What
follows is a studio report by MiKE BiSHOP, a fan
who was invited into the studio for a day in August 2008
whilst we were recording the B-side to our debut
single. The report is exactly as he submitted, using
his photos. Enjoy!
Into The Studio with SPiT
LiKE THiS
by Mike Bishop
I’ve
been to a metric tonne of SLT gigs, and, like those of you
who have read Zion’s account of the band’s time in the
studio, I wished I could’ve seen it for myself.
The idea of being there when something is
permanently laid down as part of a record that thousands
of people will eventually hear, is like witnessing history
in the making. Imagine
having such a direct connection to a song that every time
you hear it, you’re instantly transported back to the
moment of its birth…
And
so, when I was invited to go into the studio with SLT and
witness the recording of Sweet
Transvestite, which will be the b-side of their
forthcoming single, I jumped at the chance.
Our
home for the day is Paul Tipler’s studio, Unit
Thirteen, located at Press
Play (owned by Stereo Lab drummer Andy Ramsay), in
Bermondsey – within the charming unspoiled London
Borough of Southwark.
I
start the day with a ride in SLT’s trusty Spazmobile –
a lovingly customised ex-special needs minibus, which
transports them around the country with a certain degree
of style and aplomb, with Zion at the helm.
This is in itself an experience – at our
approach, people turn and stare with either mild
bemusement or vehement disgust.
No-one knows what it is about the unassuming blue
Ford Spazmo which causes bystanders to become aware of
it’s presence on some subconscious level before it
enters their field of view, but nonetheless, they do.
They all wear that Obi-Wan Kenobi expression that
says ‘I sense a
great disturbance in the Force…’
Detail
of the high octane fuck monster that is Spazmobile…
Gilez
is absent today on account of: a) having completed the
drums the previous day; b) still being in bed; and c) not
being a great fan of studio life in general.
Cyndi is staying in town with a friend and is
meeting us at the studio.
Amazingly,
the bass, drums, and guitar tracks were all laid down the
previous day in around 10 hours, leaving two days for the
vocals, backing vocals, and mixing.
The final mastering is already booked at another
studio for Monday.
Zion
is unusually quiet. “Sorry I’m not talking much, but
I’m trying to save my voice for the studio,” He
explains.
We
arrive at Unit Thirteen about one o’clock, in the
lashing rain. Thankfully
there’s nothing to unload as the band’s gear is still
at the studio from yesterday’s session.
Even so, we still get wet on the way in – Zion
resorts to putting a plastic bag on his head to protect
his hair. For
those who don’t know, water goes inside Zion – water
does not very often go on the outside of him.
The
first thing I notice is the familiar sight of SLT’s
distinctive gear, piled up just inside the door. The second thing is that the studio is in the process of a
refit, so while the actual working areas are all finished
and looking very sharp, the entrance, kitchen, and toilets
are, well, a work in progress.
In case (like me) you’ve never been in a
recording studio, it’s basically a room with lots of
electronic stuff in it, and a producer – in this case
Paul Tipler a.k.a. Mr Tips.
This
studio isn’t extremely big, and doesn’t have air
conditioning, so with the soundproof doors closed and five
people in the room, it soon becomes quite warm.
The absence of windows and outside noise, coupled
with the low lighting, contribute to the feeling of being
cocooned away from the world.
It’s not hard to imagine that you could lose
track of time and inadvertently spend two or three days in
there without realising it.
There’s
a small (very small) vocal booth partitioned off from the
main room and visible through a soundproof window.
The
vocal booth. A
Zion-proof room that Vikki sometimes uses to get some
peace and quiet.
SLT
Mission Control…
More
of Tipler’s magic boxes.
While
we make tea and organise ourselves a bit, Vikki gets a
text from Cyndi – he’s getting wet and he’s banged
his head on the Tube, so his week is gradually improving
from the sensational car accident that annihilated the
Rottmobile in the early hours of Monday morning, and left
him bruised and carless.
He piles in through the door shortly, announcing
that he has chocolate biscuits. A stampede ensues, but thankfully no-one is seriously hurt.
Exchanging
oriental greetings with Cyndi
Vikki
pretending she’s not standing on a chair…
Me,
graciously granting Zion an audience
Meeting
Mr Paul Tipler, proper famous geezer
Before
I go any further, I’m going to get nerdy for a second
and say a bit about Tipler’s Pixie Magic software –
that’s obviously not its real name, but as far as I’m
concerned it might as well work by pixie magic.
