Discography
Dave Carlock - Still Life of a Musical Journeyman
After platinum plaques, Grammy recognition and 50 releases, the boy's still in it for the music.
By Vic Rodale
Meeting Dave Carlock today, it seems odd to imagine a time that he didn't play all those instruments and wear all those hats. He's had his hand in the mix, literally and figuratively, for many years now—crossing genre boundaries with veritable ease. Richard Marx to Rancid—that pretty much sums up the range of his work and that's where he claims you'll find two of his favorite singers. Who'da thought? But to Carlock, there are no boundaries when you're in it for the music.
Glancing around his studio, 27 Space, the room seems very comfortable and surprisingly modest considering the sound of the records he makes, giving more room to people and less to visible gear—sort of an anti-studio for such a bling-bling age. "After all this time, the thing that I find still really matters is the song and the vibe of the performance. Space is much more amenable to getting a good performance from a person than stacks of electronics," Carlock said.
It All Began with a Jukebox...
Considering the care and attention he's known to give to his singers' vocal tracks, it's no surprise to learn that he began his musical life as a singer himself, debuting at age 5. Before the days of readily available karaoke tracks and mp3s, he made his stage in front of restaurant jukeboxes. "I started standing in front of jukeboxes because that's where the music was loudest. I sort of naturally sang along because that was what I did at home. Eventually someone caught me in the act and encouraged me to sing to the crowd," Carlock said. After being given quarters to keep playing and singing by a customer eager to impress his date, Carlock was hooked. Music was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.
Eventually Carlock began learning to play other instruments. At age 9, after failing miserably in his attempt to reverse the strings on his father's left handed classical guitar, it was clear that Carlock needed help focusing his drive. So at age 12, after showing promise in a round of beginner guitar lessons and regular jam sessions with a friend, Carlock got a starter bass guitar and small electric guitar amp from the local 2nd hand music shop for Christmas. That was all it took to start him down the path of a lifer.
Carlock thought about and listened to music night and day, either on hit radio WLS-AM in nearby Chicago, or from his Beatles, Who & Stevie Wonder vinyl, prompting people to refer to him only half jokingly as a musical encyclopedia. He practiced bass and acoustic guitar constantly. When he became interested in piano, he went to church with friends so he could play the piano after service—sometimes for as little as five minutes—until someone inevitably smiled at him and closed the piano key cover, week after week.
In junior high, Carlock funded music theory lessons by washing cars for $1 and doing lawn work for neighbors. By sneaking into the junior high gym to practice during recesses, he was able to slowly develop skills and figure out how to get the music from his mind onto the keys.
Teenage Whiz Kid
By his late teens, Carlock was singing and playing guitar and piano in local festivals as a solo, as well as playing with local bands, which earned him a strong regional following. His performances and arrangements with his high school symphony gave him a reputation of being a teenage whiz kid who might actually break out of his hometown and make something of himself. But in the meantime, he gave guitar, keyboard and bass lessons to earn money to buy synths and studio gear and began producing local bands in his studio.
Carlock's live performances continued to build momentum and culminated in a showcase concert that sold out a 1,000 seat venue, while being accompanied by a 14-piece band and a 50-piece symphony.
As a singer/songwriter, skilled synth programmer and string arranger all in one person, he excelled at what seemed to be conflicting types of music. Through these wildly varied influences and interests, he began to exercise his ability to combine unlike elements into new combinations. But he had taken things as far as they could go in his hometown and set his sights on New York.
First Break as Songwriter/New York
Carlock got his first break and professional credit at age 20, after attending the legendary New Music Seminar in New York. At a club called the Red Zone, he had a brief, chance meeting with Johnny Coppola, a promotion man at Columbia Records (later becoming VP of Promotion at The Work Group, Capitol and MCA). Coppola heard Carlock's tracks and quickly forwarded them to producers Mark Liggett and Chris Barbosa who were working on George LaMond's debut record for Columbia. Carlock ultimately placed three songs with LaMond on two albums and contributed background vocals and arrangements to the records. Soon after, Carlock built his first substantial home studio around a 1/2" 16 track tape machine and continued down the path of writing and producing.
