Kerrang - March 12, 2016

AMERICA’S
JOHN
FELDMANN
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When John Feldmann was growing
up, the expectations placed upon
him were high. His father,Jay,may
hold the curious distinction of
being the last person in the U.S.
to have contracted polio, but more distinct yet was his
work as one of the nuclear physicists that helped make
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you’ll forgive the pun, when it came
to the father’s ambitions for his young
“I’VE HAD
BOTTLES
OF PISS
THROWN
AT ME!”
JOHN FELDMANN
son, the sky was the limit.
“He had some high expectations
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total discord between us.
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for me not to become a musician
pushed me harder to become one.
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Today, John Feldmann may not put
men into space, but he does propel
musicians to the top of the charts. As
in vogue a producer as any in modern
rock music – in much the same way
as, say, Ross Robinson was a decade and more ago – the
technician’s services are engaged by bands such asAllTime
Low and Black Veil Brides primarily for one simple reason:
a Midas touch that transforms raw potential into platinum
discs. As well as this, though, John is adaptable to his
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mic a millimetre at a time to cowriting songs,” he says.
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thrown at me when we opened for the Sex Pistols”
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the stratosphere. Learning on the job, in earlier days John
quickly mastered such techniques as EQ balance, where
best to position microphones and how to clean the
heads of tape machines. Most crucially – for example, on
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insisted that the direction in which he was turning the
knobs would end in sonic catastrophe.
“People still come up to me today and say they love
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was given at the time.”
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of invention, and word of John’s studio moxie quickly
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took control of the studio console, the name John
Feldmann has appeared by the production credit on
albums by scores of groups,including SleepingWith
Sirens,Good Charlotte,Panic!AtThe Disco,Beartooth
and 5 Seconds Of Summer,to name only a few.John
also has songwriting credits on many of the albums he
has produced,more gold discs than wall space and,at
the time of writing,he is overseeing the next releases of
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that for a lot of people that was a really
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with 5 Seconds Of Summer was great for me
as well [John produced the Sydney quartet’s
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that that’s also a landmark album.
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with has taught me something.”
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those belonging to John Feldmann
ar
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Crisis,he shared a stag
with punk legends Bad
Religion and 7 Seconds
when he was just
years old. Two years lat
this most precocious
of players found himsel
jamming with Social
Distortion. But this wa
time when the Bay Are
was home to America’s
most militant punk
scene, and thus its mos
reactionary, and John’s
widening musical tastes
foul of the community’s
unwritten constitution.
Today a man who
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and Sting as being the a
with whom he’d most l
to work, it was at this
that the producer bega
spread his wings.
“There were too m
rules, and there was to
freedom,” LIWE]W±-RX
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FELD ANN
BY
NUMBERS
THE STATS BEHIND THE
SUPER-PRODUCER
34M Total worldwide sales of
records that John has been a part of.
6,100 Number of songs written
or cowritten by John (it is claimed).
385 Number of shows that
John once played in one year (1996)
– a Guinness World Record.
88 Number of albums produced
by John Feldmann.
4 U.S. Number One records
that John has worked on.
There is an irony here. Despit
the genre with which John Feld
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helped by the fact that the bands
often share a visual aesthetic – ta
– which leads to a sense of inter
musically, too, there is much com
exists between a number of the
has worked. Given this, do you n
contributing to reducing the roc
replacing it with a certain degree
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area,the producer does then ack
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another band likes,then they ofte
in a similar way on their record.A
remember,it is their VIGSVH-XẂ R
ideas on a band that they’re not c
What does a producer actuall
A laugh.“That’s a good questi
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band’s head and make that a reali
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own dream factory. But this dream does not exist
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ces, and with whom he writes,
for the man himself.When as a
he sat cramped in the back of a
ute to concerts at Gilman Street
ley, John would surely have been
e of imagining the future that lay
f him.As he speaks to K!from
udios inWoodland Hills, California,
built in the grounds of his home,
gs loll at his feet, foster animals
own lot has been improved by
st devout of animal rights activists.
hen he speaks of the music he’s
has helped make and is yet to make,
essowithasenseofwonderat
can be achieved using only what
Springsteen described as being
e drums and these guitars”.
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o me that’s pretty incredible.
e’s not a lot of people that
say that.”
Next week: John spills the
beans on working with
blink-182!
WORDS: IAN WINWOOD PHOTOS: LISA JOHNSON, IAN COLLINS
KERRANG! 41