Content area
Full Text
Capturing the Studio's Music and Memories
"It all started with this idea that I wanted to tell the story of the board" says musician and (now) filmmaker Dave Grohl in his documentary Sound City. "The conversation became something much bigger: In this age of technology, where you can simulate or manipulate anything, how do we retain that human element?"
Sound City is the story of the Van Nuys, Calif., facility- now converted to soundstages and a private studio- where Fleetwood Mac joined with Buckingham Nicks; where Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers cut Damn the Torpedoes with Jimmy Iovine, and Unchainedwith Johnny Cash; and where Nirvana made Nevermind. But it's also a larger story, about the human element: the people who devote their lives to making music and to creating a community of music makers, and the ways lives have changed with the decline of commercial studios.
Grohl's film begins with the history of Sound City- the artists, owners and staff, producers and engineers, and the studio's famous Neve board, which now lives in Grohl's personal facility, Studio 606. Then, about two-thirds in, the focus of the movie shifts to the process of recording the film's soundtrack: Sound City: Real to Reel, an album of new songs written and tracked in 606 with producer Butch Vig and some of the artists who famously recorded at Sound City.
In the film, the soundtrack sessions are superenergized, with musicians mainly cutting live in Grohl's tracking room. "Everybody who's been to Sound City knows exactly why I'm making this record," Grohl says in the film.
Engineering the Sound City soundtrack, and appearing in the film, was James Brown, who has worked with Grohl's Foo Fighters and was in the thick of Kings of Leon sessions...