The Process of Production

Tim Palmer’s CV is beyond impressive - starting as an assistant at Utopia studios in the 80s, he mixed worldwide smash I just died in your arms tonight by Cutting Crew - this led to further work with 80s new wave bands like Kajagogoo and The House Of Love - this brought him to the attention of Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin who wanted a more contemporary sound for his 80s solo work. His work on Robert’s records brought him to the attention of David Bowie who also wanted a fresh pair of ears on the production desk for what would become the Tin Machine project. Moving into the 90s, Tim turned his attention from production to mixing, and his work on 'Ten', the debut album by an american rock band called Pearl Jam, catapulted him to the top of his profession. A fact that was confirmed when ten years later, as he was heavily involved in mixing the U2 album 'All That You Can’t Leave Behind'. Production credits including Goo Goo Dolls, Tears For Fears, Texas and even the Lord Of Darkness himself Ozzy Osbourne confirm Tim’s place in the pantheon of modern production and mixing greats. When we started the interview the most beautiful array of classic guitars were lined out on the wall behind him, so we started by getting the stories on some of those, before turning to the work with Plant, Bowie, Page, Osbourne, Bono, and countless others. For a link to Tim’s website click here For a link to Tim’s work click hereThe Process of Production is presented by Lawrence Diamond and Bob Matthews. Lawrence cut his teeth playing and writing in Indie bands before finding international success and touring the world with his band CITIZENS! During that time he worked with a host of revered producers including Liam Howe, Mark Ralph and Alex Kapranos. Since the band ended in 2016 he’s been using that experience to help other artists develop their careers as a writer and producer while continuing to release his own music under various different guises. Bob learned his trade as the producer and multi-instrumentalist in Electronic Pop duo Alpines, whose career spans 3 albums, releases on major and indie record labels, shows with Florence + The Machine, The xx, Emeli Sandé, and a top 20 hit 'Tidal Wave' in collaboration with Sub Focus. In recent years he has turned his focus to producing other acts and has a studio in Chiswick in West London. If you have any feedback or questions, please email us: processofproductionpodcast@gmail.com Follow The Process of Production on Instagram @processofproduction If you like the podcast, please consider giving us a review on your podcast provider of choice! Thank you

In this episode, we delve into the world of mastering for the first time. To guide us through what if often referred to as a ‘dark art’, we speak to mastering engineer Kelly Hibbert, who has a wonderful and varied CV across a range of genres, but especially alternative and hip-hop, working on records from Flying Lotus, J Dilla, Madlib, Jordan Rakei, Little Dragon, Duke Dumont, and MF Doom to name a few.Kelly has had an amazing career, starting out as a drummer, then getting into studio installations, before what sounds like an astounding stint as the in-house engineer on the superyacht of Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen. Deciding to leave the once-in-a-lifetime job to follow his own path, Kelly was thrown in at the deep end of mastering by mentor Dave Cooley.After coming of age in LA, Kelly has moved around the world a few times to find the right place for him, finally settling in the jungle of Costa Rica, where he has built an idyllic-sounding home with his family. We hear all about his lifestyle there, his career so far, and some fascinating thoughts on the craft of mastering music.Kelly’s websiteLink to the Pitchfork article Lawrence mentionsThe Process of Production is presented by Lawrence Diamond and Bob Matthews.Lawrence cut his teeth playing and writing in Indie bands before finding international success and touring the world with his band CITIZENS! During that time he worked with a host of revered producers including Liam Howe, Mark Ralph and Alex Kapranos. Since the band ended in 2016 he’s been using that experience to help other artists develop their careers as a writer and producer while continuing to release his own music under various different guises.Bob learned his trade as the producer and multi-instrumentalist in Electronic Pop duo Alpines, whose career spans 3 albums, releases on major and indie record labels, shows with Florence + The Machine, The xx, Emeli Sandé, and a top 20 hit 'Tidal Wave' in collaboration with Sub Focus. In recent years he has turned his focus to producing other acts and has a studio in Chiswick in West London.If you have any feedback or questions, please email us: processofproductionpodcast@gmail.comFollow The Process of Production on Instagram @processofproductionIf you like the podcast, please consider giving us a review on your podcast provider of choice! Thank you

