John Agnello walks the line between major label producer and indie band herder. Having worked on two of the biggest indie releases of 2009, he realises his role as an engineer and producer can mean many things. Dinosaur Jr’s new album Farm and Sonic Youth’s latest, The Eternal, showcase the diversity of his craft while encompassing the core elements he learned watching top engineers work during his days at NYC’s legendary Record Plant.

Agnello cut his teeth putting in long hours at the Record Plant, working with engineers in the mid 80s on albums from big rock and pop artists such as Cyndi Lauper, Meatloaf, Aerosmith, Bruce Springsteen and Kiss. “I was very fortunate to be in rooms all day with people who really knew what they were doing and through osmosis I learned my engineering craft,” he explains.

In the early ‘90s Agnello met Dinosaur Jr frontman J Mascis through a ‘young and hip’ A&R rep who was trying to court the band to Columbia Records. Although Mascis never signed to Columbia, Agnello was eventually contacted to work on the band’s album Where You Been and has worked on almost all of his recordings ever since.

“When we first joined forces, I was able to get guitar and snare drum sounds down the way he wanted them really easily and that was his major focus for the songs. We got along well in the studio and I put up with a lot of his craziness.”

When working on the critically acclaimed album Farm, Agnello found himself returning to old methods learned at the Record Plant, as an API monitor section plucked out of an old 70s console became an integral part of the recordings. He explains: “The monitor section we used comprised 32 inputs with little faders, four sends, four cues with solo in place, pre and post on the cues and sends and no eq or mic pres. We ran everything through it. It has those really great op-amps and the API character, so it sounds wonderful.

“I remember working at the Record Plant with Jimmy Lovine – he would do rough mixes for the record label off the juke box because it sounded much bigger, so even back then people thought those monitor sections had a bigger and much cleaner sound.

console bugaboos
“It is common sense because my bugaboo with the new consoles is – and I love Neve consoles – that with the new 88Rs, once you add so many amplifiers and set up and step down amps into your signal path, it really changes the sound. When you record your entire record on Pro Tools and one of those consoles it sounds on record like it sounds in the studio.

“Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t sound horrible, but when you compare the sound it really is different. Part of my credo as an engineer to this day is that people hire me to make the best sounding record that I can and I strive to do just that. I use tape and the specific gear that will work and sound the best. I don’t believe in saying, ‘SSL is very convenient so let me just mix the record with that’. I don’t like how those consoles sound, so I don’t use them.”

Farm was recorded in J Mascis’ studio in Amherst, Massachusetts. The gear chosen for the space was mostly formed around pieces that Agnello used for past sessions.

“Back in 93 I would roll in all my gear and Mascis saw all the API graphics and mic pres and the Neve compressors and really liked the sound I got,” he enthuses. “Later on I got my hands on Dakings compressors and started working with a lot of things we had used in the past. He really loved the API 560s because he likes to eq the snare drum and push the blue slider, which is the 1k fader. He would laugh and say, ‘give me more blue slider’. He also has some Neve 1073s, vintage Neve and Telefunken V72s mic pres. He is really into running his guitars through some of the new Chandler gear and uses tons of monster cable equipment, so he uses a bit of new and older gear.”

loud and in your face
The key to the immense guitar sound on Dinosaur Jr’s albums is not layers of guitars as one would assume, but rather, Agnello cranks the tracks through Daking equalisers. “We hit the bus pretty hard,” he comments. “All those things add up to the records being very in your face and very loud, but not crazy, distorted loud like a Metallica record, more like Neil Young loud.”
Although these seemingly unconventional methods might disturb some of Agnello’s Record Plant mentors, he feels that it’s what sounds best for the style of music.

“Slamming the stereo bus would upset some people. If they actually knew it was too much compression they wouldn’t like it, but since they don’t, they just think it sounds great. I have had a lot of people ask me to pull it back because they don’t like the sound of compression. That happens too, but it will never happen on Dinosaur Jr records – we both just like that sound. It enables Mascis to put down two guitar tracks and make it sound huge, as opposed to, say, the Smashing Pumpkins, who will put down 30 tracks of guitars, take a year to record and it doesn’t sound clean.”

sonic engineering
Agnello’s role during the Dinosaur Jr sessions was more in the set up and mixing of the songs, while he was involved in Sonic Youth’s latest album from start to finish.

“For Sonic Youth I am there 100 per cent of the time, co-producing the records. I worked with Thurstson, Lee and Kim on vocals and gave opinions and ideas. They wanted to keep The Eternal fresh, so they learned the songs and recorded them on the spot, which was cool as we got first and second takes.

“My role varies on every record I work on, but with Sonic Youth I don’t talk about re-arranging songs with Thurston Moore, because there is no point and the same goes for Dinosaur Jr. I have gone past just being the engineering guy on some records, but I’m sure the guys who engineer for Bob Dylan don’t walk into the studio and say, ‘Hey Bob, that verse is a little long’. At a certain point you need to let the guys who have been doing it forever do their thing.

“I work with a lot of people who need a lot of different kinds of help. For instance, Sonic Youth needed me to herd everybody into a situation where I could get everyone to work when they were available. We had a deadline to deliver the record and I had to get people to promise to give me the time they needed to get all their overdubs done and deliver it on time. They are all very busy, so it was like herding cats. The point is that is what you have to do. Everyone needs different things and I am there to provide anything needed to get the job done.”
www.johnagnello.com