Danny Kalb | Recording engineer
Born April 1st, 1979 in Ohio.

Danny Kalb recorded and mixed the Both Sides of the Gun album, at The Boat Studio. He also co-wrote the beautiful song More Than Sorry with Ben Harper.

Danny Kalb, May 2006
Interview by Emmanuel Rivet / swer.net

• What's your background?
I grew up outside of Bucyrus, Ohio — in the country surrounded by cornfields. I had and still have two loving parents, and I've always been very close with my older brother and sister (twins) and my younger brother. After high school, I went to the university of Cincinnati and majored in Business Marketing and Management. I spent all of my free time playing, making, and listening to music. The last two years I lived in Cincinnati, I was a "beerman" for the Cincinnati Reds and Bengals (best job ever), and I was able to save a lot of cash. When I was done with school I realized I wanted absolutely nothing to do with a regular job. I decided to take a chance and use my money to attend a school called the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Tempe, Arizona. I packed up all of my belongings into my '86 Chevy Cavalier Wagon (RIP) and moved to AZ a week after 9/11.

• How/when did you join The Boat Studio?
The school I attended in Arizona required a 2 month internship to graduate. I had no desire to move to Los Angeles, but there are about as many studios in LA as there are doughnut shops, so I moved to LA. Got an internship and later a job with a very cool studio called Studio Atlantis in Hollywood. While I was there I met this guy Tony who worked for the Dust Brothers at their studio, The Boat. I let him know that I was interested in working at the Boat. A few months later, he quit. He contacted me and let me know their was an opening. I applied and got the job in January 2003.

• Can you introduce us to the "Pro Tools" technology?
Pro Tools is a system that allows you to record music digitally on a computer, as opposed to analog on 2" tape. Without getting too technical, I would say Pro Tools provides you with many tools that can improve your workflow. If you want, you can go insane and edit everything to death and pull off some tricks that people wouldn't have imagined 25 years ago. Pro Tools often gets a bad rap because people abuse the options they have and make things unnatural, but that is the users fault. On this album, we recorded onto Pro Tools and hardly touched what was recorded. No time correcting, no autotuning. Ben doesn't need it.

• On this album, did you only use digital files, or both digital files and analog tapes?
Everything was recorded onto Pro Tools with the exception of More Than Sorry, which was recorded onto analog tape.

• Did you use sound effects?
Yes. Not counting the many pedals that Ben used, we used standard FX that most people use, plus some extremely esoteric FX units that Ben has collected over the years.

• Did you know Ben's music before recording this album?
Not really. You know how you keep on hearing about certain artists and albums and you're always thinking, "I need to pick up some of that xxx"? Thats how it was for me. I remember my best friend playing me some Ben Harper and I really liked it. Also, my younger brother had the Live from Mars album and I enjoyed that, but I just never got around to buying it. There are so many amazing artists out there, its hard to hear them all. All of us music fans have embarrassing gaps in our collections.

• How was it collaborating with Ben?
Insane, one of the best experiences of my life.
It was unreal... I've never worked with someone so kind and with such a positive vibe. Making an album can be extremely intense and stressful. You'd imagine that a double album where the artist is performing a good chunk of everything would be rough, but I've NEVER had more fun in the studio. I never once saw Ben in a bad mood — every day he walked in with the biggest smile on his face. That's contagious. From a recording standpoint, he's an extremely talented songwriter and musician with amazing musical instruments; it's practically impossible to make a bad recording with him. Put any mic in front of him when he sings or plays a slide solo, and it will sound great. I can't wait to see what he does next!

• What did you learn while working on this album?
Loads! Firstly, Ben Harper is probably even a better comedian than he is a musician/songwriter. I think I may have had a six pack somewhere underneath the layers of fat after laughing day in and day out for 2 and a half months straight. He has one of the quickest minds I've ever dealt with. Hopefully I'll never be up against him in a freestyle battle.
I learned the most and was influenced the most by Ben's songwriting methods. I'm a hack amateur songwriter, and seeing Ben do what he does on a daily basis heavily influenced me. And I don't mean that I'm rocking a Weissenborn and singing like him, I mean the way he never stops writing and never lets an idea disappear into the abyss.
As far as recording, working with Ben reinforced and cemented many philosophies and ideas about recording. For example, no matter how good of an engineer you are, nothing can help a bad song and/or a bad arrangement. If its a great song with a great arrangement and great players and the players have great gear, its really easy to make things sound great! That was definitely the case with this album!

