Heavy Machinery: Record Producer Machine

9/5/13
Heavy Machinery: Record Producer Machine | Get In Media
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Heavy Machinery: Record Producer Machine
Record producer Machine first cut his teeth in the early days of digital
music, and as a result hasn’t had a moment’s rest since the 1990s.
Known for his innovative fusions of heavy guitar riffs, electronic
samples and beats, and splashes of hip­hop, the producer has
consistently been behind some of the metal and rock world’s most
groundbreaking albums over the last 15­plus years. Now settled into a
sprawling new studio in New Jersey, Machine’s career begins a
brilliant new chapter.
By Brendan Manley (/users/brendan-manley)
0 (#feedback)
The record producer known simply as Machine (a.k.a. Gene Freeman) has been
shaping the landscape of modern music since emerging on the scene in the mid-1990s, back
when the digital music revolution was still in its infancy. Armed with a sampler and a love of
sonic fusion, Machine quickly made a name through wildly inventive remixes and other
various auditory concoctions that merged elements of metal, hip-hop, and industrial into one
seamless listening experience. He’s been quite a busy guy ever since.
Over the ensuing years Machine has worked with a virtual who’s who of artists, especially in
the worlds of heavy music and alternative rock, from metal and alt-rock icons like Lamb of
God, Clutch, and Suicide Silence, to punk and post-hardcore heroes Four Year Strong,
Chiodos, and Every Time I Die, to alt-pop darlings Cobra Starship and Gym Class Heroes.
Machine is now in the midst of an even grander chapter, having recently moved into a larger
studio space in New Jersey a little more than two years ago. Although the spackle is still
drying, this latest incarnation of The Machine Shop looks to be ground zero for a multitude of
important, groundbreaking releases still to come.
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To find out more about just what makes this Machine tick, Get In Media convinced the
producer (http://getinmedia.com/careers/record-producer) to step away from his computer for a
moment, and share both his personal story and some tricks of the trade. An energetic,
tangential talker, once Machine’s gears got turning, it was some time before we stopped.
Get In Media: How did you get started in music?
Machine: I started as a drummer, but later played guitar in bands in high school, and we
played parties and stuff. But as far as going for record deals, I wasn’t doing that in a band,
because I was already in producer (http://getinmedia.com/careers/record-producer) mode. Early Nine
Inch Nails was my scene. I would go to these rock dance clubs that would play hard hip-hop
and [Red Hot] Chili Peppers and industrial dance rock mixed with hip-hop. It was a mixture of
guitars and beats and stuff, and that’s how I was kind of approaching music—some hip-hop
elements in the beats, but I wasn’t a rapper. I was making music with a sampler on my
computer with my 8-track, not in the garage with a band.
Then right after school, that scene was a bit more happening in England, so I moved there for
a year and a half. I saved as much money as I could, and basically went out there with my
computer. I took a friend who was my sample player. That rock dance club scene was really
happening there; Camden Palace was huge, and that’s what I was really into. I was sampling
and putting crazy beats to guitar music, which at that time was really cutting-edge. There
wasn’t Pro Tools yet; you were slave to a tape, to your sampler.
GIM: When did it shift toward production?
M: I was a producer before I knew what a producer was. That was the kind of artist I was: a
producer/artist. Plus I had a friend who was a manager (http://getinmedia.com/careers/recordingstudio-manager) and he would let me use his studio
all the time, so I was a record producer
(http://getinmedia.com/careers/record-producer) before I knew what it really was. That’s how I made
music: I made it in the studio.
Labels would hear my stuff and go, “Hmm, this is really interesting. We’re not sure how to
channel this or market this—it doesn’t slot into anything in particular—but will you remix our
artists? It’s pretty cool what you’re doing.” I said, “Sure,” and started doing remixes for rock
bands. One of the coolest things I did early on were two White Zombie remixes, and that was
on a remix record that went platinum.
GIM: What was your next big break?
M: The same guy who convinced me to come to England wound up working for a producer
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management firm, where he was managing big producers, while I was still just a kid doing my
thing. A band called Pitchshifter came into the office and were looking for someone to make
their record [1998’s www.pitchshifter.com], and there really wasn’t anyone appropriate. So
Paul, my friend, says, “I know this kid, Machine. He would kill this. You should give him a
chance.” So they flew them out, did a couple tracks, and that was it, I jumped right into being a
major-label producer.
From that day on, it just never stopped. It was a hot, trendy moment. It was one of my favorite
moments. The record came out and it was one of those moments where for 10 minutes people
stopped and said, “What’s this record?” That was my start.
GIM: What have been some key milestones since then?
M: Lamb of God’s two records that I worked on [2004’s Ashes Of The Wake and 2006’s
Sacrament] are the ones I’m most known for, and I wasn’t a metal guy then. That’s what made
the world think I’m a metal producer (http://getinmedia.com/careers/record-producer) , but I got hired
by the guys in the band because I wasn’t the metal producer. At the time they had just signed
with Epic, and every metal producer wanted to work with them. When I met Lamb of God,
talking about music with them was funny. I said some things that were pretty shocking and
funny that made them think, “Wow, this guy has a really good perspective. He could make a
good metal record, but he’s not a metal guy,” and that’s exactly why I got the job.
The new Clutch record I worked on [2013’s Earth Rocker] has done great. The last Clutch
record we did together was nearly 10 years ago [2004’s Blast Tyrant], so it was a little
intimidating this time because [Blast Tyrant] was a bit of a fan favorite, more of a good song
record. Clutch asked me back, and I was like, “Yikes,” because the last one was the biggestselling, most-loved Clutch record. So we did a really smart thing: We really took our time in
pre-production, really worked on the songs and pre-thought the concept of the record while
we were doing pre-pro, and it’s doing really well for them. It’s turning into a good success. Talk
about a real band; they’re so the real deal.
