![]() ![]() I think that it was his first album with the band, because the one before that was just Ed. I think the reason things went so quickly was because Chris knew exactly what he wanted from everything. The very end of the session ended up just being playback sessions for all the different people who wanted to hear it. I think it was all done in less than a week. It was a very quick mixing session, and he requested a tape mixdown, because he had recorded it all on his laptop. What was it like mixing a project where one of the band members is so invested on the production side?īy the time we started, Chris already knew what he wanted everything to sound like. Their bass player, Chris Taylor, produced and recorded most of it himself. It's a pretty unusual and incredible sounding record. One of the first records you mixed that got a lot of critical traction was Grizzly Bear's Yellow House. Every studio had a tape machine in the corner then, and right now we're sitting in a studio that doesn't have a tape machine at all. I'd say that the same working method that I have now is similar to what we were doing then, but tape machines are far harder to come by now. Their second LP was both tape and Pro Tools. ![]() The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' first LP was all tape. With TV On The Radio's first two albums, both tape and Pro Tools were used, and the version of Pro Tools that existed back then was far more primitive than it is now. ![]() They were all tape-based, to some degree. Weren't some of the first records of yours that really took off back in the early 2000's tape-based projects? I'm thinking of things like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV On The Radio, and Blonde Redhead. The good thing is that I feel like when a band actually does perform that way, it's instantly heralded. I don't want to say that it's impossible to make those kinds of ecstatic performances with masterful playing now, but it's far less common. I'm always asking how we can get it back. Then you listen to almost all music now, and that "thing" is kind of missing. ![]() I do demonize the computer from time to time myself, because all you have to do is listen to the first verse of any song that was recorded in the '60s, '70s, or '80s, and there's this thing that's there. Now that digital is what's accessible for everyone, tape is what the rich bands use, and digital is now the punk thing. Also, it used to be that doing things on tape was the "punk" thing to do, and doing things on a digital machine, or the computer, was something for the more successful or pop-style groups. I feel like the computer is definitely useful for making things sound super natural. When you get these recordings that sound more analog and "true," it sounds just like a bunch of people in a recording studio. In a lot of ways, I think that's something magical. With the computer, you can make music that sounds like it has never been played - like you can't imagine it having ever been recorded in the real world, or played by a person. It's something I'd like to get more into this year, but I also love the computer. When you stay on tape, there definitely is this magic when you hear a single, great, long performance. And the computer makes it possible for someone with a wild imagination to turn those ideas into something real. Once it ends up in Pro Tools, the album sort of takes control and starts steering things. In those cases, if we stayed on tape, we couldn't do what the band wanted, so we always embrace the idea. But even when I try to do that, eventually somebody in the band will have an idea, and that idea is better than staying all on tape. Once or twice a year I will try to do an album entirely on analog. How much of a role does the computer play in the way you work these days? We spoke to him shortly before he made his final move west.Įven though you're a relatively young guy, you started out working on tape, and you're still surrounded by so much incredible analog gear in here. More recently, Coady has moved from New York to L.A., where he continues attracting artists who are looking to cultivate a distinctive and forward-looking sound. Teaming up with producer David Sitek to build Stay Gold Studios in the early 2000s, he's worked with countless breakout artists and critics' darlings including: TV On The Radio, Blonde Redhead, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, !!!, Grizzly Bear, Architecture in Helsinki, Beach House, and many more. Chris Coady is the engineer responsible for some of the most emblematic and critically acclaimed indie rock records of the early 21st century. ![]()
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