03.05.2012
Ewan Pearson on Beatportal
The English producer interviewed by Beatport's online magazine
We checked in with some of these producers and more, covering everything from the nuts and bolts of their studios, to their thoughts on the thorny issue of “ghost-writing.” We kick off the first round of questions with Berlin-based English gentleman Ewan Pearson: a techno DJ with a penchant for underground pop, a remixer extraordinaire (check out his recent Metronomy rework) who can also regularly be found at the controls for indie acts The Rapture, M83, Delphic and Tracey Thorn.
You’re primarily known as a DJ, remixer, and producer, but you’ve also had a string of releases under various aliases—like Maas, Sulky Pup, Villa America, and World Of Apples. Was it your intention to keep your own tracks separate?
I’ve always put out original records under some kind of alias—six or seven of them by now I think [counts in head]. Seven?—partly because it lets you be more playful and move around in different styles. The problem is that even if I wanted to make an original Ewan Pearson record, people would think it was me somehow stepping forward and presenting the real me, and I’m not sure I ever want to give that impression!
What proportion of time do you spend collaborating as opposed to working on your own material?
It’s pretty much all collaborative at this point—even remixes are collaborative in that I’m reacting to the material I’m given. The nice thing is that WAVs can’t answer back or disagree with what you do with them, though!
Can you tell us what is currently in your studio?
A Mac Pro running Pro Tools HD, Logic, and Ableton, Metric Halo interfaces, and a load of hardware synths and outboard effects, pedals, and stuff.
How would describe your own production signature?
I try not to have one! I try to make the records sound as much like the artist as possible. I have a personal fondness for big productions (too much Trevor Horn as a kid, I think), but I’m very happy making something which is just piano and vocal. It really depends on the record in question and what it needs. I’m happy to step in and add a chunk of my personality if required, and I think you can hear that in tracks like M83’s ”Couleurs,” which I created lots of the parts for, or Tracey Thorn’s “Swimming,” but I don’t try to transform anything for transformation’s sake.
Do you have any production heroes or a favorite piece of music that you aspire to?
Loads and loads: the aforementioned Trevor Horn and the productions from ZTT in the 1980s, so also people like Steve Lipson, Stephen Hague, and Julian Mendelsohn, who worked on the first couple of Pet Shop Boys albums, and then a lot of dance producers and remixers from that era, too, like Shep Pettibone and John Robie. I was formed—for better or worse—in the ‘80s. But as I’ve gotten older, that’s broadened. Tony Visconti, who made all those incredible David Bowie albums at the end of the ‘70s, Brian Eno, of course, for both his solo records like Before and After Science, and for his in constant re-thinking of process. Martin Hannett. Then there’s a guy called Tchad Blake, who’s a genius engineer and mixer who uses distortion and all sorts of techniques to make records which sound like no one else. For a long time, I refused to use reverb, and only used delays and tape effects to create spaces, because that’s what he did.
What is the one piece of equipment in your studio that has the most value to you?
Sentimentally, it might be the Roland SH-101 I’ve had since I was a teenager, but in reality it’s my Focal Twin 6 monitors. Your monitoring is the most vital part of your studio. It takes so long to get to know how speakers sound. I spend a lot of time in my room just listening to music, trying to learn the shapes others’ records make in my space.
What has been the biggest learning curve or problem you’ve had to overcome as a producer?
Mine is my lack of engineering training and recording experience. It still causes me enormous frustration that I’m dependent on engineers. I wish I had more knowledge when it comes to mic selection and placement and so forth. You only get that from experience—from lots and lots of experience. Recording drums and knowing how to tune them and prepare them for recording, and then how best to mic them… this is pretty hard and I hate not being able to do it myself; I hate not being able to do anything, really. I try to relax and let the people who are engineering—and I always work with really good, talented people—do their job, but I still get frustrated, and to a certain extent jealous! Perhaps that’s a bit too candid, but it’s how I feel. All the things I can do, I have learned to do, slowly and painfully over time. It is good to feel that you are continually improving, but there’s always such a long distance still to go.
And what about your proudest moment?
They are usually moments when something’s gone wrong or you’ve reached a problem that everyone thinks is intractable, or when someone is upset or out of sorts and you manage to bring things round and have a good day’s work, or get them in a position to do a really good performance. There have been a couple of moments like that, where I’ve finished the day pretty happy and think I might actually be able to do this job.
Are there any tracks that you’ve produced that you secretly wish you had kept for yourself?
No, never ever. Remixes and productions are dialectic—they only happen out of a reaction to and conversation with the work and talent of other people. If I had been working on my own, I would never have come up with that stuff.
In your own words, how do you describe the difference between producing for another artist and “ghost writing”?
I’ve never ghost written or made records for anyone else anonymously. The closest I’ve come is programming for Nellee Hooper on the Gwen Stefani solo album, but I was credited as one of the programmers, of course. Everything I’ve done has had my name on it, and conversely everything you see with my name on it was done by me, usually painstakingly over some time. I get people to help with engineering and sometimes mixing, but that’s it.
Read the full interview here.
Click here to sample the At The Controls: Ewan Pearson chart, featuring 10 tracks from his production discography.
