Synth Heaven in Greenpoint: Joe McGinty’s Carousel Recording

GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN: Keyboardist, producer, songwriter and Losers Lounge founder Joe McGinty (The Psychedelic Furs, Nada Surf) has amassed an amazing collection of vintage synthesizers over the last three decades. Lucky for him, right? Well, actually, this is lucky for you too. This collection of mint condition classics and inspiring rarities is now available for commercial sessions at his Carousel Recording in Greenpoint.

Located within the Pencil Factory at Greenpoint Ave and Franklin – same building as Rough Magic, Salt Mastering, Insound, The Social Registry, etc. – Carousel is where McGinty produces his own projects, keyboard parts for other artists’ records, and now where he can help bands articulate damn near any synth part they can dream up.

For McGinty, this is like the next level of session playing, as bands can book Carousel for a day of keyboards, and either hire him as their synth guru, player or recordist, or simply play the instruments and run the sessions themselves

McGinty’s personal keyboard collection goes back to the 1950s and includes a number of electro-mechanical, i.e. Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Clavinet, Baldwin Electric Harpsichord, Hammond Organ & Leslie 147 and Yamaha CP60 and CP30 Electric Pianos; combo organs, i.e. Fender Starmaster, Vox Super Continental and Farfisa Combo Compact; vintage analog synthesizers, i.e. Moog 15 Modular, Mini Moog, Memory Moog, ARP 2600, Omni and String Ensemble, Oberheim Xpander and Gibson Clavioline; sample playback, i.e. Mellotron M400, Mattel Optigan and Akai S612; vintage digital, i.e. RMI Keyboard Computer and Korg DS-8; and modern instruments such as Moog’s Little Phatty, the Nord Electro and the Dave Smith Poly Evolver.

See these keyboards go in this charming Carousel music video, “Tubular Bells,” featuring the “Brooklyn Organ Synth Orchestra”:

Since Carousel is a smallish studio, keyboards occupy much of the space — lining the walls, filling the shelves, and cutting a pathway through the room. An iso booth houses the Wurlitzer, a number of guitar amps and plenty of room to cut vocals, guitars and other amplified parts. McGinty’s partner in the space is guitarist/producer Jay Sherman-Godfrey.

Recording-wise, the studio is equipped with Pro Tools 9 and Logic and, as McGinty puts it, “a few good vocal mics and some nice channels of [Neve Portico, API and Focusrite] preamps.” On the studio’s website, he appeals, “Why settle for “virtual” when you can have the real thing? Just bring in your Pro Tools session (or files from Digital Performer, Logic, or any other hard disk recording program) and add some analog warmth to your recording.”

CAROUSEL INVENTORY: KEYBOARDS AND KEYBOARD WISDOM

SonicScoop recently took a spin around Carousel with McGinty pointing out and playing some of the more notable instruments, and providing musical reference points. Stopping at the ARP 2600, McGinty noted: “I recently got a bunch of keyboards from Mark Lindsey, former lead singer of Paul Revere & the Raiders. That’s where I got this ARP 2600, which is pretty rare. Genesis used it a lot, and Edgar Winter.”

Moving on, he points out the original Mini Moog. “This is another favorite. It’s a classic 70s synth – nothing sounds like it.”

An Atlantic City native, McGinty came up playing the hotel-casino circuit, and over the last three decades has recorded and/or performed with artists such as The Psychedelic Furs, The Ramones, Debbie Harry, Devendra Banhart, Nada Surf, Ronnie Spector, Daniel Johnston, Ryan Adams, Bright Eyes and Space Hog.

He’s been a staple of the NYC music community between his live shows with the Losers Lounge, musical projects including Circuit Parade and McGinty & White, frequent session playing, original music for television and web (Bored to Death, Funny or Die) and most recently, a weekly residence at Manhattan Inn with “Joe McGinty’s Keyboard Karaoke.”

His keyboard collection reflects a lifelong obsession with keys, and a unique point of view cultivated over all these years of performance, composition and collaboration. In particular, his early days in piano bars, the Loser’s Lounge tribute shows at Joe’s Pub (this month pays tribute to Neil Diamond!) and the live piano karaoke demonstrate his deep repertoire and encyclopedic head for classic pop keyboard parts and sounds.