I am, frankly, shit with computers, and I
understand next to nothing about how they work and what
you can do with them.
But really… check this out –
One of
Tipler’s eight million control screens.
I particularly like the fact that the display
panels have little screws in each corner, even though
it’s just a visual effect…
Basically,
Mr Tips loads all the separate tracks into this software
– that’s all the drums (separate track for each drum
and cymbal), the bass, the guitar (with the overdub on a
separate track), the vocal track, and the backing vocals.
Each track shows up on the 20-inch monitor as a
horizontal band of colour, containing a soundprint of the
actual audio in that track.
With everything loaded, the display consists of
about 15 parallel horizontal lines.
Each line is broken up into segments because there
are points in the song at which there is no sound on that
track.
By
manipulating the graphics on the screen, Tips can split up
each track as necessary, and mark any portions which
require effects applied to them.
He can adjust levels, change the time at which a
portion of the track starts or finishes in relation to the
other tracks, or its duration.
He can even cut out part of a track and use it to
form a new track.
Best
of all, he can zoom in
to look in minute detail at either the qualities of
the sound in a specific track or a specific time interval
within the song, which allows him to make extremely
accurate alterations either in sound or time with complete
control. Often
he’ll loop a section and then replay it over and over,
adjusting it a little at a time until the sound is exactly
right.
Mr Tips
& his awesome software.
That’s the actual song on the screen!
The
first order of business is Mr Tips playing back the
instrumental mix that they laid down yesterday. Even before it’s all mixed, it sounds amazing,
especially the guitar part, and when I comment on it,
Cyndi proudly shows me his favourite thing in the world…
Calm
down ladies. I
am referring to his sensational 1968 Gibson SG Special,
which he brought against his better judgement in Chicago a
few years ago, using his last money in the world.
It’s so precious in fact, that he hasn’t dared
bring the original case, but a super-tough plastic
hardcase instead.
“I
changed the strings last night,” Cyndi smiles, “As
soon as I touched it, I got a boner!”
Cyndi
with his favourite thing in the world.
Zion
installs himself in the booth and runs through the vocal
part so Tipler can get a rough idea of Zion’s (volume)
level and make sure that Zion can hear both the
instrumental track and himself properly through his
headphones. With
that done, Zion does his first take, followed by two
others pretty much back to back.
Each time, there’s emphasis on different words or
phrases, and a different attitude in his performance.
After three takes, he comes back into the studio
and Tipler plays back the takes so Zion can hear the
differences and see if there’s anything he wants to
change or work with in the next take.
Zion’s
‘camping’ expedition in the vocal booth.
While
Zion ‘adds feeling’ to his performance (i.e. prances
about like a big jessie) in the booth, Cyndi explained the
previous day’s work for me.
“First
we got Gilez to do his drum parts so we could get a speed
for the song. After
we had that down, we *points to Vikki* played along to it
to create a guide track, which has all the bits and pieces
in it, so we can hear each other’s playing when we
record our actual takes.”
“Then
I played the bass part right here on the sofa,” Vikki
adds, “I didn’t need to use my amps because I could
plug my bass straight into the console via my Sansamp.
Three takes!”
She announces.
“What’s he (Zion) on now? Four?” *Smiles.*
“I
put down the rhythm guitar track fairly easily over
that.” Cyndi continues, “It’s double-tracked (copied
so that it comes over the left and right channels) to give
it more strength. I think it took four or five takes, which we comped together,
and then I added some extra guitar sprinkles to liven it
up.”
Sadly,
you’ll only hear these sprinkles, which make a hell of a
lot of difference to the overall sound, on the recording.
Cyndi
pulls his frustrated face. “I wish there was a way to put the sprinkles in the live
set, but (chronologically) there’s no space to play
them.” He looks down at his hands and appears slightly disappointed
that he only has two.
Sweet
Transvestite is a regular part of the band’s set.
In fact they last played it only five days
previously, during their headlining set at Skin
Deep magazine’s Tattoo
Jam event, where they also signed their
long-awaited record deal with Transcend
Media Group.
SPiT LiKE THiS
making a mess and generally getting in trouble at Tattoo
Jam.
I
ask Cyndi & Vikki if they think it was easier to
record Sweet
Transvestite because it’s a song they play a lot
live, as opposed to the songs they recorded for the album
which were being crafted on the spot.
