About 3 weeks + ago, we at Krimson News were approached by Maelstrom PR in regards to doing an interview with non-other than Ronan Chris Murphy who has done countless KC projects and holds an amazingly diverse background even beyond that!

Of course we jumped at the chance, and are pleased to bring you the following Krimson News exclusive interview!

1. Tell us a little about yourself.

I live in Los Angeles these days, even thought my work keeps me traveling all over the world. It’s been a crazy few years. I have been producing and mixing records for about 12 years but the last 6 or so have been really busy and I have been able to work with a lot of great artists around the world.

2. How did you get started in production work for King Crimson?

My connection with Fripp and Crimson goes back to meeting an amazing guitar player named Steve Ball while he was playing in a Boston Subway. Steve was part of Robert Fripp the league of crafty guitarists. Steve and I hit it off immediately and started doing a lot of work together, this led me to work with a lot of the “crafties” including Trey Gunn etc. I guess it was 1997 and Robert Fripp was out on the G3 tour with Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Kenny Wayne Shepherd and one of the guys on his crew had to leave the tour. The road manager John Sinks (also Fripp’s main guitar tech for over a decade) asked if I could help out. I did the last month of the G3 tour with Robert and we got along really well. I guess Robert had heard some of my mixes and asked if I could come over and help with some of the studio work at Discipline Global mobile in England. I was part of the production team at DGM, but Fripp and David Singleton are listed as the producers on all that stuff.

It turned out to be a really good relationship with Fripp, and we worked together almost non stop for a couple years. I would go out on the road with Robert when he was touring to do tech work and recording, and when we were not on the road we were in England or Nashville working on records. I figured it out the other day, if you count a couple projects that are waiting to be released, I worked on a dozen King Crimson album releases plus a DVD and some tracks that are compilation only tracks or worked into other projects (like BPM&M). I was really lucky on the timing of it all because that was such a prolific time for King Crimson output with all the ProjeKcts, the collectors club and major archive projects like USA and Cirkus.

3. Do you find King Crimson more or less difficult to work with than other projects, comparatively?

I would have to say mixing the King Crimson double trio is the most difficult thing I have ever mixed. Every one of those guys was enough to fill up a whole record and now multiply that by 6! I was lucky that David Botrill had worked with that line up before I did. I took a very different approach to it than David did, but I was able to learn a lot from his mixes. I would not say that working with Crim is really more difficult than some other things I have done, but you really have to leave your expectation and standard MO at the door. The way that a lot of the material is put together, and certain things that are important to Fripp did not allow me to approach things how I might have on other projects.

4. What sort of things would those be?

Well for one, Fripp has a very particular and unique way that he likes hear panning (where things are placed left to right in the speakers). He calls it sonic architecture and it was important for him that the bass always have a lot of high end and definition. His directive was always “The bass is not the foundation, it is part of the architecture.” Some things were a bit strange for me at first, but once I figured out what is he was going for in those departments, I could do pretty much anything else I wanted with the mixes. Fripp is also a big fan of digital mixing technology and recording instruments without microphones. Our opinions differ greatly on those issues so I had to make some changes in my approach to accommodate tech approaches that were important to him.

5. What was different about how that material was put together?

Well, thinking about something like ProjeKct 2, live groove, we recorded all of that material on the road (Ken Latchney engineering). The band would start improvising and by the end of the tour the songs would start to take shape. When we got back to England I would start mixing the material and Robert, myself and David Singleton would be digging through hours of tape and finding really good bits from the various shows. It was a lot of work but really fun because there was not any preconception that we had to present a true picture of the shows. So if a part would sound better by throwing away Robert’s guitar part or Adrian’s drums, I would throw it out, and we would find ways to take great parts from various pieces and combine them into new pieces. We were like mad scientists. I was in my studio mixing and cranking out parts and running them over to David’s editing studio down the street, and then he would get an idea and I would do alternate mixes to try and make his new idea work

6. What equipment to you use for your production/mixing work?

I work in so many different studios around the world that I am using different equipment all the time. I am not a zealot about any of it, but you know, I really believe that except for some advances in editing technology there has not been a significant advance in recording technology for several decades and some things have gotten worse. I really love analog tape and mixing boards, but it’s all really about deciding what is the best way to serve the music and the circumstance. I have been using pro tools systems for almost 10 years now in addition to analog, but I find that most of my records are mixes of different technologies. Most of the King Crimson stuff that I worked on at the DGM studios in England was done with ADATs and a Yamaha 02R mixer, a very simple set up really. I brought over a big rack of my own high end reverbs and compressors. We also had to rent in an additional mixing console for the double trio stuff because there were so many tracks.