Looking at the collection as a whole, McGinty describes, “This is about 25 years of collecting, and a lot of it I got cheap when people were getting rid of stuff, pre eBay. Luckily I hang onto things! And there’s definitely some stuff here I never thought I’d have, like this 1968 Baldwin harpsichord. I also never thought I’d actually own a Mellotron. I know of maybe one or two others in all of NYC. It’s such a classic sound.”

The most prized of the Mark Lindsay package, McGinty points out, is a rare modular Moog. “This is like Switched on Bach era – you really need to know what you’re doing to use it,” he says. “There are so many options in terms of patching and stuff. The guy who restored it gave me a tutorial. I always thought the modular synths were really cool, but now that I have one, I really get it. I christened it on a recent record I did with Ward White.”

As we move around Carousel, McGinty riffs on the keyboards and the classic records that feature them. Every era of popular music is represented here, from the classic Steinway upright to the Hammond organs to the space-age synths to the Casios and keytars to the Dave Smith Poly Evolver and Nord Electro, and on and on.

“Sometimes people come in with CDs and ask me about a particular keyboard sound, and I can tell them what it is,” he notes. “Like, the Clavinets are the classic Stevie Wonder funk machine. And the ARPs do the 70s string sounds – like you hear on “Dream Weaver” and a lot of classic 70s disco songs.”

“This is a Clavioline,” he pointes out. “It’s used on the Beatles’ ‘Baby You’re A Rich Man,’ and ‘Runaway’ by Del Shannon, and ‘Telstar’ by Joe Meek.”

Though the collection does overwhelm the space a bit, it’s setup in a way that a keyboardists can easily demo multiple sounds for a part. “You can get stuff done really quickly because everything’s really accessible,” McGinty notes.

“You go to some studios and they have to get their older keyboards out of a closet or something, and maybe it doesn’t totally work. All these keyboards are instruments I use on my own stuff so I know all the ins and outs, and can even repair them to a point. I also have a few techs I can call on.”

Moving on: “The Yamaha piano has pickups inside so you can electrify it – it’s a very 80s kinda sound, like Peter Gabriel’s ‘Red Rain’ or like Private Eyes by Hall & Oates. It’s very useful around here.”

He also has a unique digital keyboard made by Allen Organs, a primarily church organ manufacturer based in Allentown, PA. “This Allen Organ is pretty fun – it was one of the first digital keyboards they made and it licensed NASA technology, and uses old-fashioned computer punch cards. This is their first attempt at a synthesizer so it’s kind of weird, but it sounds really cool. And it’s sort of a secret weapon…people come in and they’ve never heard of it, but it sounds like nothing else, so it often works.”

Bands such as Robbers on High Street and The Secret History have booked Carousel for keyboard sessions. “I really like it when bands come in,” says McGinty. “It makes me happy that they’re into the old stuff! And it tends to be cool bands, like this Brooklyn band Esque who came in – they’re doing a kind of 80s, Roxy Music, Bowie-style thing – and an artist named Bryan Scary, who’s doing this over the top glam-pop, like Queen or Sparks.

“It’s been a lot of fun to help people realize the sounds in their head.”

Carousel/McGinty are also available for “long distance” sessions, where clients can send files to McGinty with some direction, and he’ll send the synth parts back to them.

“I’ll give people a few options, for example, Nada Surf was doing their record in Seattle, and they wanted me to play Hammond on a song, so I put up the mics, and sent them a few different versions of that. The long distance thing really opens things up, and Pro Tools makes it really easy. There’s a lot of potential there.”

For more on Carousel Studio and Joe McGinty, visit www.joemcginty.com and www.joemcginty.com/carousel. And if you haven’t already, stop into Manhattan Inn some Tuesday night for Keyboard Karaoke — it’s great fun!

Grand Street Recording Upgrades with Lynx, Dangerous, Crane Song

The Williamsburg facility Grand Street Recording announced that they have completed multiple upgrades.

Improvements there include new Lynx Aurora 16 A/D D/A converters, with a total of 24 ins and 32 outs. Meanwhile the Dangerous D-Box has been replaced with a Dangerous 2-Bus and a Crane Song Avocet monitor system, for a total 32 channels of summing. Xtreme tech heads can check out the full gear list here.

In addition, an early 1930’s Ludwig Black Beauty snare drum is now available at the studio.

Recent projects for Ken Rich (owner/producer/co-head engineer) and Tomek Miernowski (co-head engineer) include:

– Mixing for Mike Errico’s new album.

