OIART INTERVIEWS JEFF MUIR,
OIART Grad 2003, Assistant Engineer on Rush's new recording 'Feedback' - recorded at 'Phase One Studios', due to be released June 29th, 2004.

Bob Breen: How's it going there at Phase One? Are you in audio heaven?

Jeff Muir: Things are going great. We're in the middle of a pretty busy season right now that doesn't show signs of stopping. We have a lot to look forward to this summer.

It's pretty impressive to me how fast you graduated from runner to assistant engineer. Are you assisting alone or still shadowing, like a "second assistant."
I'm assisting alone all the time now. It was a shock to me how fast the whole assisting thing came about. One day I was observing sessions and getting coffee and the next I was knee deep with Rush.

Wow, no joke. That's a big accomplishment. How'd you like working with Rush?
It was great. They were extremely friendly and had a great work ethic. I can't wait for the next opportunity.

How'd they like working with you?
We all got along really well, and there were virtually no mishaps. I mean in a session that ran that smoothly, it’s hard to have any complaints.

Okay, more on that later... let's go back to the start. What brought you to OIART in the first place?
Back in high school I was asked to play trumpet on a song that some students at Fanshawe MIA were working on. It opened the door to a career that took my love of music and my technical attributes and combined them. When it was time to choose a school I investigated quite a few. I was sold on OIART when I came in for the tour. Everyone was so nice and professional. Plus the facilities are amazing.

How did you find the school? I don't mean "take the Wellington Exit off the 401" but rather how did you become aware of the school?
One of the gentlemen at my church told me about it. His son took the course a year previous to my enrollment. It was pretty funny, growing up in London and never even hearing about it, I'm glad I did.

Did you enjoy it here? I reckon you'll say "yes" 'cause everyone does.
For sure, my only beef is that it wasn't longer.

Did you know what you wanted to do career-wise right from the start? Did it change as the year went on?
I had an idea that working in a music studio is what I would end up doing. I always wanted to involve music in my career, and OIART supported this path as the year went on.

How did you go about searching for work, or starting your career I suppose, after graduation?
I guess the biggest thing is knowing what you want. After that it’s pretty simple. You have to do all you can to get it. In this industry persistence pays off huge. You have to be prepared to work for free, and live out of your car if that’s what it takes (or have supporting parents...thanks Mom and Dad...haha!). Most places are more than willing to give you a chance if it doesn't cost them anything. Having the right attitude is key!

How long did it take you to actually find work? It's pretty normal for there to be some anxious moments.
Once I finished, I took some time off and just scouted a few places. Unfortunately London doesn't have a booming studio scene, so I looked to Toronto. I came across Phase One and decided that it was my number one choice. I called them up and said something to the effect of “I'm interested in your studio and would like to come in for a tour". I sort of made my own interview. When I came in I let the manager here know that I was willing to do anything. He saw that my attitude was right, and we talked for some time. After that, I called twice to let them know that I was still very interested. Then I got the call to come in, and I’ve been here since.

What was the process like for you - making the "cold call" to a big studio where nobody knew you?
Well the way I figured it, they didn't know me and I didn't know them so what was the worst thing that could happen...I guess they could hang up on me.

So you were on an unpaid internship at first. How long did it take you to join the staff?
Well I was fortunate. Shortly after arriving, one of the assistant engineers took a job with a big Canadian producer. With my education I was the logical one to move into that opening. I didn't start getting paid until a few months later, but I knew that if I worked hard I would have the job. So in a roundabout way to answer your question, it took about 4-5 months.

You had to be prepared when the opportunity came. What do you think you did that set you apart from the other intern(s) that made you Phase One's choice to hire?
There is a "family" atmosphere at the studio. Everyone that works here is close and very friendly. They must have thought that I fit in. It wasn't so much what I knew (although it helped), it was more my attitude when I was doing the grunt jobs.

I’m glad you mentioned that. It must be difficult for someone coming into the music business (with a ton of technical knowledge from a recording school) to understand how fetching sandwiches and emptying trash properly can actually help your engineering career. Clearly it helped take you somewhere you really wanted to be – and quickly. In my opinion, a school can’t really “teach” attitude, personality and work ethic. Those characteristics are unique to each individual. Do you feel OIART maybe helped shape those attributes you likely already had? If so, in what way?
I would say that all of the staff members at OIART are a great example of the right attitude. They may not have taught it in a class, but they certainly put it on display everyday.

