Gordon Raphael: Embracing the Magic of Raw Recordings

Gordon Raphael is best known for producing Is This It and Room On Fire by The Strokes and Regina Spektor’s ingenious Soviet Kitsch. He was born in New York, grew up in Seattle, and now lives in West Yorkshire, UK. From the age of 13, Gordon has been a keyboard player and later became obsessed with analog synthesizers, recording, and songwriting. His band Sky Cries Mary played a form of tribal space rock, with a 1960s-style multi-projector light show during the grunge scene in Seattle. This summer (2024) he released his 12th solo album, now streaming worldwide.

Gordon’s memoir, The World is Going To Love This (Up From The Basement With THE STROKES) was published in London by Wordville Press in 2022. Stories in his book include meeting Wendy Carlos and Dr. Robert Moog, detailed conversations from the recording sessions for Is This It, working with Ian Brown, Skin, The Libertines, Ian Astbury, and many others. Gordon has always taken a unique approach in his musical tastes as well as his production methods— which have kept him well outside of the traditional music industry!

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Working on your own music vs. working on music from others
• Being critical of your own music
• Dealing with rejection
• Pushing forward even when you don’t have everything figured out
• Perfectionism vs. control
• Finding the magic in raw recordings
• Working with The Strokes
• Getting the vocal sound of The Stokes
• Using saturation during the tracking stage
• Getting tight drum sounds
• The benefits of recording live-off-the-floor
• His special drum room mic technique
• Having a minimalistic approach, even when working with lots of equipment
• How he tackles compression in his mixes
• Embracing imperfections

To learn more about Gordon Raphael, visit: https://www.gordotronic.com/

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