MSJ-Interview with Ronan Chris Murphy

Interview with Ronan Chris Murphy

Interview by Bruce Stringer

Music Street Journal: What are your current projects at Veneto West studios

Ronan Chris Murphy: We're just doing guitar overdubs and we'll be here for 2 weeks doing this record.

Music Street Journal: Who are you working with?

Ronan Chris Murphy: A band called Lint from Sweden. Really, good band. I'm really excited about this. We're doing it unsigned at the moment but we're doing it under the radar of all the majors over here, in the US, anyway.

Music Street Journal: So, what's the first thing you do with a band or artist before entering the studio?

Ronan Chris Murphy: The first thing is to work with them before we get into the studio because sometimes the most important work you do is before we even walk in. If the songs aren't in the best shape or if the performers aren't playing the right parts there's almost no reason to go into the studio. That's going to affect the sound and feel and excitement of a record much more than any mic'ing technique I could ever use. To me, a lot of the most important work is before we even set-up the first drum mic.

Music Street Journal: How does your ability to get along with the band affect your ability to complete the project how you would like?

Ronan Chris Murphy: Oh, I would say that it's a huge factor. I think trust is probably one of the most important factors, especially with an established band because they have certain ways, a certain identity and things that I'm going to do as a producer, coming in making recommendations. Everything from song arrangements to sound and delivery can sometimes be a big jarring for a band who've be playing these songs for maybe a couple of years.

A big thing is developing a relationship where everybody respects and trusts each other so, even though a part might feel awkward for a musician to make that change, that they're at least going to trust or have faith in me to give it a try. And not think that I'm trying to turn them into something they're not, that I might have some good perspective on really just highlighting what's already great about them, versus trying to turn them into something that doesn't represent who they are as artists.

I've been quite lucky over the course of my career, but relationships can in fact go bad in the studio and that can totally devastate the recording. I've been pretty lucky for the most part, so I think that it's a huge factor.

Music Street Journal: Working on Situation Dangerous (Bozzio, Levin, Stevens) I understand that there was emphasis on recording in a very short time period. Did this put you under a lot of pressure?

Ronan Chris Murphy: We did it in quite a short amount of time but not as short as their first album, which I didn't work on, that was an insanely short amount of time. We had about a week or 10 days of rehearsals before we actually walked into the studio and much of that time was spent composing material and developing ideas that they worked on.

Compared to some other records we weren't as crunched for time. We had a good amount of time for rehearsals to get things in good shape and again we had a fair amount of time to get most of the basic material down and then we actually took a break. Steve Stevens did some of the overdubs at his own studio - he is a fantastic recording engineer in his own right.

It was a difficult record and it would've been nice to spend 3 months doing it, but we worked extremely hard to finish what we needed to do, especially given that Steve developed some of the material by himself.

Music Street Journal: Were there any difficulties working with Terry's drum kit, size-wise? Were there any specific techniques you employed when mic'ing, recording or mixing his drum set?

Ronan Chris Murphy: Well, with Bozzio, I don't think that you're likely to find a more challenging drummer to record on the planet! You have 4 kick drums, 16 toms, 40 cymbals… The logistics of it are massive, not only in regards to the size of it but someone like Terry Bozzio isn't a traditional. For a straight rock drummer you've got to make sure that the kick and snare are really big and punchy and you can more, or less, hear everything else, whereas with Bozzio the toms are very important because he's a really melodic player. He's not a "boom-crash, boom-crash" percussionist. He's a melodic musician who just happens to play with sticks.

For a drummer like him, there's a big challenge to capture balance between everything artistically, but also the logistics of that many drums: trying to make sure that the mic's all compliment each other and not fight against each other. You'd be hard pressed to find a more technical drummer to record but also to find a more rewarding drummer to work with 'cause he is just so brilliant and such a unique artist and percussionist. He is such an amazing player and an absolute pleasure to be around. The thing with Terry is that he has this huge drum set but there's something very specific that he's going for. He has a really unique artistic vision as a drummer. A lot of guys will put a great big drum kit together because their idols have big drum sets, yet all they really need is a 4-piece kit to do what they need to do.

Music Street Journal: What attracts you to Tony Levin's playing? Is it the Stick element of his work?

Ronan Chris Murphy: Really, it's his mind! It sounds kind of odd, but he's probably my favourite musician in the world to work with. I've never met a mind at any level that so consistently knows the right parts to play. It doesn't matter whether it's an extremely complex progressive rock thing or 1 note every 2 bars on a pop record. He has such incredible judgement knowing what to play and what not to play and that is really the most exciting part. It doesn't matter what he's playing: he's fantastic on the stick, the bass - I've seen him pick up a Warr guitar which he'd never played before and we were running tape 5 minutes later. One thing people don't ever hear is that he's an amazing piano player, which he never seems to do on record. He's incredible!

