Hi
I hope you'll find this interesting. Andy gave an interview to an Israeli metal zine, so I translated the interview to English and thought I'd share this with you guys. Since the interview was conducted in English, translated to Hebrew and then re-translated to English I guess some stuff may get lost in translation, and the exact words Andy used are probably different from what I chose. so don't judge the phrasing mistakes here and there, I was real quick about it.
Enjoy!
Hi Andy, what is going on with you these days?
I just came back from the states where I was working with John Tempesta on some stuff for Pro-Tools. You probably know him from Testament and other bands he drummed for
What do you mean? Did you record his music?
Well not really. I don't know if you're familiar with Pro-Tools, but there are all sorts of updates they do, and they asked me and John to do some demos of the software on his drums. It's pretty cool so I went to Los Angeles, we did these sessions and I flew back. Good money, nice trip - cool.
I understand you're not doing shows with Hell at the moment
Not yet, but starting from next month I will. This is also why I couldn't produce the new Megadeth, though I really wanted to. They have a deadline, they have to put an album out by June. No chance of that ever happening I think, but this overlapped with the Hell shows so I had to skip this one
Since we're already talking about production, I want to talk to you about something that is bothering me for almost 20 years. I originally got to know you cause of Sabbat, and I must say that the three albums of the band, especially the second - Dreamweaver, sound quite bad, How are you, back then a sound enthusiast, and future producer let this happen?
*laughs* - It wasn't my fault! A producer called Roy Rowland is the one that did these albums. When I first heard Dreamweaver I was shocked, it is indeed an album that sounds bad. Back then bands like Xentrix had an American producer, and made some good sounding records. If I remember correctly it was Martin Walkyer. Our vocalist insisted on Rowland and it just didn't work. He produced albums for other bands like Laaz Rockit, but for some reason we had a horrible sound. I think that this particular experience is part of what made me become a producer. I would be peeking behind a producer's shoulder and think to myself "Hey, I can do that too!". So I started learning.
How exactly did you manage to transfer yourself from being a guitar player to producer?
You can say that it happened mainly because of me working with Colin Richardson. I was working on a Machine Head album with him and I got a request to produce some albums by myself, including Skinlab and Stuck Mojo after that. Their success allowed me to get some great connections with labels such as Century Media and Roadrunner. After that I got a steady flow of work.
Colin is truly a genius in his turf. I remember when his name started popping out, suddenly extreme metal bands started to sound well-produced. This was particularly evident with Carcass. Their both two albums sounded like ass, but the third one, Necrotism, suddenly sounded well-produced, crisp.
I think he's one of the producers that contributed the most to what metal sounds like today. He learned how to pull out a really crisp sound in a music genre where you had to strain your ears to hear what is being played. I'm actually very fond of Heartwork by Carcass. It's a great sounding album. There were more producers like that, that polished the metal sound, if it's Terry Date with Pantera
And Prong
That's right! They had a couple of great sounding records with Terry Date, there's also Mark Dodson, that you barely hear of nowadays, but he produced some really great albums. All those contributed greatly to my approach as a producer.
It's fair to say you put out some very good albums from bands you have worked with. Arch Enemy became truly big only after they recorded with you, same goes to Megadeth - people say that their two albums done with you are their best in years, and even Accept. Their new album is considered by many as one of the best metal records of the past few years. How do you do it?
I think that the reason is I'm first of all a fan of these bands. I really love these bands and I know their material. That's why I know what I want to hear in the record I'm doing. It's not just the sound. It's the songs, their length, the attitude. I'm not ashamed to say all that to bands. They get lots of criticism from me, sometimes very strict. But if they listen, they know that it can do them good. What serves as a guide for me is that bands should sound like they did when their members were 17-18. That people want to hear stuff like their classics again. Not something new. This worked with Megadeth and Accept too.
Lets talk about Hell. I know this is some sort of a legendary band, that put out one single while it existed, back in the early 80's. What made it reform with you taking a part of it?
They released one single in 1983, with the original band. They got a record deal at Mausoleum records, but the company went bankrupt. The contract delayed and the band just broke-up in the meantime. Nevertheless, they had a huge influence on a lot of bands, on me too. I listened to their music when I was 12, I would go to shows. Kev, their guitarist was a major influence on me. He's a great player, too bad he's unknown to a lot of people. They were a big influence on Sabbat too. We all grew up with their music. When I had the opportunity to reunite them minus Dave Halliday, the vocalist/guitarist of the group that was killed in 1987, I jumped on the offer.
