Inside Glass Animals’ London Studio with Dave Bayley
Last year, Dave Bayley (Glass Animals) invited us to his London studio to see his new console and have a chat. The following is a transcription of most of our interview with him, edited for brevity and clarity. Enjoy.
Thanks for having us! Could you please tell us who you are, and where we are?
I’m Dave, I’m in a band called Glass Animals, and I’m a musician, producer…writing person…[laughs] I make music. And we are in my studio.
Did you always want to be a ‘writing person who makes music’?
I grew up in a place where it was just not really a thing to make music. That wasn’t a ‘job’ that anyone did. A household like that, you go and you do science, or law…something vocational. And I went off to university and found some time of my own and started experimenting, and it was powerful, it was good, I loved it. I didn’t ever plan it being any kind of job, I just wanted to make some noise to help me wind down. It was like a therapeutic process. Switch off, and not think about anything else except music.
The first time you ever recorded yourself…what did that setup look like?
I had an old hand-me-down laptop that didn’t work unless it was plugged into the wall. So it wasn’t really a laptop anymore. And it had GarageBand on it, and I had a program called…Audacity, I think it was. And I just plugged my guitar straight into the line input of the laptop, and had a little Casio keyboard, and that was it. Oh, and I had a microphone that plugged into that input, a little handheld. It cost like $20, this microphone. It was not an elegant setup, but it was what worked for the first EP. The first, like, four songs that we actually put out were basically made entirely in that bedroom in South London, with that setup.
So, where we are now: is this your first proper studio, or did you have another one previously?
This is my first proper studio. When I first moved to London, I was renting, and I had a studio in the spare bedroom. It was just a bedroom studio. And that’s where I made everything up until this, this new album – so even like ‘Dreamland’ and ‘Heat Waves’, that was all made in the spare bedroom of my old house.
Then I thought I should probably upgrade to a space where I could have the drums in, like, a different room…and it was also not having a studio in your house, because there’s no boundary. I was finding myself just getting completely burned out, spending all my time in there…but now I can close the door and leave. I think that having boundaries, physical and otherwise, is good for the creative.
Changing gears: what does the name Rupert Neve mean to you?
I mean, it’s THE legendary name in recording equipment. I think it’s the one that everybody aspires to, when people are making equipment. That is the reference point. I’ve always wanted to own as much as possible. And his designs are so smart – I need to be able to look at something and just ‘get it’, and that’s always my favorite type of equipment, be it synths, be it guitars, just…simple. You look at it, you get it, and it works. Functional. It’s impossible to make it sound bad. It’s just a very reliable thing.
What was the first RND piece you owned?
I started with a Shelford Channel. And as soon as I started putting things through there, I was like “oh, this is…everything just sounds ‘nice’.” It’s not like I have to hack it away with an EQ in the box, and then dial in some warmth or something. It just feels ‘finished’. So it’s definitely a luxury, but for me it saves a huge amount of time and it just – it’s ‘there’ already.
You kind of have to imagine past the sound sometimes if you’re recording, like…I remember sitting there with my, like, GarageBand and my guitar plugged into the line-in, and like, you just have to like think what that sound will sound like once you’ve put it through a bunch of other plug-ins and things. Whereas this just sounds done. It sounds like…it’s like an inspiring sound from the start, and that just allows you to think about all the other stuff – getting that performance, getting the lyric right, getting the melody right…you don’t have to worry about sound, because it sounds flipping good.
When you’re recording your voice, what mic do you use?
For my vocal, I tend to use a 251.
An old one or a new one?
A new one – I don’t have an old one. I wish. Those are, like, unicorns. But honestly, I like things that are very reliable. In all honesty, I did think about getting a vintage – I don’t know if you want to cut this or not, but I thought about getting a vintage desk, and I tried a few vintage desks, and every one I tried had a problem. And I just don’t like…the way that I work is too fast and too quick and if those reliability issues hold you back when you have an idea and you need to just ‘go’ – it just ruins it. Like, you get flustered.
Reliability’s very important to us. But it’s not exactly the sexiest selling point for a lot of people.
I think reliability is very sexy. I mean – if you have a sexy idea, and you don’t have the thing that makes it possible…maybe reliability isn’t sexy, but…if you’re putting something sexy into it, you want your sexiness to be captured reliably. Maybe that’s what it is? [laughs] I don’t know if you’re recording this, but if you are, you’re welcome to use it.
Anyways, that’s why I didn’t get a vintage desk. I mean, if you have engineers there to fix it, fine – but I don’t really work with engineers.
You’re typically working alone in here, right?
The first studio I had was in that little bedroom and I was doing everything myself. I work best alone. There’s no self-consciousness when you’re alone, so you have to have something you can operate alone. I think this console, and the whole studio is very much…everything’s within one step’s reach, and you can work very fast.
And I just know it’s all going to make a good sound. It’s musical, it doesn’t require all this, like, dialing in and finessing and little tiny screwdrivers and things. It actually allows you to focus on other things – getting a really good performance, getting the melody right, getting the core of the song right, because you just know it’s going to end up on tape in a wonderful way.
You work in Ableton, right? Do you actually use tape?
Yeah, yeah I do – I have a tape machine that’s not here right now. I have an Ampex, and I do run things out to little tape machines to get some vibe. Especially if you’ve done something in the box and you need it to sound warm and fuzzy.
Or to be honest, quite often I just run it through the desk…and within the desk I have all sorts of sends and analog stuff I can run it through. Sometimes that’s the tape, sometimes it’s a reverb, sometimes…there’s a tape delay over there, a Roland Space Echo. Sometimes I even use the delay part of it, just run it through to tape and it sounds better.
So here’s the million dollar question we ask everyone – Silk Red or Silk Blue?
Oh, this IS a million – I actually use both. As we were making the last album, I was trying to work out which I was using more, and I actually think I ended up using Blue more – but Red was definitely on the board. When we were doing drums especially, I was taking pictures of every setting to remember what mics were used, what settings, and I think overall Blue won – but there were red dots on there too. Why, what do you like?
Oh, we have to be agnostic about that.
I don’t believe that.
Well, it’s so source-dependent – it completely depends on what kind of instruments you’re recording, what sounds are coming through…usually Red is the more exciting one for most people because it’s got that sparkly, shiny thing to it. But Blue is great for anything that’s a bit anemic.
Blue gives it, like, punch and grunt. And I think with drums, that’s often what I’m looking for. I’ve never been a fan of super bright drums, I like older, crunchy drums…but it’s like choosing a favorite child, I can’t choose. Actually I don’t have children. I can tell you I’ve got a dog. He’s like my child. And right now he’s like “get me out of the studio, Dave!”
We’ll listen to Woody. Thank you for your time, Dave!
