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Romesh Dodangoda: Bringing It Home

Record producer and mixer Romesh Dodangoda has always had a soft spot for rock music, and has worked with an array of guitar-wielding bands including Funeral For A Friend, Bullet For My Valentine and Motorhead. He reflects on working on Bring Me The Horizon’s Grammy nominated album, Amo, and why his Genelecs have made themselves right at home at his Cardiff recording studio.

Dodangoda’s love of all things guitar music started when he heard Oasis as a boy. Picking up a guitar, he learnt as many of their songs as he could, and he’s never looked back:

“I had this obsession with getting the guitar sound I wanted to come out of the speakers, and once you go down that path of getting a bit nerdy with guitars, I think I just naturally fell into the studio side of things,” recalls Dodangoda, who joins Headliner on a Zoom call from his studio in a very drizzly Cardiff.

“I joined a band when I was younger and I always used to love going into the studio, and recording that stuff always fascinated me. The whole being in a band thing – I wasn't really bothered about.”

Determined to get into the studio side of things, Dodangoda set up his own studio on the side of his house and slowly built up his inventory of equipment.

“Whilst I was working out of that studio, there were some bands that came in and we did a few records together. The bands that I was working with started to do really well, and then people started calling me because they wanted me to work on their records. I think it was from there that I thought, ‘right, I'm gonna do something with this’.

"I would lock myself in the studio all day, so it was something that I loved anyway! It was around that time that I was starting to see the records that we were making actually connecting with people. I think that was probably what made me realise that it was going to be more than just playing around in the studio.”

Things really shifted up a gear when he worked on Kids in Glass Houses’ debut album, Smart Casual, which really resonated with fans and performed well in the charts.

“A lot of people loved it,” he says with a grin. “It was quite an exciting time in general because I’d be making a record with a band and there was another band just starting to blow up at the same time, so lots of things were happening at once. I think I probably tried to look like I was not intimidated by it,” he chuckles.

His CV only went from strength to strength, and his enviable back catalogue includes recording the Grammy nominated #1 album, Amo from Bring Me The Horizon, and he’s also worked with Funeral For A Friend, Bullet For My Valentine, Motorhead, Twin Atlantic, Monuments and Busted.

“I've always been about guitar-based bands,” he acknowledges after I reel off just some of his past guitar-wieding projects.

“I’m a guitarist, so that's always been something that's excited me. I love hearing big guitars on records, and I've always tried to do the two things that I love, because I can put a lot of myself into it then. Equally, there are times when I'm working on a project and it brings in an element of a genre that I don't work in, but that's also exciting for me because it allows me to be out of my comfort zone a bit.”

Dodangoda found himself in just such a situation when he was asked last minute to mix Busted’s Pigs Can Fly Tour 2016 live from Wembley DVD, which led to him mixing the Bring Me The Horizon - Live At The Royal Albert Hall DVD.

“I was in New Zealand doing a masterclass when I got the phone call to mix the Busted DVD, and they needed it back in 15 days,” he remembers. “

That was a hard one to organise, but I really love how that one turned out. The Bring Me The Horizon DVD was a massive challenge because it all depends on what they've got going on in the show. Sometimes a live show can be quite a simple thing, but Bring Me The Horizon was the band playing with a full orchestra and a choir, and I had to make all that sound big.”

I would lock myself in the studio all day, so it was something that I loved anyway!

Bring Me The Horizon’s 2019 album, Amo features the singles Mantra and Wonderful Life. It was met with critical acclaim and was later nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album.

“That was a really cool experience,” Dodangoda smiles. “We went to Los Angeles for two months at Sphere Studios L.A. and it was great to have a lot of time to spend working on it – we didn't work on the whole record – we broke it down and did a batch of three or four songs of drums and then we'd move into another studio.

"I thought it'd be cool to switch studios every so often so you’re not staring at the same walls for two months. We did all the drums on a Neve console and then did all the guitars and overdubs on an SSL. It was a fun time working with the band; they’re all really nice. And it was nice to be in the sunshine for two months!”

On the Grammy nomination, Dodangoda is nothing but humble – in fact, he’s still pinching himself:

“It was unbelievable. I couldn't believe it! It’s one of those life tick boxes, isn't it? To have anything that you've been involved with recognised at that level...it was amazing. I went out to the Grammys as well, which was a wicked experience, so it was a huge, huge deal for me.”

Long Wave Recording Studio is Dodangoda’s production studio in Cardiff, which boasts a large collection of vintage and modern high end equipment, which wouldn’t be complete without his Genelec 8351B monitors and 7360A sub.

“The studio is a continuation from when I had it in my house,” he says.

“I've been there for over 10 years now so it’s my private studio, and that kind of setup is exactly how I like it. I do travel around other studios as well, which is great, and I love doing that when I can. But it's also great having a place that you own that you can walk into and you haven't got to start rewiring the interfaces or anything; everything just works how you want it to.”

He invested in Genelec’s 8351Bs and 7360A fairly recently, after being blown away by them at The Ones launch:

“I’ve always used NS10s,” he admits, “and using Genelec started off because I needed a reliable sub for the studio. We put a 7360A into my B room, which is my mix room. I was so blown away by The Ones – just the level of detail! So after that we put a set of 8351Bs and a 7360A sub in there as well.”

For Dodangoda, it’s key that he has a monitor that he’s not fighting against:

“It needs to be enjoyable to listen to, but it's also not lying or giving me false information,” he explains. “One thing I’ve found about the 8351Bs is that they're just so revealing – they show me a far bigger picture of what's going on as soon as I switch to them.

"All this high frequency detail pops out that I just wasn't hearing before. I still use the NS10s, but they only tell you so much. After hearing the 8351Bs, it was a no brainer for me really!”