I picked up my copy of at83 from the newsagents today. I will subscribe because i am feeling' lucky about those adams...On a serious note though, it contains what I would argue is the most inspirational column that I have read in my days of reading this mag. The no nonsense approach, and work ethic of this guy are something that everyone regardless of what business you are in should aspire to. What I took away from it was know your tools regardless of what brand/price they are, know what you are trying to record and bloody well get it down and commit to it. It is the way I have started to do my stuff after a long period of accumulating gear and trying every plugin under the sun. This article has really spurred me on an I will be using some of the ideas contained in it. Thanks for a great article Blair an AT mag.

Thank you very much for the kind words and I'm really glad you got something out of the article.

 

I've found in the past that the more "stuff" I had that I didn't need, the less efficient I became so when I started at Nylon 18 months ago I decided to go through all my gear that I had accumulated over my 5 years at GAS in Sydney and do a stock-take.

 

I had heard this song by Death Cab For Cutie that spurred me on:

 

"The flames and smoke climbed out of every window 
And disappeared with everything that you held dear 
And you shed not a single tear for the things that you didn't need"




And so literally I decided to get rid of anything and everything that I had not used in 6 months. I was ruthless – absolutely nothing got through my net. Of course I often found myself thinking "what if I'll need that later", but I knew that if I hadn't used it in six months then I definitely didn't "need" it. 

 

I'm much happier now and love coming into the studio knowing that there isn't money tied up in gear that I don't need. 

 

Thanks again for your kind words!

 

- Blair

I started playing again recently as a creative outlet and wanted to start recording again to keep a record of my material. My creative thinking was stunted there for a while because I seemed to be constantly in pursuit of more gear. My wife was getting to the point where she was saying, "didn't you buy another compressor last week," way too often. Anything that isn't a musical instrument and has to do with signal processing is a compressor to her.lol. I looked through my hard drives the other day and realised I hadn't actually written anything I would consider good for about a year and realised that all I was doing was constantly recording mediocre tracks to compare the sound of various gear. Needless to say it was time to clear out the clutter. I have taken this minimalistic approach in general in my life and find that it transfers to just about anything I do. I know we need the gear to record, but how many plugin clones of a pultec can you really use.

Just read the article last night. Love your approach and philosophies Blair. I checked out the showreel on your website after reading the article and the concise, quick decisions you seem to make really come out in all the tunes you've created - every sound is clear, to the point and 100% effective.

 

Your technique of being a different character for each recording is something I often try and do, but never really talk about. I'm glad I'm not the only one who is a little nuts! ;)

 

Thanks for sharing mate.

Thanks for the feedback guys. It was my first article for AT so I'm really chuffed to get some positive feedback and also really appreciate the opportunity to connect with you here on the forum. SVB said:

 

Your technique of being a different character for each recording is something I often try and do, but never really talk about. I'm glad I'm not the only one who is a little nuts! ;)

 

 

When I was writing up this part of my process I was thinking "hmmm will the mag ever invite me back again" but the truth is that it IS what I do so I thought "hey, may as well tell the truth". (and being a little nutty helps too I guess!)

And I thought I was busy!!!...................well, I am.

 

The pressure must be immense........but sometimes that is needed for results.

Great interview..........it sort of freaked me out!

Respect.