Slash ft Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators have announced special Record Store Day double-vinyl live LP, Live At Studios 60. The album was recorded at the Los Angeles venue of the same name and features a full live performance of the band’s latest studio album, 4, with a four-song encore.
The Live At Studios 60 set was originally performed for an internet audience, to be followed by a Q&A, and it makes a fascinating companion piece to the album, 4, which famously was recorded live with Dave Cobb at Nashville’s RCA Studio.
When MusicRadar spoke with Slash to get his 7 tips for recording live, he said it was a lifelong ambition of his to track a record like that, old-school, playing takes loud without headphones and in the company of the band without worrying about his electric guitar bleeding into the other tracks.
“Honestly, no producers over the years either trusted a band enough to have them play live in a room and take a chance on them being able to play from one end of the song to another without fucking it up,” said Slash. “Or, producers are really, really anal about having control over every single track and being able to manipulate it the way that they want to.”
Not Cobb. It was his idea, and RCA Studio proved to be the ideal location for that old-school approach.
“Dave Cobb was the first producer I have worked with where he was like, ‘Yeah, man! Let’s just record everything Glyn Johns-style,” said Slash. “I was like, ‘You gotta be fucking kidding me?! Are you serious?’ I was really excited, and it was very liberating to go in and do it that way.”
For rock ’n’ roll, all of the greatest rock records, for the most part, are done pretty much in a live setting, or in a very stripped-down, raw setting where everybody is playing more or less together
Sonically, there will be some differences. The band only got one take for Live At Studios 60. Recording 4, Myles Kennedy tracked his vocals from being a partition; they could see him but he was walled off. But, with 4 recorded live, Live At Studios 60 is essentially like a deluxe alternate version, with the set closed out by Driving Rain, You're A Lie, World On Fire, and Anastasia.
“I think for rock ’n’ roll, all of the greatest rock records, for the most part, are done pretty much in a live setting, or in a very stripped-down, raw setting where everybody is playing more or less together,” said Slash. “That is something that comes across in what you’re hearing. You can’t put your finger on it. It’s there, and it’s something that makes records exciting.”
Live At Studios 60 is out 18 June through Gibson Records/BMG and is limited to 2250 copies. See Record Store Day for participating outlets.
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