He has a great sound. A lot King Crimson's stuff was captured live in crazy circumstances so even when there's technical problems with recording the parts he chooses to play are so much of what people perceive as his sound. He has amazing judgement as a musician.

Music Street Journal: If there was one single, defining experience that you took away from working with King Crimson what would it be?

Ronan Chris Murphy: The interesting thing about King Crimson that was exciting was to see a band that did not rest on its laurels. There was no real "This is the precedence of what we do - we need to conform to this". There was a real "How can we shake this up? How can we take this in a new direction? How can we do this differently?" That level of throwing away the past and moving forward was very inspiring in a lot of ways. There were many interesting liberties in that respect. There wasn't a precedent that we needed to honour and you don't find that very often. King Crimson are always moving forward and re-inventing themselves which was a fresh and exciting experience and a fantastic thing to be part of.

Music Street Journal: What is your relationship with Yes?

Ronan Chris Murphy: Actually, I don't have a direct relationship. I've obviously worked with Bill Bruford and Tony Levin and I did some recording with Alan White a number of years back, as well. Therefore, all my relationships with Yes are peripheral. Unfortunately, I've never had the opportunity to work on a Yes album. It may sound strange saying this, but my favourite part of Yes is Jon Anderson and I'd love to work with him. Actually, I'd love to work with them all - if the opportunity ever came my way I'd certainly be jumping at the chance!

Music Street Journal: Speaking of high profile progressive rock drummers, what is your impression of Neil Peart?

Ronan Chris Murphy: He's amazing! I think he's a fantastic drummer, and the interesting thing is that a lot of people who admire Neil miss the point of what he's so great at. They notice that he has a big drum set and will play a lot of notes but the thing that I think is so incredible about him is that he'll manage to do all these things but he'll never forget that he's the solid foundation of a rock band. In almost any of the Rush material you'll listen to there's very interesting drum fills, interesting way he plays with time but you'll also never lose where the beat is. He'll always have "doom-doom-dah-bu-dah!" He's very clever, very good at holding a rock band together and at the same time be innovative and show off some chops, whereas a lot of guys who follow in his footsteps sometimes forget that and just go for the fancy stuff. Also he can write and play great rock songs that have been the staple of rock radio for the past 25 years, which is the most impressive accomplishment of somebody like Neil Peart.

Music Street Journal: I read recently that you prefer to use analog tape and that you sometimes mix with both digital and analog. Could you give me an example of where you have used both and where you feel it has worked better than with just digital (or analog)?

Ronan Chris Murphy: Most records tend to be a combination of both these days. A lot of records need to be kept digital because of smaller budgets: working with tape can be expensive. In a way, some of the most exciting records of all time are just analog, where you never have to turn on the computer at all. That puts a lot more onus on the performances and the writing and arranging.

The problem with digital is that it starts to make the producer more important than the performer, which is really unfortunate. It may sound strange, me being a producer, but people approach music very differently when there's a computer available. There's a totally different approach when you are dealing with analog tape: with a computer you can edit, whereas analog tape relies more on the performance.

I also think that there's a particular energy lost, human energy and excitement tend to get wiped away with computer-based recording, but sometimes the label and artist really want that. The down side is that if I delivered Led Zeppelin IV, today it would be rejected by the label because it doesn't sound good enough, which is sad. Even U2's Unforgettable Fire, which to me is one of the most stunning albums ever, would be rejected because Bono's out of tune all over the place and the sound doesn't punch you in the face. Some records start and end digitally because of those factors. As a producer you're always fighting that dilemma: you have to please the label, the artist and satisfy your own agenda because every producer wants to make that classic album!

Music Street Journal: Speaking of great analog records and bands from that era, you mentioned in a previous interview that the Mahavishnu Orchestra changed your whole musical experience. Were you listening to them as a producer, musician or songwriter?

Ronan Chris Murphy: As a musician. I was primarily a guitarist-singer, and the guitarist from a heavy metal band called Confessor told me about the Mahavishnu Orchestra, so I found a cassette in a discount bin. It was The Inner Mounting Flame and it changed my perception as a musician to hear John McLaughlin play with so much raw energy in a way I'd never heard before. You don't hear that kind of passion and energy even in speed metal! I'd never heard unbridled passionate energy mixed with virtuosity, and it totally changed what I understood to be possible in music. I've been a John McLaughlin fanatic ever since.

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