#andyjackson

Andy Jackson’s talents, however, do not rest solely with ‘Pink Floyd’ - he has also worked with artists such as ‘Heatwave’, ’The Strawbs’, ‘The Boomtown Rats’ (most notably mixing their hit "I Don't Like Mondays"), ‘Incredible Kidda Band’and goth rock group ‘Fields of the Nephilim’– he was also guitar player in the live band version of ‘The Eden House’. Originally trained in the sound engineering profession by producer/engineer James Guthrie, at Utopia Studios,  Andy served  as his assistant for several years, and began work as an engineer for Pink Floyd in 1980 - assisting in the recording of the performances of “The Wall” at Earls Court ; He was also the Front of House engineer on the band's 1994 world tour. Jackson also engineered Roger Waters' first solo album “The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking”, and worked Front of House on the subsequent tour in 1984.  As Guthrie's assistant, Andy worked on the film soundtrack recordings for “The Wall” and the studio album “The Final Cut”.  When Guthrie relocated to Los Angeles, Andy became the band's primary engineer beginning with “A Momentary Lapse of Reason”, and then “The Division Bell”;  receiving three Grammy Award nominations for Best Engineered Album - for ‘A Momentary Lapse of Reason’ - and Best Engineered / Best Surround Sound album - for ‘The Division Bell’.

In collaboration with engineer Damon Iddings, Andy remastered the majority of the bonus features material on the Immersion editions of “The Dark Side of the Moon” and “Wish You Were Here” for the "Why Pink Floyd...?" reissue campaign ; plus the material recorded for the soundtrack to the band's 1992 auto racing documentary film “La Carrera Panamericana”, as well as engineering, producing, AND playing bass on two of the tracks on their last album “Endless River”, in 2014. Inbetween times, Andy continues to work on his own solo albums - his debut “Signal To Noise” received nothing but rave reviews, and his latest release “73 Days At Sea” looks to be achieving more of the same. We caught up with Andy, on one of his rare hours off ...

HR : When we spoke in 2014, about your debut album “Signal To Noise”, you hinted that one day there may be a second offering of songs - and here it is! “73 Days At Sea”. It’s a truly incredible album Andy, are you happy with it? Andy Jackson : Thanks! I’m sure for anyone involved in any creative process, there’s always a degree of doubt - could it be better? Having said that, I’ve learnt over the years that there is a point where you have to put it away, accept that you are into microscopic changes that no one but yourself will perceive. I feel pretty comfortable that the album was the best I had in me at that time.  The next one will be better! HR : What came first this time, the music or the lyrics?

AJ : One of the things that I decided last time, on ”Signal To Noise”, was that I wouldn’t record anything that wasn’t finished being written, having seen at first hand (many times) the pitfalls of recording backing tracks with no idea what the song is vocally.   That is, after all, the single most important element.  I didn’t change my opinion about that this time.   There again, I can’t say necessarily that anything came first. I tend to knock around lyrical ideas & musical ideas independently, and at some point it becomes clear that one particular lyric belongs with a particular piece of music. Then the evolution starts, when the two things become interactive.   I do allow myself to start on a piece without the lyrics necessarily being totally finished, not least of all, all sorts of minor tweaks are needed once I actually start to sing them, just to make them scan well. HR : Across both albums, some of your song writing is quite personal - although I’m sure many listeners will connect with your philosophy, and the snapshots of your life experiences that are shared in the songs. Do you listen to them and hear your heart on your sleeve, or do you just hear some really great music? AJ : I’ve tried writing from other perspectives, but it always feels like I’m being dishonest.   I don’t think that, that is something that can’t be done - Plenty of great writers write about things outside themselves, I just don’t find that I can do that.  ‘The Gyre’ is a good example - I originally wrote it from a totally different perspective, but in the end it felt contrived, and I needed to write it from the perspective of ‘me’.   The ‘me’ isn’t necessarily totally me, but I just like writing in the first person.   Drownings is a bit of a departure that way, that has bits written as other people, but even then, I needed to totally get under their skin to do it, including a section which I ‘method improvised’, ad lib’d in character.

