A DAY in the LIFE of GEOFF EMERICK Geoff Emerick Has Recorded Some of the Most Iconic Albums in the History of Modern Music
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FEATURE A DAY IN THE LIFE OF GEOFF EMERICK Geoff Emerick has recorded some of the most iconic albums in the history of modern music. During his tenure with The Beatles he revolutionised engineering while the band transformed rock ’n’ roll. Text: Andy Stewart To an audio engineer, the idea of being able to occupy was theoretically there second visit to the studio). On only Geo! Emerick’s mind for a day to personally recall the his second day of what was to become a long career boxed recording and mixing of albums like Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s inside a studio, Geo! – then only an assistant’s apprentice – Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road is the equivalent of witnessed the humble birth of a musical revolution. stepping inside Neil Armstrong’s space suit and looking back From there his career shot into the stratosphere, along with at planet Earth. the band, becoming "e Beatles’ chief recording engineer Many readers of AT have a memory of a special album at the ripe old age of 19; his $rst session as their ‘balance they’ve played on or recorded, a live gig they’ve mixed or a engineer’ being on the now iconic Tomorrow Never knows big crowd they’ve played to. Imagine then what it must be o! Revolver – a song that heralded the arrival of psychedelic like for your fondest audio memories to be of witnessing "e music. On literally his $rst day as head engineer for "e Beatles record Love Me Do at the age of 15 (on only your Beatles, Geo! close–miked the drum kit – an act unheard second day in the studio); of screaming fans racing around of (and illegal at EMI) at the time – and ran John Lennon’s the halls of EMI Studios while the band was barricaded vocals through a Leslie speaker a#er being asked by the in Studio Two recording She Loves You; of recording the singer to make him sound like the ‘Dalai Lama chanting orchestra for A Day in the Life with everyone, including the from a mountain top’. To the utter amazement of all reluctant musicians, dressed in party hats and red noses; concerned he pulled it o!. It was a masterstroke and from of going live-to-air across the world to billions during that moment on Geo! was ‘in’. the recording of All You Need Is Love; of miking up Yoko So how did such a young bloke, apprenticed in arguably the Ono (on John Lennon’s insistence) so that her comments most conservative recording facility in London, manage such were audible as she lay in bed in the corner of Studio Two, a radical feat? ‘recuperating’ a#er a car accident. "e memories that roll around in Geo! Emerick’s head are amongst the most Geo! Emerick: Basically out of a determination to succeed, remarkable, historically signi$cant and bizarre in the history and give "e Beatles the sound they were imagining for of audio. If only there was a patch lead to access them all. Tomorrow Never Knows. "e Beatles were always under pressure to produce hit singles, and were always looking for Speaking to Geo! Emerick on the phone via his home in Los new sounds, but because the technology wasn’t really there Angeles reveals a humble man with a passion for music that’s to do most things, you had to invent ways of accommodating as youthful today as it was when, at the age of six, he started GEOFF EMERICK IN their requests by stretching your imagination basically. listening to his grandparents’ collection of old gramophone PERSON AT INTEGRATE! But, of course, most of the things I did for "e Beatles were records. "ese old LPs sparked a life-long passion for Geoff and Richard Lush actually ‘illegal’ in terms of the EMI rulebook. "ere were recording that continues unabated to this day. will be talking to AT Editor strictly enforced processes and protocols in place – many of Andy Stewart in a Headline HE’S LEAVING HOME them growing frustratingly old-hat by this stage. "e things I presentation at Integrate. did on my $rst day working on Tomorrow Never Knows could This session will be conducted Geo! Emerick began his recording career at EMI, at the now in The Headroom on the legendary studios of No. 3 Abbey Road, at literally the same easily have got me sacked. For instance, you just weren’t afternoon of Day ! (#$st time as a group of chaps from Liverpool called "e Beatles allowed to put a microphone closer than 18 inches from the Aug). Tickets available on the turned up for their $rst real recording session (they had kick drum. "at was the rule. When I started going closer, integrate site: www.integrate-expo.com already done an audition with George Martin at EMI, so this needless to say there was a big kerfu%e… AT !" AT !" The fabled Studer J!" one-inch four track master AS: It’s hard to even conceive of that being a AS: In essence, it was a pure pop mentality... tape recorder from EMI Recording Studios. ".# and problem today… was this rule based on an $# IPS tape speeds and a ‘play’ button that always GE: You’re right. But back then we were produces music! equipment maintenance issue or something? limited in so many respects. For instance, the GE: Absolutely. EMI was a big, big company that equalisation on the Red 51 console only had regularly used to sell 500,000 to a million copies treble and bass controls on it. We did have an of hit singles and they didn’t want anything about outboard equaliser as well, which had 2.7, 3.5 and these cuts being technically ‘$awed’ or damaging 10kHz controls, but that was it. If you wanted to either their own, or listeners’ equipment. "e di!erent sonic textures on tracks you had to cost of recalling that many discs would have utilise di!erent microphones, ones that were been disasterous. Because we were cutting to duller or brighter – a discipline that is rarely vinyl we couldn’t have excessive sibilance or bass applied these days. It’s funny, because if you read etc, but the problem was, there were rules and some of the literature that’s out there about all regulations for just about everything else as well, this, you’d think we had equipment coming out including strict rules about the clothes we wore. our ears, but we didn’t. "ere’s one particular But because we’d been listening to American book that talks about all the gear we used, half of records that were louder and had more bass, we which I’ve never even seen before! eventually started challenging these technical A REVOLUTION edicts right around the time "e Beatles became AS: It amazes me how quickly you became good hugely successful. at creating new sounds, particularly when you’d "e Beatles were hearing these American grown up in such a conservative establishment records, as was I, and the di!erences were as EMI. How did that come about? Were you obvious, so we were determined to do something secretly plotting to turn the world on its head TICKET TO RIDE about it, even though the powers that be hated while you were Norman Smith’s assistant or change. All we had to compete with though were GE: Everything changed so fast in the mid ’#$s. When something [Geo! trained under Norman as an I first walked through the door at EMI the guy who the Fairchilds and a few Altec compressors – that assistant during the early ’60s]? showed me around said, optimistically, “you’ll progress was about it. Consequently, I would do anything GE: No, not at all, although I would o#en look up the ladder and if you’re lucky enough you’ll become to make something sound bigger. I mean, I’d a mastering engineer. You’ll start off doing playback at how Norman was going about it and think put three Fairchilds in series sometimes, not lacquers, eventually master records and then if you’re to myself, ‘I think I’d do that a little di!erently really good you might become a recording engineer knowing what was going to come out the other if I were in the big chair’. "e thing is I would possibly by the age of %& or '$!” end but occasionally what came out was magic! always just listen o! the studio $oor %rst to get But then everything changed. Norman Smith decided to "e drums in particular used to sound enormous a ‘trigger’ from the music, or from what the leave to become a record producer and I guess someone through them. had to take his place. I dunno who decided to just go for guys were saying to one another or to me. It ‘Geoff the young guy’… all I know is one day I got called By the time we started recording Pepper our might have been a harmonic o! an instrument into the office out of the blue and there was George Martin. I thought ‘uh oh, what have I done?’ but George approach had become all about doing things or a conversation between the band members quickly cut to the chase and said, “Geoff, do you want to better; every song an attempt to improve on the – anything that might catch my ear. A good record The Beatles?” Needless to say I was shocked. It one before. Even if we got a great drum sound example of this was getting the sound for John’s actually took me quite a while to get the words out, but eventually I said yes! on a previous song, we wouldn’t use that same vocal on that fateful day when we recorded sound again.