicated its reggae song hosts. Simon Reynolds rediscovers ...
For CD Guru, Masters Are His Domain
Profile and Interview by Fred Shuster, Los Angeles Times, 31 October 2000
SOME PEOPLE have the best jobs. ...
Add N to (X): Invisible Jukebox: Add N to (X)
Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, November 2000
Every month we play a musician or group a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge ...
David Axelrod: 1968-1970: An Anthology (Stateside import); The Axelrod Chronicles (Fantasy)
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, December 2000
IMAGINE ITALIAN film-score wizard Ennio Morricone as an acidhead staff producer at Stax/Volt, and you have a rough idea of the utterly cosmic funkiness of ...
Otomo Yoshihide: Invisible Jukebox: Otomo Yoshihide
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, December 2000
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Rick Astley: Lock, Stock and Waterman
Retrospective by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, December 2000
WARNING: this article contains extremely positive comments about "disposable" pop. ...
Interview by Chris Campion, Dazed & Confused, Winter 2000
MAVERICK PRODUCER and bassist Bill Laswell is on a mission to collapse musical boundaries by any means necessary. With a resolutely pioneering spirit, a typical ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001
ONE OF THE new breed of record producers of the '80s and '90s, Laswell regards songs as "an old-fashioned primitive format". He is renowned for ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. 22 June 1937, London, England ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001
b. 15 April 1944, Cardiff, Wales ...
Retrospective by Bill Brewster, bbc.co.uk, 2001
• Father of Eurodisco • Discovered Donna Summer • Winner of two Academy Awards for Best Song (Top Gun: 'Take My Breath Away' and Flashdance: ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001
b. Hank Wilson, 2 April 1941, Lawton, Oklahoma, USA ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. 1935, Los Angeles, California, USA ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. 23 April 1952, Kalamazoo, Michigan ...
Owen Bradley, Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee: Owen Bradley
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001
b. 21 October 1915, Westmoreland, Tennessee, USA, d. 7 January 1998 ...
Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001
b. Robert A. Blackwell, 23 May 1922, Seattle, Washington, USA, d. 9 March 1985, Whittier, California ...
Jimi Hendrix: The Jim Marshall Interview
Interview by Joe Matera, Mixdown, 2001
In a rare and candid interview, the man behind the legendary amplifier talks to Joe Matera about the Marshall legacy. ...
Jack Nitzsche, The Rolling Stones: Tuning the Key of the Universe: Jack Nitzsche Remembered
Profile and Interview by David Dalton, Gadfly, 2001
Jack Nitzsche, who died last August at the age of 63, was a seminal but shadowy figure in rock ’n’ roll since the early '60s. ...
Esquivel, Arthur Lyman, Ken Nordine: Adventures in Stereo
Retrospective by Kieron Tyler, MOJO, January 2001
Whatever happened to the days of the Teldec stereophonic systems and orthophonic sound? Kieron Tyler winds up the victrola and trips hack into a world ...
Timothy Day: A Century Of Recorded Music – Listening To Musical History (Yale University Press)
Book Review by David Toop, The Wire, February 2001
BANISH RECORDED MUSIC and 41 pages, including record company advertisements, vanish from the pages of last month's Wire. Erase any evidence, awareness or memory of ...
Bob Dylan: An Exclusive Interview with Bob Johnston
Interview by Richard Younger, On the Tracks, March 2001
THE LEGEND OF Bob Johnston looms large in the career of Bob Dylan. More than any other producer, Johnston is responsible for producing what many ...
Brian Eno: "So Why Are We Doing This?"
Interview by Andy Gill, MOJO, May 2001
IT WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFICULT, observing Brian Eno's early career as furnisher of funny noises to the original Roxy Music, to predict that three decades ...
Joe Meek: Hearing A New World: The Joe Meek Story
Retrospective by John McCready, MOJO, May 2001
NOTE: This piece originally featured in Mojo magazine in a truncated 8,000 word edit. this is the full near-12,000 word original piece. This is such ...
David Axelrod: Swinging with The Ax: David Axelrod
Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, June 2001
"LET ME straighten something out first," rasps living Los Angeles legend David Axelrod; crooking a bony finger at the heavy sunglasses he wears even though ...
The Who: 'Won't Get Fooled Again'
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Blender, July 2001
Billboard debut: 7 August 1971 Label: UK – Track/US – Decca Performers: Pete Townshend: guitar & synths/Roger Daltrey: vocals/John Entwistle: bass/Keith Moon: drums Producer: Glyn Johns Released: UK – ...
Retrospective and Interview by David Kamp, Vanity Fair, November 2001
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I spent much of 2001 interviewing the songwriters, machers, and artists of the Brill Building era for this oral history. It was the ...
Soft Cell: The Twelve Inch Singles (Mercury)
Review and Interview by Jim Irvin, MOJO, December 2001
Every 12-inch single A and B-side of their career collected into o 3-CD set ...
The Beatles, George Martin: Arise, Sir George: The Man Behind the Beatles
Interview by Joe Matera, Mixdown, 2002
BEST KNOWN as the man who produced the Beatles, Sir George Martin was there at the beginning of the British pop revolution and went on ...
The Beach Boys, The Byrds: Gary Usher
Interview by Gene Sculatti, Scram, 2002
Gary Usher In Conversation With Gene Sculatti January 1971 ...
Interview by Larry Jaffee, The Audiophile Voice, 2002
PHIL RAMONE is a legendary music producer who's been at the helm on recordings by a who's who of 20th century popular music, the likes ...
Big Star, Ry Cooder, Jim Dickinson, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones: Jim Dickinson: Home Cooking
Interview by Joss Hutton, Perfect Sound Forever, January 2002
THIS MAIN COURSE is a hearty southern dish, marinated in worldly wisdom and good humour, matured slowly in honky-tonks, recording studios and bars the world ...
Quincy Jones: Q – The Musical Biography Of Quincy Jones (Rhino)
Review by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, January 2002
QUINCY JONES HAS enjoyed a truly remarkable career, moving between the fields of jazz, blues, soundtracks, pop, soul, funk and rap. This celebratory collection encompasses ...
Guide by Pat Blashill, Wired, 5 January 2002
EVER SINCE Sam Phillips stuffed some wads of paper into an amplifier, inadvertently creating the fuzzed-up, overdriven electric guitar sound on Ike Turner's 1951 rave-up ...
N.E.R.D.: N*E*R*D: Producers Who Shape-Shift
Report and Interview by Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 10 February 2002
After years of helping others create hip-hop hits, N*E*R*D makes its own album and turns the genre inside-out. ...
N.E.R.D.: Inventing The New Funk
Comment by Michael Goldberg, Neumu, 29 March 2002
Pair the Neptunes and Kelis and what you get is state-of-the-art groove music ...
Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Graham Nash: 5.1 Way Street: Graham Nash
Interview by Mike Mettler, Sound + Vision, April 2002
"I TEND TO GET carried away with technology," admits Graham Nash, one-third of the sweet harmonic equation that comprises the signature sound of Crosby, Stills ...
Little Axe, On-U Sound System, Adrian Sherwood: Adrian Sherwood (2002)
Interview by Andy Gill, Rock's Backpages audio, April 2002
Producer/record company boss Sherwood talks about his huge array of projects: starting the On-U Sound label; projects and artists such as African Head Charge, Tackhead and Dub Syndicate; making dub records until his friend Prince Far-I's murder; working with Keith LeBlanc, Doug Wimbish and Skip McDonald; remixing Primal Scream's Vanishing Point, and the perils and pleasures of remixing; working with Lee "Scratch" Perry, and artists like Sinead O'Connor; the 'Barmy Army' football songs; his solo album Never Trust a Hippy; recording and technology, and running a label, and quite a lot about kids' football!
File format: mp3; file size: 50.7mb, interview length: 52' 51" sound quality: ****
Interview by Jason Gross, Perfect Sound Forever, May 2002
Depending on how you see music journalism, Simon Frith is either a sinner or a saint. After the late '60's, rock criticism began to show ...
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Blender, May 2002
Song title: 'Train In Vain' Artist: The Clash Label: CBS Performers: Mick Jones – guitar/vocals Joe Strummer – guitar Paul Simenon – bass Topper ...
Lee "Scratch" Perry: Madman or Genius?
Interview by John Lewis, Time Out, June 2002
As the Jamaican dub pioneer curates his Meltdown Festival at the South Bank, John Lewis travelled to deepest Switzerland to ask him about Prince Charles, ...
Petula Clark, Tony Hatch, The Searchers, Jackie Trent: Call Me: The Songs Of Tony Hatch
Sleeve notes by Kieron Tyler, Sanctuary Records, July 2002
WHEN PETULA Clark hit number one in America with 'Downtown' in January 1965 she became the first British solo singer to top the US charts. ...
David Bowie: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust And the Spiders From Mars: 30th Anniversary Edition
Review and Interview by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, July 2002
"I'm really just a Photostat machine. I pour out what has already been fed in. I merely reflect what is going on around me" – ...
Interview by Will Hermes, Spin, July 2002
NOW THAT MOBY AND FATBOY SLIM HAVE BECOME POP-CULTURE POSTER BOYS, IS IT TIME FOR HIP-HOP MONK JOSH DAVIS, A.K.A. DJ SHADOW, TO CLAIM HIS ...
