Volume 1, Issue 4 |
| John Kurlander |
British Engineer and 3x Grammy Winner, John Kurlander, has established himself as one of the
numerous classical and popular music artists to recording hundreds of feature film scores and
symphonies including recording soloists and small ensembles as well as large orchestra and choir.
His first major assignment was as the assistant engineer on The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” LP. He
quickly went on to become one of the world’s leading recording engineers for classical music,
orchestral classic rock, musical theatre and then crossed over to film scores. Best known for his
engineering and mixing work on one of film’s top trilogies, “The Lord of the Rings,” his recent
notable projects include engineering the score sessions for the Academy Award winning film “The
Hurt Locker,” the 2009 Music of the Year award-winning video game score “Assassin’s Creed II”
and highly anticipated computer game “StarCraft II.”
I Am Entertainment Magazine sat down with John at his home in Los Angeles to discuss his
wonderful career and how he went from teenage studio intern in London, to Grammy Award Winner.
IAE: Please tell us where you are from and what inspired you to get into the music biz?
JK: I got my start in the 1960’s when I was a teenager living at home with my parents. I attended a school in St.
John’s Wood, which is located in northwest London, England. The school was one block from EMI Studios
(Abbey Road Studios) where The Beatles recorded, so each day I would have to walk past Abbey Road
Studios to get to school and back home. One day my teacher said we were going to go over to Abbey Road
Studios to record some sound effects because someone at the studio needed to record a bunch of kids
shouting. When we got to the studio, The Beatles’ instruments were there and they told us don’t touch
anything (laughs). It was so exciting for me to be that close to The Beatles, and that’s when I said, “I want to do
this!”
IAE: What was your first job in the field of audio/recording engineering and mixing?
JK: Shortly thereafter, I applied for a job at Abbey Road Studios and they called me in for an interview. So I got
the job, and I was only 16 years old at the time, so I quit school and went to work at Abbey Road. I started out
as a runner and worked my way up over the years.
IAE: For someone who is just starting out and aspiring to become an engineer, what should they do
in order to get started in the right direction?
JK: Well, It’s a business of who you know. Most people get into the business because they know somebody
that helped them get an interview with a good studio. But the key to it is that you don’t screw it up when you get
into the business (laughs). In many cases, you could lose your opportunity if the studio manager doesn’t like
you, or if you do a bad job as a runner. Most people start out as runners.
IAE: How important is it for audio engineers today to understand and know how to use ProTools?
JK: ProTools is very important, because you can’t do anything on a major scale without knowing the software.
When I first started as an engineer, it was very different because we started out with 4-track studios and it was
all analog (on 1” audio tape). Then over time it started to get better because you’d have 8 tracks, then 16
tracks, and so on. I was around when ProTools first came out and it was a bit less user friendly in those days.
But now, ProTools is 100% necessary because, depending on how much money you want to spend on
soundcards, you can record an entire symphony orchestra inside the software.
IAE: What are some of the mistakes you’ve seen younger engineers making while working in the
ProTools environment?
JK: I think people have become very obsessed with plug-ins. If you don’t know what plug-ins are, they’re sound
effects upgrades that you can buy and use in ProTools. Things like reverbs and delays (echoes), or you can
make an instrument sound like something totally different than it really sounds. So what’s happening is, for
example, people are pulling up the convolution reverb plug-in and there’s this picture of a hall, and instead of
using the plug-in to enhance the sound of the mix, people are falling in love with the photographs. So the
actual artwork can convince people to want a certain plug-in, more than the sound that the plug-in provides.
There are far too many people relying on plug-ins and not their own ears.
IAE: What is one of the most memorable projects you have worked on?
JK: The Lord of the Rings was very cool. We recorded each film over several months at four different studio
locations. We did a lot of sound editing. In the final mix of the project, there were maybe two bars of audio from
one location, eight bars from another, and so on. It was a very interesting project to work on, because we did
sound using all of these different locations at different times, and in the end I was pleased you couldn’t tell that
it was recorded that way.
IAE: If you could change one thing about the business of entertainment, as it relates to what you
do; what would it be and why?
JK: I would like to see more people making new things and not keep remaking everything from the past. In the
case of ProTools, there are a million plug-ins that are only digital emulations of the original 60’s and 70’s gear.