It’s in my nature to listen to the music primarily, but if I’m going to write lyrics I want them to be worthwhile, I want to be able to read them as if they are someone else’s and to like them.

HR : Has making the recordings somehow aided your own ‘journey’? AJ : Absolutely.   It’s in the act of making them, of doing things that are difficult, that the value lies. “Nothing worth having was ever achieved without effort” -Theodore Roosevelt. HR : The songs on “73 Days At Sea” are linked by a theme - primarily the ocean ... Was the inspiration down to a lifelong affinity with being beside the sea - say, a love of eating ice-cream in the salty air -  are they musings, or is there a deeper connection?

AJ : As I allude to on the album notes, it comes from spending a bit of time working next to the sea at David Gilmour’s studio. I kept feeling a sense of nostalgia when ever I left there, as if it were somewhere that was significant in my past, which it isn’t. I wrote about that in a song (Type 1 error) and found that I kept making reference to the sea in lyrics, without necessarily realising I was doing it until afterwards. I thought about a suite of songs linked by the sea, but it kept getting bigger & bigger, until it became the whole album.  I went down onto the beach one day & recorded the waves, which made a lovely link between songs.  There is no huge significance to it really, or maybe there is on an unconscious level, I can’t know ... HR : Do you have a favourite track on the album? AJ : Same answer as everyone gives – they’re all my babies!   I actually have a fondness for the segue of songs that start the album, that’s the original ‘sea suite’ and works well as the Soft Machine Volume 2 inspired idea.  ‘The Gyre’ was the last one I wrote & recorded, and is probably the most sophisticated musically, so I’m proud of that one too.  The best one is always the next one though, so you’ll have to wait for that! HR : “Drownings” is nothing short of a masterpiece ; some may pick up on a bit of  a ‘Pink Floyd’ vibe - would you embrace that comparison? AJ : People are inevitably always going to hear ‘Pink Floyd’ in what I do.   I often wonder if chance had meant that my career was most associated with, say, ‘Genesis’ or ‘King Crimson’ or even ‘Steve Hillage’, if people would say I sounded like that.  Frankly I don’t worry about it, I just make music I like.

HR : I’m curious about the significance of the dates, detailed alongside the lyrics in the booklet ...

AJ : The dates in ‘Drownings’ really serve to help understand the chronology in the song.  I thought of Part 1, Part 2 etc (although not in that order), but I like the dates as it makes it like diary entries. I also ended up with having 2 of the sections being the same date, but from different perspectives, which I like, what 2 different people are thinking at the same time.  The specifics of the dates are arbitrary, although I did look them up to make sure they were all mundane dates, so they all feel like rainy Tuesdays.

HR : “Signal To Noise” was a complete solo effort, but you invited some guest artists to perform on “73 Days At Sea”; namely David Jackson from ‘Van Der Graaf Generator’, and  Anne Marie Helder from ‘Panic Room’, who both feature on ‘Drownings’ - did you envisage their involvement from the beginning? AJ : No, it evolved as I was making the song, and for different reasons.   Once ‘Drownings’ became written from the different perspectives of the people in it, it became obvious that I needed to have a female voice to sing the female role (there is a version with me singing it, but it’s a bit ridiculous).   Anne-Marie came about just because I knew her work and thought she’d be good, so I asked her, simple as that.   David Jackson was just because I have always been a huge fan of his playing, and thought it’d be great to have him on the song.   If he’d said no I wouldn’t have got a different sax player, it was specific to David.  Again it was just a matter of asking him.   I definitely envisage doing something with David again, on the next album probably ...