Profile and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 28 July 2002
YOU MAY NOT know the name. But if you've ever screamed "I hate you so much right now!" along with Kelis, told Ol' Dirty Bastard ...
Dr. Dre: Dr Dre: Why there's life in the old doc yet
Interview by Ted Kessler, New Musical Express, 3 August 2002
THE ALARM IN the NME office was palpable. "Dr Dre is retiring," relayed the rumour buzzing through the NME newsdesk. "He's just announced it." ...
Gorillaz, Linkin Park: Linkin Park: Reanimation/Space Monkeyz Vs. Gorillaz: Laika Come Home
Review by Will Hermes, Spin, September 2002
WHO INVENTED the remix? Let P. Diddy debate that one with a posse of royalty-deprived Jamaican dub producers. ...
Richard Harris: The Grim Reporter
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, November 2002
Phast Phreddie Patterson on those gone but not forgotten. ...
Report by Pete Paphides, The Guardian, 16 November 2002
For adolescents, it was a thrill – the first music they owned. Singles survive in the CD age as bootlegs and indie specials. Their covers ...
Daniel Lanois' shining pedal steel sound
Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Inside Entertainment, 2003
"I HAVE WANDERED far and wide," Daniel Lanois sings on the title track to his latest album, "all the way from Paris to Mexico". ...
Interview by Larry Jaffee, Rock's Backpages audio, 2003
The legendary producer/engineer talks about the internet and file sharing, the thorny process of CD remastering of classic albums, and revisiting such classic albums as Paul Simon's Graceland and Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks.
File format: mp3; file size: 59.9mb, interview length: 1h 05' 28" sound quality: ***
Phil Spector's Ghosts: The Spooky World Of The Greatest Producer In Pop Music
Comment by Barney Hoskyns, Slate, February 2003
FOR OBSERVERS of Hollywood, it's been irresistible: life imitating the movies once again. The death of B-movie actress Lana Clarkson in Phil Spector's Alhambra chateau ...
Phil Spector: Pop's Lost Genius: Phil Spector
Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Telegraph Magazine, 4 February 2003
Phil Spector produced some of the greatest pop hits of all time, from 'Be My Baby' to 'Imagine'. Notoriously eccentric in his heyday, his slow ...
Interview by Larry Jaffee, Rock's Backpages audio, 25 February 2003
On The Raven, the ups and, mostly, downs of CDs, mp3s and (re)mastering and more.
File format: mp3; file size: 24.9mb, interview length: 27' 11" sound quality: ***
Lou Reed: The Artist on the Biz
Report and Interview by Larry Jaffee, Medialine, March 2003
AT THE 45th annual Grammy Awards ceremony last month, Lou Reed was introduced by his co-presenter of the Best Pop Song category as a "true ...
Phil Spector: The Mad Director: Phil Spector and the Sound of Walls
Guide by Phil Mershon, Perfect Sound Forever, March 2003
HAD PHIL SPECTOR accomplished nothing more than recording The Ronettes singing Be My Baby, he would deserve at least one get-out-of-jail-free card. ...
Profile and Interview by Don Waller, MOJO, April 2003
Jon Brion, America's most in-demand singer-songwriter and producer, has his own L.A. residency. Don Waller went to check it out. ...
Interview by Chris Campion, Dazed & Confused, April 2003
The influence of the crush grooves produced by Def Jam and American Recordings founder, Rick Rubin, are stronger than ever. ...
Overview by Robin Eggar, unpublished, April 2003
THE CASTLE PERCHES atop a hill in suburban Alhambra reached after a long and winding climb. The huge iron gates appear to have been shut ...
Adam Faith, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters: The Grim Reporter April 2003
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, April 2003
Phast Phreddie Patterson on those gone but not forgotten ...
The Rolling Stones: The Making of the Rolling Stones' 'Tumbling Dice'
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Blender, April 2003
PERFORMERS Mick Jagger – vocals, guitar Keith Richards – guitar Mick Taylor – guitar and bass Charlie Watts – drums Nicky Hopkins – piano Clydie ...
The Rolling Stones' 'Satisfaction'
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Blender, April 2003
PERFORMERS Mick Jagger – vocals, guitar Keith Richards – guitar Brian Jones – guitar Charlie Watts - drums Bill Wyman - bass Jack Nitzsche – piano, tambourine ...
Retrospective by Joel Selvin, MOJO, May 2003
Phil Spector, the most famous producer on the planet, is currently on bail after an actress was shot dead at his L.A. mansion. To a ...
The Animals: Grim Reporter - July 2003
Obituary by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Rock's Backpages, July 2003
Phast Phreddie Patterson on those gone but not forgotten ...
N.E.R.D., Pharrell Williams: Pharrell Williams: Another Hard Day At The Office…
Interview by Paul Elliott, Q, September 2003
There's no rest for Pharrell Williams, not with deals to cut, girls to chase and a reputation as the world's hottest producer to keep up. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Angus Batey, MOJO, September 2003
Back in 1986 hip hop entered a golden age — lyrical revolution, sonic innovation, and individuality — that gave rise to such rap legends as ...
The Beatles: Let It Be...Naked
Review by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, November 2003
IN THE permanently recycled world of Fabs folklore, Let It Be is always viewed as a missed opportunity. Planned to be a back-to-basics album and ...
The Saints: I’m Stranded: Ed Kuepper on the Making of the Saints’ Classic Debut
Interview by Joe Matera, Australian Guitar, 2004
JM: You actually did two sessions for I’m Stranded. Did you use the same gear for both sessions? ...
Mickie Most, The Yardbirds: Mickie Most
Retrospective by Alan Clayson, unpublished, 2004
"The only gift I had as a producer was finding the right song. I felt I knew how it should be done and, after that, ...
Interview by Craig McLean, The Word, February 2004
Hip hop: It's not all Cristal and beautiful actresses for celebrity DJ Mark Ronson. Well, it is actually. ...
Retrospective and Interview by David Stubbs, Uncut, February 2004
Pre-Oasis, My Bloody Valentine were Creation's greatest band. Between 1988 and 1991, they reinvented electric guitar music before vanishing in a haze of white noise. ...
Al Green, Willie Mitchell: Al Green: Soul Searching
Profile and Interview by Andria Lisle, MOJO, April 2004
In the late '70s, Al Green was a troubled superstar who abandoned the stage in favour of the pulpit. Then last winter, after 25 years, ...
Interview by Paul Gorman, The Word, May 2004
In forty years of recording everyone from Dylan and Hendrix to Abba and Lena Zavaroni, a studio engineer sees a lot of strange things. ...
Digital Magic Makes A Musician Of Me
Comment by Tom Cox, Daily Telegraph, 4 May 2004
I THINK IT'S SAFE to say I'm never going to learn to play a musical instrument properly now. The realisation first came to me about ...
The Beach Boys: Ocean Way: The studio that shaped the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds
Retrospective by Steve LaBate, Bud Scoppa, Paste, June 2004
This is the first piece included in a longer feature for Paste June/July 2004. ...
The Cure: Work in Progress: The Cure
Interview by Johnny Black, MOJO, June 2004
Title: TBC Due: June 21 Production: Ross Robinson ...
Interview by Tom Doyle, Sound on Sound, July 2004
Arif Mardin has engineered and produced an incredible array of classic records from artists such as Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Diana Ross, the Bee Gees ...
Girls Aloud, Sugababes: Xenomania: Heart Of The Country, Home Of The Hits
Profile and Interview by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 18 July 2004
In rural Kent, the future of British pop is being shaped by Brian Higgins – a Phil Spector for the 21st century. Ben Thompson meets ...
The Prodigy: Liam Howlett: Never Outgunned
Interview by Ben Myers, Kerrang!, August 2004
"I REMEMBER being in our rehearsal room and Keith was picking holes in shit and I just thought 'What the fuck, man? What's happened to ...
Dan Penn: Muscle Shoals: Soul of the South
Retrospective and Interview by Chris Campion, unpublished, September 2004
Muscle Shoals and Fame Studios are synonymous with the golden era of soul music. But the musicians who wrote and played on the songs that ...
U2: Another Time: The inside story of U2's very first record
Retrospective and Interview by Chas de Whalley, Record Collector, 1 September 2004
I FIRST MET U2's manager Paul McGuiness sometime in February 1979. He was on a trip to London doing the rounds of the record companies ...
The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: SMiLE When Your Heart Is Breaking: Brian Wilson
Interview by Roy Trakin, Hits, October 2004
"Come about hard and joinThe young and often spring you gaveI heard the wordWonderful thingA children's song" ('Surfs Up') ...
Jermaine Dupri, Janet Jackson: Jermaine Dupri: In Control
Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, Vibe, October 2004
JERMAINE DUPRI maps out the path to Ms. Nipplegate's heart, fights for P. Diddy-style props, and reveals his secret for crafting hits. Michael A. Gonzales ...
The Rolling Stones: Rolling Stones: Howzat!
Retrospective and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, MOJO, October 2004
Out the same month as the rock and roll circus was filmed, Beggars Banquet was the Stones' first classic album. Charles Shaar Murray revisits their ...
