How did you get into the business? Where did you get your start with engineering and production?
I went to a school. I forget what it was called and I actually failed. [laughs] I think it was a scam because I totally passed everything and then they just failed me at the end. I was like “Ok, screw this.” So I walked around New York City and found every recording studio that I could find and gave them resumes. I originally got a job at Right Track Recording. It was kind of a big studio- several rooms. I worked there for a couple months and then I quit. After that I went down to SoHo and walked into this place called Green Street and they had just closed. So the guy that owns that sent me to the Magic Shop which is where I worked for four or five years and it’s kind of funny... I walked in there, to the guy at the desk, and gave him my resume and he’s like “Oh, ok,” and said he’d give it to the owner. And then Steve [Rosenthal], the owner of the Magic Shop comes walking up the stairs and goes, “Hey! Who are you?” I was like “Uhhh I’m Matt. I’m dropping off my resume.” And He says, “Oh, you’re here. Go down stairs. I’ll be down there in a minute.” And I was like “Wow, what’s he talking about?” [laughs] and I end up doing an interview which was probably like 45 minutes, where 40 minutes was spent talking about the beach in Florida, but we talked for a little while and I left, and he said, “Give me a call if you want to do this. You seem fine.” I was like “Ok.” So I called him the next day, and it turns out some other guy named Matt was supposed to show up there at the same time... I just showed up and was like “Hey, I’m Matt” and he just gave me an interview right then.
That’s crazy!
I know. That’s how I ended up getting hired. Anyway, that’s where I worked for like five years. I was an assistant and then chief engineer and I managed it for a little while. That’s how I got my start.
Cool. I think you got pretty lucky. That’s pretty awesome.
Yeah, I really lucked out. It was completely luck.
I know you opened Vacation Island studios in 2007. Why did you decide to open your own studio and go the freelance route?
Well, I had quit the Magic Shop and I was doing a lot of freelance work and it was just too expensive for a lot of bands because they would have to pay a studio plus they would have to pay me. So, I decided I would go to the Magic Shop or a couple other places I like to work at and I would record everything and then I’d set up like a little mixing spot in my house, in one of the rooms of my house, so that’s what I’d do to try and make it cheaper. And then I was like, well, why don’t I build a studio and they just pay me a flat rate and then it’s fine, everyone’s happy. So that’s why I started to do it.
It seemed, from looking at the photos on your MySpace page, to be a bit of a DIY project. What was the construction like?
It actually went really smoothly. One of my friends is a contractor, so I hired him to do all of the contracting. Me and him and one other guy basically built the entire thing. I had a lot of help. From working at the Magic Shop I know a lot of people who have been in the business for awhile and have built studios and whatnot and they gave me a lot of really great advice and books to buy and stuff to read. I mean, it was DIY, but it wasn’t. It’s solidly built and professionally designed, basically.
Regarding producing and engineering, is there a project that you’re most proud of?
The Gang Gang Dance record that I made is really cool. I’m really proud of that one. I did some work with Bat For Lashes, which was fun and turned out really well. Um, what else? The TK Webb record that I made; TK Webb and the Visions. This Frontier Needs Heroes. I just recently finished working on the Acrylics album and they’re currently in a bidding war with a couple of labels, so that one should be pretty cool. I really liked that one. What else have I done? I’ve done a lot of stuff. That’s just a couple of recent things that I’m into.
When you listen to albums that you’ve worked on, is there ever anything specific that you hear that’s your thumbprint or trademark?
I don’t know. I guess all the stuff I do has a certain sound. I don’t know if I can really put my finger on it. It really just is what it is. I do what I do. I like compression a lot, so everything is real, sort of tight and in your face, which I like. But I work on all kinds of things you know? Like the Acrylics record is kind of more pop I guess, and TK’s record is more like a metal record. It all does have a sound, like when I listen to all the different things that I’ve done, I recognize the consistency but I don’t know if I can really put my finger on it. I guess with vocals and stuff I like to use a lot of delays. I have a lot of old analog delays that I use a lot. Instead of using digital stuff or plug-ins or something like that. I tend to use a lot of analog here. I keep it as analog as possible because, when I worked at the Magic Shop, for years I was doing stuff on tape. I just got kind of attached to the analog sound. I really just use Pro-Tools as a tape machine and I use plug-ins but not that much. It’s mostly, all my output. I run everything through that, so I guess the analog quality of my work is a signature of some sort.
You also do some re-mastering work, which is a different discipline than producing and recording. How did you get into that?
