Studio Story-Raw Power (literally)
Up to this point I had been engineering for some time and I had become oblivious to the artists that I was working with, but when I saw that I would be working on Iggy Pop’s Raw Power, I sort of lost it a little. My taste in music had been changing over the years, but no matter what it was at the moment deep down inside I was a punk. If you don’t know much about this album, it is a landmark recording. This record defined what was to be the punk movement, which was to take off only a few years later. It is ranked 125 in the Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums of all time. If you’re still not sure about this music, then maybe you’ll remember this:
What really raised the bar for me was that Iggy was remixing this album with a good friend of mine. There always seemed to be a dispute about the original mixes, which were done by Iggy, then redone by David Bowie. The mixes always had a “thing” to them. So why they were remixing it was always lost on me. On top of that, Iggy was overseeing the new mixes and coming to the mastering session.
On the day of mastering I was a little amped up. I wanted everything right beforehand, so I could really focus and nail this one. I received the tapes late and was trying to align everything and they all walk in, producer, engineer and Iggy. Now I’m behind the 8 ball and I look up at Iggy and Iggy looks at me and without introduction he thrusts a copy of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness at me and says “my record has to be louder than this”. I owned this album, so I knew how it sounded and how loud it was. Even though I wasn’t ready I was starting to feel better about the day. I finished my alignment and hopped to it.
This is where everything starts going downhill. FAST.
I hit play to start working on the first tune, “Search and Destroy”. At this point Iggy starts pacing in front of the speakers with intensity that actually shook me a bit and made it hard to actually listen and concentrate. As I compared the sound and volume to The Smashing Pumpkins I’m finding that I’m exceeding all expectations. Iggy is still pacing like a caged tiger and not saying anything. I’m amazed how big and loud I’m making this without any technical issues. It was like I had solved the eternal audio problem. Then I realize that I’m listening incorrectly. I’m not listening to the digital converter, so I don’t really know what the final outcome will sound like. Iggy’s pacing faster and faster, the producer and engineer are talking, and it’s incredibly loud so I’m thinking I can slip the puck by everyone and make the switch without anyone noticing. WRONG. I flipped the switch and Iggy stops in his tracks. He looks me right in the eye and says, “Perfect, print it!” Holy $h!t, nailed.
The change in sound when I switched was profound. The music went from sounding big and loud to sounding like the back of a jet engine. It was indistinguishable from music and the layer of distortion was thick. Now I’m hosed. I have to explain what was wrong and I’ll have to start building the sound again. It would be egg on my face, but this is a big record and I just have to suck it up. So, I stop the machine and explain what happened. Iggy just looks at me and says, I don’t care, just make the CD. I start putting my foot down, but Iggy will have none of it. His intensity is growing, it’s directed right at me and I’m starting to realize that I’m on the losing end of this. I quickly come up with a compromise, I’ll do a pass the way he wants it and then I’ll do a technically correct pass and we’ll both compare. Of course, I’m convinced that once he hears the difference I will win him over with a better sounding disc.
He agrees and walks out only having listened to the first tune of the album. After hours of work, I make a CD the way he wanted it and I made a CD the way I felt comfortable, technician that I am. I gave it a day and listened to both CD’s back to back. I listened to my version first and when it was done I was rather proud. It sounded great. Then I listened to Iggy’s version. When it was done I jumped up out of my seat and just wanted to punch someone in the face, and at that moment I understood. The silence was deafening and even though it sounded like crap it had a subliminal energy my version didn’t. Like grabbing a live wire and holding on for dear life. I called Iggy and he laughed at me, telling me he didn’t even listen.
When this record was released I became public enemy #1. It was so bad and so loud that my reputation went down the tubes (among those who care about this stuff). They say, you’re only as good as your last record, and I was starting to think this would be my last record. To this day it’s still considered one of the loudest albums made and that’s not a reputation I’m happy with.
I was able to make amends with the fans a little over a decade later when I had the chance to redo this album remastering the original mix as well as the new mix.
I don’t listen to this album anymore.