STUDIO
THE PRODUCERS: BUTCH VIG American alternative rock producer Butch Vig changed music forever when he recorded Nirvana’s
seminal Nevermind LP in 1991. MARTIN JERRAM explores the work of this legendary and highly influential producer who recently reunited with Dave Grohl on Foo Fighters new album Wasting Light.
Ready to roll: Butch Vig at the mixing console
Butch Vig was born in 1955 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. He started playing piano as a child until a riotous performance by The Who on The Smothers Brothers TV show led, almost inevitably, to the youngster deciding that he was now going to be a drummer! Vig’s professional studio career began in 1983 when he established Smart Studios in partnership with former band mate Steve Marker. Smart studios welcomed artists like Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage and a little known band from Washington State named Nirvana, whose association with Butch Vig eventually helped to catapult them to megastardom!
Fresh sounds Around the same time that he founded Smart Studios Vig’s band Fire Town were recording their fi rst album for Atlantic Records. Whilst the sessions didn’t amount to much Vig gained his fi rst real taste for music production, eventually moving behind the mixing board full time. After a steady if fairly unremarkable career everything changed in 1991 when Vig produced the album, Electric Bird Digest by power pop journeymen, The Young Fresh Fellows. Although the album barely made a splash at the time, listening to it now almost
feels like the production blueprint for the massive hit that was shortly to follow later that year. Vig had developed an uncanny knack of producing heavy guitar sounds and powerful drums in a big and glossy rock setting that sounded almost like pop without failing into the trap of some of the late 1980’s more pompous sounding rock productions. The next album on Vig’s schedule was the second album for a little known rock band from Seattle called Nirvana; the album they made together Nevermind, changed the entire musical landscape...
Power trio Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain eventually went on to criticise the sound of Nevermind but there is absolutely no doubt that this album alone thrust a whole new genre into the world. The production on Nevermind is simply fi rst class and features, unusually for a rock record of its time, double tracked vocals. Double tracking the vocals was popular in the 1960s and normally helps to deliver a fuller and more present vocal sound, in heavy rock music however it often sounds a bit too nice. Indeed, Cobain was originally reluctant until Vig reminded him of all those old Beatles records where John
Lennon would copiously double track his voice. (Ironically, Lennon also went on to criticise the ‘over produced’ sound of later Beatles records). The double tracked vocals were invariably twinned with big sounding double rhythm guitar parts panned left and right to give a huge sound, whilst Dave Grohl’s thunderous drumming punched through with massive energy whilst still sounding like a drum kit rather than the explosively processed snare sound of ‘80s rock productions. Staying in production Vig never strayed far from his alternative rock roots also recording artists such as Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth and Soul Asylum. However, Vig surprised everyone on 1995 with the formation of a new band Garbage. Based around him on drums, and featuring two previous band mates from the Spooner days, Garbage also featured a female vocalist (Shirley Manson). Whilst everybody was expecting another big sounding rock project, Garbage played things very differently and featured a much more electronic and loop based sound. Despite this, Vig made sure that Garbage still maintained a rock feel, and indeed probably secured more fans from the electronica camp that were nevertheless intrigued by this mesmerising hybrid. The fi rst Garbage album is certainly a
master class in combining what had until that time seemed like two disparate genres, where previously lesser productions had sounded like the electronics and the rock instruments had like been bolted together ala doctor Frankenstein!
Grab a Grammy After sales of over 10 million CDs Garbage was put on hiatus and Vig has now returned to production work which has seen him working with bands who either have direct links to Nirvana (Foo Fighters) or bands that were infl uenced by them. Green Day won a Grammy Award for their Butch Vig- produced 2009 album 21st Century Breakdown and Vig also recently produced a hit single with English rockers Muse. Vig is also massively in demand as a remixer for artists looking for that big, beefy (but slightly alternative) sound. His work in this fi eld reads like a bit of a Who’s Who: Beck, The Cult, Depeche Mode, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Alanis Morissette, and Nine Inch Nails. Whilst Butch Vig may not be the most prolifi c of producers, he created a sound that was and still is so ingrained in rock music, a sound that is polished without being polite and aggressive without being painful; the signature of a true craftsman! PM
VIG’ING IT UP…SOME BUTCH VIG PRODUCTIONS WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU CHECK OUT.
The Smashing Pumpkins - Gish & Siamese Dream Nirvana - Nevermind Tad - 8-Way Santa Sonic Youth - Dirty L7 - Bricks Are Heavy Foo Fighters – Wasting Light
Sonic Youth - Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star Soul Asylum - Let Your Dim Light Shine Garbage - Garbage & Version 2.0
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