ABC: "It Was Like Disco, But In A Bob Dylan Way": The Lexicon Of Love
Sleeve notes by Daryl Easlea, Neutron/Mercury Records, November 2004
FEW ALBUMS DEFINE the resonance and the beauty of a particular era as does The Lexicon Of Love by ABC. It could be said that ...
The Ramones, Phil Spector: The Ramones: Hey Ho, Let's Go!
Retrospective and Interview by Harvey Kubernik, MOJO, November 2004
Recording End Of The Century with Phil Spector should have been the Ramones' bid for the big time. Instead, it nearly destroyed them. ...
Buggles: Trevor Horn: Vast Cities Of Sound
Profile by Paul Morley, Daily Telegraph, 10 November 2004
Trevor Horn, one of pop music's great ministers of sound, celebrates 25 years of recording wizardry this week. And it all started with The Buggles, ...
Carole King in the Canyon: The Weaving of Tapestry
Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Hotel California' (Fourth Estate), 2005
UNLIKE MOST of her Brill Building contemporaries, Carole King was keen to keep pace with the changing times. Having scored as an artist in her ...
Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff (2005)
Interview by David Nathan, Rock's Backpages audio, 2005
The making of The Sound of Philadelphia: Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff on the Philadelphia International label, and working with the diverse likes of Wilson Pickett, Dusty Springfield, Jerry Butler and Laura Nyro.
File format: mp3; file size: 31.5mb; Interview length: 24' 24"; sound quality: ***
Nirvana: Good Riffs, Good Drumming, Great Screaming!
Retrospective and Interview by Gillian G. Gaar, MOJO, January 2005
Good Riffs, Good Drumming, Great Screaming!... that's how producer Jack Endino recalls Nirvana's first proper studio stint. Three hours and 10 songs later, Kurt Cobain ...
The Beatles: Abbey Road: Where Magic Was Made
Profile by Paul Trynka, The Guardian, 11 March 2005
Paul Trynka looks back at the relationship between the biggest band of all time and the studio that helped them create their sound ...
The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: Domenic Priore: Smile – The Story Of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece
Book Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, June 2005
THE STORY OF SMILE has been hauled up into the light and examined more closely since Brian Wilson's shock announcement, in 2003, of his intention ...
Interview by Bill Brewster, Rock's Backpages audio, 8 July 2005
The erstwhile Josh Davis talks about how his world was changed by hip hop; how, in search of breaks, he became an obsessive collector; the ins-and-outs of sampling, and tells tales from the world of crate digging.
File format: mp3; file size: 61.1mb, interview length: 1h 06' 41" sound quality: ** (phoner)
T. Rex: The Making of T. Rex's 'Bang A Gong (Get It On)'
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Blender, October 2005
T. Rex: 'Bang A Gong (Get It On)' ...
Interview by Alan Light, Spin, November 2005
From Beastie Boys to Run-D.M.C. to Red Hot Chili Peppers to Johnny Cash, he's produced them all ...
A Swamper Tells the Muscle Shoals Story: An Interview with David Hood
Interview by Carl Wiser, unpublished, 2006
ABOUT TWO minutes into 'I'll Take You There', a sultry bass groove plays while Mavis Staples implores, "Little David, help me out now..." ...
Iggy Pop: Story of the Song: 'The Passenger' by Iggy Pop
Interview by Robert Webb, The Independent, 2006
Author's note: I'm not sure where the Q&A came from. Maybe Ricky taped the interview and transcribed the audio. ...
Interview by Del Cowie, Exclaim!, 1 January 2006
"WHEN IT comes to real hip-hop, royalty hip-hop, I think I fit in just perfect." Arrogant comments from anyone who is not named Pete Rock, ...
Solomon Burke, Joe Henry, Bettye LaVette, Allen Toussaint: Joe Henry
Interview by Bud Scoppa, Paste, 10 January 2006
BEFORE PRODUCING Solomon Burke's modern-day soul landmark, Don't Give Up On Me, in 2002, Joe Henry was a modest-selling "critic's darling" with a reputation for ...
David Bowie, Morrissey: Tony Visconti: Bolan, Bowie, Morrissey And Me
Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 23 March 2006
"WHAT A LOT of people don't realise about Morrissey," says the producer of his new album, Tony Visconti, "is that he has a sense of ...
Tom Silverman: No Expense Spared
Interview by Larry Jaffee, MediaPack, May 2006
Tom Silverman, the pioneer rap music label owner of New York-based Tommy Boy Records, is unusual among his label head peers. He's willing to spend ...
Buzzcocks, Joy Division, Magazine: Various Artists: Zero - A Martin Hannett Story 1977-1991
Review by Jon Savage, MOJO, May 2006
The post-punk Phil Spector lives on again on a (single CD) retrospective that reveals him to be a producer both before his time and ahead ...
The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rick Rubin: Rick Rubin: The Man Who Made The Chilis Hot
Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 4 May 2006
As the Red Hot Chili Peppers release a monumental new album, their producer Rick Rubin tells Robert Sandall how he tamed one of pop's most ...
The Beatles, Paul McCartney: Geoff Emerick
Profile and Interview by Richie Unterberger, Record Collector, June 2006
BESIDES GEORGE Martin, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, Geoff Emerick worked on more Beatles sessions than any other individual. ...
Interview by Joel Selvin, Selvin On The City, KSAN 107.7, June 2006
T-Bone Burnett guests on Selvin On the City ( KSAN Underground Radio 107.7, San Francisco), talking about production, the soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Ralph Stanley, Jakob Dylan and more.
File format: mp3 File size: 27.2mb Interview length: 29' 44"; Sound quality: *****
Led Zeppelin: Stairwell to Headley: Led Zeppelin's Fourth Album
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, July 2006
THE SCENE IS Atlantic Records' HQ in New York City, the date early September 1971. The event is a tense standoff between, on the one ...
Radiohead, Thom Yorke: Thom Yorke: Ghost in the Machine
Interview by Nick Kent, MOJO, August 2006
Q: What happens when "a bunch of stupidly self-critical pathological overachievers" form a rock band? A: They become Radiohead. Thom Yorke talks candidly to Nick Kent ...
Timbaland: "I'm up here. Everyone else is down there."
Profile and Interview by Angus Batey, The Guardian, 8 August 2006
TIM "TIMBALAND" Mosley, the most in-demand music producer in the world, is tired. But the task of staying awake is made easier because, right now, ...
Big Jim Sullivan: The Man With The Golden Arm
Interview by Jon Stewart, Guitarist, September 2006
Jon Stewart talks about what it takes to make it as a professional musician with Big Jim Sullivan, the legendary UK session guitarist who has ...
Retrospective and Interview by Andria Lisle, Memphis Flyer, 26 October 2006
The little recording studio on Madison has played a big part in Memphis music history. ...
Boston: 30 Minutes with Tom Scholz of Boston
Interview by Mike Mettler, Sound + Vision, November 2006
Two of rock's Holy Grail albums, 1976's Boston and 1978's Don't Look Back are finally remastered by the band's meticulous mastermind, and he tells us ...
The Beatles, Elvis Costello: Geoff Emerick: Recording the Beatles
Interview by Jeff Slate, Tape Op, January 2007
I'D COME TO A midtown Manhattan law office to meet Geoff Emerick, the infamous engineer on most of the significant recordings by the Beatles, to ...
The Beatles, George Martin: George Martin
Interview by Jim Irvin, MOJO, January 2007
THE PENTHOUSE mixing room at the top of Abbey Road Studios. We await Sir George Martin, who is 30 minutes late. "This is most unlike ...
The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: The Beach Boys: The Making of Pet Sounds
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Holdship, MOJO, January 2007
BACKSTAGE AT UCLA's Royce Hall a joyous sound suddenly erupts from behind a closed door, which one assumes leads to Brian Wilson's dressing room judging ...
The Beatles, George Martin: The Sound Of Sgt. Pepper
Retrospective and Interview by Jim Irvin, MOJO, January 2007
THE RECORD ALWAYS regarded as a harbinger of pop's future is full of old-fashioned sounds. These are, in order of appearance: a theatre orchestra tuning ...
Interview by Robert Sandall, Q, February 2007
ELO's founder, he has also played inside a spaceship and gripped George Harrison with his bum. ...
Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 18 February 2007
IT CAN'T have been easy choosing the alliterative lineup for the sub-title of this rock'n'roll memoir. After Phil Spector, Tony Visconti is probably the most ...
Book Review by Mark Paytress, MOJO, April 2007
A life in music, rich in chemical romances, bickering stars and some wonderful work, is recounted with great dignity, says Mark Paytress ...
Arif Mardin: Groovin': The Genius of Arif Mardin
Sleeve notes by Barney Hoskyns, Rhino Records, April 2007
ATLANTIC'S JERRY WEXLER called him The Pasha, aka "His Soulful Turkish Eminence". It was a typically Wexleresque reference to Arif Mardin's aristocratic background and manner. ...
Phil Spector: Mick Brown: Tearing Down the Wall of Sound/Mark Ribowsky: He's A Rebel
Book Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 1 April 2007
Mick Brown reminds us of Spector's greatness as a music man, in what would otherwise be an unremittingly grim story. ...
Joe Boyd discusses his book, White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s
Interview by Fred Mills, Harp, May 2007
AMERICAN-BORN, England-based producer Joe Boyd, who discovered Nick Drake, Fairport Convention and the Incredible String Band, oversaw key recordings by Pink Floyd, R.E.M. and others ...