That was when I worked at the Magic Shop. Steve Rosenthal, the owner, does a lot of remastering work and I actually started off, I was an intern, and he was remastering the Rolling Stones catalog and they needed somebody to run the turntable. Because we’d have the master tapes and we’d have the records. They had a record shop that they went to and got all the original vinyl. So we would compare stuff to make sure the speeds were right. So that’s what I was doing. They called me “Vinyl Boy.” So that’s how I got started with that. And after they would leave at night Steve would be like “Hey, why don’t you run the tape machine?” and I started learning that.
Remastering is a really specific art form unto itself because you have to sort of EQ the tape machine a lot. On tape machines they have like high frequency, low frequency so you screw with that a lot to try and get it sounding as good as possible and really make sure that the alignment is right and all that stuff so you really get the most out of the tapes. Because I mean, the tapes are from the 60s and 70s and they stick around forever.
One of the Rolling Stones masters ended up on a cruise ship and it had traveled around the world something like 25 times or something [laughs]. So I guess one of the Rolling Stones went on some sort of cruise and for some reason has—or who knows, maybe Andrew Loog Oldham, their producer, I don’t know—but it got left and it was just sitting in storage on this cruise ship. And the lady who was the engineer for ABKCO, which is the company that put out the Rolling Stones, told me that story. Teri Landi was her name and she told me that story and I was like “Holy Shit! How the hell?” My question was, yeah, that’s crazy and all, but how do you find a Rolling Stones master on a cruise ship? How would you know to look on a cruise ship? I don’t know. I don’t know, they just did.
It’s amazing it didn’t just get thrown out by somebody who didn’t know what it was.
Yeah, I know, right?
What’s it like working on recordings by legends like the Rolling Stones or Sam Cooke?
It’s awesome because, you know, you have a piece of history sitting in your hands. You have the quarter-inch master tape. Actually, for a while I was slicing off little pieces of leader tape and sticking them in my wallet. [laughs] So I had little pieces of the masters in my wallet, but then it got stolen.
Awwww…
I was taking it as good luck, but I guess it wasn’t. But it’s really cool because you have like “Satisfaction” in your hands. You’re holding the master recording of “Satisfaction” and it just feels really cool, you know what I mean?
That’s awesome. Is there a dream band out there that you’d love to work with if you had the chance?
I don’t know. Yeah, I’m sure there’s lots of ‘em. I’d love to work with Neil Young because he is really cool, but that will probably never happen. But as far as current bands, I’d like to work with MGMT. I know those guys, that whole Chairlift/ Acrylics/ MGMT crew and I’d love to work with them. Me and Ben [Goldwasser, of MGMT] are friends and I really like their music. That would be a good one.
When you were working at the Magic Shop, you worked with guys like Steve Rosenthal and John Agnello. Did they give you any words of wisdom? What did you learn from them?
Oh yeah, that’s where I learned everything. Steve taught me a lot of stuff about being patient and how to work with people and try to keep everybody happy, which is definitely a good thing to know how to do. John Agnello just showed me a lot of cool rock and roll record tricks, and he’s a really fun guy, so he taught me a lot of stuff. Also, the tech there at the time at the Magic Shop was a guy named Matt Wells who has another studio. He taught me a lot. They told me how to do stuff and showed me their old school tricks and how to record stuff to tape and how to do stuff right and how to mix and how to balance all the elements of a mix properly. So, yeah, I kind of owe everything to those guys.
I also worked a lot with Dave Sardy when I was an assistant when he was making a couple of records. Oasis was one of them, and The Thrills and something else I can’t remember, so I learned a lot about mixing from him since he’s like a master mixer and producer.
That was the great thing about the Magic Shop, all these amazing people—artists, producers and engineers—would come in and you would just kind of pick a little bit from each of them and put together your own style.
What advice would you give to someone looking to get into engineering and producing?
I would say get a job at a studio to get established and be an assistant. Matt Wells told me, I asked him, “How do I turn into an engineer? How do I do that?” And he was like, “Well, all the best engineers are the best assistants.” And I was like “Oh, ok.” So I just devoted all of my time to being the greatest assistant ever and it worked. Because then you learn what you need to do to get the job done. I would say just to stick with it and really work hard and just forget about everything else in your life. I would spend days there. I wouldn’t leave. I wouldn’t see daylight for like five days, you know? It was just a level of devotion. You’ve got to be willing to work long hours and be willing to have a lot of failures. Because, in the music business, one out of a hundred or a million may get signed, who knows?
