Culture
Sound City: The Human Element
By Adam Parshall / Gavel Media Staff
I
n the documentary Sound City (released on Feb. 1), Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl tells the story of the legendary Sound City recording studio in Van Nuys, CA. An analog tape-based studio with a knack for churning out hit records, Sound City closed in 2011, prompting Grohl to purchase some of the studio equipment, including the legendary custom-made Neve 8028 console. He also planned to make a short film paying tribute to the studio, the console and the people who had worked there throughout the years. But what started as a short film soon snowballed into a much larger project. The resulting movie, Sound City, documents the studio’s history, its legendary physical qualities and the people who worked and recorded there who gave the studio its natural, human feel. Grohl takes us through the studio’s early days as a Vox amplifier factory all the way to its private ownership by Tom Skeeter in 1969, who bought the building as a way to get into the entertainment business. Through dozens of interviews with artists, engineers, producers and others associated with Sound City, Grohl shows us how this building, described by some who used it as “dumpy” and “trashed,” became one of rock and roll’s best-kept secrets. One thing that set Sound City apart was the one-of-a-kind Neve 8028 analog console, custom ordered
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for the studio by longtime engineer and producer Keith Olsen. Artists and engineers who worked on that board would often refer to it as the best board they had ever tracked on or recorded into. Grohl regards it as “the reason I’m here right now.” From the time artists began recording through that board, with Buckingham-Nicks in the early 1970s, to Fleetwood Mac after that, all the way through the ‘80s, ‘90s and 2000s, it was known for producing hit records. Sound City’s first great successes came with Buckingham-Nicks and Fleetwood Mac, who recorded their critically-acclaimed, self-titled albums as well as Rumours at Sound City. That combination of the live tracking room, the Neve console and analog tape gave those albums their signature sounds. Sound City would continue to spawn hits throughout the late 1970s, including hit records with REO Speedwagon, Foreigner, Cheap Trick and Tom Petty. With their next big success in Rick Springfield and Working Class Dog, Sound City saw a surge of business throughout the early 1980s, including
Nirvana. Neil Young. Fleetwood Mac. Metallica. Weezer. Cheap Trick. Johnny Cash. Rage Against the Machine. What do all of these have in common besides being multiplatinum bands and recording artists? They all recorded at Sound City Studios.
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