Featured Artist Interview: Dave Newton

By Travis Woods

Even if you’re not a fan of, or simply haven’t heard, the Rickenbacker’d indie pop of The Mighty Lemon Drops (and, in either case, we’re cocking a disappointed eyebrow at you right now), chances are you’ve heard the work of Dave Newton, especially of late, as he’s produced some of the best music to come out of Los Angeles in recent memory.

From the giddy starburst blast of the Little Ones’ Sing Song (and upcoming LP debut) to the most recent EPs by Death to Anders and the Transmissions, to the soon-to-be-released records by The Movies, the Henry Clay People, and the Happy Hollows, Newton has lent each band he’s worked with not only his skills as a musical engineer/ producer/ performer, he’s shared with them his sheer exuberance and love for music. There’s a reason every band that he works with recommends him immediately to about ten others.

Web in Front spoke recently with Newton about his musical career, his opinions about modern music and its production, and, quote, “analogue…schmanalogue!”

The Interview

Web in Front: Thanks for taking time out of your weekend to do this…How are you?

Dave Newton: Doing well, sir, thank you! Taking time out from tweaking mixes on three last-minute additions to the forthcoming Happy Hollows full-length, in fact!!

WiF: I can’t wait to hear that album…They’re amazing.

You’ve played in numerous bands throughout the years, but your longest stint was with, of course, the Mighty Lemon Drops. What led you to a life in music?

Dave: A life in music! Funny! I dunno how it happened; I mean, it wasn’t really planned at all. When I was in high school back in Wolverhampton in the late 1970s it was unthinkable that such a thing as a “career in music” existed, certainly not where I came from—maybe it was possible around London? Funny, today you get supposed “indie bands” like The Kooks that all met at stage/music school! Ha!

I was basically a music fan from a real early age, T Rex and Slade ‘n all that, and punk came along in 1977 when I was in my early teens, and that was it! I could play three chords! I formed a band. ‘Course, we were shit, but it didn’t matter! And I’m still here, gawd knows how many years later, and in many ways what I’m doing is really still an extension of the same mind-set…to me, anyway!

I think there are two types of people who “get into” music: there are those who want to be into something “cool” while they’re in their teens or in college or whatever, to fit in, to feel part of something, and move on; then there are the “lifers,” who stay the course through life, marriage, family, whatever—I’m one of the sad bastards from the latter category, I’m afraid…

WiF: Musically, what/who are your biggest inspirations?

Dave: Again, it was initially the UK punk explosion of 1976-77. And the brilliant, legendary BBC DJ, the late John Peel, who championed so many brilliant left-of-center artists. My main musical/guitar player influence would easily be Wilko Johnson of Dr Feelgood and then Andy Gill of the Gang Of Four (and yes, you can draw a direct line, stylistically, between the two). Dan Treacy of the brilliant Television Personalities is the one that saw something in our crappy little band back when and I often think that I might not be here doing what I do today if it wasn’t for him.

As for the producing side, I was fortunate to work with some great producers in the Lemon Drops, like Stephen Street, who did all The Smiths and most of the Blur records, and Tim Palmer, to name but two. That was definitely influential.

WiF: Proudest musical moment?

Dave: Wow! Hmmm! As a musician, the ridiculous highs with The Mighty Lemon Drops, I guess…When you’re in a band with your mates and you go from being on the dole on a council estate to ridiculous things like playing Wembley, the main stage at Glastonbury, or even Universal Amphitheatre here in LA, you can’t help laughing and pinching yourself. But those are rarely the best gigs, and they certainly weren’t ours, but great memories!

On the recording side, after building my studio in the garage back in 1998, one of the first bands in was an LA band called Plastiscene who were, ahem, “making waves” if you wish, at the time, had a major deal with Mojo/MCA, etc. They had just released their debut album, which I’m sure cost an arm and a leg/major producers and studios, etc., and then came in with me to record five more tunes in my shed, which they thought sounded amazing! It was a nice feeling.

WiF: If I slip you some money under the table, do you think I could hear another Mighty Lemon Drops reunion show? Or the C86 All-Stars?

Dave: Ha! We did do one reunion show a few years back. And we nearly did a “partial one” last year here in LA for Part Time Punks with Clint Mansell from Pop Will Eat Itself singing, which didn’t end up happening, unfortunately. We do get asked to do stuff, more often as time goes on, but our singer Paul doesn’t seem interested in doing anything or having anything to do with us or anything band-related! So it probably won’t be happening, which is a shame, as we all still get along really well. As for the C-86 All Stars—give us a keg and we’ll knock something together next week… sort of! By the way, C86 All Stars has a ridiculous 40,000 hits on Youtube for our cover of My Bloody Valentines’ “Only Shallow”… Crazy!

