“it is easy to get tied up in something because it sounds good. but if it sounds good it doesn’t necessarily mean that it compliments the song.”

So when did your Hall of Justice recording studio start up?

Funny, it’s not actually a studio. It’s just a bunch of half broken stuff that roves around from place to place under my direction. It’s wherever you want it to be.

It’s portable? It’s mobile?

It’s not really mobile - that’s the thing. It’s all this big cranky, clunky, old, old state of the art mid-‘70s analog stuff. It’s all temperamental - like knocking on wood all the time to make sure it works. After I got out of Shoreline and when I first met Ben [Gibbard] he had some songs he wanted to record, and I had some songs I wanted to record. For a long time it was just a matter of renting stuff and driving up to Bellingham, because I was still living down here. I would just rent stuff and go up there during the weekends. Like American Music used to have this reel to reel 8-track analog package. So I could get a TSR-8 and a Mackie 1604 and a couple of mics for like $250 bucks for a week. It was super cheap, because it was right around the time when the ADAT thing was happening and no one was interested in the 8-track anymore. So I would just do that and screw around on the 8-track. We recorded on two or three different occasions, and then I decided that if I was renting this stuff all the time, that I could drop $2500 or $3000 and get a couple of mics and machine and a crappy board and cables. Eventually that’s what I did, I just maxed out a credit card, bought my 8-track, board and a couple of mics, which was what we recorded the first record on.

The name “Hall of Justice” is there a story behind that?

I’m a “Superfriends” fanatic. A big fan.

Were you recording other bands as well at this time?

No, not really. The great bulk of the recording I’ve ever done has been stuff that I have been involved in on a first hand level. Like stuff I’m playing on or contributed to. The first Death Cab tape was really the first thing I recorded that I didn’t play anything on. That was really easy, because Ben is just real chill about recording. It was understood that he was writing and playing the songs, and I got to do what I wanted on the recording end. We were both guinea pigs for each other and that worked out really well. And somehow or other that’s still how it works. He’s the songwriter and I’m the recordist, more or less. I don’t ask him any questions and neither does he. So it works out. I mean we definitely both contribute with one another. It’s still really hard to record other bands because I still don’t have a good solid dedicated space to do it. Recording spaces have always ended up in really compromised places. Like in Bellingham, it was our house, and there was always a roommate there who wasn’t a musician, who was a senior and studying for finals. All the roommates were super supportive, but even so it’s hard to charge other bands to come into your house when it’s very much a house-house and not a rock and roll house to do some recording. So I mean, even getting someone to come in on weekends for free was an ordeal. The place we’re in now doesn’t have heat and there’s no bathroom. It’s unlivable.

Is that your practice space?

It’s the practice space we have now. It’s this little cinder block box, but it’s working out okay. It’s a totally recordable room, which is nice.

Analog versus digital? What’s your choice?

Man, the Tape Op question. Given the choice I would always pick analog. The thing is that I’m discovering quickly, for where I’m at, it’s the idealism versus practicality argument. It’s very much about finances. If you have the financial ability to keep an analog machine in order, then you’re doing really well. But if you’re in a situation like I’m in... I never know what my 8-track is going to do. I haven’t any idea. I mean it’s not like a Studer or an Ampex MM 1200 where they’re still, to some degree, pro-machines and there’s parts for them everywhere, and there’s always someone who knows how to work on them, particularly the Ampexs, Studers and Otaris. But then you get into the sketchy semi-pro basement stuff from the ‘80s like I am used to. I have a 1/2” 8-track and it’s like pulling teeth to get parts for or even someone to work on it. I’ve had some really bad experiences with some people in town. Even when I have a service manual to give to people. It’s seems like five or six years ago people still knew what to do with that stuff, but the whole 1/2” 8-track stuff is so far out of phase that if you take one to someone for a transport [problem] you’re just fucked. It’s going to sit there for months, they won’t be able to find the parts and you’re going to wait and wait and wait. It’s just a drag. But given the choice I would choose analog. And I’m rediscovering that again as I’m finally learning the space between compression and distortion on a piece of tape and different pieces of tape. How 456 is different from the GP9 and stuff. Which is something I’ve never gotten to before and now I’m understanding. It makes sense. And I love to hack up tape, I love to drag a razor blade through a piece of tape, and you can’t do that on any practical digital level.