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"May 2005 - and it felt like we were on an extended holiday in Los Angeles, flitting between the sunshine
of Santa Monica, Malibu, and quite often Venice Beach. Keen to again work with absolute master-mixer Bob Clearmountain,
we had accepted his sensible enough demand that he now only worked from his home based studio near Malibu. And
so for that reason both Charlie and I, plus album producer
Jez Coad, had made our way across to the west coast of America,
increasingly excited to hear the results of our finished recordings as we passed them over to Bob to do his thing!
"A 'lone wolf' while working. With the exception of an assistant technician, Bob liked to be on his own in the studio.
No problem for us. After all, given his stunning career track record, he was considered 100 per cent reliable to do
the right thing by our music. And he certainly did us proud some 20 years earlier when we engineered and co-produced our
very successful Once Upon A Time album.
"This all meant that we would travel over each morning to his place from nearby Santa Monica where we were based.
A chat would ensue, discussing mostly the pros and cons of whatever track he was due to work on throughout that day,
and we would listen jointly as his brain started to go to work on whatever options he was already quickly considering.
And that (ashamedly/luckily) was about the end of the working day for us. Set free from any further duties, the rest
was taken up with meeting friends, hanging out in coffee shops, book stores, Japanese restaurants etc. Not forgetting the
amount of fun to be had just strolling the footpaths or cycling the bicycle paths that are laid out along the famous coastline.
"In addition to all of that, fuelling further my fascination with the music of The Doors, I would sometimes
take the opportunity to seek out the various destinations that set the scene for that phenomenal band. Venice Beach
in particular played a substantial part in their story.
"Charlie out to see Bruce Springsteen - another of Bob's 'clients.' The
man from New Jersey was in town playing his acoustic show and both Charlie and Bob
stood at the side of the stage, catching a discreet but very friendly wave from Bruce mid set.)
"Those studio days however would mostly end with us listening back to Bob's mix for that day.
Inevitably there would be little adjustments required here and there, some minor things overlooked would be pointed out.
In general though, Bob would hit bulls eye each and every time.
Guaranteed perfection. That to this day is my image of incredible Bob Clearmountain." - Jim, 16th May 2018
discography: mainstream singles
discography: mainstream albums
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