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Home , Alan Moulder, Flood (producer), John Parish, Let England Shake, Mick Harvey, PJ Harvey

FEATURE

AT gets inside the head of iconic engineer/producer to find out what it took to make PJ Harvey’s latest a unique piece of art.

Text: Paul Tingen

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Flood made his acquaintance with PJ Harvey in Flood’s first credit on a major release album 1995, co-producing , her – assistant engineer on New Order’s Movement, third album and international breakthrough. which makes it a good occasion to put his Since then Flood has co-produced three more working methods under the microscope. The for Harvey: Is This Desire? (1998), legendary producer has been called “one of the (2006) and most recently , the most successful and prolific producers of his startling album that’s the focus of this article. The generation,” and “enigmatic yet ubiquitous,” and story of its making illustrates much about what this much is in evidence purely from looking at a makes Flood a great producer. list of just some of the acts he’s worked with: , SHAKEN NOT STIRRED , , , Nine Inch Let England Shake is PJ Harvey’s meditation on Nails, PJ Harvey, The Charlatans, Smashing the dark underbelly of the English nation: it’s Pumpkins, Sinéad O’Connor, , penchant for death and destruction, particularly , Editors, and many others. as exemplified in WW1. Harvey’s lyrics are Flood has worked with a strikingly wide variety stark, arresting, uncompromising – , of genres and instruments, including New Wave, by contrast, is melodic and graceful, almost synthpop, postpunk, rock, Britpop, synth- upbeat, and rich in textures, with instruments rock, , avant-garde, country, folk, and so on. like autoharp, trombone, xylophone, sax, , The Briton is known for innovating and pushing , and bass supplementing the artists in new directions and many of the more traditional electric , drums, and he’s produced have been career-defining stylistic keyboards. innovations for the acts involved. All of this is framed in an unusual sound image. Flood’s march through the studio and music Whereas most rock-influenced music these days industries began in 1978, when he was taken is obsessed with loudness, detailed definition, on as a runner at Battery Studios in . and enhanced low and high-end, Let England Born Mark Ellis, he received the nickname Shake has none of these qualities. Instead, the low Flood after the floods of tea he served during and high end are muted (there’s hardly any bass one particular late-night session. He continued guitar) and the sound image has a distant quality. his apprenticeship at Marcus Studios and then OH THE DEMO! , before turning freelance as an Let England Shake has received widespread praise engineer/producer in 1985. His involvement with from critics around the world, and has enjoyed U2 began soon afterwards, in 1987, when he the highest chart positions of any of her albums, engineered . He graduated to co- reaching the top 10 in at least a dozen nations producing U2 on Zooropa (1993) and Pop (1997). (No. 6 in Australia).

AT 36 AT 37 All in all it appears Harvey, Flood, and the other in at that time. Rob and I arrived a couple of participants in the making of Let England Shake days before everyone else for the sessions, which have surpassed themselves. took place over five weeks during April and May 2010. We set up a ProControl console and The English producer endured one and a half ProTools HD3 rig at the altar end of the church, hours of intense questioning on the phone about right where the choir would sit, and put all the the album’s development and was eager to paint machinery in the vestry. We then picked four as full an image of the recordings and production recording areas and put up as many microphones decisions as was possible. Speaking from his as we possibly could. Polly’s recording area 140dB management office in London, Flood ended up on stage, there was a drum area off related: “Polly had actually done the demos for to one side, a keyboard area, and a little bit this album two years ago, but everything was further back down the church another area for put on hold while she and recorded drums, percussion and guitars. Then we started their collaborative duo album, A Woman A Man recording.” Walked By [2009], which I mixed. I talked a lot with Polly about what eventually became Let BARE BONES DEMOS England Shake, and she said that she wanted it to PJ Harvey’s first instrument is guitar, but she has be just her, John, and myself, and gone on to play a whole range of instruments, that she wanted to record it in an environment and she tends to apply them on her self-recorded that she’d never used before.” and self-played four-track demos, which she John Parish and Australian Mick Harvey are uses as blueprints for her albums. In interviews long-standing collaborators of Harvey, and both – for example a lengthy piece in the are multi-instrumentalists and producers – the News local newspaper – Harvey has explained former has also worked with Goldfrapp, Eels that she had deliberately kept the demos for Let and Tracy Chapman, the latter is the founding England Shake very simple, “mostly with one member of The Bad Seeds with Nick Cave. While or two instruments with a voice,” to allow for PJ Harvey had an instant vision of her core team, input from Flood and the other musicians and it took a little while before she hit on the perfect a fairly improvisational approach to arranging location for the recordings, which turned out to and recording the songs. She remarked that the be, of course, in England. sessions were “very spontaneous, and that kept it very exciting so it was a wonderful atmosphere “She went to Berlin and I think somewhere else in which to work. It was very fast, very exciting as well, but nothing seemed to strike her, perhaps because each new song was bursting up. because all places she looked at were studios, Everybody felt they had freedom to contribute even if fairly unconventional ones. Then one day and bring their own ideas and we were all firing she phoned me up and said that she’d found a off of each other.” church in [southwest England, near the small town of Bridport] that’s also an art centre, This was seconded by Flood, who recalled, and that it had an absolutely amazing feel. She “Polly’s demos tend to be very good sketchpads asked me to come down, and when I walked in I of her songs, but the major difference between immediately thought, ‘this is perfect’. working on this album and previous albums with her was that it was the first time Polly was “After that it was a matter of planning how we completely open to any new ideas. That’s not were going to do it. I enlisted the services of to say that she wasn’t open in the past, but she my good friend and engineer , and used to adhere to her demos very strongly, to the together we compiled a small studio that was degree that it became a little bit of a joke between easy to pack up and rebuild again around the us, as in: ‘oh the demo!’ This time she’d say, ‘no weddings and funerals that were also booked

