Garza Podcast - 13: Steve Evetts | Producer: HATEBREED, DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, SUICIDE SILENCE

Episode Date: May 10, 2021

Steve Evetts is a record producer and audio engineer. We talk about recording at Foo Fighter's Studio 606, being yourself in the studio, and much more. SPONSORS: Click this link to purchase from Sweetwater & help support the podcast: imp.i114863.net/rnrmVB  

Our guest today is a producer, an engineer. He's done a lot of legendary records in our scene, anywhere from Haybreed, Dillager Escape Plan, three Suza's Silence Records. So he's been doing it. He just hit the three-decade mark. So congratulations to our guest. He's done a lot for the scene and a genre. And if you're listening to a heavy record, most likely you're going to see his name and then credit.

So let's get into it. Hope you all enjoyed. Please welcome Steve Abbott. See, we have some fresh pots. Fresh pots. Cheers. Cheers, man. Thank you for making that drive down here, man. Yeah, well, you know the funny thing is, it's like muscle memory. Was it really?

Oh, God, I just, I didn't have to, no direction. I mean, I shared it with you because I wanted you to see where I was at for traffic-wise, but I didn't need, I don't need the maps to get here. I can just, you drove here. A lot of drives out here. You were just showing me videos that you took in this room 10 years ago. In this very room, more than 10 years and a few months ago. Wow.

That was January of 2011, the Black Crown. Wow. Yeah, because the Black Crown is going to hit 10 years pretty soon. But yeah, but we were hanging out. I mean, the Black Crowns, it is 10 years now. Like, it's 10 years since we completed the record. True. Because we, yeah, we way finished it.

It was like the mixing was finished in May. So. Yeah. Yeah. I remember we were getting mixes back and why were we getting, this is why I'm a little bit confused. We were getting mixes, but we were still at the Omen Room. Remember that?

We were? I think, yeah, because we finished a couple and Zeus was just kind of, you know, he was staying ahead of us. Oh. That's what it was. Like he just, well, I think he test mixed or whatever and he, Got the first mix and we were all like, yeah, cool. And he's like, well, he was ready to go.

So we finished a few and then sending him. And then we were just finishing up like the last little bits, mostly finishing up Mitch's vocals. That's what it was. Yeah, that's what it was. Didn't we like leave the studio for a little bit to play some show? It was a dumb idea. I'm trying to remember now.

My memory's foggy from that point. But I think you did. It was 10 years ago. It was. No, was it a cruise? Did you do a metal cruise or something? No, almost. No.

You were going to. Yeah. And then you didn't. But then I think you did like, oh no, it was like South America or something. It was a foreign tour, but it was only like a two-week, quick little stint. It was something. And then came back to finish a couple of things. Yeah, we learned that never do it ever again.

Never do it again. Everybody says that, but they always, oh, we got, yeah, no big deal. We got time, we got time, we got time. We got time. We got time. We got to go on the road. Shit. Yeah. Okay.

You know, now it's easier because, like, a lot of times, like, oh, I have a recording rig. Oh, just send me that guitar or dub, and I'll reamp it or whatever. Not that I want to always do that, but it does make it easier. Even, you know, 10 years ago, it wasn't nearly as easy to do,

and now it's a lot easier. I mean, I've had to do it so many, times where it's like band doesn't finish or whatever oh but you know what we have another idea well you're on the road well we've got a rig in on the bus we can just send you a guitar file or whatever really yeah yeah it happens happens a lot wow is this is this recent i mean in the last like five six years for sure easily whoa but even even so like you know i mean i've done so many times where it's like I mean, nowadays, it's like somebody in the band. I mean, you have, you know, you have stuff.

You know, Alex was always a guy, like a recording guy. He would send me files or whatever, you know, like. True. There's always a guy in the band that does this, at least to some degree of proficiency that you can, you know. Someone here was going on. Someone, yeah, but, you know, there's also that, there's also that danger of never being done.

True. Hey, one more thing. I have an idea. Let's add this other thing. Yeah. Okay. You know. So. Yeah. Yeah. How do you feel about that? Like the way like, you know, like things can still be getting done. Like, as opposed to like, you know, a few years, you know, people can still send singing tracks and it's kind of like the way like the future. How do you feel about that? I mean, there's a definite plus side to it for economy of time. Like something like that. Like, oh, we're not finished. like, oh, there's like a quick couple little guitar of rdubs that we needed to, we wanted to add, or even I would say,

like after the fact, like, I'm mixing and I'm like, you know what, I hear this thing like over the phone like actually hum a melody. Can you give me a guitar that goes me, yeah, like whatever? Yeah, like whatever. And like they go, oh yeah, I can send you something like that

and then they send it to me and I can layer it into the mix. Huh. That is great, but at the same time, like I said, But there's also, I think there's still something to be said for having a producer and having some sort of singular vision to, as quality control for the record. Because if everybody wants to add something, like I said, there's the danger of never being done. Oh, one more thing. Sounds good, but one more thing. Yeah. Yeah. And you've had pretty much every kind of scenario. You've done records with a lot of time.

and you've done records that you need a short amount of time. Yeah, I have. And the older I get, it's like, I don't know how I did some of those records in the, you know, in the speed I did. Yeah. Like you talk to like, if you talk to like Jamie from Haypreed, like that first Hayprey record. Yeah. Nine days. We did that record in.

Nine fucking days. Nine days. And then, you know, how many years later we covered last breath for, you know, you Can't stop me, but I did it again. Shout out to Hey, Hey, Jamie. But hey, hey, Jamie. Yeah. But, yeah.

Nine days, including mixing. We tracked it in seven, and I think I mixed it in two. Wow. You mix it in two days. Two days. That is, that's crazy. And, you know, that's my, especially if you're in the scene or in a metal scene, you, you have, like, a favorite Steve Evitt's record, and that, and that record is mine.

Really? Satisfaction is my Steve Vettis record. I was jamming it this whole week. I'm like, damn, this record. I walked in, you were jamming incantation. Yes, the first record I ever produced. First record I ever produced. Did you put that on for my sake or were you actually listening to it?

I had to respect. Yeah, dude, that was, came out in 92, but you did it in 91, correct? Yep, that's for those of you keeping score, that's 30 years ago. Well, Steve, that was congrats on three decades. decades. Thank you. That is an accomplishment for real. Well, thank you. But I, you know, it's funny, like I tell people, oh, I produce that record because, you know, other people have asked me about that over the years. But that was a, I don't really consider myself producing records for real. I mean, I guess the first record I considered really producing was MOD. That was the year later.

That was 92. But my producing career really didn't start. really going until like 96, 97 is when I started doing all those records, all those victory records. Snapcase, hate, read, all that stuff. That's when I really started, like, actually, like, okay, now I'm just working on records. Because I was the staff engineer at Trax East in South River, New Jersey. So, like, incantation, they just basically just book studio time. So I was the de facto producer. Yeah.

but I was really the house engineer. Okay. And I produced the record, but, you know, I mean, and I had my ideas, but I wasn't really a producer-producer then, you know, considering. I mean, I still do a lot of what I do now, and it's like the quality control thing, but I wasn't really working on arrangements or anything like that. I was just recording them and getting great, you know, trying to get the best sounds possible, trying to get the best performance possible. Yeah. But it was a very broad sense of production rather than, like, really, really. digging in to any kind of like feel of things or just like okay this sounds good all right

that sounds good that sounds good that's good move on you know i mean again we did that record in like i think a week a incantation yeah like it was it was like a week and then a couple of other weekends we did it over a span of like a you know in a month or whatever but it was like one solid week or five days like a work week Monday to Friday and then like a couple other weekend blockouts at tracks because the guys weren't really full time and it was like on their off

days from work so we recorded on the weekends we blocked out the full weekend and did that what a trip huh shout out to John McTee that's he's still doing incantation he's the only original member and he wasn't the singer

now he is but he took over vocals on the later records but he used to this guy Craig the other guitar player was the singer on that record it's a trip that we were talking when you walked in you kind of came out of the gates swinging

for putting quality on death metal or any kind of like genres that aren't really known to have quality recordings so you kind of came out of the gates well thank you kind of striving for

a good sounding record You know, the funny thing is it wasn't even ever a conscious thing. It was just like when I would hear stuff, like when I would think of death metal, I wasn't even really into death metal at the time, but I was telling you before, there was a death metal scene in New Jersey, and I started working with a lot of the local, the Jersey bands that were in that scene, incantation, and then there was this one called Domodicy, and then Ripping Corps. I didn't work with Ripping Courts, but they were awesome.

Do you ever hear them? I never heard them? Amazing. Amazing. The bass player was like this completely. complete monster, like, unbelievable band. And mortician, like I said, I did that, yeah, I did that split seven inch with mortician and incantation, which is how I got to do the incantation record. Wow.

But I would think of death metal when I would think of, like, venom, like at war with Satan or something like that. And I'm like, you know, I could understand what they were doing, but I thought those records always sounded like crap. They don't, they don't, just like a big blur of like, like, boom, yeah, you know. Yeah. And, you know, maybe that's the cool part about it. But, like, I was like, like, going like, when I hear, when I would hear, like,

I originally approached that when I would listen to, I was telling you, like, Slayer, like Seasons in the Abyss. Like, I'm like, okay, that's what it should sound like, you know, like. Yeah. That's what I thought I tried to make it sound like. I'm like, make it sound like Slayer kind of, you know, like, they were using, like, crate amps,

just like the most horrific, you know. Nice. Contour is blasted. Contour, yeah. It's just scoop and wherever you move the scoop, you turn the knob. It's like, what is contour? Come here from a pro. I don't know, but I think it's basically just a mid-scoop,

and then it's like wherever the frequency, how much you're scooping. And like you literally, if you swept this contour, it would sound like a phaser because it would just like scoop and you just move it around, like, shoo. Yeah. You know what?

