Column: Gordon Raphael #8, July 2002
By: Gordon Raphael
Long time since I last wrote... So many notes and rhythms later - I emerge to tell you all about the continuing adventures.
Now, it's July 2002, and I reside in a proper house in London. After the great and fruitful meetings, greetings and path-crossings during my accidental London arrival (in March), I had to return to America with my head still spinning with the British rock-and-roll fever.
When I incidentally returned back, I spent three weeks in New York City getting into recordings for emerging acts, HQ, Unisex Salon, and The 5 O'Clock Heroes, and then returned to my hometown - Seattle - for a holiday, which soon, rather predictably, turned into another recording-session: this time, for a very young hard rock band called Damnaged! All the time, however, I was hatching a plan to exile back over the Atlantic and try my hand at non-USA life, having convinced my good friend and favorite singer Anna Mercedes to join me on a trek into the new throbbin' rock music lifestyle and party nights that I was quite sure I had discovered in London, and - in late April - we both said hello to Heathrow.
Immediately upon my return, I began producing an album for a wonderful band, originally from New Zealand (no, not The Datsuns - more on them later) called El Hula. My main-man Blair sings for El Hula, writes the songs and also recorded most of the instruments; the project is highly unique and features fantastic singing, Johnny Cash's pedal-steel player and a well-tuned female gospel choir - all set to blazing rock. Following some of the recording, I invited Blair to Berlin where we created a huge, spaced-out remix of his tune 'Arena of My Soul' with my great friends, the epic producers Moses Schneider and Ben Lauber from Van Der Meer. You can hear more on El Hula soon - he is on Boy George's More Protein label, and his LP will be out later this year.
In fact, the prior arrangement has worked out quite well - for George has graciously given me some gorgeous space in his stately and wild house for a small studio in which to tweak my Logic Audio and Pro-Tools desires. Yet, also to my great joy, More Protein have offered to publish to the world a CD of Gordon Raphael's top productions - mwah-haha...
So, allowing y'all to know first what's going on, the first disc will feature nine bands that I worked closely with, featuring The Satellites (Mallorca), Absinthee (Seattle/NYC), D.U.N.E. (London), Unisex Salon (NYC), Colour Twigs (Seattle), Van Der Meer (Berlin), The AstroJet (NYC), Soundtrak (NYC) and El Hula: all quite unknown in the 'big picture', yet about to get a wave of attention... What more could I ask for? Thanks Bel and George!
Right now, however, I'm on a Virgin train heading down from Liverpool to London. I have just spent 100 hours with a band called Without Walls, recording seven songs that we just finished a few moments ago. It was an unexpectedly powerful session, and the songs are very engaging; I certainly didn't expect to like the results this much, because the original demos I heard were very tame and 'straight' sounding. But, in the lovely Elevator Studios (Neve board, Logic - spacious rooms, great vibe... Hammond B-3! OK, I'll stop the technical commentary...), we all had a great chemistry, creating rather raunchy, yet still reasonably clear versions of their songs. Look out for more on them soon...
Elsewhere, in May, I recorded Ripe, dammit - another perfect London rock and roll band; there's this girl involved, Kirsten, who can write, sing and play a mean guitar... She is mesmerizing and lovely in all respects, and even more so 'cuz her band is fierce and relentless. In addition to the mysterious and sexy Kirsten, too, Ripe consist of drummer Luca from Italy and bassist Roman (a Frenchman). The French-Italian rhythm-team really push things out with unstoppable energy, and sometimes, when they war, manage to create an amazing tension that propels the music even harder; rounding out the band is Howard: a punk-rock secret weapon. His world of lightening-fast/smack-you-in-the-face riffs is as authentic and original as you will find... I think we even made seven songs too - geez, what happened to the easy daze of 3 song demos? But I hope you believe me that Ripe are quite slammin' enough to kick down some serious trouble in the blossoming summer of love already under way here in the UK; check 'em out when possible.
Lastly (almost), I had the absolute pleasure of having Jordi, the enigmatic and dazzling singer for The Satellites, as a house-guest for the whole of last week. I will do everything inhumanly possible to invite his band to perform their island-magic rock for audiences here - and soon, too.
Random Encounters:
... Met industry-stalwart Alan McGee at his regular club-night, Death Disco @ Oxford Street's Metro. He's a nice guy, and agreed to let me have my DJ-debut there the next week... I felt like a hot-shot, and played Iggy, The Libertines, The Strokes, My Vitriol, Anna Mercedes, Soundtrak and 'John, I'm Only Dancing', amongst other hits...
... Saw The Datsuns at Underworld, and was granted a day in the studio to 'show 'em my stuff', and produce a few songs. The short story is... The studio we were put in was major-league broken - as in non-functional and hazardous to human health. So, after failing for six hours to record any music, I made a hasty DAT recording from the mixing-board (desperado style) and came out with pretty wimpy, (but to my ears - pleasing) versions of such stompers as 'Harmonic Generator', 'Terrible Power' and 'Get Some'. I wonder if these will ever be heard.
Historically, I originally met the guys in New York during my one month there, when they were opening shows for The White Stripes at Bowery Ballroom. When I walked into the show, some outrageous band was onstage, knocking out Led Zeppelin riffs - but even faster and with way more enthusiasm, even doing on-the-side Kiss-metal, but with a tremendous fever, in a way as if it had never existed before... I thought to myself (having just returned to New York from London) 'F**k; if these kids are from London, then London truly is the world's rock and roll champion, but if they're from NYC, then - heck - New York rules! But, when they told me they hailed from New Zealand... I merely realized that this rock virus knows no boundaries or nations of men; instead, it's a universal problem...
... Picked up some fine equipment: a sexy 1973 Fender Twin Reverb amp, a Jazzmaster guitar, two German synthesizers by Waldorf. I fell in love with all of them, and took them home to be mine. Now, as well, I have the MemoryMoog, 1960 Clavinet (red!), plus another four guitars and a bass, all spread out on my floor, ready to play. In fact, I am going to start a band here. If you know any talented, undeniably-gifted musicians (could be weirdoes...) send 'em my way. All offers of excellence considered. There will be an ad in the 'NME' in the issue out in London on 9th July, complete with contact details. I'm also helping round out Ms Anna Mercedes' new live band here as well, so come on England...
Til then, we can all still remain friends.
More later.
P.S. In case you're wondering, now that I live in London, I don't get to catch up with The Strokes as much - they're currently conquering and fighting the stodgy corporate slow-beast that is America. So, if you're reading this my dear ones - I wish you the best and send a mighty shout-out your way.