Ethan Johns’ “The Reckoning”: Why Ryan Adams Produced, and the Studio Instincts of Glyn Johns

When the producer is the artist, who produces that producer?

Ethan Johns beckons anew with “The Reckoning”.

In the case of singer/songwriter and Grammy-nominated producer Ethan Johns, the person he picked to supervise his second solo album is his longtime collaborator Ryan Adams. The result of this critical decision speaks for itself: The Reckoning is an utterly unique record that grabs you instantly, and doesn’t let go for a second.

A newly-released 10-track LP, The Reckoning is a beautifully spare work, one where deft storytelling, Johns’ baritone vocals, and perfectly-crafted acoustic guitar unfold in detail from start to finish. (You can hear the whole album here — just scroll down).

It’s a soul-searching concept album where Americana and progressive sensibilities somehow seamlessly converge: The Reckoning recounts the travels of a fictional character, Thomas Younger, as he pursues a wayward older brother, James, across the Atlantic Ocean and on to the expansive Western frontier of 1850s America.

The core tracks of The Reckoning were recorded at Adams’ Pax-Am studio in Los Angeles over the course of a single weekend. Not a surprising timeframe, when you consider the connection between the two participants – Johns has produced four albums for Adams, including Pneumonia by Whiskeytown (Adams’ previous band) in 1998, then his solo records starting with Heartbreaker (2000), Gold (2001), and 29 (2005).

Ethan Johns has some other outstanding production clients on his list as well, including Ray LaMontagne, Laura Marling, Kings of Leon, Joe Cocker, Tom Jones and Paul McCartney.

Not to mention that Ethan Johns learned his way around the studio from the best in the business – literally. His father is Glyn Johns, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame–producer/engineer whose skills were vital to some of the greatest records of all time, by artists including the Steve Miller band, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Humble Pie, the Eagles, the Who, Eric Clapton, Joe Satriani, and Ryan Adams (like son, like father).

How does all this chemistry and DNA affect The Reckoning? Listening to this essential record is the direct route to the heart of it, but you also best read the interview below – Ethan Johns shares insights to successful studio outcomes that no artist, producer, or engineer should miss.

In both “The Reckoning” and “If Not Now Then When” you seem focused on doing more with less, musically. Not everyone succeeds at that. What’s the trick to getting that right?

That’s a really good question! It’s a very difficult one to answer (laughs). I think primarily what it comes down to is how you construct the accompaniment.

You look at the guitar arrangement, for example, and the more you can do with that one instrument, obviously the less work you leave for the sonic picture if you want to create an open presentation of the tune.

It really comes down to how much ground you can cover with as few instruments as you can. You may wind up working with a bass line to play the melody at some points, and a rhythmic role at certain points. The same with guitar, it can work counterpoint into the song, as well as just covering some chords.

So it’s about maximizing what the instrumentation is doing. That leaves less work for other things.

Why does a producer need a producer?

For me personally, I find it very difficult to judge my own performances when I’m in a recording situation. It’s very difficult for any artist to have the kind of perspective that I think is important.

The role of the producer is such a broad title. It really can be so many different things. For me, having a producer present just means that all I have to really focus on is singing the song as well as I can, and delivering a performance. It’s beneficial to have someone you trust in the room helping you to make decisions about what you’re doing as a performer. Every artist is different, but for me that’s difficult.

I really enjoy making records, I really enjoy playing live, but I find it hard to listen to what I’m doing with any kind perspective. That’s why it’s really important for me to have someone I trust responding and reacting to what I’m doing.

Johns brought Ryan Adams onboard for a reason.

This record strikes a balance between Americana, new classical and somehow progressive. What made Ryan Adams the right producer to help you achieve the sound you were seeking for “The Reckoning”?

Ryan is a very interesting person. He has tremendous commitment with his opinions, and he has a very direct line to his a group emotional response to what he’s hearing.

It was important to me that this record was emotionally vibrant, if you like. Ryan is an incredible listener – he processes stuff very quickly, and he’s very astute. His ability to input a lot of information at once is quite astounding, really.