I think I need the buy one on, and just do that effect that you did. Steve, mic it up. I just want to say this phaser. Uh-huh. Yeah, and it's just the most scooped sounding. Just.

And that's that record, right? That's that record. I don't even know the series crate it was, but I know, I remember the, I remember it like it's yesterday. So it didn't have tolex, like a Marshall head on it,

but it had like fuzzy, almost like carpet on the outside of it. It was like black, like fuzzy. Oh, the carpet ones. It was the carpet crates. Dang, that's sick. And it had like the red knob or multicolored knobs.

The red knob was, I think, the contour, if I remember right. But like. Dude, when they had the fuzz on the amps, that's like, then they tried to make a better sounding one. It was the X caliber. You remember the crate X caliber? That was like the, that was the one that everybody was using for a while. Yeah.

If you had a crate, like, you were not. known as like a pro. Especially in high school, I mean, yeah. I mean, I know, you know, we were all talk about crates and how like you want to have like the contour. Dude, so sick. It was like, you have no like idea what you're doing.

You make like your sick tone out of your little combo in like your room, then you play in like a room or like the studio like where's, where the sound go? Well, it's because, you know, the thing you learn as a, as a player and as me as a producer too is that everything can't like by itself it's like an interesting sound it's not really great but it's like it's big really big sounding like it's like just like like i said scoop like extreme lows and extreme highs yeah but the problem is that you learn later on that every sound can be the biggest sound because if everything's big

nothing's big oh yeah you have to learn how to fit it within the framework and it's that's the same as a in an artist, like, working in the band, you can't just make it all about yourself. It's about the combination of everybody. So it's not just everybody trying to be the biggest thing in the room. Yeah. You know? Yeah. So.

Yeah. We all can't be Dan Kenny, you know. We could try. We could try. Shout out to our great piece player. It's so sick. It's so sick. You know, I was just thinking, like, you did something.

When we were doing the, like, last record, you like came in and told, I don't know what you did. But I was like, I was like, how do you do that? I was like, we turned the bass down and the, and then the guitar is up and then the bass on it louder. I remember when it happened, I was like, what the fuck just happened? And I'm still, I'm still actually confused by it.

When we were doing pre-production, you mean? Yeah, pre-pro for, uh, for the latest record. Yeah. Remember you told D.K. to turn down us up a little bit and something happened to the base frequency and went up. Mm-hmm. I remember being tripped out and like, I don't even know what the hell does happen.

but it sounds good, so I'm not even going to say anything. Well, it was a combination of him, and then also me taking the bottom end off your guitars a little bit to make room for the bass. Maybe that's what it was. It's the same thing. Like I said, if you guys both had all this extreme low end on the guitars, then you can't hear what the bass is doing,

but if you just, it's like carving out stuff, it's like the same way I approach, like, you know, when you're getting tones in the studio. Yeah. It's like, you've got to make space for things. Yeah. interesting what's your take on

now that we're on the subject of tones there's a subject that I'm trying to get to understand more and that and that's and that's phase because there's a because there's like you could do like the one track and that's cool but or you could do a double track which is like

I'm trying so hard not to be geeky but I notice that when you do two tracks on top of each other you can't do because you know what I was trying to do on last record put a bunch of effects but you can't put effects on top of each other so I was wondering how

is that possible to do on two tracks or do you have to just do it on one? Usually one or you have to do something different it's the same thing it's like a jigsaw puzzle because if you have say like if you have

if you're trying to make a picture right so you have a puzzle so you have this And if you have two different sounds, you can make them do that. Yeah. Right? But if you have them doing the same thing, this is what happens. Yeah.

And they kind of like mask each other. Yeah. That's the layman's term to talk about phase. Okay. So if you make this, it's just like when you double track too, I try to always, when we would do like if we layer guitars like even on heavy rhythms and if we want to do any double. Like on the last record, we did very little of that. Yeah. Like on the Black Crown, we did a lot of like quad guitars.

stuff like that. I used to be into that, but now I'm more into getting a bigger tone and getting the best thing out of just the two. And like if you want to do it in a couple of spots for impact, that's fine. Yeah. But when you do do that, you have to alter the tone slightly. Because if you do two of the same, the frequency sometimes, if they happen at the same time, or if they happen opposite of each other, they cancel out. Yeah.

And that's a question of timing. and that's like the, you know, if you want to get into the techy thing, but like when the waves, if a wave's going like this and another wave's doing the same thing, if they cross opposite of each other, they'll cancel out. If that's, I don't know how else to describe it, but it'll actually make it smaller sounding. So weird.

And that's the thing with a lot of guys, too. They use this thing like, there's ways to like use like a plug-in. There's a plugin called vocal. line where you like you could basically take two wave forms and look at it and I'll go okay I'm going to make them super tight and it's like it actually

makes the thing sound way smaller even like with vocals if there's a double track vocal if you line them up so tight that it sounds like one voice it winds up making the voice smaller sounding because it phases out and it cancels it cancels half the frequencies or it can't

yeah that would maybe what you're saying would explain where like sometimes just doing one track to me I love just one track that sounds heavy, great especially with what you do

especially on the later like on the last record we did and the record you did with Ross with like you were just going really crazy with all the pedals and all the effects like it sounds so much bigger with just the one just like just make that sound

the thing you know I literally just learned that like maybe last week where it's like you know what I want to go back just doing one track. I miss that. You have like a, for some reason it still has that big sound.

Mm-hmm. You know? If you do it right. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. Which I always, I got from you is, uh, that means you have to commit to something. Yeah.

That's, that's everything. I've always, you know, like 98% of the time. There's, there's a couple of things that I've done where, you know, okay, let's take a DIY and let's do something later. But, you know, because. I, it's the same thing, you know, just because I'm quote-unquote old school and I grew up making records on tape and you had to commit to everything and not take a DIY and like do it later. Yeah.

Like, you know, that's in all the classic records were always made in that fashion, like commit to the stuff. Don't, you know, delay, you know, like even delays on the solos and stuff like that. Let's print it. Let's put it. Get a tone and listen to it in the track and, you know, tweak it while you're listening to the music, which is what you're supposed to be doing, not listening to it on an island. Like, only here's the sound, okay, it's like, great, we get the tone originally, but then I, you know,

every time we'd always, okay, hang on, play along real quick, and I'm going to tweak a little more. Yeah. Because how it fits in the puzzle, again, like I talk about, it's like that. It's like how it fits in the track when the stuff surrounding it, you know, is the most important thing because you're, you're building this mosaic, you know, this wonderful, like, heavy or whatever, mosaic.

Yeah. That, you know, it has to, that's how it has to be. Yeah. Because otherwise, you know, nothing is in an island. You know, obviously, I would love to always record everything together live if I could. But, you know, that doesn't always work that way. Yeah. But it's all about the whole being greater than the sum of the parts.

Mm-hmm. totally well since you just brought right up actually what what does it take to actually accomplish that to actually record a song or record live what what what how does how is that accomplished um well one pre-production and having the and everybody having their parts rehearsed is huge obviously yeah that's that's everything you know i mean you know as long as everybody's a competent musician i mean you can there's some degree of experimentation and that's great and there's some magic that happens too and sometimes the mistakes are what makes it even better you know but um it's just being prepared that's the huge thing and obviously in the studio you have to have enough microphones and you know yeah channels on the console or

preempt or if you're not using a console have enough preamps enough to get all the right tones and the keeper tones yeah okay and then do it you know huh now I know. It's weird, you know, when you get older, like, you know, you, uh, you just know how to ask questions better, you know? Mm-hmm. It's like, I know what I want, but I don't know even how to ask.

I don't know. Like, literally, just like, things I'm asking now, I'm always wanting to, like, this bring up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I never knew how do you put that into, like, a question, you know? Well, you know, I've given other interviews before, like, and it's, it's interesting to know that, I never think about my process ever.

Yeah. But I've had to, over the past, you know, a few years, and I did this course on Creative Live, and I'm supposed to be doing this nail-the-mix things soon too. And, like, to how to break down my process about stuff, because I'm just like, I don't know, I just turn knobs till it sounds good. I move the mic till it sounds good.

It's just like... Yeah. But you realize that they're actually... if you really break it down into like micro there is a process there is a thought process that goes behind some of it but it's really just experience experience yeah there's a lot of it just like you said you get older you know how to ask questions it's like yeah i get older i know how to answer them yeah because i don't i never never give too much thought i'm like i don't know i'm just some dude i just come here and throw some mics up and you know turn knobs and make it sound good

wow you know see and it's good that that we're still evolving you know you know you know It fucking sucks how many years that takes, man. I know. It takes years. Yeah. But maybe that's part of it. That's part of the journey. Because I think if you knew all the answers,

if we knew all the answers 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago. True. Where will we be right now? Not here. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, it's true. Unless, you know, you're, if you have the right attitude and, you know, even done the right internal work, like to know that, you know,

I know enough to know I know nothing still. True. You know what I mean? I have to, you have to constantly try and evolve and try and keep growing and keep learning because then other than that it's death, you know? Totally.

