NEW ADVENTURES IN HI-FI
Guitar Player|February 2022
Armed with a Rickenbacker and a Fender Twin, Peter Buck helped R.E.M. put alternative rock on the map. Producer Mitch Easter reveals the genius behind the jangle pop.
JOE BOSSO
NEW ADVENTURES IN HI-FI

Before it was alternative rock, it was post-punk, and before that it was garage rock. For a brief period in the early ’80s, however, the preferred nomenclature was college rock, and the undisputed kings of the scene were R.E.M.

“Sometimes terms can be such funny things,” says Mitch Easter, the North Carolina–based producer and musician who guided the sessions for R.E.M.’s first four recordings. “College rock — we never took that one seriously. We just thought, Oh, college stations are playing the music? That’s good. It wasn’t something we really bothered ourselves with.”

By 1980, Easter was already something of a happening music figure in and around his hometown of Winston-Salem. He had played guitar in a number of local bands, some of them featuring his childhood pal Chris Stamey, who would go on to achieve indie success as a member of the dB’s and as a solo performer. That same year, Easter eyed a move into production, so he converted his parents’ garage into a small recording space and dubbed it the Drive-In Studio, offering super-low rates as an enticement to young talent.

“I had 16 tracks,” Easter recalls. “It was the beginning of the indie studio scene, and a lot of small places only had eight tracks, which is perfectly legit. But I wanted to leapfrog that and go into what I considered to be big-time pro recording. We had a simple console, a handful of microphones and two compressors, and I also had a two-inch 3M tape machine from a studio in Atlanta. The Drive-In was pretty new when R.E.M. came in. I had recorded three or four bands there by then, but I was still puttering around and getting it figured out.”

この記事は Guitar Player の February 2022 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

この記事は Guitar Player の February 2022 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

GUITAR PLAYERのその他の記事すべて表示
How I Wrote..."Year of the Cat"
Guitar Player

How I Wrote..."Year of the Cat"

AI Stewart reflects on his beguiling hit, some 10 years in the making.

time-read
3 分  |
December 2024
UAFX
Guitar Player

UAFX

Teletronix LA-2A Studio Compressor

time-read
2 分  |
December 2024
LINE 6
Guitar Player

LINE 6

POD Express

time-read
2 分  |
December 2024
MAN OF STEEL
Guitar Player

MAN OF STEEL

He brought the Dobro to centerstage with his dazzling talent. As he drops his first album in seven years, Jerry Douglas reflects on his gear, career and induction in the Bluegrass Hall of Fame.

time-read
8 分  |
December 2024
HIGH TIME
Guitar Player

HIGH TIME

The new MC5 album took more than 50 years to arrive. The band members have all passed on, but the celebration is just beginning.

time-read
10+ 分  |
December 2024
58 YEARS OF GUITAR PLAYER
Guitar Player

58 YEARS OF GUITAR PLAYER

As Guitar Player moves full-time to its online home, we look back at some of its greatest stories in print.

time-read
5 分  |
December 2024
DRAGON TALES
Guitar Player

DRAGON TALES

In a Guitar Player exclusive, Jimmy Page sheds light on the amplifiers behind his Led Zeppelin tone and how they live again in his line of Sundragon signature amps.

time-read
10+ 分  |
December 2024
CLOSER TO HOME
Guitar Player

CLOSER TO HOME

Rehearsal space, studio, vessel and abode Diego Garcia's boat is the home base for his new album, as well as his musical life as the seafaring Spanish guitarist Twanguero.

time-read
6 分  |
December 2024
Funk Noir
Guitar Player

Funk Noir

With The Black Album, Prince made his greatest-and most infamousmusical statement.

time-read
2 分  |
December 2024
Medium Cool
Guitar Player

Medium Cool

Striking the middle ground between its Thinline brethren, Gibson's ES-345TD remains a versatile, if underrated, gem.

time-read
4 分  |
December 2024