Why Hackney Road Studios’ Sean Woodlock won’t give up on analogue consoles in a digital world

Sean Woodlock – a UK record producer, mix engineer and co-founder of Hackney Road Studios – explains why his work sounds like a cross between Steve Albini and Nigel Godrich and delves into his love of analogue consoles in a digital world, including Hackney Road Studios’ very own Neve 66 console.

Hackney Road Studios is a state of the art recording studio in Hackney, London E2, where exceptional sound quality meets creativity. As a leading London-based studio, it is equipped with cutting-edge technology and caters to solo artists and bands.

How did you come to co-found Hackney Road Studios?

I was a runner for a while, and just as it sounds, I was running all around London, going from studio to studio, doing whatever was necessary or whatever task was needed. Luckily, that means you get to meet quite a few people. 

One of the people I met in those early years was this all around good guy called Steve Honest – Honest being his stage name. He was a fair bit older than I was, and he'd been very successful in the ‘80s and ‘90s. He had been one of Trevor Horn's crew and he'd worked with Eurythmics and Culture Club and that scene; he kind of knew it all. 

Luckily for me, he became my mentor. It wasn't deliberate, but I started to do some work at his studio, and for whatever reason, he suggested that he and I start a new studio, which became Hackney Road Studios. I guess he saw something in me! 

He encouraged me to get more involved than just being an engineer, took me under his wing and educated me a lot. He put me on some great sessions and slowly introduced me to the world of running and owning a studio to the point where, when he came to retirement, I completely took over.

What was the first engineering project you worked on at the studio?

I think it was recording Soft Cell’s lead singer, Marc Almond. We all know Soft Cell's version of Tainted Love, of course, but what I found fascinating about that, besides being somewhat nervous, is there's something about these singers who have sung records that we all know and love forever. 

They might not technically be the greatest of all singers, but they all have these fascinating voices that you recognise immediately. It's a pleasure to hear. That's what happened with Marc. He has a wonderful voice that we all know and love.

Of all the projects you’ve worked on, what is a personal highlight?

There's two, and they go in different directions. I'm very much an old school engineer type; one of the lessons I had learned from Steve that resonated with me, is that Steve – regardless of how many fantastic records or important records he may have worked on – he was happy to work with everybody, no matter what. 

So I've always worked in the same way. I'm just happy to be in the studio and I'm happy to help people with their music, so I work on a great deal of sessions. My catalogue is nearly a blur, because even within one day, I could be working on three projects and doing bits and pieces for lots of people. 

So I've worked with a huge amount of musicians and artists.

Still, there must be a few that really stand out…?

A particularly good engineering moment was when I got to work with Razorlight a few years ago. It was part of their venture into returning. They came to Hackney Road as part of testing the water for their return. Man! Just to be in the studio with those guys for a few days was wonderful. They're heroes from my youth, so that was a real treat – just getting to see them work. 

I was particularly blown away by their lead singer, Johnny, and the way in which he worked. It was quite intense. They took their work incredibly seriously. The day built and built over many hours, trying to get everything right. After hours of preparation and working at lyrics and arrangement, when the moment was right, he went in and smashed out two takes. He said, ‘Sean, can you please put it together however you see fit?’ – and just left. I was incredibly impressed with that.

From a production standpoint, after a few years of being in London, I met someone who became a great friend of mine, Clement, who is from the band, Tweed and Hyenas, and we started working together. I produced his first two albums, and that was a huge undertaking. 

I have the utmost respect for the man, for the band, for their music and the lyrics. I'm an incredibly big supporter and fan of their music, and having the privilege of working with them and producing their first two records was incredible.

Do you prefer engineering or producing?

I see engineering as a technical task. It's not that emotional for me. I'm just performing my job. It's a very technical role. As long as I do my job well and make everybody happy, it's a success, but I don't have to be too emotionally attached to the work. 

With production, that seems to be a little different. When it comes to producing, the relationship that you have with the work changes for me, and you're a lot more connected to it and involved with it. To some degree, it feels very personal. It nearly even feels like your own work.

You are one of the few to still mix on an analogue console. Why do you stand by this in an increasingly digital landscape?

I still work primarily only in the analogue domain. I try to stay away from computers as much as I can, which most people find incredibly surprising. For example, I still mix purely on an analogue console. A lot of people find that surprising. 

It's not that I have anything against computers, but there's something about the process that just doesn't resonate with me as much, so I'm hanging on. It's definitely helpful that I'm a studio owner. I'm hanging on for dear life to analogue equipment and an analogue recording console!

You say your approach is a cross between Steve Albini and Nigel Godrich. Albini was a big advocate of analogue recording, and Godrich has said that the recording process is best when it’s fast, because it's then the smallest obstacle to the actual music. How have these producers and engineers influenced your approach in the studio, particularly regarding a love of analogue consoles?

They've both been immense in my career path. Nigel, I'm lucky enough to have met a few times and hung out with a little bit, and that was pleasure. Unfortunately, I never got to meet Steve Albini before he passed. But I've taken so much from both of them, which is why I just outright say I'm a mix of the two. 

Nigel definitely loves analogue equipment, and pays particular attention to his favourite mics and compressors. Back in the day, he would record on tape a great deal. He has such a sound and imprint with some of the artists that he works with. 