It’s almost as if they’re trying to capture the past in order to create the future. But if you want to truly create the
future, it shouldn’t be a replica of past things.
numerous classical and popular music artists to recording hundreds of feature film scores and
symphonies including recording soloists and small ensembles as well as large orchestra and choir.
His first major assignment was as the assistant engineer on The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” LP. He
quickly went on to become one of the world’s leading recording engineers for classical music,
orchestral classic rock, musical theatre and then crossed over to film scores. Best known for his
engineering and mixing work on one of film’s top trilogies, “The Lord of the Rings,” his recent
notable projects include engineering the score sessions for the Academy Award winning film “The
Hurt Locker,” the 2009 Music of the Year award-winning video game score “Assassin’s Creed II”
and highly anticipated computer game “StarCraft II.”
I Am Entertainment Magazine sat down with John at his home in Los Angeles to discuss his
wonderful career and how he went from teenage studio intern in London, to Grammy Award Winner.
IAE: Please tell us where you are from and what inspired you to get into the music biz?
JK: I got my start in the 1960’s when I was a teenager living at home with my parents. I attended a school in St.
John’s Wood, which is located in northwest London, England. The school was one block from EMI Studios
(Abbey Road Studios) where The Beatles recorded, so each day I would have to walk past Abbey Road
Studios to get to school and back home. One day my teacher said we were going to go over to Abbey Road
Studios to record some sound effects because someone at the studio needed to record a bunch of kids
shouting. When we got to the studio, The Beatles’ instruments were there and they told us don’t touch
anything (laughs). It was so exciting for me to be that close to The Beatles, and that’s when I said, “I want to do
this!”
IAE: What was your first job in the field of audio/recording engineering and mixing?
JK: Shortly thereafter, I applied for a job at Abbey Road Studios and they called me in for an interview. So I got
the job, and I was only 16 years old at the time, so I quit school and went to work at Abbey Road. I started out
as a runner and worked my way up over the years.
IAE: For someone who is just starting out and aspiring to become an engineer, what should they do
in order to get started in the right direction?
JK: Well, It’s a business of who you know. Most people get into the business because they know somebody
that helped them get an interview with a good studio. But the key to it is that you don’t screw it up when you get
into the business (laughs). In many cases, you could lose your opportunity if the studio manager doesn’t like
you, or if you do a bad job as a runner. Most people start out as runners.
IAE: How important is it for audio engineers today to understand and know how to use ProTools?
JK: ProTools is very important, because you can’t do anything on a major scale without knowing the software.
When I first started as an engineer, it was very different because we started out with 4-track studios and it was
all analog (on 1” audio tape). Then over time it started to get better because you’d have 8 tracks, then 16
tracks, and so on. I was around when ProTools first came out and it was a bit less user friendly in those days.
But now, ProTools is 100% necessary because, depending on how much money you want to spend on
soundcards, you can record an entire symphony orchestra inside the software.
IAE: What are some of the mistakes you’ve seen younger engineers making while working in the
ProTools environment?
JK: I think people have become very obsessed with plug-ins. If you don’t know what plug-ins are, they’re sound
effects upgrades that you can buy and use in ProTools. Things like reverbs and delays (echoes), or you can
make an instrument sound like something totally different than it really sounds. So what’s happening is, for
example, people are pulling up the convolution reverb plug-in and there’s this picture of a hall, and instead of
using the plug-in to enhance the sound of the mix, people are falling in love with the photographs. So the
actual artwork can convince people to want a certain plug-in, more than the sound that the plug-in provides.
There are far too many people relying on plug-ins and not their own ears.
IAE: What is one of the most memorable projects you have worked on?
JK: The Lord of the Rings was very cool. We recorded each film over several months at four different studio
locations. We did a lot of sound editing. In the final mix of the project, there were maybe two bars of audio from
one location, eight bars from another, and so on. It was a very interesting project to work on, because we did
sound using all of these different locations at different times, and in the end I was pleased you couldn’t tell that
it was recorded that way.
IAE: If you could change one thing about the business of entertainment, as it relates to what you
do; what would it be and why?
JK: I would like to see more people making new things and not keep remaking everything from the past. In the
case of ProTools, there are a million plug-ins that are only digital emulations of the original 60’s and 70’s gear.
It’s almost as if they’re trying to capture the past in order to create the future. But if you want to truly create the
future, it shouldn’t be a replica of past things.
| John Kurlander, Grammy Award Winning Engineer |
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