WiF: You’ve got quite a prestigious roster of local bands on your production résumé—The Little Ones, The Happy Hollows, Death to Anders, The Henry Clay People, The Transmissions, The Blood Arm, The Movies, among many others—what led you to Los Angeles, and how did you get so deeply involved in the local music scene?

Dave: I moved to LA in ’95. My wife is originally from LA, so I had family here. The Drops had broken up, and I built a studio when we bought a house in Burbank, for my own entertainment, and started recording my mates’ bands, and that’s it, basically! And that is pretty much what I still do…I am not a commercial business and have never advertised—it’s all still friends telling friends, really…I will say that the last couple of years have been particularly enjoyable/fruitful, in that I have worked on some exceptional records with some exceptional talent…You know the ones I am talking about!

WiF: Which bands have you not worked with but would like to? Who do you follow?

Dave: Ooh, you mean anyone? Well, firstly I can’t mention local bands cos it will just look like I am touting to lure them over here!

Anyone? I have weird, eclectic taste. I guess most would say Radiohead or, I dunno, Sigor Ros or something… My dream session? Having UK punk-pop band The Boys take me to Rockfield Studios in Wales to re-record their 1978 classic album Alternative Chartbusters with a real ale bar in the control room! Add Gordon Ramsey searing the finest Fois-gras in the drum booth, and maybe throw in some go-go dancers! Ha ha! What else? It would be a great challenge to do a Shane MacGowan album…I reckon I could hack it/ stay the course…

Who do I follow? So, so much stuff! Though I will say that, aside from the great music I have worked on in the last year, I can’t quite put my finger on why, but nothing has excited me more that the last The Cribs record, Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever, and the gigs I saw them play both out here and in Texas!! Just an amazing, fun band with great songs–sometimes that’s all I’m looking for!

WiF: Obviously, one of the reason’s we’re talking is because we feel like there’s something special happening with the local music scene right now—it just feels as if something particularly unique and vibrant is going on… what is your take on what is going on right now, locally?

Dave: I agree—I can’t believe how many great bands there out there…It floors me how you can still randomly go out on any night and stumble upon a great band/ artist completely off the radar, there are so many! For me, the last few years especially, with pretty much every record I am working on, I am always sort of thinking of what impact it could have if it gets into the right hands… I just know that these bands/ artists/ records are truly great and could really achieve something. I am just hoping that they get a fair crack…Not everyone gets that chance, unfortunately!

WiF: Having been in a band that was part of a larger “musical movement” like C86 in the ‘80s, do you have any advice or suggestions for the bands of L.A.? I’ve been talking with Kat from KROQ lately about how it seems difficult for some bands to pierce the bubble surrounding la la land and move outward…

Dave: The Mighty Lemon Drops were never part of any movement, really, other than the C86 thing, which we were only in for a short while (till we got a record deal), ha! When we were perceived as a US college alt-band, there wasn’t any real scene between the bands, or none that I was aware of…It wasn’t called anything then! We were the bands that you never saw in the local magazines/ free papers, yet could sell out 1200 capacity venues! It was all spandex and metal in the local free papers in 1988, I could never figure that one out!

As for the other part of the question—it’s funny, cos I am always listening to UK BBC radio, daily (since broadband internet makes worldwide radio so accessible). And when I’m with say, The Happy Hollows, or whoever, I’m thinking “Marc Riley on BBC 6 Music would piss his pants if he heard this,” which he would, trust me, maybe not literally… I listen to his BBC 6 Music show at least once or twice a week, and I KNOW he would adore the Hollows, and many of our other bands, too. It bothers me that he might never get to hear it…Sometimes, it is somewhat in the hands of the bands…

Do I have any advice? Yes—get worldly-wise! In the UK, someone like Marc Riley, or Steve Lamacq, or Mark Radcliffe, if any of those guys got a personal package in the mail with a note, they would almost certainly look at it and listen to it! Sure, the internet is great, but the personal touch is something else! All those guys are my age (I just turned 44, yes, go on and laugh). They want a 7” or a cool-looking CD and a funny note in the mail, just like John Peel did back in the day! That’s my advice.

WiF: Have you always been interested in production?

