Alan Parsons is a British musical trailblazer whose works are indelibly a part of rock history. His work on The Beatles, “Abbey Road”, and Pink Floyd's, “Atom Heart Mother”, his Grammy nominated “Dark Side of the Moon”, and McCartney's “Red Rose Speedway” (as engineer), along with albums by Al Stewart and the Hollies (as producer) are all classic rock FM radio staples. His own work as a solo artist and with the Alan Parsons Project have garnered a number of hit songs as well. In particular, the instrumental, “Sirius” has become synonymous with professional team sports, being a familiar background theme for Leinster Rugby, the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers, New Orleans Saints, and, most famously, the NBA's Chicago Bulls, and Michael Jordan's documentary, “Michael Jordan to the Max”. The Alan Parsons Project has just released “Eye 2 Eye – Live in Madrid” a combination CD and DVD package. He is presently completing a DVD series, “The Art And Science Of Sound Recording”. Extremely friendly, humble and accommodating, we spoke with him from his studio in Southern California.


John: For a person with such a storied and illustrious studio career, what prompted you to take The Alan Parsons Project on the road, and what elements led to your decision to record the shows in Madrid for a live CD release?

Alan: The first shows as The Alan Parsons Live Project really started in the mid 90's. The reason I held off playing live before that was (at that time) twofold: the role of a record producer on a concert stage seemed a bit unfathomable. You, know what was I going to do? Unless I could play an active part as a musician, it seemed strange. But Ian the guitarist and Stuart the drummer on most of the albums persuaded me to dust off my acoustic guitar and strum on stage, and ever since then, my confidence has grown and I've become comfortable playing the guitar. I'm even singing lead vocals now, which is something that I thought I would never do.

And to go on with the rest of your question as to why we chose this concert in Spain – it's just not very often that you get the opportunity to video record with multiple cameras and also multi track recording for the audio, and this was a TV special commissioned by Madrid TV. I asked if I could have the rights back after the broadcast, and they agreed to that. I got the show recorded for free. It took some time to get interest from an Italian label called Frontiers Records. But there it is – the interest was there and I was happy to get it released to the masses. It's been a long wait – since 2004.


John: “Eye 2 Eye – Live in Madrid” remarkably recreates a lot of the sounds from the studio records, yet allows the musicians to stretch. What kind of gear did you use to recreate the parts from the records on stage, and what circumstances led to those choices? Did today's technology allow you to retire other gear used in the past?

Alan: One of the other points that I was going to mention as to why we waited so long before starting to play live was technologically influenced. It was really only in the early 90's that it became realistic to confidently go out with a bank of synths and expect to be able to call up all the sounds that one wants, at a touch of a button, literally. And it was clearly MIDI technology and Sampling technology that made that possible. And I'm very proud of the fact that the live show is really pretty close to the records, in terms of sound. We've got really, really good samples when we need them and really good keyboard sounds that we can call up.

Surprisingly, people seem to perceive the Alan Parsons Project as an electronically based, a very heavily keyboard based outfit, but the truth is, I think the guitar side of things is certainly as important, and possibly more important. We never missed the opportunity for a guitar solo if there was a chance on the road, you know. That's sadly missing in today's music. You don't often hear a guitar solo (now).

John: When you wrote, produced and engineered songs for the Alan Parsons Project, did you think in terms of live performance versions and arrangements while you were in the midst of the record making process, or did you approach the live performance challenge as a completely separate creative undertaking? For example, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown always arranged songs with live performance in mind, so horns, rhythm section, et al. all had to be well rehearsed before entering a studio, whereas Bowie's work with Eno is an example of purely studio created tracks without any consideration for live recreation.

Alan: I think it's not really something I think about, because anything that's difficult, you can always sample or recreate somehow. The only difficulty would be if you wanted a hundred piece choir, or something, it would be a bit tough to recreate that. But I've never really been too bothered about whether something is playable live during the writing and recording process. It should be mentioned that the principal songwriter of the Alan Parsons Project was Eric Woolfson. Although I've become more active as a writer since then, and in fact, on the last album and on the upcoming “Art and Science of Sound Recording”, I've written songs exclusively by myself.

John: That will be exciting. And you're singing also?

Alan: Yes, singing too. Which is something I really thought I'd never do, except on demos. I sang on lots of demos in the early 70's, but I never though I would actually be on a record. There's a song which has been released online from the new DVD project, “The Art and Science of Sound Recording”. It's called “All Our Yesterdays”, and it's out on the Authentik on-line label.

John: Now, is “The Art and Science of Sound Recording” conceived for educational purposes as well?

Alan: Yeah, it's really aimed at musicians and people with limited scope recording facilities. I don't think it's really geared towards engineers and producers who do it as full time jobs. It's rather for people with an active interest as outsiders. So, we're definitely targeting sites such as yours and music shops like, Guitar Center, and so on. And schools, recording schools like SAE (School of Audio Engineering) and so on.