Report and Interview by Robert Sandall, Daily Telegraph, 31 May 2007
The Beatles' monumental album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is being re-recorded by some of the biggest names in pop. Robert Sandall reports. ...
Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, June 2007
There were many who vied for the title, but in the recording studio, there was really only one Fifth Beatle. ...
Interview by Maureen Paton, Rock's Backpages audio, 13 June 2007
... in which Maureen Paton takes a cab ride round the childhood haunts of the producer/DJ. After talking slightly sheepishly about his "mid-Atlantic drawl", Ronson recalls his family background; growing up surrounded by rock'n'roll and rock musicians; being tucked in bed by Robin Williams; his fondness of vintage music and production; producing Amy Winehouse; being a performer and DJ — at P Diddy's birthday party! — and being a school chum of Sean Lennon's.
File format: mp3; file size: 48.6.5mb, interview length: 60' 38" sound quality: ***
Public Enemy: The Public Enemy Remix Project's 'Bring the Noise' b/w 'Give It Up'
Review by Carol Cooper, The Village Voice, 26 September 2007
ALTHOUGH TECHNO (and its subsequent sub-genres) is now associated more with its white European exponents than its black American progenitors, Ultra Records' new series of ...
Various Artists: The Cosimo Matassa Story
Review by John Morthland, No Depression, 31 October 2007
YES, YET ANOTHER New Orleans box. But this one's a little different. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Fred Mills, unpublished, Summer 2007
NOTE: This is a vastly expanded version of the Mitch Easter feature, "Perfect Sound Forever," written for issue #76, of Magnet, published summer 2007. Interviews ...
Obituary by John Broven, Now Dig This, February 2008
CLYDE OTIS died on January 8, 2008, in Englewood Hospital, New Jersey at the age of 83. He was famous amongst NDT readers for writing ...
Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, February 2008
Four years in the making, In Rainbows is both tortured and triumphant… Here, for the first time, is the unexpurgated inside story of the album ...
Dennis Brown: Joe Gibbs, 1943-2008
Obituary by Chris Salewicz, The Independent, 3 March 2008
Producer of a string of reggae hits ...
Review by John McCready, The Word, April 2008
Imagined in London, bankrolled by pop hits and prog rock — the disco-dub collision at Compass Point Studios created shockwaves. ...
Retrospective by Luke Torn, Uncut, May 2008
IT'S ANOTHER DAY in the busy life of one of the biggest bands in America. The Byrds have just recorded 'Eight Miles High', and are ...
T-Bone Burnett, Bob Dylan, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss: T Bone Burnett: Brother, Who Art Thou?
Interview by Bud Scoppa, Uncut, May 2008
WHO EXACTLY IS T Bone Burnett? Is he really the man who turned Dylan onto Christianity and split Costello from the Attractions? As the producer ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: The Making of 'Hong Kong Garden'
Retrospective and Interview by Carol Clerk, Uncut, May 2008
The oddly light debut smash that shoved punk's dark primitives out of the shadows ...
John Foxx, Ultravox: John Foxx: Trash And Treasure
Interview by Scott McLennan, Rip It Up (Australia), 1 May 2008
WITH A HISTORY that includes formative years in 1970s synth act Tiger Lily soundtracking a porno, a brief flirtation with the mainstream as a founding ...
Miami Sound Machine: The Hit Factory Criteria Studio
Report and Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 22 July 2008
MIAMI – On any given night, as the fabled moon rises over Miami, the densest concentration of pop stars per square foot is likely to ...
Marvin Gaye, Edwin Starr, The Temptations, The Undisputed Truth: Norman Whitfield, 1941-2008
Obituary by Dave Laing, The Guardian, 19 September 2008
He co-wrote and produced some of Motown's greatest hits ...
John Foxx, Ultravox: John Foxx: The Quiet Man Speaks
Interview by Alex Ogg, The Quietus, 7 November 2008
John Foxx is perhaps one of the UK's most undersung musicians. Here he talks to Alex Ogg about Ultravox!, synth pop and nearly being in ...
Dave Stewart: The Songfacts Interview
Interview by Carl Wiser, Songfacts, 20 November 2008
THE HALF OF Eurythmics that is not Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart has written hits with Tom Petty, No Doubt, Jon Bon Jovi, Bono, Mick Jagger ...
New Order: The Making Of 'Blue Monday'
Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, December 2008
A stone classic, for sure, but the best-selling 12" of all time was a bastard to play live and lost money on first release. "We ...
Thom Bell and the Sound of Brotherly Love
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 8 December 2008
WHILE THE ubiquitous songs of Detroit's Motown get anthologized and commercialized ad infinitum, and the critics salivate over the gritty southern soul of Memphis' Stax, ...
Staff Benda Bilili: Music from diversity
Profile and Interview by Rob Fitzpatrick, The Sunday Times, 22 February 2009
The band is formed of homeless paraplegics and polio victims from Kinshasa, Congo, and travel in customised wheelchairs ...
Interview by Mike Barnes, MOJO, March 2009
He was Roxy Music's synth-basher and the architect of ambient. Now outside-the-box boffin Brian Eno is working with U2 and Coldplay. "Producing is the best paid form ...
The Bird and the Bee: Greg Kurstin: Mister Fairy Dust
Interview by James Medd, The Word, March 2009
When Lily Allen, Kylie, Britney, Beck, Flaming Lips, Ladyhawke or Little Boots need a multi-instrumentalist or musical director, they send for Greg Kurstin. And for ...
Magazine: The Making of 'Shot By Both Sides'
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, March 2009
Powered by a razor-riff, nihilist lyrics, some classic-rock chops and an infamous showing on Top Of The Pops, this ferocious anthem was the closest thing ...
Report and Interview by Jim Irvin, The Word, April 2009
T-Bone Burnett has been producing records for over 40 years and is busier now than he's ever been, pursuing a lifelong fascination with "the boom ...
Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan: Bob Johnston on Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Nashville Skyline
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, May 2009
JUNE 17th MARKS the 40th anniversary of the original Columbia Records release of Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline album, produced by Bob Johnston. ...
Interview by Bill Brewster, Rock's Backpages audio, 28 May 2009
The legendary DJ and producer looks back at his suburban childhood and mispent youth; starting the dance music fanzine Boy's Own; the whole acid house scene and its effects; what it means to be a DJ, and his move into the recording studio and his work with Primal Scream.
File format: mp3; file size: 49.2mb, interview length: 53' 44" sound quality: ****
The Dead Weather, Jack White: Q&A with Jack White, The Dead Weather
Interview by Kimberly Mack, Music Connection, June 2009
JACK WHITE HATES to wait. ...
Barry Beckett: Soul Provider: Muscle Shoals keyboard legend Barry Beckett in His Own Words
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, June 2009
NOTE: This is a pretty straight transcript of what the late Barry Beckett said to me in his new Warner Brothers office in Nashville in ...
Interview by Julian Marszalek, The Quietus, 3 June 2009
Julian Marszalek speaks to the Tom Tom Club and Talking Heads mainstay Chris Frantz ...
Kraftwerk: Ralf Hütter: "I got a new head, and I'm fine"
Interview by John Harris, The Guardian, 19 June 2009
The bikes ... the robots ... the dream of man and machine in perfect harmony. How is the Kraftwerk vision of the future shaping up? ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 16 August 2009
BEHIND EVERY star there is a great producer, musician or record company A&R man. Barry Beckett, who has died aged 66 after a series of ...
Retrospective and Interview by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, September 2009
HERE'S IRONY for you: there were several things timed for the release of Michael Jackson's London shows that were to provide testimony to the man's ...
Music's intellectual-property eviction notice
Essay by John Pidgeon, The Guardian, 24 September 2009
What made old singles so great? Session musicians, that's what. So why are those players finding their royalties disappearing? ...
Michael Jackson: Vinyl Icons: Michael Jackson's Thriller
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, October 2009
WHEN MICHAEL Jackson started recording Thriller, he must have wondered how on earth he could top the extraordinary achievements of Off The Wall, his previous ...
Nick Drake: Robert Kirby, 1948-2009
Obituary by Colin Irwin, The Guardian, 7 October 2009
IN HIS FIRST YEAR as a music student at Cambridge University, Robert Kirby sought to join Footlights, the undergraduates' fabled arts and drama club. He ...
The Police, Sting: Vinyl Icon: The Police's Synchronicity
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, November 2009
IN 1977, a virtually unknown trio called The Police recorded their debut album, Outlandos D'Amour, in a village hall that had been converted to a ...
Dinosaur Jr.: Dinosaur Jr: The making of 'Freak Scene'
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, December 2009
"We were just shitty." J Mascis and his bandmates recall the strained relations that led to their 1988 US breakthrough hit. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, December 2009
SURELY, BY NOW, there should be a commemorative blue plaque on the central reservation of Princess Avenue in Liverpool's Toxteth. ...
Phil Spector's Christmas Album
Retrospective by Johnny Black, unpublished, December 2009
GUNS HAVE LANDED Phil Spector in no end of trouble over the years. Usually, as in his confrontations with John Lennon, Leonard Cohen and the ...
Overview by Jude Rogers, New Statesman, 10 December 2009
From accents to Auto-Tune, singers fought to stand out from the pack ...
