The answer, as Fridmann explains, is that it was both a practical and an artistic decision. The obvious question is why Fridmann and the Lips decided to produce four separate CDs, and hence require four sound systems to be hooked up in the same room to play back Zaireeka - complete with four people to start the CDs playing at the same time - rather than mixing to DVD for reproduction on domestic 5.1 surround systems. So we thought 'well, we want more bass than you could possibly have out of just one CD - so let's fill one whole CD just with bass,' and now the person who's playing Zaireeka can say 'I'm going to have the bass up way louder than anything else, and just pick that CD and turn it up.' That's what we were hoping for." They couldn't all be reasonably represented and intelligible. The problem we would always find with both bands, the Lips and Mercury Rev, is that we'd have a hundred ideas, but if you stuck 'em all into two speakers, you had to start cutting and picking and choosing between them all. "Stereo seems quite boring in comparison. "It's the ultimate in surround sound," laughs Fridmann. Produced in a limited edition of 5,000 Zaireeka consists of not one but four CDs, designed to be played simultaneously. The latter actually came about as part of the Zaireeka project, one of the most ambitious and unusual rock recordings ever made. He co‑produced, mixed and mastered their 1990 album In A Priest Driven Ambulance, and repeated the same roles for 1995's Clouds Taste Metallic, 1997's remarkable Zaireeka and The Soft Bulletin.
The lower rack contains, amongst other rare broadcast compressors, the two Dorrough 610 FM radio compressors and Gates Solid Statesman AGC, as well as a BBE442 enhancer, Dbx 120XP Boom Box, and Lexicon Prime Time delay.Īpart from Mercury Rev, Fridmann's most extensive involvement as a producer has been with long‑established art‑rock pioneers the Flaming Lips.
Right, from top: Roland RE201 Space Echo, Digitech TSR24 effects, Alesis Midiverb II effects, Digitech TSR24 (again), Digitech RDS 3.6 delay, ART Pro VLA compressor, ART Dual Levelar, SPL De‑Esser. Left, from top: Tascam TSR8 reel‑to‑reel, ART Pro Gate, Digitech GSP5 guitar effects, Collins 26U‑1 compressor/limiters (x2), Fairchild 602 compressor. Two of the many racks of equipment in Tarbox Road. A clear experimental bent is evident, and Tarbox Road has also played host to a surprising number of British bands, perhaps a reflection of the greater profile achieved by Mercury Rev and the Flaming Lips in this country than in the US. The 'other stuff' Fridmann has undertaken has covered the whole range of what is sometimes called 'alternative' rock, from the stoner rock of Regular Fries and the grunge of Jane's Addiction to the alt‑country of Wheat, the harmony‑drenched pop of Weezer and the angular post‑rock of Mogwai. Now it's really good, because when we do get together I can just concentrate on them when they come in, and I can do my other stuff when they're not here." I wanted a family, I wanted to work with other groups, I wanted to a lot of other things that weren't being in a band. I didn't want to spend every waking minute working on just one band, or one thing.
I enjoyed it, but once I got to be in a band, I realised that really wasn't all I wanted to do. I toured with the group from '91 to '93 - but not any more, which is probably for the best for all of us. "One of the earliest projects I worked on was Mercury Rev, and I ended up hitching a ride with them. "I wanted to be in a band or something, but I figured the best way to meet other people in bands that were successful was to be an engineer," he explains. Both are remarkable for their sheer originality, for their blending of orchestral textures and heavily processed 'rock' instruments, and for their richness of ideas and both were recorded and co‑produced by Dave Fridmann at his Tarbox Road studio in upstate New York.įridmann began his music career as an assistant studio engineer, and is now an established producer, but he has also spent a long time on the other side of the desk as a member of Mercury Rev. Two of the most innovative and critically acclaimed rock albums of recent years have been Mercury Rev's 1998 CD Deserter's Songs and the Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin, released last year. Their shared producer and engineer Dave Fridmann tells Sam Inglis about their unique approaches to recording. Those who bemoan the lack of invention and experimentation in today's rock music must make an exception for Mercury Rev and the Flaming Lips, two of America's finest and most successful 'alternative' outfits. Dave Fridmann at the Otari Concept Elite desk in Tarbox Road Studios.