Brand New Interview with Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures and Vapor Trails producer/engineer Paul Northfield

[finalstagemetal]

Hear a brand new interview I did with Paul Northfield (producer / engineer of Moving Pictures, Permanent Waves, Signals, Exit Stage Left and Vapor Trails). A lot of great Rush stories to be had, and a great insight into the recording of those records. Rush stuff starts around the 26 minute mark.

 

Also included are stories about working with Gentle Giant, Pat Travers, April Wine, Kim Mitchell, Ozzy Osbourbe, Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree and others.

 

You can hear the interview here:

[Ancient Ways]

Incredibly interesting. Only listened to about 25% but I will be back to finish hearing the entire thing. Anyone considering not listening, here's a teaser: lots of info on vapor trails is in there. Really good perspective on the entire process and the end result product.

[The Analog Grownup]

Hear a brand new interview I did with Paul Northfield (producer / engineer of Moving Pictures, Permanent Waves, Signals, Exit Stage Left and Vapor Trails). A lot of great Rush stories to be had, and a great insight into the recording of those records. Rush stuff starts around the 26 minute mark.

 

Also included are stories about working with Gentle Giant, Pat Travers, April Wine, Kim Mitchell, Ozzy Osbourbe, Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree and others.

 

You can hear the interview here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYgAPl4UDUo&list=PLDz-gHeguf7kSUzqbnpQbXQwrYoSjN29J&index=1

 

Welcome to TRF :hi:

 

Thanks for the post. I don't have the time to listen to it now, but rest assured I will ASAP!

Edited August 27, 2013 by The Analog Grownup

[Bluefunk]

Very interesting, especially the Vapor Trails bit! Thanks for posting. :)

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

Hear a brand new interview I did with Paul Northfield (producer / engineer of Moving Pictures, Permanent Waves, Signals, Exit Stage Left and Vapor Trails). A lot of great Rush stories to be had, and a great insight into the recording of those records. Rush stuff starts around the 26 minute mark.

 

Also included are stories about working with Gentle Giant, Pat Travers, April Wine, Kim Mitchell, Ozzy Osbourbe, Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree and others.

 

You can hear the interview here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYgAPl4UDUo&list=PLDz-gHeguf7kSUzqbnpQbXQwrYoSjN29J&index=1

 

Thanks for uploading this and sharing it with us. Just listened to the who Rush section and it was very informative.

[LedRush]

Can anyone tell me where the Rush bits are?

[Ancient Ways]

Can anyone tell me where the Rush bits are?

 

OP says it starts at approx 26 minute mark. That's where I started. It goes on for about 40 minutes just on rush.

[losingit2k]

Thanks for posting! This was very, very interesting. I particularly liked the parts about Recording the Water on Natural Science and the Mob in Witch Hunt. Adding the pre-roll tape before the actual track in order to synch the two 24 track tapes must have been pretty tasking! Maybe Alex should go back to the 3 guitar on the left channel and the 3 guitar in the right channel recording style he talks about. The Sound of Moving pictures is just flawless.

[Lerxster]

Thanks finalstagemetal, and welcome to the board! :cheers:

 

Listened this morning. Very interesting and also very technical. Here are some notes I took from what Paul says, since it's (as mentioned) pretty long. The VT stuff was the most interesting:

 

 

- They had a good time recording the Witch Hunt mob in the parking lot.

 

 

 

- For VT, Neil booked a week at Morin-Heights to basically see if he still could do it. He booked anonymously because he didn't want to get anyone's hopes up.

 

- Rush demo'd for 5 months before Paul came on the scene. Paul had most recently worked on Different Stages, and other albums, so he was sort of "in the family".

 

- VT is the first album they did all on computer.

 

- VT is the first album where Rush worked individually with Paul, having gotten use to working like that on their solo albums. He said he worked a lot with Neil individually, to give him space and comfort, then Geddy and Alex would come with a bottle of wine and critique his different takes and help decide on the best one or if Neil should go in another direction.

 

- They basically gutted a room and rebuilt it, because there wasn't a good drum booth there (the rooms were dead space) and they didn't want to move out to a new place since everyone was comfortable there.

 

- There was a lot of effort given to everyone wanting everyone else to be happy during the sessions.

 

- Alex was interested in aggressive guitar sounds, and liked NIN, while Geddy was more interested in melody and vocals, so it was kind of like, "how do we make this work together".

 

- Paul says mixing was going great, then they broke for Xmas, and when Paul came back and listened he went, "uh.. no". It was not right.. too compressed. They spent 2-3 weeks struggling with the mix, then they broke and brought in David Leonard to finish mixing.

 

- The mix and mastering was a thorn in the band's side, and he's happy that to hear it's been remixed. He spoke with David Bottrill, although he hasn't heard the remix yet.

 

- Geddy and Alex didn't think Neil would tour to support it, but Paul thought differently. He said with Neil's new wife, he thought Neil would want to show her who he was.. basically, so Paul suspected he'd tour.

 

- VT was a powerful, emotional and important record. At the end of the day, VT rebuilt the band's spirit.

 

:hail: :rush:

[The Analog Grownup]

I found the Rush bit hugely interesting. What I wouldn't give to pick his brain on recording music, and he most definitely should write that book!

[The Analog Grownup]

Stumbled upon this article on recording Vapor Trails http://www.mixonline.com/recording/interviews/audio_rush_creating_vapor/

[The Analog Grownup]

Sorry to keep posting like crazy, but I'm still listening through the interview and whatever something interesting pops up, I can't help but let you guys know. Around the 1:35:00 mark they talk about the Loudness War and subsequently comes back to Vapor Trails again :)

[Bluefunk]

Some nice bits about Pye DuBois in there, too. :)

[The Analog Grownup]

I don't know if that's before or after 1:40:00? I'm bouncing tracks in Cubase and coincidentally enough Youtube went haywire on me.

[Bluefunk]

Around the 1:12 mark, during discussion of the Kim Mitchell album. :)

[The Analog Grownup]

Oh, I missed that. It was a great interview so I'm gonna go back and have a listen several times :)

[Mika]

Thank you for sharing! I'll have to give it a listen later, though... must do boring adult things now... :(

 

:)

[presto123]

Thanks for the interview. Lots of technical musician stuff but lots of interesting stuff as well. Let me just say though that Kim Mitchell is so underrated. He should have been huge. Probably in my top 5 under rated of all time along with King's X.

[finalstagemetal]

Let me just say though that Kim Mitchell is so underrated. He should have been huge. Probably in my top 5 under rated of all time along with King's X.

 

He's one of my favorite guitarists as well. Kim did / does quite well in Canada. He's a mainstay on classic/active rock radio here. Not so much in the States.

 

I assume you've heard his other band Max Webster's song they did with Rush called Battle Scar?

 

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Thanks for the compliments everyone! Glad everyone's enjoying hearing these stories.

[ytserush]

Thanks.

 

I'm going to put Asia in Asia on hold (I've listened to it plenty of times anyway) and get into this as much as I can and save the rest for later.

[Steevo]

- VT was a powerful, emotional and important record. At the end of the day, VT rebuilt the band's spirit.

 

:hail: :rush:

 

Absolutely

[Steevo]

Many thanks for share OP, looks way interesting! Try and get into it later today :)

[ytserush]

It's always great to learn something new. There were a few stories I hadn't known about or heard before.