Latest / Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond / From Robert Margouleff | Shaping Sounds: Stevie Wonder, DEVO, the Synth Revolution and My Life Behind the Music

Transcript

From Robert Margouleff | Shaping Sounds: Stevie Wonder, DEVO, the Synth Revolution and My Life Behind the Music · Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Pushkin. I hope you enjoyed our episode with iconic music
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: producer and engineer and author of the new audiobook Shaping
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Sounds Stevie Wonder devo the Synth Revolution in My Life
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Behind the Music, Robert mark Lev If you haven't heard
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: it yet, be sure to check it out. Today I'm
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: sharing an excerpt from Shaping Sounds. Robert talks about working
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: alongside not only Stevie Wonder on his classic albums, but
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: with artists like Minnie Riperton on our hit Loving You
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: and the Isisley Brothers on their three plus three album,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: which brought together incredible guitar leads and smooth vocals to
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: blend old in new school R and B. Here's the clip,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: but if you want to hear more, check out Shaping Sounds.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Stevie want to devo the Synth Revolution in My Life
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Behind the Music. Wherever you get audio books, you can
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: use the code Sounds twenty five. That's so o U
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: n DS two five at pushkin dot fm slash Shaping
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Sounds to save twenty five percent on the audiobook. Thanks
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: for listening.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Chapter thirteen our non stop studio. While we were with
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: Stevie Besides working on his own albums. We worked alongside him,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: continuing as a team on two albums he produced, one
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: for his ex wife, Sita Wright, the other for Minnie Riperton.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Sorita Wright was a receptionist at the Motown offices in
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Detroit when Edward Holland of the Holland Dozier Holland songwriting
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: team heard her singing and was impressed enough that he
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: had her sing on some demos. She met Stevie in
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: nineteen sixty eight and they began dating about a year later.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Their relationship was both personal and professional. Stevie encouraged her
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: to write her own songs, and the two collaborated on
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: his hit signed Seal Delivered I'm Yours. They married on
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: September fourteenth, nineteen seventy, and although they divorced only eighteen
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: months later, they remained good friends and collaborators. We worked
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: on Sorita's debut solo album, Serta, released on June twentieth,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: nineteen seventy two, as I recollect. Part of the divorce
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: settlement was that Stevie would produce an album for her.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: They worked amazingly well together and she remained an important
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: part of his team. Providing lyrics, background vocals and compositions
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: for several years. Yvonne Wright, no relation to Serrita, was
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: another important collaborator. She wrote the lyrics to Girl Blue
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: and Evil. She would sit next to him at the
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: piano while he was recording and whisper or lining to
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: him a few bars ahead as he was playing and singing.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: He was very tight with her. Music of My Mind
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Ends with Evil, a simple and incisive piece of social
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: commentary that opened the door to our collective consciousness. Evil,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Stevie asks, exasperated, why have you engulfed so many hearts?
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Why have you destroyed so many minds? The lyrics ring
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: true to this day and musically it has a fantastic
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: opening tanto front and center, with a nobo sound and
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: a foreboding bass. The sound is simple, singular, sad and compelling.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: We first met Minnie Riperton when she came to the
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Fulfillingness Sessions to add background vocals. We were so impressed that,
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: even though we were in the thick of it with
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: our own project, it didn't matter. Malcolm, Stevie and I
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: all jumped at the chance to work with her. When
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: her husband and songwriting partner Dick Rudolph asked us to
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: help make her second record, Perfect Angel. I remember putting
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: the bird sounds on her song Loving You, which were
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: reminiscent of the sound effects we used with Stevie on
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Living for the City. Minnie had an extraordinary voice, especially
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: in her false register. It was totally under her control
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: and its clarity was astounding. Loving You became Ripurton's biggest
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: hit and topped the Billboard Hot one hundred chart on
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: April fifth, nineteen seventy five. It went on to sell
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: over a million copies. We recorded most of the album
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: at the Record planned LA and mixed it at Westlake Audio,
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Tom Hidley's new place. We went there because it had
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: the first API console with fader automation, and we tracked
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: many of Many's vocals in the control room with all
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: of us on headphones. Tom had built Westlake as a
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: showroom to sell the latest studio gear. He used the
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: control room in the back to demo whose studio design concepts,
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: the latest and recording consoles and all the new gear
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: coming to market. It wasn't really a studio, just a
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: control room. The store in the front was the showroom
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: and it gave us access to all the latest outboard
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: gear in the industry. We came our lounge during our
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: nighttime sessions. Sometimes we would sit on the floor up front,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: leaning against all these new racks of gear with its
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: pistachio and brown shag carpeting, eating pizza or a bucket
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: of Kentucky fried chicken. The API console only remembered fader levels.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: The rest was done in real time. As usual, the
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: memory was stored on the first and last tracks of
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: the master tape, so every time we made an update,
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  Speaker 2: we would have to jockey back and forth printing the
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  Speaker 2: update on the alternate track, which caused the fader moves
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  Speaker 2: to come back later and later and was overly complicated.