The Black Keys: Blackroc: Cold Fusion
Profile and Interview by Alan Light, Relix, January 2010
NEVER BEFORE HAVE THE PURE ELEMENTS OF HIP-HOP AND ROCK BEEN SUCCESSFULLY CATALYZED TO CREATE SOMETHING ENTIRELY NEW – UNTIL NOW. BLAKROC, THE CREATION OF ...
Willie Mitchell: R.I.P. Poppa Willie Mitchell
Comment by Andria Lisle, Memphis Flyer, 5 January 2010
EIGHTY-ONE-year old producer/trumpeter Poppa Willie Mitchell died at 7:25 a.m. today, at Methodist University Hospital. ...
Al Green, Willie Mitchell: Sunset Serenade: Saying Goodbye to Memphis Music Legend Willie Mitchell
Obituary by Andria Lisle, Memphis Flyer, 14 January 2010
AT 7:25 A.M. ON Tuesday, January 5th, 81-year-old producer "Poppa" Willie Mitchell died at Methodist University Hospital. An entire chunk of local music history died with ...
Jimi Hendrix: Eddie Kramer on Jimi Hendrix's Valleys of Neptune
Interview by Ben Fong-Torres, eMusic.com, February 2010
EDDIE KRAMER'S credit on Valleys of Neptune is co-producer, along with Janie Hendrix (Jimi's sister) and John McDermott of Experience Hendrix, the company owned by ...
Flaming Lips: Dave Fridmann: Producing Embryonic
Report and Interview by Tom Doyle, Sound on Sound, March 2010
Following their unlikely breakthrough into the mainstream, Flaming Lips made a conscious return to the outer limits with their recent album Embryonic. Dave Fridmann manned the controls. ...
The Rolling Stones: Andy Johns on recording Exile On Main St.
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, March 2010
ANDY JOHNS is a world class sound engineer and record producer. On May 18th his work with the Rolling Stones on their 1972 Exile On ...
Sly & the Family Stone: Sly Stone: Listen To the Voices – Sly Stone In The Studio 1965-1970 (Ace)
Review by Andy Gill, The Word, May 2010
Sly Stone's pharmaceutical habits attracted an undue level of bad press, but the studio would always be a place of refuge. ...
The Rolling Stones Rock Jimmy Fallon
Report and Interview by Alan Light, TV Guide, May 2010
Late Night shines a light on Exile on Main Street's reissue with a week-long tribute. ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 13 May 2010
The great engineer/producer takes us from the "Surrey Delta" at the turn of the '60s through to recording Led Zeppelin and its aftermath: meeting Jimmy Page when still a kid; getting into engineering; meeting the Stones; Page and John Paul Jones as sessionmen...
File format: mp3; file size: 91.3mb, interview length: 1h 35' 05" sound quality: ***
The Beach Boys, Culture Club: Steve Levine
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, June 2010
ACHIEVING THE perfect mix and getting the balance right are essential skills for any record producer but, with a glittering career which has spanned 35 ...
Bob Dylan: "Bob Knew There'd Be Butting Of Heads"
Retrospective and Interview by Michael Simmons, MOJO, July 2010
HOW DYLAN'S FIRST ALBUM OF ORIGINAL MATERIAL SINCE 1990 BECAME A WAR OF WILLS, AND AN ARTISTIC TRIUMPH. AS TOLD TO MICHAEL SIMMONS. ...
Steely Dan: Vinyl Icon: Gaucho
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, July 2010
GAUCHO, THE FINAL ALBUM Steely Dan recorded before they broke up in 1981, is still regarded as a masterpiece by aficionados, but making it put ...
Phil Spector: The Agony Of Phil Spector
Comment by Mitchell Cohen, Rock's Backpages, 8 July 2010
I CAN LISTEN to six hours of Phil Spector recording sessions, some of which amount to take after take of Spector instructing the lead singer ...
Sleeve notes by Bob Fisher, unpublished, August 2010
ON CHRISTMAS EVE 2016, Dave Bartholomew celebrated his 98th birthday and over 65 years as a professional musician. ...
Interview by Holger Petersen, Rock's Backpages audio, 7 August 2010
The amiable producer/arranger/artist looks back on his involvement with Ry Cooder; his friendship with Little Feat's Lowell George; the golden years at Warner Bros.; the march of technology from four to 24-tracks; being a fast worker, and his return to his folk roots with the Mississippi Sheiks Tribute Project.
File format: mp3; file size: 26.1mb, interview length: 28' 27" sound quality: *****
Led Zeppelin: Let's Get Physical: The Story of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Classic Rock, September 2010
SOMETHING IS ROTTEN in the state of rock. The heady euphoria of the late Sixties has degenerated into decadence and self-satisfaction. Working-class guitar heroes have ...
Pink Floyd: Vinyl Icon: Pink Floyd's The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, September 2010
IT'S WRIT large in pop history that The Beatles spent the spring of 1967 recording their classic Sgt Pepper album in EMI's Abbey Road Studio ...
Al Kooper, Bob Dylan: Al Kooper on Bob Dylan's record producers Tom Wilson and Bob Johnston
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, October 2010
"In 1966 Dylan went down to Nashville for Blonde On Blonde He stayed out in the studio 10 or 12 hours. Bob never left it. ...
Talking Heads: And The Heat Goes On
Retrospective and Interview by Graeme Thomson, Uncut, November 2010
A long hot summer in New York 30 years ago, and Talking Heads are heading into dangerous new territory. It will involve intense relationships with ...
Roben Jones: Memphis Boys – The Story of American Studios (University Press Of Mississippi)
Book Review by Mike Atherton, Blues & Rhythm, 2011
"THOSE SEVEN MUSICIANS, the American rhythm section, are the most creative and innovative studio musicians I know," said Memphis promotion man Marty Lacker, who, having ...
Leadbelly: John Szwed: The Man Who Recorded the World – A Biography of Alan Lomax
Book Review by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 8 January 2011
Richard Williams hails the man who devoted his life to recording the songs and soundscapes of America and beyond. ...
Toro y Moi: Underneath The Pine (Carpark)
Review by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, February 2011
HAVE YOU noticed? Pop music sounds shit these days. ...
Adrian Sherwood: The Man Who Built Jamaica In The Midlands
Interview by Nick Coleman, The Independent, 27 February 2011
The founder of On-U Sound tells Nick Coleman that there is more to reggae than 'ooom-chicky...' ...
Obituary by Dave Laing, The Guardian, 24 March 2011
Her voice made 'Ride on Time' a smash hit in 1989 ...
Nashville Cats: David Briggs Reflects at the Country Music Hall of Fame
Report by Holly Gleason, No Depression, 26 March 2011
Nashville Cats: David Briggs at Ford Theatre, Country Music Hall of Fame, Nashville, TN ...
Dusty Springfield: Southern Harmony
Retrospective and Interview by Lois Wilson, MOJO, April 2011
She was one of the greatest vocalists of all time at the height of her powers but for Dusty Springfield the making of Dusty in ...
Van Dyke Parks: Parks Life: An Interview with Van Dyke Parks
Interview by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, May 2011
The next few months will see the release of a series of vinyl singles by celebrated writer, arranger and producer VAN DYKE PARKS, plus the ...
The Clash: Vinyl Icon: The Clash
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, May 2011
UNUSUALLY, FOR AN ALBUM awarded Vinyl Icon status, the "fi" of The Clash's eponymous debut is not of the highest. It is, however, an album ...
Steve Miller: Vinyl Icon: The Steve Miller Band's Fly Like An Eagle
Report and Interview by Johnny Black, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, May 2011
FLY LIKE AN EAGLE was the album which, in 1976, transformed San Francisco-based Stevie "Guitar" Miller from acclaimed critics' favourite to global superstar. ...
Interview by Alan Light, Relix, May 2011
ATHENS, GEORGIA IT'S 1995, maybe 1996. Brian Burton is a freshman at the University of Georgia, an aspiring moviemaker, taking an "Introduction to Film" course. Burton ...
Retrospective by Angus Batey, The Guardian, 13 June 2011
AMONG hip-hop's canonical creation myths, few are as perfectly formed as Grand Wizard Theodore's invention of scratching. ...
Arctic Monkeys: James Ford: Producing Arctic Monkeys
Interview by Tom Doyle, Sound on Sound, July 2011
Arctic Monkeys' fourth album, Suck It And See, is a dazzling return to form — and to producer, long‑time collaborator and 'fifth Monkey' James Ford. ...
Chic, Norma Jean Wright: Norma Jean Wright: Norma Jean
Sleeve notes by Daryl Easlea, Demon Records, July 2011
NORMA JEAN WRIGHT'S sole album on Bearsville, released in 1978, is something of a curio, and is notable for the fact it was the first ...
Jerry Ragovoy: Old Music for New People: A Tribute to Jerry Ragovoy
Memoir by Al Kooper, The Morton Report, 22 July 2011
MY DEAR FRIEND Jerry Ragovoy, legendary songwriter, producer, and arranger, passed away on July 13 of complications from a stroke. ...
Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 14 September 2011
Distinguished and subtle New Orleans arranger and musician ...
The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson and SMiLE
Retrospective and Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, October 2011
NOTE: A small portion of this interview appeared in the 2011 MOJO '60s issue. ...