Cyndi
& Vikki texting daft messages to H-bomb, SLT’s chief
merch biatch.
“Yes,
I think it definitely helps,” Cyndi nods, “We’re
working a lot better in the studio this time around, and
we’re used to working with Tipler.
You have a lot more freedom when you record a cover
version as well, because you’re not trying to explain a
new concept. You
already have the structure and the context of the song, so
it’s really more a question of interpreting it.”
“And
we have a lot more experience this time,” Vikki agrees.
“And because it’s a B-side, there isn’t the
same pressure as there was for the album.
This is really a bit of fun for us!”
Watching
Zion emote a full stage performance in the booth, I can
well believe Vikki’s words.
For them, playing really is fun.
By
the time Zion finishes take number seven at about 3
o’clock, everyone agrees that there’s more than enough
good material to allow them to comp the vocals together.
That
just left Vikki’s backing vocals (bvs) to record.
Sweet
Transvestite isn’t exactly heavy on backing vocals,
so she was only in the booth for about a quarter of an
hour.
Vikki
tries to escape from Zion by hiding in the vocal booth…
Having
never witnessed a song being recorded, I suppose that I
had the impression, on some level, that actually getting
the music recorded was the lion’s share of the work.
I imagined that comparatively, the post-production
would take a relatively short time.
Perhaps an hour or two at the end of the day.
I thought it was a techie thing that just sort of
happened.
Er….no.
There
are two ways of getting the exact sound that you want for
a track - you can either record take after take until you
get it right, or you can comp a track from the best parts
of each take.
Comping
(or compiling) works exactly how the name implies.
Tipler’s pixie magic software (more on that
later) splits all the vocal takes into sections, and the
same section from each take is played back-to-back.
The band then compares the sections from each take,
and picks the section from the take they think is best.
The section can be a whole verse, a line, or even
just a word or a pause.
One section at a time, they work through the entire
song and compile the vocal track from all the best
sections.
The
process is painstaking.
Zion and Tipler sift through the takes for hours,
cutting and pasting individual words and phrases into the
vocal track, stopping now and again to get tea and rest
their ears, or discuss details with Cyndi or Vikki.
Once they’ve completed the comping process,
Tipler’s pixie magic software goes to work blending the
vocal parts together to sound like a single take.
By about 6 o’clock, the vocal track was ready to
join the drums, bass, guitars, for mixing.
Now
it was time for Mr Tips the Sound Doctor to earn his
money, so I stole Zion for a few minutes, placated him
with some of Cyndi’s biscuits, and chatted to him for a
bit.
“Ah,
yes here it is…these
biscuits are suitable for a high awesomeness diet.”
MiKE:
So, why Sweet
Transvestite, when you’ve an album full of your own
songs to choose from?
ZiON:
“Lots of reasons really.
Firstly, people know it, and secondly, they love
it! When SPiT
LiKE THiS first started playing live, we were always
getting compared to the Rocky Horror Show, which was cool because we love it.
So it seemed only right that we should have a song
from the show in our live set, and I this was the one I
thought would work best.”
MiKE:
Is there a reason Sweet
Transvestite didn’t make it on to the album?
ZiON:
“When it came to making the album, there were other
songs that stood out more.
It was always in my mind to save this for a b-side,
and it compliments the A-side so well…it seemed like the
natural choice.”
MiKE:
How’s the session going?
ZiON:
“Amazingly. It’s
great to get the track recorded so fast.
I love being in the studio, but we’ve got so much
to do at the moment, it’s great to end up with more time
than we expected rather than less.
Especially when you think that the album was
supposed to be finished in 20 days and took….36.”
*smiles*
MiKE:
Is it hard to know when to leave a song alone, given that
there’s so much you can do in a studio now?
ZiON:
“Usually you pretty much know when it’s finished.
You want to make it as good as it can possibly be,
without crushing all the spirit out of it.”
It’s
a tricky balancing act, but someone who’s used to
writing and performing his own material and producing his
own CDs knows a bit about it.
ZiON:
“Even now, there are things on the album that I’d like
to change. Parts
of it were entirely comped – everything from the drums
through to the vocals.
But once we’d committed ourselves to recording
those songs, we put the cost to the back of our minds and
made the best record we possibly could.”
Time
and money consuming though it is, Zion admits to loving
the recording process.
