So , it ’ s clear where the intimacy on the album comes from . Foundationally , Detour de Force is perhaps one of the rawest efforts from BNL in over a decade . However , it does offer a very unique blend of off-the-floor vibes , combined with a very polished and deliberate big-record feel . This is owing to the fact that the band took somewhat of a detour themselves in making the record as the pandemic hit , electing to take the songs they recorded at the cottage , and subsequently bring them Toronto ’ s Noble Street and Vespa Studios with Canadian rock stalwart Eric Ratz for further production . Ratz would also go on to mix the album in its entirety .
Robertson continues , “ I think we thought that would be the record , just a very live-off-the-floor snapshot of where we ’ re at . The lockdown actually allowed us the luxury of time to listen back . You know , we thought we were going to go in with Eric and maybe just do a couple of the production-heavy tracks like ‘ Good Life ’ and ‘ Roll Out ,’ and ended up going over the record again , using loads of elements from what we recorded here ,” referring to his cottage from where he joined Professional Sound for our chat . He points out , however , that some songs like “ Live Well ” and “ Man Made Lake ” are still very much just “ four guys in a room playing . There ’ s an alchemy to that sort of live energy that ’ s really special .”
To capture that live energy , it makes sense that they tapped Mark Howard to produce the cottage sessions ; known for his organic and off-the-floor style , Howard has worked with legends like The Tragically Hip , Bob Dylan , Lucinda Williams , Tom Waits , U2 , Daniel Lanois , and countless more . “ I don ’ t make records in recording studios , I just rent houses ; and I just kind of move in , set up , bring in rugs and lamps , and deck it out . And Ed ’ s place , I thought it was pretty big . But once we got everything in there it kind of shrank , because they ’ ve got two drum kits set up , and keyboards , and it was all a whirl , so it got pretty small , pretty quick .” But Howard describes the recording process of having the whole band in the room , live , even going so far as to track without headphones in some occasions .
“ I keep the speakers on , we don ’ t use headphones usually , and just go for a vibe . And we ’ ll do a couple takes , listen back to them , and then go back and maybe change the arrangement slightly and make sure there ’ s not a lot of dead wood in there ,” he explains . “ I don ’ t even use Pro Tools ,” he remarks . Instead , Howard tracked the band through an old iZ RADAR 24 digital multitrack recorder . Naturally , upon this revelation , I had to know more about Howard ’ s rig .
Of the RADAR , Howard remarks “ I ’ ve A / B ’ d it against Pro Tools , Logic , Cubase , all of them . Like , if you take a kick drum , I record it in the RADAR and I play it back and it ’ s nice , big , and punchy . And it ’ s warm , sounds like analog , and you do exactly the same recording in Pro Tools or any of these other things , with high-end converters , and you don ’ t get that punch that you get out of the RADAR .”
With Howard ’ s complement of gear , there also came a piece of music history that has its stamp on Detour ; a 1946 RCA 44 microphone that has recorded some of the all-time greats . While recording Tom Waits at one point in time , Howard and Waits were unhappy with the vocal sound they were capturing and decided to find some different mics to try . Howard headed to a used equipment dealer in Los Angeles and asked if they had any RCA 44s available . “ He goes , ‘ I don ’ t think so , but let me look in the back ,” Howard recounts . “ He comes back out saying , ‘ I got this old one that ’ s been on the shelf ever since the store opened ,’ so I said I ’ d take it and bought it for 2,500 bucks .
“ And so , I found myself working at Capitol Records with Shelby Lynne , and I ’ ve got her singing into the 44 because I get this killer sound out of it . One of the tech
ED ROBERTSON PERFORMS INTO THE RCA 44
guys that worked there his whole life , he goes ‘ That ’ s one of our old microphones !’ I said ‘ Really ?’ and he says ‘ Yeah , because with that microphone there , we were the only ones to ever put those toggle switches on them to roll off the low-end for a vocal . Wait here a second ,’ and he goes back into the archives and he brings out all these photos .
“ He ’ s got photos of Frank Sinatra singing into that exact microphone . And you know , Billie Holiday singing into it ; you name it , whoever was working at Capitol , that was the microphone they were using , and I got my hands on it . So , a lot of the [ Detour de
JIM CREEGGAN
PHOTO : EDWARD POND PHOTO : EDWARD POND
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