Getting Creative with Sylvia Massy
When I spoke to Sylvia Massy via Skype, she was up in Oregon enjoying a day off. On or off, however, there seems no shortage of creative projects to fill up her day. Over the course of our conversation, Massy showed me two recent drawings and discussed painting, teaching, car restoration and other future avenues to channel her never-ending stream of creative energy.
And none of that should come as much of a surprise from a woman who moved from LA up to “the woods” of Weed, CA and converted an old theater into a world-class recording studio. The Weed Palace Theater, aka Loud Palace, is most definitely one-of-a-kind, and not just because of the vintage Neve 8038 in Studio A or the Trident Series-80 in Studio D. The A “live room” is a 1920s Art Deco style theater complete with 30-foot high ceilings and a 750 square foot stage.
“They’re [the bands, that is] actually set up on a stage like they would be live, in an auditorium, with seats, and I’m their audience,” says Massy. “There’s no glass, no red light fever anymore. It’s always being recorded.”
Views of Studio A at Loud Palace
Unfortunately for those like myself who have never had the chance to record at Loud Palace, Massy is now moving her studio to a new, yet-to-be determined space.
The producer/engineer who bounced from San Francisco to LA to Weed is now ready to bounce again.
Even though Massy loves the space, there’s no doubt that her next place will maintain the impressive allure of the Loud Palace.
“No matter where I go it will be as interesting a place to go record. There will be something special about it wherever it is.”
This culmination of an ultra-unique, vibey studio and her artistically focused workflow leaves little question as to why Massy has had such an incredible music career. Her discography reads like an all-star jam of artists who are as uncommon in their level of talent as they are in their musical style: Tool, Green Jelly, Fishbone, Skunk Anansie, Love and Rockets, and The Cliks.
When asked why, out of all of her interests, she chose audio, she smiles and shrugs…
“I was in a band – a pretty good band, I thought. I worked at a studio, so late at night I would go in and record my band, and some of the recordings came out pretty darn good. Then people who heard those recordings wanted me to do their recordings, and what I did with them turned out way better than what I was doing for myself, so I abandoned my own projects eventually and just began producing – it was a natural progression. I did not go to school for this.
“I spent a lot of time in the studio making little to no money and doing a lot of crappy jobs and it just developed til finally I wound up in Los Angeles, and I met up with the Green Jello and Tool guys and we had some great success and it went on from there. It could’ve happened to anyone.”
From the here and now, it’s wild to consider that getting the call to record Tool’s first two albums could have happened to anyone, but Massy wasn’t shooting for world fame when she stepped into the studio, she was just doing what she loved. And she kept doing it.
That love and passion landed her the role of engineer under Rick Rubin, where she recorded and mixed Johnny Cash’s album, Unchained, as well as System of a Down’s debut album, and Slayer, all the while working as a producer with artists like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Sevendust.
Although she’s moved on both geographically and career-wise, Massy has nothing but admiration for Rubin.
“I absolutely admire him for so many reasons. And when he puts the right people in the room, he puts the right musicians with the right songwriter, with the right engineer in the right studio environment with the right songs and then he says, ‘OK, go.’ He may not be there to see how it goes but he’ll check in, say ‘Now, do this, try that,’ and rearrange things. Other projects he’ll be there every moment of the day – like the Johnny Cash sessions – I was the engineer and I got to record and mix Unchained. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were the back up band for that, if you can believe it. And it was guest artists, A list musicians day after day, and it was one of the most wonderful and memorable experiences of my life.”
Something Unique, Something Original
More recently, Massy’s been digging into the indie-folk genre, inspired by the energy and success of bands like Mumford and Sons. In that vein, she’s been working with a band out of Ashland, Oregon called Patchy Sanders – a gypsy bluegrass group with very unusual instrumentation. Harp, harmonium and banjo flow in 7-minute songs that read like stories with varying movements.
Sylvia Massy
A trendy genre isn’t enough to bring Massy to the table, however.
“It takes a little bit to win me over,” she says. “What attracts me to projects is music that has something unique and original to say.
“And yeah, I’m not always looking for heavy rock. There’s great music in any genre. I’d like to do all kinds of pop music and rhythm and blues, you name it. There’s great music and there’s sucky music in every genre.”
That being said, her production style for both Tool, Patchy Sanders and any other artist begins with the same thing: the right song.
“Choosing the song, I would approach the same way – there has to be something unique about a song to make it worth producing.”
From there, Massy has a production toolkit as vast and varied as her resume would indicate. She may turn on all the lights in the studio so that the singer feels they have nowhere to hide, feeding them playback without reverb so they hear exactly what they are singing, pushing for the best take. Or how about telling the singer to go outside and sing while cars drive by only to have them come in and knock that part out of the park. She’s also a fan of handing an artist an instrument they’ve never used before, seeing what they can come up with.
For Massy, producing is psychological as well as technical, and not necessarily just about pushing, but rather about getting the artist in the best place to create.
“I try hard to get them to be comfortable and to know that I can be fun and that I’m also very confident in what I can do for them to help them realize their vision.
I’m not going to be pushy and make them do things they absolutely don’t want to do or ruin their music or make them feel horrible.”
She pauses for a moment to think about her last comment, then laughs.
“Unless that’s what they need! If they need to feel horrible to get that angry, angry performance then I might give ’em a little bit of that, and then be nice afterwards.”
Hearing Massy talk about producing, it’s clear that this dynamic work is the cornerstone of her craft. In fact, she prefers to be the “overseer” of a project and vision more so than a constant technical tinkerer. While it’s very important for her that she be involved in choosing the material to work on, and developing the arrangements if changes are necessary, she appreciates the ability to step back from her work in order to see what it really needs.
Massy with the band Molotov Jive
“I like guiding a project more than being involved in every little aspect. Because as a guide, I can let them put it together and then see what it needs. And then take a break, let someone else mix, then come in and check the mixes, make comments. Being in the room every minute, you lose some perspective and sometimes you need to take a break, do something else, listen to something else, and then you realize, ‘Wow, we need to go in a different direction.’ So I do prefer a bit of distance from the technical and engineering details.”
Now, as the last of her gear moves out of Loud Palace, Massy is ready to get some distance once again and start a new adventure
She feels like a change and isn’t quite sure where the coming months will take her but judging by the smile on her face, she has no problem with that.
“I’m excited to put together a whole new studio world. Onto the next chapter.
“However I am really getting in to my art work. I might just be drawing bugs for a while.”
Eleanor Goldfield is a Los Angeles-based writer, musician and studio tech. She is lead singer in the hard rock band, Rooftop Revolutionaries, and chief tech at The Village Studios.