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 video interview recorded at leading Los Angeles recording studios,

Watersound Studios. 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.