#niko bolas

[nofatclips]

Stand for Peace by Neil Young - Director: Daryl Hannah

[nofatclips]

Jake to the Bone by Toto from the collection album Greatest Hits: 40 Trips Around The Sun

[oneweekoneband]

The cover art for Young’s 1986’s release, Landing on Water could not be more fitting for where Young left off after the Geffen lawsuit and struggling sales of his previous three records. A stark white background shows a diagram of a plane, just after water landing, two life rafts exiting the rear. Looking as if it were pulled directly from a seatback card, the industrial quality illustrates the weariness fallen over Young during the first half of the 1980s. Plagued by problems since the patterning program with his son Ben, it is almost as if Young couldn’t be bothered to pick out album artwork.

“I’ve been alone / for all of my life” Young plainly wails halfway through the album’s opening, Weight of the World. Surrounded by synthesizers and drum loops, Young sounds completely alone, save the whirr of his machines.

As part of his non-settlement-settlement for the Geffen suit, Young agreed to record a record with a producer at Geffen’s choosing. Danny Kortchmar was brought on as producer and as keyboard-bass player, and more importantly, a new engineer, Niko Bolas. Bolas and Young went on to co-produce the next four records.

Strikingly, Landing On Water is one of his best works during his Geffen years, and arguably all-told. This is the first time Young has started opening him up since the re●ac●tor sessions in 1980. “I didn’t know that I shut the door on my music when I shut the door on pain. When I blocked out of my head that I wasn’t gonna feel the pain – to deal with it – I didn’t realize what I did. I closed myself down so much that I was makin’ it and doin’ it with surviving, but my soul was completely encased”.

“Just because it’s over for you / Doesn’t mean it’s over for me / It’s a victory for the heart every time the music starts / So please don’t kill the machine”. The last line repeats ad nauseam throughout Hippie Dream, a portrait of former band mate David Crosby. The lines could be directly about Young, though. Finally coming to some sort of sense after the especially strange character he played during Old Ways, Young realized that the family man Neil Young and the rock and roller Neil Young could – should – coexist. 

“Here comes the night / Here comes the anger”, Young, his voice weary, sings, opening Violent Side. “No one can see / behind these eyes / there walks a stranger”. The track, featuring flourishes of classic Young guitar work, an ethereal whistle-solo, and a full boy’s choir on backing vocals, predating a similar sound Young would revisit with Living With War. Later, Young is screaming: “I’ve got to fight to control / the violent side”. There are flashes of Neil Young as Neil Young here, and it is so much more interesting than the previous two characters he played.

Sonically, Landing on Water is stranger than even the vocoder drenched Trans. Drums dominant the mixes – Young from 1984 became obsessed with the massive drum sound on pop radio. “I’d listen to the radio and hear this big drum sound, and I’d say, that’s pretty cool, I wanna get that. But I don’t wanna do what they’re doing. I don’t wanna sound like those records – but I want that drum sound.” Everything else is surrounded by freezing cold synthesizers and synthetic bass. Young’s guitar is there, but it’s mixed so low, it’s barely recognizable. It’s brilliant – the energy is there, driving the tracks right from Old Black, Young’s guitar, but without the domination normally recognizable on Young’s heavier work.

Pressure is the album’s stand out work. Clocking in under three minutes, the song pushes harder and faster than any Young track since 1979’s Sedan Delivery. “A funny thing / happened to me yesterday / I felt the pressure / In a brand new way”, Young spits out, barely a note of actual music escaping. “It kept hitting me / from all directions”. Finally, Young begins writing music from himself, not a character. With Landing on Water, Young hasn’t completely let all pretenses down – it would take the remainder of the decade – but some primal scream therapy is happening here. Fittingly enough, a scream from drummer Steve Jordan is sampled throughout the track.

“In a sense, it’s all about running away. I’ve been running away all of my life. Where I’m going…who the fuck knows?”

[balkanrock-com]

Neil Young snimio spot sa 92-članim orkestrom

Neil Young snimio spot sa 92-članim orkestrom

Neil Young na svom nadolazećem albumu “Storytone” sarađivao je sa 92-članim orkestrom. Zajedno sa njima snimio je novi video za himnu ekološkog aktivizma “Who’s gonna stand up”. (more…)

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[simpledreaming]

A special photo taken in the living room at my old studio "Record One". In front of the couch, Peter Asher and Niko Bolas. On the couch L-R, Linda Ronstadt, Governor Jerry Brown, Myself. Backrow, Peter Bernstein, Billy Payne, Russ Kunkel, Mark Goldenberg, Dan Dugmore and Bob Glaub. We were in the middle of making Mad Love with Linda Ronstadt, circa 1980.

(via @valgaray)

[davidsheller-blog]

Drum Tracking

Today I will begin tracking drums for the upcoming Emily Watson EP. Actually today will be spent getting drum tone and mic placements. My friend Niko Bolas at Capitol Records gave me some very important advice once. When I asked him what the most important piece of gear a producer/engineer could have was he said, "Get a drum key!" 

Drums are the foundation of the modern song and getting them right can be challenging enough but truly knowing how to tune a drum and how to get the types of tones you are going for will help you tremendously. So, for this project I have called on Lemar Carter. Lemar is a good friend and a true pro. (Carrie Underwood, Mick Jagger, Raphael Saadiq, Joss Stone, etc.) My favorite thing about Lemar is his rock solid grooves and his understanding of tuning for varied drum sounds. He is the type of drummer a producer/engineer can truly count on to deliver the best possible sound. Makes the rest much easier.

I am going to be tracking with a combo of Shure SM57's, Sennheiser MD 421's, Shure Beta 52, and a couple of AT 4041's. I will also be recording through the new UAD Apollo Interface. For those of us who do lots of "on location" recording this piece of gear could be huge. I will let you know how drums sound coming through this thing. 

I will be tracking drums the rest of this week so any advice you have send it my way!!