Inside Track: Coldplay ‘Hymn For The Weekend’

Article Preview :: Secrets Of The Mix Engineers: Rik Simpson

Published in SOS March 2016

 

 

Rik Simpson in the control room at Coldplay’s The Beehive studio.Photo: Richard Ecclestone

 

Coldplay’s unlikely alliance with R&B hitmakers Stargate resulted in a truly trans–Atlantic production, which saw co–producer Rik Simpson clocking up plenty of air miles!

 

Paul Tingen

 

With over 75 million record sales worldwide, eight Brit Awards and seven Grammies, Coldplay are arguably the most popular rock band of the 21st Century. They have achieved this impressive feat through a series of panoramic, multi–coloured album productions, made with the help of well–known producers including Ken Nelson, Markus Dravs, Brian Eno, Paul Epworth and Stargate. The unsung and often overlooked hero in this context is Rik Simpson, who has worked with Coldplay as an engineer since the band’s second studio album, A Rush Of Blood To The Head (2002). Simpson, who sometimes uses the pseudonym Rikademus, has also co–produced every Coldplay album since Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends (2008).

 

The band’s seventh and latest studio effort is A Head Full Of Dreams, which again has been extremely successful, despite missing out narrowly on the UK and US top spots to Adele’s 25. A Head Full Of Dreams was co–produced by Simpson with Norwegian duo Stargate, who share an arrangement credit on the album with the band as well. Mikkel Eriksen and Tor Hermansen (interviewed back in SOS May 2010) are experts in pop/R&B, and have (co-)written and (co-)produced dozens of hits for the likes of Beyoncé, Rihanna, Katy Perry and more.

 

Since Simpson starting working with Coldplay in 2002, his role has gradually extended to the point where he has become an integral cog in the Coldplay machine. Simpson helped to set up both of the band’s two North London studios, The Bakery and The Beehive, and in addition to being co–producer, he also co–engineered and mixed most of A Head Full Of Dreams. Simpson is therefore better placed than anyone to lift the veil on the creative workings of Coldplay.

 

Bakery To Beehive

“I started working in studios in my mid–teens, at Swanyard Studios in Islington [North London]. I’m also a singer/guitarist and played in a couple of bands, and we had some deals on the table, but nothing took off. So I continued with engineering and production, because I found it very rewarding, and also got more and more involved in playing synths and using DAWs as instruments. Over time the whole studio thing became a band–with–one–man–and–a–computer affair. After Swanyard I worked at Eden Studios [West London], and then I became chief engineer at Mayfair Studios [North London]. I was working with some great artists there [like Kasabian and Marianne Faithful] and it provided me with a springboard for going freelance.

 

“I first worked with the Coldplay guys helping them record some demos for their second album. We got on really well, so I stayed when the actual recording started. On completion of that record they asked me to go on tour with them for a bit as a tech. After two months I realised touring wasn’t for me — I heard the call of the studio. They were really understanding, and I continued working as a freelance engineer and producer with the likes of PJ Harvey and Portishead. A few years later I worked with Chris [Martin, Coldplay’s singer, keyboardist and main songwriter] again. We wrote a song for Jamelia and did some production for Jay–Z. In 2007, Chris asked me if I was interested in helping the band build a studio, and this became The Bakery. I engineered and co–produced Viva La Vida there. Following this [Coldplay bassist] Guy Berryman and I also began the production duo The Darktones.

 

“Over time, Coldplay outgrew The Bakery. It’s quite small and pokey, and has their management offices above it. It was good for overdubs, but it was hard to do full band recordings, even though we did do some. So when a church/village hall across the road became available a few years later, we built The Beehive there. It’s a much bigger space and I can record the entire band quite comfortably here. We’re all in the same room together, which is brilliant for communication. With modern technology I’m not too worried about noise floors or processing on the way in. As long as I have the right levels on the mic pres I’m much more focused on capturing a vibe and the heart of the song. Good communication is part of that.”

 

The tracking process for many of the songs on the album began with the band playing together in The Beehive’s capacious live room.

 

Sowing The Seeds

Today, The Bakery is still used for programming, editing and overdubs, mainly of guitars. Although the studio remains “fully functional, most of the best gear was brought to The Beehive,” says Simpson. The latter is a full–blown 21st–century facility, with a Pro Tools HD system, a Slate Raven MTi touchscreen controller, a couple of racks full of outboard gear, and an SSL Matrix rather than a traditional studio console.

 

“My main monitors here are Barefoot MicroMain 27s and Augspurger Duo 8 Mini Mains. I discovered Augspurgers in the States. My favourite rooms there have them as main monitors, and they have that vintage American sound. There’s nothing over–hyped, no big smiley curve, but a lot of detail in the mid range. I then heard these smaller Augspurgers, and they are amazing.

 

“When I’m recording I’ll sum my outputs through our SSL Matrix console, but during mixing I’ll go in–the–box with hardware inserts and use my Raven MTi touchscreen for fader control. I’d love to use big desks again, but today you need to be able to open a session with everything coming up instantly exactly as you left it. You can’t spend 20 minutes on getting a monitor mix up any more.

 

“As for the gear racks, I have a whole load of 500–series preamps, and quite a bit of Thermionic Culture stuff like the Earlybird, the Culture Vulture and the Phoenix. I love their stuff: it imparts an analogue character that plug–ins have difficulty emulating. I also have gear by Neve and Helios, UA-610 mic pres, API 3124s, the Vertigo VSM2, GML EQ, the Alan Smart C2, an old LA2A, Distressors, an Eventide H8000, and so on. Plus I have my many modular synths here, by Mutable Instruments, Make Noise, Moog, Verbos, Monome, Audio Damage, Tiptop Audio and Qu Bit. They allow us to get away from the digital side of things.

 

“Plug–ins and soft synths are amazing, but they only go so far.

Rik Simpson has built up several large modular synth systems, all of which saw good use in the making of A Head Full Of Dreams.

Using modular synths — or indeed any real instrument — is one way of getting something that sounds unique and alive. When you create a sound with them you can never do it again, it’s gone. They are temperamental and organic and chaotic, and I like that. Just make sure you’re always in record! Playing things with one’s hands is what touches people. That’s where the emotion of music is. It’s very easy for us tech–heads to forget that.

 

“Even a crappily recorded piano and vocal can make people feel something. When we create these big productions, we try to embellish an initial seed, but that initial seed is what it’s all about, and you don’t want to overdo it and lose that. Chris is exceptionally talented and his musical seeds are amazing. You let the band breathe and live with the seed and let it grow as they bring their own personalities to it, and my job as a producer is not to fuck it up. The knack is not going down the wrong path, and to help the song be what it wants to be and still retain freshness and beauty. What you don’t do is often more important than what you do.”

 

Magic Moments

Some of the ‘seeds’ that would become A Head Full Of Dreams required plenty of nurturing from Simpson and the band. “The guys only did a very short tour to promote the previous album, Ghost Stories, because it was such an intimate record. We started

 

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sos

has some really interesting insights to the recording process. if someone can find the full article, that would be great.

Wow very technical but very interesting!

Wow very technical but very interesting!

I agree! Great behind-the-scenes stuff!

 

naww that christmas tree! :3

 

Do you have to pay to read this article? If not, I'm gonna create a fake account :awesome:

Love us some Rik!