Yeah. I know, you're right. You got to keep evolving, dude. I learned literally like a few months ago that, you know, when he had like this realization, you're like, oh, shit. I realized a few months ago I have like a massive ego. and it hit me in like a fucking

lightning baller like it's you it's not the other person that you thought it's you and like just sat there or is it confidence is it being stoked on what you're doing

is it an ego or is it like or is that does that are you perceiving that as ego I mean if you are that's fine if you say okay I have an ego that's you know I mean I think you have to to a degree

a little one you have to be able to to be able to step up on stage in front of how many thousands of people and like just go crazy you have to like or you have to be completely oblivious you know one or the other yeah it's like there has to be something there has to be I don't know if it's ego but maybe it is but if you want to call it that like I said but there has to be a some sort of like internal something to let you be able to be free enough on stage to be able to freely express yourself or even to write a song or to be in the studio and just like

yeah there has to be something there i think if you have all that crushing self-doubt you're never going to get out of the bedroom it was you know like you know i think i think maybe ego gets a a bad rap and i think like ego to to where you think that you i think ego to to the point of like of like thinking like you know everything then that's but that's a bad thing yeah but other than that i think you know like i said i think it's most of the great artists have some sort of ego if you want for the for the lack of better term yeah yeah do you think it's hard as like to to separate what you actually just said it um to separate uh what's ego and then what is confidence Yeah, it's tough, right?

It is tough because, honestly, me coming from my personal life, me, Steve Abbott's the producer, is different than Steve in my home life. It's like a different thing. It's hard, it's actually harder for me to have self-confidence outside of, because maybe it's because of the familiarity or whatever, but like, I'm not as decisive in my personal life as I am in the studio. You know, like, I get in Steve work mode. Yeah.

And I'm like, this is what we should do. I know, this is what I feel like we should do. This is, I feel like I have a clear path in a clear direction. But then when it comes to, like, personal decisions, sometimes I'm like, I don't know. I'm, like, indecisive. So. That's so weird, huh? Because Steve Evitz in the studio, that's you, though.

That's right. It's you. I know. But how come that doesn't transfer over to your, it's so weird, huh? I still haven't figured it out. 30 years later, I haven't figured out. Dude, it's weird. Yeah.

Like, it's so weird how you could be. It's you, but it's still you, though. It's still me. It's still. Mm-hmm. But then when you try to transfer it over. I mean, do you feel any of that, like a little bit? Totally.

Really? Totally. Yeah. Dude, the stage and my learning experience, the podcast. Mm-hmm. When I put on the headphones and the mic, my listening skills go up, and I just, I could carry a conversation better. Right. It's so weird.

But then I take it off and I go right back to my fucking lose yourself And it's like It's like how do you transfer Yeah no I know Trust me I've been struggling with it for years

It's a constant thing It's fucked Yeah Meditation helps Dude huge Huge I mean I'm only like I'm honestly only a baby to it

My wife is gutted She's full on into it It's like she meditates Every day Religiously Yeah And it's like, it's a crazy thing. Like the shift happened with her.

She's like, it's like, yeah. That's great. I've been trying to get more into it. Some days I just like, I don't have time. And it's not even like 10 minutes would probably make a difference, you know. It does. Yeah.

Yeah. Have you found that even sitting down for a little bit, do you feel like the benefits of it? Mm-hmm. It's just the, to slow down the, like, internal, like, mental chatter, the internal, like, the brain going. Yeah. Yeah.

Stop that. Because even, like, when I'm doing it still, it's still, your brain still, like, what am I doing? I need, like, I start. And the longer you do it, the less that, that just comes, like, kind of fades in the background. It's like background noise. It's interesting.

That's interesting, huh? Mm-hmm. And you don't realize how much mental chatter you have until you sit down for about 10 minutes and just think about your breath and, like, you stop. Oh, shit. Mm-hmm. that's just going that and like even working out like the even just like getting on the like with this pandemic thing we were so like everything that closed down but we got um a peloton bike great and just even just to be able to like just exercise and breathe and like get a sweat going huge huge yeah yeah yeah yeah it's i mean you got you got to get the blood flowing yeah you know and i just it's fucking crazy like even as

like the older you get you just know you learn how important your your daily maintenance is and when you don't do oh you know I won't

I won't jog for like a week and then for a week you feel like shit you're like what the hell why do I feel so bad yeah you're like it's crazy how fast that shift happens

you got you got to see like on top of it it's crazy the older you get more yeah I remember I think it was during

the black crown you were going to the gym after the studio you were a fucking maniac i still do it like well now things are open like you know i can still go uh there's a like a planet fitness that's like that opened up right on the corner like right by the studio oh great so like like yeah i could walk there it's so so close that's awesome so it's like and they're they're they're open 24 hours now are they's great yeah planet fitness is 24 hours damn so it's been great because i'm I go, it's the same thing. I like going after the studio

because it's like my way of decompressing. Dude, how do you... Okay, because that's special because how do you have the willpower after after full day's work to still go? Because that's like when people like, all right, I'm done today.

I'm going to go home. How do you go? Because I've been sitting in front of a damn screen all day and I'm all like hunched over and I'm like, oh, everything hurts. I need to, like, go and, like, air it out, essentially. Whoa. Like, that's how I basically, like, kind of counteract the whole day of sitting.

And you could go to bed after that? Mm-hmm. What the fuck? I won't do cardio. I don't do, like, any kind of crazy cardio at night. If I do cardio at night, it'll keep me up. Yeah. But if I just do weights.

Nice. Then I get tired afterwards. Interesting. Yep. I'll do cardio in the morning and then do weights at night. Whoa. Well, when you find your thing, you find it. That's what works for me, you know.

Yeah. And you probably drink coffee at night too, right? I could drink, yeah, I don't know. It's like a freak. There's some people, there's like a people that have that weird caffeine, like, tolerance thing. Yeah. And maybe because I drink so much. But I could literally drink a full cup of coffee and go to bed 10 minutes later.

What? My wife has to cut off at like two in the afternoon the absolute latest, or she's screwed. dude yeah that's uh it's pretty common but you you man I just grew up around

it's weird my dad's like that my grandmother was like that when I used to like when she was still alive and I would like travel back east like I would fly into JFK

and she was like right by JFK and she's a night owl like I am like I'm that's just you know that's the way my brain is wired I've always been a night owl yeah and like I would call it 11 o'clock

at night I'd get off the plane and I call her she'd be like Oh, come on overall. I'll make a pot of coffee. And I go hang out with my grandmother. Dude, that's sick. Yep.

Wow. So you and the fresh pot go far back, man. Go way back. Dang. And she was making that old school percolator. That's that good coffee. a fixed metal filter and essentially it because it keeps like bubbling up and brewing over it so it's double brewing triple brewing the coffee because it's constantly pushing the coffee through the grinds

oh yeah that's like i never heard of this oh yeah you could get you still get one on the line you can get into like 20 bucks dude i never heard of wow that's like the that's some that's the real east coast shit that how do you make a real cup of coffee that's the evit special right there that's what i grew up on That's why when I can drink drip coffee, it's like, what is this stuff? It's like, it's weak. Yeah, yes. Although this is quite a good cup of coffee. I appreciate that.

This was brew just for you. You know, this is, especially I was grind it. I timed it. I put the water through through a filter. I heat up at the perfect, I'm going to get really key, it 1906. Oh, did you do a pourover? No, French press. French press.

Nice. Measureed out the It's very good The coffee grounds It's very good Is there anymore? I think so Yeah

I think it's it Actually sorry Ah that's all good I should know better I feel the fucking French press It was like full of coffee And then I pressed it

And then I fucking exploded In the kitchen Oh shit And it's like trying to like clean it up Because I knew you're really close by I'm like oh fuck I made a mess But yeah

Everything is There's nothing like a good A good brewed black cup of coffee Nothing like it. There's nothing like it, dude. I love making people a coffee, especially people that haven't had a good cup of black coffee. Oh, wait, wait.

You never had like a freshly brewed. Well, yeah, because everybody's so used to curigs now. Dude, totally. It's garbage. It's garbage, dude. Or like the gas station. Oh, yeah. Or it's like, you know.

The coffee with the orange handle that's been sitting there since like 7 o'clock in the morning. Yeah. Oof. In the styrofoam cup with like powdered cream. Yeah. Oh, dude. Oh, man, when you have a freshly brewed coffee, it's fucking. God, live changing. I mean,

I get it. Like, if you put sugar and coffee, I get it. To me, it's like, it's like a drug. I've had it literally a couple of times. I came on one hand. How many times I had sugar in my coffee? Oh, wow. It's so good that I stay away from it.

I'm like, oh, I just want to down this. Do you remember when you guys were all about the bulletproof when we were doing, you can't stop me? We were just like the butter and the coffee, like the full. The full on, dude. Yeah, Kerry Gold, grassbed butter, either coconut oil or... MCT.

Yeah. MCT. You made your brain's on fire, dude. I just listened to that. I actually just listened to Dave Asprey on the audio book, the Game Changers book. Oh, yeah? Yeah, the guy who, the Bulletproof founder. Yeah.

Yeah, Dave, got a great, great guy. Interesting. Very interesting. He has a new book? Game Changer? It's called Game Changer. changers. It's like it's, I think it's, I don't think it's that new, but I'm heard of that one. It's great. It's great. Wow. Yeah. Because I remember when you first wrote a book, it was called like,

it was like the Bulletproof Diet. Right. So at the game changer, I never even heard of that one. Yeah. Yeah, I just finished it. It's fantastic. Really? Yeah. There's a lot of, uh, just lots of things, little, like, biohack, mental hacking stuff and like, yeah, he's all about it. Yeah, he's really into like that mental biohacking. The first time I heard about hacking was from, from Mark. I was like, What the fuck you're talking about? Then we dove into the deep assprosy scene. It's crazy. I saw it six months ago.