Why not make a new Sabbat album? You reformed, performed live, why not an album?
Because in Sabbat I was in charge of everything. From booking, to financial management. If I wasn't pushing, nothing happened. That's how it always had been and that what lead made us disband in the past
I noticed that Martin Walkyer, one of my favorite vocalists and my favorite lyricist, always ends up fighting with bands he was a member of. It ended that way with Sabbat back in the day, after that he left with a bang from Skyclad, followed by an incident with The Clan Destined, his last band. Now you're telling me it didn't end well with Sabbat again. What was the story there?
I can't get into details, cause eventually he's a friend. But I guess this has to do with Martin's personality. Things are usually based on his wants and needs, sometimes he doesn't see eye to eye with his bandmates. That leads to trouble. Actually, I haven't spoken to him since the end of last year when we finished our set of live shows. It's not really my fault. I leave him messages and not getting answered. But that's just how Martin is.
What about Hell? Do you have more cooperation there?
Certainly! These guys are much more thrilled than I am! It's amazing to think that a bunch of 50+ year olds are so excited to be in a band, but it's true.
I must admit it's kinda funny, you look like the kid in that band, and you're what now..
42! I know, it could look funny, me and a bunch of old dudes, but I enjoy being the kid in the gang. I don't get that a lot!
What about the private lives of the bandmates? Is it even possible to perform and record? I guess some of them even have grandchildren?
True. But because of that, 3 of our members are fully independant, and can decide when they tour. Our vocalist, Dave, is a successful actor in England. He does Shakespeare and some TV soap operas. So his schedule is pretty flexible. So is mine, so is Tony's. The rest manage to be as flexible as they can so they could perform live.
Are you excited about the shows that are planned out? Most of you experience this for the first time.
True, and we're pretty nervous. Our rehearsals have this weird vibe, cause everyone knows that we're gonna perform in front of thousands of people soon. On the other hand there's something soothing about festivals. You get 30-35 minutes of stagetime, and you just give everything out there. The crowd is already excited, he's into you. Not like you have 100 people in a club to get pumped up from scratch.
What about the album? How do you make a band that exists for 30 years sound relevant?
I thnk what I did was avoid sounding like a retro band. There's this horrible wave of bands that will do anything to sound old-school. Including bad sound like the more lousy records of the 80's. I didn't want that. I wanted a clean and modern sound, but I also wanted it to be built on the band's strengths. We have enough riffs and playing ability to sound like classic metal even with modern sound.
Are the songs in the album new or old?
All are old. It's incredible but the band actually had an entire album written, and we ended up leaving most of the songs just the way they initially sounded 30 years ago. We played around with the riffage of course, changed some beats, but in general, It's an 80's metal album that is played and recorded now. We also have about 50% of the next one written with old songs from the band. This is all they wrote from back then. We'll fill in the extra 50% with songs that we're gonna write together.
Strangely enough, just 5 minutes before you called I finished an interview with Niklas, vocalist of Swedish heavy metal group Wolf. We talked about how they no longer make great metal albums, and that all the awesome ones were back in the 80's.
True! It's something I talk about all the time, and I agree 100%. They hardly make albums that I would define as classic.
I also spoke to him about the new Accept record as an example of a record done nowadays, but does bring us back to the 80's. He told me that when he and his friends listened to the record they felt like they're 18 again, all excited about heavy metal. What do you think worked so well when you produced that album?
I think today people try to play faster and ina more technical manner. But Accept work as a true pro old-school band. They build every song out of nothing, and add more and more layers as they go. Everything is planned out and well-constructed. I never seen anything like it and I worked with a lot of bands. When I worked with Sabbat we just played together and threw in a bunch of riffs. And a lot of cases that's how things are. What Accept did however, was to write each instrument separately then try combining all of it in the best way they possibly could.
Those who criticize your work claim that it's too clean and polished, not organic enough. What can you say about that?
It varies from band to band. I can surely say it's not up to me. I can make a band sound clear, but I don't affect the music. Arch Enemy for example are very technical, like a machine. That's why everything sounds clean, almost mechanic. Accept play warmer, open, that's why their album sounds a lot more organic. When it comes to Hell I didn't spent much thought about it, I wanted a clear sounding record like Don't Break the Oath by Mercyful Fate. An album that was very groundbreaking soundwise. It's just a very clear sound. Not old-school or new-school.
What about Bass guitars? One of the things I loved about Accept is that I heard the bass lines very well. Just like the old Maiden records when bass played a major part in heavy metal music.
