Production Spotlight: NICK KINNISH

Responsible for records from Johnny Truant, Throats, Blakfish, Architects and more, Nick Kinnish chats to us about the ins and outs of recording an album, working with unwittingly hilarious local bands and moving to pastures new

From Johnny Truant to Throats and from Blakfish to Architects, Nick Kinnish is the man responsible for producing and engineering some of RM's very favourite British records of the past couple of years. Having run Serafina Studios in Eastbourne for the best part of three years, Kinnish is set to up sticks and move to his new studio, Harvest Hill, in mid December. Upon hearing the news, Dan Jones decided it was the perfect opportunity to quiz the man himself on the ins and outs of recording an album, working with unwittingly hilarious local bands and moving onwards and upwards...

Hi Nick, how's it going? What are you working on right now?

"Hi, I'm very well thank you. This week I've just finished up mixing the new Throats EP for Holy Roar and I've got Blakfish coming in tomorrow to record a Christmas single, which should be a lot of fun."

[Click here to watch footage from the recording of the new Blakfish Christmas single]

First things first, how did you get into the world of engineering and producing records? What was the underlying urge behind it all? Were you in any bands yourself in your formative years?

"This is a hard one to answer without babbling on too much. I guess I'd always been interested in recording music to some degree when I was younger but I really started getting into it while I was at college studying for a Popular music BTEC. I wasn't a great musician or anything so I used to end up skipping the other lessons to stay in the studios they had there, just trying out all the gear and hearing what it did. I always used to latch on to certain sounds when I heard a song, like the click of the kick drum or something, and then I'd try and re-create it. From there I started recording the college bands I knew and it snowballed from there. I think I scraped through with a pass from the course in the end."

Were there any particular studios or producers that inspired you when you started off, or indeed still do?

"Absolutely. When I first started getting into recording I met Ben Phillips at City Of Dis studios through a mutual friend. He was recording loads of bands I was really into then, like Jairus, November Coming Fire and The Break In, he was one of the first people I met who really knew about pro-audio and production, and was making the same kind of records I was wanting to do. I take a lot of inspiration from guys like John Loder [PJ Harvey, The Jesus and Mary Chain's seminal Psychocandy record and more - Ed.] and Martin Hannett [One of the founders of Factory records, most remembered for his work with Joy division - Ed.], mainly just for the records they done that are so seminal and defining."

What was the first record you worked on and how do you feel about that release listening back to it now?

"I think the first full-length release I worked on was HPR's Helios! These Are Instructions. At the time the band had no good equipment and where all pretty young. We probably did the whole thing over five or six days before sending it off to be mastered. I learned a lot of lessons with that record, both about the recording and the industry side of things. I remember thinking I'd made a mess of it when it came out, but now I think about it I probably could not have done it much better given the situation at the time."

How would you compare your style compared to other producers around? When I spoke to them recently the Throats guys mentioned you have "a great "live" sort of sound going on", would you agree?

"That's very kind of them to say so! I try my best to make a band sound sonically similar to how the band would do in a live situation, but with a kind of heightened sense of reality. I don't want my fingerprints to be too visible in the production, but I like to over-hype the sound a bit too. I like to try and make each individual instrument sound huge, but still hold onto some aspect of reality."

Do you feel any affiliation, imagined or actual, with any other British producers? Is there a healthy kinship between you guys or is it a competitive environment?

"There is probably a bit of all of those. I learned early on it is better to have a healthy working relationship with your peers than to be a mercenary. I really like a lot of the freelance producers around, and the ones I know I try to keep in touch with. I have learned a lot from talking to other people who have walked the same paths as me and have been kind enough to share their knowledge and experience. Back in the day a guy wanting to be a recording engineer would start out with a tea-making job in a big studio and work his way up the ladder, learning from the engineer who had done the same thing before him. Now as that system is almost totally gone, you've really got to get along with everyone you can if you want to learn, develop and move forward, and not just be the guy who's advertising recording services on a MySpace page."

For those with no knowledge of the recording process, could you explain what exactly you do when the band enter the studio with you?

"Ok, I'll try and skim it down a little: Usually the day starts with me having a short talk with the band about the recording session generally, we discuss things like how many tracks we are recording and I like to ask what records or bands have inspired them in the writing of the tracks. We exchange a few ideas about the general feel of the songs, as well as the individual instrument sounds. From there it's basically my job to take all these ideas and find away to make them work together. Recording for me is kind of like a big problem solving exercise - you get given a set of circumstances and you have to use those to make a final product that everyone is going to be happy with. You can't use the same method every time around.

"More often than not I get started by setting up the drums and getting a drum sound everyone likes, then record the drums for each song often with a guitarist playing along for guidance. Once they are all done I then move onto the next instrument, which is usually guitar, and so on building it up kind of like painting a picture.

"I focus on making sure firstly that what is being recorded is going to work out sounding right later, but I also encourage bands to experiment a bit while they record but make sure it does not get too out there, I try to avoid singers hanging from the ceiling or playing pianos with hammers etc.

"Once everything is recorded and everyone is happy with the songs I begin mixing, usually on my own. Once I've got everything more or less how I want it I bring the band in and get their opinions, for me the best part is playing back the mixes and it's like the Christmas morning for the band, and they're psyched about the songs still after slaving away at them for days."

