Colin Newman of art-rock survivors Wire, talks to David Davies about the band's highly productive third act, and how gaining control of the means of musical production has allowed them to constantly find new leases of life

Mike Elizondo

The producer, songwriter and bass player has found huge success in diverse genres. GEORGE SHILLING (who also likes wearing several hats) compares notes

Mike Elizondo studied classical double bass for a good number of years before finding himself in a studio, employed by Dr Dre, replicating electric bass parts from old records on hip-hop productions. He was soon part of the Aftermath label’s core team and having previously been a signed songwriter with his college band he gradually added production and songwriting to his portfolio. Elizondo co-wrote Eminem’s The Real Slim Shady, and co-produced tracks on

Snoop Dogg’s 2000 album The Last Meal. He co-wrote and co-produced much of 50 Cent’s Get Rich Or Die Trying including the hit In Da Club. Other credits included Mary J. Blige, and Eve and Gwen Stefani’s singles and in 2005 he produced Fiona Apple’s Extraordinary Machine album.

Other diverse credits have followed including Regina Spektor, Alanis Morisette, Jay Z, Ed Sheeran, twenty øne pilots, and forthcoming albums with Rag’n’Bone Man and thrash metal band Turnstile. From 2011, invited by industry legend Lenny Waronker, Elizondo took an A&R role at Warners for eight years, which “was a really cool education of how decisions get made,” he says — but one that was taking him away from the creative studio process.

In 2018 he moved from LA to Nashville, setting up an impressive studio with a classic SSL 4056E/G (that came from a New York facility, but was originally ordered for another Nashville studio), and the latest Genelec The Ones monitoring system. Elizondo is currently working with twenty øne pilots and doing songwriting sessions with artists including Grace Vanderwaal. There are also projects in the works for Netflix including one with Brittany Howard. Resolution chatted with Elizondo stationed in the studio’s museum-like keyboard room.

How has it been with Covid?

Even with the pandemic, we were able to be pretty busy this last year. A lot of it was just me and an engineer, sending files back and forth. But there were a good amount of sessions as things started to get safer, where we would have socially distanced sessions, with maybe just two other people in the room. We even did a session where me, the artist, the engineer and all the musicians all got a rapid test result within 20 minutes. And even with that assurance, we all still wore masks.

/ The control room of Elizondo’s Nashville studio, with that vintage SSL 4056E/G desk and new Genelec The Ones monitoring

How come you made the big move?

I’ve been coming to Nashville for ten or eleven years, primarily as a songwriter. I had some success with Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban — enough to keep me coming back, and keeping the doors open for me. I love the environment and the work ethic. The talent pool is immense — a lot of incredible musicians. As an experiment, a couple of years ago opted to make some records out here that were not based in Nashville but just — ‘Hey, let’s meet in Nashville and go and record there.’ And just had a great time. My wife and kids have come with me many times, and we got to this point where we thought that maybe it was time for a change.

How do you use the SSL?

I would not qualify myself as an engineer at any level. But many years of working with Dr Dre had an influence, and so many of my favourite engineers work on an SSL. We haven’t done any full-fledged mixing on the board. But I like to have a number of things set up, so my piano’s always mic’d, my drums, most of my keyboards, so having all of those channels enables me to have templates and to have things ready to go, so I’m not constantly setting things up. That aside, I do have a dedicated Logic rig, and a dedicated Pro Tools rig. But the SSL gets used a lot, especially if we’re tracking drums. I like to have them spread out so I can play around with the levels of what we’re hearing and make decisions on that.

With your incredible synth collection and all the software synths available, how do you make decisions?

My philosophy is to have as many options as possible without needing time to set them up. I do have a number of keyboards that are always powered on. The Jupiter 8 is always by my side. Then the reissued Mellotron is getting a lot of use. There’s a Minimoog, and a Prophet V. So those four are always right at my side. But also a ton of Native Instruments, a ton of Logic keyboards. But if I’m writing, I’m usually looking for something that’s going to inspire someone. When people come into the room I’m trying to draw, ‘What’s the energy, what’s the vibe?’ Without even asking, a lot of times, just by having a conversation you know, are we writing a ballad today — shall we go sit by the piano, shall I pick up an acoustic guitar? Or is someone feeling a little spunky, do you want to do something on the bass and have a certain kind of beat? But I like having a couple of things ready to go, so that if I get a reaction out of somebody then I can go full-tilt into that direction. If someone’s got an idea, and I’m looking for a kick drum sound for 20 minutes then that’s the worst possible scenario.

