20 Questions With Tucker Martine
Tucker Martine has been producing, recording, and mixing artists like REM, My Morning Jacket, and Modest Mouse for over two decades. He currently owns and operates Flora Recording & Playback in Portland, Oregon.
We recently sat down with Tucker and chatted for our ongoing 20 Questions series. Read on to learn more about his favorite EQs, his approach to producing, and his idea for a killer new guitar pedal.
1. How did you get started making records?
Basically, I started playing drums in bands in fifth grade and a couple years later I discovered the cassette four-track, like so many people. I loved messing around with it and making songs with my friends. And also recording my bands' rehearsals so we could listen back and figure out how to be a better band. Then I got interested in how to make those recordings better. It was a lot of late nights as a teen screwing around on a four-track.
I also accompanied my father sometimes to demo sessions in Nashville where I grew up. He’s a songwriter and, sometimes when I was young, there was no one else to watch the kids, so I wound up at those sessions with him. The studio always struck me as some kind of magical place and even though I didn’t always fully grasp the extent of what was going on, I knew it was a place I liked to be. I felt how special it was just to be there.
Then after I moved out of the house after high school graduation, I was working in restaurants and I would buy one little piece of gear at a time. Sennheiser MD421s were the first microphones I bought because I heard they were great on drums and guitar amps, and you could sing into them. They were affordable and they looked cool.
Then when I moved to Seattle at the end of 1992, I started recording people for free on my four-track Teac reel-to-reel tape machine. It was strictly a hobby at that point. I think my dream was to find a band as a drummer, but while that wasn’t happening I was getting better at recording and more and more people were asking me to do it and I was starting to get a little bit more gear.
Eventually, my recording schedule started to conflict with my restaurant and bar working schedule, so I just tapered down and haven’t looked back since. It's been 23 years since I’ve had another job… Knock on wood.
2. You have credits producing, recording, and mixing, but which is your favorite?
I really like it when they all blur together and it feels like everyone puts egos aside for the sake of whatever will make the best record. I feel satisfied if at the end of the day we’ve captured something that feels special. If we get there by me being really hands-on as a producer, that’s fine. If we get there because I think the artist has a really clear vision and I try to facilitate that in as unobtrusive a way as possible, that's just as satisfying.
My favorite thing to do is to see a project from beginning to end. I messed around with producing without engineering, but missed the tactile experience of having my hands on things. It's easier to get what you’re hearing by doing it, rather than explaining it to someone. But I also love to be surprised and hear other engineers' take on something that maybe I wouldn’t do, but I still think it sounds really cool.
This is an excerpt from an interview originally posted on Vintage King. Read the full interview here!
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