Recently, we had visionary music producer Robert Margouleff on the show and today we're sharing an excerpt from his new audiobook, Shaping Sounds: Stevie Wonder, DEVO, the Synth Revolution and My Life Behind the Music. In legendary studios like Electric Lady and the Record Plant, Margouleff became a pioneering producer and engineer for artists like Billy Preston, Jeff Beck, DEVO, The Isley Brothers, and David Sanborn. A true sonic innovator, he was an early adopter of immersive audio and surround sound, developing new mixing techniques for home theaters that brought some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters to life.
Here's a preview of the audiobook, where Margouleff talks about working with The Isley Brothers on their 3+3 album. If you want to hear more, check out Shaping Sounds: Stevie Wonder, DEVO, the Synth Revolution and My Life Behind the Music wherever you get audiobooks. You can use the code SOUNDS25 at pushkin.fm/shapingsounds to save 25% on the audiobook.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. I hope you enjoyed our episode with iconic music
producer and engineer and author of the new audiobook Shaping
Sounds Stevie Wonder devo the Synth Revolution in My Life
Behind the Music, Robert mark Lev If you haven't heard
it yet, be sure to check it out. Today I'm
sharing an excerpt from Shaping Sounds. Robert talks about working
(00:36):
alongside not only Stevie Wonder on his classic albums, but
with artists like Minnie Riperton on our hit Loving You
and the Isisley Brothers on their three plus three album,
which brought together incredible guitar leads and smooth vocals to
blend old in new school R and B. Here's the clip,
but if you want to hear more, check out Shaping Sounds.
Stevie want to devo the Synth Revolution in My Life
(00:57):
Behind the Music. Wherever you get audio books, you can
use the code Sounds twenty five. That's so o U
n DS two five at pushkin dot fm slash Shaping
Sounds to save twenty five percent on the audiobook. Thanks
for listening.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Chapter thirteen our non stop studio. While we were with
Stevie Besides working on his own albums. We worked alongside him,
continuing as a team on two albums he produced, one
for his ex wife, Sita Wright, the other for Minnie Riperton.
(01:32):
Sorita Wright was a receptionist at the Motown offices in
Detroit when Edward Holland of the Holland Dozier Holland songwriting
team heard her singing and was impressed enough that he
had her sing on some demos. She met Stevie in
nineteen sixty eight and they began dating about a year later.
Their relationship was both personal and professional. Stevie encouraged her
(01:57):
to write her own songs, and the two collaborated on
his hit signed Seal Delivered I'm Yours. They married on
September fourteenth, nineteen seventy, and although they divorced only eighteen
months later, they remained good friends and collaborators. We worked
on Sorita's debut solo album, Serta, released on June twentieth,
(02:20):
nineteen seventy two, as I recollect. Part of the divorce
settlement was that Stevie would produce an album for her.
They worked amazingly well together and she remained an important
part of his team. Providing lyrics, background vocals and compositions
for several years. Yvonne Wright, no relation to Serrita, was
(02:42):
another important collaborator. She wrote the lyrics to Girl Blue
and Evil. She would sit next to him at the
piano while he was recording and whisper or lining to
him a few bars ahead as he was playing and singing.
He was very tight with her. Music of My Mind
Ends with Evil, a simple and incisive piece of social
(03:03):
commentary that opened the door to our collective consciousness. Evil,
Stevie asks, exasperated, why have you engulfed so many hearts?
Why have you destroyed so many minds? The lyrics ring
true to this day and musically it has a fantastic
opening tanto front and center, with a nobo sound and
(03:24):
a foreboding bass. The sound is simple, singular, sad and compelling.
