RFBX – Happy Birthday to Rockfeedback from Gordon Raphael
By: Gordon Raphael
Happy Birthday to Rockfeedback!
This here is Gordon Raphael, a musician and producer from Seattle and New York, who used to be a regular contributor as a columnist for Rockfeedback.com for several years. And as we celebrate this past ten years of musical excellence and highly enjoyable journalism- I am reflecting on what a freakin' fabulous decade this has been in my own personal journey through it.
In January of 2000, at the dawn of the new millennium (the 21st century-- a time when according to the plans we had whilst growing up- humans were s'posed to be living on the moon, enjoying inter-planetary peace, and most evils were meant to be eradicated by science and "better living through chemistry", not to mention the indomitable ingenuity of the human spirit, of course!) me and my partner Jimmy Goodman opened the doors to our new funky music studio called Transporterraum NYC, named in honour of the studio in Berlin belonging to my mentor and dear friend, meister-producer Moses Schneider. Our recording studio was on 2nd Street and Avenue A in the heart of the East Village, Manhattan. The place boasted red and purple glitter walls, fake leopard fur sound baffles, and some decent sounding equipment. I'd been building a steady stream of musicians and bands who'd record with me cuz I was fast, inexpensive, gave fairly good results and had that marvellous sense of humour which can sometimes lighten the tension when one is aiming for world domination, easy cash and meeting some nice girls (at some point) by singing hysterically into a small metallic microphone.
I had my own band with Anna Mercedes called Absinthee, playing local shows as much as possible. My first record at the new studio was Our Very Bright Darkness, which was absolutely a revelation and sounded amazing, the group that wrote and performed this was called Satellites, and they hail from Mallorca. Several other short projects came, and on a mission to Luna Lounge on Ludlow Street, I met The Strokes, and asked them to come by and try some demos with me- which sessions resulted in The Modern Age EP, and a chance for us all to grab the ever exploring and mysterious ears and eyes of the world. That was cool for me- to say the least, and after some turbulence and rock-mania, I got a shot at recording their debut full length Is This It.
Things went up and out and over the top from there, and soon I found myself at a The Strokes show at Heaven London watching them perform their first single ‘Hard To Explain’ in front of a throbbing crowd, that already loved them. And, oddly enough, some people even knew who I was (a rarity, really for us behind the scenes guys!)-- for at that very party I met 2 young fresh-faced gentleman named Peter and Carl, their manager Banny and an even younger fresher face belonging to our own Toby L; the 15 years old Toby introduced me to his father, and proceeded to offer me a job writing for his new website- how could I refuse???
I spent the summer seeing some festivals in Europe, visiting Satellites in Mallorca, going to radio shows with The Strokes and Moldy Peaches and getting early demos from The Libertines, who were doing a very different sort of sound than what I heard later. Returning to New York just in time to be in the midst of 9-11, the mayhem and fear, the George Bush stating how he was gonna "get those evil men" etc. Finishing 2001, I was asked to be a touring member of one of my favourite bands, The Psychedelic Furs- performing as keyboardist, guitar and backing vocalist round the USA and Canada for 4 weeks.
February 2002 -I got my first job offer in England, well pleased to be going to the land which most of my rock- heroes hail from, and pay back some major music-karma debt! As it unfolded, I got fired from that gig within 5 days, and zoomed off to London just in time to a) see the first full band Libertines show at Cherry Jam (and they had asked me to produce their record the day before!), and b) intercept The Strokes just in time to sneak in their car on the way to see them perform at the Brit Awards and hang out with the NME people at the after-party. O yes, I liked it all so much I seriously stayed in London for 4 years!
I moved into a nice house near Filthy McNasty's pub, where all my new friends hung out, and within a few months Toby L and I started The Basement club at Highbury Corner. In that first year I recorded 30 different bands, did live sound for The Libertines on their first UK tour, and on my Christmas holiday in Manhattan-- when I least expected to do any work-- I met Regina Spektor and began to record her album Soviet Kitsch- 5 minutes after she played me ‘Poor Little Rich Boy’ with her piano, drumstick on the chair and sweet singing. It was completely spontaneous, and truly musical-love at first hearing! (also one of my favourite records I've been involved with- for sure.)
