LiveWorld Transcripts

garageband.com presents

Sean Slade and Paul Kolderie
What you need to make music that will stand the test of time

July 19, 2000

Music production team Sean Slade and Paul Kolderie, who've produced songs for Hole and Radiohead, chat about what you need to make music that will stand the test of time.

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Garageband.com: Welcome to garageband.com's live chat event! Wanna create music that will still be around when your grandkids are raiding your old MP3 files? Then get your questions ready for the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based production duo of Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade. These two producers have worked together with influential bands of the past decades like Hole, Radiohead, and Uncle Tupelo. They have specialized in bringing out the essence of each band and creating albums that withstand the ever-changing popular sounds of music. They're here to share their secrets of musical immortality with you! Welcome!

Sean: I'm skeptical about the idea of timeless. Pop music has a lifespan of five years. We're talking about tunes that stick out having depth and content other than the passing top ten teen music.

Paul: Maybe it's just songs that seem to capture the moment they're in. Maybe they won't work in the same way forever, but if you did a song that was a big summer song of '97, people will hear it and remember it. It was great, that's timeless. Like what the Beach Boys do.

Sean: In a hi-fi store and Carole King sounded great from like '61. I was three years old then, but it sounded terrific now.

Sigmagirl: Have you two always worked together?

Paul: We've worked together a long time in a band together. We did recordings for the band and that kind of turned into our producing career. We do separate things at various times.

Sean: Paul and I started with two other guys with the Fort Apache studio. We expanded from 8- to 16- to 24-track, in 1987, I believe - when the 24 track studio came into existence. Probably the period from '87-'91, we worked separately because Paul was the chief engineer at the 24-track and I was chief at the 16-track studio. We collaborated, but made our own records simultaneously. The first notable one was in '91 with Buffalo Tom. A good example is I worked with J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. on the first two Buffalo Tom albums, and Paul and I did the third album. Paul worked with the late Mark Sandman on all of the Morphine albums.

Juliana: What do you think is the best thing about Fort Apache?

Sean: The extremely relaxed atmosphere, plus the almost museum-like array of amplifiers and guitars and outboard hi-fi and ancient radio gear.

Paul: Fort Apache has been in many places. There have been four different premises. But we've tried to keep the same focus on rock-and-roll - the spirit and the vibe on each location. It's more of an idea than a place. We've moved the idea from place to place.

Leeann: How did you get started with garageband.com?

Paul: Through our manager. I think he was approached by Tom Zito.

Sean: Mike Lembo (our manager) manages Jim Dickinson. We've always been really huge Jim Dickinson fans. If Jim was going to do it, we may as well.

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