I agree, and that something that works with Hell too. It's depends of course who the bass player is. In our case, Tony is a great bass player that writes parts that not only ofllow the guitars, like in Arch Enemy's music or most thrash bands. Soundwise, the problem with extreme metal bands is that there is just too much double-bass going on, and blasts the low frequencies. If you add a bass part that does too much It just fatigues the ears. It's easier to combine the two in heavy metal in a way they both get their own space.
I'm gonna tell you about my fantasy (don't panic!) I thought to myself what would happen if Iron Maiden would drop Kevin Shirley who in my opinion makes them sound bad, and make a new album with you. It's a pretty well known fact that ever since they don't work with Martin Birch their sound went to hell.
Mmm...I thought about it quite a lot during the years. I'll be brief: I would shorten their songs to 5 minutes tops that each song has its say, like they had in the 80's. I would drop all those keyboard and clean guitar intros. I would make Adrian Smith write most of the songs and drop a guitarist I'm not going to name. I would make Bruce go up a notch and sing higher, I would make them play tight again. BTW, I don't think it's Kevin's fault. You gotta understand that this band, being what they are, selling 50 million records, does what ever it wants. They wanna do prog-rock? they do it. The producer has no real ability to control such a band. If Steve Harris wants to do something - he'll do it without asking any producer. I agree that what fans want to hear is another Killers or Number of the Beast, but the band probably doesn't want to make one.
Still - when you worked with a band like Megadeth you made a person that is notorious for being difficult, to change direction.
Dave is a much more easy-going person than everyone thinks he is. Once we became friends and found some common ground he was happy to hear what I had to offer, and ended up doing a lot of what I told him to, but Maiden is something else.
Lets talk some more about the band - Do you feel support in the British scene? It's known that music journalism and crowd in Britain is very fond of modern American metal in the recent years. Do they understand what Hell is about?
Surprisingly, we get great support here. I think it's because the market here has changed in the past year. I guess people grew weary of American music and began missing British heavy metal and hard rock. We probably answer this demand because the press here is very warm toward us. We have a small album launch show in a week, and we already sold more than 300 tickets which is great
What about the future? More shows?
As much as we can! We got quite a few festivals coming up and we're planning on playing till we drop!
http://www.metalist.co.il/InterviewPrivate.asp?id=468
I hope you'll find this interesting. Andy gave an interview to an Israeli metal zine, so I translated the interview to English and thought I'd share this with you guys. Since the interview was conducted in English, translated to Hebrew and then re-translated to English I guess some stuff may get lost in translation, and the exact words Andy used are probably different from what I chose. so don't judge the phrasing mistakes here and there, I was real quick about it.
Enjoy!
Hi Andy, what is going on with you these days?
I just came back from the states where I was working with John Tempesta on some stuff for Pro-Tools. You probably know him from Testament and other bands he drummed for
What do you mean? Did you record his music?
Well not really. I don't know if you're familiar with Pro-Tools, but there are all sorts of updates they do, and they asked me and John to do some demos of the software on his drums. It's pretty cool so I went to Los Angeles, we did these sessions and I flew back. Good money, nice trip - cool.
I understand you're not doing shows with Hell at the moment
Not yet, but starting from next month I will. This is also why I couldn't produce the new Megadeth, though I really wanted to. They have a deadline, they have to put an album out by June. No chance of that ever happening I think, but this overlapped with the Hell shows so I had to skip this one
Since we're already talking about production, I want to talk to you about something that is bothering me for almost 20 years. I originally got to know you cause of Sabbat, and I must say that the three albums of the band, especially the second - Dreamweaver, sound quite bad, How are you, back then a sound enthusiast, and future producer let this happen?
*laughs* - It wasn't my fault! A producer called Roy Rowland is the one that did these albums. When I first heard Dreamweaver I was shocked, it is indeed an album that sounds bad. Back then bands like Xentrix had an American producer, and made some good sounding records. If I remember correctly it was Martin Walkyer. Our vocalist insisted on Rowland and it just didn't work. He produced albums for other bands like Laaz Rockit, but for some reason we had a horrible sound. I think that this particular experience is part of what made me become a producer. I would be peeking behind a producer's shoulder and think to myself "Hey, I can do that too!". So I started learning.
How exactly did you manage to transfer yourself from being a guitar player to producer?
You can say that it happened mainly because of me working with Colin Richardson. I was working on a Machine Head album with him and I got a request to produce some albums by myself, including Skinlab and Stuck Mojo after that. Their success allowed me to get some great connections with labels such as Century Media and Roadrunner. After that I got a steady flow of work.
