Vision 4 Music featured products
Vision 4 Music News
Even everyday people can live
out their rock star dreams. Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp is a one-day crash
course in rock 'n' roll jamming that provides amateur musicians with an
opportunity to feel what it's like to be in Deep Purple or AC/DC.
Founded in November 1997 by tour
promoter David Fishof, the goal of this camp is to provide people with a
platform to achieve their rock ‘n’ roll fantasies.
The picturesque drive
up to Michael Wagener's studio,Wire World, presents a view in a class
all by itself. Grand homes line both sides of the one
lane driveway located in the beautiful countryside on the outskirts of
Nashville.
As
I pulled up to the "country studio" studio, I couldn't help but feel I
was taken back in time - a time when I had recorded in the very same
studios in LA in my prior rock and roll years as a drummer for my
former band, Rex Havok. I was reminded of the year we had recorded at
Cherokee Studios in Hollywood CA at the very same time Dokken was
releasing their album, “Tooth and Nail”, a platinum
album produced by Michael. I remembered passing by Don Dokken in the
studio as he prepared his coffee before he began the task of laying
down his first take. I had asked him, “Don, what is like to
be living your dream?” I received an unexpected answer as he
outlined for me the long list of sorrows and woes of just exactly what
it took to get his dream. “Long sleepless nights, endless
road hours and the pain of poverty until you get your first
platinum.”
Dreams became reality. The album Dokken began recording that day turned platinum, thanks to an extremely talented group of musicians and the awesome work of their producer, Michael Wagener.
Join me now for this month's feature interview with Michael at his famous Wire World Studio located near Nashville. This is the first of many featured interviews with songwriters, producers, and musicians who take us behind the scenes to some of your musical heroes. Over the next few weeks, you'll read about music's "coming of age", how artists developed their own style,their pratice methods and of course the latest gear they're using.
Michael Wagener is a very personable guy. His manner is open, funny, and completely void of arrogance. He speaks about music with the genuine enthusiasm of a kid who grew up to live out all his musical fantasies.
Vision 4 Music: Tell us a bit about your past, where you began your career as producer to where you sit now.
Michael Wagener: It all started with a guitar, a guitar that I had bought with my first self earned money in 1962. When I was 13 years old, I made my first musical steps, together with UDO DIRKSCHNEIDER in a band that later turned into ACCEPT.I got introduced to the music business in 1972 as an electronic engineer in a company named STRAMP in HAMBURG, GERMANY. We were designing and manufacturing studio and stage equipment. It was a very small company, so I got a lot of hands-on experience additional to the classes to earn an electronic degree. In 1979 I built a 16-track studio in Hamburg, called TENNESSEE TONSTUDIO, named after a band, whose members were partners in the studio. Here I learned the basics of recording and engineering. In the beginning the studio wasn't booked that well, so I had enough time to really get into all the outboard gear and studio equipment. My job was very wide spread, from managing the place through aligning tape machines, maintenance and long hours of engineering and how to deal with musicians which was very helpful for my career.
V4: Is that when you met Don Dokken?
MW: Yes, I met DON DOKKEN who was touring Germany at the time. We hit it off from the start and Don invited me to AMERICA. I followed that invitation a month later and flew to Los Angeles for a short vacation. Long enough, though, to find out that this is the place to be. So I decided to come back and stay for good. Early 1981 Don came back to Germany trying to get a record deal.
After recording a bunch of demos and with the help of GABY HAUKE (ACCEPT’s manager) we finally pulled it off. I got my first job as a producer on DOKKEN's first record "BREAKING THE CHAINS", which was later, after we modified it somewhat, released by ELEKTRA RECORDS in America and eventually went gold. I am especially happy about that, because it was my very first production.
V4: Let me guess, then the rock of the 80's came in, right?
MW: From 1981 to 1984 I worked mostly as an engineer/mixing engineer together with producers like DIETER DIERKS on PLASMATICS and WARNING, and DIRK STEFFENS in Germany but continued to take short trips to America. Here I had the opportunity to work with MÖTLEY CRÜE on "TOO FAST FOR LOVE" (LETHUR RECORDS) and GREAT WHITE on "OUT OF THE NIGHT" and later on their EMI-AMERICA debut "GREAT WHITE". During that time, in 1983, Udo and I started a production company in Germany called DOUBLE TROUBLE PRODUCTIONS. We did a bunch of small productions in Europe under that name.
