This is Part Two of our interview with Butch Vig. If you missed Part One, read it here.
"With the Foo Fighters Wasted Light, you quite literally went back to the garage, and recorded to analog tape, which couldn't be more different from how you do things with Garbage. What was that experience like for you?
With the Foo Fighters we had a specific vision, and that was to do it on tape in Dave Grohl's garage, and we wanted to stick to that. That limited the amount of tracks we could use, so it really had to be about getting the sounds right and getting a great performance. You couldn't do multiple playlists and stack them, chop them up and all that stuff. It challenged me to challenge the band. If you listen to that record, sure, it's fuzzy and scrappy sounding, but it feels really passionate in the performances, and that's what we set out to do. I think it's the most honest record the Foo Fighters have made, and if you hear the band live, those songs sound exactly like they do on the record, and that's a very cool thing to be able to pull off.
The new 20th Anniversary Edition of Nirvana's Nevermind is finally out, and it features your original mix of the album, now known as the Devonshire mixes. What's the story behind that?
Y'know, I started mixing the record as soon as we were done recording it, at Devonshire Studios in North Hollywood. The band was there with me, and it was kind of tough for me to do, because Kurt would sit behind me and say things like, "Turn all the treble off the guitars—I want it to sound like Black Sabbath," or whatever, and I felt kind of hamstrung to a certain extent. But I did get everything mixed, and I didn't do a lot of hyping. I kept the mixes pretty au naturel. But at the time, I think the label thought that the mixes could have a little bit more sheen to them, or they wanted to pump them up a bit more. So they hired Andy Wallace to mix the record. Years later, I pulled out those Devonshire mixes when Nirvana were getting ready to do this 20th Anniversary Edition. I called up that original mix, and thought I would just compress it a little bit, and add a little mastering EQ to it, and all of a sudden it just came to life, and it really sounded great and more competitive. It was really exciting for me to be able to do that, and to send them into the band and management. They loved it, and ended up including it on the record. In the end, my mixes are just a little more primal sounding than the album version, but they're exactly the same performances: guitars panned left and right, Kurt singing with some doubling here and there, Dave singing some harmonies, and bass and drums. That's it. Sure, you can hear some differences between my mix and Andy's mix, and I think it'll be interesting for hardcore fans to listen to.
Did you imagine that 20 years later Nevermind would be such a landmark record?
At the time, I just thought it was a cool indie record. I thought the songs were incredible, and the band was great. I mean, they practiced so much before that recording—they were razor-tight when we went in to record. They wanted to make a kick-ass-sounding record. They were not slackers, there was none of that mentality. Kurt was very competitive. At the time, though, we had no idea it was going to blow up like it did. It changed my life. It changed the lives of everyone who was involved with it. And I think the performances still stand up; the record sounds really good these days. You can’t fake that kind of passion, that kind of intensity. Plus, Kurt just wrote super-hooky songs, and when you have that kind of combination, it helps an album stand the test of time.
You seem to have both an ear for fine technical detail as well as a sober handle on the big picture; is this perhaps one of the reasons for your longevity in this business?
I’m lucky that I’ve had a long career. I work really hard, and I get pretty obsessive about the records I make, and when I’m producing, I do try to adhere to the artist’s vision. In fact, I have to remind myself fairly constantly that it’s not my record! With a Garbage record, it obviously is mine, and I’m very lucky to have been able to balance both roles over the last fifteen years. But with a Green Day record or a Foo Fighters record or with Muse, I have to remember that it’s their record and their vision, and it’s my job to help them make the best possible recording they can, and to make the songs as good as they can be. And that’s exciting—it keeps me on my toes. If I have any advice for young engineers and producers, I would just say that, while it can be quite overwhelming when considering all the sonic options available in today’s recording environment, it’s important to always understand the artist’s vision, and to pick and choose between all the tools available to help find that vision. Sounds simple, right? But it’s not always that easy to do. Try to keep your vision focused!
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