Colin is truly a genius in his turf. I remember when his name started popping out, suddenly extreme metal bands started to sound well-produced. This was particularly evident with Carcass. Their both two albums sounded like ass, but the third one, Necrotism, suddenly sounded well-produced, crisp.
I think he's one of the producers that contributed the most to what metal sounds like today. He learned how to pull out a really crisp sound in a music genre where you had to strain your ears to hear what is being played. I'm actually very fond of Heartwork by Carcass. It's a great sounding album. There were more producers like that, that polished the metal sound, if it's Terry Date with Pantera
And Prong
That's right! They had a couple of great sounding records with Terry Date, there's also Mark Dodson, that you barely hear of nowadays, but he produced some really great albums. All those contributed greatly to my approach as a producer.
It's fair to say you put out some very good albums from bands you have worked with. Arch Enemy became truly big only after they recorded with you, same goes to Megadeth - people say that their two albums done with you are their best in years, and even Accept. Their new album is considered by many as one of the best metal records of the past few years. How do you do it?
I think that the reason is I'm first of all a fan of these bands. I really love these bands and I know their material. That's why I know what I want to hear in the record I'm doing. It's not just the sound. It's the songs, their length, the attitude. I'm not ashamed to say all that to bands. They get lots of criticism from me, sometimes very strict. But if they listen, they know that it can do them good. What serves as a guide for me is that bands should sound like they did when their members were 17-18. That people want to hear stuff like their classics again. Not something new. This worked with Megadeth and Accept too.
Lets talk about Hell. I know this is some sort of a legendary band, that put out one single while it existed, back in the early 80's. What made it reform with you taking a part of it?
They released one single in 1983, with the original band. They got a record deal at Mausoleum records, but the company went bankrupt. The contract delayed and the band just broke-up in the meantime. Nevertheless, they had a huge influence on a lot of bands, on me too. I listened to their music when I was 12, I would go to shows. Kev, their guitarist was a major influence on me. He's a great player, too bad he's unknown to a lot of people. They were a big influence on Sabbat too. We all grew up with their music. When I had the opportunity to reunite them minus Dave Halliday, the vocalist/guitarist of the group that was killed in 1987, I jumped on the offer.
Why not make a new Sabbat album? You reformed, performed live, why not an album?
Because in Sabbat I was in charge of everything. From booking, to financial management. If I wasn't pushing, nothing happened. That's how it always had been and that what lead made us disband in the past
I noticed that Martin Walkyer, one of my favorite vocalists and my favorite lyricist, always ends up fighting with bands he was a member of. It ended that way with Sabbat back in the day, after that he left with a bang from Skyclad, followed by an incident with The Clan Destined, his last band. Now you're telling me it didn't end well with Sabbat again. What was the story there?
I can't get into details, cause eventually he's a friend. But I guess this has to do with Martin's personality. Things are usually based on his wants and needs, sometimes he doesn't see eye to eye with his bandmates. That leads to trouble. Actually, I haven't spoken to him since the end of last year when we finished our set of live shows. It's not really my fault. I leave him messages and not getting answered. But that's just how Martin is.
What about Hell? Do you have more cooperation there?
Certainly! These guys are much more thrilled than I am! It's amazing to think that a bunch of 50+ year olds are so excited to be in a band, but it's true.
I must admit it's kinda funny, you look like the kid in that band, and you're what now..
42! I know, it could look funny, me and a bunch of old dudes, but I enjoy being the kid in the gang. I don't get that a lot!
What about the private lives of the bandmates? Is it even possible to perform and record? I guess some of them even have grandchildren?
True. But because of that, 3 of our members are fully independant, and can decide when they tour. Our vocalist, Dave, is a successful actor in England. He does Shakespeare and some TV soap operas. So his schedule is pretty flexible. So is mine, so is Tony's. The rest manage to be as flexible as they can so they could perform live.
Are you excited about the shows that are planned out? Most of you experience this for the first time.
True, and we're pretty nervous. Our rehearsals have this weird vibe, cause everyone knows that we're gonna perform in front of thousands of people soon. On the other hand there's something soothing about festivals. You get 30-35 minutes of stagetime, and you just give everything out there. The crowd is already excited, he's into you. Not like you have 100 people in a club to get pumped up from scratch.
What about the album? How do you make a band that exists for 30 years sound relevant?
