Gordon Raphael
Biosphere of hot topics and fun-fax
bout Gordon R:
- won an art contest at age 6 and got to wear a suit, smile for the cameras and attend a party in front of my little painting of a birdhouse with an entrance and an exit (for savvy birds who could read and follow directions)
- Piano lessons age 8. No thank you, I did not like to be told to play "quietly" bu the teacher. In fact the noisy rock and roll on the radio in the car on the way over was way more stimulating to my ears than row row row your boat and the baby classical pieces they were teaching me.
- More lessons, me howem practicing Piano, looking out the window at my friends playing in the streets and me: crying, kicking the Piano and hating with special vengeance the metronome which to me was always speeding up and slowing down!
- First rock band age 13 Kobyn with genius guitarist Steve kirk who could already rock all the Hendrix licks at age 13, the bastard!!!
- (6 months later) Kicked out of first band by afore-mentioned best friend reason: the metronome sped up and slowed down, I swear it!!
- Band after band after band. kicked out of many, stayed in some – improving bit by bit. Joined the best band in my town (Seattle) right after High School (yes i was high all through that school!) The Sorceror's Apprentice. Got the coolest synthesizers in the world (Arp Odyssey/ Solina) and custom made silver satin and black satin outfits made – oh man was I "on the way". Could barely play, though and was kicked out after a year despite my excellent sense of humor and reputation for over-indulgence in pot and acid type of activities. Noticed that girls seemed to respond pretty well to guys in satin suits in popular bands... and took note of that.
- mmm, Spiritual studies and more drugs in the countryside. I think I was an Egyptian or an Atlantean in several past lives. Fun stuff. Learned to play pretty well that year, the mushroom tea helped. Started only writing songs. Never working, never going outside – just writing crazy weird sounding things. "Specializing" you might say! "Driving people crazy", others would add!
- A few thousand songs later moved into a church and tried to start a
recording studio and Artist Colony called Ars Divina. The place burnt down
after a year and all my instruments were reduced to ash, along with all my
tapes of my songs except for a few, and a few books of my poetry. (Yes, I DO consider poetry a man's sport!)
- Moved to NYC to become a star with my crazy West Coast sound. Fell on
hard times and had to go home!
- Moved to Hollywood (after drug treatment center) to become a star,
envisioned bikini clad models and aspiring actresses in the back of my
convertible heading to the beach or to my mansion. (yah, right!!) Met Dave
Allen from Gang Of Four and worked with him on some songs and starting a
record label called World Domination.
- Joined Sky Cries Mary in Seattle and got signed to World Domination.
Toured USA (many times) and Japan. Made a bunch of cool albums, wrote more
songs and bought tons of guitars, keyboards and recording gear to continue
my obsession with crazy sounds and warped 'other-worldly' songs.
- Met Anne and started Absinthee, A music dedicated to dark feelings,
broken hearts and very powerful singing. Made about 20 songs then we both
moved to NYC.
- Started being a "producer" for other bands when all my money was going
away paying Manhattan rents on apartments, studios and taxi cabs. Pamela
Laws was the first person kind enough to take a chance on me,and let me
touch her music with my insane imagination and strange knob turning, slider
moving fixations. (Thanks for that dear!!!) Soon, within weeks I was working
full time with up to four bands a day in a studio called Chateau Relaxo on
Ludlow Street. Got evicted for making too much noise.
- Met Moses Schneider, a massive producer from Berlin who gave me some
truly fine equipment to start my next studio in NYC called Transporterraum
with Jimmy Goodman, and Anne, Manny and Joe from Bear Creek studios lovingly
helped me design and build it. Continued with Absinthee and began hustling
bands in earnest to support my recording habit.
- Recorded cool bands all the time, including Satellites from Mallorca,
and even Ian Brown one time. Most of the bands I recorded did not get their
music out into the world. The I met The Strokes when they played at Luna
Lounge. I was on a mission to get work, and hustled both bands that played
there. Albert and Nick came by to look at Transporterraum NYC and decided to
record a demo of 3 songs with me. The Modern Age it was called, and that one
got to be heard by human ears soonafter.