Dave: I have. Back when I was in my first bands, good cheap studios were impossible to find cos recording equipment was so expensive. So when I was 16 or so I noticed certain studios could get great drum sounds, whereas in other studios the drums sounded like biscuit tins—that started me. I wanted to know how and why…

Then when the Lemon Drops got signed I would always sit with the producer and learn from him. We were lucky: our albums were produced by some of the finest—our first was produced by Stephen Street, in between his work with The Smiths on The Queen Is Dead and Strangeway’s Here We Come…Fucking insane, really, looking back! He showed me how to arrange guitar parts, something I had never thought about. Tim Palmer (later to do House Of Love, Robert Plant, U2, Pearl Jam) did our second, and that was again another massive learning experience—I just sat and watched and listened. Amazing!

Listen to “Inside Out” by The Mighty Lemon Drops

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Listen to “My Biggest Thrill” by The Mighty Lemon Drops

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WiF: To me, your work on the Little Ones’ Sing Song EP helped create a classic modern pop record. What records are you the most proud of in terms of your production/ engineering work, or were the most successful in terms of yours and the band’s original aims?

Dave: The Little Ones is a top story, and one of the records I am most proud of. I guess they had been playing in a room for a year or so for their own entertainment, working on songs for fun. When they came in, they had no name, even. Ed and Ian had been in a decent, moderately successful proto-emo band called Sunday’s Best, toured several times, made records, broke up, got jobs and appeared happy in that…The Little Ones was not a band that, to me at least, had formed just to try and get success. We hit it off and they recorded five songs one Saturday afternoon and finished off the overdubs the following day (I think)! Three of those I think ended up on the Sing Song EP, including “Lovers Who Uncover”—that was definitely cut on that first day. I do sort-of remember telling them how great I thought it was, and they were like “really?!?“. Which was great, as I’d had a couple of experiences early on, mainly with a band I can’t name, who had previously had a huge ‘grunge-era’ major deal and still thought they were the business and were constantly high-fiving each other, saying how “fucking huge” they were gonna be! I thought they were shit, and I thought the Little Ones were great, and it turned out I was somewhat right as the Little Ones got a record deal and the other band, um, didn’t.

Also, I was so excited to be able to make the new Little Ones record—it was an honor to get to do it, especially as when a band gets a major record deal, there are many more options available on how you can make a record: who you use, the budget is usually much bigger, etc. It was awesome that of all the available options, they chose to use yours truly! And we made an amazing album—Yay!

WiF: What is your approach as a producer/engineer?

Dave: If possible, it’s nice to see the band live first, prior to recording, or sometimes maybe go down to a band practice or at least get some demos of the tracks we are going to work on. None of these things are essential, but it helps sometimes. As far as the songs/ arrangements go, it varies depending on the project. If I think the songs are well arranged, I’ll totally leave well enough alone in that department. I cannot tolerate so-called producers who have to put their two cents into whatever they are working on just so they can say, “I did that”—a good producer should leave his ego out of it! If the arrangements are in good shape, I will then concentrate on getting the best performance out of each member. Here is where you have to use good judgment: sometimes you might be wanting something out of a player that you just ain’t gonna get or they might not be capable of that day, especially in the time/ budget allocated. I feel that it is usually better to run with what you have and keep everybody’s spirits up, as opposed to creating a scene and a bad vibe which will bring every one down, and you ain’t gonna get the best out of anyone after that! A happy band makes a happy environment, and that leads to a better overall record!

WiF: That said, some producers are known for their own “sound.” Do you feel like you add a sonic trademark to the work you produce, and, if so, how would you describe it?

Dave: I don’t think I really have a “sound” per se, though as the majority of records I work on are based around the drums/ bass/ guitar format, I do try to make it feel and sound like a band is actually playing together. I mean, more often than not they are, anyway, but I try not to iron out the feel and soul of a performance with the available technology. I don’t care if the middle section speeds up a little. I basically try to enhance what the band brings to the table, rather than taking it over. I love it when bands are open to trying ideas. Take The Happy Hollows again (and I mention them again cos it’s the last thing I worked on)—they are a three-piece band (well, Nick Ceglio from Death To Anders has been playing a bit of guitar with them lately, but anyway!). Yet they are willing to consider adding some, um, aural and sonic enhancements, shall we say—y’know, some extra guitar here, some weird, crazy noises there…whatever we can pull out, they aren’t afraid to try it, which is awesome as it makes it more than a guitar playing over the bass and drums, even though the listener wouldn’t notice anything to distract from the fundamentals of the original arrangement or the song they have heard the band play live—it just sounds better on the record! That’s what I try to bring to the table. We are making records after all!

It’s funny, when I first got into recording seriously, I was obsessed with vintage equipment, and I really thought that it was essential to making a good record and bought every available piece I could find, which I’m glad I did cos ten years ago that stuff was still going for cheap. While I’m glad I still have a bunch of that stuff, I don’t really think you need all that gear; in fact, I don’t even think about it nowerdays—I could make a decent album with a $700 Mackie board, a few half decent mics and a computer, or a couple of ADATs, even! As long as I have something great to record at the other end of the microphone, obviously—no piece of overpriced vintage gear will make something that sounds like ass sound good!