ZiON:
“When I used to produce the CDs on my PC at home, there
was one song – I think it was either ‘Vindicated’ or
‘Trust’ – I spent over a hundred hours just on that
song. If I
had a studio like Tipler’s, you’d never see me again
– I’d just be locked in there the whole time!”
Zion
with, inexplicably, an empty biscuit box on his head.
When
we rejoined Mr Tips in the studio, he was cleaning up
Gilez’ drum track.
This is another process that makes a fantastic
difference to the sound of a finished song.
Starting with the kick drum, Tipler runs through
the track and picks out the one hit that produces the best
sound for the song, and makes incredibly subtle
alterations to it. When
he’s happy with it, he samples it.
He then attaches ‘triggers’ to the individual
points in the song where the kick drum is used, and links
the sample to the triggers.
When he’s finished, you hear a mix of the actual
kick drum strike and the triggered sample, every time the
kick drum appears in the song.
Once
the kick drum triggers are all in place, he goes through
the other drums – the snare, the tom toms, then the
hi-hat and the cymbals.
The overall effect this has on the music is to give
each drum and cymbal a richer and more consistent sound
throughout the song, providing a nice tight background and
rhythm. The process sounds far more time consuming than it
is, and he’s done with the drums in about an hour.
The
next step is to examine Vikki’s bass track and remove a
couple of minor glitches where one of the strings is
buzzing slightly to Mr Tips’ superhuman ears.
Other than that, the track is clean and goes
through as it is.
Rott in
his natural state – half-naked with a guitar in his
hand. Thank
me later.
The
guitars and vocals, having been comped, don’t require
much work at this stage – comping grabs all the best
bits, so no nasty stuff makes it this far.
The only sticking point in Zion’s vocals is the
spoken part, which has to be as straight as possible.
Strangely, he has no trouble singing an entire song
from the perspective of a transvestite, but is stumped
when it comes to speaking six lines as an uptight preppy
nerd. It
seems that even his straightest delivery, though spot-on,
is still not straight enough.
“It
still sounds like me.” Zion complains.
Eventually
though, the ‘Brad’ section is removed from the main
vocal track and given a track of its own, so that it can
be treated separately.
Without the effects that are applied to the main
vocals, it’s much easier to get this troublesome part
into shape, and Zion is eventually happy.
Mr
Tips then turned his attention to the end of the song.
If you’re familiar with it (and I’m guessing
you are) you know that Zion sings everything from “So
come up to the lab…” unaccompanied, and the band
punctuates the silence between these lines with what Zion
refers to as ‘stabs’.
Until this point, the pauses between the stabs have
been too long, to allow plenty of room for Zion to
experiment with the vocals, so Tipler reins them in to
their correct. He
also trims some breath from the vocal track to create a
crisper silence between the vocals and the stabs, and
aligns the bass, guitar, and drum stabs to sharpen up the
overall effect.
For
the big finish, Tipler lines up the instrumental tracks to
create maximum impact when the ‘wall of sound’ crashes
in, and applies a fade across the very end of all the
instrumental tracks.
Finally,
Vikki’s backing vocals are placed in the song.
These are timed very closely with the lead vocals
in several places, and – like Cyndi’s guitar overdubs
– the small part they play in the song makes a lot of
difference: The song sounds much richer with these extra
touches added to it.
Tipler
played the song back in its entirety, and I have to say,
it sounded pretty damn good.
He adjusted the levels in between the comped parts
of the vocals to cut down the ‘noise’ they created
during the instrumental parts, and cranked up the guitar
overdubs bit at Cyndi’s request, and replayed the song
again.
The
normally suave and charming Mr Tips, after an entire day
in the studio.
Note the resemblance to Stewie from Family Guy.
At
this point, around ten o’clock at night, Tipler wanted
to call it a night and pick up again in the morning,
saying he thought the guitar parts needed more work than
he can finish today. He’d been working solidly since about 2 p.m. and looked
like he was about done.
But
Zion, evil overlord that he is, would have none of it.
“I
really like it. It’s
not perfect, but if we come back tomorrow for the sake of
a couple of hours’ work, we’ll end up spending a whole
day on it. I
don’t mind spending the money – I don’t care about
that – but if we can finish it tonight, that gives us an
extra day to catch up on other things, and I could really
use that time.”
Cyndi
agrees. “The
guitars sound really good.
They are drowned out a bit in places, but I think
where they’re drowned out, it’s because of what’s
going on in the song.
I’m happy to leave it as it is.”