They have bulletproof stuff in Walmart now. I know. Isn't that crazy? Oh, that is crazy. Yeah, he turned that into like some crazy brand. Dude, full on brand it. Yeah, but there's a lot of like interesting stuff that I'm starting to like trying to explore. Not so much like the biohacking because he used to be full on vegan and I'm not vegan per se.

I still eat eggs. But that's the only thing like I don't do. meat or do dairy. Cool. So, like, he's fully into, well, but he's fully into, like, all of it. Like, yeah. He goes, like, full meatosaurus, you know, like. Yeah, he's in.

He's in. Speaking of that, this might ruin it, or you might learn something. Me and Cece just saw Seasperacy. I haven't watched it yet. I know. I mean, like, I haven't really, I've had, like, fish the, you know, a handful of times Like my wife and I went full vegan for a while

She still is Yeah But I started doing eggs again Like free range eggs Yeah, you need eggs dude Yeah But she watched the sea spirit She's like I will never touch seafood again

I'm like It does that Yeah I know I know I'm gonna watch it But I'm like still like I don't want to watch it Yeah it's like I want to enjoy my sushi let's just say obviously when you see like a documentary like that you need to like kind of step back and get like a clear head okay how much of it is fluff what's real what you gotta let's okay what what is real and like what's a what are they selling and uh let's just say the past month um when i ordered domino's pizza there's no pepperoni yep it made the change dude yeah it's so weird it just makes you like uh look at

like the mass produced of like the meat and uh yeah i can't yeah i can i can't i won't do i won't do the meat anymore yeah i haven't done in a while now um and the dairy i've i've never been like i mean even before i was like not still eating meat like i was i was not doing because dairy doesn't agree with me at all so it doesn't huh no who i don't i haven't done dairy in a long time you have i never seen you're right i never seen drink milk no never it's i've been drinking almond milk for years and years and years that's what it is it's the uh nut Pads. Yeah, all the nut pods.

Yeah. Yep. It was like an almond milk type deal for a creamer for the coffee. Yeah, it's sick. It tastes so good, man. It's good. Yeah. Almond's it great for you.

Yeah. Yeah. And I've been doing the oat milk now. Like, that's the big thing. Yeah. Yeah. How's that? It's great.

Oat milk, but Oatley is like, that's like one of the, that's my favorite in the coffee. Dang. It's so good. So did you find cutting it back on meat? Does that help, especially like you? Like, does that help you focus throughout the day when you're like literally there, for a 12 hour plus with five dudes with egos and trying and try and get tracks down. I don't know if I...

I don't know if I've noticed like a huge difference. I get, I'm assuming, yeah, I have. Like there's times especially where I really feel really great. And, uh, but it hasn't been so much. It was, it was more of a, you know, and I'm not saying it's fully a, uh, a humanitarian thing. about, you know, harming animals. But like, ever since, especially ever since we got our dog. Yeah.

You know, that was like the shift for me, essentially. Really? Mm-hmm. Just because it's, you know, when you realize this little dude, you know, it's like, you know, not a human at all, but he's just like this great. And he feels all this emotion and go to read that stuff. And it's like, what's different to him a dog and a cow? There's no, you know.

Yeah. There's no difference. Dog and a pig, no difference. Yeah. You know. Yeah, you're right. Super tough. When you have a pet, you're like, man, it's like, they're like alive.

Well, it's like part of your family, you know. It's like this thing. You watch it, you watch its emotions. You watch it react to you and emote. And like, you know, so. And, you know, I'm not, I'm not one of these guys that are like, oh, you know, I don't walk around preaching to anybody. Like, you shouldn't eat me.

You shouldn't do this. You shouldn't do that. Yeah. It's just my personal vibe, yeah. It's good. Like, it's, it's the best. It's very rare, but if I meet, like, you know, like, Ross, so you meet, like, a vegan, but they, like, you don't know.

Yeah. They never talk about it. Like, oh, that's, that's how, that's how you do it, man. It's cool. Just, just do your own thing. I mean, you know, where. I don't want to preach to anybody about anything, you know, like, whatever. Religion, diet, like, whatever.

Totally. It's a little bit to, when you're out with your friends, you know, trying not to eat. Like, you know, I'll get like a cheese pizza. And we're like, but you don't be like, all right, I'll get a cheese pizza with no pepperoni. Because I'm not the fucking murderer. You don't, like, put it out there. So it's like, you just, hey, can I get a cheese pizza?

Then like, just live. Yeah, I don't want to, you know, be that guy like, oh, you realize what you're doing right now. You're supporting you're propping up an industry that blah, blah, blah, blah. It's shot, dude. No, no, I don't know. It's not it. It's just not my vibe. And I just, you know, that's fun.

Yeah. It's similar to religions. Like, you know, the people on the corner, it's not the ones that are going to make you probably go to church, you know? No, definitely not. It's probably not. It's not going to help out, you know.

Do you, I never asked you this before. Do you have a favorite record? That's a loaded question. It is, huh? Yeah. I never asked you before. God, I have favorite records for numbers of reasons, but no, I can't say I have a favorite record of all time.

No. I honestly, I wouldn't, I couldn't tell you because I just listened to so much different. stuff. Yeah. I meant like as far as like tracking. Oh that I produced? Yeah. Yeah again. Loaded question. Loaded question because I have favorites for different, lots of different reasons.

Yeah. It can be like because I love the songs or I love how the record sonically came out or yeah. Just you know having a great time like it brings back the memories of making in the studio and just like you know the dudes and like It was just, you know, it's just different favorites for different reasons. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy how every record, like, you've done throughout your career, they all mean something.

They all do. You know, like, there's no question about it. Like, you just keep building and building. And, like, you know, 30 years later, I mean, you're Steve Evitts, you know, and you're still going. Yep, still going. Not even close to being done. It's going. close and you've always been really you've always been very disciplined and you did really well with always keeping taking care of your ears i've always seen that

i try you know well you know the funny thing is that like i damaged them early on when i was in before i was in the studio i damaged them in like bands and stuff like that like yeah my left side is still there's still some frequencies that aren't there anymore like i've always had it since my entire career i've known about it and like I just know how to like compensate for it essentially because you know when I was in bands I was here the drum kit was here and I didn't wear earplugs like an idiot

because I was 19 years old like oh it's fine and like you know the China symbol right here so do you find even stuff you did when you were 19 still made lasting damage now oh yeah there's no question about

I mean like I said I know like I said my entire career there's a little bit of a dip like on certain frequencies in my left ear and I've always known it I've always had it oh my gosh that that's scary people need to hear that man you gotta wear hearing protection

everybody just so you know wear it make sure you wear it you have to and you're like lay down and then you hear like that like ringing I don't have luck thank knock wood I don't have there's no tonight there's no ringing oh great it's just there's a whole like there's a dip

like in the frequency response of my left ear wow but like I said it's oh it's never not been there every single record i made has been like that but it's not like crazy where it's like i'm deaf in my left ear or anything but there is a there's a little yeah a little the frequency response the graph it's like there's like there's like there's like wow there's a hole there well thankfully i'm on the right side so that's why i was i was sound better than the mark right it's always oh my why is my EQ sounds so much sick oh i get i get i get the goodsy bevettes here yeah no no it's like i said it's always it's never been a it's never

been an issue because, you know, it's just like anything. You know, you know what your deficiencies are and you learn how to compensate around it. Yeah, knowing. I mean, I think about, I hear, you think about, you know, going out of the complete world, but Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys, who wrote all those insane songs. Yeah. And produced all those records. Yeah. He only has one ear. He only has one good ear. What? Yeah, he's deaf in one year. Completely deaf in one year. I never knew that? Mm-hmm. Whoa. Didn't matter. obviously didn't it didn't produce you know pet sounds produced you know good vibrations all those fucking amazing songs wow only could hear out of one ear i don't know that

dude that's crazy but then again some of those records were mixed in mono originally so it didn't matter uh yeah back then yeah that uh that is 60s right 60s yeah so there it was the original original mix of pet sounds, if you listen to it in mono, it's so much better than the stereo version. Is it? It's incredible. It's incredible how much depth and space you can perceive without the left right. You can still hear, like, there's a whole thing. And even, like, that's what I do a lot. That's a trick in the studio, too, like getting mixes to sound right. Yeah. It's like, if you can make it sound good in mono, then you're, like, so far ahead of the game because that's about like establishing basically depth in front to back yeah in one speaker

whoa being able to like listen to all that stuff in one speaker and to be able to discern between instruments and then once you spread it out in stereo and then you've got the left right to to help the space but if you can get it sound good in mono you're like that's how you do it that's sick that that that would explain so much creativity and if with those mixes and why and why there is so much death in those mixes, because they learned to master the, like, the mono. They had to. That was originally,

stereo was like the stepchild. The format originally was mono. Like, everybody made records in mono, and stereo was an afterthought. Wow. And then when they had stereo, they put drums on one side and vocals on the other. But that's the,

it's very funny when you hear those like Beatles records, but the drums are just in the left. Yeah. That was because the stereo mix, was they did that after the fact there was an complete afterthought they would spend all their time on the monomix and then go

okay now we have to do a stereo one I don't know put the drums over there put the guitar the vocal over there like that's their rough way of there was no real pan pots like to go in between it was either there was like most of the old mixing consoles it was a switch it was left

center right that's it you only had that oh that's why Mm-hmm. Dang, you only had three options. You only had three options. Yeah, with the drums over there. Yep.