Retrospective by Tim Meade, Rock's Backpages, October 2011
WE ALL KNOW THE STORY of the Beach Boys' SMiLE. After Pet Sounds, Brian set out to make a "teenage symphony to God" that ...
Thomas Dolby: Appliance Of Science
Interview by James Medd, The Word, October 2011
Name a musician that hasn't felt the magic plug-in of hyperactive studio dweeb Thomas Dolby. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Julian Marszalek, The Quietus, 8 November 2011
Jim Reid and Douglas Hart give Julian Marszalek the low down on the making of one of the best rock albums of the 1980s, Psychocandy. ...
Adrian Sherwood is feeling the riddim
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Coleman, The New Zealand Herald, 25 November 2011
NOT MUCH reggae music came out of the Home Counties during the early 1970s, but an awful lot went in. More than you might think. ...
Joe Henry: Historical Home Studio: Joe Henry Records Himself in South Pasadena
Report and Interview by Don Waller, Glendale News-Press, 2 December 2011
ROCK MUSICIAN and producer Joe Henry in his home and studio in South Pasadena on Tuesday, November 15, 2011. His home, a Greene & Greene ...
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 6 December 2011
Electronic music's evolution toward the thrilling excess of digital maximalism. ...
Noel Hawks and Jah Floyd: Reggae Going International 1967-1976 – The Bunny "Striker" Lee Story
Book Review by Mike Atherton, Echoes, 2012
IN 2002, BUNNY LEE asked seasoned music journalist Noel Hawks when he was going to write up his story in book form. In the best ...
Kate Bush: Album by album: Kate Bush
Guide by Graeme Thomson, Uncut, January 2012
It would be inadvisable to get carried away, but two album releases in 2011 suggests Kate Bush is returning to a more agreeable rate of ...
Ringo Starr: Beaucoups of Beatle: Ringo Starr in Nashville
Retrospective by Daryl Sanders, The Nashville Musician, January 2012
Ringo Starr pursued his love for country music on 1970 Nashville album. ...
Todd Rundgren: The MOJO Interview: Todd Rundgren
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, January 2012
TWO DAYS AFTER a throat-shredding three-night stand at London's Jazz Café, Todd Harry Rundgren seems relieved merely to be talking. Still sporting multi-coloured – black ...
Kent Hartman: The Wrecking Crew – The Inside Story Of Rock And Roll's Best-Kept Secret
Book Review by James Medd, The Word, February 2012
If it's Monday it must be the Beach Boys, Tuesday it's Sinatra. The fantasy life of L.A.'s fabled sessioneers told as soap opera ...
Interview by Simon Price, The Stool Pigeon, 2 February 2012
"That coldness; that precision": Simon Price meets the man who invented the '80s ...
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 15 February 2012
POP STARS become producers, but producers rarely become pop stars. Mark Ronson, for one, has unintentionally demonstrated the pitfalls awaiting studio wizards who step from ...
Interview by Rob Fitzpatrick, The Word, April 2012
"Music is like blood or air," Damon Albarn believes. "It's part of us. We open up to its invisible flow. My life is immersed in ...
Kim Fowley: Impresario, Svengali, Saint, Devil
Report and Interview by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 1 April 2012
KIM FOWLEY pulls DVDs, fliers, CDs, a hospital admission slip and more DVDs out of a jumble of media on the mixing board of a ...
Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend: Jim Marshall, 1923-2012
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 5 April 2012
The "Father of Loud", he gave his name to the world-famous, ubiquitous amplifier. ...
Martina Topley-Bird, Tricky: Tricky
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 18 April 2012
Seventeen years ago, Maxinquaye made Tricky an unlikely pop star, and made him angry and unhappy. Now, though, he and Martina Topley-Bird are ready to ...
The Beatles: 80 years of Abbey Road
Report by Jon Savage, The Observer, 10 June 2012
It's the world's most famous studio and everyone from Edward Elgar to Ella Fitzgerald – and, of course, the Beatles – has made music there. ...
Report and Interview by Andy Gill, The Independent, 21 July 2012
From Brooklyn to Glasgow, a new wave of musicians are choosing laptops over guitars as their instruments of choice, says Andy Gill. ...
Linkin Park: Things Falling Apart
Interview by Scott McLennan, Rip It Up (Australia), 2 August 2012
They made their fortune on the back of punchy hit singles such as 'What I've Done', 'In The End' and 'Numb' tapping into a 21st ...
How To Destroy Angels, Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor: Trent Reznor (2012)
Interview by Ned Raggett, Rock's Backpages audio, November 2012
Taking a break from Nine Inch Nails, Reznor talks about his How To Destroy Angels project: making their An Omen EP_ ; how he, Atticus Ross and Mariqueen Maandig work together; how the songs are constructed and recorded; how he manages his different projects, and how he’s kept evolving as an artist.
File format: mp3; file size: 26.2mb, interview length: 27' 15" sound quality: ** (phoner)
Retrospective and Interview by Rod Tootell, Rock's Backpages, December 2012
IN SEPTEMBER 1974, a Swedish journalist was interviewing a rock singer pretty much unknown in Sweden. His name was Bruce Springsteen. ...
The Beatles, George Martin: Produced by George Martin is a must see, especially on his 87th birthday
Review by Jeff Slate, Examiner.com, 3 January 2013
I WAS LUCKY to meet George Martin, who turns 87 today, on two occasions. The first was at the recording session for the original cast ...
Can, Conny Plank, Kraftwerk, Neu!: Conny Plank: The Soundtrack Of Our Youth
Profile by David Stubbs, The Quietus, 13 February 2013
As Gronland release a four-disc box set of the music of Conny Plank, David Stubbs remembers the "midwife of Krautrock"... ...
Jeff Lynne: A Conversation with Producer and ELO frontman Jeff Lynne
Interview by Jeff Slate, Examiner.com, 15 February 2013
"HELLO?" ...
Film/DVD/TV Review by Geoffrey Himes, Baltimore City Paper, 10 March 2013
THE SOUTH BY Southwest Conference got underway yesterday with SXSW Film, one leg of the tripod extravaganza that also features Interactive and Music components. Twenty-two ...
Phosphorescent: Muchacho (Dead Oceans)
Review and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, April 2013
Guys and dolls: Houck embraces his inner Eno. ...
Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones: Andy Johns, 1950-2013
Obituary by Dave Laing, The Guardian, 9 April 2013
Consummate sound engineer who worked with some of rock's greats ...
LeAnn Rimes: Reality Bites: The Making of LeAnn Rimes' Spitfire
Report and Interview by Bud Scoppa, Mix, 1 May 2013
DURING THE past few years, LeAnn Rimes' private life has become tabloid fodder, the result of the public's insatiable appetite for titillation. Being the constant ...
Free, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones: Andy Johns 1952-2013
Obituary by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, June 2013
ANDY JOHNS lived rock'n'roll, whether that meant delicately dangling microphones over a banister at country house studio Headley Grange to get the sound of John ...
Obituary by Tony Russell, The Guardian, 11 August 2013
JACK CLEMENT, who has died aged 82, was not only a prolific and successful songwriter and an able musician but had a long track record ...
Retrospective and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, October 2013
IN JANUARY 1967, a young singer named Aretha Franklin arrived in the small Alabama town of Muscle Shoals, her career hanging in the balance. ...
Howlin' Wolf's London Sessions
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Blues, November 2013
NOW REVERED AS a lynchpin moment in the history of the blues, Howlin' Wolf's 1970 London Sessions with a superstar assemblage of England's rock royalty, ...
Tom Moulton: Zing Went The Strings: Tom Moulton's Disco Remixes Reviewed
Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 5 November 2013
"You wait forty years for a boxset of Tom Moulton Philly disco remixes on heavyweight vinyl, and then two turn up at once." John Doran ...
Retrospective by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 28 November 2013
Best known for reviving Nancy Sinatra's career with 'These Boots Are Made for Walkin'', Lee Hazlewood was a highly unorthodox record producer. An epic box ...
Cabaret Voltaire: Justified Fascination: Richard H Kirk of Cabaret Voltaire Interviewed
Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 9 December 2013
Did Cabaret Voltaire lose their way when they lost Chris Watson? Far from it, they entered their imperial period... John Doran talks to Richard H ...
Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Frankie Says Pop Revolution
Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Record Collector, January 2014
It's easy to forget how big an explosion Frankie Goes To Hollywood caused in the '80s. Rob Hughes peers through the cracked windows of the ...
The Band: Vinyl Icon: The Band's Music From Big Pink
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, January 2014
IN 1965, BOB Dylan chose a hoary and somewhat grizzled rock'n'roll combo, the Hawks, as his backing group when he famously "went electric". ...
Salaam Remi, Amy Winehouse: Industry Profile: Salaam Remi
Interview by Larry LeBlanc, Celebrity Access, 8 January 2014
This week In the Hot Seat with Larry LeBlanc: Salaam Remi, composer, producer, musician and label executive. ...
Alex Chilton, Jim Dickinson, The Sex Pistols: Flies on Shit: Alex Chilton Goes Back to Memphis
Book Excerpt by Holly George-Warren, Viking Books, March 2014
The former Big Star man sees the Sex Pistols in Memphis and limbers up for the shambolic Like Flies On Sherbert. An exclusive excerpt from ...