Before long, Carlock relocated to New York where he continued to write and engineer/mix for several NY bands--most notably, Coward, whose work with Carlock got the band noticed and ultimately signed by Elektra. Coward's album ended up being produced by Jerry Finn, an interesting coincidence considering that Carlock & Finn's pre-production/production connection would be repeated years later on the Blink-182 record.
Shortly after moving to New York, Carlock began to embrace early digital recording technology and traded in his 16-track tape machine for an early version of Pro Tools. Due to his experience, he became a sought after Pro Tools tech/engineer in NYC which led to work as a consultant at Lenny Kravitz's 35th Street studio and Daryl Hall's A-Pawling Studio with top engineers Henry Hirsch and Peter Moshay, respectively.
Beginnings in Los Angeles—Pop, Rock, AAA, & R&B
After three years in NY, Carlock moved to Los Angeles where producers such as David Cole (Melissa Etheridge) , CJ Vanston (Joe Cocker) , Richard Marx (*NSync) , and artists such as STYX, Tommy Shaw and Lisa Hayes & The Violets quickly valued Carlock's involvement in their records, specifically with vocal tracks. His protective instincts towards singers and non-Auto Tune vocal tuning techniques earned him opportunities with such vocalists as Duncan Sheik, Lisa Loeb, Hal Ketchum and Dolly Parton, among others.
For a year, Carlock also partnered with producer/engineer/mixer Greg Ladanyi (Jackson Browne, Don Henley, Pat Green) , one of the pillars of classic California pop/rock. In their year together, they worked on a global group of artists including Spain's Araque, Mexico's Jaquares, and America's own Jo Davidson, an underrated singer/songwriter/pianist that helped open doors to the eventual success of multi-platinum artist Vanessa Carlton.
In addition to new artists, Ladanyi and Carlock worked with the Tubes, co-producing the hybrid live/studio greatest hits album Tubes World Tour 2001. The album featured two new songs, including "Loveline," which the pair co-produced with David Foster. They also worked together on an album for the original members of Buddy Holly's band, The Crickets, entitled Crickets And Their Buddies—a project that allowed Carlock the opportunity to work with special guests like Eric Clapton, JJ Cale, Johnny Rivers, and others. A highlight of the sessions found Carlock, an unknown singer among legends, being given the honor of singing harmony with Rodney Crowell on "That'll Be The Day."
Following his year with Ladanyi, Carlock began to focus more on mixing, and worked on several projects for Dreamworks with songwriter/producer Alex Cantrall (Jojo, LAX, Dru Hill) including B2K, Damon Sharpe, and Az Yet. Carlock also had the good fortune of working with producer/mixer Neal Pogue (Outkast, En Vogue, Stevie Wonder) for artist Cherokee, who was being managed by R&B industry legend Herb Trawick of the Trawick Group. However, the BIGGEST session of that period was undoubtedly Shaquille O'Neil, who filled the already large-scale O'Henry Studios from floor to ceiling!
From Pop to Punk
Around the same time, Carlock began engineering and mixing several projects for Hellcat Records, including The Distillers, Lars Frederiksen and The Bastards, the Gadjits, and the Rancid/NOFX split. For a while, Carlock continued to focus on punk rock records, enjoying his regular collaborations with Tim Armstrong, the producer/artist and punk rock musical encyclopedia whose punk passions found an equal and opposite match in Carlock's pop and rock sensibilities. Eventually Carlock found himself working with punk legends Bad Religion, mixing for Joe Strummer and contributing to records for Strung Out and Epitaph's Matchbook Romance. One of Carlock's great memories from that period was engineering and mixing Rancid's contribution to the Ramones tribute record, We're A Happy Family, where the track appeared alongside tracks from Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2, KISS, Metallica, Green Day and Rob Zombie. Carlock also worked with Rancid on Indestructible for Hellcat/Warner. Aside from his Pro Tools work on the record, he contributed BGVs on "Red Hot Moon" and co-wrote the fist pumping punk anthem, "Spirit Of '87."