How did get involved with Serafina Studios in Eastbourne? Are there many other people involved?

"Luck! I met the studio owner Doug through a friend years ago. He told me he had a small studio setup in a rehearsal studio and if I wanted to make use of it I could come in and see if I liked it. The place was very different from how it looks now, but was pretty well equipped for what it was, and had a decent live room for recording drums. I got in a few friend's bands and done some crazy 24 hour recording sessions in the hope of maximising the usage of the place. From there I guess word got around about the studio, I started out offering pretty cheap deals, made a MySpace page, chose the name from a book I was reading at the time, and then spent the next three years just recording every local band in the area, and we developed the studios equipment as things grew. Now I have Kirk from Ondryland [The collective that also runs the Off The Cuff fest and counts members of Blakfish among them - Ed.] as my booking agent, which was a big step forward. Working with Kirk has brought so much amazing work through the doors and got my name and the studio's name around; he really brought a lot to the table."

I understand that you're moving to a new studio very soon. What can you tell us about your new place? Why have you decided to move?

"I sure am. The place is going to be called Harvest Hill and it's just being finished right as we speak, I'm very excited about it to say the least. It's just the next logical step for me - the place I'm in right now has a lot of time constraints, what with it still being a rehearsal studio at night, plus there is no space for bands to really stay when they are here recording, which can be uncomfortable. It's amazing I've been there so long really.

"This new place is being built and run by a guy called Dave Lynch who works with lots of well established indie/pop/folk acts and he basically approached me asking if I'd like to move in there and make use of it with him. His main interest is to have a great creative space for making records and lots of space for live recording and a wealth of quality vintage audio equipment. We can record all night if we want, and have a comfortable place to stay too, which is something I've wanted to be able to do for a while. I think the standard of the work I do will rise dramatically once it's up and running."

"We've been talking over some quirky ideas for the place too, like forgoing £10 of the bands fee to give them back to buy the studio an unusual instrument on eBay, hiding mics in the walls and keeping them permanently connected and yesterday we talked about having a no shoes policy and buying a rack of slippers. Plus we have an emergency panic button in the control room..."

Do you have some sort of quality control on who you accept work with; do you have to like the band?

"I may have ignored a few emails once or twice, but there is not much I turn away. It's no secret that over the years I've recorded some terrible, terrible local bands, but also some unwittingly hilarious ones! I keep a playlist on iTunes of a few choice tracks to cheer people up if we ever hit a low point during a recording session. One guy in particular has become a sort of local legend from me playing his really off the wall guitar and vocal only songs to people. There's even been a cover of one of them by another band! "

Is there anyone you've passed on working with, or your schedules didn't aligned, that you're now kicking yourself about?

"Yes, quite recently actually, I was away on tour and couldn't find the time to work with a band called The Painted Smiles. The line-up includes guys from SikTh, Johnny Truant and The Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster, so I was naturally really interested to hear what it was all about and be involved with it, but we couldn't get find the right time. Hopefully we will be able to do something in the future.

"A while back I had a few talks with The Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster about working on a record together, but in the end schedules and other stuff meant it never happened. I was mad excited about the prospect of doing that, but hey, what can you do?"

What do you make of the current UK music scene? Who's exciting you right now?

"To me it seems like the scene is really expanding recently, lots of little labels are popping up all over the place and the more established ones are growing and working on bigger and better ideas, everyone seems to be much more positive now that people are really starting to embrace mp3 and iTunes rather than resenting it. A few years ago everyone was telling you the UK music scene was going to die on it's arse, but from where I am on the industry map it's a really interesting time to be doing what I do. Right now as far as UK bands go I'm really into Blakfish, Lady and the Lost Boys, Shoes and Socks Off, Throats and Adebisi Shank."

What is one thing you would change about the music industry?

"One thing that has always got on my goat is bands getting screwed by promoters. Almost every band I have in has a recent story about a show they played where the promoter wouldn't pay them because he done a crappy job promoting. It's completely backwards, I'd love there to be a blacklist of shitty promoters!"

I know it's like asking a parent to choose their favourite child, but is there a release that you're most satisfied with or attached to?

"That is tough, there are a lot of records I like for different reasons, off the top of my head Shapes The Pasture The Oil is a record I'm very pleased with in many respects. I felt we captured a great sound, and it's so far my most satisfying record to listen to that I've worked on. Having Alan Douches mastering it was really cool; he has worked with so many brilliant bands. As well as that, being able to be involved with Johnny Truant's last record was a big thing for me, they were a band I'd always liked and I was honoured to be involved with it. It's their finest work in my opinion and I had a great time working on it."

Final question time, what are you most excited about in the near future? What bands do you currently have in the pipeline?

"I'm looking forward to the Throats and Run!Walk! EP coming out, plus I've got this Blakfish Christmas track to do which will be a laugh...

"I'm moving into Harvest Hill in the middle of December, which is going to be a huge step forward to me. Then I'm getting to work with a few new projects with Go Go Bat Fiasco, Part Dinosaur, Let's Talk Daggers and Blitz Kids off the top of my head. 2010 will be a big change for me and I'm really excited to get to work!"

Check out footage from the recording of the new Blakfish single, plus the full Kinnish-produced track below...

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To book Nick in his new studio, Harvest Hill, you can contact kirk[@]ondryland.com. For more info on Nick's projects, click here.

by Dan Jones