123. Phill Brown Discusses Murray Head, Nigel Lived

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Legendary audio engineer and author Phill Brown, who has worked with The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley, Talk Talk and countless other prominent artists over the last 50-plus years, comes to YMAAA to talk about one of the more underappreciated albums he has contributed to. He and Al discuss Murray Head’s 1973 debut solo album, Nigel Lived, and Phill talks about what he learned from making the album, why it’s special to him and what made it such an ambitious project for the time in which it was recorded. He also talks about his subsequent work with Talk Talk and Mark Hollis and the recent recordings by Held By Trees, which he has worked on.

Al made reference to a few previous episodes that are related to this one. Be sure to check them out, if you haven’t already!

Ep 92 with Mary Beth Melchior on the Jesus Christ Superstar concept album (featuring Murray Head): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/92-mary-beth-melchior-discusses-jesus-christ-superstar/id1545282273?i=1000586877486

Ep 113 with David Joseph on Mark Hollis' self-titled solo album: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/113-david-joseph-discusses-mark-hollis-self-titled/id1545282273?i=1000611196557

Ep 79 with Tim Friese-Greene on My Bloody Valentine’s Isn’t Anything: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/79-tim-friese-greene-discusses-my-bloody-valentine/id1545282273?i=1000571013242

As mentioned on this episode, Phill has a website where you can order his book, keep up with his ever-growing list of artists he’s worked with and more. It’s tapedemon.net.

Al is on Twitter at @almelchiorBB, and this show has accounts on Twitter, Threads and Instagram at @youmealbum. Be sure to follow @youmealbum to find out in advance about upcoming guests and featured albums for this podcast.

Subscribe for free to You, Me and An Album: The Newsletter and participate in weekly chats about this podcast’s featured albums! https://youmealbum.substack.com/

1:24 Phill joins the show

1:43 Phill explains why he wrote “Are We Still Rolling?”

3:48 Al was thrilled with Phill’s album choice

4:38 Phill found working on Nigel Lived to be inspirational

6:24 The album’s story allowed Murray Head to showcase his versatility

8:16 Making Nigel Lived changed the way Phill worked on albums

10:33 Phill talks about how they used mobile recording on certain tracks

16:38 Phill got some great sounds with hidden mics

20:55 Phill talks about using the mobile studio to record a church organ and choir

24:17 Phill singles out a few of his favorite tracks from Nigel Lived

28:19 Murray thought the timing of the album’s release worked against it

31:15 Having the physical album makes it easier to follow Nigel’s story

32:54 Nigel Lived sounds different from most rock albums of its era

34:53 Was there a larger message in Nigel Lived?

36:51 Phill summarizes what makes the album special to him

37:56 Al finds “Junk” difficult to listen to

41:05 One of the craziest things Phill has ever recorded was on “The Party”

42:20 Phill explains how he got involved with Held By Trees

45:51 Phill revisits the process of making Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock

49:12 Phill talks about a track from Laughing Stock that he couldn’t listen to

54:17 Phill and Al talk about the quietness of Mark Hollis

55:18 Phill mentions an album he’ll be working on

Outro is from “Grow Dark” by Held By Trees from their upcoming EP, Eventide.

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