The S&V Interview

Legendary Canadian songwriter Gordon Lightfoot called us from his homebase in northern Ontario to discuss why he personally tunes his guitars before every show, how and why he made the choices about where his vocals appear in studio mixes, and the continuing importance of historical accuracy in his songwriting.

We got on the line with iconoclast guitarist Steve Hackett to discuss the rudiments of the soundscapes that comprise his stunning new album At the Edge of Light, the importance of physical packaging in the digital age, and, of course, his plans for future solo-catalog-derived surround sound reissues.

We got on the line with iconoclast guitarist Richard Lloyd to discuss the vinyl-intended sonic template of his new laser-sharp solo album The Countdown, why Television’s seminal 1977 debut album Marquee Moon remains perpetually influential, and his take on creating sound in outer space.

The Motor City Madman himself, Ted Nugent, got on the line with us to discuss the sonic impetus for his new album The Music Made Me Do It, the never-ending importance of capturing the right guitar tone, and the connection we all have with where and how music itself ultimately originated.

We check in with Berlin-born electronic-music maestro Klaus Schulze about his excellent new ambient album Silhouettes, his view of surround sound, how the many significant socio-political changes in Germany over the past 60-plus years have affected his creativity, and what future generations might make of his endlessly fascinating “picture music.”

The concept of whether sound exists and actually could flourish in space — or not — was very much on my mind as I sat down with the creative and scientific teams behind National Geographic’s groundbreaking series MARS, which returns for a second season on the National Geographic Channel (a.k.a. Nat Geo) on November 12. I asked nine members of the MARS creative team about the aural choices they had to make about scoring the show, the science of sound in space, and whether they’d sign up for a mission to Mars themselves.

Some long-gestating sonic missions are simply worth the wait. Case in point: Styx’s June 2017 studio concept album The Mission (Alpha Dog 2T/UMe), which recently entered into the 5.1 stratosphere via the 24-bit/96kHz surround sound mix found on the just-released two-disc CD + Blu-ray Edition of the album. As good and enveloping as The Mission sounds in stereo, it sounds even better in its hi-res 5.1 mix — and that’s due in no small part to the creative synergy between the record’s three chief sonic architects: Styx guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw, producer/guitarist/vocalist Will Evankovich (Shaw-Blades, The Guess Who), and producer/engineer Jim Scott (Tom Petty, Wilco, Dixie Chicks). I spoke with Shaw and Evankovich to delve into the making of the surround sound mix of The Mission.