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Yale Brothers Podcast


Mar 18, 2021

For episode 31, we welcome Steve Fuji - a longtime friend who was our first-ever recording engineer and producer at Mystic Sound in Hollywood. We go deep - talking Mystic, vintage gear, stories from back in the day in Hollywood and much more - including one of our first recorded songs and a cut from another friend's demo.

Above: Steve Fuji at Mystic Sound - 1978

SHOW NOTES:

0:00 - "Never Wanted You to Leave" by Roger Yale - Recorded at Mystic Sound circa 1978.

3:44 - Greetings and about the song.

5:10 - Steve Fuji intro and bio

6:25 - Welcoming Steve and taking up where we left off.

7:25 - Chris' old Portastudio /Recording remotely at The Improv / Phil Moore

9:12 - Jim Alden and his Teac 3340 / Old equipment versus new technology

10:10 - Steve's first record project / Old work shows up in unlikely places.

13:10 - We should have been stars... / Losing Dad / Steve's friendship with Dad

14:40 - Dad's stories about the music biz in England / Wally Moody / Doug Moody and Mystic Sound

17:05 - History of Mystic Sound / Mercury Records / Mustang and Del-Fi Records / Bob Keane / Mike Curb / Quincy Jones / Chris Huston

18:45 - Led Zeppelin II & Mystic Sound / Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends

19:25 - How Steve wound up at Mystic / Golden West College / Dave Pell

20:29 - Mystic Records /The Yale Brothers at Mystic / Steve's production techniques / Brother acts / Del-Fi Records was in the space before Mystic was.

24:40 - No Smoking! Machines Breathing - Inside the Mystic Control Room with a treasure trove of now-vintage gear: Spectra-Sonics mixing console/ AMPEX MM-1000 / Quadraphonic mixing room / Echo chambers with Altec 604-E speakers / Teletronix LA-2A limiter / Leslie speaker

29:00 - Unreleased demo tapes, cult followings and more

30:00 - DJ Joey Reynolds

34:46 - Steve's apartment on Fountain Avenue in Hollywood / Our friend Mark Douglas was more punk than punk  / Mark's demo sessions

38:00 - Magic Hotel (now Magic Castle Hotel) days

39:22 - Riverside, CA / Joshua Tree, CA

40:25 - The new normal

42:49 - Steve's vintage gear and group

46:12 - "Some Enchanted Edsel"

48:03 - Brian Wilson / Al Jardine / Daryl Hall / "Live From Daryl's House"

52:07 - The Cross Pen and lasting friendships

56:56 - More about Mark Douglas - and one of his demos, "Red Control"