WiF: What are your thoughts on the developments in production technology over the past two decades? It almost seems as if, to me, the more the technology increases, the more it sometimes loses its ability to accurately document a ‘live’ band sound as everything gets so tightly compressed and digitized…or am I just being an elitist?

Dave: Well, I mentioned some of this earlier. I think it shouldn’t matter what you are recording onto, analog or digital, as long as you use what I’d call an analog-mindset. Even though I record onto Pro Tools mainly nowerdays, I still treat it as a tape recorder. This is really important, especially when tracking the main backing tracks—there is NO excuse, in my humble opinion, that you should ever record songs in sections’ and edit them together later, which, believe me, people do! Sure, it’s fine to take sections of backing vocals or whatever, copy them and paste them in, as it is surely going to save the poor vocalist’s voice for the main lead vocal track, which is arguably the most important part of most vocal-based recordings/ songs.

Great analog is and always will be king. My problem is that the word has become another buzzword, like “tube” and “warm,” etc. Firstly, an old, poorly aligned analog deck that hasn’t been serviced in years, even if it cost 50 grand when it was new, is probably going to sound worse that your ADAT or even worse than your cheap Roland workstation. Fact!

The one that REALLY kills me, though, are those folks who buy some ‘80s/‘90s consumer-grade Fostex / Tascam tape machine just cos it’s analog, for the “fat warm analog sound”! I have seen studios/ producers advertising as such! Trust me, those machines are pretty crappy for the most part, will not make your record sound like Exile On Main Street and, again, will almost definitely sound a LOT worse than a $300 Digidesign M-Box from Guitar Center. “Yes, but it’s ANALOG!” My old answering machine is analog! As an older chap, believe me, everyone was jumping up and down with delight when the Alesis digital ADAT was introduced in the early ‘90s, so they wouldn’t have to work on those cheap, narrow-gauge, cheaply-built monstrosities any longer! Analog…um, schmanalog!

WiF: What projects do you have on the docket? What’s coming up?

Dave: One of the most fun records I have done recently is an album I just finished by Everybody Was In The French Resistance…Now, which is Eddie Argos from Art Brut and Dyan Valdes from The Blood Arm. I have known Dyan for a good few years now, and it was a delight to also become mates with Eddie, not just because Art Brut happen to be one of my favorite bands, but because he is a top bloke! We recorded much of the album out in the desert—my wife and I rent a ‘getaway’ place pretty much right in the Joshua Tree National Park, and I have a basic recording rig up there and much of that album was done there, recording most of it in the great outdoors. Our joke is that U2 basically just went out there and had some photos took with some Joshua trees, whereas we actually did record in the Joshua Tree, ha ha! I also got to play a little on the album, and pretty much got free-reign as “musical arranger” if you like, which was nice!

As I mentioned, we just finished the Hollows album, and The Little Ones’ debut full-length album is due here next month—it already came out in the UK to some great reviews including an 8/10 in the NME! I recently did three great tracks with ¾ of what used to be The Adored, now they are called Golden Years, and I also did an album in Boston with a new band called The Hush Now, finished an EP with One Silver Astronaut, and not forgetting some great new Kissing Tigers, one of the most fun bands to work with and one of the most overlooked bands on the LA scene, in my humble opinion! The Movies’ Based On A True Story EP is finally coming out, which was a great experience, as we tracked at Tim James’ studio Chermak near Burbank airport, which was a riot! And the new Henry Clay People, some of which we tracked at The Ship in Eagle Rock, is coming out right now on Autumn Tone, and is a classic! Oh man, and not forgetting The Transmissions, Death To Anders, Graham MacRae, You Me & Iowa, Star Parts, Slow Car Crash…it has been a fun couple of years!

Listen to “Boracay” by The Little Ones

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Listen to “Lieutenant” by The Happy Hollows

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Listen to “Missed Opportunities” by The Movies

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Listen to “Radio” by Death to Anders

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Listen to “Safe” by The Transmissions

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September 22, 2008 | Filed Under Exclusive Features, Featured Artist Interviews 

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  1. » Featured Artist Interview: Dave Newton Search engine optimization on January 27th, 2009 10:39 pm

    [...] Sing Song (and upcoming LP debut) to the most recent EPs by Death to Anders and the Tran source: Featured Artist Interview: Dave Newton, web in front [dot] net | L.A. music news, reviews and [...]




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