Recording
Queens of Noise was recorded at Mankey's Brothers Studio in Santa Monica, California, a facility most famous for its association with The Beach Boys. According to Fox, The Runaways did much of the producing themselves, which resulted in a greater emphasis on volume as well as more musical sophistication than the "keep it simple" approach that Fowley preferred. With the singular exception of "Midnight Music", all of the songs on the album were recorded in the same fashion: drums, bass, and rhythm guitar (except for the riffs) were all recorded "live" at the same time, with West, Fox, and Jett (respectively) all in sight of each other during recordings. They each recorded in separate rooms, however, in order to prevent their instruments from "bleeding" together during recording. Riffs, lead guitar solos, and vocals were then recorded later and ultimately mixed with the drum, bass, and rhythm guitar tracks to achieve the finished product. Ford used multiple techniques for recording her solos, including playing both through a mic'd amplifier and directly into the mixing board. According to Fox, West did not use a click track while recording. In addition to the ten songs that were released on Queens of Noise, The Runaways also recorded two more during these sessions that did not ultimately make the final cut for the album: "Hollywood Dream" and "C'Mon". Both of these songs were eventually included on the 1980 album Flaming Schoolgirls, which included previously unreleased material that was not made public until after The Runaways' breakup in 1979. According to Fox, the recording and potential inclusion of "Hollywood Dream" on this album sparked a "true band rebellion" because only lead vocalist Currie wanted to see it released. Ford and Fox were so displeased with the song that they both refused to record their respective instruments on the track, and with the support of Jett and West they helped ensure that it was not included in the finalized album.
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Famous quotes containing the word recording:
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