ASSAULT & BATTERY 2 Flood mixed Let England Shake Flood: “Alan and I have been friends for musicians, which seems to be at Assault & Battery 1, a studio for God knows how many years and against the grain of what many big normally used by the legendary we always felt we didn’t want to studios are about. . Flood and Moulder open up our own studio. Then the “But the days of recording big co-own Assault & Battery 1 and 2, downstairs room – A&B1 – came up albums in big studios are numbered, with Flood more regularly using 2. for lease at a time when Alan was because the budgets aren’t there The latter studio is called “the UK’s getting frustrated going around all anymore. The things people cut back greatest tracking studio,” on the sorts of places to mix and having to on are 1: producers, and 2: studios, Miloco website (miloco.co.uk), and it recalibrate his system every time. because they cost money. So this sports a large 11x7m live room with So we decided to go for it. Some year we’re looking at alternatives in an astonishing amount of keyboards, time later studio 2 upstairs became terms of using the room. We’ve done guitars, guitar amps and guitar available, and I had already come a live concert here and recorded pedals. However, with its large Neve to the conclusion that the space that, in order to see whether we get VR60 and ProTools HD3 the studio I had at the time was costing me a better performance and recording, can also be used for other purposes. lots of money for what essentially and we’re also trying to get unsigned Gorgeous as A&B 2 appears, the had become a room to hold my bands to record here very cheaply question is inevitable: in this day equipment in. So I decided to move in downtime and weekends, which and age of tracking facilities closing all my gear to A&B2. We tried to is a great way to train people. We everywhere and the only studios make sure that it’s not just a space definitely don’t want the room to Flood is notoriously remaining being mixing suites and with good quality mics and mic end up being some kind of big white camera shy – this is as the one or two big studios that each amps, but that it would also have elephant.” close to a portrait of him country appear to have, why open a a lot of instruments. Essentially as we could get. tracking facility? we want it to be a place primarily

AT 38 Mick Harvey & PJ Harvey (left) in discussion while John Parish (seated) and Jean-Marc Butty look on.

