Former Frames guitarist Dave Odlum picked up a Grammy Award last night for his production work on Tinariwen’s Tassili album.
“A few years ago a friend of (Black Box studio owner) Iain Burgess’ dropped by the studio to say ‘hi’ and show the place to a young Parisienne singer,” Odlum recently blogged. “Myself and Jean-Paul got to chatting, speaking in serial-numbers and gear related gobbledegook pretty much straight away. Standard studio fare it must be said. A pleasure to share a bottle of wine with, and much fun it was to listen to Iain and him tell tales of early Black Box days.
“A number of years later JP passed by the studio again. He asked me if I'd be interested in working with him on a record he was making with an African band called Tinariwen. A friend of mine in Dublin had given me Amassakoul a few years previously, I really liked that record so I was more than happy to work with JP on this record. We spent a few hard weeks compiling and editing the record, it was recorded in very much a ‘field recording’ method, so there was a lot of listening to do and choices to be made. A number of weeks later we finished the Imidiwan album.
“A year later I was again asked if I'd care to mix the following Tinariwen record. I was explained how it was a different approach to the band. Somewhere between a collaborative and acoustic record - needless to say, though I seem to be, I was delighted to be working on another of their albums. There was a lot more to do on this one. The two producers, Jean-Paul and Ian Brennan, had recorded a lot of material in the desert and had invited others to join them and add to the recordings.
“We spent a couple of weeks at a studio in Paris building the mixes, listening through the various takes of songs with Ian and Jean-Paul passionately arguing over where the record should get to. Passions ran high from time to time, it was indicative how how much we all believed in the band. We later adjourned to Black Box to mix a few more songs and fine tune the work we had been doing in Paris and after a few days last spring Ian headed over the John Golden to master the album that has been released as Tassili.
“Some months later I found myself playing with my old band the Frames at the Other Voices festival in Dingle in Kerry, only to be rudely awoken early one morning by a message from Ian to say that Tassili had been nominated for a Grammy. I'm fortunate to be from a musical background that places a huge value on performance and during the mixing of Tassili I was struck many times by the potency of the band's performances. It's really gratifying to see that kind of authenticity being acknowledged.”
Odlum’s latest gig is producing the new album by Blackchords, an Australian band who hooked up with him over Skype. The as-yet-untitled collection drops in May.