So with all those options, how do you choose?

I’ll typically get to the studio an hour before anyone else, and I’ll think, what’s a library I haven’t looked at in a while? And I’ll have a couple of things all ready to go. Then if someone walks in and says, ‘I want to do a dance track,’ then I’ve got some sounds. Then if someone wants something more live-sounding, then I’ve got some Addictive Drums that feel like a 70s kit or something. Ninety-nine percent of the time I’m going to go back once the song is done, and then I’m going to tinker with the right sounds. Sometimes you get lucky right out of the gate, but most of the time I’ll replace the sounds, once everyone else has gone home, then I’m not boring anyone to death searching for the perfect snare sound.

But sometimes your first idea is the best one…

Yes, there are times where I’ve changed it and the artist has gone, ‘I kinda like what we did the first round,’ and you have to trust it.

Were there any disadvantages to having a solid musical education?

No. I took the approach that the more knowledge I could have, the more well-rounded I’d give myself a chance to be. If I was getting into classical music and studying, I wanted to be as authentic — I didn’t want a crash course; I wanted to study with the best. And I studied with guys from the LA Philharmonic. For a good time, I thought that was going to be my career, playing in an orchestra. And I loved playing acoustic, straight-ahead jazz. I loved fusion. But I also loved playing heavy rock. I don’t feel like it gets in the way. And it’s definitely come in handy in string sessions and horn sessions and it’s easier to talk to musicians in very specific

the fact I’ve had success in multiple genres makes me a little more intriguing

terms: note lengths, articulations, dynamic things you want to get. Knowing the terminology saves you a lot of time.

At the outset did you listen to a lot of rap records for research?

I didn’t. I met Dre when he was starting his Aftermath label. He had a lot of artists, and he was experimenting. I’d just show up with my bass. In the initial sessions, it was ‘Here’s a record, can you re-play this bass line?’ They were really keen on having real electric bass, so I learned how they liked to hear things and how I should play. A lot of times they were referencing records that I was already familiar with. Eventually, he would want me to come up with a bass line. That’s where the songwriting door was opened. Then I started playing more keyboards and guitar, and that led to production. He was very generous and offered me equal splits on the publishing, and then would give me production credit where he felt I’d contributed. That opened the doors for the productions that came later.

Tell me about these Genelecs

I’ve used Genelecs for years, then I went through a phase when I was using Adams, and Focals, but what sparked this was that I had a control room where I didn’t want to put mains up in the walls and go through that whole rabbit hole, so I asked my friend Adam Hawkins what he thought, and he turned me on to the Genelec The Ones. It just seemed like the perfect situation where I can have these speakers as my mains, and maybe keep NS10s or Proacs for nearfield. Then these Genelecs showed up and they just blew me away. They sound great as nearfields as well. I’m using them 90% of the time. Occasionally we’ll switch to the Proacs, or I’ve got another listening station with Focals. But my main source behind the SSL is the Genelecs. Some speakers, you feel like you have to learn them. But for myself and other engineers that have come in, you quickly understand what they are giving you. That’s been crucial, and they’ve been phenomenal.

How was it setting up the Genelec software?

That was intriguing. The cool thing is that you can have multiple prime positions. Ninety percent of the time the artist is hanging out on the couch at the back, and rather than making them come up to the board, you can hit a button on the software and it makes the couch the prime position. It definitely makes a difference, but you have to remember to switch it back or it sounds really strange! I even have a third position where I do my programming and what it does is pretty phenomenal.

And do you tune it to taste?

Absolutely, it’s very intuitive to bump certain frequencies; when it was first set up we experimented a little bit. But now it’s set exactly the way I like it. Really the test is when you take it out of the room, but really, there was no learning curve, it translated really well. If I crank it to the level you’d normally have your mains it sounds incredible. But at a lower level, it still has the same punchiness and focus. That’s what’s blown me away.

You work in diverse genres; why do people come to you?

I think if artists only work with someone from their genre, they can get bored doing the same thing over and over again. So maybe they want to work with someone who’s going to bring a different perspective. So the fact I’ve had success in multiple genres makes me a little more intriguing. They know I’m capable of doing stuff that gets on the radio, so I’m not going to go way off the deep end. But maybe someone’s a fan of Fiona Apple but they’re a pop artist, wanting to bring some of that stuff in. Hopefully, they think I’m diverse enough but can draw from other things, and also stay focused enough to not get things too far off track.

/ After years in A&R at Warners, Mike moved to

Nashville to get back to songwriting and production

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