Interview with Jay Ruston,

[Darkofeden]

Modern production is my arch enemy. I am confused by the dryness and the lack of dynamics.

Yeah, that’s a huge problem. Y’know, Funly … funnily … Bleh, now I can’t speak right.

[laughs]

Funnily enough, I was mixing Anthrax’s Worship Music and Steel Panther at the same time.

Fun!

On one hand, I was mixing a classic band that needs to sound modern; on the other, I was mixing a new band that needs to sound classic. [laughs] It was really weird to go back and forth, but the two projects actually helped each other. As I was experimenting with the mixing of Anthrax, I’d come up with something really cool that I could apply to Steel Panther. Or vice versa. And some things worked for both, some things don’t. I wouldn’t cover Anthrax in reverb and delay; it just wouldn’t work. For Steel Panther, it’s a must. There were certain discoveries that worked for both.

I think the goal for the Anthrax record was a modern sound, but it still needed to sound like the Anthrax that’s been around for almost thirty years.

Dude, I am excited about the new Anthrax record! It’s an awesome album on its own, and its awesomeness is unlikely when one considers the circumstances of its creation. As you started work on it, did you think that Worship Music might not be salvageable? Or did you think to yourself, ‘Hey, we’ll fix this thing and Anthrax will come out of chaos with a great record. I’m Jay Ruston. Let’s party.’

[laughs] I always go into things with a positive attitude unless I know that someone else wants it to fail. I’ve seen that happen before. I’d never get into a situation like that. The Anthrax guys were very determined. They knew that they had great songs; I agreed having heard the previous recordings [with Dan Nelson's vocals]. The question was, will this translate to Joey Belladonna’s vocals? My answer was, ‘Yes.’ I just knew it. I had a gut feeling.

Joey is the type of person that needs to trust you; he needs to feel really comfortable. All artists need that, but some need it even more for you to get the best performances from them. And Anthrax’s earlier records were always rushed. There was always a tour approaching, so they needed to just get it done. Of course, the vocals are always last; they always get rushed. So Joey never really had the opportunity to take his time working with the producer — at least nothing like what we were able to do for Worship Music.

To the chagrin of their label — which had been waiting for the record for years [laughs] — we slowed down the process. I think we had to. The band was all for it. Once the guys heard the first song that Joey sang — I think it was “Crawl,” one of my favorite songs on the album — they were so blown away with his vocals that, from that point on they were saying, ‘Whatever it takes. Every vocal has to be [that awesome].’ It wasn’t that difficult to do. It was just all about Joey and I having a relationship and getting along really well, which happened immediately. Once we were comfortable with each other, we’d bang out a vocal in five or six hours. It was pretty easy once we got over the initial hump.

I am impressed by that, dude. And here’s why: Joey’s situation was not an enviable one. He had to come in on a record that had been finished once, was now late as hell and very important to the band’s future. And not only did he have to do the work, but he had to find a way to put his Joey stamp on the shit. So it reflects well on you that his contributions to Worship Music are awesome!

And I’m glad that Joey is getting the chance to sing John Bush-style Anthrax songs like “Crawl.” It proves my point that Joey could’ve remained their guy all along, no need for replacements. Wait, do I have a question here? Sorry.

No worries. I see what you’re getting at. Sure, he absolutely could’ve done those records. Who knows what happened in 1990? Only those five guys know why the change was made. I don’t think it’s widely known why. They made the decision that they made. And I love John Bush, too; I love those records. Could Joey have sung them? Absolutely. And there will always be fans that love the John Bush era, those who love the Joey era, and those who love both. I love both and I love Joey. Joey is awesome and we get along really well. For him to have this opportunity makes me feel good because people are going to love the way he sounds. It’s amazing. I’m so happy for him and the band.

I’m happy for Joey, too. It’s great for fans to have him back. And Worship Music should be a big record.

We’re getting rave reviews and nothing but positive responses from radio and press. I’m excited and I know the band is just itching to get this thing out. We’re stoked.

So, you came in to record and produce Joey’s vocals. Was there any other touching up that you were asked to do?

Yeah, we did a bunch of different things. Basically, some of the songs needed some tweaking. Once they had Joey back and they decided that he’d do the record — and he was totally up for that — they wanted to look again at all the material and decide what needed to be re-written. Anything that Dan Nelson was involved with was removed and had to be re-written or scrapped altogether.

But lot of these songs were written by Scott, Frank, and Charlie alone, then they’d teach them to Dan Nelson and he’d sing them. Those songs — six or seven of them — needed fewer changes: guitar things here and there, a few arrangement moves, and vocal and melody movements to match Joey’s style better. Dan’s a bit more of a screamer and Joey sings. So those songs could be knocked out because we had the template and lyrics. It was kinda easy to do.

The last three or four tunes we did were re-recorded from scratch. A few were total re-records, and one or two were kinda re-designed. Maybe keep the drums or guitar and bass, and re-write the vocals and melody completely.

One song that was a total re-configure was “In The End.” That song, to me, is where Joey really got to flex. He had a lot of input on where it should go. Not that he didn’t have a lot of input on the other songs, but they were kinda written. They sounded good and we were happy with everything. We didn’t need to do that much [with those songs]. But on the newer stuff and re-writes, there was no guide vocal, just lyrics and a melody. We needed to create it from scratch and that gave him some license to experiment.

We’d send versions to the band and they’d [respond], ‘Wow, this is great. Can you change this or try this here?’ It was a nice little [collaborative] process that worked out really well. It was a bit time-consuming to do it that way, but you get the best product in the end. Those last few songs were fun to do.

Was Rob involved in those songs that were rebuilt?

