I wanted to ask you about your use of the binaural head.

It’s a Neumann KU-100. Fritz Kunstkopf developed it a long time ago. They were making these in the ‘60s, I think. And binaural is an old concept that I think goes back to the late 1800s, and began to be applied to recording in the 1950s. [“Binaural” refers to the concept that sound is interpreted in a unique way by the actual physical placement of the human ears, and the construction of the human head] I believe Neumann, was the first to make a stand-alone binaural head. When I started in the studio I’d heard about it and had seen some literature on it.

So I built my own. I got a couple of ECM 50s and just put them in my ears and it worked really well. Not great frequency response, but you can floss with it afterwards. So what does it look like? Mine looks like a broken pair of headphones with mics hanging over the ears. I actually just let the mics hang.

So it closely approximates the actual human listening experience.

It’s the closest I’ve gotten. Except for the actual Neumann head. The Neumann head is really such a great microphone. My little set-up doesn’t sound as good. The Neumann uses KU-100 mics - they’re like KM 84s. A very, very fine microphone. I’ve used the head a lot, on lots of records. But I can’t always take it and it’s sometimes better to be unobtrusive walking down the street. (With my set-up) people just think I’m listening to something and it doesn’t scare them. With the Neumann head people sometimes get a little freaked out. I had one guy in India who was reminded of a deity by it. Luckily the deity was a friendly spirit but he was a little startled. [laughs]

I’m still having a hard time envisioning the Neumann version.

Oh, well have you ever seen the Dada stylized representations of the guys with the slicked back hair? Almost bald and the really angular nose? Angular chin? It’s a really stylized, almost “Deco” looking head. A big grey plastic thing with soft rubber ears. A nose shape, a mouth shape.

And what was the idea there?

Well, they did a lot of testing to see if hair, shoulders, etc. had much of an impact on sound. And they found that, for the money, it didn’t make enough difference, so they settled on making the head from mid-neck up. And that approximated human hearing. It does a fair job. But human hearing is so much more than what’s going into two ear drums. There’s bone conduction, body cavity resonance. You can’t really pick that stuff up. So you’re missing that and there are certain cues you don’t get. But it’s amazing what you do hear. It’s just its own thing.

What have you used it on recently?

That’s my overhead. I haven’t used conventional overheads in years. I place that slightly in front of the drums, maybe a couple of inches above the top cymbal line, facing the drummer. I try to get a lot of the drums from that. Maybe use a couple bottom tom mics if I need to. Kick and snare mics, though I don’t always need to. Sometimes it’s just the head.

That almost takes you full circle to your early field-recording days.

That’s always been my real love: field recordings. I’ve actually got a label for it, a sub-label actually. It’s through Peter Gabriel’s Nomad Select called Document. It’s going to be my binaural recordings.

From all over the world?

I’ve done a bunch and some have already come out on Nomad Select. One from the Gambia, one from Sardinia, and those are both out. And there’s one by a Ugandan guitar player, but I did that in England. Wonderful record, he just died unfortunately. But the first fully binaural record I did was made in 1994 and that’s going to be the first Document release. With a little photo booklet and a CD available early next year.

Also, I wanted to ask you about your use of Shure level-locks.

That’s something I discovered on a Waits record: Bone Machine. We went to a swap meet and found this thing - it said “level-lock”. I heard a sound for about half a second and it blew up. I realized it was a mic-level compressor. Then I was really interested in it. So I sent it out to be repaired. Got it back and we both just flipped over this thing. It’s a podium compressor - so it’s made to be used for a human voice at closest 12 inches. That’s a pretty low level. It’s made for low-level stuff, but to keep it controlled so if the speaker varies his distance it’ll stay the same. So I put a microphone into it and put the mic right between the kick and the snare drums - which is 10 times greater a level than it’s designed for. And it just flips out in the most beautiful way. It’s turned into another essential. Drums often don’t sound right until I’ve got a little of that in there.

And you use the Empirical Labs Distressor a good deal, right?

The Distressor is great.

And what qualities do you get out of that?

The level-lock is just a total fuck-up. It’s distortion and compression at the same time. You can make it truly sound backwards. That’s an effect. The Distressor will also do that but in a more elegant way. If I don’t want it so distorted I can use the Distressor. It’s also a really fine compressor. You can make it sound just grungy, but it’s also a really good-sounding vocal compressor. Guitars, drums. Everything. You can’t have too many Distressors. [laughs] And then the ADL is great. Different compressors are good to have.

My last question is a broader, more philosophical one: Why do you make records?

I’m not sure I can tell you. I haven’t really tried to define it. I don’t always like being in the studio. There are certain pressures, especially in pop music, that I don’t like. And they make me ask that very question every now and then - why do I do this? But there is something that happens to me on almost a chemical level. When I hear cool sounds work together, and witness someone’s creativity -something I can be part of, help with, or bring to another level... maybe it takes me somewhere. There’s something about the collaboration I really like. Sometimes it’s difficult in the moment; it’s not where I want to be. But I usually like the result. I get to sit back and listen and go, “I like that.” Or even if I don’t, I’m always learning something. These days I like it. And then I get an idea to do something else. I’m not really a musician, I’m not a composer. It’s sort of like working with found objects. Show me something that’s got some potential and I can take it in a particular direction. Hopefully, when I’m collaborating with someone, it’s a direction they want to go in. That’s what works, that’s what’s fun.

It’s interesting that you use the phrase of “found objects” because your work sometimes puts me in mind of the artist Robert Rauschenberg - the way seemingly unrelated images are treated and assembled and juxtaposed. It has the effect of transporting you into a new dimension of perception.

And yet hopefully there’s still a thread of familiarity running through it. It’s funny that you say that because I’m very much into art. My wife is an artist and clothing designer and she’s really taught me a lot about putting things together. I do metal work at home, I have a little metal shop. And that’s helped me realize what I do in the studio. If you bring me a raw metal square I’ll just stare at it dumbly for days, “What the hell do I do with that?” But bring me a bent up old spoon, or a hunk of metal that’s been run over with a hole in it and just a hint of a mouth... I’m away. I think, “I could do this to that, and put this on that,” and I’m off. That’s why I work best with people who have a strong sense of their own identity. It’s freedom. But I need that little seed. r