But You Can’t Do Both … (The Life & Story of DMH)

The Early Years

According to family lore, the third word that I ever said was “record”. This totally makes sense, as my earliest recollections revolved around them. I sort of remember throwing my sisters records at her as Frisbees in order to get back at her, and accidentally (I hope) sitting on them in the front seat of the car. A far bigger recollection, though is of being asked to pick out a song out of a pile of records, before I know how to read. I remember one 45 record in particular. It was called “My Baby Loves the Western Movies“. It must have been on the carousel label, as it was bright pink and of course had a carousel on it. I proudly associated he label with the music, picked it out and handed it over.

I also remember having a wind-up Victrola. Of course, I was way too young to have it, as the first task at hand was to take it apart. My Dad wasn’t to mechanically minded, so it stayed broken (not the first or last time, I’m sure). But the biggie came when my brother showed me his new reel-to-reel recorder that had super-small 1″ reels. I think it was meant to imitate a spy-type tape recorder. Well, after that I was hooked … I had to have one with 3″ reels, then 5″ then 7″ stereo … well, you get the idea.

The other thing that was going on with me was the fact that I was pretty outta control as a kid. I was a hard one to say “NO” to (one of my bigger regrets was being a difficult kid). I must have also been very unhappy … as I gained a lot of weight early on. Seriously, by the time I was 11, I weighed 255 lbs … not good at all!

So, here’s my take on where I was at that time in my early life. Quite simply, I call it “laser-braining”. To me, this means that nothing worked in my life, and I mean “nothing” – except recording. It was all I had! Of course, it was super unhealthy, but this was my reality. My grades hardly rose above being a D- (really bad). This was of course due to teachers that weren’t that great, but mostly because of the fact that I was studying subjects that meant nothing to me. I has a few teachers that shined through it all, but most were pretty average, and I simply didn’t care. However, I knew who and what I was going to become … I was going to be a recording engineer. Of course, that this was before the internet, recording schools … all of the stuff that we now take for granted. So, at the age of 11, I had written off to all of manufacturers at the time and requested there catalogs, which allowed me to create my own library of recording technology – which I promptly memorized.

Before I move on, I wanted to share a very funny story about how I never made to being a boy scout. My parents were never very religious (yeah), but for a year, we decided to give it a try. Every week in the church basement, the cub scouts met and so, I decided to join. One event was the “Rocket Race”. These were balsa wood rockets with propellers that were to be hung on strings and raced across a long room. Although my dad was a very srong, pysical (and quite sweet man), he was never very mechanically inclined. When it came time for the race, it was obvious taht all of the dads helped with their rockets. I, of course, made my own … I had so many rubber bands in that sucker that it had to be structurally reinforced, so as not to explode under its own tension. Then came the race! One by one, the boys would race their rockets and lil’ Johnny would win, then the next … my time came. I put it on the string track and let it go … it stormed across the room so fast that it crashed into the wall and exploded into pieces. They disqualified me, so I stormed out and quit. Such was my short brush with organized groups … I’ve never been too much of an organization guy since.

Another story refers to one of my fears and how I (pretty much) got over it, It all started with my mother’s fear of snakes and how she passed that onto me. When I was about 12, there was a pet store in the neighborhood that had lots of snakes. Right … so I walked in and told the owner that I had this fear of snakes and would he take me around and help me get over the phobia. We started with a 3″ little guy and i noticed how cool they felt and how they didn’t feel slimy at all, but felt smooth and silky, but very strong. After about an hour, I was handling his biggest constrictor. It was a great experience, that gave me a new-found respect for these “cool” creatures and how to confront my illogical demons.

One of my biggest moments, though, came when my brother showed me list latest new thing. It was a tape recorder, not just any recorder, but a super-portable one that literally had 1″ reels. It was straight out of a James Bond film, with hidden lapel mic and all. I was hooked! Soon after, I got my own portable recorder that had 3″ reels, then I slowly moved up to 5″, then 7″ then (Oh my god!) a 7″ stereo reel-to-reel recorder. I felt exactly like the little boy in “The Christmas Story”. I was in heaven! I’d record albums to tape and make my own mix reels (no-one knew what a mix reel was). Since my bedroom was really large(after inheriting it from my older brother and sisters), I put the stereo speakers as wide as I could in the room (about 30 feet) and added two color organs at each end to pulse to the music. I wasn’t popular at school with the kids, but who cared, I had my own amazing world … just for myself!

Soon, I started writing off to professional companies (like Neumann, AKG and Ampex to get the literature on their pro equipment at the age of 11. Soon, I built what was surely the only recording library in my home town (or a much wider area).

Teens

I remember going with my parents to a major concert in Indianapolis to see Odetta. She was an imposing black woman, who was playing that night on stage with the Cincinnati Orchestra and two full black church choirs. To say that it was a powerful evening is an understatement! She was on the stage, seated in a large ratan chair on a riser with the orchestra in front and the choirs to both sides. I noticed a bunch of microphones and decided to go sneak backstage before the concert to see what was up. It turns out the Jack Gilfoy and his team wad been contracted to record the show. I basically begged them to ask if I could stay and watch the session with them. I remember Mark Hood (Jack’s main engineer) asking later, who in the hell is this kid?

After the show, I found out that jack not only had a studio in Bloomington, Indiana, but he also had a two month recording workshop that he held. I was still living at home … so each week thereafter, I took a bus trip from home to Indianapolis, then to Bloomington for the class, and then took the bus back to “Indy”, stayed in a hotel and took the bus back home the next day. It was a lot for a young kid.

Move to Seattle

At this time in my life, while still being in England, I was trying to decide where to live. The choices at that time came down to Seattle or Berlin. Since the wall was up and those were much different times (I’m writing this in Berlin right now), I chose Seattle … I did it because, at the time, Seattle was trying hard to be a recording center. So, with $1000 in my back pocket, I moved west and immediately fell in love with the Northwest. The problem was, this was the early 80s, when the economy totally talked and so did Seattle’s dreams of being a recording center. But having tons of fun as a gay guy in the west, I decided to stick it out. First off, I ended up working for a Christian recording studio (that didn’t go over well). I didn’t give a crap and taught in full leather, the works. It was fun. Come to find out that decades later, I was actially working for who is now a dear buddy in NY (oh the irony).

Moving to Seattle was an amazing experience for me. As a gay guy, newly moved to the West Coast, I was in heaven. Making new friends and a new life. Recording in Seattle wasn’t for me, as I’m not much of a rocker. The grunge scene was getting under way, and although I know a fir number of folks who were influential, I’m just not a rocker. So, I lived in Seattle and travel to other places to get things done (still do).

Phil Williams

In 1981, I ran into a lady who was really into recording and she took me over to a big house where I met Phil and Vivian Williams. Phil and I hit it off right off the bat and that began a lifelong connection that lasted until his death in 2017 (see his obituary here).

– LS3/5A and Ampex

During my earliest times in Seattle I saved up a great deal of money to buy the best speakers that I could. For me, this meant buying a pair of Chartwell LS3/5A‘s. These speakers, now, go for over $3000 a pair and were designed by the BBC in England for on-location recording purposes. They were small, but they sounded incredible … far ahead of any speaker of their time. In addition to “my babies”, I also acquired an Ampex Tube AG350 stereo tape recorder. Tube playback through the LS3/5A’s was one of the best sounds that I’ve ever heard. To this day, I’m totally in love with the “English Loudspeaker sound” and am a huge fan of PMC Speakers … Many years later at a party at Capitol Records in LA, I was talking with Peter (the owner of PMC) and it turns out that he was one of the principle designers of the LS3/5A. Once he said that, everything immediately made sense.