7. What was your first band?

I had a few that never actually played, but when I was 15 around 1982 or 83 I started a punk rock band called Freak Baby in the Washington DC area. I was the singer and we were sort of an punk rock band that dabbled in the avant garde at times. We were terrible, but bold, so I am still really proud of it. One interesting thing about that band was that when I quit, I took the guitar players with me and Dave Grohl (Nirvana and Foo fighters) joined Freak Baby on guitar as his first band. We all thought he was amazing because he was 14 and could play Slayer songs on guitar.

8. Who are your big musical influences?

The list is too big to mention, but I would have to say that the big three are probably Neil Young, Philip Glass and Husker Du. Also The Mahavishnu Orchestra completely changed the way I experience music.

9. What instrument(s) did you play? Do you keep it up?

I probably play guitar better than anything else and most of the bands I was in, I sang and played guitar, but I can fake a few others. I have been working on my drumming a lot lately. I trying to get a Warr guitar and a harmonium. I still play all the time, because I play on lots of the records I produce and I am currently working on a couple albums of my own material, that will get released under the name “Lives of the Saints”. One of them will be me playing almost everything and the other will be a huge collection of artists I have worked with (or want to work with). I figure it will probably have 20-30 musicians on it when its done and take a couple years to finish.

10. Why did you switch to the production arena side of things?

Back in the late 80s I was playing and touring a lot in a scene that later became known as grunge or alternative. I was in a band called Pumhouse, that was playing with bands like The Flaming Lips, Dinosaur Jr., Gwar, we were supposed to do several shows with Jane’s Addiction before the tour got canceled. Anyway the bass player of that band quit and we could not really find a good replacement. In the down time I started diving into producing, mixing, composing, arranging and that sort of thing and just fell in love with it. I really found my place in life and I have never looked back. I still do a lot of writing and a bit of performing, but producing and recording with other artists is really what I think I have to offer to the world. By the way that bass player that quit Pumphouse is now in a really beautiful band called La Bradford.

11. You worked on the Deja Vroom DVD, could you tell us a little about the work you did on that?

I mixed the 5.1 surround portion of the DVD. You need a surround system to hear my contribution. That was complete madness. I think that is the first thing I worked on for Crimson. I had just arrived in England and we were actually putting together a studio for me at DGM world central. We had not really even finished the studio when I started working on that. No one at DGM including myself had ever done a surround mix at the time so We just made some guesses about how to do it. The console was not even designed to do 5.1 mixing so I had to sort of jury rig the whole thing to get it to work. I have gotten some really nice compliments on the mixes so I guess it worked. David Singleton and I worked together to do the “make your dream KC line-up” part of the DVD. It was an insane amount of work and I think I have probably heard Schizoid man enough times to hold me over for the next decade.

12. What artist(s) would you most like to produce/mix in the future?

Well there are lots that I would love to work with, but I guess the crowned jewel legends would be to get to work with Voi Vod or Black Sabbath. The Canadian band the Tragically Hip would be a dream come true. I think one of the greatest musicians alive today is the drummer, Dennis Chambers, I would love to work with him on a record. But ya know what? I love working with `legends” and I have been way luckier than most guys getting to work with the likes of Crim, Steve Morse, Chuch Valdes, Terry Bozzio, but I am also really interested in working with developing artists. As much as I love getting to work with the legends, I hope to be developing the legends of the future. As much as I would love to work with some one like David Bowie, I would rather be like Eno in the 70’s helping a young Bowie make Low.