The big change happened in February 1984 when I got a call from TOM ZUTAUT (ELEKTRA RECORDS at the time) to record a single with the band "X" (WILD THING). I came back to America and planned on staying for two weeks. But during that time I got a lot of mixing and production jobs offered (VICTORY, WHITE SISTER, RAVEN, MALICE, 45-GRAVE etc.), so I decided to stay for good this time. On the other side of the Atlantic, ACCEPT got more and more successful and UDO wasn’t going to move to America. He left the company and I started DOUBLE TROUBLE PRODUCTIONS, INC. in LOS ANGELES.
In 1984 I also got to work with producer/engineer legend ROY THOMAS BAKER on the mix of DOKKEN’s "TOOTH 'N NAIL". Roy, who had produced bands like QUEEN, CHEAP TRICK, JOURNEY, CARS etc was an endless pool of knowledge, and gave me a lot of inspiration for my own style of producing and mixing.
V4: Was that what you would call your "Hay Day" back in the 80's?
MW: To say the least! In March 1985 I produced "AIN'T LOVE GRAND" with "X" and in June 1985 STRYPER's "SOLDIERS UNDER COMMAND". The first bigger success came with the production of DOKKEN's 'UNDER LOCK AND KEY" which sold well over two million units.
During the following years jobs came in easy and I got to do mixes for POISON "LOOK WHAT THE CAT DRAGGED IN", METALLICA "MASTER OF PUPPETS", MEGADETH "SO FAR, SO GOOD ...SO WHAT" and productions like WHITE LION "PRIDE", ALICE COOPER, "RAISE YOUR FIST AND YELL" and SKID ROW's first album "SKID ROW" which instantly went triple platinum in the states alone. By now that record sold around 10 million copies worldwide.
V4: I remember them all too well. What a decade of music. You got to meet some really cool musicians. What is that like to meet so many affluent artists?
MW: They are all really neat people and it keeps getting better. During 1991 I worked with QUEEN on their "STONE COLD CRAZY" remix and did a few remixes on the MÖTLEY CRÜE "DECADE OF DECADENCE" album. The big one for 1991 was the mix for OZZY OSBOURNE's "NO MORE TEARS" album, which sold over 7 million copies. TEARS" album, which sold over 7 million copies.
V4: Along with our line of DVD’s Guitar Heroes, we have a new DVD featuring Muriel Anderson. I noticed you have recorded Muriel Anderson also. That seems a bit distant from your earlier influences.
MW: Lucky for me, artists seem to like Wire World. They’re able to relax out here and eradicated all my worries about "Rockers" working in a country environment. The design of the studio really works well and it is very easy to get incredible sounds out of it.
The move to Nashville brought about a whole new ensemble of artists. MURIEL ANDERSON is one of them. She is a very well known classical guitar player. We got to work together on her "LULLABIES AND ETUDES" album and later in 1998 we worked together on “THEME FOR TWO FRIENDS”.
V4: What about the vibe here in Nashville? I mean why did you pick this city?
MW: Nashville also brought me back together with BOB PARR, a friend whom I had met in my early Los Angeles days. He hired me on a movie soundtrack, which he was producing for the film "STUDIO 54" to record and mix the song "KNOCK ON WOOD" performed by MARY GRIFFIN. Together with KC from KC AND THE SUNSHINE BAND we worked in six different studios in Miami, Toronto and Nashville. It was a lot of fun and the track came out great. So living here has been a place to set down and call home!
V4: Let’s move to the making of music and what your posture is about the whole music scene. What is your personal belief of where we are heading in the culture of music?
MW: I look at what I do here as making emotion in music. If music doesn’t bring out emotions then it isn’t music at all, but stale. That’s what the Beatles did in their day. They brought out emotion in their style of music that changed a culture.
V4: Yes, that was a band with a new sound, playing their little ditties like, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and “Help.” They were short little catchy phrases that really hooked people.
MW: That’s the way the rock era began, but then people started getting creative and began putting computers in the mix. They went from analog to digitizing everything, and that’s when the music started losing its appeal. It was about getting the latest greatest digital sound but at the expense of emotion.
V4: So, what can you say to all the up and coming producers out there who still use digital?
MW: I still use digital, but not as my main theme. I have devised a new way to capture the true essence of a band and their music by a system where I can record them all at one time instead of isolated in their own rooms. This captures the real feel and that’s the way recording was done back in the days of The Beatles, and Zepplin. It was all recorded in one room with one or two mics. That’s it! And that’s where I feel it has to come back to so you get the emotion, and that’s what I produce here, music with emotions!!
V4: Well that just about says it all doesn’t it?
MW: Yeah, and don’t forget to tell people about our school of engineering we hold right here where we teach new engineers the art and craft of producing.
