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02.08.13 MusicWeek 33
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A chip off the old block: Trevor Horn with his son, Ally, who had a No.1 hit last year as part of Sam and the Womp
making of the record. Every decision comes back to you so when everyone’s gone home you and the engineer are still there at 1 o’clock in the morning. Back in the Eighties it was sometimes trying to figure out how to get something sounding like it was in tune with whatever we had at the time. It’s trying to get something to sound in time by slicing bits out of a two-inch tape in the late Seventies, early Eighties, whatever you had to do to get that record finished. And, of course, a recording studio like [Sarm] isn’t like your bedroom. It takes a bit of learning. This is like my bedroom studio is, but back in the Seventies people would have no way of getting anywhere near [Sarm’s quality] unless they actually came in. You might be a writer with a great script but unless you know the process of making a great film your first film will be terrible. Well, exactly the same thing happens when they come in here.
the second one I was off and running somewhere else anyway.
Do you think there’s a chance of working with Robbie Williams again? Yeah, I thought there was a nice album we made together.
At the time of making the album he said it was the most positive he had ever been creatively. He was lovely - I saw him the other day coming in here. We had a cuddle and I said I’d been writing a musical. It was nice to see him and there’s a couple of tracks on that record I really love. I though the first single was great, Bodies, I thought was hilarious, really good fun and Deceptacon and a couple of other things that I’ve got on my own personal playlist. He looks in good shape and has got a great voice, too.
Is it still possible to make a living out of being a producer these days? Oh yeah, especially if you work on the Adele album. If you’re a producer, my advice is: if Adele phones up take the job.
“Robbie came into Sarm the other day and we had a cuddle. I told him I’d been writing a musical. There are a couple of tracks on [Reality Killed The Video star, which the pair made together] that I really love. I thought the first single, Bodies, was great” TREVOR HORN
Can you make it just as a producer now? No, you have to be a songwriter as well.
People can now record their music on their laptops, so what is it that a great studio and great producer can still add to the recording? It’s not just the right producer, it’s the right manager and the right song. It’s surprising what producers can bring to certain things. In the case of a band like Yes where I’ve done quite a few albums with them - I’ve been a Yes fan since year dot - I just run the whole thing because it stops them falling out with each other. The thing about an old school producer you’re the central focus of the
Can you remember when you first came across the phrase ‘record producer’? Yes, I do. I was aware when I was 14 that George Martin produced The Beatles and I was intrigued by it and I saw him on television and I thought, “He’s a bit like a music teacher,” but I didn’t really understand what he did. Then I remembered looking at the producer credits on records: Andrew Loog Oldham and the Glimmer Twins and weird stuff on Rolling Stones records. I was obsessed with recording and recording studios. I started playing when I was about 11 and by the time I was 15 or 16 I was playing semi-pro, playing bass guitar. My dad was a bass player so I used to stand in for him so the whole producer thing didn’t really happen. When I was about 24 I built a studio with another guy in Leicester and we were working seven nights [a week] at a nightclub while we were doing it and because we got no work we put an ad in the paper. Some guys came around with songs that they had for the Leicester Song Competition. We got these guys’ song out, gave it a structure and arrangement and somebody said to me, “You know what you did there was being a record producer” and I was like, “That’s what record producers do?” I had no idea. But he said, “If you become a record producer the production of the record is more important than being a bass player so that comes first.” It took me five years after that to get a hit.
Those records you made in the Eighties like the Frankie Goes To Hollywood ones still sound ultra-modern today... That’s the funny thing because in a way they were the first time you heard that kind of record. I just had this idea of making pop records with a mechanical rhythm because I liked Kraftwerk. All records have got mechanical rhythm sections now, but that was the big idea then.
Those records are still heavily hammered on the radio as well. Yeah, thank God. If they sound good it’s because we were in studios like [Sarm] to analogue tapes even though they were digital records. A lot of people in the music business have come from Sarm and they’ve been trained here and I’m pretty proud of all the people who we’ve worked with. They’ve all gone on to do really good things. If you can work for me you can work for everybody.
Pic: Paddy Balls
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