Skip to main content
MusicRadar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Artist news
  • Guitars
  • Guitar Pedals
  • Synths
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Guitar Amps
  • Drums
  • Software & Apps
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • Radiohead theory
  • Steely Dan's drum machine
  • Deep Purple in the dungeon
  • Prince's drummers
  • 95k+ free music samples
Don't miss these
Ray Cooper
Artists Percussionist Ray Cooper tells the story of his ‘lost’ live collaboration with Elton John
Hal Blaine
Drummers Read our classic interview with Wrecking Crew legend Hal Blaine
Brent Mason performs at Guitar Town at Copper Mountain, Colorado on 29 July, 2007
Artists “I said, ‘Damn, I wish I'd cut that song faster!’”: How a master guitarist made a cult classic instrumental album
Jack Antonoff attends the 62nd Annual GRAMMY Awards at STAPLES Center on January 26, 2020
Recording “He kind of approaches records like a plumber…”: Bartees Strange on super producer Jack Antonoff
Brandi Carlile and Joni Mitchell
Artists Brandi Carlile reveals the songwriting maxim that Joni Mitchell lives by
NOBLESVILLE, INDIANA - SEPTEMBER 23: Speacial guest Bob Dylan performs in concert during Farm Aid at Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center on September 23, 2023 in Noblesville, Indiana. (Photo by Gary Miller/Getty Images)
Artists "This visit was truly special”: Bob Dylan spent two days recording in Albany last week
Joe Armon-Jones
Artists Ezra Collective’s Joe Armon-Jones on the imagined musical apocalypse that inspired All The Quiet
Brent Smith of Shinedown performs during the US rockers' Dance, Kid, Dance Tour 2025.
Artists Shinedown’s Brent Smith on finding inspiration in a hurricane and why you don’t need to be play guitar to write a great song
Mk.gee
Artists Mk.gee’s collaboration with Justin Bieber has arrived on Bieber’s surprise new album, Swag
Bruce Springsteen
Recording “There’s a lot of good music left”: Springsteen releases Born To Run out-take onto streaming platforms
Taylor Swift and Max Martin
Artists Taylor Swift on how she threw down the creative gauntlet to Max Martin for new album The Life Of A Showgirl
Hot Chip 2006
Tech “There’s joy in doing something again and again”: Hot Chip show how one of their best loved tracks was created
loukeman
Artists Loukeman reveals his favourite plugins and unusual production techniques
Brent Smith [left] performs in a blazer and white T-shirt as flames from pyro light the stage behind him. On the right, Rick Beato is photographed in a denim overshirt at NAMM 2022.
Artists Shinedown frontman Brent Smith on what makes Rick Beato a great producer
PinkPantheress
Artists PinkPantheress on the pop star who she says is like “AI in a person, musically”
  1. Artists

Blake Mills on Heigh Ho and recording in his car

News
By Henry Yates ( Guitarist ) published 15 January 2015

The session ace goes it alone

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

The Sessions

The Sessions

Blake Mills is the Californian session god who shared a stage with Clapton, now he turns solo star with a genre-splicing new album, Heigh Ho...

“It’s an interesting story: we recorded Heigh Ho in the ‘B’ room at Ocean Way, but most of the vocals were done in my car.

"There was a ’52 Tele that Jackson Browne pulled out to show me one night. I couldn’t put it down"

"I would drive out somewhere, really late at night, usually after two in the morning, when I’d been using my voice all day and it was finally warmed up. I’d drive to the beach, or to a park, and I had a microphone that I plugged into this simple little interface called an Apogee Duet.

"I’d record vocal takes into a laptop, then listen back to see if they were usable, sonically. The sound was actually quite good, because the car is like an isolation chamber. All the cloth seats soaked up any reflections, and the windshield was angled at such a drastic slope that there wasn’t slapback. And, y’know, everyone sings in the car!”

The Guitars

“My friend lent me this 1800s gut-string parlour that I used to write and record a few things. It’s got these wooden banjo tuners, so it’s a bitch to keep in tune.

"Then there was the ’52 Tele that Jackson Browne pulled out to show me one night. I couldn’t put it down, so he said, ‘Just hang onto it for a while’! There’s a lot of pedigree in that Telecaster. It’s been played by a bunch of people, and it’s covered in gunk, but I can’t bring myself to wipe it off, because there’s no telling who put it there.

"Almost all the slide stuff was played on my Coodercasters. I have two, and they’ve both got a neck pickup from a hollowbody Guyatone and a Valco in the bridge. But they’re very different: one sounds like a human voice and the other has a really wide range.”

Page 1 of 3
Page 1 of 3
The Tones

The Tones

“The amplifier was a film projector that my friend Austen Hooks built. He takes film projectors from the 40s and modifies them so the audio section can be used as a guitar amp. I have a couple, and that’s kinda the centrepiece of my rig, running through cabinets that he also built.

"There's all this equipment used in a context that’s more unusual than just plugging a guitar into an amp"

"We mic’d the back of the cabs, too, and that helped retain some of the body. The projectors just sound different. It doesn’t colour the sound, like so many guitar amps do.

