Welcome to The Special Access Gallery
This gallery contains archival content for the purposes of:
- providing historical and educational perspective
- examining the stages and process of art creation
- examining the importance of collaboration in art creation
- extending the narrative on how some of these recordings came to be
JANUARY 2018 RELEASE-
Red Hot Chili Peppers: “Me And My Friends” (1987)
When I began working with the Chili Peppers, their label, EMI Records stipulated that the only way they would agree to let us begin recording was if we provided them with demos first. At that time, the band were struggling with heroin addiction and with only a handful of songs to demo, their future was looking shaky. Considering the state of the band at that time, the process of writing and then, recording demos became an incredibly rigorous undertaking.
This instrumental version of “Me And My Friends” was one of the demos we cut in February, 1987. EMI refused to give us a demo budget, so we had to use the tiny demo studio that was located in the back of their offices. We had been rehearsing there, as well and were only allowed into the building after hours. Somehow, we completed the demos EMI had demanded, but in spite of this, in the eleventh hour, one of their executives attempted to block us from recording and we came dangerously close to not making the record at all (which would have spelt the demise of the band). Fate, however, continued to favor our side….
Hole: “Northern Star” rough mix (1997)
This mix is from a batch of roughs done right before Christmas, 1997. At that time, everyone on the project was absolutely exhausted after months of working on tracks for “Celebrity Skin”. This rough is missing the string arrangement which was put on many months later (after we went through about 5 or 6 different strong arrangers). I always loved this song and its mood, but my favorite thing about it is Courtney’s vocal performance which consistently gave chills to everyone who heard it.
Korn: “Jesus Is Mexican“ rough mix (2002)
This rough mix was done at Village Recorders on 1/07/02 at the very end of the night. Jonathan had just completed his lead and backing vocals and although we were all exhausted, we were far more elated by his extraordinary vocal performance. The title of this song was eventually changed to “Make Believe” for the album.