no no, I don’t want the demo’. Ironically, there amazing things about this record. It was more where we recorded. There was only a bass on a were a couple of situations where John, Mick, and like four or five friends coming together, sitting couple of songs, which definitely contributed I actually preferred the demo, which of course down and being so relaxed in each other’s to the shape of the record. Sometimes a bass resulted in fits of laughter from everybody. company that it was inspirational, rather than too can make an arrangement sound too rocky and The other major thing we discussed about the comfortable. There were no ego-clashes; it was too weighed down, but this was one of many album was that with the lyrics being so strong really just good fun. We worked on everything decisions that was never consciously taken. It was and powerful, it would be easy to create a sort of as a complete collective. Polly would be driving simply a matter of every time we tried a bass, or bombastic, gothic and very ‘down’ record. Polly things a lot of the time, but as I said, she was very maybe bass pedals, or the bass notes of the organ didn’t want that. So we all made a strong effort to open to trying things in different ways. One of in the church, there was a feeling that it rooted ensure the music was bright and alive.” my roles was to keep track of the time: we had to things down too much and often that didn’t feel record 15 songs in five five-day weeks, and make right. Normally you’d have lively conversations THE BENIGN PRESENCE sure that we got everything done. But mostly about this, but instead it was more like, ‘oh yeah, Like PJ Harvey in the local Bridport newspaper this was often just a matter of sitting down and it’s like that, so let’s try something different’.” exclusive, Flood described sessions that were having a cup of tea and a relaxed chat about what remarkably easy-going and inspired, with ACOUSTIC ADVANTAGE we were going to do that day.” little of the blood, sweat and tears that are the Moving on to the subject of the gear with hallmark of the English ‘underbelly’ mentality MUSICAL CHAIRS which Let England Shake was recorded, Flood and that often find their way into tortuous studio “Many of the arrangement ideas came from elaborated: “the equipment was set up by a experiences as well. It meant that Flood’s role John and Mick and everybody brought a large company called Tickle Music Hire, which is one in this particular project was often reminiscent collection of instruments along, because all of of the last hire companies left in the UK. I talked of his earliest position – making tea – and us wanted to hear different things on the record with Rob about what we needed, and eventually being a benign presence in the background. He that you normally wouldn’t hear. Polly was very we decided we wanted 24 inputs, maybe a little remarked, “My role as a producer varies a lot much into the idea of brass from the beginning, more, and that we were never going to need depending on the project. If I’m working with even though there was no brass on her demos, massive amounts of outboard. Having said that a young band, I may be very directive. Some and John brought down xylophones because he we did have requests for specific microphones people need a lot of guiding, some people need thought they might add an interesting texture. and mic pres: Neve 1073s, 1086s, Focusrites, and motivating, some people just need a second A lot of we’d record basic tracks with so on – all the usual suspects. opinion, but some people don’t need any of either John or Mick playing drums, Polly singing “We found very quickly that the acoustics of the that. That’s one of my strengths I think – being and playing autoharp or sometimes guitar. church were really good. You obviously worry adaptable to the situation. I’m most interested Whoever was left generally played a keyboard or about a space being very dead sounding, or in keeping the emotions of a session on track, additional guitar in support. Many of the vocals metallic, or too ambient which generally means so that the music is a reflection of that, rather we recorded with these backing tracks ended up you can’t get any definition. But it seemed that than just a technical exercise that anybody can as the master vocal. Polly played the autoharp pretty much every microphone that we put do. Most definitely a lot of what I do is about on most songs, which was simultaneously miked up didn’t need any EQ-ing. The space was so people management, and to get people in the and run through a lot of her effects pedals – so powerful that the exact nature of the mics and best possible creative space, where they feel safe it didn’t necessarily sound like an autoharp on mic pres we were using was less important, enough to also make mistakes, and therewith try every song. Jean-Marc [Butty] also came in for though obviously we did spend some time out new ideas. Sometimes this means creating the third week to play drums, and for a few days finding the best pairings of mics with preamps. a nice cosy atmosphere, sometimes it can be right at the end for some backing vocal overdubs. good if the atmosphere is a bit more moody and “The drums were miked very sparingly, with only “Many arrangements stayed close to the demo, confrontational. Through all that, I feel – a few close mics and the overheads picking up mainly because the songs were so well written I hope – that most of the music I work on has the ambience. Initially we started tracking with the moment we started padding them out it took something extra. a lot of ambient mics, but after a while we used away from the song. In general we were taking only close mics because the ambient positions “But there was no people management required things out so that there was more of a sense of were tending to swamp the music. We eventually with Polly’s album. That was one of the most atmosphere and of the personality of the place

AT 39 Minimal Mics: Jean-Marc Butty takes the bit between his teeth during the session.

