By Jason Songe

For all you Pixies, Frank Black, and Breeders fans out there, here’s a portion of the interview that focused exclusively on those bands and Mumphrey’s work with them

BM: You’d asked me about “Fields of Marigold.” It’s not one of my favorite songs on my end, though I like the song a lot. That whole record was done in a rehearsal hall that sounded like garbage, so it was a constant fight to get the distant sound of the drums out of every other microphone. We had been doing the Black Letter Days stuff in a loft in Little Tokyo in downtown L.A., and it was really comfortable, like a real nice apartment, and we were able to get fairly decent sounds. We basically got kicked out. They didn’t realize, I guess, that we were recording actual records in there. The landlord comes by and says, “You can’t have these drums anymore.” Charles is like, “Ok, we’ll be out in six hours.” He calls me up and he’s like, “We’re moving out. I have an idea. See if you can make it work.” The idea was that the band (The Catholics) set up and record in 3rd Encore’s showcasing room (seen in Pixies film loudQUIETloud). Charles’ attitude was, “Fuck the landlord and loft, we’ll be set up and recording somewhere else tomorrow.” And we were. It just happened to be somewhere sortof sucky. It was this huge, square, awful-sounding room with a really high drop ceiling, like a warehouse. If you listen, you can hear how cavernous it is on Devil’s Workshop. “Out of State” is probably the best-sounding one on it. If you’re a fan, and you don’t give a shit about the ultimate mix, then yeah, “Fields of Marigold” is a rockin’ tune. But, it’s my job to try and deliver some fat shit. I like Sabbath records, crankin’ Sabbath. (more…)

By Jason Songe

Photos by Eric Martinez and Dan Fox

Traveling down LA 21 towards Bogalusa, I stopped into a convenience store to get a six-pack for Ben Mumphrey as a thank-you for the time he was giving up for our interview about Studio in the Country and his sound engineering work there. The early twenty-something clerk with a mangy beard was buried in his beverage orders, and when he looked up and spoke his country accent soothed me. It was a sure sign I’d crossed the line into a simpler, slower dimension, and probably because I spent many vacations as a child on a Mississippi farm it felt like cold water on my head after a long run. It makes sense, then, that as I got closer to the studio and further into the country, my heartbeat slowed.

I saw the two huge cedar pylons marking a driveway entrance and I turned between them onto the gravel road that led down to a geometrically edgy structure that looked like a student of Frank Lloyd Wright designed it in the ‘70s. “This has to be the place,” I said. I stepped out the car, took in the pine trees, ponds and open land that went on for acres. The feeling of calm reminded me of a retreat I took in Convent, Louisiana, which has got to be one of the most beautiful places you’ll find mid-state.

Studio in the Country took six years to design and was finished in 1973. According to an old studio brochure, a country location was chosen to minimize earth vibrations. It has been used by Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, Professor Longhair, The Neville Brothers, The Gutter Twins, Kansas (“Carry On Wayward Son”), Marilyn Manson, etc.

“It was built by A-grade sound architects with a soft ceiling,” Mumphrey said as he took me on a tour of the studio. Mumphrey was telling the truth because I heard my ears ringing in the large recording room. The only time I can normally hear my ears ringing is when I’m going to sleep.

Next Mumphrey walked me outside and down to the studio’s cabin-sized echo chamber, which is used to naturally capture reverb. Two lines come from the control room and plug into two mics for a vocal sound that’s “richer and creamier than computer reverb.”

Mumphrey started engineering music in ‘97, and since then has engineered, mixed, or produced records for The Pixies, Frank Black and The Catholics, The Breeders, The Gutter Twins, Fu Manchu, Mark Langean, Auf der Maur, Anders Osborne, etc., and he was the monitor engineer for The Pixies on all of their reunion tours.

Mumphrey and I ended the tour back in the main building, inside the control room. There, ANTIGRAVITY asked him questions about the studio, his work and the bands he’s recorded. This interview starts with an answer, as Mumphrey discusses the differences in studio taste over the decades and how that ultimately affected The Pixies. (more…)