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"