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AT BATHOUSE Los Lobos Site
Steve Berlin (co-producer) sheds some light on the Phantom
Power Project. I believe the first mention was at the Roadside in Calgary- Jake Gold (Hip Manager) pulled me aside as I was on my way to go sit in with Sheryl Crow and frankly I was so intrigued and amazed as we sat there talking that I missed my cue with Sheryl and she had the entire audience shout my name. Ouch. From then on we all talked some more and I spent more and more time hanging out with the guys as the tour ensued, and I particularly remember the show in Winnipeg as the first time I really got to check out the new songs. That happened to be a special night as anyone who was there would testify-there was heat lightning going on above the stage throughout the show and the band was on fire too. I'd say from then on I was in way deep. Had you heard any of the rough demos before coming to the Bathouse? Yeah, they had spent quite a bit of time working on new songs from I believe March 97 so the first tape had 17 or so ideas and on that was Membership, Escape, Vapour Trails, the beginnings of Poets, and quite a bit of what we then used on some other songs. I was in Ft. Worth when I first heard the tape, and I was just knocked out. They rocked so hard on everything I knew right away we had the makings of a great record. Then a few weeks later the second tape had Save The Planet, The Rules and Emperor Penguin, so by that point...forget about it. What did you think of the Bathouse? Is it a good recording studio? What makes a great studio in my estimation is how comfortable those working in it are, and the guys were completely at ease there, as well they should be, and I think you can hear it in the tracks- they just let it rip. And thatıs before even mentioning Miss Gillian and her amazing cooking. Are the Hip's studio methods different from other bands you have worked with? For some reason it seems I've done predominately a lot of bands' first records- (Crash Test Dummies, Faith No More, Citizen's Utilities, Los Lobos and more), so this one was different in that respect right away. The telepathy a band develops over many records into a career is really hard to top. As far as methodology, it wasn't dramatically different from others I've done, but all I ever ask for is serious dedication to the task at hand and a willingness to experiment and they supplied me with that and then some. It was simply a great experience from top to bottom. |
Some of the reviews have mentioned you may be responsible for the expanded vocal range of Gord Downie? Is this true? Gee, it would be great to take credit for that but the truth is he wrote great lyrics and then he sung the living crap out of them. We would talk about various lines a bit but I have to say I have never seen anybody ever work as hard as he does on the lyrics- just reams and reams of notes and revisions for every single song and he never stopped until the last song on the last day. Sonically, Mark Vreeken and I would experiment with different mics and signal paths but a great vocal usually sounds great no matter what. I think Gord has a unique and wonderful instrument so I just tried to emphasize it as much as I could. What song was most improved song from the early demos you heard? It would probably be "Poets." The demo had the chords and the basic lyric ideas but they sort of occurred in what I thought were a haphazard way- that is the "Don't tell me..." line would fall in a different place every verse. I simply suggested refining the ideas so that they occured with some regularity, and the song came together really quickly after that - I believe the take was # 2 or #3. It was really exciting to watch it take shape and it sounded finished almost immediately, not that it stopped us from working on it extensively thereafter. When you called in to the radio show, you said Los Lobos was recording in Quebec City that day. When the next album due? How far along are the sessions? The track we were working on in Quebec City was for the soundtrack album to "Buffy The Vampire Slayer". It's us and a woman named Janette Jurado singing a Malo song called "Suavecito" from the early 70's. Our album meanwhile is about 80% done and we hope to have it out early 1999. Can we expect a Los Lobos/Hip double bill sometime/somewhere this year? That would be amazing but at this moment we are touring
with Santana thru September and
then we go back in the studio to finish our record so it may have to
wait till next year. We have talked a bit about me joining them as an
auxilliary player for the Canadian tour late this year so if that happens
maybe I can bring the rest of the Lobos along too.
Poets |