backed these off a little to give it a bit of air, and going to record something as a guide, then yes, things like: “analogue isn’t accurate, but it is provide ambience that wasn’t out of control. you have to be more careful about them.” musical,” and “there’s also a psychological reason Polly brought along her grandfather’s military why I prefer recording on analogue. You want a BLEEDIN’ bass drum and snare, which both had a peculiar point of focus. Digital recording is way too fluid.” “Did I place the guitar amps in another space to sound that led us to testing ribbons, dynamics avoid bleed? [deep sigh]… They are all such high Today he admits that he “still is ultimately and condensers on the kit. We ended up using quality players that it was easy to redo a backing a diehard analogue fan. I have realised over quite a few ribbon mics actually. I’ve sort of fallen track. If that was the case, it was usually done the years that I like the sound of analogue, back in love with them again recently.” because of a mood. particularly that cumulative sound when you POLLY’S SOUND combine 24 to 40 tracks. Over the last 10 years “Polly’s amplifier on stage was pointing away a “On Polly’s voice we used a Shure Beta 58 I’ve spent a lot of time recording basic tracks little bit, and her mics would point away a little and a Sigma Sontronics ribbon and a very old and some overdubs to analogue tape, and then from the drums. The keyboards and guitars were Neumann Gefell M7 capsule on the CMV563. transferring everything to ProTools before sort of in front of her, but also off to one side, Polly sang through all three, and we made a adding more overdubs where necessary. That’s facing some of the amplifiers in the corners. choice as to which one fitted each song. The my ideal way of working, which I would have Whatever you do in that situation, you’re going to feed from the 58 was split, with one signal going liked to adopt with Polly’s album. But the get a natural blur in the room. directly to us and the other going through three big problem these days is that you can’t get a or four footpedals. The best example of that is “Years ago I did a mix for , who workable, serviceable tape machine that will be the song Written On The Forehead, which has a was involved in the Natural Born Killers movie. reliable in an environment that goes hot and vocal sound that’s generated entirely from the I was working on his version of Rock ‘n Roll cold all the time – a good tape technician would footpedal feed. In fact, many of the lead vocals Nigger – the track – and I spent have had to come all the way from London, on the album went through the pedal effects two days beating my head against the wall which would have taken five hours. So there are chain. Sometimes I would supplement that with doing everything I could to try to get rid of practical obstacles to using analogue tape. Also, the Sigma, because it had good warmth, body, spill – gating, etc – but it just didn’t feel right. many people who say they are analogue diehards and top end. The autoharp was recorded with an Then I realised that spill is something that binds forget the hours of one’s life wasted trying to get AKG 451 and also a 58 or a 57. It had a contact everything together. So I just stopped trying to tape machines to sync up! control it, and EQ’d and compressed things in microphone that went through an amplifier and “Conversely, we had a problem with digital a moderate way. When you’re recording with in fact most of the autoharp sound you hear on sync during the recordings and we just phoned that mentality and you know that most of what the album is from the amplifier. somebody up who said: ‘download this bit of you’re recording is going to stay and people “Particularly when Polly was also playing software.’ Even if the main ProTools rig had aren’t going to make loads of mistakes, then spill autoharp, recording her voice was quite , packed up, we’d still have gotten away with actually works to your advantage. It doesn’t work because she moves around quite a lot while continuing on a laptop. Recording digitally is for everything, and I know that spill drives some playing and that often made the decision for do-able just about everywhere these days. Having people potty, but I find that if you put your faders us as to what vocal mic to use – the 58 was the said all that, we used ProTools mainly as a tape up in a straight line, everything sort of joins most directional, so we used that less. But I never recorder during the sessions. Psychologically, together.” worry about bleed. If the instrument is going to when you’re recording to tape you conduct a be on the final backing track and it’s integral to WEIRD GREY HAZE session in a different way. There were a couple the performance of the voice, or vice versa, then Flood has declared in the previous century that of times when we did a few edits to try out just record them together. Obviously, if you’re he’s “a bit of a diehard analogue fan,” and said arrangements, using it to its advantage, but that