GIM: You moved your studio, The Machine Shop, into a new building two-and-a-half years
ago, after more than 12 years in the prior location. How are the new digs?
M: I’ve got about 3,000 square feet of space now in my studio, in Belleville, New Jersey. I
needed my own drum room, and I had a good idea of what I was looking for. We were looking
at all these commercial spaces, and the idea was to find a space that has an open room that’s
good for drums. That’s what we found, and we just built around it. I’m really lucky: It turns out
it is a very good sounding drum room. I thought it was good before we signed the lease and
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moved in, and it turns out it is very, very good.
It’s a commercial place, very industrial looking; there’s the big open room, and you’ll see parts
where there’s still a room being framed. All of the bands that come here think it’s the coolest
thing. It bothers me because I’d love it to get done faster, but I can only do what I can do. I’m
getting crews and guys affordably to help me when I can. I also have other guys in here—I’ve
got one other producer here—plus interns that have now grown up and are now engineers
(http://getinmedia.com/careers/recording-engineer) , some new interns and there’s space for other
people. There’s always stuff going on, and I like that.
GIM: What’s your philosophy on gear?
M: To be different I feel like I have to go back to older stuff. I’m growing up and I’m learning. I
never worked in the big studios that had this stuff; I started DIY. I had a lot of cheap gear in the
beginning, and it was good discipline, because I really learned how to make things sound good
with whatever gear I had. That’s a good way to start, but I’ve learned slowly as I’ve grown up
why it’s really important to invest in good equipment. I’ve tried guitar sounds so many ways,
experimented so many times, and it comes down to these small, minute edges. The musicality
of all this nerdy stuff is very, very real, especially over the whole multi-track environment.
GIM: What kinds of artists do you enjoy producing the most?
M: I really want to work with bands that are fresh and have identity. That’s the hardest thing
to get these days: identity. It’s another thing the industry is working against. I’m always
looking for a band that fits in but has an identity, whether it’s a particular guitar player that
really shows you a given style, or a singer that really has something rock star going on.
Sometimes bands work on it, and sometimes it’s just what it is—a default. A band has four guys
who come together and it happens to have an identity. That’s the magic of bands sometimes.
GIM: Do you ever have to coach it out of them?
M: I think it’s more the case that they don’t know it’s going on. They’re often young, they’re
inside a fishbowl, and they don’t see themselves from the outside. That’s my job.
GIM: How do you do that job?
M: By making them believe in themselves. There’s a certain energy around me, working with
me in the room; I really show my inspiration when I feel it. I’m a loud person, and it’s really
about making the artist believe in these things, cutting through the fear, and being able to
capitalize on things that are great and make them believe in it. “Hey, this is unique to you. Let’s
make this a thing about this record.” It’s not being a salesman, but a coach or a leader you
believe in. It’s like a coach who says, “These are the plays we’re going to make. This is what’s
going to make us win this game.” The players believe in the coach and follow it through.
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GIM: Are they always willing, or do you butt heads sometimes?
M: Both. There’s plenty of butting heads, and there has to be sometimes. There are bands
who are a lot easier to work with than others, but it’s part of what I do. Bands who are more
resistant to trying things, I’m still going to push to some degree. That’s kind of the job of the
record producer (http://getinmedia.com/careers/record-producer) . I always tell bands, “Recording a
record and doing a great job engineering is super important, but in a way it kind of has a price
tag. You can buy it from me, or the other guy.” All these things about the emotion, and how we
change songs, those are things you can’t put a price tag on. They have to do with a potential
greater success. That’s what makes the great movie director (http://getinmedia.com/careers/directorfilm) , or record producer. It’s the guy who
knows how to tell the story and make it connect with
people. There are a lot of great engineers (http://getinmedia.com/careers/recording-engineer) .
GIM: What new projects are you currently most excited about?
M: The newest and definitely most fun is Basic Vacation. They’re really young, and part of this
indie-pop scene, like Imagine Dragons, The 1975, even The Killers. They just got signed to
Capitol Records and I’m really glad they reached out to me. It’s a very new signing, and no one
really knows about them. They wrote really good songs, and it’s been really great working with
them and really experimenting with their sound and defining who they are.
I love the indie-pop scene because there are so few rules. In hard rock and metal, I call it the
“Big Dick Contest,” because it’s like how big, how loud, and there are all these rules about
guitar and drum sounds. I find the differences of the sound of the records is becoming less and
less. But in indie-pop, on the same record you can have a song with distorted drums and
another song that has guitar and another that leans on the keyboard. It’s commercial music, so
the songs and the lyrics are everything, and they’re open to getting new songs. I’m way into it
right now.
Before that I worked with [Japanese metalcore outfit] Crossfaith. I was attracted to them
because they’re a scene metal band—one of the Warped Tour bands—but they have a pretty
legitimate DJ, with heavy synth sounds that are great. They do a really legitimate job of
marrying the breakdowns with dubstep moments, and it reminds me of when there was raprock and Linkin Park came around; they really did it right. That’s what Crossfaith does, but it
doesn’t feel forced or weird. It really works.
GIM: What’s your advice to a student learning the ropes?
M: It’s really about just doing it. You’re going to have to get in there and get your hands wet. It
doesn’t matter when you’re starting how you’re doing it. It doesn’t matter if it’s GarageBand
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or you’ve got a friend who’s got a studio. But if you don’t take a lot of pleasure from just
working with it—doing music, toying around with it—that’s a problem. For me, as a kid, there
was nothing that could take me away from the studio; I really wanted to be there. Start making
stuff, and don’t think for a second whatever gear you have is holding you back. Start figuring
out what you can do with that gear.
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