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Niko
Bolas - video interview at Watersound Studios
Niko Bolas takes time out from recording and
talks with Claris Sayadian-Dodge about his unique skills
as a leading record producer and working with artists
as diverse as Neil Young and Keith Richards.
 Niko
Bolas has been making records for two decades, both
producing and mixing. Niko started in the industry by
getting a job as a runner at Silverlake Studios in L.A
doing all of the menial tasks, cleaning the trash etc
then worked his way up. As Niko say's "I started
20 years ago as a runner and I've still not gone home".
Niko
is featured in a great broadband
video interview recorded at leading Los
Angeles recording studios,
Watersound Studios. This is in the Real Format and is
only suitable for broadband viewers.
 Niko
got to learn much from Tom Baker and Brad Pinkstaff
who he met in a dry cleaners and took Niko under his
wing and together recorded gospel choirs which gave
Niko his first taste of live recording. Niko Bolas has
continued to enjoy working with 'live' musicians from
all genres, jazz, R&B, rock and pop. His view is
that "my job is to just capture it as honestly
and as smoothly as possible so that they don't even
know that I'm working".
When it comes to recording, Nick's looking for visual
communication between the players. Because he loves
live recording Niko needs to make sure that the drummer
can see the bass player and they can see the guitar
player and see the singer. He ensures that everybody
has that communication and don't have the intimidation
of the control room over them. "In the kind of
productions I do, I get everybody into the mindset that
if you're just having fun and showing off to your friends
- then you'll make a great record. A studio has got
to be transparent for that to happen and sophisticated
enough that the monitoring, the headphones etc, will
work for each person".
We
would like to thank Niko for giving up his valuable
time to be interviewed and for Watersound
Studios kind help in making this video feature possible.
Special thanks must go to Johnny
Jaskot of Babblefish.com
for his excellent direction and editing and special
thanks to Claris
of StudioExpresso.com for arranging
and conducting this feature!
Further
information can be found here.
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Mark
Wallis 