We first met Minnie Riperton when she came to the
Fulfillingness Sessions to add background vocals. We were so impressed that,
even though we were in the thick of it with
our own project, it didn't matter. Malcolm, Stevie and I
(03:46):
all jumped at the chance to work with her. When
her husband and songwriting partner Dick Rudolph asked us to
help make her second record, Perfect Angel. I remember putting
the bird sounds on her song Loving You, which were
reminiscent of the sound effects we used with Stevie on
Living for the City. Minnie had an extraordinary voice, especially
(04:08):
in her false register. It was totally under her control
and its clarity was astounding. Loving You became Ripurton's biggest
hit and topped the Billboard Hot one hundred chart on
April fifth, nineteen seventy five. It went on to sell
over a million copies. We recorded most of the album
(04:29):
at the Record planned LA and mixed it at Westlake Audio,
Tom Hidley's new place. We went there because it had
the first API console with fader automation, and we tracked
many of Many's vocals in the control room with all
of us on headphones. Tom had built Westlake as a
showroom to sell the latest studio gear. He used the
(04:50):
control room in the back to demo whose studio design concepts,
the latest and recording consoles and all the new gear
coming to market. It wasn't really a studio, just a
control room. The store in the front was the showroom
and it gave us access to all the latest outboard
gear in the industry. We came our lounge during our
(05:10):
nighttime sessions. Sometimes we would sit on the floor up front,
leaning against all these new racks of gear with its
pistachio and brown shag carpeting, eating pizza or a bucket
of Kentucky fried chicken. The API console only remembered fader levels.
The rest was done in real time. As usual, the
(05:32):
memory was stored on the first and last tracks of
the master tape, so every time we made an update,
we would have to jockey back and forth printing the
update on the alternate track, which caused the fader moves
to come back later and later and was overly complicated.
So Malcolm and I would make as many moves as
possible and use the automation as little as possible. In
(05:56):
the end, we were happy with the record. Once again,
using the latest and greatest technology fed our creative spirit.
While we were working with Stevie on his project, there
was little room or desire to work with anyone else.
There were down times, though, especially when Stevie was on
(06:16):
the road. That's when Malcolm and I kept busy working
on albums with other artists. We recorded The Isley Brothers
three plus three in nineteen seventy three while Stevie was
touring and promoting Inner Visions. The Isleys were a true
family affair. The original Isley Brothers consisted of O'Kelly Issley Junior,
(06:38):
Rudolph Issley and Ronald Eisley. Three plus three would be
the first album to formerly include the younger brothers Ernie
on guitar and Marvin on bass, and brother in law
Chris Jasper on keyboards. The original trio officially became a sextet,
hence the album title. It was both old school and
(06:59):
new school. Laur and B with Ronald's incomparable smooth lead
vocals and Ernie's hardage guitar leads. Chris and Marvin brought
new funk rock entersery to the band, and the combination
proved to be a significant artistic advance for them. Our
first meeting came when they walked in on us while
we were mixing Don't You Worry About a Thing? With Stevie.
(07:21):
We already knew about them and figured out pretty quickly
what they had in mind, which was precisely what we
had on our table. As usual, we had a lockout
in Studio B to ensure our setup remained intact. We
would arrive early in the afternoon and prepare the room
for work. Once again. We tracked the basics with quad
(07:42):
monitoring and the players in the control room. The guys
would usually arrive an hour or so after us and
get started right away. There was no dilly dallying around
the canteen. They were always very single minded and down
to business. They came in well prepared, having played and
perfected all the songs in rehearsal or on the road.
(08:04):
Ronald's lead vocals were terrific. He was at the top
of his form and we could feel his gospel roots.
We used an RI twenty mic in the same close
confessional approach we deployed for Stevie's vocals. Working with Ernie
on guitars was a sonic adventure. He regaled us with
tales of Howe as a little boy, he played guitar
(08:25):
with Jimmy Hendrix in the family's kitchen. Jimmy was there
because the senior Isisley's had recruited Jimmy to play in
their backup band in the early sixties. We developed a
very original sound for Ernie's lead guitar parts. We recorded
a ZAM through a Dolby three sixty one noise reduction unit,
but didn't decode the signal. We left it raw and
(08:48):
then compressed it with a flickin' er tube limiter. You
can hear the results of our labor on the guitar
leads on Who's that Lady in Summer Breeze, among others
on the record. The rest of the tracking was very straightforward,
(09:28):
with our traditional approach being tight and close, with the
drums recorded from the drummer's point of view. Marvin Space
was recorded direct to the board, as were all of
Chris's electronics, scents and keys. There was z improv experimenting with
percussion and figuring out the background vocal arrangements in the studio.
