Jack of All Musical Trades

SoundCheck Magazine: Hey Anthony! How’s it going?
Anthony J. Resta: Good. How are you?
SCM: Good. Alright. Let’s get right to it.
AJR: Sure. Thanks for doing this I appreciate it.
SCM: Your true title is actually Producer/Engineer, right?
AJR: Yes, partially. I’m actually a musician and a composer as well. I have to wear a lot of different hats. It varies from project to project.
SCM: Do you assist with the writing of the material?
AJR: Yes, absolutely. I often come up with bridges and sections of songs that are missing, a cool modulation for an instrumental bit, etc.....
SCM: Is Bopnique Musique mainly digital, analog, or do you use both?
AJR: I was hardcore analog for about 12 years, and then the past three years I’ve got heavily into Pro Tools because I love the flexibility…to be able to change arrangements, move things around and do all kinds of stuff that was never even a possibility. We use lots of nice tube gear so we warm everything up going into Pro Tools. A lot of our recordings sound very analog. I have a phenomenal engineer I’m working with, too. He’s from Indonesia... His name is Karyadi Sutedja. He started as an intern with me and had an incredible gift. He did the last Collective Soul record and Shawn Mullins records with me. He’s doing the world-class real deal engineering stuff.
SCM: Yeah. It’s always good to work with talented people.
AJR: Definitely! I used to do a lot of engineering and as I got older I was crawling around on the floor trying to figure out where this cable was going and where that hum was coming from. After a while it was all just distracting me because I really wanted to focus on the songs, the arrangements, the musical parts, and getting great performances out of people. To do that on top of engineering is impossible for me…He’s [Karyadi] a better engineer than I ever was…very gifted. We also have a new guy onboard (one year already); his name is Matthew Girard and he’s another up-and-coming audio wizard.
SCM: I noticed on some of your records, such as the Bionic one, that there are a lot of sampled sounds far back in the mix. Is that a characteristic of your style or was it just with that project?
AJR: It varies; I do a lot of string arrangements. I run guitars through old analog synthesizers. I guess it’s just a lot of experimenting with sound. I like having a lot of texture and layers.
SCM: It definitely worked. It added some really cool subtle nuances.
AJR: Thank you! I was big into Nine Inch Nails when they were around and I had been doing that sort of thing for a number of years like distorting drums or vocals…just creating a lot of sounds that are almost foreign. They stand out because they don’t seem to fit but eventually take on an identity of their own.
SCM: I noticed in one of the pictures you sent me there was a description that said you were “mutating the sound of a Gretsch.” That was cool.
AJR: Sometimes, I’ll run a guitar through a really wacky signal path…through a bunch of pedals and into a synthesizer and into a Leslie or something. Then it doesn’t really sound like a guitar or a keyboard. It’s something foreign.
SCM: As far as synths go, do you prefer the new digital ones or are you more into the older analog boards?
AJR: I definitely prefer the analog ones. There’s just no comparison. I’ve got a an MKS80, which is like a Jupiter 8 and the sound of that compared to any virtual analog synth is just night and day. But there are some good ones out there now [digital synths] the Nord Lead and Access Virus B come really close. They’ve got some great modulation capabilities that you won’t find on a lot of analog synths. So they both have their pluses.
SCM: You’ve worked with a lot of different artists. Is there a difference and preference between working with signed and unsigned artists?
AJR: That’s a really great question because the answer’s a lot different than you would think. A lot of people always have this perception of rock stars being like tyrants, ego maniacs, hard to work with, etc...The truth is, it’s often not that way at all. A lot of the more established clients I work with have a ton of respect for you. They stay out of your way and let you do your thing. They don’t try to steer you in a direction that’s not what they hired you for. Quite a few of the unsigned artists don’t have nearly as much experience so sometimes have to get their hands in there and feel like “This is my baby don’t mess with it!” Full of fears like, “Oh no. What’s he doing? He’s going to turn us into Radiohead! Oh no!” You want to be true to your own vision but you don’t want artists walking away going, “Gees this guy just took over, and I walked away sounding like something that I’m not.”
SCM: Do you have a general approach to your style or does it vary by the project?
>AJR: I like working on different types of music, going from a Loud Heavy thing into a pop thing....etc... I’ll even go in and do a techno record. I just did a techno record with a guy David Z. from Washington D.C. So I approach it differently for different artists. It depends on where they’re coming from and where they’d like to see themselves going.
SCM: Do you ever hear something that you’ve done and say, “Wow! I can’t believe that came out like that,” or do you always know where you’re going and how it’s supposed to and will sound?
AJR: I always have a vision in my head but as we’re trying to get there, a lot of things can happen along the way that might steer it in another direction. I guess what it comes down to is the songs. The songs are ultimately the most important thing about any production. You can have an amazing song and have 8 tracks of stuff and it’ll be more powerful than a mediocre song with 100 tracks.
SCM: One of the other pictures you sent me was from an Atlanta recording studio. Do you go on location a lot still today?
AJR: I do go on location a lot especially in Nashville. I’ve been working a lot at some studios down in Nashville. I spent a whole summer working on a record at a place called East Iris. I’ve been talking with Ed Roland of Collective Soul about doing some writing and working on a new record with them. So that would be exciting because I love working with Ed (in Atlanta). Some of my favorite stuff that I’ve done has been some of the obscure tracks on records that you never hear. For instance, on “Blender” we covered Morphine’s “You Speak My Language.” We just turned all the horn lines into guitar lines and it’s really heavy and modern. When I grew up, all the best stuff on records you ended up finding deep in the album. You used to get into the albums and the further you got into it, the more you’d find hidden gems. And I don’t think it’s like that today. I think everybody focuses on the singles.
SCM: Do you have a most memorable moment?
AJR: That’s really hard. There are so many it’s really hard to narrow it down to one. I guess my biggest accomplishment is not really about the special moments with famous people or anything, it’s about the fact that I’ve been doing this for 15 years and I’m still getting better and making a living at what I love doing. Definitely one moment to remember for sure was recording Elton John. We got to record him a couple times, once with Shawn Mullins and once with Collective Soul. With him it was a bit surreal…being with someone who’s that big of a legend, and going out to dinner with him. You wake up the next day going “Did that really happen.”.....
SCM: What do you like best and worst about your job?
AJR: What I like best about it is that it’s really what I live, breathe, eat, and sleep. It’s a great thing to do what you love for a living..... The bad part is because I care so much about every detail, I lose a lot of sleep and I worry a lot about each and every project. It never gets easy. I never get comfortable. Now, I’m getting into a whole new area. I’m working on forming a company with two partners in L.A., one in England and one in Nashville. We’re putting together a production/management/Artist Development company. Branching off in some other areas besides producing sounds is really exciting and new…so much to learn.
SCM: What future goals have you not accomplished yet?
AJR: You know, to discover an Alanis Morrissette or a Kurt Cobain. That’s my life long dream…to become a part of bringing the world something that’s never going to be forgotten.....I’ve been able to do as well as I have not because of the big breaks. I’m more of the artist side of producing where the product needs to not be generic at any cost. At the same time making it viable in the marketplace... that’s really hard in this current climate.
SCM: O.K. I think that’s about all I had.
AJR: Great! I enjoyed speaking with you.

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