I copied and pasted this from http://www.housequake.com


Gary Brandt was Prince's engineer for the Prince album(I Wanna Be Your Lover, Bambi, etc...)
This small interview was conducted by Camron (Groovement).

I recorded the entire Prince album. Mixed elsewhere. (I had another album to do and Prince never committed to more than a month with me). Everything we cut was used on his album. He did his demos at his home in Minneapolis and I never heard them.

When he decided he wanted to mix too I had already booked two other projects. He expected me to do anything he wanted but he wasn't even known at the time. His manager Bob Cavallo, who I knew, called me to take the project because Prince refused to work with Maurice White from EW&F, if you can believe that! I was very busy but I made room for him even though I knew he might be a problem.

Working with Prince was surprisingly easy though and because he really knew little about quality rerecording, I had a free reignto process sounds and record him any way I wanted. That was my favorite part of all that. We had one conversation about snare mics once after I recorded IWTBYL where he wanted an SM57. On IWTBYL I used a customized AKG 452 and it sounded great, He was very opinionated and really should have left well enough alone but I did as he asked as the rest of the tracks sounded less snappy. We did use his drums though. We recorded the album 16 track 2" at his request. I would never argue that decision and in fact supported it.

When he found out I could not book the remix he was extremely pissed. His managers asked me, "Hey do you have any idea how big he's going to be" I told them I agreed but had committed to two complete album projects that would take me through four months of income and I asked if they were willing to pay for that. Warners would never have done that at the time so that was that.

In the end, I never saw Prince again but I got countless calls from his managers asking me about how i recorded various parts of his album. They copied my paisley pyramid motif and vibe and built his studio a few years later. He leased an API console from Westlake audio trying to copy us. I know I made an impression on him but he would never admit it.We actually built our console ground up using some API components but it was our own design and way hotroded from a stock API. Our console was sold in 2002 and resides in Philly, still in use at a private studio. I'm quite proud of that.

Currently I produce projects that come in funded and record nationally with a bevy of cool gear I have collected in my life. I also Master and remix for certain projects I like. I have a private digital setup and use Nuendo and Digital Performer.

Several things made P.N. a success, timing, song writing, musicianship,and flat out ego.

Prince always had a strong hook and very rock oriented rhythms. He was an extremely good pocket drummer, fair keyboard player and lets just say, guitar player. Actually drums were his best inst IMO. I know one of his influences was Hendrix. I remember him making excuses for his guitar playing before he pulled out his strat and began overdubbing but the arrangement was good enough and it worked ok. It is true he would be one that would be hard, if not impossible to duplicate.

Gary Brandt
Engineer/Producer


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For more additional info please read this excerpt from Per Nilsen's "DMSR"

The principal recording sessions for PRINCE took place at Alpha Studio, a LA studio owned by a friend of Bob Cavallo named Gary Brandt. He had built the innovative studio in his own house. Prince didnt want to work with a producer, but Cavallo felt that, in the role of engineer, Brandt could help him get a good sound on tape. Prince flew out to LA in April 1979.

Prince moved into a rented home on the outskirts of LA which he shared with Perry Jones & Tony Winfrey. A month was booked at Brandt's studio & Prince immediately set to work. Sessions would normaly start in the early afternoon & last 12 hours or more. "He was a night person alot of the time". says Brandt. "I thought he was a very sort of secretive guy. His managers would roll him up in a limo. That was one of his requests. No girls were allowed in the studio". Even though the studio was equipped with two 24-track tape recorders, Prince preferred to record on 16 tracks. He knew exactly what he was looking for in terms of song construction & arrangements so it was mostly a question of re-creating & trying to improve on his demos. "He already had everything in his head", says Brandt. "He knew where the parts were going so it was just basically getting it onto tape. But being an improvisational artist, he always tried to improve on what he heard in his head. His tracks were simple & he didnt really need alot of tracks".

Brandt found Prince's approach to recording vocals highly unusual, "He'd have me put a microphone right above him while he lay on a blanket beneath my piano.Very strange.His vocals were very light. He'd tell me where he wanted microphone pick-ups made & I'd advise him from time to time. As long as my suggestions didnt infringe too much on his musical direction, he was reasonably open-minded. I showed him alot of different little echoes, delays, things that I dont even think he knew about."
As the 30 day recording period drew to a close, Prince & Brandt had completed rough mixes of the 9 songs Prince had chosen for the album. Brandt wanted to mix the LP but had another project booked for a couple of weeks, "His managers, who were a very interesting couple of guys, insisted that I give Prince any amount of time he wanted in the studio to mix the LP. They wanted me to cancel everything & give it all to Prince".
Much to the consternation of Brandt, Jones & Winfrey proceeded to take the project away when Brandt couldnt give them more studio time at short notice, "It was too bad. I liked the project & I think Prince would have liked to have stayed & finished it"

In contrast, Brandt feels his contribution to the PRINCE LP was overlooked. he didnt even receive a record award when the LP went gold. "I called up WB & the management company & asked if I could get a gold record. A secretary said, 'You didnt even do the record.' I went, 'What? My name is on it. I recorded everything on it.' She had been told that Bob Mockler did the record & that my input was limited. I said, 'Well, the record was done by me.I'll even pay for the gold record myself.' After chewing it with the secretary, I finally got them to agree to send me a record but I had to pay for it".

http://www.amazon.com/gp/...nce&n=5174
[Edited 1/11/06 6:46am]

SUCH a modest guy, this Gary Brandt...

Excellent post, thank you.