(09:48):
O'Kelly and Rudolph, along with the rest of the guys,
sang the background vocal parts. They also oversaw all the business,
financials and logistics. O'kelly's one eccentricity was that he had
very long fingernails, at least two or three inches long
on his left hand. Rudy ran the show both on
and off the road. He made sure everybody got to
(10:11):
the studio on time. If any of the brothers were late,
they would hear it from him and it wouldn't be pleasant.
They were a very professional, well oiled machine. We never
connected outside the studio. It was all strictly business. Malcolm
and I had the feeling that in their eyes we
(10:32):
were like the studio itself, simply tools to be used.
They wanted what Malcolm and I could do to enhance
their sound by bringing in new techniques and technologies to
the album. We were there strictly to serve those needs,
which was totally fine with us. When we finished, O'Kelly
(10:52):
brought in a briefcase with a stack of one hundred
dollars bills and paid our twelve thousand dollars fee in cash.
A year later, when Stevie was on the road once again,
we recorded a second album with the Oisley Brothers. The
Heat Is On continued with three play us three left
off with the same lineup. By now, the Isleys had
(11:14):
found their pocket and perfected their soul funk sound. Malcolm
and I felt like we had never left the studio,
as if we'd recorded three plus three the day before.
The big difference was that we tracked the record at
Kendon Recorders in the San Fernando Valley on the other
side of the Santa Monica Mountains from Hollywood and the
record plant. It was another Tom Hidley design and the
(11:37):
console was an API with custom Dean Jensen transformers. We
felt right at home. We mixed the album at Tom's
Westlake Audio. The Heat Is On was unusual because all
the uptempo funk was on side one and the smooth
ballads were on side two, which helped it set a
certain mood. It first charted on June fourteenth, nineteen seventy five,
(12:02):
and spent forty weeks on the Billboard two hundred. It
was the Isley Brothers first album to hit number one
once again. When we were done, O'Kelly showed up with
his famous briefcase and paid us in cash. We never
saw or heard from them again.
Pushkin. I hope you enjoyed our episode with iconic music
producer and engineer and author of the new audiobook Shaping
Sounds Stevie Wonder devo the Synth Revolution in My Life
Behind the Music, Robert mark Lev If you haven't heard
it yet, be sure to check it out. Today I'm
sharing an excerpt from Shaping Sounds. Robert talks about working
(00:36):
alongside not only Stevie Wonder on his classic albums, but
with artists like Minnie Riperton on our hit Loving You
and the Isisley Brothers on their three plus three album,
which brought together incredible guitar leads and smooth vocals to
blend old in new school R and B. Here's the clip,
but if you want to hear more, check out Shaping Sounds.
Stevie want to devo the Synth Revolution in My Life
(00:57):
Behind the Music. Wherever you get audio books, you can
use the code Sounds twenty five. That's so o U
n DS two five at pushkin dot fm slash Shaping
Sounds to save twenty five percent on the audiobook. Thanks
for listening.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Chapter thirteen our non stop studio. While we were with
Stevie Besides working on his own albums. We worked alongside him,
continuing as a team on two albums he produced, one
for his ex wife, Sita Wright, the other for Minnie Riperton.
(01:32):
Sorita Wright was a receptionist at the Motown offices in
Detroit when Edward Holland of the Holland Dozier Holland songwriting
team heard her singing and was impressed enough that he
had her sing on some demos. She met Stevie in
nineteen sixty eight and they began dating about a year later.
