Collective
Soul had the biggest charting radio since “Stairway to Heaven”
with their first single “Shine.” They were getting calls
to do songs for movie soundtracks while they were working on their
second album. They had just finished “Gel” for the Jerky
Boys Movie before going on tour with Aerosmith in ’94. While
on the road, they got a call to do another song for a film and had
four days off around the Reno show so they recorded “To Where
the Water Flows” when they were here. Many have said that
the song is written about the Truckee River which flows thru Reno.
Sadly, that’s not true. Ed Roland had the song most done before
setting foot in town.
The
song was produced by Matt Serletic, who’s gone on to do Matchbox
20 and Courtney Love. It was the first session with Pro Tools I
got to see. Back then, Pro Tools did do very many internal voices
so my boss Bjorn and Matt were doing crazy things like syncing multiple
Pro Tools systems together. It was also the first time we had used
a 2” 16-track head stack on the Studer tape machine, compared
to the usual 24. The extra real estate did have an amazing sound
and booty!
What
floored me was that they cut the drums with Shane and they were
great! Then they took the tracks into Pro Tools, took one bar of
the verse groove and copied it for the whole verse, and then did
the same in the chorus. The fills were the only things they kept
from the original performance. Shane came in and said, “Hey
if you’re not happy with the part, I’d have no problem
playing it again.” Matt told him it was no problem and that
became the utterly perfect drum track. That has become commonplace
in the modern day dehumanization and over-Pro Tooling of recorded
material. I had no idea what I had seen the beginning of.
When
drums were done, it was show night. I got to drive the guys to the
show from the studio in my van. Amazingly enough, “Shine”
came on the radio while we were driving to Lawlor. I asked Ed Roland
how that felt. He said, “It’s weird since that was basically
the demo that got released. We had always thought we would have
a chance to redo it if we got signed, but they released it as is!”
The
show was cool and the sound was surprising good for Lawlor. After
their set, I went back stage to collect them for the ride back to
the studio. Before they were ready to go, I was pushed to a corner
by security as Aerosmith was making their way to the stage. I was
five feet from them. If it were ten years prior, I would have been
having kittens right then! They took the stage at a deafening volume
and I took the guys back to the studio for bass overdubs.
Next
morning, we started guitars and Ed was experimenting with a drop
tuning so low that he couldn’t keep the strings in tune unless
he held it absolutely perfect no matter how often they tech intonated
the guitar. When it was on it was great! The engineer, Greg Archilla,
showed me a micing technique for the guitar with a 57 and a 421
on the cabinet and an 87 as a room mic. It was great; heavy, but
with a good space. They wanted to add a third accent guitar part
so we all ended up over-distorting the channel to get a Nine Inch
Nails sound that was most unprecedented for Collective Soul, but
perfect.
After
the many layers of guitars, we started the vocals in our little
pseudo booth of baffles. He used our U67 with the Steven Paul mod.
It was very interesting to watch Ed and Matt working off of each
other. They were dreaming up very cool parts as they went. They
are a great team. It took quite a while, but it was fascinating
to watch.
On
the last day, the engineer, Greg, bought a pair of KRK 7000B near
field monitors from Starsound Audio to do the rough mix. We couldn’t
believe how good they sounded for the price. The mix he put together
was tough! I thought it was killer. When I heard the final mix from
Bob Clearmountain, I was very disappointed. I still have the rough
and love it to this day. Good job, Greg.
The
last night, we had dinner up at the landing of the studio at a huge
table. I think it may have been the final gig for our long time
chef, Karen. Karen’s specialties were Cheesecakes. She had
25 or so. That night, she brought a caramel and chocolate cheesecake
that just put us away! I said as I took my last bite, “Ah,
practice random acts of decadence!” I was smiling from ear
to ear. The whole table went quiet. I just looked across the table
to Ed who was clearly trying to process what I had just said. They’re
all from the South and just didn’t catch my train of thought
very often.
I tried
to explain the relevance of the joke and he simply grinned and said
with the most charming southern accent, “Sometimes you just
say the strangest things, Tom.” I kept my mouth shut after
that.
Well,
the movie never came out so the song just ended up on their next
record. At the time of the release, they discovered some ugliness
with their former management and had just switched to a new company.
Unfortunately, they had no opportunity to see the artwork before
it went to press so I didn’t get credit. I was very mad, seeing
how we got along so well.
Six
months later, they did a headline tour of their own and played the
Pioneer Theater here. I got to go to sound check. Ed saw me and
came up to me at the sound desk and GROVELLED! He knew immediately
what had happened and spent five minutes apologizing. That night
at the show, he dedicated “To Where the River Flows”
to me! (He more than made up for the lack of credit on the album.)
After the show, two friends and I went backstage and Ed and the
guys were just great with them. Very cool. He had just found out
that day that the record had gone platinum and promised me a plaque
for missing the credit.
A year
and a half went by and no plaque. But they did a new album. My friend
India and I went to see them at the Crest Theater in Sacramento.
When Ed saw me in the crowd, he cracked a smile that nearly split
his face in half! Before counting off the first encore he stopped
the band, came over to me in the crowd, shook my hand, went back
and announced to the crowd, “My friend 2TALTOM is here from
Reno! He worked on our last album and didn’t get credit so
this song is for him.” I couldn’t believe it.
I hung
back stage again after that show. I thanked them for the props and
inquired about the plaque. Suffice it to say, I never got one from
them. But I have to say that all of those guys are just sweethearts
who know how to make the people around them feel good. Some years
later, I got my own plaque and I’m fine with that. That album
sold over 3 million. If you get a chance to see them, do so. They’re
great.
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