– Mixing for Lucinda Black Bear’s next album.

– Tracking drums for Ira Elliot of Nada Surf.

– Recording with Madison Square Gardeners for their new EP Taste The Thunder.

– Ken Rich is currently recording and mixing Morley’s new album. The sessions have hosted top a number of top musicians including Kenwood Dennard, Fred Cash, David Anram, Gil Goldstein, Gene Lake, James Genus, and Joan Wasser.

– Recording and mixing Greg Tannen’s new album. Featured players include Tony Mason (drums), Tim Luntzel on bass, Matt Beck (guitars), and Andrew Sherman (keys).

– Recording with Kayo Dot.

– And last but by no means least, recording with The Spring Standards.

John Agnello: Dinosaur Jr. & Sonic Youth Producer On New Indie Rock Sounds, Classic Techniques

JERSEY CITY: In 1979, a Brooklyn teenager and avid record collector named John Agnello landed an internship at one of Manhattan’s most prominent music studios. Thanks to some hard work and genuine affability it wasn’t long before he found himself assisting on major releases from contemporary heavyweights like Aerosmith, Cyndi Lauper and Twisted Sister.

It’s an unexpected beginning for a Producer most known for his involvement with classic Indie Rock darlings, many of whose records still pepper the favorites lists of young fans. Success on early releases with Dinosaur Jr, Screaming Trees and Buffalo Tom made way for work with The Breeders, Sonic Youth, The Hold Steady and Nada Surf.

We grabbed a quick bite with John near his Jersey City home between sessions with Kurt Vile at Williamsburg’s Headgear Recording Studio.

Looking through your early discography, we see you listed as an assistant on some pretty mainstream releases. It’s interesting to see your credit list take a left turn in the early 90s toward more bold and unique artists, branded back then as “Alternative Rock.” It looks like you’ve never turned back. I’d like you to take us through that journey a little. How did you get your start?

I started assisting at the Record Plant in ’82, and started engineering in ’84. I was engineering for a long time, all through the 80s and into the early 90s. It took a while to really get considered to produce records. And with good reason! (laughs) I wasn’t really a “Producer” at first.

What changed? Were there any seminal records that acted as a turning point for you?

The first Dinosaur Jr. record was a really great experience. I was credited as an engineer, and I wouldn’t say I was a “producer” on those records. But I definitely helped J. [Mascis] get to a different sonic level. When we worked on together, Dinosaur Jr. records started to sound like classic records, not just gnarly discs with great songs covered in “Ka-Kssshhhhh” (makes sound effect of gnarly midrangey goodness). Once those records were doing really well and A&R guys noticed what I was starting to contribute to the process, things began to change.

How does your approach as a producer differ from that of your engineering days? Is there a learning curve?

Over the years I’ve learned a lot about what a producer can do, and pushed the envelope a lot more. When I started producing, it was in the middle of this Indie/Alternative Rock explosion. Things were really open.  What a producer had to do was create a vibe, get the bands to perform, and let them do their thing. You might help with an arrangement here or there, but that was it. Bands were being signed because somebody somewhere liked them.

The attitude was: if a band like Spacehog or Nada Surf or Jawbox hit the charts, great! And if they didn’t… they didn’t. In that way it was a totally different world.

Today, I spend a lot more time in rehearsals with bands really working through arrangements and giving them actual direction. Things these days are so much tighter. There are so many records coming out, indie-wise at least, and it’s so much more competitive because everyone posts their songs online.

For an unknown band to have a chance of getting noticed, it’s really important for the record to be concise and bring out the best of what they do. Sometimes we’ve got to leave out all the extra filler that makes listeners go: “Boring!” Attention spans have gotten to be…miniature.

So do you find yourself working more as a musical gatekeeper than you would have in the past?

Absolutely. I’m in pre-production rehearsal with bands right now, and you have to bring these things up: ”The song’s too long, let’s cut the chorus here in half here,” or “The key’s not right for your voice, let’s try modulating there.” When you’re making good suggestions, bands are really receptive. And it’s fun too. You feel like you’re even more a part of the band and a part of the record. It’s great to notice: “Hey the verse… It’s really this song’s chorus, isn’t it? Let’s build around that.”

