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Behind The Scenes Interview by Alison Cummings
Anthony J. Resta could be described as the man who does not rest. From co-producing Nuno, and songwriting with Suze, to working with Letters To Cleo, and promoting his own solo CD - not to mention the major league compliment of being dubbed an ‘official’ member of Duran Duran - 32 year old Anthony J. is a busy, busy man. Having being involved with Duran’s new album Medazzaland, and hence being the focus of interviews for mags such as ‘Firedancer’, it was extremely generous for AJR to offer his time for Rise N Shine mag. So, read on my friends, and get ‘behind the scenes’ of Schizo...
Anthony, describe for the readers
exactly what your job was on Schizophonic. “Bob had played some of my work to him and he had me play percussion with Extreme at the Kiss concert around 1993.” Did he contact you especially to work on Schizophonic, or was it under other circumstances? “He called me up and said ‘Hey, want to go to Australia and make a record?’” What was your experience of working with him? “He's a very intense person. He lives and breathes his music, he can work on a song for 18 hours straight then go back to the hotel and play it on a stereo for another hour trying to make up his mind about what needs to be done.” What's he like in the studio? “He likes to experiment but at the same time knows what he wants and wants it to happen quite fast. He has patience when things take longer than he wants, but he is detail oriented beyond belief - often he would have Bob edit together many versions to make a master, sometimes taking a bar or two from here or there. Lots of things I can’t even hear... but he needs it to be right in his own way. He has trouble making himself content with anything - he's his own worst critic... always wanting to improve something - even adding a vocal or guitar part at mastering!” You co-wrote many of my favourite Schizophonic tracks, like 'Fallen Angels' and 'Severed' - what was your part in those? “Once you hear the work I’ve done with Duran Duran and other artists it becomes more apparent; on ‘Fallen Angels’, all the synth, bass, drums, organ, table top, samples etc, came right from my demo of the music on those tunes. Nuno then created new arrangements using my 2 track digital master printed on two inch tape, writing melodies and adding guitar and other stuff on top. [On] ‘Severed’ I recorded the grooves and string arrangements this way and he added the new chorus and vocal melodies guitar etc.” How did Nuno approach his songwriting
for this album? “He sings great and when him and Nuno do unison, it sounds just like the double tracked Lennon-style vocals Nuno does on the record... I think it works great live.” Donnie Bettencourt is something of a new person to most Extreme fans. What can you tell us about him? “He's a really nice guy all around, very talented bass player, young good-looking lady killer [smiling]! He wails - one night he Nuno and I jammed on that Blur tune ‘Song 2’, and we were blowing up the building... so much fun. I was going to do some dates as a drummer, but between a sore shoulder and commitments up coming with Duran Duran and some other things, we couldn't work it out. I was disappointed ‘cause they are so much fun to play with - Nuno is the human guitar click track... if you listen to him, you can’t go off the groove... his heart beats in time” [smiling]. And the Gary Cherone fans will kill me if I don't ask you this... describe for us, your experience of working with Gary Cherone... “I know Gary socially, but I wasn't there for any of the stuff they did together in the early stages of the album... Gary is a real down-to-earth, honest, and sweet guy. He's been very supportive of a trip hop group I produce and play keys and samples with - Jawn P and the Pawnshop.” What, to you, was the most difficult
aspect of working on Schizo? “You always learn from working with a musical wizard like Nuno. He has been a positive influence in my sonic palatte and musical instincts.” You've told me that you
were writing with Suze. Can you tell us the name and style of the song? “It’s still developing, but I hear some really cool Elastica influence. I think it will be really modern and cool.” So will you be working on their comeback album? “I think there is a good chance I will be on some level.” The tour you’d told me you were going to do with Nuno, from 6-17 August - what happened with that? “... It never got off the ground. I had to play some dates with the HORDE festival here with a band I produced called Mudhens, and after those dates, TAP (Air Portugal ) went on strike. I was going to go over and jam but never made it.” And finally, Anthony - an important question for us all... What is the secret of the universe? “This is a question no one can answer and it tortures me daily... ‘from the protons and electrons to the raisins in my cereal, to the infinite galaxies of burning stars for light years, we’re just particles in space - that’s one big cosmic pie in the face’!”* *(from AJR’s song ‘Just Particles)’ |
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