Pacifier

Pacifier, the album, is out now here and in Australia, the self-titled debut from a band with four much-loved albums under their previous handle. Because so much of the current focus is about their new, 'improved' sound (and the name ... yawn), we thought we'd ignore all that and have a virtual studio tour with their ever-personable drummer, Tom Larkin.

Most of you have been in recording studios, haven't you? And haven't you wondered what the reality of being there and doing that is honestly like? Us too! So while Pacifier are in Los Angeles, living the recording dreams of a vast majority of NZ musicians, here we are probing deeper than Cartman.
First off, some housekeeping. The band is allowed to live and work in the States under the grandly-titled "P1 Entertainment Visa" scheme with their (as well as Korn and Limp Bizkit's) record company, The Label, acting as sponsors.

Roughly speaking, the studio sessions began at midday until about 2 am, and the band had Sundays off. The whole album was recorded over three-and-a-half months at Pulse Studios, which Tom says has a substantial history.
"It's essentially a 'new recording era' studio that has Pro Tools only and no tape. Rather than having a big desk with loads of outboard gear it has all the bells and whistles in terms of CDs and DATs, a good sampling rate for Pro Tools, good back-up systems, mics and preamps like Neves, but no desks. It's actually the oldest recording studio in Hollywood but had been quite derelict for a while and this was the first stage in putting it all back together. You'd be surprised - it was not a swank studio. It wasn't big and overblown at all: York Street and Revolver would seem like a Rolls Royce in comparison."

Like 'The General Electric' before it, the new album's signature sound is very straight-ahead rock and unsurprisingly for this band, Tom says they took a very no-nonsense approach to record it.

"The main approach is to take the drums first with the whole band playing together, some songs with click-tracks, and some without. Then we go over what the other guys have done with the guitars and bass, sometimes keeping the odd thing from the guides. That way, it's better for separation, tuning and making the sounds a bit bigger and it's the way we've always done it. It was a pretty small room and we just slammed it out. We had eye contact, energy, all that kind of thing."

To many musicians sentenced to weeks together in the same room, a studio's reputation can thrive or suffer on the strength of its human comforts. Pulse's main attractions must have been audio-based as opposed to it's vending opportunities. True to its reputation though, Hollywood did manage to provide an interesting take on the term "outside catering" for the boys to spend their Per Diems on.

"It was so basic there weren't even any snack machines. There was a burger joint round the corner but the studio was in the middle of a crack-selling neighbourhood so you'd walk out into all the base-heads and crack dealers to get a burger and come back to the studio. Then they got to know us after a while and they'd be going: 'Hey there, how you goin', you freak? Where you fugg'n from? Where's that ac-saint from?'"

So, while a culinary hotspot it ain't, the west coast of America is a renowned motherlode of musical equipment of all shapes and sizes. Gear, gear and more gear, and nearly all of it for hire. The band took advantage of this situation, with Tom choosing the services of a living studio legend.

"We hired a lot of different stuff and for the drums I used my own kick with some of my DW stuff. We had a guy called The Drum Doctor come round, Ross Garfield, and he brought in Gretsch toms and a cavalcade of different snares, stuff like that, but I used my my own Sabian cymbals. I'm still an international DW endorsee and those guys have really looked after me, particularly when I don't have a drumkit and I'm in another country, they give me one."

Regardless of session-boredom, not to mention Hollywood's other more tempting attractions, the band members were certainly more involved in the goings-on at Pulse's rather than, say, MGM's studio. He says they were present for most of the sessions.

"I find it really fascinating, expecially when the guitars go down, but yeah, we all attended at various different times, mixing as well. We didn't go to the mastering though, which was also done in L.A. by a guy a called Tom Baker."
"Not Doctor Who?"
"No, unfortunately not. That would have been good."

Engineer and mixer was Ryan Williams and the producer they used for these sessions is the doyen of nu-metal bands, Josh Abraham. His 'previous' includes mega-monsters of the genre, Staind, Korn and Limp Bizkit. 'Hmmm ... but Shihad never sounded like that' I hear you ponder as one. And really, the only nu-anything Pacifier sounds like is nu-Shihad. But Tom explains that keeping your own identity through relocations, foreign studios and new producers takes more than just digging in your heels.

"In any band/producer relationship you've got to do a lot of giving and taking. It's really important to be open to some things and after a long time you do things in a certain way and you've got to explore new territories."

The industry and population benefits of basing a band in L.A. should be obvious but as recording studios the world over are really pretty similar, are there some tangible differences for our Tom in being there to record?

"Well, I think you'd probably go further with your money in Australia or New Zealand to tell you the truth, but just to do it in that environment where you can tap into people who will come round to the studio and stuff like that, they're not coming through in Auckland.

We really discovered that doing 'The General Electric' in Vancouver, with someone knowing someone who lives down the road and they come down and they may jam ideas or just contribute or make things sound good, or people who've got huge amounts of rental gear."

And apart from the natural curiosity of the local junkies, Tom says when he meets someone interested in the scene here, he'll say the same thing as he always does.

"I've said it a million times that New Zealand is the most unique place to actually make music, with the amount of influences that you get and the amount of poeple that you run into to make music with is unlike anywhere else in the world. You get a collision of cultures and musicians that is utterly unique and that is the most precious thing about New Zealand. It's a part of our genetic make-up, if you will."

And that name?
"No, I'm not completely used to it yet, and I still ring up people and say: 'Hi, it's Tom from Sh ... I mean, Pacifier here'. People still chant 'Shihad' and, you know, I don't really care - both names mean the same thing."