"When I heard the demos and I was just instantly taken by the fact that (James) was trying to say things in a more concise manner, that songs weren't as long or as rambling, they were more focused and to the point."Joe Chiccarelli
(msnbc.com interview, August 2008)
General sound/themes
In a 2008 interview with Under The Radar Jim James comments on the band's course with Evil Urges.
"We wanted to try playing soul music and some different styles of funkier music and dancier music, just because that’s what we like to listen to as well."- Jim James
(Under The Radar interview, June 2008)
"In choosing to come to New York and choosing to do a lot of the things that had made us uncomfortable, it was a different environment, and I feel that in the record. We wanted that to come through in a way where it hopefully made us tighter, because there were some songs that were written on a drum machine—a bunch of songs actually—but I didn’t want it to be a drum machine. I wanted it to be a real band, with drums and bass, and I feel like Patrick [Hallahan, drummer] and Tom [‘Two-Tone’ Tommy, bassist] played really well together and captured the essence of a tight drum machine that makes you want to dance but with the fluctuation where it’s still human and there’s still a little rock and roll to it."- Jim James
(Under The Radar interview, June 2008)
In a 2010 interview with am New York Tom Blankenship talks about the making of Evil Urges as well, commenting on how the album was more collaborative than previous records.
"I’m a married 30-year-old with two four-legged kids. The band spends a month in a secluded Colorado cabin working out songs, dog-sitting and cooking together. The result is our most collaborative album. The songwriting feels more concise, and the sound is incredibly tight and clear."- Tom Blankenship
(am New York interview, October 2010)
In a 2008 interview producer Joe Chiccarelli states that in his opinion Evil Urges is is the most instantly accessible, groove-oriented batch of songs that the band has done (msnbc).
"I feel like this is our tightest record in a rhythmic sense, I feel really happy and proud about it."- Jim James, talking about Evil Urges
(msnbc.com interview, August 2008)
In a 2008 Aquarian Weekly interview Tom Blankenship comments on how his idea of what the record would be like compared to how it turned out.
"I think personally I had an idea what the record was going to be like and it didn’t turn out anything like that, but we’d never really discussed going for a certain sound or a certain kind of direction. It was just we had this group of songs and we kind of cut out a few here and there. So it came down to like twenty songs or something. And it would be like, 'Let’s try this twenty or seventeen and see how it goes.' Cause usually the album will sort of piece itself together."- Tom Blankenship
(The Aquarian Weekly, June 2008)
Drumming
In a 2008 interview Jim James said that the band both wanted to try a different sound, as well as a more seamless sound (msnbc). James brings up the band's drumming as an example, saying that it's so tight that sometimes you might be confused if it's a real person playing.
"Going into Avatar, I knew which songs I wanted to sound dry and tight, and which songs I wanted to sound open and roomy, so we immediately set up two rooms for two different sounds. The rather large main room was the right environment for big-sounding songs like Evil Urges, and Smokin’ from Shootin. A ‘dead’ vocal booth worked perfectly for the more machine-like beats on Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Parts 1 and 2 and Highly Suspicious."- Patrick Hallahan
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
In another 2008 interview it is revealed that except for the occasional TR-808 kick sample being blended in as a helper track and the Roland CR-8000 in the back of the mix on Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Part 2, the percussion on Evil Urges is all man-made (EQ).
"Obviously drum machine sounds are shorter, punchier, more compressed-sounding, so we needed a small, dead acoustic space to replicate that. We were lucky that this vocal booth worked so well. It barely held his kit. But the low end really built up in that small room and it made the tracks sound quite punchy."- Joe Chiccarelli
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
In the same 2008 interview it's stated that the few effects that Chiccarelli used on Hallahan's drum tracks were dialed in and committed to during the tracking process (EQ).
"Joe is very particular about getting as much done pre-mix as possible, so most of the signal processing was done as the tracks were recorded."- Patrick Hallahan
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
Patrick Hallahan, Evil Urges EPK 2008"I don’t leave a lot of decisions to mixing. I print the sounds how I want them because I don’t want to leave these things until later. When I bring up the faders I want to hear the way the record is actually going to sound."- Joe Chiccarelli
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
Chiccarelli also added that the magic of the drum sounds should not be attributed to mic choices or signal paths full of boutique gear but, rather, Hallahan's technique (EQ).
