You always want to work with the pros.
I remember my boss at CTV telling me at one point that the A-listers are always the easiest guys to work with.
Well today I got to work with some A-listers. Jimmy Eat World has been doing it for a long time now, and doing it really well. I've always loved their music. They've got a thing for melody. And whether it was back in the 'Clarity' days, where the songs were longer, and, perhaps, a bit more self-aware, or the more pop-focused sound of the past few records, I've always felt they were a cut above their 'rock and roll' peers.
They've just put out a new record, and were in Toronto playing the Kool Haus last night. Today they were the musical guest on MTV Live and I was their music mixer for broadcast. In short, that means I was the guy mixing the band as you hear them on TV.
The first thing that blew me away was simply how much gear these guys loaded in. We pretty much packed their entire road rig into the Masonic Temple, all for 3 songs on TV! Their full Front-Of-House console and road racks, their entire monitor console and setup, all mics, cables, stands, and enough guitars and amps to drive a fifty-piece orchestra. It was sweet.
In terms of gear, there really is a difference between the big shots and the other guys. The last show I did their was a couple of rented fender reverbs and a small ludwig kit. Jimmy Eat World showed up with their sound all ready to go. Great amps, great guitars, great drums. Huge tone from every source.
So here's how this works. The band rolls in around noon. Well… you don't see the band for several hours. Their crew loads in, sets up, etc. For the first few hours, everybody is slinging cables, opening cases, building stands, etc. Everything has a place, and there's very little guess work. The guitars are pulled out, tuned up, wiped down, and racked. The drums are placed, tuned, and miked.
About five minutes before the band walks in, we do a quick tap-test to make sure all of our microphones are live and we're ready to go. In terms of setup, all sources are split at the stage. Monitors gets a copy, Front-Of-House gets a copy, and I get a copy. I run my own preamps (32 channels of DigiPre), and I'm entirely independent of the house mix. Today I was just over 30 channels wide.
By the time the band first walks in, everything is ready to go for them. They rehearse all three songs and I record them straight in a row. During rehearsal I'm getting basic sounds, keeping an eye on incoming levels, and basically just making sure I'm getting everything I need. All in all, everything sounds terrible at this point! About 20 minutes later, they re-rehearse all three songs again, this time specifically for the sake of planning camera blocking (angles and moves). Again, I record all three tunes.
At this point, the rest of the crew moves on to do some other prep work for the show, the band heads back to their bus to continue playing video games, and I've got the next few hours to essentially "mix" the rehearsal songs, the assumption being that "On the day", they'll essentially sound the same as they did in rehearsal.
At some point the road manager stops by to say hi and listen to how things are coming. If they hate it, well… hopefully they don't hate it! (they didn't)
And then suddenly it's show time!
It's a half-hour show, and the band plays three songs at the very end. One or two of them are live, and the others go online at mtv.ca.
It's a huge thrill to do this type of work. There's an immediacy, and an energy, that you just don't have with studio-type work. It's all about finding the right energy… the groove.
The show went really well. Working with Jimmy Eat World, getting to know the guys a little bit... this was a surreal experience. And yet... it really wasn't. Like I said, working with pros is easy! They do their job, and I do mine. And at the end of the day, if we're both as good as we should be... man, that's good TV! I listened to a replay of the show at home later tonight. I wasn't totally thrilled with my mixes, but… hey… when am I?
At the end of the day, the point, to me, is this: Eight years ago, when I was first getting into recording, I had dreams that someday, I'd work with Alison Krauss and Jimmy Eat World. I can't tell you how incredible it is to have been afforded that opportunity, or at least half of it (you're next Alison!). To be able to spend my days working with musicians of this calibre, knowing that they're putting their creative process in my hands and letting me decide how it should be presented to the final audience, is a great and humbling thing. The challenge is a total riot, and to walk out of the building at the end of the day and see hundreds of kids leaving, yelling about how it was "the best show I ever went to!", and know that you got to be a part of it from the inside, is a total blessing.
I love this. Life is good.
JB