Drums on the left. I don't know. That sounds all right. That's cool. Sorry, Ringo, but yeah, you're going over there. Dang, I didn't know that. Mm-hmm. Yeah, stereo was a complete afterthought.

Like the Beatles stuff, which, you know, still, my Beatles are still my favorite record, my favorite band of all time. First record they did that was actually in stereo was Abby Road. It was, like, actually the first real stereo. The first song they actually mixed specifically specifically for stereo was Hey Jude. Really? Mm-hmm. Wow, I know that.

Yeah, even the White album was originally, that was like mono, and then they would do the rest of the... Abbey Road was the first real stereo Beatles record. That would explain it. I don't know why when I listen to Beatles, I always go to Abbey Road. There's like this... They were on some different shit then. I'm like, like, why does it sound like this massive? Yep.

It's a heavy record, man. It's a great record. Abby Road? Wow, dude. So good. Boom, boom. I was like, what is? The remix stuff is unbelievable.

George Martin's kid. Yeah. Remixed. He did new mixes of Sergeant Pepper. He did a new mix of the White album. He did a new mix of Abby Road. So they were, essentially, they reassembled the stuff because how they did stuff in the past,

Like Abbey Road was, the most they ever had was an eight-track tape machine. Yeah. So they had eight tracks. So you do the eight tracks, you'd bounce it down, you'd do a mix down of the eight tracks, then they would, to a stereo,

they would then take that stereo mix, put it on a new, new fresh piece of tape on two tracks, and then layer more things. Whoa. And then mix that down and then layer again. That's how they did, that's how they did like Sergeant Pepper on a four track.

It was like, They fill up the four tracks, bounce it down, put it on fresh tape to one track or two tracks, layer on two or three more, bounce it down, go back, layer it, layer it, layer it. So they had all the tapes archived. Like, here's the first reduction mix. They call them reduction mixes. So they went backwards and pulled out the individual tracks through each layer of tape and then put it all in Pro Tools and lined it all.

up so they had actual like full on like 48 track mixes or whatever and and uh martin's kid uh did did new mixes i'm not a huge fan of the sergeant pepper one the white album is amazing his the job he did on the white album was incredible so check out the new mix on the white album is completely sick it's it altered my perspective of that record completely and and and Abby Road is hit and miss. Yeah. There's some stuff that's unbelievable. The new mix he did have come together is so sick.

Oh, I got to hear it. It's so great. How recent is this? Last year, two years ago? Last year? That's pretty recent. Two years ago. Yeah, 2019, I think.

I got a question because I know people are thinking this, so I was ask it. Is that on Spotify? I think so, yeah. Okay. Yeah, it is. Because you know there's a very common thing is like there's always like the remaster version Yeah, you always see that this is the remaster but they did a new they did this is the new mix thing that's on there Wow that's sick

And he really and he really like honored the original mix I like when it basically Feels like the original mix yeah, but it just has some added depth and dimension to it Then then there's times where where they got a little cute with certain things to make it a little more weird. Yeah. I mean, I guess I get it, but I just, you know,

I want to hear what I want to hear. Oh, yeah. I'm selfish in that way. Totally. Yeah. Oh, you fucking ruined it, but this is sick. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's touching, like, a Beatles mix.

I know. Yeah. It's, that would be, like, the weirdest thing. Yeah. I don't, if I was, if I was tasked to do it, yeah. I don't know how I could improve it. You know, like, you know, there's a lot of things now getting remixes and stuff like that, like old classic records.

There's a lot of people that are doing stuff. Yeah. You know, and I'm like, man, I just don't know how I would, like, if somebody offered me like whatever, an Iron Maiden record, it's like remix this. Yeah. And it's like, I love this. It's perfect. Why am I going to remix it? Yeah.

You like get it and then you send, then you send him back. I'm done. I'm done. That's it. Here's the mix. Yeah. fucking pay me. I mixed it.

I remixed it, dude. I gave it listen and figure out that. Yeah, I don't know if I would, you know, I couldn't make it modern and give it a, you know, it's just, it would be just weird. It's weird, huh? It's weird.

It's weird. I would just like to more have the multi-track just to listen to it and listen to the time capsule and be stoked on that more than anything. Yeah. Check this out. Oh my God, this is so cool. Listen to the vocal solo.

Like, oh, listen to that. That's so cool. Yeah. Yeah. You have multi-tracks to a few songs, and you'll just start playing it in a studio, and you'll be so stoked on one part. What's the song you always played?

You always played one song. I don't remember which one. Was it Queen? Yeah, it's Queen. Oh, yeah, Killer Queen. Yeah. The guitar solo? Yeah.

So good. That's sick. Yeah. When you hear stuff solo, it's like, it's not a disc, but when you hear stuff solo, it makes it more human. is like oh wait that sounds like that person plain yeah well and also like when you really hear it soloed again it's that it's the hearing those imperfections it's not perfect at all yeah love that i mean that's where all the imperfections on any recording it's where the magic lies it's

totally the magic is in the cracks it's not on a grid or like perfectly in pitch or any of that crap you know that's where all the magic is totally love love pure you hearing those like solo stuff. Remember like, it was on YouTube, but I found like some track. It was, it was red-haw-le-peper's blood sugar,

such magic. It was, but it was someone posted John Verchante's track, the whole record. There's not, it's not even, it's an hour of like just him.

I was like, look it out, I'll click it and listen. This sat there and listened. I'm like, what the fuck's he doing? Oh, yeah. It was like,

again, it was like sloppy, but I heard shit I didn't hear people before. I was so sick of my, dude, that sounds like someone. plain

guitar and it made me it changed my whole perspective on that band dude you ever listen to

um Christian James Hand no on uh he's on uh was it uh

K LOS uh he does a wherever um uh Heidi and Frank the talk show

guys in the morning yeah they do uh he does this segment and he does this stuff on uh on Instagram the session IG live thing

Okay. He gets, he always breaks down, like, he'll get multi-tracks. He gets, he's got access to, like, gazillion multi-tracks of, like, classic things. Yeah. And he just, dude, go check it out. It's amazing. He'll post, if you follow him on Instagram, he breaks down, like, multi-tracks. Just be soloing things and just listening to it and, like, check it out.

It's like, oh, my God, it's just so great. He broke down the Black Crow's remedy the other day. Nice. Oh, my God. Just the piano part. the keyboard part and the guitar playing oh it's just so fucking good yeah so inspired and just so like and it was all cut live too which is like you know yeah gotta do live record again mm-hmm let's go man let's do it let's do it man so it's all it's all being in the same room and it's fucking look at each other

oh that would be just the best i would love to do that yeah how again how it how is that possible What do you mean as far as like... Yeah, you got to get everyone in a room to start tracking. Because also, I want... I want other bands to hear this too. Like, you know, it's possible. Maybe, you know, fucking try it out, you know? You know, track live or something.

You know, try different shit. Well, that's the thing. Like, it's so crazy to me because, like, obviously, there's a lot of stuff we do in the studio and a lot of overdubs or whatever. But even when we track the basics, We always track basics with a live band with everybody playing, even if there were scratches.

Because there's a vibe that happens. There's a thing that happens between everybody playing together. Yeah. That's just like, I just don't understand producers who record drums last. Like, people do that. It's the craziest thing to me. Like, they'll use program drums,

and then they'll track all the guitars to the program drums, so everything's, like, super, like, stiff on it. like, you know, like, super, like, gridded and, like, whatever. And then, like, track the drums at the end. And, like, I guess it worked for some people. It doesn't work for me. I just don't. It doesn't, it's, like, literally, you know, you build a house and then you put the basement in last.

It's like, what the hell is going on there? Like, pour the foundation last. Totally. Like, how do you do that? Like, it doesn't make any sense. Ah. The drummer sets the tone, and the vocal sets the tone, but it's just, like, You know, totally.

It's a huge thing. Remember, uh, someone was editing our drums and they're putting everything into a grid. Oh, my God. I was like, what the fuck you doing, man? This is, this is take all the love and passion out. Oh, dude. We had to recut all those. Like, I got back the first one.

I'm like, dude, what do you, what do you do? Remember it was just sort of trying to play, like, what is this? I was like, okay. Okay, I guess, uh, that's why we took extra time finishing the rest of, record because I had to readed all the drums. Crazy. It's good that you have that experience because you know both sides. You know, you know, the old school way, you know the modern way, you know that in between

way. And you probably have a respect for the whole scope of things, right? But a lot of people, and they started in this new thing, and that's the first thing that they fucking learned. Okay, you put the drums in the grid. And then this is what you do. That's like to someone, that's the first thing they learned. I know.

You know, like, it's weird because I find myself like this like, act like the cranky old guy like, in my day, this is how we used to do it. And this is how records, real records are made. And it's like, on my hip. Yeah. I'm going to go to a Denny's now and complain about the menu.

Yeah, yeah. Like, but seriously, like, I just, I get it. And, like, you know, more power to people that can make a record that way and make it still sound, like, fresh and exciting. But to me, it doesn't sound fresh and exciting. It just sounds really stiff and stale. Yeah. I just, I can't do it. You know, like, there's something inside me that just, like, maybe to my detriment, but, like, I can't make a record, like, an assembly line.