Yeah, Rob is always involved. The album is produced by the band, Rob, and myself. My role was to produce all the vocals, re-record some guitars, and mix the whole album. Rob did pretty much everything else: record the drums, the bass, the original guitars, and his own parts. It was a community effort. Sometimes, Frank would do the bass in New York with his guy; Charlie would do drums on his own if we wanted to change that. Everybody was very involved. We worked as a very cohesive team. It was great.

Can you give us insight on how a band comes to hire a new producer to do just the vocals? And why you, Jay Ruston?

Sure! I think it came to a point when Rob had been on this thing for three years. He certainly wasn’t burned out — I wouldn’t use those words — but it was about perspective. Working with your own bandmates is totally different than working with an outside producer. And by that point, I had done a fair amount of work with Scott Ian. He was on the first Steel Panther record; that’s how we met. Then I produced some stuff with his wife Pearl, and he was the guitar player on that. We all got along well. Doing vocals with Pearl was great. She’s a great singer and I think they liked my style of producing vocals.

Then Scott and I did the Brian Posehn songs for his comedy record. That worked out really well. Once I mixed the Big 4 live DVD, I think I was the natural choice for Scott to help them with Joey. He probably figured that I have a good rapport with singers and they needed somebody to connect with Joey. Y’know, Joey’s one of the nicest guys you’d ever meet. Very friendly. In the studio, he’s a very creative person. A creative person needs to be moulded and shaped and pushed in certain directions to get their best effort. That’s what I tried to do.

Taken from Metalsucks.net

This interview makes me really excited about the new record.

 

[IAN442]

Awesome interview. Glad i took the time to read it.

 

[Dysreflex]

Nice find. Thanks thatguythatlikesmetal

 

[mrthrax]

full props to joey,fuck all the haters,great point he made about joey always being rushed.

 

[aliasp]

That is a brilliant read.

 

[Social Distortion]

Very interesting to read how they worked on the album.

 

[scottishthrax]

I've read numerious interviews over the years about how Joey had the lyrics and singing style dictated to him by Scott / Charlie.........it seems weird that he accepted that scenario. Its great that he has finally had some creative input (maybe not lyrically) into his performance.

I can't wait for this record

 

[sufferer]

I've read numerious interviews over the years about how Joey had the lyrics and singing style dictated to him by Scott / Charlie.........it seems weird that he accepted that scenario. Its great that he has finally had some creative input (maybe not lyrically) into his performance.

I can't wait for this record

Me too, this I think is kind of like Jason Newsted's situation with Metallica. He was always told exactly what to play until Load where he was allowed to come up with his own stuff. Unfortuneately the album sucked but I think his bass lines were pretty good, imagine if he was allowed to do this on Justice. There could have been JUSTICE done on that album hahaha! Oh man I'm so witty.

 

[IAN442]

I take heart about the point of Joey being rushed. I think this time it will make a world of difference in terms of his sound. Overall I just like full sound of the songs I've heard so far. With the early albums I dont know if it was recording technology or choices made by sound engineers but at times it seems like its perhaps just 3/4 of the potential volume that could have been available for the track.

Listen to a Boston song next to an early Anthrax say something from Armed and Dangerous. DISCOUNTING THE MUSICAL CONTENT HERE...but the engineering is totally different. Boston sounds louder without even touching the volume to physically turn it up, I think the fact that one of them were MIT sound engineers ahead of their time may have helped but the sound is full if you can think about what i am saying.

 

[astream]

He (Jay) seems to know his stuff.

I'm really excited about the album!

Will be interesting to see how the songs will "flow" ...!

 

[mrthrax]

Me too, this I think is kind of like Jason Newsted's situation with Metallica. He was always told exactly what to play until Load where he was allowed to come up with his own stuff. Unfortuneately the album sucked but I think his bass lines were pretty good, imagine if he was allowed to do this on Justice. There could have been JUSTICE done on that album hahaha! Oh man I'm so witty.

didnt jetfield record the bass lines as well?,i know he usually did all the guitars exeptfor leads in studio.

i'm glad joeys finally getting some well earned respect,scott and chuck have hammered him pretty hard over the years,they pretty much did the same to bush,he had alot of input in sown but for stomp scott took care of all the lyrics etc,chuck pretty much writes all the music for the songs.

 

[Sgt-D]

"Justice" was a great album, but it could have been their opus if the bass could have been actually audible.

 

[Joecephus]

From all the different interviews I have heard or read over the years, I have gathered that Scott & Charlie were never really 100% behind Joey's vocals and tended to micro-manager them in the studio to get the sound they were looking for. After the Reunion / Don Nelson / Bush back for Sonishphere but not wanting top return / and lastly Joey coming back to re-do the vocals... I would assume that Joey has a little more stroke this time around, since in essence Anthrax (Scott & Charlie) had no choice.

So as I eluded to in another post, I think finally letting Joey not be micro managed in the studio, ended up being a kick ass thing (from what I heard so far.)

Now bring on the f'n album already!!

 

[antwax]

From all the different interviews I have heard or read over the years, I have gathered that Scott & Charlie were never really 100% behind Joey's vocals and tended to micro-manager them in the studio to get the sound they were looking for. After the Reunion / Don Nelson / Bush back for Sonishphere but not wanting top return / and lastly Joey coming back to re-do the vocals... I would assume that Joey has a little more stroke this time around, since in essence Anthrax (Scott & Charlie) had no choice.

So as I eluded to in another post, I think finally letting Joey not be micro managed in the studio, ended up being a kick ass thing (from what I heard so far.)

...so true....and yet after reading Joey's latest interview he doesn't sound too "secured" for his position as singer...
must be a great feeling to know that other guys prefer someone else's voice but they have to get along with you...

T

 

[antwax]

I forgot...thanks for posting the interview.

T