Outvoted,
Tipler resigns himself to another late night, and after
running through the song a few more times to catch any
obvious bugs, he saves the song (both in it’s completed
form, and divided up into an instrumental mix, vocal
track, and backing vocal track) on to SLT’s special hard
drive. These
different mixes are in case the vocals turn out to be too
loud or too quiet in comparison to the band during
mastering. He
also burns a super-high-quality 24-bit audio CD with the
same mixes on it, for Zion to give the Mastering dude on
Monday, and a few normal CDs for the band to play in the
meantime.
While
Zion and Tipler muck about with something else, Cyndi,
Vikki and I load the gear into the Spazzmo.
Without the usual stage paraphernalia, there’s
plenty of room for the three speaker cabinets, two head
units, drum kit, two basses, three guitars, Zion’s
cordless microphone, and the associated bits and pieces.
So,
with the single scheduled for release on October 20th,
and their first full studio album We
Won’t Hurt You (But We Won’t Go Away) hitting the
shelves on November 17th, what’s next?
“Touring,
and lots of it, hopefully,” Zion says eagerly.
“Expect to see us playing a lot more gigs from
about mid-October. Until
then, it’s going to be mad.
We’ve got so much to do, and so many deadlines to
meet. And so
course we’ve got to earn some money somehow as
well…”
A
picture of Vikki. Does
anyone need a reason to use a picture of Vikki?
Now
they’ve taken on every band’s Big Three – record
deal, album, single – what’s the next big thing
they’re looking forward to?
Vikki:
“Riches and infamy!”
Cyndi:
“Being able to make a living out of going out on
the road and playing to audiences.
And being able to legitimately call myself a
professional musician.”
Zion:
“I’m really looking forward to the first time
we play a big venue, and I thrust the mic at the audience
during ‘Trust Your Instincts’, and they all sing
“Spit like this” exactly on cue.
Just to have people know our songs and sing along
at our gigs.”
On
the subject of gigs, is there anyway they’d really like
to play?
Cyndi:
“I’d really love to play in Japan.”
Vikki:
“Big festivals.”
Zion:
“The main stage at Download.
We had VIP passes this year (courtesy of Vikki’s
endorsement deal with Peavey).
I was standing on the side of the stage while
Apocalyptica were playing, thinking ‘This is a piece of
piss! We
could fucking nail this, no problem!’”
And
if you could have anything by way of an endorsement
deal…?
Cyndi:
“OPEC. Maybe
then I could afford to get a Capri again…that’d be
awesome!”
Zion:
“Hmm… Evian, Vocal Zone, Throat Coat tea…
Malteasers…oh, and Porsche.”
Vikki:
“A Sennheiser wireless set-up for my bass,
pleeeeeeeeeeease!!!”
Just
after midnight, as we’re about to hit the culturally
diverse streets of Bermondsey, I ask a tired Tipler what
it’s like to work with SLT.
“It’s
rubbish.”
He says with a smile.
This
has been a hell of a day, and I’ve learned a lot.
Firstly, I’ve learned that recording is as
different from live performance, as a fish is from a
nuclear reactor. You
might have the same people and the same song, but that’s
where the similarity ends.
In
a live environment you get one shot, so you give it
everything you’ve got.
It doesn’t last – the performance is in and of
the moment and it’ll never be exactly the same again.
Recording is the opposite.
You play again and again, searching for the perfect
sound. If you
don’t find it, then you make it, painstakingly, one
chord at a time if that’s what it takes, because it does
last.
Secondly,
that as well as musical skill, recording demands
extraordinary clarity of vision, patience, attention to
detail, and determination.
Thirdly,
and most importantly, that SPiT LiKE THiS kick just as
much arse in a studio as they do in a live show. They give it everything.
No half measures, no compromise.
There’s no fall-back position.
So
make the most of your chances to see them at local venues
while you can. Go
along. Take
your friends. Shout. Scream.
Sing. Cheer.
Dance. Chat
with the band and get to know them.
Give them cake.
Because with the SPiT LiKE THiS universe expanding
at the speed of light, pretty soon they’re going to be
spread a lot more thinly.
Thanks
to Paul Tipler, Lord Zion, Vikki Spit & Cyndi Rott for
their patience and hospitality.
Read
MAKiNG OF SLT ALBUM (2007)
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2 | Part
3 | Part
4 | Part
5
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STUDiO ARCHiVE 2002-2005
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