Steve Lamm, the man behind Cryptic Globe Recording and host for Club CueBase Nashville is on board as a guest host for the next workshop. This is going to be a "Special" workshop, with focus on recording and mixing in NUENDO. We are going to track and mix one song from beginning to end using the NUENDO platform. You will learn everything in detail from the basic setup through tips and tricks in NUENDO.
The Nuendo workshop will take place at Wire World Studio and costs $2,000 per guest, not including travel cost and food.
As
I pulled up to the "country studio" studio, I couldn't help but feel I
was taken back in time - a time when I had recorded in the very same
studios in LA in my prior rock and roll years as a drummer for my
former band, Rex Havok. I was reminded of the year we had recorded at
Cherokee Studios in Hollywood CA at the very same time Dokken was
releasing their album, “Tooth and Nail”, a platinum
album produced by Michael. I remembered passing by Don Dokken in the
studio as he prepared his coffee before he began the task of laying
down his first take. I had asked him, “Don, what is like to
be living your dream?” I received an unexpected answer as he
outlined for me the long list of sorrows and woes of just exactly what
it took to get his dream. “Long sleepless nights, endless
road hours and the pain of poverty until you get your first
platinum.” Dreams became reality. The album Dokken began recording that day turned platinum, thanks to an extremely talented group of musicians and the awesome work of their producer, Michael Wagener.
Join me now for this month's feature interview with Michael at his famous Wire World Studio located near Nashville. This is the first of many featured interviews with songwriters, producers, and musicians who take us behind the scenes to some of your musical heroes. Over the next few weeks, you'll read about music's "coming of age", how artists developed their own style,their pratice methods and of course the latest gear they're using.
Michael Wagener is a very personable guy. His manner is open, funny, and completely void of arrogance. He speaks about music with the genuine enthusiasm of a kid who grew up to live out all his musical fantasies.
Vision 4 Music: Tell us a bit about your past, where you began your career as producer to where you sit now.
Michael Wagener: It all started with a guitar, a guitar that I had bought with my first self earned money in 1962. When I was 13 years old, I made my first musical steps, together with UDO DIRKSCHNEIDER in a band that later turned into ACCEPT.I got introduced to the music business in 1972 as an electronic engineer in a company named STRAMP in HAMBURG, GERMANY. We were designing and manufacturing studio and stage equipment. It was a very small company, so I got a lot of hands-on experience additional to the classes to earn an electronic degree. In 1979 I built a 16-track studio in Hamburg, called TENNESSEE TONSTUDIO, named after a band, whose members were partners in the studio. Here I learned the basics of recording and engineering. In the beginning the studio wasn't booked that well, so I had enough time to really get into all the outboard gear and studio equipment. My job was very wide spread, from managing the place through aligning tape machines, maintenance and long hours of engineering and how to deal with musicians which was very helpful for my career.
V4: Is that when you met Don Dokken?
MW: Yes, I met DON DOKKEN who was touring Germany at the time. We hit it off from the start and Don invited me to AMERICA. I followed that invitation a month later and flew to Los Angeles for a short vacation. Long enough, though, to find out that this is the place to be. So I decided to come back and stay for good. Early 1981 Don came back to Germany trying to get a record deal.
After recording a bunch of demos and with the help of GABY HAUKE (ACCEPT’s manager) we finally pulled it off. I got my first job as a producer on DOKKEN's first record "BREAKING THE CHAINS", which was later, after we modified it somewhat, released by ELEKTRA RECORDS in America and eventually went gold. I am especially happy about that, because it was my very first production.
V4: Let me guess, then the rock of the 80's came in, right?
MW: From 1981 to 1984 I worked mostly as an engineer/mixing engineer together with producers like DIETER DIERKS on PLASMATICS and WARNING, and DIRK STEFFENS in Germany but continued to take short trips to America. Here I had the opportunity to work with MÖTLEY CRÜE on "TOO FAST FOR LOVE" (LETHUR RECORDS) and GREAT WHITE on "OUT OF THE NIGHT" and later on their EMI-AMERICA debut "GREAT WHITE". During that time, in 1983, Udo and I started a production company in Germany called DOUBLE TROUBLE PRODUCTIONS. We did a bunch of small productions in Europe under that name.
The big change happened in February 1984 when I got a call from TOM ZUTAUT (ELEKTRA RECORDS at the time) to record a single with the band "X" (WILD THING). I came back to America and planned on staying for two weeks. But during that time I got a lot of mixing and production jobs offered (VICTORY, WHITE SISTER, RAVEN, MALICE, 45-GRAVE etc.), so I decided to stay for good this time. On the other side of the Atlantic, ACCEPT got more and more successful and UDO wasn’t going to move to America. He left the company and I started DOUBLE TROUBLE PRODUCTIONS, INC. in LOS ANGELES.
