Making Of

For IDLES' followup to 2018's Joy As An Act Of Resistance, the British rock band went to France to work with producers Adam "Atom" Greenspan and Nick Launay. The resulting record, Ultra Mono, quickly became a huge success, hitting #1 on the UK charts and making appearances on many 2020 year-end lists. This isn't the first time Atom and Nick have worked together on a record. Their partnership dates back to a chance meeting which led to Nick becoming a mentor to Atom. While both have done incredible work on their own, together they've made albums with the likes of  Arcade Fire, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Refused.   We recently had the pleasure of chatting with Atom about his experience working on Ultra Mono. Read on to learn about recording drums in a stone wine cellar, his go-to vocal chain for vocalist Joe Talbot and what it's like making a record with his friend Nick. Continue reading →

When synth-pop quartet Future Islands were looking for a studio to track its sixth record, As Long As You Are, they didn't have to venture far from home to find the right place. The Baltimore, Maryland-based group made its way to the world-class facilities of Wright Way Studios, located conveniently within the limits of Charm City. Once there, Future Islands set to work with studio owner, producer, and audio engineer Steve Wright. In addition to handling both recording engineer and mix engineer duties on As Long As You Are, Steve has built an incredible resume over the past three decades working with artists like Mos Def, U.N.K.L.E, Slipknot, and Dying Fetus. We recently caught up with Steve to talk about the new Future Islands record and the recording and mixing process. Continue reading below to find out what gear he used and learn a little more about the set-up over at Wright Way. Continue reading →

Over the last decade, Detroit-based band Protomartyr has been pushing the boundaries of post-punk and how it's defined. The group's earlier work reminds one of Mark E. Smith's The Fall, but they've transitioned into something much broader and more experimental with the release of their fifth record, Ultimate Success Today. When preparing to record the album, the band's record label linked the members of Protomartyr with engineer and producer David Tolomei. David has built a robust resume since getting his start in 2008 with credits on releases from Dirty Projectors, Beach House, !!!, and John Cale. Continue reading →

Wargirl is a six-person garage rock band co-founded by Matt Wignall in 2016. The band combines an eclectic range of influences including current events, world music grooves, dub-centered rhythms, and lyrics of substance. Wargirl makes music that matters, but also makes you want to get down — the soundtrack of our times. The band recently recorded their new record, Dancing Gold, at Matt’s garage-based Tackyland Studio in Long Beach, California. In addition to producing and recording Wargirl’s albums, Matt has also worked with indie-rock icons like Cold War Kids and Mando Diao. Continue reading →

Queen is one of the greatest rock bands of all time, known for their excessive orchestrations, progressive productions and extravagant theatrical performances. In 1975, the band released their seminal record, A Night At The Opera. At the time, it was the most expensive record ever made with a production budget of £40,000, that’s akin to over $250,000 today. With Queen back on the tip of people's tongues (thanks to a new biopic and upcoming tour), we decided to take a look back at the making of A Night At The Opera. Continue on below to discover what the recording process was like and learn more about the album's lasting legacy. Continue reading →

After the Summer of Love in 1967, psychedelic rock began to spread throughout the world like a strange-smelling cloud of smoke. It quickly became the calling card of 60s counterculture. Artists like The Doors, Led Zeppelin and even The Beatles began to experiment with the genre. But one of the most quintessential albums from the era comes from a band that never got to taste the fruits of their labor. The Zombies are best known for their hit “Time of the Season” from the cult-classic Odessey and Oracle released in 1968. While the album was originally met with mediocre reviews, now — 50 years after its initial release — it’s finally come to be appreciated as one of the greatest albums of all time. Continue reading →

As one of the first hit songs to ever use a Moog synthesizer, "Popcorn" was both a sign of its times and a look far ahead into the future of music. Before soft synthesizers were ever a glimmer in an engineer's eye, electronic-music pioneers like "Popcorn" writer Gershon Kingsley were using big, bulky analog units with no presets to create musical magic. Kingsley, now 95-years-old, began playing the synthesizer in the 1960s, but that’s not where his love of music began. Kingsley had already earned a name for himself in the world of musical theatre, even earning a Tony Nomination in 1958 for his Conducting and Directing. Throughout his lengthy career, he’s arranged music for film and television, Broadway musicals, and many songs for Jewish religious ceremonies, but his most famous work is an instrumental synth-pop song inspired by a salty snack. Continue reading →

In the 1960s, jazz was considered “commercially dead.” The most popular genre of the past three decades had finally given way to the more successful sounds of rock music. By then, Miles Davis had already made significant contributions to jazz music. He laid the groundwork for cool jazz in the early 1950s with Birth of Cool, and in 1959 he released the best-selling jazz album of all time, Kind of Blue. Yet, his most groundbreaking work still lay ahead.   Continue reading →

There's no doubt about it — Van Halen is one of the most influential rock bands of all time. They've sold over 56 million albums in the US, including at least 10 million copies of two different albums, and hold the record for most number-one hits on the Billboard Rock charts. As for the music itself, Van Halen created a unique mix of hard rock, blues and heavy metal that featured a sonic force never heard before. The combination of Eddie Van Halen’s innovative guitar playing, David Lee Roth’s near-performance art approach to being a frontman and the powerful Van Halen/Anthony rhythm section cemented them as rock gods. The off-stage antics like the "no brown M&Ms" on their rider? The cherry on top of it all. Continue reading →

1994 was a weird year in music history. Ace of Base had three of the Top 10 Billboard singles in the US. Kurt Cobain died. Left Eye burned down that mansion. Oh, and three different major labels got in a bidding war over a band who wrote songs about smoking pot and masturbation. Earlier this month, Green Day's Dookie turned 24-years-old, but it's youthful exuberance and pop prowess still seems fresh all these years later. Read on to get insight into how three Berkeley punks were able to create a modern punk masterpiece in the era of grunge domination. Continue reading →