"When it comes to getting that tight, dry sound, we would do things like mic only the top of the snare instead of our regular over-and-under miking. And we would deaden the heads so there wasn’t so much resonance. But it’s all about Pat’s stick technique. He would choke up on his stick, which keeps the stick from rebounding and therefore keeps the head from resonating much after a strike. That’s what made the machine sound."- Joe Chiccarelli
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
Guitars
In a 2008 interview with EQ Magazine Jim James and Carl Broemel comment on crafting the guitar tones on Evil Urges, commenting on the choice of different amps and guitars (EQ).
"As a rule, I start with the gear that I am most used to—the amps and guitars I use while we’re on the road. When that doesn’t do the trick, I go hunting for sounds."- Carl Broemel
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
According to the same interview Broemel's 88 Black Les Paul Standard is on the lion’s share of the album’s tracks, however he would also regularly switch amongst a fleet of amps including a Vox AC30, an Orange Rockerverb 50 2x12 combo, a Carr Viceroy 2x12 combo, a Top Hat Ambassador, a Fender Pro Junior, and a ’70s Peavey Vegas (EQ). James on the other hand kept his rig more consistent, using one of his three Gibsons (a J-185 acoustic, an ES-335, and a Flying V), a Fender Stratocaster, or a Telecaster through a Premier 76, a Mesa Boogie Trem-O-Verb, or a Mesa Boogie Blue Angel. Correspondingly Chiccarelli opted to keep the guitarists’ signal paths simple: a Shure SM57 and a Royer R-121, each on axis to a speaker cone, and a Neumann U67 for the room. Each mic was then sent through the Neve 8088’s 31102 preamps and bused together to Urei 1176 limiters.
"One guitar amp to one tape track"- Joe Chiccarelli
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
Carl Broemel, Evil Urges EPK 2008In the same article Chiccarelli also explained how we would run a signal through a Demeter Tube DI to complement the amp sounds on some of James and Broemel’s gnarlier guitar tracks (EQ).
"I’ll use the DI track when I need to add more definition to a guitar line, when I need more clarity for individual notes in a distorted chord. We’d also use the Demeter DI for the pedal steel tracks, then blend that signal in with what we got out of the amp to get a more balanced sound."- Joe Chiccarelli
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
In the 2008 interview with EQ Magazine Broemel also explains how he used his Carter 12-string pedal steel along with a Source Audio Hot Hand Wah on Look at You.
"I used a Source Audio Hot Hand Wah. My feet were busy controlling the steel, so I couldn’t use a standard wah, and I didn’t want to use an auto wah. The Hot Hand uses a tiny device that you wear on your finger and the motions of your finger then control the sweep of the wah. It came in . . . handy [laughs]."- Carl Broemel
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
"Acoustic guitars were done while James was singing, so we had to make sure the leakage was minimal. In some cases I would put a lapel mic inside the acoustic guitar for total isolation. It also created a weirder sonic perspective, like your ears were inside the guitar."- Joe Chiccarelli
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
In the 2008 interview with EQ Magazine it is also revealed that more traditional miking techniques were used, utilizing some common unidirectional cardioid mics such as the Neumann KM84 and a Shure SM57.
"I’ll put the SM57 on the body by the bridge and the KM84 up by the 12th fret, [when the sound produced using the SM57 is too boomy I'd] use an Electro-Voice RE15 on the body... it has a natural midrange-y sound to it."- Joe Chiccarelli
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
Getting the miking techniques right on Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Part 1 proved a bit of a challenge.
