Oct 1, 2001 12:00 PM, BY MAUREEN DRONEY

You have to give everything its own identity for the artist. You can't put your imprint on it.

I would rather compress a vocal hard to get some personality out. It's like putting a snazzy jacket on a guy when he goes out at night — it adds attitude.

Living in Los Angeles for more than 15 years seems to have had very little effect on Chris Lord-Alge's East Coast style. In case you haven't met the guy, I have to tell you, this is one rapid-action dude. His hallmarks are speed and efficiency, and he is definitely not into wasting time — his or anybody else's.

This elder scion of the Lord-Alge family started his career in his native New Jersey where he was a drummer in local clubs. Today, he is one of the most in-demand mixers around, and speculation about his formula for success runs rampant: How can he do it so fast and so often? That question becomes even more puzzling when you listen to a medley of his mixes, because, unlike the product of some other top mixers currently riding the charts, CLA's mixes all sound different. While listening to Dave Matthews Band, Faith Hill and Melissa Etheridge, you'll be hard pressed to recognize a CLA stamp.

Confident, opinionated, assertive (okay, aggressive!) and extremely verbal, CLA is also eager to please. Those attributes, along with his inherent musical and technical talents, have created a winning combination and garnered him a long string of hits and two Grammy nominations. Among his Platinum mix credits, Lord-Alge numbers Dave Matthews Band's Everyday, Green Day's Nimrod, Fastball's All the Money Pain Can Buy and Savage Garden's Savage Garden. He's frequently brought in to pinch hit on radio mixes; you've heard his work on singles by No Doubt, Everclear, Orgy, Barenaked Ladies, Nine Days and Foo Fighters, among others. Look a little further back in his discography and you'll find some other interesting artists: Collective Soul, Hole, Bad Religion, Meredith Brooks, Joe Cocker, Chris Isaak, Sprung Monkey and B.B. King, to name a few.

So how does he do it? I sat down with him one morning at his longtime home base studio in Hollywood, hoping to find out. Day after day, he cranks out the hits there, working on a 60-input SSL 4000 G Plus console in a control room that he has perfectly configured to accommodate his taste. It was a Saturday, around 11 a.m. when I dropped in, and he'd already been working on some P.O.D. remixes for a couple of hours.

So, what time do you usually come in to work?

Well, I leave my house, which is 35 or 40 minutes away, at a quarter to nine.

Mix well, go home early.

Well, we try to get out of here at a reasonable hour. We only work late if we have to. If you do this six, seven days a week, you've got to have balance. I worked 12 hours a day when I was starting out, and I still do it if it's necessary, but it's usually not. That's better for everybody. I really don't want people to go out to dinner and then come back here afterward and try to concentrate when they're tired. I just try to make it easy. I find that my clients like it better that way.

Why do you think people come to you to do a mix?

I think record companies look at mixers like baseball players. If they're going to put somebody in to pinch hit, they'd better hit a home run. They don't want to take any chances anymore; you've got to make their song happen. And if, time and again, you're turning in exactly what they want, they're going to come back to you. You can't have them call and say, “Well, I'm not sure about that.” Because then you're not going to get hired the next time.

Yeah, but how does one do that?

I guess you just have the ear and the creative talent to pull it together. A big part of it is having the kind of mentality that knows it's not your song. You're making it for the clients and for the people who are going to buy it. If a record you're mixing is for 17- to 21-year-olds, whether it's edgy rock or more hip hop-oriented, you better make sure that's who you're aiming for. Of course, you have to like it; you're mixing it! You make it to where you like it, and you hope that when you like it, they all like it.

Now, I don't mean that all this is easy. It takes years to refine your tools and your talent to make it work for every type of music. But my work ethic is a strict routine — how I work my guys, how I work — that I don't waste any time. I'm not sitting around watching TV or taking a long lunch. I just go in there and get it. There's plenty of time to eat, drink and be merry later, off hours. Socializing with the clients is one thing; you've got to make them feel at home. But generally, the clients I work with want to come in here, do a little refining, get a CD and run for the door. They think it's great that when I say it's ready at four, it's ready at four.

You frequently get hired to mix singles for the radio. What's different about doing that vs. mixing for an album?

You look at the album version, figure out what you think is, in your personal opinion, going to make it better and you take it to the next level. It's very competitive out there.

Are you friendly with many radio programmers?

Yeah, I know some programmers at the key stations in town. I know what their equipment does sonically to the record, I know what they're playing and what kind of song makes them jump, based on form or length or style. So I generally have a good idea if a song has even got a shot, and what's going to make it have a shot. Remember, people don't have any patience on the radio. If they don't get it in like 20 seconds, they're switching stations.

You've mentioned your concern that people may not hear the radio version when they buy an album.

Personally, I think when you're mixing an album, you want to maximize every song. Whatever they thought was not a single, you try to make into a single.

By editing? Changing arrangements?

A lot of the time, it's just how you make it sound. You make it as competitive as possible. Then, if the thing is clocking in at 5½ minutes, you say, “Hey, by the way, I can pull a 3:30- or a 4-minute out of this for radio play.” Half the time, they'll decide to use that version on the album.

You trim the fat. I know you guys like it long, you want it six minutes. But if your album is 70 minutes long on the CD, I think that's overkill. I can get the first four Beatles albums on one CD — that's how short they were. Length is important. Make people want to listen to it again! Twenty choruses at the end is just going to make them not want to ever hear it again.
more>>>

	Fill in the form below and click Order Now! to get two years (24 issues) for just $35.97 - the regular price of one year. But HURRY - this offer won't last forever! (U.S. orders only please)
First Name: Last Name: Address: City: State: Zip: Email:
This data will be sent directly to Mix Magazine  and will not be used for any other purposes.

Acceptable Use Policy blog comments powered by Disqus