Last and by all means leanest – Michael Wolff, drum engineers on all Thomas Lang’s tracks.
I love this man. He has become a good friend since the first meetings on the Angels In Drag sessions, and we have worked together on a lot of music since then. And we had an epic snowball fight in the heavy London snows of January 2003.
I met him through Thomas Lang – it was Michael’s studio down by the Thames, Star Tracks, that Thomas had booked for us to record the various drum tracks he was going to play on. I loved the studio. He’d converted it all himself over a period of years, after buying an old printing press at the end of the property crash in London in 1990, and he’s done an amazing job, it has to be said. It feels spacious, a great place to record, and he has a lovely old Studer 24-track machine that I hope to use on my next album, currently in the writing stage.
When Michael rolled up to answer the door, I found myself looking up at him – not something that happens very often as I am pretty tall… he was a smiley, open-faced person, someone immediately recognisable as genuine and kind. But down to work, after a couple of cups of tea.
Michael and Thomas were old pals by this time, so the chat was mostly in German, which was strange, but cool. Michael got a great sound up, and we just hit record. It was a simple as that. Thomas had booked 7 days to record my tracks, but we were done in 2, so Michael asked if I could record guitar parts for some stuff he had been recording of his own… what a singer!! I couldn’t believe it – the material I heard first was great. All three of us knuckled down to a couple of days on the first few songs. No-one has ever been quite so complimentary on my guitar playing and programming as Mr. Wolff. Its quite embarrassing actually, as I am really very ropey round the edges (but at least I know that and its one of my strengths!), but I can rarely do wrong in his eyes… how nice to have people like that around you when you’re recording. I love working with him and can’t wait to get back to London to continue where we left off – who knows what the fruits of future sessions will be, but I can tell you this – they will be fun, and the pizza will be delicious, as Il Bordello, an Italian restaurant that boasts the finest waiter in London, is just across the road…