"There’s an acoustic guitar part on that song that never sounded right. It just sounded pasted on to a more electronic track. So we re-recorded the guitar track using an Altec Salt Shaker through a Pultec HLF3, which is a real drastic high and low pass filter. The sound was lo-fi and grainy—almost like it was an old sample of an ’80s 8-bit emulator. It instantly fit with all the other colors of the song."- Joe Chiccarelli
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
"Using computer plug-ins isn’t our first choice when getting a guitar sound, I would say, in general, anything you can do with your eyes closed and your hands on the knobs is going to turn out better than what you would get while staring at a screen."- Carl Broemel
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
Keyboard
According to the 2008 EQ Magazine interview Bo Koster, in accordance to his belief that amped keyboard sounds blend in better with guitars in a mix, convinced producer Joe Chiccarelli to keep at least a 60/40 ratio in favor of amp to direct signals.
"The amp definitely adds more dimension to the sound as well as some extra harmonic distortion. It’s not even that you have to put it through a Marshall—even a small amp does the trick."- Joe Chiccarelli
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
Koster used several keyboards for the Evil Urges sessions, including a Fender Rhodes, a Wurlitzer electric piano, a Clavinet D6, and a Hammond B3. According to Chiccarelli, most of the keyboards were sent through an unspecified Mesa Boogie bass amp, which was miked with an Electro-Voice RE-20. However, Broemel’s multitude of boutique combo amps were also brought in from time to time in order to add some reverb, vibrato, and distortion and open up the possibilities, such as on I’m Amazed.
Bass
A similar approach of mixing amp and direct signals was employed for bassist Tom Blankenship's tracks.
"I have a bad habit of lightly slapping the strings along with the snare, that can be problematic when going direct. [A DI] is too clear, too unforgiving."- Tom Blankenship
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
For Evil Urges’ 14 songs, Blankenship used seven different basses—from 2001 Fender Deluxe P-bass (Remnants) to a 1980 Rickenbacker 4001 (Two Halves); from a ‘70s Fender Precision fretless (Librarian) to the ’76 Alembic that cuts sharply through the mix on Evil Urges.
“I also used an old Ampeg B-15 for the fretless tracks,” Tommy adds. “We used the RE-20, placed in the upper right-hand corner of the speaker.” As a general rule of thumb, Tommy tends to keep his bass sound fairly dry. But for Evil Urges the bassist decided to go nuts with an Electro- Harmonix Bass Micro-Synth. “It’s on quite a bit of the album, including ‘Evil Urges,’ ‘Smokin’ from Shootin’, and ‘Look at You,’” says the bassist. “The only way you can rein the signal in is to send it through the amp’s effects loop, so we had to use an amp signal.”
Vocals
"Almost every song employed a different vocal mic. A lot of the vocals were done with a Neumann U47 or a U67. A couple of things that were more breathy and quiet were done on an [AKG] C24, and for his oldtimey, radiophonic vocal sounds, we used an Altec 639 ‘Birdcage.’"- Joe Chiccarelli
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
Though James would step up to a Shure SM58 and do a baseline vocal live with the rest of the band, he would often immediately go straight to the booth after the take and perform a couple extra passes. These tracks would then all be comped together for the perfect vocal. Chiccarelli says that James’ ability to work with various mics allowed him the opportunity to experiment on the fly.
"Certain singers will find themselves getting shy around more than one or two mics, but Jim sounds pretty good on just about anything—it sounds like him whether he’s on a [Shure] SM7 or a [Neumann] U67."- Joe Chiccarelli
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
"We made a conscious decision to always vary the mics when we did a backing track, or when we were shifting vocal personalities. For instance, if we used a U47 for the main vocal, we would use a [AKG] C12 on the backing vox, which has a thinner sound that mixes nicely with the U47."- Jim James
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
Chiccarelli says that James’ vocals were sent through either the Neve 31102 pres on Avatar’s 8088 console, or through outboard Neve 1073s. Every vocal signal was sent to either a Teletronix LA2A or a Urei 1176, and lightly compressed before hitting the tape.
