Joby Ford and Beau Burchell
The greatest thing about music is how a band sounds together, and I look at myself as a vessel to make them sound like themselves, to believe in what they do as a group, and to push the things that make them unique.
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RSSLos Angeles, CA (PRWEB) May 29, 2012
Joby Ford was sitting in his favorite chair at his ‘Big Game Lodge Studio’ in Van Nuys, CA as Beau Burchell walked in to mix another song for ‘The Enemy’s’ third and latest album, ‘Streets in the Sky’.
“I met Beau about ten years ago,” says Joby, who produced ‘Streets in the Sky’ for ‘The Enemy’. “He had a small studio built in his parent’s garage down in Orange County. Now when I say 'studio', I mean a room that you could barely fit a drum set into and a control room that fit three people. I had a few songs for 'The Bronx', the band I play in, and Jorma our drummer had suggested we enlist Beau’s help. I think we did three songs in two days and they are probably some of the best songs I have laid down to date.”
“I remember opening the garage door to get some air,” Beau adds, “And there stood Joby next to his guitars, wearing sunglasses, with a cigarette in one hand and a coffee in the other. We instantly hit it off and it was the start of a great friendship.”
Some of the best music has always had a writing duo or production duo behind it. Joby and Beau fit that bill. The Enemy's latest album 'Streets In The Sky', which was released on May 21 is in the top ten and moving up the charts in the UK.
“Beau and I speak every day regarding gear, studios, amazing drum techs, some random mic technique that someone stumbled upon, how to record an accordion, or the results of cramming a drum kit in a bathroom and only using two mics,” Joby continues. “We bounce a lot of ideas off each other. He does a mix and sends it over and I tell him what I think, and I’ll send mixes and recordings to him, so we are each other's ears on every project.”
A lot of records these days don’t have the big budgets they used to, but Beau’s former band ‘Saosin’ as well as ‘The Bronx’ were signed to major labels.
“I got a studio out of my record deal,” Joby says, “so I let Beau record at his leisure and in turn he mixes records for me that have budgetary constraints. That’s why I approached ‘Trash Talk’. They had no budget and no label, but it was a record that had to be made.”
Joby continues, “It was just the opposite with ‘Face to Face’ and ‘The Enemy’. John Dawkins, A&R for The Enemy, flew me over to London to try me out for two songs to see if I was the right guy. After that initial session, they hired me to do the record and ‘The Enemy’ flew out to Los Angeles to record.”
'Streets In The Sky' is, by the band's reckoning, a "brilliant" album, their best yet, and the first time they've sounded exactly as they want to which has much to do with Beau's mix. Beau Burchell is currently producing and mixing the new album by ‘The Bronx', and has mixed ‘Mariachi El Bronx’, ‘Tiger Tank’ (which he also produced and recorded), ‘Cerebral Ballzy’, ‘Middle Class Rut’, ‘Armistice’ and ‘Saosin’, as well as the soundtrack for ‘Saw VI’ which he also produced. His mix of ‘Cat Call’s’ ‘The World is Ours’ was also recently chosen as her first single.
Beau adds, “Joby and I both realize that music is something that is felt with our hearts and souls just as much as it is heard with our ears. Right around the time I mixed the ‘Middle Class Rut’ record, I became aware that many records I was hearing had the exact same sound with the exception of a different vocalist. It was a complete homogenization of music and I felt it was unfair to the artists who try so hard to set themselves apart. I decided that the best thing I could do for a band was to set my own ego aside and embrace all the things that make an artist unique, rather than helping them get lost in the crowd.”
“I don’t like to place a sonic stamp on a band," Joby continues, "and I don’t really like producers that do that to a group. I think making a record using only the drum kit, amps or mics you adore is unfair to the group. The greatest thing about music is how a band sounds together, and I look at myself as a vessel to make them sound like themselves, to believe in what they do as a group, and to push the things that make them unique. These things should be celebrated, not changed.”
Joby has just completed work on the new ‘Bronx’ album and is currently working on the theme song for the television show ‘Weeds’, and scoring the new ‘Adam Sandler’ cartoon. Some of Joby's other credits include ‘Cerebral Ballzy’, ‘Gallows’, ‘Mariachi El Bronx’, ‘Armistice’, ‘Face to Face’ and ‘Sirhan Sirhan’.
The new album ‘Streets in the Sky’ by ‘The Enemy’ is filled with signature anthemic guitar sounds yet much heavier than their first two albums. The Coventry trio chose Joby to produce after hearing him with the seminal US punk band ‘The Bronx’, and have called their new release massive, fresh and raw and more upbeat with more catchy choruses. Could the U.S. be ready for another British invasion?
Joby replies, “If I knew the answer to that I’d probably be in the record label business.”
BWestMusic is located in Los Angeles and manages Record Producers, Mixers, Engineers & Musicians. To contact Joby J. Ford or Beau Burchell go to BWestMusic.com.