"I’d also put drums through the preamp section of a guitar amp, then take a line out straight to the board. So there was all this equipment being used in a context that’s a little more unusual than just plugging a guitar into an amp. Most of the effects were outboard - some tape delay and compression - I can’t recall any stompboxes.”

The Mix

“We spent a year mixing this record. I’d sit with Greg Koller and meddle with it until it felt like my memory of being there performing in the room. There’s such a beautiful sound in that ‘B’ room, that if you can capture it, you can transport the listener to that space. But it’s a difficult thing to capture. It’s sort of like realism in painting: there’s a lot of mystery in getting a record to sound real.

"In the studio, there was a main live room, and then a side room, where we put another cabinet - so we could turn it up and really get a wide stereo image of the guitar without turning up the drums and bass, too.

"To have an isolation room during live tracking that’s entirely dedicated to one guitar amplifier... that’s quite unusual.”

Page 2 of 3
Page 2 of 3
The Lessons

The Lessons

“Curable Disease was tough. I was trying to record that song just with guitar, and then sing it afterwards. Y’know, to just get the guitar performance, and then go and sing the vocal in my car. But I just couldn’t really play it with any kind of a pocket, and I really didn’t like the way I sounded singing it without playing guitar. It wasn’t a real dialogue.

"I just wanted to make a record that sounds like a record I want to hear."

"Finally, after trying to record that song for several days, I realised it was one where I really needed to be playing guitar and singing at the same time, just to get the pocket and the rhythm going. When it isn’t happening like that, it’s a very isolating feeling...”

The Verdict

“I wanted this record to sound... very much like it does! Yeah, I’m pleased with it. It’s something that I got to see all the way through, in the way I wanted to. My reputation as a guitar player is something I’m certainly proud of, but I think sometimes people expect something wild, fast, loud or aggressive. It’s not really the kind of musician I am.

"But I think once that wears off, and people are able to listen with open ears, there’s something else to take from it. I have no commercial aspirations. All the aspirations for it have been met. I just wanted to make a record that sounds like a record I want to hear.”

Page 3 of 3
Page 3 of 3
Henry Yates
The magazine for serious players image
The magazine for serious players
Subscribe and save today!
More Info
Read more
Ray Cooper
Percussionist Ray Cooper tells the story of his ‘lost’ live collaboration with Elton John
Hal Blaine
Read our classic interview with Wrecking Crew legend Hal Blaine
Brent Mason performs at Guitar Town at Copper Mountain, Colorado on 29 July, 2007
“I said, ‘Damn, I wish I'd cut that song faster!’”: How a master guitarist made a cult classic instrumental album
Jack Antonoff attends the 62nd Annual GRAMMY Awards at STAPLES Center on January 26, 2020
“He kind of approaches records like a plumber…”: Bartees Strange on super producer Jack Antonoff
Brandi Carlile and Joni Mitchell
Brandi Carlile reveals the songwriting maxim that Joni Mitchell lives by
NOBLESVILLE, INDIANA - SEPTEMBER 23: Speacial guest Bob Dylan performs in concert during Farm Aid at Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center on September 23, 2023 in Noblesville, Indiana. (Photo by Gary Miller/Getty Images)
"This visit was truly special”: Bob Dylan spent two days recording in Albany last week
Latest in Artists
Bruce Springsteen, circa 1982
“It was kinda like punk rockabilly”: Springsteen to release electric versions of Nebraska tracks
Josh Homme in the No One Knows video
“Of course it was gonna be a hit! This song really is original”: Inside the making of a Queens Of The Stone Age classic
David Bowie On Set of Jump They Say Music Video
“London presented so much that he found fascinating": David Bowie’s lost theatrical project set in 18th-century London
Avicii
When Avicii transformed an ‘Irish pub song’ into a generational anthem
Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit performs onstage during Leeds Festival at Bramham Park on August 24, 2025 in Leeds, Englan
"Please don't put it on the internet": Limp Bizkit tease new song with the help of a young social media drummer
radiohead
“If the point of Radiohead songs isn’t to make you feel good, what is their music for?”: A music professor breaks down the theory behind Radiohead's Let Down
Latest in News
warm audio
Warm Audio promises studio-quality sound without the price tag with three new vintage-inspired condenser mics
Deals of the week
MusicRadar deals of the week: With a whopping $600 off a Gibson Les Paul, $500 off a stunning Guild Starfire and $400 off the modern Strandberg Boden Metal NX 6, it's all about guitars this week
Gibson Custom SJ-200 Monarch #100: this stunning one-of-one jumbo is replete with all kinds of rococo flourishes, from the diamond and gold crown inlay on the headstock, to the 14k gold rope binding, Gibson calls it the "ultimate custom" acoustic and not without some justification.
Gibson gives the “King of the Flat-Tops” a whole new meaning with the $99,999 SJ-200 Monarch #100
Isolated Robot Reading Book Wearing Headphones
“The largest IP theft in human history”: Tech companies accused of scraping millions of copyrighted songs to train AI
Biran May and friends
"It's a classic... one of the best rock songs ever”: Which 2013 track could Brian May be talking about?
wavs
WAVS launches "first-of-its-kind" AI-powered sample discovery tool, AI Sample Finder

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...