Let’s face it: anyone can be an engineer these days. That’s no slight against the guys who are great engineers, because there are some really good ones. The point is: Any one of these bands *could* stay at home and make their own record. These days just being an engineer isn’t enough to separate yourself from everyone else out there. You’ve got to bring something else to the table.

So here you are being hired for your ability to filter and to make perceptive musical choices… but you didn’t even start out as a musician?

No, not at all!

How did that happen? Did you become a player as things wet along?

I didn’t. That’s another thing that’s interesting to think about: when I first started assisting, I really had no concept of pitch. I was just a kid who loved listening to records. I wasn’t a musician, I wasn’t trained. I had to learn to listen and understand what pitch was and to focus on it. It’s just another one of those things that you learn to do well through repetition.

You’ve done a lot of work with promising bands as they’re discovering their sound. But you’ve worked with established artists as well. The last two Sonic Youth records you’ve worked on have featured some really masterful sounds.

Considering how long they’ve been around and how long I’ve been around, it’s been really great to finally work with them. It made me feel really good about my station in life, to be able to make two really wonderful records with a band I’ve always loved.

Sonic Youth are a band known to have a lot of vision and often share production credit on their records. How is your role different with a band like that?

Oh, they know what they’re doing. A big difference between working with a Thurston Moore or a J Mascis and all the other bands we’re talking about, is that you don’t need to tell either of those guys anything about songwriting (laughs). What’s the point?! What a band like Sonic Youth really requires is that we’re on time delivering the record, and I can help keep them on track while they have so many other projects going on.

Rather Ripped in particular made some waves for helping put the band back on the map after some rare time away from critical acclaim. That album took a distinctly punchy and muscular sonic direction compared of their prior records. The guitars in particular command an unusual amount of power and clarity. Can you tell us anything about your approach there?

Rather Ripped (2006) and The Eternal (2009) both have Lee on the left and Thurston on the right. That’s how they stand on stage. I just love the clarity of stereo. It’s great to hear each dude doing their part, and it’s really cool to hear that in headphones, especially when one part steps out a bit from either side.

Definitely. It leaves a lot of room for power in the drums too. I hear that kind of spread on one of your newest releases as well. Dead Confederate’s Sugar came out this past month, and in some places the guitars are also really wide, but much more textured and layered sounding.

They have a cool sound. I joke that’s almost like “Freedom Grunge.” You know? Like Freedom Rock + Grunge, with some shoegaze mixed in. It combines a lot of things I like.

I’ve heard you tend to use the same mics a lot on guitars: a classic combination of [Shure] SM57, [Neumann] U87 and [Sennheiser] 421 mixed together. Is that true of those two records, even though they have such different sounds?

Yeah, a lot of it comes from the amp, and the player. That’s the first place to change things. If there’s something that ties those sounds together it’s that I really like my guitars close-miked, even if they have a lot of effects on them. If your amp is really blowing and you have the mic right on it, that’s where you get a lot of intensity. If you start to move it back, sure you can get some more air and some room maybe, but you sacrifice that intensity.

When you use a blend of mics like that, which mics are you listening to in the control? What about the players?

I’m old school. I’ll blend them together and print it to tape or to Pro Tools. If I’ve got a great sound that’s moving me, I don’t want to have to think about how I got it ever again. When I’m producing, I want to shut up the Engineer-guy in my head as much as possible so the Producer-guy can take the wheel. Sometimes I’ll even print my snare top and bottom on one track.

What about kick drums? Some of your records have a powerful-yet-organic sound you don’t hear a lot these days.

I think both those Sonic Youth records and a lot of the Dino stuff is a double-headed kick drum, no hole. It’s really hit-or-miss though. If you put a mic up on either side and it sounds good, you’ll have an amazing sound. If it doesn’t, you could struggle with mics and anything else for hours and you’ll never get there.

What else are you excited about? I hear you’re in the studio with Kurt Vile now, making a record for Matador.

He’s great. Really quirky, unique stuff while also being classic and beautiful. My daughter Bella is in love with him and sings his songs in the car all the time!

Have the digital and home studio revolutions changed the way you work much?

Not a lot in my niche. Every once in a while I’ll get a record to mix that was recorded by a new band at home. You wouldn’t get projects like that years ago. And sure, I use Pro Tools and edit digitally, but other than that, I pretty much work the same way.