HR : Did ALL of your guitars make it onto this album? AJ : No they didn’t this time. It was a much more limited palate than I used before, somewhat deliberately.   Pretty much one electric (which was new for me, a PRS with P90s), one for slide, a 12 string electric and one 6 string and one 12 string acoustic.  No real reason, just keeping it simpler this time, there’s a bit of trying to give it a ‘band’ feel to the album, even though it’s 4 incarnations of me. HR : The cover artwork on both “Signal To Noise”, and “73 Days At Sea” are pieces by Michael Bergt, and they’re an absolutely  perfect fit -  how did you come across his work? What is it about his art that you admire? AJ : It was a chance find when I was doing Signal to noise.  I googled for ‘Sisyphus’, while writing the lyrics to ‘One More Push’, and the painting that I used on the cover for that album came up. It immediately struck me as perfect for the album cover, so I emailed Michael and asked him.  He was more than happy for me to use it, and for a very minimal price.   It seemed obvious to go back to him again for 73 days at sea.  If anything, I think that one is even better & more appropriate.   One fluke is the balloon in that painting, I already had the instrumental piece called ‘Ballooning’ (in fact that’s a very old piece of music & was always called that).  Couldn’t be more perfect!   I should mention the ‘barbie on the beach’ picture, which I love, was kindly provided by you!!

HR : [laughs] Indeed! I feel very honoured ...

AJ : I had a conversation with Anne-Marie about the fact that, as ‘cottage industry’ artists, we end up doing our own artwork, with no Storm Thorgerson type bringing in brilliant ideas & craftsmanship.  Makes the whole thing even more ‘mine’ though.

HR : Totally - and it is perfect. I think you get a real sense of how much of YOU has gone into the whole album ;  the sound, and the way the physical copies look. Both of them  - you should be incredibly proud! Since we last caught up, you’ve worked on David Gilmour’s latest album “Rattle That Lock” -  it’s quite an eclectic album, was it demanding to record?

AJ : It was a slightly odd album to work on. The way David works these days, he does a lot of work of putting the songs together on his own. We’ve set up the Brighton studio so he can come in & tinker and record anything he likes.  I get brought in when we do the ‘serious bits’.  This was doubly unusual inasmuch as we broke off this album to do ‘Endless River’, so it was a couple of years between my first stint on it, recording drums with Steve, to the final overdubs and mix. In the middle, David had built the album, so I came into half finished songs that I didn’t know.   One of the issues that many ‘big stars’ have is that no one is prepared to tell them that anything they do is no good.   That’s not a problem for me, we’ve worked together for 35 years now.  He really needs someone to be able to say yes/ no do it again, let’s drop in this bit and so on, which is a role that I do for him. As ever, with Protools sprawl, the toughest thing was that in the end some of the songs were 120 tracks or so, just because it’s so easy to defer decisions. Took a bit of sorting out!! HR : What projects have you got lined up for the coming year - are you planning  a 3rd solo album? Any live shows?

AJ : Well I’m halfway through a stint on a project I can’t really talk about. Let me just say it’s a whole heap of archive recordings for a well known band who I’m associated with!

As for my own music, when I get the time I’ll start on my next project. I want to explore a particular dynamic I have in mind. I’ve often thought that in recording or rehearsing situations I’ve been in, either working with others or as part of a band, sometimes someone will play something that I think is great, and that everything else should be built around that thing, to let it be the most important thing. Too often I see that idea lost, buried under other people’s opinions or lack of vision.  As, with my own music, I am in the position of being able to make all the choices, I have the opportunity to absolutely follow my vision.   I’m going to try a methodology of working with other people (such as David Jackson) and giving them the chance to be the defining element on something (by being ‘first’).  Hopefully this way I can get an album that is made of extraordinary things.

Live shows, I don’t know.  It’d need to coalesce into a band really for that to be viable. I’d like to do it one day, but who knows when.

Jackson (in collaboration with engineer Damon Iddings) has remastered the majority of the bonus features material on the Immersion editions of “The Dark Side of the Moon” and “Wish You Were Here” for the Why Pink Floyd...? reissue campaign.