Yeah. You know. You know, I'm not a full line. Luddite where it's like everything can't be like, you know, that loose or whatever, but like, because I just internally it's the way I want to hear certain things. But there has to be, it's never about making it. Like I like, you know, punching in doing things till it sounds tight to me, but it has to feel tight, not sound tight necessarily. It's more about the feel. It's just internally what I'm feeling.

It's what I'm craving. It's just like, excuse me. I just want it just to feel a certain way. And it's the same thing of like when I still, every once in a while, I still get to make a record on tape. Nice. And it's like when I do that, it's the greatest thing ever. Because it's like I did a record for this Brazilian rock band called Eagle Kill Talent.

It just came out actually. But we did the record like two years ago. But obviously because of the pandemic, it just came out. Yeah, we did the record at 606 at the Food Fighters place. Nice. And we did it primarily to tape. I dumped it into Pro Tools afterwards, but it was like the greatest thing ever. Because for me, like, it was like a drowning person coming up for air finally.

I was like, oh, thank God. Like, it was so good. Because, like, just playing tape and punching in on tape and like listening to the sound come out of the speak. and if you're overdubbing guitar, like reacting to it, rather than like looking at a screen going, okay, here's where you come in. It's like, no, don't look at the fucking screen. Listen to the music coming out of the speakers and play along. It's like the best thing ever.

Because you listen back to it and it, whether on a subconscious level or not, like looking at that screen, like, eh, this isn't that tight. But is it? It doesn't matter. Who cares? Yeah. Listen to ACDC back in black. It's like, I guarantee you if you put all that shit on a grid, like, or put it on into Pro Tools and look to the screen, when you hear the song back in like, like, you hear those downbeat. I guarantee you where the kick is and where the guitar is, they're probably like, like in Pro Tools, it probably looks like the fucking the Grand Canyon, how big the gap is.

No, seriously. But that gap is what makes the thing sound so huge. It's like everybody going, and everything, it's like breathing. is one. It's just this big, it's everything together. It's this giant, you know. Yeah. It's, I wonder, which I have not heard a band do it yet, successfully, is it'd be kind of cool to track everything that's like what you're saying, live to tape, sounds sick, but then maybe have someone else come in that's like super, like new, modern and put like a polished modern mix to it

I wonder like that dynamic sound yeah how do you think that would sound and feel it could sound good there's no question about it I mean that's what I try

I've always tried to ride that line yeah to try and like still make it feel old school but you know have the mix when I mix the records try to still have it sound I don't want it to sound too

like it was made in in in 1975. You don't want that. No, I mean, unless that's the intention. Sure. But I try to give it a modern twist, but not make it sound too robotic either. That's the problem is like a lot of that stuff you make, it just winds up sounding robotic. Yeah.

And I never want that. I want to feel like that, like that, like that ego kill talent record I did like, you know, it has a modern polish to it. Nice. But we did it to tape and like we did it old school. I got to hear that record. I love how it came out. It's great. And, you know, tracking there at the Fu's Place

and tracking on the Sound City console and tracking a tape and, you know, just the best. You mean, Alex, I've been wanting to go there for a long, long, long time. Yeah, I'm about to, I'm actually about to go back there for another project. Really? Yeah, I'm very excited.

Sick, dude. Man, how is it being in that room? Well, it's great. you know, it's cool because it's the foo's place and whatever, and that's all fine and good. But the studio itself is a great sounding control room, which I love, and it's a big control room. I love that. I love, like, bigger control rooms. You don't feel so claustrophobic.

Yeah. And just everything sounds great. You can hear everything perfectly. It's just, it's, it's, the room itself is fantastic. The live room is enormous. It's almost too big. Yeah. But there's no history in the room per se, because it's the studios, I'll like,

been built for, you know, not even 10 years. It's been, you know, or maybe it's been 10, it's somewhere around there. It's not like a new, it's not an old classic room. It was built recently. Yeah. You know, say in the last 10, 12 years. The Sound City console is great. I mean, I used to, uh, I did quite a few projects in Sound City before it closed. Did you really? Mm-hmm. I never knew that. Yep. Yeah, I did quite a few things at the Sound City. What'd you do there? I did a couple of EPs. I worked with Ross there a couple times. I did

a static lelby. We did drums on the self-titled record. We did there. Yeah, I did He Is Legend there. Yep. I never knew that. Yeah. Yep. All right, so I got to check out static their self-titled. Okay. And that was the drums. That was their third record we did at Sound City, yeah. Wow. Yeah.

What should you do a roster? We did a couple little projects there. We actually did a full band remix of a Lenny Kravitz song. Sick. Yeah. Yeah. Lenny Kravitz was heavy, dude. Yeah, yeah.

We did a, it was like a remix, but it was basically just we did a band. Ross assembled a band, and we recorded a new version of music with just flew in Lenny's vocal. off of Pro Tools. Whoa. Yeah. Well, it's cool that you got to see that room before it was no more. Yeah. It's still there now.

It's open again with a different console in there and whatever. Is it? Since when? It reopened a while ago. At first somebody bought it and this French guy bought it and put this old Helios desk in there, which is like another old classic console. And then he pulled out and then someone else is in there and there's like a Neve-type console in there. It is a Neve type console in there.

It is a Neve console with like a Vetus redone Neve console. Huh. Yeah. How's the sound? I haven't tracked there. I did, I mixed something that was tracked there on the Helios desk and it sounded great. Really? Yeah.

Huh. Man, I'm going to imagine being in that room. Do you like, Nirvana was in that fucking room? The live room looks from the pictures I saw, looks exactly the same. They haven't really touched the live room, really. The control room is way different now. There's no shag carpet on the walls or anything like that. Yeah.

And, like, yeah, they kind of redid the lounge area. And, like, you know, Sound City was never like this, like, oh, look at this cool place. It was less like, it was a very dingy, kind of dirty, but it was great because the history of that place, you know. Yeah. Like I said, the room was, the control room small and there's shag carpet. There used to be shag carpet on the wall. There was no real treatment. Yeah.

You know, crazy. Man. what's what's your take with um especially with the whole like modern way of recording we all want to you know do things cheap and and stuff but what's your take of like recording in those rooms that have all that history is is there something to it yeah there is i think so i mean it's just like i i like but i'm also like a history buff like in just in life i always was like a history buff just to go to certain places and like, you know, you just kind of feel the ghosts

in a certain room, you know what I mean? Like, even like as a sports fan, like, well, you know, I wasn't a sports sports fan, but I was a baseball fan. Yeah. Like when I used to, when I lived back east and going to the original Yankee Stadium and, like, you know, you walk in

and it's like, this is the place where Babe Ruth actually played. And, you know, Lou Gehrig played and Mickey Mantle played. And like, just the ghost of it or going to Fenway Park, same thing. Yeah. You see all these, you know, classic, you know, all this history of the stuff.

I like history and I like the, I really feel like places have a memory or a soul of like all the energy that's passed through them. And like going to Sound City and knowing, you know, Dio Holy Diver was done there and Nirvana was done there. And like, you know, even the console like, oh, you know, what's passed through this console? When it did the Cure record, we rented the old console from EMI Studio 3 that Dark Side of the Moon was recorded and mixed on. We tracked the whole cure record through that console. And just like, just to pull those, it's like, oh, this is like,

oh, my God, like you feel the ghost of it. And we tracked it Olympic Studios, which is like, you know, how many fucking Jimmy Hendricks and how many classic records were made in this room. And even the Beatles recorded, like, all you need is love in this room. And, like, there's the boat. I sat down at the bosendorf for piano that, like, John Lennon played in the video for all you need is love.

And, like, I'm playing the song. And, like, freaking myself out. Like, oh, my God, this is awesome. Like, you know. Yeah. Yeah. So, so I, I think that that, that, that plays a part in it. But I think also to anybody who makes records just in their bedroom,

I think having, everybody should have the experience. of making a record in like a proper studio with a producer, I think that's a huge thing. Yeah. I really do. Even guys who do the stuff themselves in their own bands, and a lot of them are very skilled at what they do. They're skilled producers, and they, you know, record their own stuff,

and they record their own material. But I think having the outside ear and outside perspective, you can't put a value on that. I think that's a huge thing. Yeah. I think, you know, some bands can get away with producing themselves, self-producing, but I feel like at least once in every band's career or musician's career, they should have the, they should have the experience of working with an outside producer

and gaining someone else's perspective on how to approach things and how to do things. Yeah, that's true. And that's, you get experience and you get, and you learn. You don't really This one thing that fans really talk about Is you don't learn anything When you're trying to save all this money And you're just

It's just you guys Track track track in a record And putting it out Even if it sounds great You don't learn No Pretty much of anything You got you got to like literally go out

And bring You know Like somebody else in And then you learn And then you could transfer that To your whole The rest of your career That's true

There's the old scientific saying That nothing exists Within a vacuum Yeah. And that's the truth. That's an absolute truth. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I definitely believe that. And, you know, as, you know, being on both sides, you know, you want to go to producer or you want to go to engineer. Or now, you know, oh, we should do the record. So we should save a bunch of money. And then, you know, oh, fuck. Bucks do you bad this. You know, let's just do it in here. Let's save a bunch of money.

But when we should come back to reality, we're like, okay, there is like, a middle ground. And there is something to be said when you bring in somebody else that has fresh eyes, a fresh soul, a fresh ears, and experience. How many times, like, you know, even in pre-production, we were like, you know, because you run in a bubble, you're running in circles. You go, oh, man, this is right. This is good.