I feel like you can’t make the same record all the time, and each album should be unique, but I use the same tools a lot.  I pick my favorite studios like Water Music, Headgear and Magic Shop because they have tape machines that work and the monitoring is great. It’s almost embarrassing to admit, but I’ve been using the same stereo bus compressor for almost 24 years! (Laughs.)

— Justin Colletti

For more on John Agnello, visit his website at www.johnagnello.com and follow him on Twitter @John_Agnello.

Justin Colletti is a Brooklyn-based audio engineer and music producer who’s worked with Hotels, DeLeon, Soundpool, Team Genius and Monocle, as well as clients such as Nintendo, JDub and Blue Note Records.

Nuthouse Recording: Tom Beaujour’s “Bonhamtastic” Hoboken Studio

HOBOKEN, NJ: Tom Beaujour brought Nuthouse Recording into the world for many of the same reasons anyone builds a studio: 1) to record his own band, 2) to collaborate with other bands and 3) to enhance his abilities to do both. But Beaujour, formerly the Editor of Revolver and now Editor at Guitar Aficionado, is not your typical engineer/studio owner. Nope.

“I’ve seen so many bands and styles come and go in almost 20 years in the music press,” says Beaujour. “And my experience there informs my work in the studio in that I’m able to help advise bands on recording and overall sonic direction as well as track arrangement and best presentation. I’ve been in an office surrounded by piles of CDs and music critics and I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t.”

As an engineer and producer with this unique perspective and a love of recording, Beaujour’s taken Nuthouse from pet project to legitimate full-blown studio. In the three years Nuthouse has been up-and-running out of the old Wonder Bread Factory on 8th Street in Hoboken, it has become a go-to studio for its “Bonhamtastically-big” live room by NJ-based rock producer/engineer Machine (Lamb of God, Cobra Starship, Four Year Strong) and a growing list of band-clients including Nada Surf, Those Mockingbirds, Mutiny Within and Scale the Summit.

Here, we speak with Beaujour about building Nuthouse, balancing music journalism and production careers, and engineering for clients with disparate notions of good sound and fidelity.

So Nuthouse started as your home studio. Tell us about how it grew from there!

Yes, I started recording with my band, True Love, years ago in my basement in Hoboken, and after awhile, other bands started coming down. Matthew [Caws] from Nada Surf came in to do some extra guitar tracking and it came out really well and they were happy with it. That was when I decided I should try and do this for other bands. I figured even if I don’t know what I’m doing, maybe I have good taste, and taste is probably ¾ of the battle, right?

I found a two-room setup in Union City and moved the studio in there. That’s when I really started buying more gear and getting more serious about recording and production. I didn’t want to build in that space though, figuring I was going to have to move soon anyway. So I moved again.

That’s when you moved into your current space?

Yes, I found this space about 4 years ago. And the first year of building and assembling this studio was probably the worst experience of my life!

Whoa, why? What happened?

I guess it’s a common experience that building a studio always ends up being more expensive and more complicated than you think it’s going to be. The floor I moved into in this warehouse building hadn’t been used in maybe 20 years. There was basically no power. There was a pigeon nest in the pipes. It was just totally raw. I ended up working with these shady contractors. I had a terrible experience with my first console purchase. All my stuff was under tarps for 6 months. It was the full nightmare.

Oh man, that’s awful! But you somehow managed to convert this raw space into a proper, isolated control room and live room?

Yeah, I built double walls that don’t touch and built a control room that I floated on those U-boats. But it’s a modern-day studio in that I didn’t bother floating everything. You’re just never, in this day and age, going to make that money back and it just doesn’t seem to matter all that much to my clients. At least so far it hasn’t been a problem.

Did you build the studio with other people in mind? Both artists you’re working with and potentially outside engineer/producers?

Yes, not so much to book it out constantly, but definitely with the goal of getting other people in here. For example, Machine or his engineer, William Putney, book the room to track drums. Drums for the Chiodos record were tracked here.

So it must be a pretty awesome sounding drum room?

It is a really good sounding drum room. I’ve got treatment on the walls, but the ceilings are like 14-foot. There’s one area where I hung some clouds, to create a dead drum area. Machine has been tracking the drums right in the middle of the room.

It’s big enough that you get really good room mic sound — it’s live enough that you can get all that goodness without [it being too boomy.] I really like what I capture in the far stereo mics. It’s just a really good drum room.

