Sound City Page #5

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important was so that we got a

fantastic drum track.

It's the drum sound.

Let's start there, 'cause it's

something we all love.

The drums and the feel of a song

are like the heartbeat of the song.

It can be the backbone of the

song.

It can be the foundation of the

song.

So that's the first thing you

do.

You set up your kit, and you

start putting up your

microphones.

A room like this has a really

nice decay.

So, you put mikes around the

room to capture that.

You put close mikes on the

drums.

You have all of those

individual mikes spread over a

number of tracks - 16 tracks or

So then you can bring the faders

up or down and balance those tracks.

Once you get a good drum take,

then it's like, "Oh, okay, great.

Now we got the beginning of a

song.

Now we can actually start

putting more sh*t on it".

With the lights out, it's

less dangerous

Here we are now, entertain

us

I feel stupid

The way to pick studios is

through blind-testing drums,

because you can record the

guitars pretty much anywhere,

and they could sound pretty much

like your guitars.

But drums really change from

room to room.

That room shouldn't, on

paper, be a great drum room,

because it's like a big old

square room.

Sound City was a Vox factory

in the '60s, I guess.

They built Vox amps there,

and then they built the

"A" control room in '64.

It's one of those spaces that

just randomly, haphazardly

turned out to be fantastic to

record a drum set in.

That room is the space.

It's, like, what happens between

the notes, what you're playing.

There's a sound that's pretty

magical.

Every room has their sweet

spot for that sound, you know?

This, I think, has always been

Sound City's real sweet spot.

And the freaky thing is,

no one designed it.

A lot of people claim they did.

But no.

It's just luck.

Luck and magic.

Not meant to be.

And you can't control those

things.

Selfishly, the drum sound was

probably why we went there.

I confess.

'Cause when the lovin'

starts and the lights go down

There's not another living

soul around

None of it is planned.

Sound City was welcoming, and we

knew that we had a home there.

It's a church.

By the luck of whatever, I have

the ability to open that door.

Say that you love me

From that Fleetwood Mac

album, then we'd get Santana and

Grateful Dead.

Once you have big hits like

that, that was huge.

Dancin' in the streets

Dancin', dancin', dancin'

The first real Heartbreakers jam

to just feel each other out

was at Sound City.

The studio was fine, but we

just didn't have our sh*t

together.

We weren't ready.

We didn't have the songs.

We didn't know how to play

that well.

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