Mike Mettler

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The S&V Interview
Deep Purple Drummer Ian Paice Celebrates the Legacy of Late DP Keyboardist Jon Lord
Mike Mettler  |  Oct 08, 2014  |  0 comments
Photo by Neil Lupin
“Souls, having touched, are forever entwined.” It’s a lyric penned by vocalist Ian Gillan in honor of his dear friend and late bandmate Jon Lord, the original keyboardist for Deep Purple who pioneered merging rock music with classical themes. Jon Lord, Deep Purple & Friends: Celebrating Jon Lord (earMusic/Eagle Rock), recorded at The Royal Albert Hall this past April 4, showcases the breadth of Lord as both composer (“All Those Years Ago,” “Pictured Within”) and rock legend (“Soldier of Fortune,” “Perfect Strangers,” “Hush”). Here, Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, 66, and I discuss the challenges of getting great sound in such a storied venue, how he adapts to working with different bass players, and what the future might hold for Deep Purple. After listening to and watching all that went into Celebrating Jon Lord, there’s one word in the Purple canon that one absolutely cannot use to describe Paice’s energy and tireless work ethic: “Lazy.”
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The S&V Interview
Deep Space Truckin' With Deep Purple's Roger Glover
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 14, 2020  |  1 comments
Bands that are chock-full of virtuosic performers often need that one key anchor player who literally holds down the fort while the superstars show off their chops. In the case of veteran British rock stalwarts Deep Purple, that anchor is bassist Roger Glover.
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Music Disc Reviews
Def Leppard: Hysteria: 30th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 14, 2018  |  0 comments
Performance
Sound
When the phrase “beast mode” entered the vernacular, it was intended mainly as a descriptor for a singularly focused level of energy and drive as exhibited by certain football players. But it just as easily could have been used to describe the laser focus Def Leppard displayed in the face of innumerable odds while recording the 1987 juggernaut known as Hysteria. It may have taken them 34 months of on/off studio time and a hefty price tag of 2 million pounds to get to the finish line, but the ensuing album sold over 25 million copies worldwide and became the defining sonic template for the scores of pop-metal crossover hybrids that followed.
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Other Tech
Desert Island Discs
Mike Mettler  |  Oct 03, 2006  |  0 comments

Who could be more perfect to solicit a pair of Desert Island Disc lists from than the executive producers of Lost, a show where music and locale are so often intertwined? Lost masterminds Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse couldn't have agreed more, so here are their respective 10-song lists.

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Track One
Devon Allman's Turquoise Soul
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 04, 2013  |  0 comments

"It's rich. It's got depth that you'll never get from an MP3, and it's just cool, man. It's got more soul." That's Devon Allman, talking about one of our favorite subjects, vinyl.

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The S&V Interview
Dido: A Vocal Ingenue Who’s Still on Our Minds
Mike Mettler  |  Mar 13, 2019  |  0 comments
Celebrated British chanteuse Dido called us to discuss her new album Still on My Mind and how her best song mixes are meant to draw you in as a listener, when and when not to use reverb, and why sequencing remains critical to the arc of an album.
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The S&V Interview
Director John Badham Reflects on 40 Years of Saturday Night Fever
Mike Mettler  |  May 04, 2017  |  2 comments
“It’s just part of our audio culture,” believes Saturday Night Fever director John Badham, who supervised the 4K 1080p print restoration and English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD surround sound updates for the film's Director’s Cut, which was released by Paramount on Blu-ray on May 2 in celebration of the film’s imminent 40th anniversary. Badham, 77, called in from Southern California to discuss how to maintain a gritty look in 4K, matching song tempo to what was being filmed, and the song originally used during the infamous dance-contest rehearsal that had to be replaced at the literal last minute.
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Stream On
Discovering New Music on Bandcamp
Mike Mettler  |  May 22, 2019  |  0 comments
If you enjoy discovering new music, you need to check out Bandcamp.
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The S&V Interview
Don Felder Welcomes Us to Hotel High-Resolution
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 11, 2015  |  2 comments
Don Felder has found his groove. The former lead guitarist of the Eagles is now flourishing as a solo artist, having found his sea legs on record with the broad reach of Road to Forever (INgrooves/Forever Road Music) — only his second solo album in 30-odd years, following 1983’s Airborne — and a quite muscular live set, which features Eagles favorites and deep cuts alike, ranging from “Life in the Fast Lane” to “Those Shoes,” all interspersed between powerful readings of solo favorites like “You Don’t Have Me” and “Heavy Metal.” Before heading out on his winter solo tour, Felder, 67, and I got together to discuss his thoughts on sound quality, the very mystique of California itself, and how he came to create the acoustic intro that turned the already indelible “Hotel California” into a revamped classic. Ah, such a lovely place.
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Reference Tracks
Dream Theater Deluxe Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Nov 08, 2013  |  0 comments
Performance
Sound
Could there be a better-named band to push the boundaries of creating original music for surround playback than Dream Theater? The ever-adventurous post-prog-metal collective previously experimented with 5.1 via Paul Northfield’s valiant multichannel spin on 2007’s frenzied Systematic Chaos, but Richard Chycki’s all-in full-bore mix of the band’s new, sprawling self-titled epic is in another stratosphere of total envelopment.
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