…which there’s definitely a shortage of those these days…

Yeah, that’s why when I saw the space, I knew I was doing something crazy, but I really loved the idea of having a great drum room.

And you have a pretty impressive equipment collection — did that just grow organically?

It has been a gradual process of me acquiring gear, but also, when Revolver got sold a few years ago, they threw me a little ‘thank you’ gift, which I immediately invested into the studio! I bought six channels from Brent Averill and then some API gear. I have the now-discontinued-but-totally-awesome Universal Audio 2108. And then, I bought this Neve console which turned out to be such a nightmare — it was in terrible shape and after pulling it apart and having it recapped and worked on, I ultimately had to get rid of it.

When that console left the building, I felt that I really couldn’t get another vintage console. I’m not at the studio all the time but when I am, I want to know that my equipment’s going to work! So I bought a used SSL AWS 900 from Vintage King. It’s the most money I’ve ever spent on anything in my life and I’m totally happy with it.

So there’s a happy ending!?

Yes! I’m sure it’s a common studio story — there’s a happy ending but I ended up spending way more money than I thought I’d have to to get there. Having a console feels like a luxury, but the AWS-900 is a really cool unit and being able to flip the faders from analog console to DAW controller is awesome. And I really like the mic pre’s.

Awesome. And you somehow manage to balance work as a magazine editor with a career in recording and production. Tell us about that — are there benefits to doing both?

What I like about the balance is that I don’t have to do every job that comes through the door at the studio. I’m not recording terrible bands! So it keeps recording a pure pursuit for me. Also the budgets just seem so small for records right now that I don’t know if I’d put myself in the position where the studio was my main career. Right now, it’s a good balance, and my work as a music critic/writer/editor totally informs the work in the studio! I find I can really help bands a lot because of my experience.

Like in what ways?

I sit in an office with piles of CDs so my perspective can be helpful. You don’t have that much time when you’re a young person in a band. You only have so many shots.

I’ll see a band making an obvious mistake and be able to advise them — I can say put the band name on the album cover and don’t worry about being too obvious, make that song the lead track. I’ll also be the first one to tell bands to master their records loud, because I’ve seen people obviously paying less attention to a record because it wasn’t as loud as the thing before it.

So, I can help the band with the recording and arrangements, as well as the ‘after-purchase care,’ where they’re like ‘what should we do?’ I can give them some advice — it doesn’t guarantee success but it’s helpful.

Awesome, geez that’s a great bonus of working with you! Now, let’s talk about a couple recent recording projects you’ve done at Nuthouse — you recently worked on Nada Surf’s new covers record, If I Had a Hi-Fi?

Yeah, I mixed one track and did a ton of engineering on that record, and then I also co-produced, engineered and mixed three Japanese bonus tracks, two of which I just found out are coming out as a 7-inch as well.

I’ve also been doing a bunch of stuff with Spin Magazine — they do these live performances in their offices. I got recommended when Phoenix was coming in to play. I put together a mobile unit — my Digi 003, API pre’s, some good mics and my laptop — and then I mix it back at my studio. I’ve done those sessions with Phoenix and Silversun Pickups.

Oh and my favorite band of all time (ever!) is Guided By Voices and Robert Pollard is currently scoring this documentary on Pete Rose [1492], and we’re going to be doing the string session here at Nuthouse! Bob Pollard is the man. To be able to work on a project he’s involved in is amazing.

And tell me about Trumpeter Swan – you recently worked on that record?

Yes, I mixed that album. Drew Patrizi, who is Trumpeter Swan, had been working on this project for like three years. There were so many layers of sounds so we spent a long time going through everything. It was a heavily involved mixing job and a really good learning experience.

There’s definitely something happening in music right now, which can be challenging to engineers, or at least I find it challenging. It’s the effect of the “blog rock” movement on the notion of what “sounding good” means. If you look at the mixing choices made on a Deerhunter record, for example, vs. a metal record these days — where everything’s triggered and pristine and precise — the aesthetic is so different.

Trumpeter Swan was one of the first times I was confronted with this idea of having to make things that were recorded hi-fi to sound lo-fi. On some level, you’re being asked to make stuff sound a lot smaller and less good. And you almost have to re-train yourself — it’s like you’re doing things the opposite way of how you’d do them if you were making a Steeley Dan record!