John: Is “The Art and Science of Sound Recording” program conceived as a way for you to pass on your unique knowledge and experience to the next generation?

Alan: I certainly see it that way. It's high time I gave something back. I've done it to a limited extent by making personal appearances at schools and colleges, and giving talks at universities. But this seemed like a really good vehicle, and a much-needed entity, I think. There's plenty of books, there's plenty of cheap (resources), “Here's how to use compression” and all that kind of stuff. But I think this is the first really encyclopedic (collection) that not only features my input, but a the input of large numbers of other celebrated engineers and producers other than myself; people like Elliot Scheiner. (Clapton, Sting, Eagles, Paul Simon, et al.)

John: You are an accomplished singer, guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, and flautist.

Alan: Well, that's kind of you to say that, but I think I play all of them badly.

John: What are some of the favorite instruments and amps in your collection, and on what songs from your catalog might we have heard them used?

Alan: Favorite instruments? There's nothing like a vintage Les Paul through a Marshall cabinet for solos, I think. That's always been a favorite. I'm not an electric soloist, although I thought I was when I was playing in a blues band in the late 60's, but I kind of let go of playing electric too much and have concentrated on acoustic. I've had some really nice acoustic guitars: Gibsons,.Taylors..and I've now got a beautiful PRS semi acoustic, which was custom made, and sounds absolutely great as an acoustic, although it can be played electrically. It kind of looks like an electric guitar but sounds like an acoustic.

John: Are you using that one in your live performances now?

Alan: Yes, but unfortunately, it doesn't feature in the Madrid show; that was a Gibson. But one thing worth mentioning, I know this is for a guitar site – I had a Taylor guitar that had an internal Furman microphone combined with the piezo transducer. And I was able to get a great, great acoustic sound from that in the studio, and still use it in the control room, you know, with the speakers going pretty hard. So that was a great thing. There are ways of playing acoustic in what you think would be unfavorable circumstances. Generally speaking, piezo pickups sound very rubbery, and you only get the sparkle from a microphone, and having that microphone inside the instrument made all the difference.

John: So you were able to blend the two to get the sound you wanted?

Alan: Yes, Furman makes a little mixer (for that purpose).


John: Your landmark engineering work on “Dark Side of the Moon” is still compelling almost 40 years later. There must have been countless hours of editing and tape splicing back in those Abbey Road days. What is your current studio recording setup, and how does that differ from the analog days? Are there any aspects to the large studio era of the past that you miss in today's “studio in a laptop” environment?

Alan: Several questions in there: I do have a studio; there's not a tape machine in sight. I've been DAW based for about 7-8 years. I do miss the big consoles. I do love them especially for mixing. I love having at least 36 or so channels to push up and down. It's really the tactile contact with the faders. You just miss not being able to grab a fader and push it up or down. But you know, having said that, I've got external controllers that give you fader movements if you need them.

You asked about my setup: I have an Apple Mac Pro, only about 6 months old, it's got a Quadcore processor. And I run Cubase most of the time, sometimes ProTools, since the pressure is there from other people. And I use the Euphonix Artist Series MC control and MC mix as external controllers; they seem to interface very well. Apogee converters, B & W 802 loudspeakers, set up for 5.1

John: “Year of The Cat” and “Time Passages” are probably Al Stewart's most successful records, and sound very different from all of his other recorded works both before and since. There appears to be a sonic connection between the sounds of those records and The Alan Parsons Project. What components (engineering and production-wise) do you think that you contributed to Al Stewart's records to make them so unlike the rest of his catalog, and were those records the genesis for the Alan Parsons Project's band sound?

Alan: I think it's true to say that they all happened around the same time. I mean, I was working with Al and they – it was pretty much concurrent with the first Project album. It's whatever I was thinking at the time. I mean, I made no conscious effort to make Al Stewart sound like the Alan Parsons Project; I really didn't! And I've never had any particular philosophy that supposedly gives my work an identity. I never strived to have a sound or an identity, but it's something that seems to be produced by my instincts, and I've never been able to put my finger on it.

John: Call it “Excellent Taste”?

Alan: Well, thank you, but I think that beauty is “in the ears of the beholder”, in this case. I can't say what it is that people recognize as being my sound, I really can't.

The only specific example that I can give you is that Al Stewart had never had a saxophone on any of his records until “Year of the Cat”.

John: That's one of the things that I was referring to. But also, the ways that you blend the pianos with the guitars, and how the rhythm section comes in – it's definitely very different from any of his other records.

Alan: I don't know, I think he felt the need to be produced. And that was very fulfilling, in my case. I knew the songs were great; I knew the lyrics were great. But, quite frankly, Al did not really enjoy the studio experience, particularly. He regarded it as an unnecessary part of life. Especially when having to get up early on occasions for certain things to get done. He was a tremendously late riser in those days, it was absolutely a nightmare.