In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Jackson has also worked with artists such as ‘Heatwave’,’ Strawbs’, ‘The Boomtown Rats’ (most notably mixed their hit "I Don't Like Mondays"), ‘Incredible Kidda Band’ and goth rock group ‘Fields of the Nephilim’ – he was also guitar player in the live band version of ‘The Eden House’.

Jackson is a two-time nominee for the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album for ‘A Momentary Lapse of Reason’ and ‘The Division Bell’.

Inbetween engineering, producing, AND playing bass on two of the tracks on Pink Floyd’s new album “Endless River”, Andy has also recorded his first truly Solo album.   Helen Robinson caught up with him recently to talk to him about ‘Signal To Noise’, and of course ... Pink Floyd!

HR : So, this is actually your 4th record, but your first entirely solo album?

AJ : It’s the 4th one I’ve made yeah, the others sort of leaked out and nobody noticed! So yes this is the first proper one.

How long did it take you to put it together from concept to mastering?  

When I finished working on the last ‘Eden House’ album at the beginning 2013 – I decided I’d done enough there and it was time to move on.  So I started thinking about the idea of doing my own stuff then, but there were all sorts of brick walls in the way, which all became part of the process; struggling through the barriers of taking on things that I couldn’t do. First one being lyrics ; I had never written lyrics on my own before -  I’d done a little bit in collaboration, but that was the first question I had to ask myself “can I do this, can I write lyrics?”. I started the process and started to get things that I liked and it became something that I felt confident in doing. I didn’t want to do things that were naff, and I certainly wasn’t going to write about girls and cars – I wanted to write about things that interest me, or something that I wanted to say.   Having done a lot of stuff through work where people struggle to have lyrics until late on in the process, I really thought that was NOT the way to do it! So it was a very deliberate thing with this to have the lyrics first. And then I either wrote the music from scratch, or maybe if I had an idea knocking around that went with it I would work on it - but lyrics were quite pivotal in the process.   So that was early in 2013 but it’s been quite bitty since because I’ve made a Pink Floyd album in the meantime, but there were long  periods where I wasn’t working and could get on with ‘Signal To Noise’

Was it a joyous experience or, because it’s what you do day in day out, did you find it frustrating?

No no! In some ways it’s actually fulfilling what I have always wanted to do. When I first got into recording it was on the basis of wanting to make records of my own. I wasn’t really trying to do that, but it was the next best thing.   I never felt I had the ability or the confidence to do stuff on my own. I played in bands a bit but nothing that really went anywhere. And I’ve been recording for long enough, so that part of its easy. Actually piecing it together and doing a lot of the music was quite quick. It was more the thinking about it stages and where I was tackling stuff that was quite difficult, but that became part of the ethos of the album as I said before. You know, doing stuff that was hard - which sort of became a lyrical thread, that ran through the album, about grabbing hold of life rather than just drifting. There were quite a few challenges but I felt it was good to have the challenges! It pushed me to my limits and it became a real interesting process of learning stuff.   It has made me listen to music in new ways. Having to sing myself, which was not what I originally intended to do. I was going to get a succession of guest singers to do it, but it became clear pretty quickly that I didn’t want to do that.  It just didn’t feel like it was my album with someone else singing it - having written the lyrics and done vocal demos to give an idea; people ended up singing them differently and it wasn’t really what I wanted. So that was a big challenge because I’d never sung myself, before. When I first heard it I didn’t like it, but I stopped for about 3 months and just concentrated on improving my vocals - Until I got to a point where I could listen to and think about it as if it was someone else singing . So that was quite tricky.

Which again echoes what you say about reflecting a life process where you take control of things ... Well exactly!  It’s a bunch of threads in my life coming together. It coincided with a time of quite big change in my life – personal circumstances. I was at a point in life where it would have been easy to just drift into a state of freewheeling and I became very determined not to do that. And not spend time wishing I was this or that, and just thought ‘well I can still do that’ – it was just a question of putting the work in. And it’s been really rewarding. In some ways doing things that are easy – there’s not a lot of value in it. If you push yourself to the limit, and do things that are hard, you get tremendous personal value from it. It’s been a great experience from that point of view.