Their relationship was both personal and professional. Stevie encouraged her
(01:57):
to write her own songs, and the two collaborated on
his hit signed Seal Delivered I'm Yours. They married on
September fourteenth, nineteen seventy, and although they divorced only eighteen
months later, they remained good friends and collaborators. We worked
on Sorita's debut solo album, Serta, released on June twentieth,
(02:20):
nineteen seventy two, as I recollect. Part of the divorce
settlement was that Stevie would produce an album for her.
They worked amazingly well together and she remained an important
part of his team. Providing lyrics, background vocals and compositions
for several years. Yvonne Wright, no relation to Serrita, was
(02:42):
another important collaborator. She wrote the lyrics to Girl Blue
and Evil. She would sit next to him at the
piano while he was recording and whisper or lining to
him a few bars ahead as he was playing and singing.
He was very tight with her. Music of My Mind
Ends with Evil, a simple and incisive piece of social
(03:03):
commentary that opened the door to our collective consciousness. Evil,
Stevie asks, exasperated, why have you engulfed so many hearts?
Why have you destroyed so many minds? The lyrics ring
true to this day and musically it has a fantastic
opening tanto front and center, with a nobo sound and
(03:24):
a foreboding bass. The sound is simple, singular, sad and compelling.
We first met Minnie Riperton when she came to the
Fulfillingness Sessions to add background vocals. We were so impressed that,
even though we were in the thick of it with
our own project, it didn't matter. Malcolm, Stevie and I
(03:46):
all jumped at the chance to work with her. When
her husband and songwriting partner Dick Rudolph asked us to
help make her second record, Perfect Angel. I remember putting
the bird sounds on her song Loving You, which were
reminiscent of the sound effects we used with Stevie on
Living for the City. Minnie had an extraordinary voice, especially
(04:08):
in her false register. It was totally under her control
and its clarity was astounding. Loving You became Ripurton's biggest
hit and topped the Billboard Hot one hundred chart on
April fifth, nineteen seventy five. It went on to sell
over a million copies. We recorded most of the album
(04:29):
at the Record planned LA and mixed it at Westlake Audio,
Tom Hidley's new place. We went there because it had
the first API console with fader automation, and we tracked
many of Many's vocals in the control room with all
of us on headphones. Tom had built Westlake as a
showroom to sell the latest studio gear. He used the
(04:50):
control room in the back to demo whose studio design concepts,
the latest and recording consoles and all the new gear
coming to market. It wasn't really a studio, just a
control room. The store in the front was the showroom
and it gave us access to all the latest outboard
gear in the industry. We came our lounge during our
(05:10):
nighttime sessions. Sometimes we would sit on the floor up front,
leaning against all these new racks of gear with its
pistachio and brown shag carpeting, eating pizza or a bucket
of Kentucky fried chicken. The API console only remembered fader levels.
The rest was done in real time. As usual, the
(05:32):
memory was stored on the first and last tracks of
the master tape, so every time we made an update,
we would have to jockey back and forth printing the
update on the alternate track, which caused the fader moves
to come back later and later and was overly complicated.
So Malcolm and I would make as many moves as
possible and use the automation as little as possible. In
(05:56):
the end, we were happy with the record. Once again,
using the latest and greatest technology fed our creative spirit.
While we were working with Stevie on his project, there
was little room or desire to work with anyone else.
There were down times, though, especially when Stevie was on
(06:16):
the road. That's when Malcolm and I kept busy working
on albums with other artists. We recorded The Isley Brothers
three plus three in nineteen seventy three while Stevie was
touring and promoting Inner Visions. The Isleys were a true
family affair. The original Isley Brothers consisted of O'Kelly Issley Junior,
(06:38):
Rudolph Issley and Ronald Eisley. Three plus three would be
the first album to formerly include the younger brothers Ernie
on guitar and Marvin on bass, and brother in law
Chris Jasper on keyboards. The original trio officially became a sextet,
hence the album title. It was both old school and
(06:59):
new school. Laur and B with Ronald's incomparable smooth lead
vocals and Ernie's hardage guitar leads. Chris and Marvin brought
new funk rock entersery to the band, and the combination
proved to be a significant artistic advance for them. Our
first meeting came when they walked in on us while
we were mixing Don't You Worry About a Thing? With Stevie.
