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The making of Michael Jackson's Thriller
Go behind-the-scenes with engineer Bruce Swedien
Future Music, Thu 1 Oct 2009, 12:15 pm BST
Thriller track-by-track with Bruce Swedien
Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
"That track is about Michael's brothers' wives and how they were always creating trouble – that was his inspiration. It starts with a lot of percussion. There's some drum machines and some live drums and other things. It's a Univox drum machine. We actually used it a lot on the Brothers Johnson record, and we were using it at that time on Michael's record as well. I think it's an SR55. I still have my own and it still works.
"We DI'd every drum machine to get away from secondary pick-up and reflected sound inside the room. Also, a lot of these drum machines have a lot of low end. Like Roland with the 808; it has bottom end like you wouldn't believe and if you put that through a speaker it's all gone. So direct with a module and everything – boy it was killer.
"I tried a bunch of new things in recording the drums on Michael's record – I had a kick drum cover made. I used to take the front head of the kick drum off and place a couple of real heavy cinder blocks inside to hold it still and weight it. Then, I'd put this cover on and the mic goes inside through a zipper opening in the cover, then you zip it up tight and turn it on and the rest is history."
Baby Be Mine
"That's John Robinson playing drums on my drum platform. I still use it and Michael did all his vocals on that drum platform. It's unpainted, unvarnished, about eight feet square and by getting the sound source up off the floor, it prevented secondary pick-up if I was recording other instruments along with whatever was on the drum platform.
"We of course had incredible keyboard players too. We never hired anybody who couldn't play.
"Interestingly, we always recorded with Michael in the dark – he hated light." Bruce Swedien
"We used the same mic and pre throughout the album - I used my Shure SM7, serial number 232, which is very early. They've made so many SM7's that they don't even put serial numbers on them any more. I've been pretty vocal about how much I love that microphone, it's a great mic. It's dynamic of course and it worked just flawlessly with Michael - if you notice you can hear all the lyrics very clearly.
"The mic pre we used was a Neve 1084 – I've got two of them in a gorgeous oak case and I used to carry them with me from session to session. Quincy said that working with me and moving my stuff from studio to studio was like working with the Fifth Army. You need to be that dedicated to the sonic of a project. You need to love what you do."
Jackson and Paul McCartney in the studio in 1983. It was 'Wear Your Dodgy Knitwear To Work Day', obviously. Image: © Bettmann/CORBIS
The Girl Is Mine
"That was actually the first track we recorded for the album. It was a duet with Michael and Paul McCartney who was an absolute joy to work with. He was such a gentleman, he came to the studio prepared - Linda McCartney was with him and we had a fabulous time.
"We had recorded The Girl Is Mine and it was already out there and released before we had finished the album. Quincy would come in every morning and put on a couple of local radio stations and they were all playing The Girl Is Mine, so that would make you very serious about your work very quickly.
"Interestingly, we always recorded with Michael in the dark – he hated light. I mean I would have a little bit of light for him, but the studio was absolutely dark. I think one reason why he wanted this – and why it works so effectively – is that through my study of acoustics and so on, I found that the human being is primarily a visual animal, hearing is our second sense. People can be distracted by too much light in the studio to the extent that it can take away from the music."