I thnk what I did was avoid sounding like a retro band. There's this horrible wave of bands that will do anything to sound old-school. Including bad sound like the more lousy records of the 80's. I didn't want that. I wanted a clean and modern sound, but I also wanted it to be built on the band's strengths. We have enough riffs and playing ability to sound like classic metal even with modern sound.
Are the songs in the album new or old?
All are old. It's incredible but the band actually had an entire album written, and we ended up leaving most of the songs just the way they initially sounded 30 years ago. We played around with the riffage of course, changed some beats, but in general, It's an 80's metal album that is played and recorded now. We also have about 50% of the next one written with old songs from the band. This is all they wrote from back then. We'll fill in the extra 50% with songs that we're gonna write together.
Strangely enough, just 5 minutes before you called I finished an interview with Niklas, vocalist of Swedish heavy metal group Wolf. We talked about how they no longer make great metal albums, and that all the awesome ones were back in the 80's.
True! It's something I talk about all the time, and I agree 100%. They hardly make albums that I would define as classic.
I also spoke to him about the new Accept record as an example of a record done nowadays, but does bring us back to the 80's. He told me that when he and his friends listened to the record they felt like they're 18 again, all excited about heavy metal. What do you think worked so well when you produced that album?
I think today people try to play faster and ina more technical manner. But Accept work as a true pro old-school band. They build every song out of nothing, and add more and more layers as they go. Everything is planned out and well-constructed. I never seen anything like it and I worked with a lot of bands. When I worked with Sabbat we just played together and threw in a bunch of riffs. And a lot of cases that's how things are. What Accept did however, was to write each instrument separately then try combining all of it in the best way they possibly could.
Those who criticize your work claim that it's too clean and polished, not organic enough. What can you say about that?
It varies from band to band. I can surely say it's not up to me. I can make a band sound clear, but I don't affect the music. Arch Enemy for example are very technical, like a machine. That's why everything sounds clean, almost mechanic. Accept play warmer, open, that's why their album sounds a lot more organic. When it comes to Hell I didn't spent much thought about it, I wanted a clear sounding record like Don't Break the Oath by Mercyful Fate. An album that was very groundbreaking soundwise. It's just a very clear sound. Not old-school or new-school.
What about Bass guitars? One of the things I loved about Accept is that I heard the bass lines very well. Just like the old Maiden records when bass played a major part in heavy metal music.
I agree, and that something that works with Hell too. It's depends of course who the bass player is. In our case, Tony is a great bass player that writes parts that not only ofllow the guitars, like in Arch Enemy's music or most thrash bands. Soundwise, the problem with extreme metal bands is that there is just too much double-bass going on, and blasts the low frequencies. If you add a bass part that does too much It just fatigues the ears. It's easier to combine the two in heavy metal in a way they both get their own space.
I'm gonna tell you about my fantasy (don't panic!) I thought to myself what would happen if Iron Maiden would drop Kevin Shirley who in my opinion makes them sound bad, and make a new album with you. It's a pretty well known fact that ever since they don't work with Martin Birch their sound went to hell.
Mmm...I thought about it quite a lot during the years. I'll be brief: I would shorten their songs to 5 minutes tops that each song has its say, like they had in the 80's. I would drop all those keyboard and clean guitar intros. I would make Adrian Smith write most of the songs and drop a guitarist I'm not going to name. I would make Bruce go up a notch and sing higher, I would make them play tight again. BTW, I don't think it's Kevin's fault. You gotta understand that this band, being what they are, selling 50 million records, does what ever it wants. They wanna do prog-rock? they do it. The producer has no real ability to control such a band. If Steve Harris wants to do something - he'll do it without asking any producer. I agree that what fans want to hear is another Killers or Number of the Beast, but the band probably doesn't want to make one.
Still - when you worked with a band like Megadeth you made a person that is notorious for being difficult, to change direction.
Dave is a much more easy-going person than everyone thinks he is. Once we became friends and found some common ground he was happy to hear what I had to offer, and ended up doing a lot of what I told him to, but Maiden is something else.
Lets talk some more about the band - Do you feel support in the British scene? It's known that music journalism and crowd in Britain is very fond of modern American metal in the recent years. Do they understand what Hell is about?
Surprisingly, we get great support here. I think it's because the market here has changed in the past year. I guess people grew weary of American music and began missing British heavy metal and hard rock. We probably answer this demand because the press here is very warm toward us. We have a small album launch show in a week, and we already sold more than 300 tickets which is great
What about the future? More shows?
As much as we can! We got quite a few festivals coming up and we're planning on playing till we drop!
http://www.metalist.co.il/InterviewPrivate.asp?id=468