John: While the Alan Parsons Project has quite a few well known singles, you also have instrumental tracks of note, particularly, “Sirius”, which has been used by a number of professional sports teams and in films and TV commercials. Do you approach vocal songs and instrumental songs differently? What prompts your choices to decide on the lead melodic instrument(s) when there is no vocal?

Alan: I've certainly favored instrumental compositions myself because in the days of the Project, Eric was the songwriter and the lyric writer. So my principal contribution in the early days was the instrumental tracks. Having said that, sometimes I would come up with an instrumental idea that would become a song, and occasionally I would come up with a song idea that could simply be embellished to be completed as a song.

I think I'm more talented in the instrumental area than anything else. I enjoy the experience of sitting at a piano or a synth and being inspired by the sounds that I hear to come up with musical ideas.

John: When you're arranging in your head, do you think you want the melody to be carried by, say, a Les Paul through a Marshall, on this or that part, or are you hearing strings or synth pads? Is this decided as it is developing...?

Alan: It's sort of a building process. I'm not one of these people like some musical geniuses, like Roy Wood, whom I've worked with in the past, who has a complete mental picture of what the finished record is going to sound like. I don't particularly have that. And I admit to working on sort of a building block basis. You start with a foundation and then build upon it.

But in terms of choice of lead instruments, it's whatever works. I adore saxes as a lead instrument. I adore guitars - a good sounding Les Paul as a lead instrument. And again, sometimes you can get a really good percussive keyboard sound. I favor sort of Clavinet-like sounds – my history sort of shows that.

And also, I love organic instruments as well. Some of the sounds on the first two albums were very much organic stringed instrument sounds. I used the kantele, which is a Finnish zither-like instrument and the cimbalom, (an eastern European hammered instrument) which is more common, but is not used much in rock music.

So yeah, anything that's going to attack the ear, make the ear pick up...

John: You have had quite a few different musicians on Alan Parsons Project records and on stage. Is the personnel issue a function of who is available at the time, or do specific musicians get a call from you when you have their playing style or sound in mind for a particular track? If a person in the live band has to recreate someone else's part, how much latitude are you comfortable in granting that person to deviate from the record?

Alan: I think, in terms of recording, a lot of it was down to the rhythm section always being there, and everybody always showed up. We would have occasional days where the guitar player would have his day in the studio, or a couple of days in the studio, but it was always nice to feel that we could make the call to whomever we thought was the right person to play that part, but, for the most part, it was a fairly tight knit set of people.

Essentially, the band: Stuart Elliott, (drummer), Ian Bairnson, (guitarist), and Andrew Powell, who always did the orchestral arrangements – we sometimes got keyboard players in – Richard Cottle is a good example of somebody who wouldn't necessarily play on the original backing tracks, but would come in and play his parts after the tracks had been laid down.

It was always a good feeling knowing that – especially not just players, but singers – to know if we called a particular singer – or we would hear the song played through and say, “Oh wouldn't John Miles sing this great?” and we'd just make the call. A nice position to be in – to feel that it was a band that had to be that band. It was a luxury that we were afforded because of the style of what the Project was. It was a producer's album; not a band, per se.

John: You are on a desert island and can have a laptop, microphone, guitar, amp, bass and keyboard. What would be your most utilitarian choices of software and other gear that could still allow you to achieve the Alan Parsons sound?

Alan: I think the type of keyboard would be very crucial. A (Yamaha) DX-7 or something wouldn't – although I'm not knocking it, the DX-7 was great in its heyday, but modern keyboards are just so incredibly versatile. I've been favoring the Motif, the Yamaha Motif. The XS, not the ES.

Probably, if it's one guitar, I would probably choose an acoustic, then I know I would get a good rhythmic sound. The electric sounds could hopefully be produced by the keyboard, if it's a good enough one. Probably a Fender Jazz Bass. I think the amp would probably have to be a Marshall. The laptop would definitely be a Mac, with my current thinking. I moved to Mac for my office computer about 9 months ago, and 3 months later I moved to one in the studio. And I'm very glad I did. It's been much a more bearable experience since leaving the world of PCs. So it would be a MacPro, a laptop Macbook Pro, with the biggest screen, I think the 18 inch screen would be the choice for the computer.

John: And the microphone?

Alan: Probably, just to be versatile, I would probably choose a Neumann U47. If I knew that it could be reliable, and wouldn't break down on me, as they do, an original tube 47 with an external power supply – you know, the big fat one? You can use that mic for pretty much anything, especially for vocals. Some of the best vocal sounds of all time have been produced on that mic. That would be the choice, if there was only one.

For more information on Alan Parson, please visit:

www.alanparsonsmusic.com

www.artandscienceofsound.com

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