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GX7_MoreLessAd.indd 1 22/03/2011 6:57:17 PM was it. Digital has come of age though. If you’re trying to better that. Sometimes I’d try different working with a rock band and you’ve recorded things, but often it was like, ‘no, that’s starting it to analogue tape and you get all the analogue to make the track feel different from the rough compression you like, and then you transfer it to mixes,’ which were just the perfect blueprints for 24/96, it sounds pretty much the same. All of the most songs. A lot of time I was simply trying to characteristics of tape are transferred to digital. improve what was already there, but particularly with the backing vocals there was work to be “On the other hand, the moment you do lots of done to make them blend. Most of the reverbs editing and are using a lot of plug-ins, working came from the church, but I did use a few at 96k is a bit like working with two analogue outboard reverbs as well, particularly on Polly’s 24-tracks – the computer is constantly crashing, vocals. Because of the strong lyrics and our desire and so on. So I now generally work at 48k. The to not make the music confrontational in any A/D and D/A processors are a lot better these shape or form, I mixed most of her vocals in a days, and also, you get to know digital inside out pop way, using a few slightly different reverbs, and learn to work with it, in the same way as you and wideners and certain types of slapback and We ended up using used to able to differentiate between two different delays and things like that. I also wanted to make “ brands of tape or tape machines. Even still, a lot quite a few ribbon mics sure the mixes would have the same feel on all of digital turns into some kind of big grey mush kinds of speakers, so there was a lot of listening actually. I’ve sort of these days. I could sit here and spend 10 hours to computer speakers and bouncing down to ranting about that. It’s like you have all the best fallen back in love with MP3 and seeing how that sounded, and listening speakers and amps and instruments and mixers soft and loud. I was treating it like a pop mix.” them again recently. and in the end everything comes out of a very small amp with a 57 on it. Whatever plug-ins MXING UP A STORM and soft synths you use, particularly when you’re “A few songs took more work. Written on the working with core audio, everything has a sound Forehead for instance was quite difficult to mix, to it. Individually things may sound great, but in terms of recreating the feeling that Polly’s ” when you put them together there’s this weird demo had. Only towards the end of the process grey haze that affects everything. It takes time did I feel I really achieved what that song needed. to peel that off. And then people smash things The issues were to do with choice of instruments to oblivion with limiters, which doesn’t allow and when they came in. There were also several humans to grow into the sound. It’s like the most issues with things like the backing vocals, and amazing shop front ever, but when you go into when to bring in and take out the loop. With the store you realise everything is blown out of the title track it was a question of making sure all proportion and the store is actually full of it had a raw feel without going for a lo-fi sound. rubbish.” John and I disagreed about In The Dark Places FRESH AIR for pretty much the entire making of the record, which became a bit of a running joke! We tried As was already noted above, Let England Shake that song two or three different ways, but what doesn’t have the in-your-face shop front, full you hear on the record is the version I preferred! of neon lights and primary colours. On the contrary, the slightly faraway, emerging-from- “I mixed back into ProTools, using the Lavry the-mist and pastel-coloured sound image seems AD122-96 Mastering A/D Converter, which is to partially obscure the music, meaning it needs an amazing sounding unit. I also mixed to one repeated listening to fully reveal its power. Flood of our Ampex ATR 100 two-track recorders, and went into detail about his mix of the album, sent the two mixes off to John and Mick without which was done in Assault & Battery, the London saying which was which. Generally the tape studio he co-owns with Alan Moulder (Depeche version sounded better, but there were a couple of Mode, My Bloody Valentine, Them Crooked songs where we used the ProTools mixdown. Vultures), and explained how Let England Shake’s FINAL MASTERING unique sound image came into being. At the end of our long conversation Flood and “I think the sound of the album is most of I got into a conversation about the relevance of REGARDING OUTBOARD & PLUG-INS all an accurate reflection of the sound of the albums in the early 21st century: church – it almost created itself. As I said, we Flood: “I’m mostly looking towards outboard when “Nowadays it’s all about a quick hit, the shopfront mixing, but there are half a dozen plug-ins that I tend recorded everything flat and when it came to window side is so important, and listeners will, to use all the time, like the Sony Oxford EQ, and I mixing, to be quite honest, it was just a matter of really like EchoFarm, and SoundToys and also the at best, go to iTunes and listen to a couple of enhancing what was there. I mixed in Assault & BombFactory stuff. Sometimes I monitor a sound things and buy just a few things. It’s not ’s with the BF1176, and I’ll then later replace it with Battery studio 1, which is Alan’s mix room, on generation’s fault that they can’t listen to a whole a real 1176, but sometimes that isn’t necessary. In his 72-channel G+ SSL 4000, which is the most any case, to sit in a room where you can make these album, they just haven’t grown up with albums. fantastic-sounding SSL I have ever worked on. I choices is really helpful. On the other hand, it can take This is one of the things I’m most proud of with a long time for people to work out that you don’t have personally don’t like mixing in the box, because Polly’s album. Even in this day and age, everyone to use every option. This is particularly relevant these I feel that you often end up with a slightly is talking about an album. As an artistic piece of days with people having loads of plug-ins in their compressed, closed-down sound. If you’re sitting computer. I have happily sat there and used every music, it’s not trying to be commercial, but it’s in front of a large SSL desk, at least you’re getting plug-in that was available, but if you have something also not trying to be confrontational and artistic that sounds great, why change it? You don’t always things out into the fresh air. need to throw the kitchen sink at things. Sometimes for its own sake. It is art, it is a full album, and it’s you hear that people have not trusted their own “The mixes for Polly were a question of getting really listenable.” instincts, and had something that sounded great, but things out of the box, laying them out over the felt obliged to use plug-ins just because they were there.” desk, and getting the balances to the same place as they were with the rough mixes, and then

AT 42