BACKBEAT PLAY Gear 's Modern History Santa Monica studio blends old and new tech in the service of P!nk, Taylor Swift, Fall Out Boy and others

Rock history is spread throughout Butch Walker's Santa Monica, Calif ,studio. The space, on Main Street, was where Bob Dylan set up shop to record Street Legal in 1978; the Studer MK 3 A800 was the tape machine that recorded the Smashing Pumpkins' SiameseDream in ; and the console can be seen on the back cover of Steely Dan's Countdown toEcstasy when it was housed at Village Recorders. That 1971 Quad Eight 2082 board is the latest edi- tion to Walker's studio, which he opened three -and -a - half years ago and has used to record Taylor Swift, Fall Out Boy, Pink and others. Walker spotted a baby ver- sion of the board at Dan Auerbach's Easy Eyes studio in Nashville, and through "a weird and fateful thing" found one as soon as he returned to Los Angeles. It showed up in pieces wrapped in plastic and re- quired a few upgrades to make it a complete 24 -track board. The upcoming Fall Out Boy album, Save Rock and Roll, was one of the first projects done on it. Walker, a Georgia native, recorded and toured with bands like the in the '9os and as a solo art- ist since 2002. Once solo, he took on production and co - writing assignments, generating hits for , Pink, Pete Yorn and others. The new career led to him moving his operation to Malibu, Calif , from Atlanta. In November 2007, he lost nearly everything in a house fire, including 6o vintage guitars and every 3 Walker master recording he'd ever made. The Santa Monica purchased studio became his base after a year of working in other his 1890 people's studios. He felt a need to open a space that he upright Steinway could call his own, store his vintage motorcycles and a grand for "Six Million Dollar Man" pinball machine, plus set up $1,000. a turntable with tube amps to "give my ears an analog 4 The 1971 massage at the end of the day." Quad Eight "I wanted to find my own home again," he says. 2082 that "My mind was so open to so many things and creating was in the Steely new starts that I thought, 'I'm going to start using tape Name: Butch Walker Dan room again, use it in conjunction with Pro Tools." The first at Village piece of equipment brought into the studio was the Biggest claims to fame: Recorders Co -writing and producing is the Studer recorder, which had sat in storage for no years "The Best Damn Thing" and centerpiece while he was trying to sell it. 'My Happy Ending" by Avril of Walker's An 1890 upright Steinway grand sits in the live Lavigne"; "Leave Me Alone control lint Lonely)" by P!nk. room. room. There's always a moment, he says, "when I get the eyebrow lift from the artist or the manage- Current projects: Fall Out 5 This Boy, Panic! at the Disco, Gin ment and they say, `Is that a real piano?' 'Are those Studer MK Wigmore, his next solo album. 3 A800 was real drums?' They're so used to asking, 'What sam- in storage ples are you using?' It's not that I'm pathetically old Betyou didn't know: "When for 10 years I die I hope I'm drinking wine school, but I need to hear the air around the music. I before and making wine in either Walker find you have to combine stuff, the electronic and the Napa Valley or Tuscany, taly." opened his real instruments."-Phil Gallo studio.

1. After Frehley, Walker's inspired him Malibu to learn. house burned 2 After down, P!nk signing a met him at recording "You want to make sure the site with contract, a gift: a Les Walker Paul tobacco splurged on that every record has its sunburst this pinball guitar,the machine. own identity and that it's kind that, in the hands of Kiss' Ace not 'the producer's sound."'

PHOTOGRAPHS BY TREVOR TRAYNOR APRIL 6, 2013I WWW.BILLBOARD.BIZ