2003- Produced Room On Fire with The Strokes at the same studio I had met Regina in. Went to Tokyo with them to see them play Summer Sonic festival with Radiohead and The Doors. Started my own recording studio in London, called Silver Transporterraum, and now called Urchin Studio. Formed my band Black Light with Matt, Jason, Toni, Pete and Tim-- super musicians I met through placing an ad in the time honoured NME back pages.
2004- recorded Satellites 3rd album, and produced many unsigned bands that I saw in clubs (Metro, Barfly, Water Rats- mostly). Started Shoplifter Records in the hopes of developing lots of new bands and getting funding for them. Didn’t work out too well, but we did release Soviet Kitsch in England before breaking down. After a Black Light show at Camden Barfly- I met a very lovely, talented young lady from Sheffield named Sarah Maguire, but then got called away to build a studio for The Strokes and begin work on their 3rd album as well. So I began a one year residency in Manhattan with them, whilst my band and studio went into freeze mode in London.
2005- Got fired (I'm pretty good, right??) from First Impressions Of Earth, and luckily had begun a wonderful record with Skin (who sings so magnificently, I must say!) and got immediately called to work with a very talented and famous Mexican band called Fobia. They took me to stunning countryside, gave me my own penthouse apartment in Mexico City and took me to Acapulco as well, which was a marked contrast to bitter frozen January in New York.
I also took up an offer to move my base of operation and living to Berlin, and just jumped into that with very little preparation. Turned out very well, and I am still living in Berlin today. Worked with two outstanding Berlin bands- Super 700 and Husky Stash-- and invited Sarah Maguire to come here to work on her art and music- among other things!
2006- Sarah and I moved back to London for a year and travelled to New York and Seattle before deciding that Berlin was calling us for round two. Not a very musical year for me, but probably a good time-off, after a busy start to the decade.
2007, 8 and 9; working on developing Gordotronic - sort of an advanced Shoplifter Records idea, and spending most of my time travelling all over Europe to produce cool, unsigned bands. In the 10 years I've been producing almost constantly, I have yet to work with a band or on music which I did not totally enjoy. Some have been easier than others-- usually the bands that like the way they sound live and spontaneous, are so fun and easy, and the ones that want to perfect everything to a well-groomed, edited doctrine, are a bit more mental effort! I’m a big fan of the magic of playing music and making sounds, not too interested in micro managing every detail into a museum piece! Also been playing shows of my own music in Berlin, and doing DJ gigs from Estonia to Poland, and several places in between. In Berlin (White Rabbit Gallery) and for SoundEdit producer's festival in Lodz Poland, I had an art show to display my various paintings, drawing, booklets of writing, some videos and slides; this was really fun, and it felt very enlightening to take all my different creations out of my art cupboard and storage units and parade them around in a festive, flamboyant way!
2010-- As a complete surprise, this year started with a real burst of international bands contacting me well in advance and basically scheduling almost my entire time travelling and producing bands: South Africa (The Plastics-- who just went to number one there with a tremendous song called ‘Jukebox’, that I played piano on- yay!), Seattle (Audrey Bochsler and the Girl project), Hollywood (Love Darling), Buenos Aires (Calendar), Brussels (The Tellers), Berlin (The Golden Rule, Sissi Metall, Olivia Anna Livki, Analog Poodle, Simmona,- Sweden (Doctors and Dealers). I just had a weeklong visit from an amazing young artist: the French singer Soko, who transformed all of our lives with her magic and charm and unforgettable musical talents. We worked together on a few songs, and she did a very magical show at the famous White Trash club here-- a real "one of a kind", she has the gift of music, and shared it openly with all of us here.
Im about to go to Oslo, Norway to record Pirate Love, and then on to London for DJ'ing at a party for Pull In Emergency as they release the album we did together last summer.-- It goes on, and believe me; I am happy and energetic to be so closely involved with music and creative people on a daily basis and so celebrate this past ten years of Rock and Rockfeedback.
Danke Shon, Thank you all, and cheeers! x Gordon