Keiji Haino: Experimental Mixture (Black Smoker)
Review by Frances Morgan, The Wire, March 2014
HAINO'S FIRST DJ mix album slipped out late in 2013 on Japanese label Black Smoker, followed by a further three CD set of mixes, In ...
Bert Berns, Solomon Burke: Cry to Him: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns
Book Excerpt by Joel Selvin, 'Here Comes The Night' (Counterpoint Books), April 2014
In these two excerpts from Joel Selvin's splendid new biography of Bert Berns, the soul hustler from the Bronx oversees the 1961 session for Solomon ...
David Bowie: "Bowie Was Like Orson Welles": Diamond Dogs at 40
Interview by David Buckley, MOJO, 24 April 2014
On the 40th anniversary of its release, engineer Andy Morris delivers the inside skinny on Bowie's wildest album. ...
Interview by Paul Lester, The Jewish Chronicle, 15 May 2014
Why star producer intends to have a ball ...
Bert Berns: Hit Man: Joel Selvin's Here Comes the Night
Book Review by Robert Gordon, The New York Times Book Review, 30 May 2014
BERT BERNS the producer is the Phil Spector you've never heard of. Bert Berns the songwriter is the Leiber and Stoller you've never heard of. ...
John Cage: David Grubbs: Records Ruin The Landscape – John Cage, The Sixties And Sound Recording
Book Review by Frances Morgan, The Wire, June 2014
JOHN CAGE can always be relied upon for a good quote. Here an apparently lighthearted comment, in which the composer compares sound recordings to postcards ...
The Black Keys: Turn Blue (Nonesuch)
Review and Interview by Bud Scoppa, Uncut, June 2014
Following the triumph of El Camino, Auerbach, Carney & Danger Mouse roll the dice, play it where it lays. ...
Book Review by Kirk Silsbee, Downbeat, July 2014
AMERICAN POP MUSIC from the no-man's-land after The Day The Music Died (Buddy Holly's fatal 1959 plane crash) and before the arrival of the Beatles ...
Nostalgia pays in Nashville as rocketing record sales make it the capital of vinyl
Report and Interview by Edward Helmore, The Observer, 30 August 2014
Taylor Swift and Beyoncé are among the artists turning to the old LP format to capture the essence of their music. ...
The Doors: Vinyl Icon: The Making of the Doors' L.A.Woman
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, January 2015
AS 1970 DREW to a close, The Doors were widely considered a spent force. ...
Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 18 January 2015
FEW PEOPLE IN pop music spanned such a range as Kim Fowley, the record producer, songwriter and Sunset Strip svengali who has died aged 75. ...
The Isley Brothers, Isley Jasper Isley: Chris Jasper on Playing Synths for the Isleys
Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, Red Bull Academy Magazine, 20 January 2015
Michael A. Gonzales talks to the inventive, classically-trained keyboardist behind some of the Isley’s most indelible hits ...
Pharrell Williams: From spreading happiness to saving the planet: The rise and rise of Pharrell
Comment by Edward Helmore, The Observer, 25 January 2015
What is driving Pharrell Williams's new global conscience as he joins Al Gore's fight against climate change? ...
Retrospective by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 25 January 2015
From inner groove loops to absurd backmasking, artists have long found ways to embed secret songs, cryptic writings and coded messages in their albums. ...
Mica Levi: Loving the Alien: Mica Levi
Interview by Frances Morgan, The Wire, February 2015
As a member of Micachu And The Shapes, Mica Levi was an archetypal underground pop star — then she wrote the soundtrack to Under The ...
tUnE-yArDs: "Most rock shows are pretty boring"
Profile and Interview by Rob Hughes, Daily Telegraph, 27 February 2015
BENEATH WILD PERFORMANCES and infectious tunes, Merrill Garbus's band tUnE-yArDs is tackling serious subjects. ...
Common: Center of Chaos: Common's Electric Circus
Retrospective by Michael A. Gonzales, Red Bull Academy Magazine, 24 March 2015
In the wake of the wide-ranging To Pimp a Butterfly, Michael A. Gonzales looks back to Common's most ambitious full-length. ...
Todd Rundgren: Songwriter Interviews: Todd Rundgren
Interview by Carl Wiser, Songfacts, 2 April 2015
'I SAW THE LIGHT' came a little too easy for Todd Rundgren. The song took him maybe 20 minutes to write, just going up and ...
Interview by Mike Mettler, Digital Trends, 14 April 2015
WHEN A DRUMMER is acknowledged as occupying the same rarefied air as Rush's Neil Peart, it says a lot about just how damn good the ...
Giorgio Moroder: Dr. Love Machine
Retrospective and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, MOJO, May 2015
BETWEEN 1974 AND 1986 GIORGIO MORODER TRANSFORMED POP AND DISCO WITH A NEW KIND OF EUPHORIC MACHINE MUSIC. NOW, AFTER HIS 2013 SPOT ON DAFT ...
Dusty Springfield: The Making of Dusty in Memphis
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, July 2015
IN 1967, DESPITE international success and her status as the UK's undisputed queen of blue-eyed soul, Dusty Springfield found herself stifled by the career path ...
Review by Del Cowie, Exclaim!, 7 July 2015
LIKE MANY of his previous efforts, Statik Selektah's seventh album Lucky 7 features the respected producer's hard-edged East Coast production backing a mixture of veteran ...
B.B. King: The Making of B.B. King in London
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Blues, August 2015
AFTER FIFTEEN years as the undisputed King Of The Blues, B.B. King's career seemed to have sailed into some kind of doldrums when the '60s ...
Paul McCartney, Wings: Vinyl Icon: Paul McCartney & Wings' Band On The Run
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, August 2015
KNIFE-WIELDING ATTACKERS, primitive recording facilities, medical emergencies – for sheer unadulterated behind-the-scenes drama and bizarre shenanigans, no other Paul McCartney album comes even remotely close ...
Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel: Bob Johnston, 1932-2015
Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 18 August 2015
Record producer who played a significant role in the recording career of Bob Dylan. ...
Fleetwood Mac: Eye Witness: Fleetwood Mac Start Work On The Follow-Up To Rumours
Retrospective and Interview by Jim Irvin, MOJO, October 2015
After a huge world tour and a two-month break, Fleetwood Mac reconvene in an expensively-customised L.A. studio to make the follow-up to the biggest selling ...
Report and Interview by Paul Sexton, The Independent, 16 October 2015
Daptone Records has put authentic soul into R&B for 15 years, from Back to Black to 'Uptown Funk'. ...
Book Review by Mike Barnes, The Wire, November 2015
WYNDAM WALLACE was a publicist for the City Slang record label in the late 1990s and our paths crossed many times. My memory of him ...
Tileyard Studios: The Hit Factory
Report and Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 1 November 2015
Mark Ronson is among the leading acts flocking to a north London studio complex. What's the big draw? ...
Elvis Presley: Next Train to Memphis: Peter Guralnick's Sam Phillips
Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Rock's Backpages, 17 November 2015
AS THE PRE-EMINENT and passionate chronicler of music history, Peter Guralnick is in a league of his own, with a bibliography that not only — ...
Big Brother & The Holding Company, Janis Joplin: Big Brother: John Simon in Woodstock and Bearsville
Book Excerpt by Barney Hoskyns, 'Small Town Talk' (Faber & Faber), 2016
Two excerpts from Small Town Talk that tell part of the story of John Simon, producer of The Band and Janis Joplin… plus one excerpt ...
Retrospective by Michael A. Gonzales, Red Bull Academy Magazine, 25 January 2016
At the height of their careers, Sam Cooke, Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, George Clinton and Prince all formed their own imprints. Michael Gonzales tells the ...
Boz Scaggs: Vinyl Icon: The Making of Boz Scaggs' Silk Degrees
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, February 2016
NOBODY WOULD HAVE thought that a former Steve Miller Band sideman whose name sounded like a disease of sheep would suddenly, after six failed solo ...
Dave Stewart: Sweet Sonic Dream Mixes Are Made of Dave Stewart
Interview by Mike Mettler, The Sound Bard, 10 February 2016
HE'S A MAN who's been everywhere and done it with everyone, and lived to tell the tales. He's Dave Stewart, the production wizard best known ...
Transcript of audio interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 8 March 2016
This is a transcription of Adam's audio interview with Graham. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Beyoncé's Lemonade is an object lesson in collaboration
Comment by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 28 April 2016
She's the centripetal force that marshals the likes of Robert Plant, Jack White, Kendrick Lamar and MNEK to craft exquisite pop music that transcends boundaries ...
Bob Dylan: How Dylan's Blonde On Blonde created the modern album
Retrospective by James Medd, Bigmouth, 23 May 2016
Fifty years ago, Bob Dylan turned pop entertainment into a vehicle for dazzling visions – and it's been that way ever since. James Medd investigates the album that invented an ...
Thomas Dolby: Godfathers of Pop: Thomas Dolby
Retrospective and Interview by David Burke, Classic Pop, June 2016
BEFORE HE EMERGED as a pioneering figure of electronic music in the 1980s, Thomas Dolby wrote Lene Lovich's single, 'New Toy', appeared on the Thompson ...