(07:21):
We already knew about them and figured out pretty quickly
what they had in mind, which was precisely what we
had on our table. As usual, we had a lockout
in Studio B to ensure our setup remained intact. We
would arrive early in the afternoon and prepare the room
for work. Once again. We tracked the basics with quad
(07:42):
monitoring and the players in the control room. The guys
would usually arrive an hour or so after us and
get started right away. There was no dilly dallying around
the canteen. They were always very single minded and down
to business. They came in well prepared, having played and
perfected all the songs in rehearsal or on the road.
(08:04):
Ronald's lead vocals were terrific. He was at the top
of his form and we could feel his gospel roots.
We used an RI twenty mic in the same close
confessional approach we deployed for Stevie's vocals. Working with Ernie
on guitars was a sonic adventure. He regaled us with
tales of Howe as a little boy, he played guitar
(08:25):
with Jimmy Hendrix in the family's kitchen. Jimmy was there
because the senior Isisley's had recruited Jimmy to play in
their backup band in the early sixties. We developed a
very original sound for Ernie's lead guitar parts. We recorded
a ZAM through a Dolby three sixty one noise reduction unit,
but didn't decode the signal. We left it raw and
(08:48):
then compressed it with a flickin' er tube limiter. You
can hear the results of our labor on the guitar
leads on Who's that Lady in Summer Breeze, among others
on the record. The rest of the tracking was very straightforward,
(09:28):
with our traditional approach being tight and close, with the
drums recorded from the drummer's point of view. Marvin Space
was recorded direct to the board, as were all of
Chris's electronics, scents and keys. There was z improv experimenting with
percussion and figuring out the background vocal arrangements in the studio.
(09:48):
O'Kelly and Rudolph, along with the rest of the guys,
sang the background vocal parts. They also oversaw all the business,
financials and logistics. O'kelly's one eccentricity was that he had
very long fingernails, at least two or three inches long
on his left hand. Rudy ran the show both on
and off the road. He made sure everybody got to
(10:11):
the studio on time. If any of the brothers were late,
they would hear it from him and it wouldn't be pleasant.
They were a very professional, well oiled machine. We never
connected outside the studio. It was all strictly business. Malcolm
and I had the feeling that in their eyes we
(10:32):
were like the studio itself, simply tools to be used.
They wanted what Malcolm and I could do to enhance
their sound by bringing in new techniques and technologies to
the album. We were there strictly to serve those needs,
which was totally fine with us. When we finished, O'Kelly
(10:52):
brought in a briefcase with a stack of one hundred
dollars bills and paid our twelve thousand dollars fee in cash.
A year later, when Stevie was on the road once again,
we recorded a second album with the Oisley Brothers. The
Heat Is On continued with three play us three left
off with the same lineup. By now, the Isleys had
(11:14):
found their pocket and perfected their soul funk sound. Malcolm
and I felt like we had never left the studio,
as if we'd recorded three plus three the day before.
The big difference was that we tracked the record at
Kendon Recorders in the San Fernando Valley on the other
side of the Santa Monica Mountains from Hollywood and the
record plant. It was another Tom Hidley design and the
(11:37):
console was an API with custom Dean Jensen transformers. We
felt right at home. We mixed the album at Tom's
Westlake Audio. The Heat Is On was unusual because all
the uptempo funk was on side one and the smooth
ballads were on side two, which helped it set a
certain mood. It first charted on June fourteenth, nineteen seventy five,
(12:02):
and spent forty weeks on the Billboard two hundred. It
was the Isley Brothers first album to hit number one
once again. When we were done, O'Kelly showed up with
his famous briefcase and paid us in cash. We never
saw or heard from them again.
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