Broken Arrow Ranch for a Rare Behind the Scenes Glimpse
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FEATURE Meanwhile back at the ranchNeil Young’s Redwood Studios enjoys mythical status. It’s the birthplace of some of the most sublime rock ‘n’ roll ever recorded. AT was invited to spend a day at Broken Arrow Ranch for a rare behind the scenes glimpse. Text: Andy Stewart AT 36 “Are you sure I can park here?” I asked John as I RANCH FLAVOUR Powderfinger. Suddenly it began dawning on me pulled up in my conspicuously shiny Pontiac outside Broken Arrow Ranch, for those of you who don’t where I was and what this place was about. I’d the front door of Neil Young’s Broken Arrow know that name, is Neil Young’s California home turned off the highway into a world where the Ranch studio only to be greeted by a sign that read: of 35 years. Neil Young’s song Old Man from the electronic noise floor is lower than ‘His Master’s “Parking For Canadians Only… All Other Cars Harvest album (a song that Neil wrote back in the Axles’, where Neil and John quietly focus on the Will Be Towed!” early ’70s for the ranch’s caretaker, Loius Avala) innumerable remixes, new songs and outtakes makes direct references to the place, but when that are slated for release over the coming years. “Yep,” said John with a wry grin. “Ignore the sign. I listen to Neil Young albums now, I can hear Welcome to Broken Arrow.” The surreal drive down the mountain through the ranch in many of his songs and recordings. the property, past the ‘Harvest’ barn and Neil With those words I realised I’d finally made it. I Indeed, many of the albums Neil Young has Young’s private residence was quickly giving could relax, parked in front of the most mythical released since the ’70s have been recorded, mixed way to an eagerness to hear some music and see private studio on earth, the ‘Redwood Studio’. or mastered on the property, and John Nowland the main studio where so much of Neil’s work has had a hand in some aspect of most of them. As I stepped out of the car onto the crunchy gravel is created. But I needn’t have concerned myself, And as I was to discover, virtually every analogue driveway to shake John Nowland’s hand, I half before long a song I’d never heard before came and digital master tape ever entrusted with expect the whole scene to disappear in a puff of roaring out of the system’s SLS nearfields, Neil storing Neil’s precious recordings is kept here, smoke. John is Broken Arrow’s studio manager and ‘Old Black’ rockin’ out in a way only Neil locked in a rough sawn redwood barn that looks and ‘in-house’ engineer* who’s worked with Neil and Old Black can. It was quite something. like it was built by pioneers. Young for decades. It was on his invitation that I Apart from the sheer volume at which we were was here. In fact, every building on the property has that monitoring (with the door wide open), listening I’d been anticipating this moment for the entire aesthetic: rough hewn redwood timbers with to the music in His Master’s Wheels with John morning as I drove up the Californian coast on their outer bark still intact, laid in giant slabs clearly having a great old time, was a very special my solitary odyssey. I’d followed my own hand- with massive nails worthy of a crucifixion fixing moment. By the end of the experience I was written instructions as per John’s over-the-phone them in place. Shingle roofs, timber decks and fighting back the tears. wild-west-style split-rail fencing abound and explanation, but had grown more than a little After being treated to the impromptu listening there’s nary a painted wall in sight. nervous about its accuracy the further I travelled session, which included an epic recorded version into the mountains. I’d vagued out a couple of “Come on in and I’ll show you around,” said of an unreleased track (which I am strictly times the night before as he carefully explained the John, as I stared up at the giant redwoods that forbidden to mention by name on pain of death), route to Neil’s secluded ranch, my mind drifting surrounded us. “But before I show you through John and I braved the cold once more to walk with thoughts of what his home might be like and the studio, come into my office [‘His Master’s the 20 metres to Redwood Studios. We were the songs that had been penned there. Wheels’, as it’s affectionately known] for a joined on our brief ‘bushwalk’ by Apollo, John’s I remembered John saying something about moment and take a seat while I quickly finish off 1 stopping for a bowl of green chili soup at Duarte’s transferring this /4-inch master.” Tavern in Pescadero. “It’s the best chili soup in John’s ‘office,’ which is directly across from California,” he’d said excitedly. But my recollections the studio building, is a clapped-out old trailer about which way to turn when I got to Fiveways… that was once a mobile recording truck. It’s a “ Redwood is the ultimate well, I didn’t have any. But when I finally stopped rusted mechanical relic of a bygone era that’s home studio plonked in at Alice’s Restaurant to get ‘gas’ (after travelling quintessentially American and the epitome of for 20 miles through redwood forest with the fuel Broken Arrow’s aesthetic. Its prospects of ever the middle of a forest gauge on empty), I knew I was getting warm. moving again look remote and not just because surrounded by hundreds The first thing that struck me about Broken Arrow it’s up to its axles in soil or that the truck which of acres of silence” Ranch, after wending my way down the secluded ‘hauls’ it hasn’t worked for donkeys years. back road to the front gate, was the exquisite beauty The fact is, the trailer houses one of the most of the property and the breathtaking silence. The sophisticated and quietest analogue-to-digital cold Northern Californian mountain air was as two-track transfer facilities on the face of the crisp and clear as an open D chord from Neil earth. The outer shell might prove that rust Young’s Martin acoustic, the feeble sunlight barely indeed never sleeps, but inside everything’s geared penetrating into the depths of the redwoods that towards ensuring that the analogue tapes are surrounded the entrance to the property. lovingly preserved and safely stored. John’s greeting had an extraordinary focus to it WHEELS OF FORTUNE now the relentless highway hum had vanished. His As we stepped out of the cold across the low- voice was deep and grainy and it cut the air like a tech/high-tech threshold I was greeted with a scythe. My ears were still opening up to the silence sight rarely seen by anyone outside Neil’s small around me… group of artisans. ‘His Master’s Wheels’ is a “You took a while getting here. I was beginning to dream workspace replete with equipment that think you were lost.” straddles five decades, all highly modified and arranged to create the perfect two-track analogue “Well, I wasn’t exactly racing the clock,” I said. “I transfer system. There are Ampex and Studer was more concerned about making it here in one tape machines, digital replay and recording piece. I don’t know these mountain roads, I have no formats of every make and model, a desktop licence to drive here, and I’m on the ‘wrong’ side of monitoring controller that looks like an old RCA the road driving a brand new Pontiac for which I line mixer (or a very old, very Big Knob) and two have no insurance!” of the fabled Pacific Microsonics HDCD A/D “Oh right… well, you’ve made it now, so you can converters (I’d seen that name on so many of Neil * along with Tim Mulligan, relax.” Young’s CD released but never had I clapped eyes Chief Engineer-Mastering On that advice I took in what felt like the first real on the units themselves). Engineer-FOH Engineer, breath I’d inhaled all morning and sighed with John Hausmann, Engineer, There were tapes everywhere. The first reel and Harry Sitam, Chief 1 relief. that met my gaze being a /4-inch master of Technical Engineer. AT 37 loyal dog, who’d been waiting patiently outside redwood forest. The mix position faces directly for the new visitor to come and throw the stick away from the main entrance and feels quite for him… I relented. elevated as the landscape drops steeply away on the backside of the building. The view into the “If you throw the stick, he won’t let you stop forest looks like a painting: still and perfect and for the rest of the day,” John remarked after I’d archetypal. It must be a fantastic thing to stare launched a redwood twig up the driveway. “He’s at during extended mixing sessions. I had to bite notorious.” As Apollo rushed to retrieve it, John my tongue to stop myself from asking John to and I headed indoors again, leaving Apollo ‘out lace up a two-inch master and let me at it! in the cold’ once more.