Alan Moulder, 2024 recipient of the Icon Of The Year Award from the Music Producers Guild, talks to Kevin Paul about his early years at Trident Studios and finding his specialist areas, plus tips on how aspiring producers and engineers can get started in the industry today.
Show Notes
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:30 - Starting Out In Indie Rock
02:28 - The Route Into Trident Studios
04:50 - Going Freelance With Dave Stewart
06:48 - Learning To Mix On An SSL Desk
09:03 - Developing The Studio With Flood
09:42 - Hiring Studio Assistants
13:14 - Structured Working Methods
14:27 - Actively Promoting Studio Assistants
16:48 - Deciding How To Handle A Mix
19:21 - MIDI Mapping With Battery
20:38 - Adding Intensity To The Mix
23:49 - Favourite Pieces Of Kit
25:43 - What's On The Mix Bus
26:08 - Method For Creating Stems
28:13 - Things To Avoid
30:31 - Making Use Of The Reference Mix
Alan Moulder - Biog
Alan Moulder is a leading global Mixer/Producer and Engineer. Working mainly in the UK and USA since the 1980s, Grammy award-winning Alan Moulder has been at the helm of some of rock music’s most iconic records.
His production, engineering and mixing credits include Nine Inch Nails, The Killers, The Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, Then Crooked Vultures, My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Arctic Monkeys, Led Zeppelin, Death Cab For Cutie, Ride, Queens of the Stone Age, Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes, Suede, Interpol, Iggy Pop, Simple Minds, Ozzy Osbourne and Wet Leg. Alan also received the prestigious ‘Icon Of The Year’ award at the recent MPG Awards 2024.
Interviewer: Kevin Paul - Biog
Kevin Paul started his career as a DJ but quickly found his passion was sound engineering. His first audio job was at Soho Studios in 1991, moving to Konk Studios six months later, where he worked alongside successful producers and engineers such as Bob Clearmountain, Adam Mosley, Pascal Gabriel and Gil Norton, as well as bands such as The Kinks, Galliano, Terrorvision, UFO and Elastica.
After working on archiving the Depeche Mode back catalogue in 1994, he was offered an engineering role at Mute Records’ in-house studio, which eventually lead to a position as Head Engineer, which gave him access to the entire Mute Records roster. Highlights include mixing Goldfrapp’s 'Felt Mountain', David Bowie’s 'Hours' and Nick Cave’s 'No More Shall We Part'. He also worked in 5:1, mixing Moby’s 'Hotel', Goldfrapp’s 'Black Cherry' and more for DVD.
In 2004 Kevin went freelance and re-mixed the entire Depeche Mode and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds back catalogues for SACD/DVD. Since 2008, Kevin Paul has been in charge of mixing and remixing performances at the iTunes Festivals in the UK and Germany. He has mixed over 100 artists to date, including Adele, Ed Sheeran, Alicia Keys, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The XX, Calvin Harris, Foo Fighters, Jack White, Linkin Park, Florence & The Machine, Deadmau5, David Guetta, Jessie J., Norah Jones, Oasis, Mumford & Sons, N.E.R.D., Lykke Li, James Blunt, KT Tunstall, Hot Chip, Paul Weller and many more.
He continues to record, engineer, produce and mix many projects in music and film, runs the mixing and surround mixing modules for the Masters Degree course at UK’s Westminster University, and divides his time between London and Berlin. Recent works include the international-selling new album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and mixing the latest album of Denmark’s 'Dúné' with the first single premiering at the Danish Music Awards, plus the latest iTunes Music Festival.
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