You only have to look at some of the stuff he's done, like Radiohead’s The Bends, and then the stark difference between The Bends and OK Computer; the work he's done with Beck or Pavement…the list goes on and on. I really love his sonic world that he creates, and a lot of that has to do with his love of tape loops. 

The last record he did with Radiohead, A Moon Shaped Pool, is layered with tape loops, which I find beautiful and a wonderful approach to music to create these beds of tape loops. It’s the sonics that I love.

And Steve Albini?

It's a little different. It's less about the sonics. Most people, when they talk of Steve Albini, they reference the sound that he creates, and I appreciate that sound. It's not that I don't like it, but more what I take from Steve Albini is his love for the musicians and the art, and the distrust of record labels. 

From what I can tell, Steve considered himself purely a recording engineer and did not want to interfere with the musicians at all at any level. He wants to record it well, and that's it. He's not going to pay attention to takes or performances. What happens all the time in the studio is artists will inevitably ask you what you thought of a take, or which take you preferred. 

He wouldn’t be involved with that at all. There's something about that that I really respect. The varied catalogue of work that I have, I don't want them to sound like me. I do want each artist to have a unique and individual sound. For instance my favourite band is Radiohead, so I will inevitably make every artist just sound a little bit more like Radiohead. So I love that he did that.

It's his ethics that I love and I really respect. He often wouldn't be credited. He definitely wouldn’t take points or anything like that. I'm the same. If an artist wants to credit me, fine, but it's not something I will pursue or request or lose any sleep over. 

I loved his respect for music and his respect for artists. He seemed very…I don't want to say stubborn, but he had his opinions, and he was very sure about them. My mindset and will isn't as strong as he was! I can be nudged to give opinions from time to time, but I do respect the idea of, if the artist wants to come in with the worst guitar amp of all time, and that's their sound, then it's not my position to tell them that maybe they should use a fantastic Fender Twin amp, or this microphone that I have, because it's the best. 

I like the idea that he wouldn't get in the way of that process. I would rather work on projects where artists have a clear vision. My goal is to put my taste and ego to one side and purely help them try to achieve whatever it is that they want to achieve.

Hackney Road Studios’ Studio 2 is also known as the Neve Room, and is a go-to studio for producing, writing, mixing and mastering. At the heart of the studio is an iconic Neve 66 console, known for its legendary sound. As studio co-founder, did you personally choose the 66 console?

The Neve 66 is incredible. I don't want to say it’s unknown from the Neve catalogue, but it's definitely not one that most people talk about. The VR is incredibly popular, as is the 88RS – the real pinnacles of Neve consoles that everyone talks about and that everybody wants. 

The 66 is nearly an anomaly, but it is well thought of and comes from an era. It’s a well sought after desk, but it was built for a very specific task, which was broadcast. It's a little peculiar, being a broadcast desk. 

Mine in particular was designed purely for line level. It's an incredibly strange setup, but still has enough of a history and lineage from a great era of Neve consoles.

Given that this is a vintage console, do you know where this particular one came from?

We would have got this around 2012 through Funky Junk, and I think that they sourced it from BBC, Bristol.

What is it about the console that suits the way you work in general, especially considering the fact it was built for broadcast?

It was never designed as a recording console, so that's exactly why it ended up in our Studio 2, which is the smaller of our two studios. We don't really do band tracking in there. All that we do is vocal overdubs, guitar overdubs and mixing, and here's where it's worked incredibly well for me through the years. 

I'll do my band recording sessions, either in studio 1 at Hackney Road or elsewhere, and then I'll decamp with the band to Studio 2 where we can do simple things like vocal overdubs, producing, and then, of course, mixdown. 

For mixdown, I've found a really good system that suits my workflow by incorporating the Neve. Our particular version of the 66 is all stereo channels at line level. The method that was created by my mentor Steve, is that we have 12 stereo channels. 

We chuck all the stereo channels up to zero and then run stereo groups out of Pro Tools. Then you insert any outboard that you want. There are 12 great EQs on the desk, as well as four compressors.

We have a Neve 33609 that I've had for as long as I can remember, and that goes on every single mix that I do, and always has. From there, it goes to an outboard EQ. It's wonderful! My beef with computer mixing is I feel like I'm working incredibly hard to create a sound that the Neve console effortlessly gives me – it gives me so much colour and harmonics. 

If I push the level into the desk quite hard, I can dictate how much harmonics and how much drive I want to get. That's what I love about mixing on this console – the colour that it gives me and how much colour. It seems to do the bulk of the work for me. I try to do very little moving of the faders on this desk, which helps when clients inevitably want recalls. 

I can just reset everything to zero. The more I drive it, it also gives me some level of reduction in dynamic range, and the nature of summing makes my mix sound huge. It definitely adds width and depth, all without doing a single thing, just by testing ways or trying different approaches at how much signal I should push into the desk.

The studio runs The Record Producer Program, and part of that covers how to work on large format analogue consoles. Do you think large format consoles are an intimidating prospect to some these days?

They're very intimidating. They 100% are. I've been around them for so long now that I don't see that, and sometimes I'm blind to the fact that it could make a student or a young engineer intimidated. 

I've definitely been told enough times that they are, so hopefully one can break that down and break that barrier down and make young engineers and producers comfortable in and around recording consoles. 

Technically, they all do a very similar task, they all just have different approaches. So hopefully, as part of the course, we can make them feel comfortable around them.