• Can you tell us the full story behind the song More than Sorry?
The main guitar part was something I had written a year or two ago. During the session I won two online auctions for two different classical guitars. I got them both really cheap. I had one of the guitars just laying around the studio. We were taking a short break; Ben was in the back of the control room making a call on his cell. Being that it was a new guitar and a nylon one at that (I had never owned a nylon before) I picked it up in the front of the control room and started playing very quietly. I started playing the part I had written because it lent itself very well to nylon fingerstyle guitar. I then heard Ben say from the back "what is that?". I'm still amazed he even heard it — his hearing is very acute. He got off the phone a little bit later and asked me about it. I played it for him again and he said "we might have to record that". The next day when we were taking a break he asked me to play the part again. I played it for a bit. He told me that he had some lyrics that would go great with it and he wanted to record it! Long story short, we worked out an arrangement and recorded it the next night. The vocal and main guitar part were recorded together at the same time in the same room. Then I overdubbed the 2nd guitar part for the choruses. We recorded it on the studios barely working MCI tape machine that hadn't been used in about 2 years.

• Can you give us the chords for the song and some tips for playing it?
Here are the basics. The guitar is tuned down a whole step. Here's the chords...

-0---0---0---0--------------------
-1---1---1---1--------------------
-0---0---0---0-h-2---------------
-2---2---2---2--------------------
-3---0---1---x--------------------
--------------1--------------------

In standard tuning the chords would be C-Am7-A#???-Fmaj7. Obviously the tab doesn't show all the hammer-ons and pull-offs. If you just explore with your pinky you'll find the notes. Aside from the pinky hammer-ons, you'll notice that the only thing that changes between the chords is the root note and the way the chords are arpeggiated.

• Black Rain is a really powerful song. How did you get that sound?
Most of that sound you're hearing is Ben, Jason, and the string players — it comes from them. Ben's string arrangement really gives the song power. And obviously his vocals and the lyrics! The one thing we did out of the ordinary was record the drums the way they often did in the 70s. I recorded them in a very small iso booth in mono with very few microphones. We also put lots of tape on the drums and put a wallet on the snare. After we got the sound up, Ben tore it up on the drums!

• On which song did you work the hardest?
Probably Both Sides of the Gun. I think we spent the most days on that — and the effort payed off.

• What are your current and upcoming projects?
Currently working on a remix for a group from Seattle called "Two Loons for Tea". I'm also working at the studio on whatever sessions wander in... what else, writing and playing as much as possible. I'm always waiting for someone to call me from Europe wanting me to record them at their castle!

Disc 1

01. Morning Yearning
This is the 1st song on the 1st disc of the album. Its interesting because what you hear on the album was COMPLETELY done on the very first day in the studio. Usually you record a song, then you come back to it later and dedicate a day or two to just mixing it into the version that goes onto the album. However, when you are done recording a song, you often immediately print a "rough" mix so the artist and whoever can take home a cd that night and hear what they did. "Rough" mixes are notorious for causing mix engineers problems. A mix engineer may be hired at the end of an album recording to mix all the songs. Meanwhile, the band has a cd full of rough mixes that they've been listening to for god knows how long, getting used to the rough version, and sometimes falling in love with it. Then the mix engineer doesnt' have as much freedom to do what he wants because the band has a preconceived notion of how it should sound. Anyway, long story short, Ben and I both loved what was done on that first day. We tried mixing it again while we were mixing the other songs, but there was something magic about what was put down on that first day. That's what you hear on the album.

02. Waiting For You
Beautiful song, Ben and Mike (Ward) put it down fast, one take drums, one take bass, one take vocals, nice guitar work in the bridge.

03. Picture In A Frame
This is the Innocent Criminals tracking live in one room. Amazing performances by everyone. One take vocals by Ben, great vibraphone part by Leon (Mobley), awesome emotional drum performance by Oliver (Charles).