What, from the OIART curriculum, may have helped push you "over the top" as they say?
I would say it was Mark in RTEC. He always allowed us to pursue different possibilities and solutions. It challenged me to think for myself, instead of being spoon fed the answers.

So tell us about the jobs you've done at Phase One so far?
Well there’s a lot to tell, but I'll do my best to keep it short. I started here in September 2003 as an intern. There isn’t much that you are told to do, so I made jobs for myself. If I walked by something and thought it needed cleaning, I did it. Even though it may have seemed like pointless busy work, it needed to be done. I have a couple horror stories that may make anyone thinking of a career in a recording studio run for the hills.

I was lucky to get a big break soon after starting as an intern. We held a "writers camp" for the Canadian idol winner Ryan Malcolm. I got to engineer demos for Randy Bachman, McMaster and James, Julie Black...just to name a few. Not to mention that some of the tracks that I recorded made it on the album. Not a bad second week. I still did intern stuff after that, but I really proved my worth to the studio that week.

Since then I've been assisting a lot and have gotten to work with a lot of different people. David Schiffman (producer/engineer), Kardinal Official, Disney, Graph Nobel, Rush...etc. Needless to say it’s been a blast. At one point we even shot a Bud Light beer commercial, and I was in charge of the soundtrack playback...crazy!!

How did you make the move from runner to assistant engineer?
As an intern I was responsible for the cleaning, answering phones, and getting in to the studios any chance there was. From there I moved on to a second assistant, which entailed setting up, tearing down, and learning all I could in between. After proving myself in those situations, they felt comfortable putting me in on sessions by myself. If you take care in all the little things along the way, it shows that you can take care of the big things.

Tell us about the Rush project... I'm curious (as of this writing the record has not yet been released). Who were the Producer and Engineer?
The album release date is June 29th 2004, and it’s called “Feedback”. Since it's Rush's 30th anniversary this year, they decided to make an album of cover tunes that inspired them to do what they do. David Leonard was the Engineer & Producer. He's worked with Prince, John Mellencamp, Collective Soul and many more. He was a really great guy to work with.

How did they go about tracking the record? Can you give us a glimpse into how they work?
Well apparently they usually play all their parts separate, but since they were going for the "60's vibe" they played as a trio. It was surreal to see a legendary rock band play right in front of you while you’re changing a mic or something.

No kidding! I was lucky enough to see some of that too, in my studio days, and the feeling is hard to match. It’s like Christmas and your birthday all at once. So what format did they record to?
Funny thing, Geddy and Alex use Logic, but David uses Pro Tools, so we kind of bounced back and forth between the two. Most of the recording was done to Pro Tools HD. It was kind of disappointing that they didn't use analogue, but they mixed to 1/2" which warmed things up nicely.

Did you have a role in managing the media? (ie/ Tape op, Labeling tape boxes, Pro Tools operator or doing nightly backups) If not, who did and what did they have to do?
Well I did pretty much everything mentioned. It was my job to take care of all of the backups, tape and labeling so that the engineer didn’t have to worry about it.

Did they take something home to listen to at the end of each day?What was your role there?
We'd print reference CDs every night. I had to align the converters, set up the Alesis Masterlink and make the CDs.

What are some other things you had to do for the session? Were you asked for your input on anything, technical or otherwise?
For a session like this there is a bit of everything. That’s the nice thing about this job, it’s never really the same. There’s always something new, and thinking on the fly is a great skill to have.

What were the hours like?
Very respectable. We'd work from noon to 10pm almost everyday. An experienced band like that knows that working around the clock is counter productive.

What, of your OIART knowledge, did you have to draw on to get through the session successfully?
There was a lot that I hadn’t encountered yet here myself, but luckily I was prepared for it all coming from OIART. I think the biggest thing was confidence. I knew that there wasn’t any situation that could come up that I wouldn’t be able to handle.

