The boys from Vegas give us a tour through Abbey Road Studios.
A lot has changed for Panic at the Disco since they sold more than 2.2 million copies of their debut record,
A Fever You Can't Sweat Out. In the interim between touring and recording, they've dropped the exclamation point, started intensely listening to the Beatles and visited some of rock's most fabled grounds. Blender.com caught up with Panic at the Disco's Spencer Smith just before the band took the stage at the U.K.'s famed Glastonbury Festival to talk about their new record and what it was like recording in the hallowed studios of Abbey Road. An episode of
Live From Abbey Road featuring the band premieres on
The Sundance Channel Thursday, July 3 at 10
P.M. EST.
Panic at the Disco has certainly evolved as a group. How did the writing and recording process of Pretty. Odd differ from your last album? During our first tour, we all started getting into other bands and meeting new people and getting into new music. So when we started writing new material, we realized, like man, we had a year and a half of everyone getting into different bands. But after a couple of months we were all on the same page: "Let's just try to write the best song." Being in the studio this time around, we really wanted to use the extra time that we didn't have on the first album for experimenting and messing around with some different ranges of songs. Over all it was a lot more expensive writing and recording this record than the first, but you know you still get to that point where you have to finish and say, "All right, we're going to move on from this." If you stay, you're going to be making changes forever.
Why did you guys choose Abbey Road to record strings? Rob Mathes, who is much more advanced musically than anybody we have worked with, expressed that he loved the players who are in London. He understands their level of musicianship and their mentality, and knew it would fit our style. As for us, we obviously know the history of the studio. So many of our favorite musicians and artists have recorded there. So when Rob suggested Studio Two at Abbey Road as a possible place to record strings, there was no doubt in our minds. I mean, it was just like, "OK that's it. Perfect." We also ended up mixing the album there. We worked with this mixer named Peter Cobbin, who has mixed some of the strings and scores of movies like
The Lord of the Rings and
Willy Wonka. He was like, "I have done all this classical stuff, but I still fucking love rock music!" It was just kind of insane to be let into their world and to work with the best musicians and producers and mixers.
More specifically, why is Abbey Road the best place to record strings? If you ever talk to any producer who has built a studio, it is a never-ending process to get the live room to sound better. But I mean, the fact that you can actually go to Abbey Road and work on some of the equipment that has been there for 30 or 40 years, like the soundboards or consoles. The mics and preamps are some of the best stuff made in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s; and then there's also some of today's best equipment. But you realize that all that doesn't matter if the songs aren't good. If you're not on pitch it doesn't matter. That's what we learned from making our first record for 14 grand and having it exceed a lot of expectations, and then going on to this place where the
fucking Beatles recorded. I mean, that is an insane leap from where we were.
Was the studio's history with bands like the Beatles and Pink Floyd intimidating or inspiring? I think that it was definitely inspiring. Had there been a band making music like Pink Floyd or the Beatles in the room next door, we would've been intimidated. But instead there are these pictures of everyone who has worked there. It's just amazing and inspiring. To see some of the old pianos that the Beatles used or the boards that mixed
Dark Side of the Moon was pretty incredible. We were more excited than anything else, just to be able to work on our own material in such a historic place.
The band has really been getting into the Beatles lately. What is your favorite record? Well, I think Ryan and I agree that the
White Album sounds the best in the way it was recorded. With the tones and instrumentation, every song just sounds so cool. As far as the songs themselves, I love “Magical Mystery Tour,” though I don't know if all the songs were done in a consecutive order.
Your episode of Live From Abbey Road premieres on Sundance this Thursday. How was that shot? We did four or five of our own songs, and then we carried the weight of the band. It was very relaxed. It was all in Studio One, which is big enough to fit a 70-piece orchestra. We played whatever we wanted, and then they picked the three or four that they are going to air. I guess the rest will end up online. It did feel like something special. It was relaxed and fun, and the engineer who worked on it looked just like Pete Townshend.