Column: Gordon Raphael #2, Oct 2001
By: Gordon Raphael
Good morning 2001, my name is Gordon Raphael, a west-coast Seattle boy now living in New York City. I have a basement recording studio in the east village called Transporterraum in honor of my good friends in Berlin, Moses Schneider and Benson Lauber, who have the original studio with the same name.
How I came to this rockfeedback column is an interesting story - stemming back to a certain Strokes show at Heaven, London last June at which I met Toby L while heading to a raging after-show party. I must say I am very glad he asked me to write here, and want to take this opportunity to tell some stories, express some hotly held opinions and happily introduce some powerful, interesting new music that has either crossed my path or been born in the Transporterraum, NYC.
Let's start with the aforementioned rock group, The Strokes. During the last week of August 2000, I went to a tiny hole in the wall nightclub on Ludlow Street called Luna Lounge expressly to test the promotion skills of Ms. Kerri Black and to stone-cold hustle any bands I could find to record at my studio, which is only 2 blocks away. (My own band, Absinthee featuring Anna Mercedes, needed promotional help in a big way, and I am always searching out musicians to record, in order to pay for my plush velvet dungeon filled with music gear.)
On this fateful night I watched two bands: Come On, a tight and snappy group who were like some wild, young Beatles, and The Strokes, who were extraordinarily stylish and energetic, but a little on the 'un-together' side. I really wanted to record Come On cuz they impressed me a lot, but - in the fine tradition of New York lowlifes - I hustled both bands enthusiastically.
Within two days, a dude called Albert and his friend Julian walked into Transporterraum to check me out for a possible recording job. I cranked up the volume in the control room and played my then favorite crop of artists whose music I had evoked, captured and mangled in our mighty Apple G-4 (in fact, these artists are still with me and I will present them in due course). I especially like to show off bands with amazing singers - cuz the quality and charisma of their voice often makes me look like a genius for some twisted reason! Suffice to say that - after a few excerpts - Albert and Julian immediately began discussing their bummer experiences at other studios and strong concerns for an honest, no bullshit approach to recording their music that might conjure up values of a time gone by, fused with the urgency of sounding brand new. 'We want to sound like a group from the past, who could time-travel into the future for this demo!' That was my introduction to their thinking, and - looking back - was the first of countless obscure, strange phrases which in actual fact make perfect sense.
A three-day period of time was picked for the demo recording, and I offered them a super-low, introductory-deal special-rate so if they liked me - and my work - they would come back for more. I needed some pocket money for a trip I would be taking back to Seattle for a big party, and I thought this cheap demo would be just the ticket. Of course, I also hoped what we could make in three days would be good enough to help The Strokes get a gig at a small club, not just a tiny one!
On the day that the boys came in with their Fender DeVille Amps, bass gear, and Fabrizio's drum kit, I noticed most of them were very excited and energetic, especially Fab who was so damn lively that he seemed to be bouncing off the walls - but in some almost annoyingly fresh and healthy way. That guy Julian, who I did not really know at all back then, seemed like he was already bored and doubtful that this was going to work out. In fact - all through the preparation - whilst everyone else was smiling and moving stuff around, he sat against a wall, or sat on the purple couch nursing a beer and looking absolutely unimpressed.
After a while, I got some great drum sounds, something I take much pride in. I glanced over to see Julian's face, thinking I would certainly gain his confidence with my skill here.
'Why do the drums sound like they're dressed up for Sunday School,' he questioned. 'Can't you loosen their tie or something?'
Yes, this was my second mysterious phrase from Jules which sent me back to the drawing board (mixing board?) to change the drums into their blue-jeans so they could mess around more comfortably. What followed were 'The Modern Age', 'Last Nite', and 'Barely Legal', which went down live, including vocals, into the eight inputs of my Logic Audio/Pro-Tools rig. I had Julian singing through one of these professional keyboard amps that's supposed to sound really good, but actually makes a God-awful, ear-hurting noise. The band played amazing. I liked them more in my studio than on the Luna stage, but maybe I was just getting to know them more. Their guru and guitar guide JP came at the beginning of these sessions, but left for awhile so that I wouldn't be too nervous with his expert ears and strong comments breathing down my neck.
Things went pretty smoothly and right on schedule when we hit a bit of a snag. 'Um, I really don't have lyrics for this one,' warned Julian, referring to the track 'Barely Legal'. I asked what he used for vocals live, and he told me that he usually made things up on the spot. My initial judgements about this guy seemed supported cuz it takes a rare kind to come unprepared to a studio, wishing to make something useful. I wondered if the rest of the group just let Julian hang around cuz he had a good personality or something, for I believed he was a bit of a slacker who didn't really contribute much to the band... I had several lessons to learn here, and Julian showed me how unwise it is to make judgements too quickly, if at all.
While mixing a track, he asked me to raise a vocal-level a bit. I snapped at him, saying, 'Look Julian, I've thought about this song and the vocal is exactly where it needs to be, trust me - I'm a producer and have been doing this for years.' He calmly asked me to give him the benefit of the doubt, and - just for laughs - turn the vocal up one notch. I hemmed and hawed, and reluctantly let him hear his suggestion in action, knowing full well that it would sound terrible... Yes, I was upset to notice instantly that he was right - the song sounded better for his suggestion, and I learned to listen very carefully while working with this band, letting their ideas be heard in a more open environment. I later learned that Julian wrote a lot of the music himself, plays guitar well, and have observed that even in his most 'out of it' states, can tell exactly when something speeds up, slows down or is ever so slightly 'off''. He never fails to amaze me with his vision of how things should sound, and his mysterious, but on the mark suggestions.
Everyone in the band participated in the mixing, JP as well - all of us working together as a team to sculpt the final touches. The sheer energy of this group was riveting and the machines trapped a bunch of it, making for a fine demo. I was surprised and delighted when Rough Trade decided to put out this EP, mostly cuz of the myriad of songs and artists I've recorded that have never even registered a blip on the world's music radar.
Later, when 'NME' picked 'The Modern Age' as single of the week and 'Rolling Stone' wrote about The Strokes, I was positively awestruck - proud and happy for the band, and wondering how this would affect my own musical life. This was indeed a turning point for me; I could feel that even by these early signs, but I will tell more in later writings. I am now able to be taken a little more seriously (not a lot!) on behalf of the wonderful and talented other artists I have produced and/or championed lately. My goal has always been to have what I consider to be outstanding, innovative music somehow jump up and kick the ass of boring, copycat, lazy music that record companies seem to have a fantastic talent for finding and cluttering up the world's ears with. To that end, I hope I can find open-minded, bright individuals with fresh ears to communicate with and channel other sounds towards.
Several bands I want to mention here, but will rant about later are:
Stone the Crow (album: 'Year of the Crow'), from Germany,
The Satellites (two albums), from Mallorca, Spain,
Van Der Meer, from Berlin,
Hoodlum UK, from - you guessed it - London!
... And two fascinating New York acts:
Unisex Salon
The Astrojet
Till next time, thank you and stay healthy.