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  Speaker 2: So Malcolm and I would make as many moves as
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: possible and use the automation as little as possible. In
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: the end, we were happy with the record. Once again,
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: using the latest and greatest technology fed our creative spirit.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: While we were working with Stevie on his project, there
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: was little room or desire to work with anyone else.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: There were down times, though, especially when Stevie was on
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: the road. That's when Malcolm and I kept busy working
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: on albums with other artists. We recorded The Isley Brothers
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: three plus three in nineteen seventy three while Stevie was
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: touring and promoting Inner Visions. The Isleys were a true
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: family affair. The original Isley Brothers consisted of O'Kelly Issley Junior,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Rudolph Issley and Ronald Eisley. Three plus three would be
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: the first album to formerly include the younger brothers Ernie
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: on guitar and Marvin on bass, and brother in law
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: Chris Jasper on keyboards. The original trio officially became a sextet,
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: hence the album title. It was both old school and
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: new school. Laur and B with Ronald's incomparable smooth lead
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: vocals and Ernie's hardage guitar leads. Chris and Marvin brought
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: new funk rock entersery to the band, and the combination
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: proved to be a significant artistic advance for them. Our
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: first meeting came when they walked in on us while
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: we were mixing Don't You Worry About a Thing? With Stevie.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: We already knew about them and figured out pretty quickly
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: what they had in mind, which was precisely what we
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: had on our table. As usual, we had a lockout
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: in Studio B to ensure our setup remained intact. We
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: would arrive early in the afternoon and prepare the room
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: for work. Once again. We tracked the basics with quad
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: monitoring and the players in the control room. The guys
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: would usually arrive an hour or so after us and
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: get started right away. There was no dilly dallying around
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: the canteen. They were always very single minded and down
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: to business. They came in well prepared, having played and
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: perfected all the songs in rehearsal or on the road.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Ronald's lead vocals were terrific. He was at the top
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: of his form and we could feel his gospel roots.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: We used an RI twenty mic in the same close
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: confessional approach we deployed for Stevie's vocals. Working with Ernie
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: on guitars was a sonic adventure. He regaled us with
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: tales of Howe as a little boy, he played guitar
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: with Jimmy Hendrix in the family's kitchen. Jimmy was there
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: because the senior Isisley's had recruited Jimmy to play in
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: their backup band in the early sixties. We developed a
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: very original sound for Ernie's lead guitar parts. We recorded
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: a ZAM through a Dolby three sixty one noise reduction unit,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: but didn't decode the signal. We left it raw and
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: then compressed it with a flickin' er tube limiter. You
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: can hear the results of our labor on the guitar
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: leads on Who's that Lady in Summer Breeze, among others
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: on the record. The rest of the tracking was very straightforward,
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: with our traditional approach being tight and close, with the
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: drums recorded from the drummer's point of view. Marvin Space
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: was recorded direct to the board, as were all of
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Chris's electronics, scents and keys. There was z improv experimenting with
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: percussion and figuring out the background vocal arrangements in the studio.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: O'Kelly and Rudolph, along with the rest of the guys,
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: sang the background vocal parts. They also oversaw all the business,
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: financials and logistics. O'kelly's one eccentricity was that he had
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: very long fingernails, at least two or three inches long
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: on his left hand. Rudy ran the show both on
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  Speaker 2: and off the road. He made sure everybody got to
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  Speaker 2: the studio on time. If any of the brothers were late,
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: they would hear it from him and it wouldn't be pleasant.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: They were a very professional, well oiled machine. We never
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: connected outside the studio. It was all strictly business. Malcolm
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: and I had the feeling that in their eyes we
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: were like the studio itself, simply tools to be used.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: They wanted what Malcolm and I could do to enhance
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: their sound by bringing in new techniques and technologies to
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: the album. We were there strictly to serve those needs,
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  Speaker 2: which was totally fine with us. When we finished, O'Kelly
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  Speaker 2: brought in a briefcase with a stack of one hundred
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: dollars bills and paid our twelve thousand dollars fee in cash.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: A year later, when Stevie was on the road once again,
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: we recorded a second album with the Oisley Brothers. The
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Heat Is On continued with three play us three left
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: off with the same lineup. By now, the Isleys had
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: found their pocket and perfected their soul funk sound. Malcolm
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: and I felt like we had never left the studio,
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: as if we'd recorded three plus three the day before.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: The big difference was that we tracked the record at
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Kendon Recorders in the San Fernando Valley on the other
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: side of the Santa Monica Mountains from Hollywood and the
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: record plant. It was another Tom Hidley design and the
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: console was an API with custom Dean Jensen transformers. We
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: felt right at home. We mixed the album at Tom's
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Westlake Audio. The Heat Is On was unusual because all
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: the uptempo funk was on side one and the smooth
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: ballads were on side two, which helped it set a
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: certain mood. It first charted on June fourteenth, nineteen seventy five,
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: and spent forty weeks on the Billboard two hundred. It
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: was the Isley Brothers first album to hit number one
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: once again. When we were done, O'Kelly showed up with
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: his famous briefcase and paid us in cash. We never
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: saw or heard from them again.