- 9-11-2001 , and there were some explosions nearby my studio. I got
evicted soonafter for excessive noise, and went on tour with The Psychedelic
Furs, one of my favorite bands, as keyboardist, sub-guitarist and backing
vocals. Cool as hell.
- Moved to London to party and meet people. Met the Libertines my first
day there and fell in love with their music. They took me to many cool
places, and I ran their sound on their first UK tour opening for The Strokes
and also The Vines.
I wanted to produce them, and seriously almost did. Produced 20 bands my
first year in London. went home for Christmas and met Regina Spektor.
Recorded Poor Little Rich Boy within 1 hour of meeting her, completely
unexpectedly, and it wound up turning into a killer album called Soviet
Kitsch, that I produced with Regina and Alan Bezozi during the months that
followed. Truly excellent album, that, always makes people's mouths drop...I
love that!
- Room On Fire with The Strokes, went to Tokyo with 'em to meet Radiohead
and The Doors at a festival there. Back in London started my own band –
first called Crystal Radio, then Black Light. Had the most fun ever with
that group. Played at the clubnight "Basement Club" (run by me and Toby L of www.rockfeedback.com fame)
also played Barfly and thanks to The Strokes, we wound up onstage at
V-festival and T-in the Park! Cool huh. People even liked our psychedelic
rock/punk hybrid ok.
- Started www.Shoplifterrecords.co.uk and tried to release cool bands and
do the right thing. Fucked it up, and lost the label – but now want to
restart it from Berlin!
- Met Skin, recorded with her, went to Mexico and produced an number one
record with Fobia there, went to Cork, Ireland to stay with legend Roy Harper
for a week, where we interviewed each other and talked for days! Met Super
700 in Berlin and Husky Stash, and Mama's Weed, and Spitting Off Tall
Buildings, and Gods of Blitz and Generation Fuck and Sometree and Lychee
Lassi and was involoved with all of these cool projects lately.
- Thanks to Wendy Carlos for the example of ingenuity in music, and all
the inspiring artists and musicians who make life pretty damn fun on this
planet.
xx Gordon
The story of how I wound up creating musical recordings with Skin.
Well, I was sweltering in New York City, living in the fancy Gramercy Park
Hotel, (an Art Deco masterpiece in lower Manhattan) working away hard on the
third The Strokes album, which began to take a very long time as they
weren't officially ready with any songs when we started! I had a few guitars
and keyboards in my hotel room, and was busy writing my own stuff and
jamming out on the off days when there were sessions at The Strokes studio
across from the porno theatres.
One day I got an email from a nice manager lady asking if i was available or
interested in meeting and working with Skin on her new record.
To be honest, I had heard of Skunk Anansie a bit while I was living in
Seattle, but had never learned that the singer's name was Skin, so I had no
idea who or what I was being asked to be involved with! I simply replied
that if they sent me a demo, I could find out if the music was cool and
then- even though I was super tied up in Strokes-3 land, I would consider
producing on it sometime in the future.
Well, when three songs arrived to my
Hotel mailbox days later, I was thoroughly floored by the girl's voice. I
wrote back via email and said something like "geez, that lady can sing --
what a voice!" I also pointed out that the songs were cool to me, but there
was something about the production of the demos that left me a bit cold,
because, even though Skin was yelling and screaming and sounding very
urgent, the sounds in the backing tracks were a bit to luxurious and elegant
to me, with rich keyboard textures and big pro sounds, that for me acted
against the primal, emotional nature of what the songs seemed to me to be
communicating.
Besides, I love trashy drum sounds and screechy guitars quite
a bit. I asked how and where and why and if we could all meet up and talk
about this recording project in earnest.
