Work With Other Artists
Thomas also plays Moog synthesiser on the song "Son Of My Father" by Chicory Tip with its drum phasing very similar to that of Itchycoo Park by The Small Faces. This was the first ever UK #1 song to feature a synthesiser and Brian Jarvis's Stylophone which was also used on David Bowie's "Space Oddity".
In 1985, Thomas played a critical part in achieving a worldwide breakthrough for Australian band INXS. INXS keyboardist and main songwriter Andrew Farriss explained:
| “ | We'd already finished the Listen Like Thieves album but Chris Thomas told us there was still no "hit". We left the studio that night knowing we had one day left and we had to deliver "a hit". Talk about pressure. | ” |
Thomas recalls he was worried that the standard of songs the band had laid down was not as strong as he wished.
| “ | Then Andrew brought in three demos – two songs that had been completed and he played me a thing that was just this riff – dink, dink, dink-a-dink-and it was great. I thought, 'I could listen to that groove for ten minutes!' I said, 'Let's work with that groove.' So we went with that and in just two days it turned into the song that eventually broke them, 'What You Need'. | ” |
Thomas helped guide Chrissie Hynde into a recording career, producing The Pretenders’ first (self-titled) album; his work on 1984's Learning to Crawl earned him the sobriquet on the liner notes as the "fifth Pretender".
He regards Pulp's Different Class as one of the best records he has made, and admits: "I love working with writers. That's the person I always respond to most in a band.’’ and says his role as a producer has changed little since the 1970s.
| “ | The essential thing, if you want to be crude about it, is people want to make a hit record. So that means I'm still in there advising them to chop a few bars out of this part over here, maybe suggesting they change this riff, and that sort of thing. I've always been very interested in arrangements. The technical side is interesting, as well, but that's more just a means to an end. I don't want to imply that I'm in there all the time changing these songs around; not at all. Most of the time I don't have to say anything about that. That's one of the advantages of working with great writers. | ” |
Read more about this topic: Chris Thomas (record Producer)
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