Well, we can't really figure out how to do this. And all one person has to say is one thing. It could be literally the slightest little idea. But what about that? all of a sudden you open up a new road and you look and then that inspires you yeah it's not even necessarily that I go here's the way forward yeah but I could literally say one thing that will spark you to think about it and look at something differently yeah and then you take it from there I think there's such a value in that like just that perspective totally to like help you see a different way

totally yeah it's huge you know and we we need it you know especially when we're so we're just so close and like you got the tunnel vision you know just like it's all you see you need like someone like kind of like a slap you know try to try you know yeah there's all this but like I said it's not even like hey try this it's literally what about that and then like I said

I could literally just go I could say two words yeah and that inspires you to think differently yeah and then I just step back like I you know I used to the older I get the more is like you realize when

to push it or when to just so and then go, you guys know what you're doing. I just gave you a little, here's a fork in the road. Take that fork and see where you guys go with the fork in the road. Yeah. And like it's,

it took me a long time to figure that out because it was always used to be like the sheer force of will. No, this is the way. You got, I'm telling you, just do this, do that. No. Yeah. But it's, it's, you know, sometimes it's just like, Point you in the direction and then sit back and get in the back seat and go,

okay, let's see where you guys go with this now. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Being, you know, being on the other side, not being that band I'm about to talk about is how do you deal with like, how do you do? Okay, this is kind of like a mess and how do I fix it? You know, sometimes, again, it's just more about, okay, is it a mess or is it just, it, you just, you just, need to point them in a different direction.

Okay. It's just as simple as that. Sometimes you have to be heavy-handed, and you know, I've done that too, but but it's never from a point of like, I know better. It's just like, okay, well let's see if my whole goal

always has been to just like, all right, what are you guys doing? Let's make this the best it can be. Let's take you and maximize what you're doing. Yeah. And make it the best version of that. It's not necessarily to point to go, no, that's the wrong direction completely. It's like, okay, I see where you're going with this,

but how do we make this the best version of going left, you know, and not go, no, you need to go right, you know. Yeah. It's probably tough, especially when you're dealing with, you know, a bunch of egos, you know, it's tough. Then there's that whole, you know, it's like, so many people ask me, it's like, how do you, well, you produce records, so what does that mean?

And it's like, oh, boy, where do I start? Yeah. like it's it's a lot of things and you know to sometimes to get there you have to deal with and then dealing with the interpersonal dynamics of the band and knowing who's what and who you have to kind of soft pedal it a little bit and to get around that and like you know but it's it's always just the always the end goal is the best thing the best possible you know outcome at least the best one you can hope for. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's so much is so difficult to like kind of and especially you have experience too with like working with the same band but also multiple records and multiple

even throughout a decade you know and pass on you and you've seen different versions of a band and you kind of have maybe you probably have to evolve with like the like the like the band and well okay wait actually this is different now we've got to try this. Yeah. And Yeah, it's definitely a different thing, you know. I mean, even going from my experience with you guys, obviously, you know, going from the first record with Mitch and then starting pre-production on the next one, and then, you know, the unfortunate thing happened with Mitch. And then just stepping back and like letting you guys heal and do what you had to do.

but then when we dove into the you can't stop me record I feel like on now how many years, eight years post almost thinking like no we'll just kind of like do this and

we'll make it like it was but the same but different but you know and then you know I think that in retrospect we probably would have done things a little differently on certain things and other things I wouldn't change but I feel like we really tried to like

force it back into that box totally totally um and then uh you know you guys did the record with Ross and you know you went off and experimented and did what you felt like you needed to do there yeah and then when it came time to do the new record, it came from such a pure

place. It didn't come from a place of like we're trying to force anything. It just felt very natural again. Yeah. Like it did when we did the Black Crown. Yeah. Like it felt completely natural. It didn't feel like we were forcing anything. Yeah. Yeah. The Black Crown was kind of cool.

I kind of realized, I don't think Steve Evans ever got like an optimal suicide sound. There's always something going on. You got Black Crown, which is a great record. But, you know, we're all fucking drunk and still, we're still, you know, a bunch of druggies. And then the next one is with a new singer. Next one's a new singer. The next one is without Alex. We haven't really had like a fucking optimal time. Well, hopefully we get to do that. There we go.

And it's crazy how long it takes you, you know, to get like to get like a straight head you know and uh and and everyone and also everyone else on on the same page with like a good thought process a healthy thought process and it takes a long for us to you I mean well over 10 years of like

just you know now we're finally maybe we're pretty good headspace and yeah no you know the funny thing is the black crown thing yeah there was the I mean I didn't really see it as much because you guys kind of like hit it for me in a way like all the, you know, all the crazy drug use.

I know you were smoking a lot of weed, but like, nothing else. I didn't really see a lot of the other stuff that was still going, when I found out after the fact that was going on internally with the band. But like, that was also fueled by youth. I mean, you still had a lot of that, like, you know, you against the world, like, fuck it attitude. And, like, there was a lot of just, like, youthful piss and vinegar that went into that record for sure.

Yeah, yeah. And like that overcame a lot of that thing. You know what I mean? You're right. But I feel like the fire we got on the last record was pretty damn awesome. Despite the fact that, you know, Al wasn't there. But, you know, at least in spirit he was, you know. Yeah, he was.

For sure. You know, he was. I just did a track with him last month. In Vegas. Yeah. Yeah. I saw Al like two weeks ago Yeah

At Chris Hornbrook's birthday party Yeah it's great I heard Yeah yeah He was pumped Like I hung up with Steve Evans And Chris And I saw Jeff and And I saw Greg

And I saw Greg on my damn I was fucking badass Yeah Yeah it was fun He was fucking pumped Yeah I saw him He left What did he leave Tuesday

For yeah He just left He just left Tuesday So yeah It was last week I saw Chris I saw Alex And he brought the

Like this is what I've been wanting to hear for a long, long time, man. That was the theme for the, the theme for the podcast is what you did? Yeah, awesome. Went there, it's literally got tones, same day, track that's been done. And Alex fucking brought it, man. I'm fucking super proud of him. It's like the way you played, I'm, oh.

Oh, yeah. I haven't heard that in a long, or seen it in a long, long time. It's really, it's cool. It's, again, it goes back to what we're talking about. when we first started chatting. It's just, it sucks how long it takes you just to come back around, dude,

and have that retrospect and that experience to learn. It just sucks. It has to be that way, man. Yeah, but, you know, it's also, I look at it as like, just think of the gratitude you have just that you actually kept pushing to get there.

And you actually got there. Because so many other people would have just, like, said, fuck it and just stopped giving up you know what I mean totally because it's hard like the internal thing is a very hard thing it is to

to really get there and to recognize it yeah it is a lot of man so humbling when you have those realizations and then you realize like your weaknesses that are affecting you are the people the band the people that work with

with you family it's like how it just affects everything thing when you, you know, I'm guilty. I've been pointing a finger playing a time. What's up with Steve Abbott? What's up with Mark? What's up with Eddie? What's up with Dan Kane? What's up with Alex? I've always pointed the finger. Then once like

you have these realizations, it's so humbling, dude. You're like, oh wait, this is me. This is me, man. This is my doing, my fault. And it's so it will bring into your knees, man.

It will. Because you always go, what you're doing you see what's affecting me it's like yeah what about me what about me me it's yeah no no it is me it's my reaction to it's like the me me me was actually yeah oh yeah yeah it's me yeah do it's it's fuck it's it's so fucked it's so crazy it's fucked man it's just like that little aha moment you have it's like oh okay yeah do it's you know honestly that this there's been so much that's obviously been fucked. Like, we did this

killer record, and two weeks later the world shut down. Yeah. The record came out two weeks later, the world shut down. You haven't gotten to tour yet, which hopefully you are going to soon in a few months. Yeah. But this lockdown has been

such a blessing in a lot of ways because it's made so many people realize so many things that they took for granted. Totally. You know? Totally. It's been just, luckily I've managed to keep working with mostly mixing, you know, through this whole thing.

And I'm starting to, like, actually start recording again, which is great. Nice. But, you know, my wife and I are vaccinated. It's great. Like, we're actually go out and not worry about too much, you know, not like I'm licking doorknobbs or anything like that. But, you know, but almost there. Almost there. But just the fact.

just going to Chris Hornbrook's birthday party like hanging out with a group of people yeah the first time I've done it

in my year it's crazy wow like that many people like hanging out together like just having a meal it's crazy that's crazy

it's a trip and just being able to appreciate like what we still get to do for what I still get to do for a living like it's like

wow this is fucking crazy. It's awesome. Like, yeah. It's, it's everything. Like,

and I've, I've grown to appreciate what I do even more, and I've never not appreciated it, but like, yeah. It's like, when you get a taken away from you,

it's like, oh, God. Yeah. It's unbelievable. But I got to spend way more time with my wife. I got married last year. Congratulations.