04. Never Leave Lonely Alone
Beautiful intimate song — amazing bass parts by Matt Cory. I started mixing this, and I was about an hour into it, and Ben was like, "We're using the rough mix!"

05. Sweet Nothing Serenade
Love this instrumental... All recorded one night towards the end of tracking. Like so many other songs, Ben had this all in his head. He laid down the drums first without referencing anything like a chart or a demo. Adds another dimension to the album.

06. Reason To Mourn
The second song we recorded. Had a blast recording the intro sounds — Ben doing weird feedback things on guitar and playing some strange synth to get crazy sounds.

07. More Than Sorry
This is the rough mix too. Stephen Marcussen did a hell of a job on this in mastering.

08. Cryin' Won't Help You Now
Once again, another live one in the main room. A lot of fun to watch this go down, Ben's manager JP (Plunier) played drums, and two of his friends played bass and guitar and sang backup vocals. Then his mom and aunt sang some backup vocals too! Ben's live vocal performance floored me.

09. Happy Everafter In Your Eyes
Beautiful song! Also a rough mix that we couldn't beat when we tried to sit down and officially mix it.

Disc 2

01. Better Way
That guitar solo was the very first take. Amazing. I couldn't believe when he did the scream. Thats my favorite part of the song. Ben just blew through the vocals on this one. This song came together very fast. Getting to work with David Lindley was a real treat.

02. Both Sides Of The Gun
One of my favorite tracks on the album. Amazing vocals, lyrics, drums, guitar solo.

03. Engraved Invitation
This one went down really fast. Another one of my favorites. It originally had a lot of other things in it that we stripped out — dulcimer, singing bowls, a couple of synth parts. The night/early morning we recorded the vocals was one of the most memorable/weirdest nights on the session.

04. Black Rain
We tracked all of the music, then the vocals, then the guitar on this. While we were tracking the music, the working title was something else — I can't remember — but it was nothing close to "Black Rain". Hurricane Katrina had struck and we were watching cable news every spare chance we could get. We had no idea what the song was going to be about. When Ben got up on the mic to do the vocals, we were blindsided and blown away when he sang the first lines..."You left them swimming for their lives down in New Orleans". I think Mike (Mike Laza, the assistant engineer), Jason (Jason Yates, co-writer of the song), and I all had our jaws hit our shoes at the same time. That was a really powerful moment.

05. Gather 'Round The Stone (recorded by Todd Burke)
I only recorded the guitar solo on this and mixed it. Wish I could have been a spectator when they recorded it! It sounded amazing straight from tracking. Such a powerful song.

06. Please Don't Talk About Murder While I'm Eating
I think Ben has discussed the story behind this in another interview...

07. Get It Like You Like It
The Boat is a good medium sized studio. When most band record nowadays, you may a drummer in the main room with mics on his drum kit. There may also be a guitar player and a bass player with the drummer in the room, but their amps are usually isolated in another room so there is no sound spillage between the drums/bass/guitar. On top of that you may a singer in another room singing along to the band in his headphones. This is the safe, modern (and sometimes sterile) way most people record. When we recorded "Get It.." There were 8 people with their amps and instruments crammed into the main room with absolutely no isolation. Amps blazing, drums and percussion pounding away, everyone singing with all that sound going on. It takes very talented and well rehearsed musicians to pull this off. I was a little worried about the sound I'd be able to get, but those guys more than made it work.

08. The Way You Found Me
Very similar to "Get It" — all recorded live in one room, I believe it was five people. It was a blast for me to sit back and watch these amazing musicians make this happen.

09. Serve Your Soul
This song blows me away. If you've heard the song, you know its pretty complex with a lot of different movements. What trips me out is that Ben had this whole song in his head with the structure and everything. He didn't have a demo of it that he had worked out to reference while we were recording. There was no chart or written description for him to follow. All in his head. Amazing performances from the musicians!

Links

• The Boat Studio | www.theboatstudio.com

• The Dust Brothers (Sampling, Remixing & The Boat Studio) - Article by Paul Tingen, Sound On Sound, May 2005 | www.soundonsound.com