Klara Lewis: Happy Accidents: Klara Lewis
Interview by Frances Morgan, The Wire, June 2016
The open canvases of Klara Lewis explore a landscape of found sounds, re-recordings, pop songs and audio byproducts. By Frances Morgan. ...
James Carr, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley: Chips Moman, 1937-2016
Obituary by Richard Williams, The Guardian, 15 June 2016
Guitarist, record producer and songwriter who co-wrote 'The Dark End of the Street' and worked with Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin and Tammy Wynette. ...
Interview by Alan Light, Mother Jones, July 2016
We caught up with the hip-hop legend behind Baz Luhrmann's latest creation ...
Bert Berns: The Ecstatic Agony of a Producer/Songwriter
Report and Interview by Mitchell Cohen, Best Classic Bands, 7 August 2016
The Rock Hall member behind such classics as 'Brown Eyed Girl,' 'Twist and Shout' and more. ...
What Goes Around, Comes Around (or) Vinyl's Back and It's Not a Fad
Report by Larry Jaffee, The Audiophile Voice, September 2016
The LP's Return Picks Up Traction ...
Rudy Van Gelder: Quality Guaranteed
Obituary by Fred Dellar, MOJO, November 2016
MAESTRO OF engineering Rudy Van Gelder – the man who shaped the sound of modern jazz – left us on August 25. ...
Super Furry Animals: For Now and Ever
Retrospective and Interview by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, December 2016
Super Furry Animals emerged from the Welsh DIY scene in the mid-'90s before signing to Creation for their debut album Fuzzy Logic, beginning a run ...
Jan & Dean: A Walk on the Wet Side: Gary Pig Gold In Conversation With Mark A. Moore
Interview by Gary Pig Gold, Vulcher, January 2017
ONE THING THAT'S always bugged me – besides the price of Ramones t-shirts at the Newark Airport CBGB, that is: Why the name Jan Berry ...
Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 29 June 2017
Forty years after its release, the ingenious studio gurus behind the robot-funk masterpiece talk about how it came to be. ...
Obituary by Andrew Stafford, The Guardian, 24 October 2017
The Easybeats guitarist and AC/DC producer wasn't just a star in his own right, but a behind-the-scenes industry giant. ...
Interview by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, March 2018
As Richard Russell's collaborative album, Everything Is Recorded, is released, RC's Jamie Atkins meets him to talk about the recording and the music that led ...
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 3 April 2018
Unlocking the mysteries behind the Scottish electronic duo's hallucinatory classic, which turns 20 this month ...
Dan Auerbach:"I don't think I'm that much of a control freak any more..."
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Uncut, May 2018
Musician, label boss, entrepreneur, empire builder... Will the real Dan Auerbach please stand up? As Jaan Uhelszki joins Auerbach and his Easy Eye Sound crew ...
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 17 September 2018
An in-depth history of the most important pop innovation of the last 20 years, from Cher's 'Believe' to Kanye West to Migos ...
Jimi Hendrix: David Stubbs and Mark Pringle: Hendrix's Ladyland at 50 (2018)
Interview by Mark Pringle, David Stubbs, Rock's Backpages audio, 28 September 2018
The greatest rock album ever made? David Stubbs and Mark Pringle believe so and tell you why, track-by-track. Plus a conversation about Jimi's post-Ladyland career and a spot of idle speculation about what he might have done had he lived.
File format: mp3; file size: 88.3mb, interview length: 1h 31' 58" sound quality: *****
Bob Dylan: No One Else Could Play That Tune: An Introduction
Book Excerpt by Clinton Heylin, 'No One Else Could Play That Tune' (Route), October 2018
And I could never let you go, No matter what goes on, 'Cause I love you more than ever, Now that the past is gone. —Last ...
Chic, Nile Rodgers: Nile Rodgers: The Next, Not the Last
Report and Interview by Alan Light, Savoy Magazine, Fall 2018
Nile Rodgers has long been considered one of the coolest artists on the music scene, and shows no sign of slowing down. Following his victory ...
Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 1 November 2019
The soulful singer's third LP is timeless and contemporary at the same time, with shades of everything from What's Going On to Screamadelica. ...
Tom Waits: Jacquire King on Tom Waits' Mule Variations
Interview by Jacob Paul Nielsen, unpublished, 2020
JPN: What are you listening to right now? ...
Tom Waits: Oz Fritz on Mule Variations
Interview by Jacob Paul Nielsen, unpublished, 2020
Author's note: I interviewed Oz Fritz and Jacquire King about their engineering work on Tom Waits' Mule Variations. Part of the interview wound up in ...
Jethro Tull: Storm's A Coming...
Retrospective and Interview by Mike Barnes, Prog, January 2020
With the release of the 40th-anniversary box set of Stormwatch, the album that completed Jethro Tull's folk-rock trilogy along with Songs From The Wood and ...
Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 18 February 2020
THE LIST OF ANDREW WEATHERALL'S achievements as DJ, musician, songwriter, producer and remixer could fill a hefty volume. His career took him from working as ...
Rick Astley, Stock Aitken Waterman: Rick Astley: How we made 'Never Gonna Give You Up'
Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 23 March 2020
"One day I was making the tea for Bananarama. The next I was at No 1." ...
Richard Russell: Better Music Through Listening: XL's Richard Russell Interviewed
Interview by Angus Batey, The Quietus, 11 April 2020
The XL Records boss on his first book, new LP, and how not to be a dickhead. ...
Guide by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 22 April 2020
LAST WEEK, A STORY appeared in the New York Times that predicted that live music would not return to the world's stages until the autumn ...
How Toronto's YogiTheProducer Went From Retail to Working on Kehlani's New LP
Interview by Del Cowie, Complex, 25 May 2020
With credits on Kehlani and Jessie Reyez's latest albums, the Toronto-based producer is on the rise. ...
Oneohtrix Point Never: the warped genius behind Uncut Gems's spine-chilling score
Interview by Jude Rogers, The Guardian, 27 October 2020
His soundtrack shredded audiences' nerves. Now producer Daniel Lopatin is using radio to bring Trump's America together. ...
George Harrison: All Things Must Pass at 50
Retrospective by Harvey Kubernik, Music Connection, 10 November 2020
GEORGE HARRISON'S debut solo album All Things Must Pass was recorded May-October 1970 in London at the Abbey Road, Trident and Apple studios. It was ...
Various Artists: Excavated Shellac – An Alternate History Of The World’s Music
Review by Tony Burke, Morning Star, 29 December 2020
SIX YEARS in the making, this download-only release consists of 100 tracks – all originally issued on 78rpm discs with a 186-page beautifully illustrated book, ...
Covid has pushed pop culture into nostalgia. It's time for something new
Comment by Mark Sinker, The Observer, 10 January 2021
Hopefully this crisis marks the high tide of the tendency endlessly to remake, remodel and recycle the past ...
Area Code 615, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Janis Joplin, Neil Young: Elliot Mazer, 1941-2021
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, February 2021
ELLIOT MAZER, the recording engineer and record producer who worked with Kenny Burrell, Chubby Checker, Maynard Ferguson, Richie Havens, Janis Joplin, Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt, ...
Sean Paul's teenage obsessions: "My Coventry grandmother cooked me bubble and squeak"
Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 11 March 2021
Ahead of two new albums this spring, the dancehall superstar recalls the poignancy of his first love, and how water polo took his mind off ...
The Fratellis: how we made 'Chelsea Dagger'
Retrospective and Interview by Henry Yates, The Guardian, 29 March 2021
"My girlfriend was a burlesque dancer who used the name Chelsea Dagger. It was a play on Britney Spears." ...
Rose Royce: How we made 'Car Wash'
Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 12 July 2021
"THIS WILL never be a hit, we told each other — we are literally singing about a car wash!" ...
Al Green, Willie Mitchell: Let's Stay Together: Willie Mitchell on Al Green and Hi Records
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Rock's Backpages, January 2022
IT'S BEEN OVER a half a century since Al Greene & the Soulmates [sic], then based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, released their first album Back ...
Zola Jesus on spirituality and overcoming the lone genius archetype
Interview by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 20 June 2022
Against a striking backdrop of towering ancient rock formations in Turkey, Zola Jesus filmed the video for recent single 'Lost'. Blanketed in snow, this landscape ...
Interview by Patrick Clarke, New Musical Express, 9 August 2022
It's long been mooted that the fêted producer and The Roots' lead MC had a stellar collaboration in them. Now Cheat Codes is finally here ...
Madonna, William Orbit: William Orbit: "If you confound Madonna, a red mist comes down"
Interview by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 15 November 2022
The producer worked his magic with Britney Spears, All Saints and Blur. In his sixties a drug binge and breakdown forced him to reassess. ...
Black Flag: R.I.P. SPOT: Glen M. Lockett, 1951-2023
Obituary by Joe Carducci, unpublished, March 2023
I HATE TO type out the words but... SPOT passed away after 10am today/Saturday (Mar. 4, 2023) at Morningside Healthcare in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. His nurse ...
Gail Sky King: Put the Needle to the Record
Retrospective by Carol Cooper, Wax Poetics, July 2024
DJ. Producer. Remix Master. Roller Boogie Wizard. Juggler. Kids TV Composer. Black Woman. Mother. New York's Gail Sky King mastered many worlds of rhythm across ...
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