So are you happy with it then?

Oh of course not!  [laughs]  But yes as well!  Anybody who makes records will always think there are a million details that you could have done better. But I’m also very aware – having worked with Pink Floyd so much, where everything takes such a long time – I’m quite keen to get to a point and just move on,  and if there’s stuff that can be better then,  do it next time!  Which I have already started to process, I’m already writing again for the next one; and just trying to learn all the time - find out new stuff - and I already think that the next one is going to be better than this one ... which is the way that it should be!

I’ll look forward to that ...

Yeah could be a while yet [laughs] although now I’ve finished the Floyd album I’m less busy ; and I like to be busy , I like to do stuff, I’m not good at just sitting around, otherwise I go riot!

Presumably you were a musician before you were a sound engineer?

I was a bad musician, yeah! [laughs] My dad taught me to play guitar when I was about 10. I was always really keen and played in bands at school and things like that ...

Was there a particular piece of music that inspired you to want to be a part of the recording process?

Well because of the age I am, my love through my teens was British Prog – King Crimson, Vandergraf and stuff like that. It was that that got me into music and - I would listen to it and picture in my head the people playing it and want to be recording it. Inevitably when you get into the industry, as a studio engineer, you’ll record anything that comes along really – mainly pop music – but then the opportunity came to go and work with Floyd and that really was the ‘never look back’ point.  Which has been fantastic – what a brilliant thing to have done. I just wish we’d been busier!! Actually recently it’s been busier because David’s [Gilmour] done a few things, and there have been reissue box sets and things, which have been nice to work on.

Do you have a Favourite piece of gear that you use in the Studio?

Oooh. I’ve got favourite guitars – i have a guitar collecting habit! In terms of recording stuff. No, I mean I’ve got things that I use a lot because I regard it as being really good, but nothing that makes me really excited like a favourite compressor or something!

Favourite Guitar then?

Well it changes all the time. At the moment its one I just bought.  It’s a Paul Reed Smith. I’ve had loads of them over the years but this one’s beautiful, unusual. As far as I know it’s the only sort they’ve ever made that has a Soapbar, tremolo, and not got a maple top. So that’s why I got it, but it weighs a ton! Ironically it’s not on the album! [Signal to Noise] I bought it more recently but I can actually say that all the guitars I own, have got on the album somewhere – because when you’ve got a part you just pick up each guitar until you find one that’s right for it, and I ended up using them all!

Have you embraced the evolution of technology – do you rate MP3 vs Vinyl / CD

No - they don’t sound very good, that’s for sure! It’s a real shame that it’s the first time we’ve ever gone backwards in sound quality.  There’s been a continual push forwards ; even within CDs – at the margins of the technology it was about how good the players were and how good converter technology was and things like that, and that all keeps going forwards.   But MP3s are a terrible backwards step!   There’s still clearly an appetite amongst some people for much higher resolution stuff and if you release it, people will buy it - above CD I mean, really high res stuff.   My album will be available like that. You can buy it just as a CD, or there’s a double disc version as an alternative which has 2 discs – CD bundled with a DVD which has got Hi-Res and a surround version on it. It’s been nice to do that.   I chatted to a few people when the ‘Division Bell’ [Pink Floyd] surround came out and a lot of people really liked that, so certainly there is a bunch of people who will buy it because it’s surround - and also because I love it! Every album I do now there’s a ‘surround’ with it as well.

Favourite album that you’ve worked on? It’s funny with working on albums because it puts it into a completely different mental place, and you can never hear it the way you hear an album you don’t work on. In some ways the ones that I enjoy listening to the most now, are the ones which were recorded incredibly quickly. For example – David Torn, who’s an avant-garde jazz guitarist, did an album called ‘Cloud About Mercury’, which I recorded, and it was done in 3 days. There’s almost no ‘pollution’ by the recording process, and I can just listen to it as if it’s someone else’s album.