Thank you. That's dope. You know, like, she's working from home still, and it's just like I've never seen this much of her before we've never get to see

you know because I would you know the hours I work in the studio it's like we were like two shifts passing in the night like I see her you know like wake up in the morning and she goes to work and give her kiss like you know and then like I'd see her

like if we would have Jagger in the studio like when we were making the record she would come and pick him up like on the way home from work and I'd see her for a second give her kiss and she would take Jagger home night and like but like now it's like I see her every morning

I wake up I come in there and make her a cup of coffee or whatever and I like get to actually talk to her and it's been beautiful it's been awesome yeah it's uh now it was that was only possible with with what happened so you're right it was kind of like a lot of people I think for us I mean it was a blessing I mean look at what you did now you're doing this

you wouldn't have probably have done this if you were on the road for past year? No. Promoting and become the hunter? No. Finally,

it had time. Finally it had the spiritual, emotional capacity to take on something this serious. Was it that

you thought of this, were you thinking about it? Or was it from the, like I said, because when I saw this set,

I was like, this reminds me of like when your Q&A session after the live stream stuff. Yeah. Was that when you

kind of thought about doing it? Or was that, like, were you thinking about doing it before that? I've been thinking about doing a podcast for

right when Eddie joined the band Oh no kidding That many years It's been like it's been a thought I almost had a podcast But just didn't have the emotional capacity to do it It was so like there's so much going on with the band

And then myself So finally like had like some realizations And then I had the time and do it So fuck it Awesome man Going in But yeah look at that

Look what happened here you doing this thing you know thankfully blessed you know I could have these you know amazing conversations with with you like Ross you know and you know I known you for over 10 years

I know and you know this is like by far the best conversation we we've ever had and there's like these these cool things sort of happening that I you know I'm again like this this year has been definitely like a secret blessing you know I know well

Alex got married, Mark got married. Yeah, I went to their, do both their weddings on an iPad. It was cool. So crazy. I didn't know what Mark was, what he was talking about. He was like, yeah, I'm getting married. So I knew he only had a very few select people.

So I'm honored that I was a part of it. And it was a trip. I was in the living room where mom and dad were on an iPad. Watching Mark get married. Watching Mark and Mary. I was like, it was very surreal. This is happening right now. He's getting it.

We're on an iPad. had he's getting married and like there's like there's just no way I want shit I don't have a speech prepared like I don't know what to say it was like wow and then like a fucking what like two weeks later Alex is the same thing it was like we all got married within like weeks of each other and then and then you and then you and you and Jen got married shortly after we were

Mark was before us we were August August 14th when we got married so I think Mark was like right after us or right before us and then Alex was like October or September you might might be right How did you do it? Courthouse? Went to the county registrar in Downey.

And now is it? That was it? We were always planning on, we never were planning on having a big wedding. We were going to just go to the courthouse in Long Beach. Yeah. Like, literally, we live across the street from the courthouse, the Long Beach courthouse. Yeah. And we were just planning on doing that and then flying back east and like having dinner with like,

Jen's mom and my dad and my sister and Jen's sister and the end. Yeah. But we couldn't even do that because of the pandemic. We couldn't even fly back east. Totally. And we couldn't even have any, we were going to do via Zoom, like, invite people that we were doing away with the Zoom thing. So literally we just went to get our, we finally couldn't even get our marriage life. So we're going to do it in May, but the office was closed.

So we couldn't even get our marriage certificate. We applied for it. And then finally, like, because. beginning of August, they're like, you can come get your marriage certificate. And we like, you know, we got it. We just went and got it. And then they're like, hey, do you want to, you know, you want to do it next Friday? We're like, we look to each other like, okay.

Wow. That was it. We got married. Nine years later, you know, but better late than never. Yeah. Dang, you're better late than ever. Yeah. After nine years, you've got a pretty solid.

I think we were, yeah, pretty much determined that we were going to be together. Speaking of you of being inesisive outside of the studio. There you go. There you go, Steve. Exactly. See? That's cool. Like producer Steve probably would have been married, you know, eight years before that.

Yeah. This is what I'm doing. And here we are. So we're trying to figure out how to transfer us to the outside world. Uh-huh. It's weird. Always trying to figure it out. It's fucking weird.

So you're making me feel more comfortable and like, all right, this is like, all right, I'm doing it all right. I'm doing okay. This is the normal thing. People outside the element, you feel like, oh, wait, what am I doing? Yeah. How do you, how do I be me? Yep.

It's so weird. Ross too. Ross got married, you know, this year too. Oh, yeah. Yep. What the fuck? Yeah. I never thought that guy was going to get married ever.

I'm proud of him, man I'm proud of Ross I am too so fucking cool I just spoke to him last night yeah yeah I hadn't caught up with him

in a while so it's great yeah we've known each other 22 years 22 years yeah how did you guys meet we met

I mixed a record that he produced Amen oh that's how that's how we met well and uh... Burisi

Joe, that's how we all became friends off this one record because Joe was mixing the record and Joe got fired and then I mixed the record. Whoa. And then, yeah, Joe and I became friends because of that and Ross and I became friends

like pretty much instantly when I was mixing that record in New York. Yeah, Ross loves you, man. Yeah, same. Yeah, you guys have a very cool friendship. Yep. You know, 22 years, huh? 20, 20, yeah.

22 years. Isn't that crazy? That's crazy, huh? Yeah. I need to jam that record. Amen. Yeah. That's a very rare Ross record

that I never jammed. Mm-hmm. And that was like the old days. That was like done at Indigo Ranch. Yeah, I need to fucking jam that shit. You know, I was just thinking, you know, you know, thank you for introducing me to Ross. It was during the Black Crown at 711, me and Mark,

then came to buying beer. I drove you up to the, I sent you up to his, because we borrowed something from him. We borrowed an amp or something from him, right? Wasn't that what it was? Remember, we met him at 7-Eleven first. Yeah. Oh, that's right. Remember that?

It was like... Oh, no, he was right by the studio. He was at the 7-Eleven by my studio. It was so random. Yep. We were just buying beer. The day was over. Like you, and we happened to both go to 7-Eleven,

and we're buying beer, and you're like, do you know Ross? I was like, this is not fucking... happening at midnight at 7-Eleven in fucking garden and grove i forgot about that that's so funny that that's right we i introduced you to ross then i know and then you did a fucking double whammy is like you you were being really fucking cool like you're sending me in a thing was alex to drop off that that mic that's what it was it was the mic yep because you knew what a big fan i was and you're

like and and you were pushing me and do i'm like i don't want i'm going to go i'm nervous yeah it was so thank you man yeah thank you it was so cool Yeah. It's so funny how you meet someone that you look up to and you're so weird when it happens, but then when we were done, you're like, oh, it's so fucking cool. Uh-huh. You're like, oh, my God, if I made an ass upon herself. Yeah, I completely forgot about the 7-Eleven thing. That's so funny, man.

So random how you can meet one of your heroes in the 7-Eleven. It happened. Where's buying beer. Buying beer. We probably shouldn't have been. Buying beer going back to your Motel 6. Yeah. The Motel 6 there.

And he got fucking banned from. Fuck Well because you had the extra You had too many people in the room Is that what it was? Yeah, DK and Mark had the bed So I brought my fucking spare And obviously

Something happens where we didn't There was a miscommunication And then we showed up one day And our shit was outside They just threw it out They were just looking for reasons, dude Fucked So funny man

But nothing that a fresh pot can't fix Nothing You know She showed up the next day you made a fresh pot and it's all good to go It's all good It's fucking sick

Well Steve I don't want to take too much Of your time man Dude it's a pleasure man Thank you for having me It was a pleasure man Thank you for making it and drive You came from Long Beach right

Nice Well I came from the studio Okay actually Oh nice From Garden Grove yeah And you gotta go back huh I'm gonna go back Because I'm working on a mix right now

For an Australian band Nice So I'm trying to like I've been working a little later because the schedule is, you know, they're 17 hours ahead. So it's like dealing with like mix changes. It's like, I'm awake. They're asleep.

They're awake. I'm asleep. Yeah. It's fucked. It's a little, it takes a little longer. Yeah. But yeah, I have to finish another mix and send it off to the band. Great.

Well, I hope this gave your ears a little break. Yeah, for sure. You go back and like, yeah. Hell yeah. I'm ready. I'm ready to mix now with my one ear. it's uh it's like it's one in seven eighths of an year okay yeah it's only a little bit there's only a little well steva is there any records that you did that that are coming out songs or anything coming

out uh no well just this this thing i'm mixing right now but i can't really i don't think they've talked about it yet so i can't really talk about it but that ego kill talent record just came out like a month ago. I'm going to jam that record. You go jam that record. Dang, that's the one I need to hear. So on tape, you did it. Dang, I need to hear that one.

What's it called? The Dance Between Extremes. Okay, that's a pretty cool name. Yeah, it's on BMG. So, yeah. BNG? Ooh, damn. That's hot.

It's hot, not shot. It's hot, not shot. Are you shied or hot? I'm hot. You're your fucking chat. Well, where can people find you? An IG? Yeah, just the IG.

I'm not on Facebook anymore. I got off that. I can't. I can't. I couldn't do it. It's rough, man. Just, just get mad. Yeah.

Just too many arguments. Just IG, Steve Evitz. Steve Evitz.com, you know, website. But really just the IG. That's like where you want to keep up with me. Great. Well, it was Ross's idea. I think it's phenomenal.

Is have another podcast. with me, Hugh, Ross, and Alex. Oh, that would be great. Dude. I was like, yes. Alex has gone for seven weeks, so it wouldn't be until...

Yeah, it's like until summertime. But when you come back, we'll have some AC in here. All right. So I think we're at the last few podcasts where we don't have AC in here. But when you come back, it's going to be fucking pumping cool air.

I'll have more copy in advance, I promise. Fresh podcast. Wow. Fuck yeah All right Well until next time All right Steve appreciate it man

Love you man Thank you man Thank you man Later