Seems to me Rush are very close old friends, I was once at YYZ ironically enough (Toronto International Airport, but also the title of a Rush instrumental with a drum part that baffled every wannabe virtuoso drummer I ever knew in high school), and Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee were in line together ahead of me with racquets slung over their shoulders. Wherever they were going, it looked like they planned on hanging out together. How was the group dynamic?
You can tell why they’ve been together for 30 years. There wasn’t one fight in the time that they were here. Any time they disagreed they instinctually just presented their cases and made a decision. Also they were all really friendly, and easy to get along with.

So how'd they mic up Neil Peart's drum set? Was it a largely traditional kit or were lots of triggers happening too? They just tracked the album at Phase One, right?
They originally were planning to just track here, but they decided that they liked the sound of the rough mixes so much, that they would mix here as well.

So in answer to your first question, there were mics everywhere. Neil’s kit (as most know) is a sight to be seen. He has about 10 toms, 2 hi hats, a million cymbals and a hardware case that takes about five guys to lift. We used the traditional 57 on the snare, a 421, FET 47 and a mic that was inside already on the kick. There were mostly condensers on the toms – 87’s, 414’s that sort of thing. For overheads we also had some 87’s. The coolest thing about the setup though was the room mics. Since it was a 60’s cover record, they wanted it to have an “older” sound. To achieve this with Pro Tools, you have to really warm up the front end by using certain mics, pres and outboard gear. We had a stereo Royer ribbon mic about five feet back (depending on the song) and pointed at the middle of the kit. We also used an old RCA ribbon over the kit. Off to the side of the kick drum pointed at the snare (but on the opposite side) we had an Earthworks (not sure of the model).

Although there were so many drum tracks, David (The Engineer) wouldn’t always use them all. The kit sounded clear as day with only the stereo Royer, RCA and Earthworks up. And the stereo image was great. It doesn’t hurt to have a custom kit with one of the best drummers in the world playing it either - and probably the loudest player. Try changing a kick drum mic next to that.

As for the mixing, that was very dry. I shouldn’t get into too much detail because you probably know how producers guard their tricks. I will say however that there was a lot of compression and listening between different combinations of mics and mic phase. The trick in any good recording is to make it right on the way in
.

What studio gear was mainly used in the session?
All the bed tracks were done in our “A” room, which has a vintage Neve console with 1081’s and 1073’s. Most of the overdubs and vocals were recorded in “B” which has an API. They also mixed in “B”. Not too many people know how good an API is, but it’s got a similar quality to the Neve in sound, and it’s very friendly to work on.

As for outboard on the way in, there simply wasn’t any. It was all about mic placement. Just listening to the raw tracks was incredible. There was also a huge emphasis put on performance. They took the time to play things right and get “the feel” perfect. A lot of the overdubs were spur of the moment and turned out amazing. You’ll have to hear for yourselves.

You know they were on the Bob and Doug MacKenzie album too, eh? As if they weren't cool enough already.
Alex was also on The Trailer Park Boys a while back. I guess Bubbles wanted to see Rush but couldn’t get tickets, so Rickey kidnapped him. It was great, Alex brought it in and we all watched it. That was the first time that it really sunk in how huge this was. I was sitting there with Alex Lifeson watching him in front of thousands of people on stage. Crazy experience!!

Did you get to hear any good stories that you can share?
I did, but most were about other artist's that David has worked with, oddly enough. But you know I don’t want to get anyone in trouble so I should really stay quiet.

What does the future hold for Jeff Muir? What's coming up soon and what are your ultimate goals?
Right now I’m happy with what I’m doing and it’s probably too early to tell what’s next. For now all I can do is keep working hard, and see what opportunities present themselves.

Do you have any advice for someone wanting to follow a similar career path?
When you have any time off, use it to sleep. Just kidding (well not really). I guess all I can say is do what you want to do and make it work. If you’re giving your all you’ll be rewarded for that, even though it might look like no one notices.

You're still learning something new every day, aren't you?
Always. That’s the type of work this is. No matter if you’re an intern or a world class engineer working with Rush, you’re always learning. That’s one of the appeals of this job, you know.

Thanks for your time, Jeff! Best of luck in the future!
No problem, and I hope to talk to you all there again soon.