This week, we take a trip to 123 Studios in Peckham, south London, to interview the studio's owner, Brett Shaw. We speak to him about how his production skills are built on a foundation of engineering expertise, working on sprawling album projects, building your own preamps, and what it’s like recording the vocal for a multi-platinum Grammy-winning single. Brett started his music career as multi-instrumentalist in the band South, who signed to Mo' Wax  in the late 90s, a cult record label founded by UNKLE’s James Lavelle, who co-produced the band’s debut album. After the band, Brett set up his own recording space, engineering the vocals on many hit records, including multi-platinum mega-hit 'Rather Be' by Clean Bandit featuring Jess Glynn, which went 4x platinum, wining a Grammy and Ivor Novello awards. In recent years, Brett’s collaborated with the band Foals to produce their double album ‘Everything not saved will be lost’, and worked from the ground up with Florence and the Machine to produce their album ‘High Is Hope’ - both records earned a Mercury nomination. Other credits with Mura Masa, Gorillaz, daughter, Swim Deep and Kindness round out an impressive resumé. The Process of Production is presented by Lawrence Diamond and Bob Matthews. Lawrence cut his teeth playing and writing in Indie bands before finding international success and touring the world with his band CITIZENS! During that time he worked with a host of revered producers including Liam Howe, Mark Ralph and Alex Kapranos. Since the band ended in 2016 he’s been using that experience to help other artists develop their careers as a writer and producer while continuing to release his own music under various different guises. Bob learned his trade as the producer and multi-instrumentalist in Electronic Pop duo Alpines, whose career spans 3 albums, releases on major and indie record labels, shows with Florence + The Machine, The xx, Emeli Sandé, and a top 20 hit 'Tidal Wave' in collaboration with Sub Focus. In recent years he has turned his focus to producing other acts and has a studio in Chiswick in West London. If you have any feedback or questions, please email us: processofproductionpodcast@gmail.com Follow The Process of Production on Instagram @processofproduction If you like the podcast, please consider giving us a review on your podcast provider of choice! Thank you

This week we speak to producer, violinist, arranger, composer, and songwriter Tobie Tripp. Classically trained at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, he received his first break as a co-writer on Tom Misch's 2017 break out single “South Of The River.” This led to him emerging as producer and songwriting aid to a new generation of talent - including artists such as Honey Mooncie, Hannah Grace and Honne. Alongside his work as a producer and arranger he has become the go to composer for some of the UK Rap scenes biggest stars. Composing and playing on albums by the likes of Dave, Stomrzy and Fredo -  As well as collaborating with one of the godfathers of UK Garage MJ Cole on his recent Madruguda album. This project saw to him being introduced to one Jamie Oliver, 'the naked chef', leading Tobie to being the main collaborator for the new music being created for Jamie’s TV shows and online content. We get the story of all of this and more in this great episode. Big shout out to Tobie for his time and you guys for giving us a listen. Click here for a playlist of Tobie’s work The Process of Production is presented by Lawrence Diamond and Bob Matthews. Lawrence cut his teeth playing and writing in Indie bands before finding international success and touring the world with his band CITIZENS! During that time he worked with a host of revered producers including Liam Howe, Mark Ralph and Alex Kapranos. Since the band ended in 2016 he’s been using that experience to help other artists develop their careers as a writer and producer while continuing to release his own music under various different guises. Bob learned his trade as the producer and multi-instrumentalist in Electronic Pop duo Alpines, whose career spans 3 albums, releases on major and indie record labels, shows with Florence + The Machine, The xx, Emeli Sandé, and a top 20 hit 'Tidal Wave' in collaboration with Sub Focus. In recent years he has turned his focus to producing other acts and has a studio in Chiswick in West London. If you have any feedback or questions, please email us: processofproductionpodcast@gmail.com Follow The Process of Production on Instagram @processofproduction If you like the podcast, please consider giving us a review on your podcast provider of choice! Thank you

