Darling Nisi

Milestones in History #1 - “Controversy” (2022)

After he graduated from Berklee College of Music in 1988, Koppelman immediately got a job working at a recording studio in Wisconsin for “a drug addict rich guy.” He describes the experience as “dysfunctional” and “upside-down.” He continues, “One day, I finally quit, threw my keys at the guy and when I got home there was a message on my machine from Paisley Park offering me a job.”

Koppelman fell in love with Prince’s music after seeing Purple Rain when he was 17. “I have a journal entry from when I was a kid,” Koppelman says. “I was like, ‘Someday, it’s going to just me and Prince in the studio.’” And it happened—he spent a few years as Paisley Park’s assistant engineer, putting in 14-hour days, setting up microphones and plugging in cords. One day, the lead engineer didn’t show. Prince tried out two other assistant engineers, Tom Garneau and Dave Friedlander, and wound up choosing Koppelman as his main engineer.

Koppelman became much more intimate with Prince. He recorded and mixed Prince’s album Diamonds and Pearls, parts of Graffiti Bridge—“the highlight of my musical career,” he says—and played bass and keyboards on a track called “Blue Light.” He even co-wrote a Louie Louie song with Prince called “Dance Unto the Rhythm.” Though things ended on a bitter note when Koppelman was fired—“I called in sick and then said the word ‘no’” to a work request,” he says—he still has fond memories of working with Prince. The end of his run at Paisley Park presented Koppelman with the time to explore other interests—and he has plenty. (x)

Ian Boxill was born and raised in the most southerly nation in the Caribbean, Trinidad & Tobago…after high school, Ian enrolled at the renown University of Miami School of Music where he majored in Music Engineering Technology.

Over Ian’s 18-year career, his consistency in quality mixing and engineering has rewarded him with some honorable awards, including a Golden Globe in 2007 for Prince’s “Song of the Heart” for the movie, Happy Feet, and a 2008 Grammy award for another Prince song, “Future Baby Mama” which won in the Best Male Vocal Performance category. “The two names I’m proudest of when it comes to my body of work in engineering and mixing is Tupac Shakur and Prince – two legends in such different genres of music,” Ian calmly says. “These are two artists whose music I have worked on EXTENSIVELY, but clearly two artists whose works are worlds apart.  It really gives me great satisfaction to have played such a significant role in the careers of these two historic music icons.”

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Purple Army, it’s one of the biggest interviews we’ve done yet! Check it out as we break it down with Hans-Martin Buff, who worked as the main audio engineer at Paisley Park from 1996-2000, engineering such CLASSIC Prince albums as “Emancipation”, “Crystal Ball”, “Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic” and more! 

Paisley Park Engineers in 2004 and 2016  “With Dave (Hampton), Ian (Boxill), Ralph (Sutton), Khaliq (Glover) and myself, Prince had an all-black crew. That meant a lot to all of us and I know it did to Prince as well.”

Paisley Park Engineers in 2004 and 2016  “With Dave (Hampton), Ian (Boxill), Ralph (Sutton), Khaliq (Glover) and myself, Prince had an all-black crew. That meant a lot to all of us and I know it did to Prince as well.”

Prince Live 1979-1980 : The First Tour

Out April 27th, the Prince live 1979-1980 : The First Tour limited collector book features new and never-seen before pictures of Prince’s very first national tour shot in December 1st, 1979 at the Houston Palace during the Prince tour and February 24th, 1980 at the Sam Houston Coliseum supporting Rick James.

These rare pictures capture early Prince stage performances soon after the release of the Prince album in October 1979. This 56-pages photo book limited to 1000 copies also contains exclusive interviews and comments from Prince former band members André Cymone, Dez Dickerson and Gayle Chapman.

Prince live 1979-1980 : The First Tour (56 pages, language English + French) Available April 2017 exclusively at www.funku.fr. Price for Europe : 30 €. World : 35 € (international shipping included)*.

Orders available through PayPal by sending the selected amount (Europe : 30 €; USA/World : 35 €) at the following PayPal address : [email protected]

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So a lot of these pics aren’t really new to us in tumblr-land, but a few are. I got this more because I am a collector of historical/contextual Prince books…#completionist but…I’m not like a connoisseur of…what he calls his ”purple psychedelic pimp sac”..and this book has a lot of that…so…let that be your deciding factor on whether or not to purchase. 

It’s a nice little keepsake book nonetheless!