Thanksgiving in USA is in November, and I went to London to meet Skin
for the first time and listen to more stuff and see if we had a vibe, and a
reason to actually try to get in a studio together. I loved her home, and
was jaw-dropped by her amazing stereo equipment -- loud as a muth-f***er, and
power to burn, much like the many songs she showed me that day that she was
interested in using on her new record. We hit it off, for sure, and
scheduled an intense week of sessions at my Limehouse studio (The Silver
Transporterraum of London) right between Christmas and New Years.
New
Years 05.
Christmas came and I journeyed over from new York and we basically
recorded 9 songs and most of the vocals for those in about 5-7 days. yes I
was impressed with her killer band – these guys could really play well, with
gusto and verve, and get the songs in about one to three tries – a producer's
dream; well, a producer that likes to have time to party, anyway! And then
the singing. Again I was gobsmacked cuz Skin could get her vocal sound in a
matter of minutes, and then sing away like a roaring lioness or a sensitive
rocker, any way she chose to do and it was almost always perfect from the
get-go. Not only was she just stunning to work with vocally, but this woman
brought a daily supply of lovely energy and strong enthusiasm to each
session, that lasted the whole time.
We never got into any punch-ups, there
was no spitting, name calling, lawsuits threatened – none of the usual things
that mark the passing of a new album into the world via a big fat producer
and a big fat rockstar clashing with their egos and reputations at stake!
There was alot of genuine smiling involved and I think it was one of the
most fluid and fast moving sessions I have ever had the pleasure to be
involved in.
I want to talk about the songs a bit, just generally. As I mentioned,
the venom and hissing inside of the music is what i love to hear and develop
with the sound.
Angry guitars and overzealous drums that like to shout a bit makes me
somehow happy when I listen to music. There are a few tracks on this Skin
record that allowed me to indulge all my most aggressive smacking and
pounding production techniques. The brick walls in my studio are there for
the express purpose of making drums and guitar amps sound 'wicked" and
screaming for revenge! So Skin had several tracks I like to call snarlers,
or screamers or balls-to-the-walls rockers.
Alone In My Room and Just Let The Sun come to mind. Then there were other tracks which were as pretty and sensitive as anything
I've heard before, yet I still liked 'em cuz she was coming from a real
place, rather than being extra-nice just for show! Petrol Station Flowers
and Purple fit in here
I went to Monaco with Skin and her cool friends Max and Max for New
Years, and woke up to a view that was so supernatural, and some amazing
Jamaican food. We then did some pre-mixing and vocals in New York, at my
friend Scott Clark's Mercy Sound Studio on 14th Street and Ave C. I was
thinking that this was as far as we'd get cuz I had yet another 8 months
ahead of me wit Da Strokes...or so I imagined! The day after Skin left,
Julian told me that he'd prefer to work with David Khane, over a tea and
some soup and a Jewish Deli near their studio.
I was a bit disappointed for
a few minutes and then made a plan to go to Mexico to record a band there
called Fobia, and quickly return to Skin's album in London. In the meantime
I moved to Berlin and set up to become a European son looking for love and
rock and roll in all the best places!
So we had time to finish Fake Chemical State and even make a
soundtrack song for an French film, together. The good vibes and productive
relationship continued to the very end, with every moment in the studio
quite exciting and well worth the concentration and effort demanded of us
all. Naturally I hope you all love this new record as much as I do, and by
the way – I had never seen Skin and her band play live before, except in my
studio – until 2 months ago when they came to my town Berlin and rocked the
living daylights out of a small club for a test taster showcase to promote
the new album.
The place was packed and people ate up the new songs and of
course went gaga over the few Skunk Anansie tunes they have eloquently
reworked into the set. I was so happy that night cuz I realized that Skin is
such a terrific performer, and her band truly gives her the support and
power she needs to push out all that emotion and sound. I really believe
that if they play as well as what I saw, and do it round the world a few
times, that its going to be a very Skin year, and I will be able to be her
neighbor in Ibiza before next Thanksgiving...ha!!
Thanks to you all, peace out- with rock and roll going haywire alongside of
that.
x Gordon Raphael
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