Perhaps the biggest projects of note from Carlock's journey into punk were the two Tran$plant$ records which Carlock engineered, mixed and co-produced with Tim Armstrong. The first record was released on Hellcat/Epitaph and the second on Travis Barker's label, LaSalle, distributed by Atlantic. And if you don't mute your TV during commercials, you can hear his piano hook and "woo woos" on Garnier Fructis shampoo ads, which feature the first album's runaway KROQ hit, "Diamonds & Guns."
The second record, Haunted Cities, featured "Madness," the high-energy writing collaboration between Carlock and the Tran$plant$. Carlock once again complimented the band's work by contributing whatever was needed, wherever it was needed on the record—from guitars to bass to synths, even theremin. Haunted Cities also made history by being the first rock record to be "Chopped & Screwed" by Houston hip hop star Paul Wall. The movie School For Scoundrels featured the Haunted Cities track "I Want it All," mixed by Carlock at his studio.
Beyond the Studio
Though the bulk of his professional work has been in the studio making records, his early skills as a performer were called upon when he was asked to perform onstage as part of the Tran$plant$ as their keyboard/loop/sample guru on a national tour with the Foo Fighters. The tour included TV appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and an unrehearsed live collaboration with Snoop Dogg on MTV's Doggy Fizzle Televizzle.
The open road furnished another change of pace when Carlock was asked to produce and mix the live audio tracks for Hellcat Records' Give 'Em The Boot Movie. With only a 2nd engineer to watch his back, Carlock's mobile Pro Tools rig went where it had never gone before—into punk rock clubs from San Diego to the Inland Empire to Hollywood—to capture more than a dozen Hellcat bands raw, tough and in their element in true guerilla recording style. No mobile trucks, no red tape, just one unpredictable adventure.
Blink & P!nk
Following the release of the first Tran$plant$ record, Carlock was asked to handle the pre-production phase of the final Blink-182 record on Geffen. He was responsible for converting a private rented estate near San Diego into a recording environment, based around the mobile recording studio he had designed for Travis Barker. After discovering that Barker—currently one of rock's best and loudest drummers—was being easily heard by the neighbors, Carlock made the owners feel comfortable enough to agree to his plan to build 8" thick sound insulating walls within their $10 million home so the band could continue to work there. Carlock recalled, "They were really lovely people and their daughters were Blink fans, so that helped a lot... that's just one of the many crazy things I've done while making records."
After six weeks of recording and helping the band, Carlock's pre-production work inspired an album that some have called Blink's best work as well as being a 2x Platinum success. And much to Carlock's surprise, a few vocal arrangements, sonic palates and unique samples that he contributed to the original pre-production recordings were used or recreated on the final record—the ultimate compliment.
Later in the year, Carlock had the opportunity to engineer and play instruments on nine tracks for P!nk's release, Try This, leading to his winning a Grammy Award certificate for his engineering work on "Trouble." He was also hired on as her keyboard player to promote "Feel Good Time" from Charlie's Angels II for various TV dates, but when the recording schedule extended, P!nk preferred him to stay on as engineer.
Working with P!nk remains a highlight for Carlock. "When she got her Grammy, I sent her an arrangement of roses with a can of SPAM in the middle—an inside joke from the time we spent on the Tran$plant$ tour bus together," Carlock laughed. "To me, her voice is like a T-Bone steak in a world of SPAM. She's a great, soulful singer and the type of artist that new artists should look to as an inspiration."
27 Sounds
Looking to use his abilities to their fullest, Carlock launched his production company 27 Sounds in 2003 with a mission to write for and produce unsigned artists. Since the release of the Tran$plant$ Haunted Cities, Carlock has focused most of his attention there and has had six releases to date with styles ranging from pop/rock to AAA to A.D.D. rock to R&B/pop. The 27sounds.com site went live in November of 2006 and features an A&R Lounge that allows major label A&R departments direct access to the entire 27 Sounds roster of music and artist promotional info.
Currently, whether Carlock is mixing for artists around the globe from his studio in LA, producing and engineering for other labels, or writing songs for the next 27 Sounds artist, he's happy every day to be living the dream of his 5-year-old self: spending his life making music.
© 2007 27 Sounds.
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