In 1984 I also got to work with producer/engineer legend ROY THOMAS BAKER on the mix of DOKKEN’s "TOOTH 'N NAIL". Roy, who had produced bands like QUEEN, CHEAP TRICK, JOURNEY, CARS etc was an endless pool of knowledge, and gave me a lot of inspiration for my own style of producing and mixing.
V4: Was that what you would call your "Hay Day" back in the 80's?
MW: To say the least! In March 1985 I produced "AIN'T LOVE GRAND" with "X" and in June 1985 STRYPER's "SOLDIERS UNDER COMMAND". The first bigger success came with the production of DOKKEN's 'UNDER LOCK AND KEY" which sold well over two million units.
During the following years jobs came in easy and I got to do mixes for POISON "LOOK WHAT THE CAT DRAGGED IN", METALLICA "MASTER OF PUPPETS", MEGADETH "SO FAR, SO GOOD ...SO WHAT" and productions like WHITE LION "PRIDE", ALICE COOPER, "RAISE YOUR FIST AND YELL" and SKID ROW's first album "SKID ROW" which instantly went triple platinum in the states alone. By now that record sold around 10 million copies worldwide.
V4: I remember them all too well. What a decade of music. You got to meet some really cool musicians. What is that like to meet so many affluent artists?
MW: They are all really neat people and it keeps getting better. During 1991 I worked with QUEEN on their "STONE COLD CRAZY" remix and did a few remixes on the MÖTLEY CRÜE "DECADE OF DECADENCE" album. The big one for 1991 was the mix for OZZY OSBOURNE's "NO MORE TEARS" album, which sold over 7 million copies. TEARS" album, which sold over 7 million copies.
V4: Along with our line of DVD’s Guitar Heroes, we have a new DVD featuring Muriel Anderson. I noticed you have recorded Muriel Anderson also. That seems a bit distant from your earlier influences.
MW: Lucky for me, artists seem to like Wire World. They’re able to relax out here and eradicated all my worries about "Rockers" working in a country environment. The design of the studio really works well and it is very easy to get incredible sounds out of it.
The move to Nashville brought about a whole new ensemble of artists. MURIEL ANDERSON is one of them. She is a very well known classical guitar player. We got to work together on her "LULLABIES AND ETUDES" album and later in 1998 we worked together on “THEME FOR TWO FRIENDS”.
V4: What about the vibe here in Nashville? I mean why did you pick this city?
MW: Nashville also brought me back together with BOB PARR, a friend whom I had met in my early Los Angeles days. He hired me on a movie soundtrack, which he was producing for the film "STUDIO 54" to record and mix the song "KNOCK ON WOOD" performed by MARY GRIFFIN. Together with KC from KC AND THE SUNSHINE BAND we worked in six different studios in Miami, Toronto and Nashville. It was a lot of fun and the track came out great. So living here has been a place to set down and call home!
V4: Let’s move to the making of music and what your posture is about the whole music scene. What is your personal belief of where we are heading in the culture of music?
MW: I look at what I do here as making emotion in music. If music doesn’t bring out emotions then it isn’t music at all, but stale. That’s what the Beatles did in their day. They brought out emotion in their style of music that changed a culture.
V4: Yes, that was a band with a new sound, playing their little ditties like, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and “Help.” They were short little catchy phrases that really hooked people.
MW: That’s the way the rock era began, but then people started getting creative and began putting computers in the mix. They went from analog to digitizing everything, and that’s when the music started losing its appeal. It was about getting the latest greatest digital sound but at the expense of emotion.
V4: So, what can you say to all the up and coming producers out there who still use digital?
MW: I still use digital, but not as my main theme. I have devised a new way to capture the true essence of a band and their music by a system where I can record them all at one time instead of isolated in their own rooms. This captures the real feel and that’s the way recording was done back in the days of The Beatles, and Zepplin. It was all recorded in one room with one or two mics. That’s it! And that’s where I feel it has to come back to so you get the emotion, and that’s what I produce here, music with emotions!!
V4: Well that just about says it all doesn’t it?
MW: Yeah, and don’t forget to tell people about our school of engineering we hold right here where we teach new engineers the art and craft of producing.
Steve Lamm, the man behind Cryptic Globe Recording and host for Club CueBase Nashville is on board as a guest host for the next workshop. This is going to be a "Special" workshop, with focus on recording and mixing in NUENDO. We are going to track and mix one song from beginning to end using the NUENDO platform. You will learn everything in detail from the basic setup through tips and tricks in NUENDO.
The Nuendo workshop will take place at Wire World Studio and costs $2,000 per guest, not including travel cost and food.
