#014 : Jeff Stuart Saltzman – Lend Us Your Ears!
Recording Engineer, Jeff Saltzman, well known for his work with many of the North West’s top indie artists, lets us in on some of the methods and madness that goes into engineering and recording music. Jeff has worked with Sleater Kinney, The Decemberists, Death Cab for Cutie, Stars of Track and Field as well as many first time musicians and bands. In fact you can hardly throw a rock in Portland without hitting a musician who’s either worked with him or who is at least familiar with his work. In our interview, Jeff shares with us his humor, philosophy, and technical approach to capturing spectacular sounds and creating memorable albums.
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superb to find Jeff out there doing all this cool stuff involving music still, though for me what makes the man such a musical hero in my book is the very thing he barely mentions at the start (as i suspected he might) which is his only album. The Cerebral Corps is an album to be cherished by anyone who loves quality psychedelic power pop. Back in 1990 Jeff who had been kicking around various no name bands for a few years, on a bet from a friend sat down one day and wrote and recorded a little psychedelic gem called Pam’s Purple Spyrograph a tape of which was sent out to local radio stations and quickly became a bit of a on air hit. A full length tape Oxide Soxs followed, mixing superb originals with uncanny covers of psychedelic classics like Pictures Of Matchstickmen, the Floyd’s Corporal Clegg, the Monkees’ Tapioca Tundra and the Stones We Love You. The tape brought him to the attention of Alias Records and, recruiting one Bob Vickers into the band Saltzman spent the advance on buying a proper home recording set up and spent the next year recording the multilayered gem that is Attributed To.
And what a treat the album is. Detailed in its playing and production, chockfull of great songs, adventurous and infectious in equal measures. Tracks like Chester Norman Criss-Cross set the tone with its clever arrangement and production it is a joy to behold. As is Myopia with its driving guitar and melting spaced out vibe. Saltzman delivers the goods from start to finish in a classy and classic manner . This is psychedelic pop of the best kind. Chuck in a couple of superbly rendered obscure psych covers and Bob Vickers lone contribution the very XTCish Girl From The Carnival and Attributed To is a real gem of a record that deserves so much more that the obscurity it now holds. With his career as an engineer and producer taking off on the strength of the sheer craft so apparent on the album he moved to Portland and never looked back. The man has so much real talent it is a damn shame that he never got to do more.