"To Jim, reverb’s another instrument and another sound on the record and he plays off that texture. It’s really important he has it in his headphone mix and he hears exactly how it is going to sound on the album, whether it’s a plate or a chamber or an old ’80s AMS RMX16 non-linear program."- Joe Chiccarelli
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
"I just have a need for space in a recording. I feel that a lot of modern recordings are lacking space and depth in the stereo field. Many recordings sound flat, with all the sounds pushed right up in your face. I hate that. I like older recordings where you can feel the space around the performers. It’s not that I’m on some retro trip—that gets old—I just want there to be some difference in distance between the instruments."- Jim James
(EQ Magazine interview, December 2008)
Chiccarelli says that the direct signals were all piped through his trusty Demeter Tube DI and that nearly all the amp tracks were courtesy of a Mesa Boogie 400+ head matched with a Mesa Powerhouse 1000 cabinet (miked with an Electro-Voice RE-20 on the 10-inch speakers and an AKG D112 on the 15-inch speakers).
Horns and strings
After the core instruments were recorded, James approached Chiccarelli with a wild idea: Take Evil Urges into a completely different realm by adding horns and strings to a sizeable chunk of the album’s tracks. “The first person who popped in my head was David Campbell, Beck’s father,” Chiccarelli says. “I’d worked with him many times before, so I reached out to him and, next thing you know, he’s in the studio.”
“Working with an outside arranger is tricky because I try to tell them exactly what I want for each song and sometimes it doesn’t quite come out right,” James says. “David listened to what I said, but he also added his own little touches and flourishes that I thought worked quite well.”
Campbell came to the Evil Urges sessions with a handful of New York’s top players. Starting with horns, Chiccarelli arranged the players in Avatar’s Studio A live room. “It’s perfect for horns and strings,” Chiccarelli observes. “The room is so live. I close-miked the horns with Shure 12As, put four U67s a few feet further out, and then used a Royer SF-12 stereo ribbon for the room.”
However, the session would prove more challenging than Chiccarelli initially assumed. “In that ‘open’ of a room, the horns were too wet. They would have stuck out too much no matter how you mixed them. I ended up putting baffles around the performers to tighten the sound up and focus the strings into the mics.”
Using a pair of vintage Neumann M50s placed high above Campbell’s head, and an AKG C24 stereo mic in the middle of the room, Chiccarelli captured the strings with relative ease. “Some songs needed tighter, smaller string sounds and others wanted to be more grand and symphonic. I would change the balance between the wider-sounding M50s and the tighter-sounding C24 depending on what was most appropriate.”
While the My Morning Jacket guys used and abused everything from EMT plate reverbs to the Urei Cooper Time Cube to create the otherworldly sounds on Evil Urges, a good portion of the spatial effects were courtesy of a hot little pedal from Eventide called the Time Factor (for a full review of the Time Factor, go to www.eqmag.com/gear). “It has a real natural tone with a very warm, almost analog high-end quality that blended into the tracks very well,” Chiccarelli says. “Even though it's in a stompbox form, it has a line level in and out, so it was very easy to interface into the API Legacy Plus console.” The Eventide ended up being used on lead and background vocals, guitars, and keys. “I love the fact that I can sit it on the console and easily tweak and refine while I working on a live performance,” Chiccarelli tells. “In some cases it was printed on the track with the original sound. For background vocals, I would print several sets of various stereo delays using the Analog Tape Echo and Mod Echo programs to fatten and widen the parts. I would then balance them off in Pro Tools, combine them to one stereo track, and bounce them back to tape.”
“I should note that the one other piece of gear used all over this album is the Chandler TG12345 Curve Bender equalizer,” Joe Chiccarelli tells us as we’re finishing up a last-minute fact check on the story you now hold in your hands. “I used this as the final stop on my rough mixes, which [mixing engineer] Michael Brauer modeled his final stereo mixes after.” Chiccarelli calls the Curve Bender, which is modeled after the EMI TG12345 desk used to record the Beatles and Pink Floyd at Abbey Road, “very powerful and rock and roll sounding. A couple of clicks—the boosts and cuts work in 0.5dB increments—can dramatically color the overall sound of the mix. I've subsequently used the same EQ for recent projects like The Raconteurs, The White Stripes and Brandi Carlile.”
