Mark Howard - Listen up!: recording music with bob dylan, neil young, u2, r.e.m., the tragically hip, red hot chili peppers, tom waits

I left Westdale Secondary School in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in grade nine. My guidance counselor told me that if I dropped out, Id end up in prison. All these years later, I am embarrassed to tell people where I ended up. I cant have a conversation about my occupation or latest projects without it sounding like Im name dropping, because I ended up working with some of the most famous people on the planet, in amazing locations around the world.

Leaving school at a young age didnt limit my education; instead, I got my English degree from Bob Dylan, who didnt have notes, so Id sit at the console and transcribe his lyrics while he sang in front of me. Many musicians read the classics and draw on them for lyrical content, like Robert Plant, who carried the poetry of William Blake into the studio. Ive been exposed to a lot of literature despite leaving school. My education occurred in other ways, too, as I developed math skills managing both enormous and limited budgets.

I was born in Manchester, England, but in 1967 my family moved to Hamilton sometimes referred to as Steeltown when my father found work as an electrician as part of an incentive program for skilled workers. My dad was extremely athletic. A boxer during the war, he was the featherweight champion in England in the late 1940s and early 1950s. After moving to Canada, he became the coach for the Canadian wrestling team and then an official at the Olympics. Although I grew up surrounded by sports, I wanted nothing to do with them I thought they were boring. I know my dad was upset that I didnt choose sports, and he definitely didnt approve of a job in music. I once asked him to come down to a grungy bar on Locke Street in Hamilton to see what I did for a living. Unfortunately, a punk band was playing, and with the racket, the fighting, and the blood, he wasnt impressed. He told me to get a real job. It wasnt until years later when he had my Grammy on his shelf that he finally accepted my career.

I did try to hold down conventional jobs. From a young age, I was interested in architecture and design and had filled a notebook with sketches. After dropping out of school at sixteen, I walked into an architects office and showed him my drawings. He was impressed and told me to go back to finish grade twelve and then hed hire me. I had no intention of going back to school, so I found a job as a layout artist for gravestones.

Yet I was always drawn to music. I studied the conservatory program for drums as a teenager. When I was fifteen I took over our basement, and after turning the pool table into a drum riser, I filled the room with amps, posters, and black lights, and it looked like a club. Although perhaps unusual for a teenage boy, I added rugs and lighting, focusing on a design aesthetic. Looking back, I realize that was actually my first studio installation, where I realized the gear and sound are only half the equation that the look and energy of a room mattered, too. To this day, no matter who I work with, I set up the gear so it isnt intimidating or the most obvious thing in the room. I never have cables lying all over the floor like they do in so many other studios.

In my late teens, I worked in the local Hamilton music scene, mixing and doing live sound, but by age twenty Id had a serious motorcycle accident on my 1971 Norton 750, which left me unable to continue due to back injuries. Adversity equals opportunity, and with the brashness of youth, I marched into Grant Avenue Studio, a local recording studio.

The government will pay half my wages if you pay the other half, I told them. I was hired.

Because Id had so much experience on the road doing quick setups and sound checks for live shows, I was able to transfer those skills to the studio, and I was faster than a lot of studio guys, who are usually laid-back because they feel there is no time crunch.

In the years that followed there were only a few times I was tied down by a studio, such as Kingsway or the Teatro, but I simply dont work like other people, so a typical studio wasnt enough. I like high ceilings and interesting locations, and thats more difficult than ever to finance. Essentially, the bottom has dropped out of the music industry. CDs no longer sell much, and many young people expect music for free or as part of an online subscription. Everyone in the music industry needs to be more inventive now, and were all being pushed to break new ground.

Luckily, I worked on timeless records. People who focused on making hits in the 80s were riding high, but its hard to have longevity. The last record gets you to the next job by word of mouth.

The installations I set up to record individual albums are ideal, without the overhead needed to maintain a studio long term. Instead, I find a cool space, create the atmosphere, load it with fantastic gear, and then focus on the art. Sometimes Ill take everyone who is working on an album to a cottage everyone has their own room, and I hire a chef and the musicians live, sleep, and eat in the same place. Something about everyone being in close proximity for a period of time encourages the creative flow. I find that creating an installation studio setting up an entire studio in a chosen location to record an artist, then dismantling it and moving on to the next location and the next artist is ideal for maximum collaboration and creativity for both me and them.

I often think that rules that have been set out for making music the ones taught in recording programs were all made by people who simply couldnt figure anything else out. Whatever recording technique is taught in a college program, I generally do the opposite. I record drums in the control room; I dont isolate artists. The truth is anyone can record in their bedroom these days and make it sound good. That said, Im anti-computers and programs like Pro Tools and GarageBand. I dont like the sounds and I dont find them musical. I want to push Record and begin, not mess around with drop-down menus or with a computer crashing otherwise magic is lost. Essentially, you wipe out the performance with the technology and it actually makes things slower. Everything is being compressed these days, with no dynamics, but I think its better if I am the human compressor. Everything in my mix is me.