I have to say that the new ‘Pink Floyd’ album “Endless River” was really fun to do because it was quite a different project to anything else I’ve done.   We were taking existing material and manipulating it, and that made it a very different process to the conventional one that we’d normally use, so I have really have enjoyed this album.

I really enjoyed making mine too, but for different reasons.   I’m already thinking on the next one, what I’d like to do – and maybe work in different ways, try to do it in much more of a band kind of way if I can find the right facilities to do it, because I can fit a drummer in my bedroom! [laughs].

Are you going to be able to listen back to ‘Signal To Noise’ in years to come without it really paining you that it’s summing up this period in your life now?

No, no, I listen to it all the time actually - I genuinely do listen to it for pleasure – I really like it!

Is there an album, which you haven’t worked on, that you’ve listened to and though ‘’Ah that would have sounded so much better if I’d have engineered / produced it’’?

Oh that’s not fair! I can’t answer that!  Yeah LOADS! But I’m not going to say anything ... [laughs] I would be critical of everything I ever hear to be honest, even if it’s done really really well, subjectively one would make different choices!   It’s inherently a subjective art form, and everyone’s work is different.  I can’t think of anything  I’ve listened to and thought that it’s perfect, but I’m sure people listen to my work and say exactly the same.  

Well if everything was perfect I suppose you’d never strive to create anything new or better ...

Well that’s right! It’s interesting, and talking to people I know who say the same thing – they’re their own worst critic and always feel that they could have done better, and that pushes you on. I really try to get better all the time. Even working on the new Floyd album, I was working with new techniques; because out of necessity I have to invent something, and then it becomes a really interesting area to explore and you can do new stuff that you’ve never done before. So I always try to keep learning, and I think I do!

You’ve been Nominated for 2 Grammys – is it important to you to have a recognised achievement like a Grammy, or is it enough to have been responsible for crafting a world recognised sound across Pink Floyds albums in the past 25 years?

Not really.  It’s nice, but to be honest, I really only have to answer to myself I think. Of course, other people’s opinions count, and inevitably we all have certain vanities, and enjoy it when people like what you do, but really it’s more about whether you can look at yourself in the mirror and know that you’ve maximised yourself and put the effort in. It’s certainly the way that I look at things now, and it really pushes me forwards to achieve things.

Is it testing to work with Pink Floyd?  Do you have conversations about the recordings before you begin? Do they come to you with a particular sound in mind, or do they let you have control?

It tends to be more talking about other things when we’re stopped really! People, with them, have always imbued it with a great sort of reason, even down to the most bizarre things like linking up ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ with ‘The Wizard Of Oz’ – people give it meaning that’s over and above what it actually has.   When it comes down to it it’s much more intuitive - the same as most people making music really. It’s not fundamentally that different to anyone else’s recording process I don’t think, but yeah, as far as control goes – particularly when it comes to mixing, I’ve worked with them for so long now, since 1981, I have got a pretty good idea what it’s supposed to sound like and that makes it a much easier process.

What’s the most fun – Pink Floyd or David Gilmour’s solo recordings?

It’s not really very different to be honest. There are different people involved, but at the core, you’re working with David. Whether it’s Floyd or his Solo thing – he’s the dominant factor in it. If you group together his 3 solo recordings and include ‘Momentary Lapse of Reason’ and ‘Division Bell’, I think ‘On an Island’ was probably his best work.

Any artist who you’d really love to work with?

They’re all dead! [Laughs]

So your next project is to invent a time machine!

Yeah exactly!   It would have been interesting to have been the industry maybe 10 years before I started in 1976. There would have been some really interesting stuff to be involved in but ... I make my own interesting stuff ... I hope!!