 TM Juke is a UK-based DJ/musician/producer. To keep your head above water in the DJ/musician trade it's good to be a multi-talented studio whiz, and TM Juke fits the bill nicely, doing all his own bass, keyboards, and guitars on the latest CD, Forward, bringing in others to handle wind instruments and other necessities. The TM Juke philosophy is basically "drink coffee, don't sleep", and if you look at his touring/DJ/recording schedule, you'll see that a lot of money has been invested in the java. Gearwire's Joe Wallace asked TM Juke how Forward came together.
Joe Wallace: For those not familiar, describe TM Juke and give a bit of history. How long have you been around, tell us about your new CD.
TM Juke: I've been releasing music since 2003 mainly on Tru Thoughts records at tru-thoughts.co.uk.
My first LP came out in November of that year, Maps From The Wilderness, which was pretty much a collection tracks I had recorded from about 1999 to 2003 featuring a host of different vocalist. I then co wrote and recorded Alice Russell's first proper album, My Favourite Letters. I've just release a second TM Juke Solo LP in October 2006 on Tru Thoughts and Ubiquity records in the USA. This time with the vocal talents of Kinny, Elmore Judd, Alice Russell, Naim, Sophie Faricy. I've got a new album coming out in April which is a new project called Me&You the production team is myself and Robert Luis, A & R and owner of Tru Thoughts. It's a collection of tracks we have made strictly for the dance floor. I'm also just about to go into the studio to work on the next Alice Russell LP
Let's talk about the making of Forward. What kind of gear do you prefer to use, and how did you use it in creating the sounds you put down on Forward?
To be honest I like to keep things pretty simple. I use Logic, Forward was actually all done on Logic 4.7 on a Mac OS 9. Its all I had for ages, so its pretty behind software-wise.
I have just upgraded my system to Logic 7.2 on a Mac Pro, man its a whole new world! I used to do a lot of stuff on my MPC 2000 but that's in the corner now, it was a good way to learn about drum programming though. So as far as plug-ins, just all the usuals really. Most the synths were done live on a MicroKorg, I recorded all the instruments and vocals at home, in a pretty small room, using a Rhode NT1 and a borrowed TLA Valve compressor and various amps and bass heads. And then at the ear end, I have a pair of Genelec monitors.
On "All Over Now" there's a wide variety of instruments: the electric guitar, the horns in the intro, and those nice bassy synth textures. Are you sampling real instruments, using sound libraries, or using session players?
It was all recorded at home except the drums. I did all the guitar, bass and keys myself. The French horns, strings and flutes were recorded by mates in my room, and so were all the vocals except Alice's main which we did at a friends studio. As far as getting the sound, I just play around really, to be honest I probably rush things a bit too much, but the most important thing is you need to keep the track fresh, don't let yourself get bored with it. But I do a lot of post-production, a lot of filtering and cutting.
Can you describe the technical evolution/recording process of one of the songs on Forward? I'm thinking of the song "Skin" but if there's one that came together in a more interesting way...
"Skin's" quite a good one actually, I made the essence of the beat in about eight minutes, it was just one of those "bang it all down while its all in the head" numbers. Then my friend Naim was over from Denmark and we just recorded it in an afternoon. There were four of us in the room when we recorded it, and we were in complete hysterics the whole time, its quite mad watching Naim in the studio, he's like Robin Williams meets Yuri Geller
What kinds of vocal processing do you like to use in the studio? How do you get the vocals sounding the way you prefer?
Just get them as natural as possible, a bit of compression and good mic placement.
How did you make the transition from DJ to DJ/producer/recording artist? If you've always had your hand in the recording game, how did you get started as a recording artist?
I stared as a musician, I've played guitar since I was seven, and had loads of different bands, from soul to heavy metal. So I had always been writing and recording, I bought a four-track then an MPC then a computer.
You're a very busy artist/DJ/etc! How do you maintain it all? Any advice for those trying to manage in a similar fashion but struggling with the time management/burnout factor of it all?
Drink coffee all day and don't sleep!
What is your favorite piece of studio gear, and why? What about DJ gear? what's your favorite setup like?
I've recently moved into the Serato world for DJing, I'm really feeling it. For a studio I think as many instruments as possible around you is the best way forward.
More info is at the TM Juke Myspace site.
Taken from: http://www.gearwire.com/tm-juke-interview.html
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