This week we have a somewhat self-congratulatory moment, and celebrate making it to double figures in episodes. It might not seem like a lot, but the podcast is well and truly off the ground now, and it’s time to appreciate that before we dive into our next round of interviews (we have a lot of great guests coming your way). For a bit of fun, we pose each other the questions that we pose to the guests in our regular features. So that’s the session food-tip, our thoughts on the most important tool at your disposal as a producer, and the ‘Fast Five’, where we speak about our favourite gear in five key areas of music production. We take the time to go pretty deep on our answers, so it’s more of a ‘Not-so Fast Five’ this time! And apologies if this episode is a little more techy than usual. In another cause for celebration this week, Celine Cairo released ‘Pirouettes’, a song that Lawrence and Bob wrote together with her last year. The song was playlisted on Spotify’s New Music Friday in Celine’s native Netherlands, as well as in Germany and Switzerland. Also, check out Tequisha’s debut EP, which Bob worked on, that was also released on Friday. And a cheeky link to Bob’s experimental electronica solo record, mentioned in the episode. We hope you enjoy this (admittedly slightly indulgent) episode, and please get in touch with any of your own answers to our regular features, especially if you have a niche one that no one’s covered yet. The Process of Production is presented by Lawrence Diamond and Bob Matthews. Lawrence cut his teeth playing and writing in Indie bands before finding international success and touring the world with his band CITIZENS! During that time he worked with a host of revered producers including Liam Howe, Mark Ralph and Alex Kapranos. Since the band ended in 2016 he’s been using that experience to help other artists develop their careers as a writer and producer while continuing to release his own music under various different guises. Bob learned his trade as the producer and multi-instrumentalist in Electronic Pop duo Alpines, whose career spans 3 albums, releases on major and indie record labels, shows with Florence + The Machine, The xx, Emeli Sandé, and a top 20 hit 'Tidal Wave' in collaboration with Sub Focus. In recent years he has turned his focus to producing other acts and has a studio in Chiswick in West London. If you have any feedback or questions, please email us: processofproductionpodcast@gmail.com Follow The Process of Production on Instagram @processofproduction If you like the podcast, please consider giving us a review on your podcast provider of choice! Thank you

We speak to Chris Sheldon, an Engineer, Mixer and Producer who has worked on some of the most influential rock records of the last 30 years. After serving an apprenticeship at various London studios through the 80s he produced the million selling debut album, troublegum, by cult british rock band Therapy! A couple of years later his relationship with super-producer Gil Norton led to him producing the Colour and The Shape for the Foo Fighters. Not content with 2 of the greatest rock records of the nineties on his CV, he started the noughties by returning to the production chair for the first 3 albums by multi platinum rock trio Biffy Clyro (Personal favourites of this podcast) as well as other records by Oceansize, Feeder and My Vitriol. Into the twenty-tens he’s stuck mainly with mixing, but returned to his first love of engineering to work alongside Giles Martin, George’s son, on the Elton John film musical Rocketman.  We heard about all of this and more, but started with that incredible Foo Fighters record and how Dave and Gil built their relationship with Chris as well as how it’s legacy still resonates through the years. Click here for a playlist of Chris’ work The Process of Production is presented by Lawrence Diamond and Bob Matthews. Lawrence cut his teeth playing and writing in Indie bands before finding international success and touring the world with his band CITIZENS! During that time he worked with a host of revered producers including Liam Howe, Mark Ralph and Alex Kapranos. Since the band ended in 2016 he’s been using that experience to help other artists develop their careers as a writer and producer while continuing to release his own music under various different guises. Bob learned his trade as the producer and multi-instrumentalist in Electronic Pop duo Alpines, whose career spans 3 albums, releases on major and indie record labels, shows with Florence + The Machine, The xx, Emeli Sandé, and a top 20 hit 'Tidal Wave' in collaboration with Sub Focus. In recent years he has turned his focus to producing other acts and has a studio in Chiswick in West London. If you have any feedback or questions, please email us: processofproductionpodcast@gmail.com Follow The Process of Production on Instagram @processofproduction If you like the podcast, please consider giving us a review on your podcast provider of choice! Thank you