The proof to me was in the result. Record we made is very alive, very human, and he helped set up the situation where the atmosphere was there for the performances to represent themselves. He recognized them as they came. I feel like I’m rambling a little bit here – I hope you understand what I’m saying!

How does it affect not just the writing, but the recording when you are making a concept album that tells one story? Does this change the way you approach the tracking and mixing?

We tracked it in sequence, so the story was told in a linear way, which I think helps the performance.

I hate to throw around words like “the arc”, which might sound a little pretentious, but from the minute I walked through the door, I was looking at this record as a complete thing from beginning to end. The way we approached it was that we knew the story had already been laid out, and there was a beginning, middle, and end, and we worked on in order. That helps you make decisions about atmospheric things.

You’d have to talk to Ryan to see if it affected how he fleshed things out. I think just the fact that we recorded it in sequence had an effect on how he responded to what he was hearing. We responded to those performances very quickly: we recorded the whole album in one evening, with just the last two songs on the second day. He got the whole order in one hit.

You recorded the vocals and guitar for “The Reckoning” in just two days. When is that the right way to record a record? When is it NOT?

I don’t think you can ever see it coming – you can’t really plan for that kind of stuff. I think you walk in the door pretty open to following the inspiration when it comes.

I don’t like walking into the studio with the definitive plan, like, “We must achieve this in the first day.” You’re there to work, but I don’t want ever to put the pressure on myself or the creative situation to get a result in a certain timeframe.

You know how much time you have to work on a record, but if the stars align and you’re on a roll, and it’s happening, then that’s fantastic.

And sometimes it’s just going to take a while for the feeling in the room to get the sound right. You might have to move around, set up somewhere else, try different microphones… You can spend a few hours just getting the capturing right, or you might hit it the first time.

You never know. There’s been sessions I spent six or seven hours getting the sound right, or you can walk in the door and the first thing you do is the master. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, really.

What was the signal path for your vocal? It sounds extremely present.

“The Reckoning” was released in the US on August 12th.

(Laughs) I have no idea! It wasn’t my problem. It wasn’t my job. I know he used a Neumann U 47, a nice tube mic. On the guitar it was a U 67. I’m pretty sure the mic pre-was a Universal Audio – the old ones are terrific. I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that there may have been a Fairchild involved.

Isn’t that funny? I couldn’t definitively tell you. I walked into the control room, and that was all I needed to know.

What kind of role did the mixing process have in “The Reckoning”? Was it strictly used to portray what the mics captured, or were there subtle creativities that took place?

I wasn’t there when the record was mixed. I’m pretty sure there were some rough mixes that made it onto the album – that would been a representation that it was done well.

It was recorded analog, and never saw digital at any point. It’s all tracked to tape, mixed on tape. So if you buy a copy on LP it’s Analog-Analog-Analog.

I know they worked fast. I don’t think they ever spent more than a couple of hours on the mix of any one song. “The Reckoning” was mixed at Ryan’s studio, where he’s got a vintage API. He’s got a great little studio – it’s lovely, and he’s bought some really nice gear.

Recording is in your DNA. What do you carry into the studio that you got from Glyn Johns?

(Whistles) Holy cow, now this is a conversation we could have all day! To sum that up concisely is really tricky.

I’ll just go with my instinct – and interestingly enough, that’s pretty much what he taught me. I learned a lot from Glyn, obviously – ostensibly I apprenticed to him. I learned how to do it (audio engineering) from him. What I learned is that it’s common sense, and kind of realizing that it is a lot simpler than you might think.

If you pay attention and you use your ears, then it’s a very simple job. If you understand from experience how a microphone sounds, and you use your ears and you use your instincts, then the first thing to do when you’re making a recording is you walk into a room and you listen to what you’re going to record.

That goes for anything: vocals, drums, to acoustic guitars. Before you think about what microphone you’re going to use, walk into the room and just listen.

Then ask yourself, “Do I like the source tone?” If the answer to that is “no,” stop right there. There’s no amount of tweaking or fiddling or anything else that’s going to save your ass.

If the answer is “yes,” the second question is how best to capture that sound: If you know the sonic qualities of the mics that you’re using, then it should be as simple as putting the microphone in place, and pushing the fader up.

— David Weiss

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