It’s hard for one engineer to be able to produce the expected sounds for all the different spectrums right now. Like if you’re recording an emo record and then you’re recording a band from Williamsburg… you have to understand the different sonic directions really well. That’s another thing about being in the music press — I hear all this stuff and understand how a band is going to want their record to sound for one context and audience vs. another.

Yeah, I don’t know if bands and engineers had to have as many of those conversations in the past — maybe it used to be more obvious what needed to be done to make it “sound good” at the mixing stage?

Well, that just means very different things to different people. I think about the different notions of fidelity all the time. Sometimes when I listen to a record, I really can’t tell whether it sounds like it does because it was all done by the band on their own with a shitty mic and an Mbox, or whether it was mixed to sound that way. But definitely a lot of that “blog rock” music has a very definable texture to it. And at the same time, if a different kind of rock band came into the studio and you started mixing it that way, they would murder you. So I think it’s an interesting time to be doing this!

For more on Nuthouse Recording, visit www.nuthouserecording.com.

Bank Robber Music: Friend-of-Friend Rock Referral

A great synch placement is a win-win-win: artists gain exposure and revenue, music supervisors and producers get cred, and perhaps most meaningfully, the picture gets deeper and, all hope, more memorable. Lyle Hysen, founder of Bank Robber Music and House of Hassle Publishing, is the licensing agent to some of the darlingest darlings of indie-rock, pop, electro, folk (etc.), is behind many such winning placements in television, film and commercial land.

Bank Robber’s label roster includes Merge, Barsuk, Jagjaguar, Drag City, DFA, Secretly Canadian and Fat Cat, and fan/supervisor-favorites like Mates of State, Spoon, M. Ward and Nada Surf.

Hysen started Bank Robber in ’04 with Barsuk, Thrill Jockey, Absolutely Kosher and Quannum Projects, and filled an important niche as the licensing guy who could work both sides of the fence to bring indie bands to music supervisors and vice versa.

It worked because Hysen was trustworthy to both parties. He’d come up immersed in the NYC music scene, playing in punk bands and publishing the hardcore fanzine, “Damaged Goods” in high school, later playing in post-hardcore band Das Damen, and eventually working at Matador Records as the head of its Doormat Publishing division. Point is, when he saw the need for a Bank Robber Music — someone to connect indie labels to mainstream placements — he had the experience and relationships to do it right.

Here, Lyle Hysen talks about Bank Robber and the licensing game — Why do just-emerging indie bands get so many placements? What does a third-party licensing company do? Are artists making less through placements now than years ago? Find out now!

Based on its roster of artists, Bank Robber does not appear to be all things to all people. How would you describe your roster and how it’s been assembled?
Well, early on I made the following brazen executive decisions:
1. I try to basically work with people who I already know, or who at least know me through two degrees of separation (friend of friend rock).
2. Label owners must resemble or act like Woody Allen or Richard Lewis or be able to play all of Elvin Jones’s solos.

Are you open to representing unsigned artists, or do you work exclusively with your label clients? (if no to unsigned, why not?)
Currently I have such a great array of labels that do most of the A&R for me… I do feel there are a few holes in BRM’s roster so I keep an ear open for such things as “happy girl music” or things that are a bit more heavy on the rock side.
That being said, I’m terrible about listening to unsolicited demos and even worse about writing people back. So, by no means do I encourage people to write me, let alone be mad if I don’t write back.

Do you feel it’s important to your business that you represent a certain “kind of music” in the same way that a record label like, say, Merge, is curatorial and therefore trustworthy to music fans like me?

Well, most supervisors probably think of me as “indie-rock guy,” but I do represent several other genres of music with Quannum Projects, as well as DFA and Modular, let alone the awesome vintage soul catalogue of the Numero Group. Still, the most important thing is that the music can be cleared. If a label is hiring a licensing guy it is important to have your artists on board with the idea and to have your samples cleared.
I like to believe that most supervisors will think that if I’m taking the time to send them music, it isn’t going to suck. I really don’t like working records that I don’t like or might be a bit on the noisy/poorly produced side of things, and all the labels I work with understand that (to a certain extent).

How do you tend to service clients — totally one-on-one? Will you make suggestions based on a creative brief?
I handle clients in several different ways: I do mailings based on each current release to a group of supervisors, agencies, etc. and I do compilations of newer stuff to a wider group of supervisors — digital, physical, chemical, by any means necessary.
Most of BRMs days are spent handling briefs from supervisors. We do tons of compilations a week for specific projects per supervisors’ requests.

