SIMPLICITY

Today, let's talk about John Leckie.

John started his career at Abbey Road, where he engineered George Harrison, John Lennon, Mott the Hoople, and Pink Floyd ("Meddle"). In 1989 he did the Stone Roses' eponymous (look it up) record, which became a top ten hit and really put him on the map. He also did the Posies' first record shortly thereafter. He then went back and did ten more weeks with the Stone Roses, recording with the Rolling Stones Mobile Unit (!) near Manchester. But his own admission, he wasn't in control of the situation with the Roses, and resigned. He did a ton of work but got no credit

He worked with Robyn Hitchcock next, then made the Verve's "A Storm in Heaven."

The next project was fairly big, 1994's "The Bends" by Radiohead. Leckie calls this "just another record that I did. I mean, it wasn't without its problems, and it was just a record that everyone picked up on. Then and now, they're like, 'the greatest band in the universe'... so I don't really know what to say about that, except that it was recorded in a traditional manner with two guitars, bass and drums. The difference was that the band was good, played their instruments well and made a good sound so my work was easy."

Well said. He goes on to talk about his production technique for Radiohead....

"People ask me all kinds of things about that album, like, 'How do you get that vocal sound?' It's easy. Just get a good singer with a good voice, put the singer in front of a microphone and it sounds good. Now, if you have a bad singer, even if you've worked like mad to make him sound good, no one takes any notice. But if you have a good singer, you just record the vocal flat, and you don't even compress it or limit it. You just put the fader up, and he sings the song first go. Everyone says, 'Ah, the producer's great! Incredible production, man!' And it's just because the guy's a good singer!"

Leckie also breaks some cardinal rules. Nest time you're in a studio, suggest that the engineer put a SM58 instead of a 57 in front of the guitar amp and watch him shit. But this is the mic used on the cabinets for "The Bends," and it's hard to argue with those sounds.

Most of which, by the way, were made with a tele through a twin.