The sound that comes out is almost plastic.”įor “Rome,” which opens with a part that Brancowitz compares to the sound of a kid playing alone in his bedroom, the guys recorded their guitar lines through a Telefunken V76 preamp, a Telefunken U73 compressor, and a direct box-standard practice for most of the album. “But they fit perfectly with our style of playing. “It’s very dry and really plays only one specific style,” Mazzalai says. Guitarists Brancowitz and Mazzalai both used Fender Bullet Stratocasters- cheaper and less-popular models of a guitar chosen for its unique sound. Much of the charm of Phoenix’s tightly constructed songs comes from the clipped, artificial guitar lines. “We wanted to record fast and capture the performance, instead of obsessing about the sound,” Zdar says. Plus, Zdar wanted guitars recorded as straight as possible so he wouldn’t be hamstrung during the mixing process. Many songs went through multiple versions, so they often needed to add and subtract layers.
#AMADEUS PRO MIXING PRO#
We knew if a song pleased us and pleased him, it was a solid song.”ĭuring sessions, the band normally recorded straight to Pro Tools|HD, preferring minimal equipment and a very dry sound. “He’d say, ‘This is great’ or ‘boring.’ He brought the energy. “He would sometimes come for five minutes a day, and arrive six hours late with a bottle of champagne,” Brancowitz says. His whole approach was to respect the group, give them the time and space to compose and record, and occasionally “make a tackle” in the studio, providing momentary distractions to keep them from getting too caught up in their work. Zdar felt strongly that the album should sound modern, diverse, and informed by contemporary music and production. I don’t think Brando needed help-he just needed a little guidance.” “The band members are great producers, and they just needed someone to guide them and keep them on track. “I think Phoenix has very good taste,” Zdar says. Half of French house duo Cassius, the producer owns a cache of vintage gear, giving the group plenty of equipment to work with, and his helpful approach kept them focused. Designed in the early ’80s by audio guru Tom Hidley-a famed engineer and studio designer- Zdar’s studio was an ideal place for the band to challenge its creative process.
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I actually learned Morse code at one point, and I tried to type words rhythmically to see what kind of patterns they would create.”Īfter a search for inspiration that took them to New York and back, the group asked friend Philippe Zdar to co-produce Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, camping out in his studio in Paris’ Montmartre district for nearly a year and a half.
“You want to find strategies to go further. “As a creator, you’re always frustrated by your limits,” he says. According to guitarist Brancowitz, the group even listened to a soundtrack of modern classical and ambient music to cleanse their auditory palette, and they used Eno’s famous Oblique Strategies cards to get through creative roadblocks.
While these characters were part of the neighborhood color near the studio where chic French foursome Phoenix-comprised of Thomas Mars, Laurent “Branco” Brancowitz, Christian Mazzalai, and Deck D’Arcy-recorded the bulk of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, their album wasn’t the by-product of wicked indulgence, especially on the inflated rock-and-roll scale of indecent behavior.Ī glittering slab of well-crafted electronic pop, the band’s follow-up to 2006’s It’s Never Been Like That is a result of the group’s perfectionist tendencies (they recorded over 14 hours of music in total), a long recording process, and an attempt to be more abstract.
Somber French poets and friendly prostitutes sound like fitting inspirations for a raucous, balls-out rock album.
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