What if I have no idea about this process – can you help?
I try… music is so subjective — when someone says they want something that “sounds like a rainy Tuesday,” that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. I try to second guess as best I can, and if it doesn’t hit, so be it. Maybe that will point the person in the right direction to better express what they are looking for (aka Coldplay).

Can you give us a couple examples of bands, and even particular tracks, that – when you heard them, you thought ‘wow, this is going to license like crazy,’ and it actually did? Are those qualities that made it feel so licensable the exact same as what makes a great song a great song? Or are there qualities that make tracks particularly strong for picture?
Eh, there is no such thing as a sure thing. Once in a while we’ll get something in and I’ll give it the old “well that should work” and of course it just tanks. Perfect example was the Tinted Windows record — to me it was very commercial sounding and I thought for sure it’d get hits in teen-oriented shows and trailers, but nope, nothing. And of course I really wanted to get my high-school punk band, the Misguided, in Boston Legal and that didn’t work out either.

How does anything get priced? Is each and every placement a big negotiation or do your clients have a more specific pricing scale that you stick to?
It all depends on the use. A few years ago it was easier since there were fewer outlets, but now you have licenses for Internet, or just iPhone, or just water faucets in men’s bathrooms, so every license is different. Some shows that have been around for years, or certain supervisors, have more consistent budgets, but the rest can be a crapshoot.

What’s the market like in 2010 vs., say, when you started out? Is the availability of so much music for licensing, and so many licensing companies (and the recession) driving prices down?
Well the world outside tanking hasn’t helped, but some shows do have budgets and some of them even still do pay, but those are getting to be less and less. Bands and some labels aren’t helping the cause by offering up music for next to nothing, but most supervisors know you get what you pay for and there is a reason why these bands are offering up their music for free.

Are popular indie artists making less per placement?
Not necessarily, but they do have to be open to understanding that more lower-budget offers are coming in, and act accordingly. And don’t forget to send holiday gifts to their licensing company.

Have you come across any common misconceptions by indie filmmakers, music supervisors, editors or agency producers about what you do and how much it costs? (Do people think you can edit/revise work? Do they assume your music’s out of their budget range? Etc.) Can you set us straight?
Well, the third party licensing guy isn’t something the whole world seems to know about. It always takes some explaining — “yes we are hired by the label/band…no you can’t call them directly, that is why they hired us.” We still get the kid making the film, trying to clear music and freaking out about having to pay, which is a bummer. (Hey, kid filmmaker, do some Googling and you can find out that you kinda gotta pay if you want a song in your movie, and please no tears…)
But to me it is obviously more upsetting when big movie studios or ad agencies try to low-ball the bands for big uses (movies, commercials, etc). (Hey Mr. Suit — cut down on the Starbucks delivery and your personal helicopter and throw the bands a bone, they need it. Really…)

Would you say music supervisors are more willing to go with an unknown track by a super-indie artist than they were say 5 years ago? If so, why do you think that is?
It’s all about boring stuff like demographics. Shows like The OC and Gilmore Girls (who had music supervisors and producers that really liked indie music), proved that you can have tons of indie-friendly bands that younger kids like, and that’s the audience that networks want.  Plus, these days, it draws attention to the shows via the Internet and the bloggy things…” That doesn’t happen using some lame ‘mersh’ major label release.
You just don’t see “Did I hear Susan Boyle on Bones? WOW — I’m going to buy 10 copies of her CD and bring them to school and hand them out at lunch!”
But indie music can be, at times, cheaper than major label music, and since budgets are down, the formerly grumpy major label lovin’ supervisor might actually return my call. And oh yeah, with only three crappy major labels left, supervisors have to be a bit more open to the idea.

Can you mention a few placements you were really excited about in ’09 (or so far in ’10)?
I’m very happy that Army Navy got the Shrek 4 trailer — the band just wrote begging for something to hit since they are going into the studio, and that came in. Also, I’m very amused by the Jaguar – Tilly and The Wall placement. I love the idea of that dude driving the car listening to Tilly and the Wall. Classic. Working with the Arcade Fire on licensing so the proceeds can go to Haiti has been great…And I love getting songs into Chuck, since it is my favorite show (now that Battlestar Galatica is off the air).