Andrew Rooney - Gift of the lab

Red Lab Studios in Whitehall, north Dublin specialises in first timers and those with little experience of working in the recording studio. Among their past and current clients are bands like Humanzi, The Mighty Stef, Mescalito, Bright Light Fiasco and solo artists such as Ciara Allen, Peter Baxter and Brian McGuiness.

One of Red Lab’s founders Andrew Rooney (himself a former member of Hi-Rise) has wide experience in working with young bands and solo artists. He has found that fundamental mistakes are made when “newbies” enter a studio environment for the first time.
“We found that bands coming out to us weren’t prepared, and ended up wasting their own time and money,” he explains. “There are all these myths out there that you can come out to a studio, drunk or stoned, have a big party and lash it all down in one go. But no one tells them what to do or how to prepare for a session.”
He will always meet with a band ahead of their studio time, presume that they know nothing about the experience and walk them through the process step-by-step so they know exactly what to expect. He sees himself as a coach for bands as well as a producer. And it angers him the way some studios take money from young musicians and happily let them waste their money (and their time).
“They end up floundering about, grabbing blindly for ropes that aren’t being thrown to them, only to end up disappointed with the result musically.”
One of the main reasons for the failure of a recording session to produce anything worthwhile is, he says, lack of rehearsal.
“Rehearsal time is so much cheaper than studio time. So there’s no excuse for not having the songs and arrangements worked out as much as possible in advance and having everything, especially the bass and drums as tight as possible. We don’t even mind girlfriends or boyfriends coming down to watch the session or people having a drink – but wait till the end of the session for that. And turn off your mobile phone!”
Rooney also stresses the importance of having decent instruments, equipment and accessories.
“You get people coming in with a banger of a guitar, a useless amp, and horrible drum-kit. The fact is all good music was nearly always made on a good instrument. It will make all the difference to the end product.”
The rhythm section of a band, i.e. bass and drums is, according to Rooney the most important area to get right in the studio: “The bass and drum thing is vital and I find that it’s the thing that needs the most work. What you need is a good drummer, a singer with some sort of voice and a good tight rhythm section. You can’t win with a bad drummer – bands don’t often realise this and what you think it sounds like and what it actually sounds like, can be two different things. We’d show them how it sounds and work on trying to get it better.”
The success of Damien Rice, Mundy and others has resulted in a huge surge in young hopeful, singer-songwriters trying to emulate that success. But according to Rooney they can present specific problems in the studio.
“Compared to bands, solo artists can record their songs very quickly but there’s a danger that they’ll sound like every other singer-songwriter out there. There are lots of different tricks you can do, such as recording them with a couple of different mics and experimenting with mic arrangements.
He also advises singer songwriters to avoid the “troubadour-with-acoustic guitar” cliché that tends to predominate.
“If there’s one thing there’s too much of it’s acoustic guitar,” he insists. “People like Nick Drake, Cat Stevens or Donovan – they’re known as singer-songwriters but they very rarely used just a guitar. There’s maybe a harmonium in there in the background adding texture or even something a little weird. We have a guy who we can call on, who has a good range of ethnic instruments on hand that can add to a basic song and make it stand out.”
The studio is currently running a competition aimed at first time bands and artists, the prize being the chance to have a single professionally recorded and produced. Details at www.redlabstudios.com.