13. Is that why you are not working with King Crimson now?

Well, I have not worked with Crim proper on the last live and studio record, but I still work with some of the guys. I have worked on a few records with Tony Levin and a couple with Pat Mastelotto. Fripp and I have both spoken of doing some more stuff together in the future, but it got to a point where I was doing so much work with Crim, and I could not really do much else. I did not think that professionally there was going to be a big difference between working on 12 Crimson records or 13, and personally I really need to keep a lot of diversity in my work. After a couple years of intense prog, I really wanted to do some pop and folk music or some straight up metal. It worked out great because Tony Levin is my favorite King Crimson player of all

time and I got to work on a few records with him that I could not have done if I was still committed fully to Crim, since Tony is not actively participating in the current line up. I got to do the second Bozzio Levin Stevens album, which was great. I really love all the Crim guys and would gladly work with any or all of them at the right time and circumstance.

14. You’ve been a speaker to several very large music conventions, (SXSW, NXNW, ICMC, etc), what do you generally end up speaking on in those conventions?

It varies, some time I am talking about new technology or creative applications of new technology, but quite often I will do what are called demo panels, where a panel of “experts” offer critique on peoples music in front of an audience. Occasionally I will do master classes and things like that which I really enjoy.

15. What are you currently working on?

When I have time off at home I am working on material for my “Lives of the Saints” albums and writing music for a collaboration I am doing with Seattle based singer/violinist Mary Shokes. I started working with Mary earlier this year while I was producing an album for the Kerry Lauder Band, which Mary is the violin player for. (NS Tony Levin played bass on). I just did some mix work on a project with the original Tool bass player.

I have a couple records in various stages of production. I am just about to finish producing an album in Seattle for OMNI, which is like a mix of old Crimson, new Tool and a bit of Radiohead and Primus thrown in. They are awesome musicians and 19 year olds. Its a really great thing to be a part of. I am working on an album with Swedish pop singer Vanya Keen that we started here in LA and will finish over in Stockholm, and I am in early pre-production with the Italian band Hynoise for their second album. I had Trey Gunn play on the Hypnoise’s first album a couple years ago.

16. Upon reading your resume we were taken first by the diversity of artists that you have been associated with, it’s clear that you are considered a musician friendly producer. Could you tell us a little about the style that you bring to the table?

Thanks. I certainly try to be musician friendly as I really consider myself a musician and certainly not above the other people on the project. We are all playing different roles to try and make great music. My role might be producing, another guy’s role is to play guitar or write the string arrangements. For me my main job as a producer is to get a big picture of the project and figure out what it needs and find ways to get those needs filled. On some records I am writing the songs with the artists and playing lots of the instruments. On the other end of the spectrum, there are records like Bozzio Levin Stevens where I am just working with the band to define a vision for the record, get great sounds, and trying to create a situation where the musicians can get great performances and I can lending an objective ear to those performances.

I think making records should be fun. Most of the times working on records with me dose not really feel like work. Its laid back and casual and next thing you know we have a cool record. But I try really hard to honor what the vision of the music is, and to find ways that the performers will be at their best. That’s always different with every artist and album.

I suppose there are things that I bring to the table in terms of working methods, but I try really hard not to have a “sound”, there are a lot of producers that when you hear an album you know who produced the record. I love some of those records, but I think if my records sound like “my records” than I have failed the artist. I want to capture what is special about that artists, or if its an album I am very involved with creatively that we work to make some thing really new.

17. How much do you contribute to the creation of a recording that is an album, instead of just a collection of singles?

That is a really good question and almost always one that I spend serious time on with the artists in pre-production. Probably just for selfish reasons, because all of the albums that I love are Albums with a capital “A”. I always want the album to stand on its own as one complete work. A lot of that work is really in defining what the vibe or vision of the album will be and going for it. That involves picking great songs that that will work together, and also trying to give the album a sonic imprint that will hold it together and hopefully set it apart from other albums.

18. One of the things that makes King Crimson distinctive to me is that they are often influential but rarely influenced by other artists. Is this an accurate assessment?

I don’t really think this is true. I know that the guys in King Crimson get a lot of influence from other musicians, the thing that is amazing about Crim though is that they combine those elements in ways that are totally unique. Fripp is really amazing about pushing to get rid of things that seem like the core of an influence, so you need to find new ways to incorporate those influences. Another interesting thing is that I think Crimson is very influenced by Crimson’s past and with all the amazing, diverse musicians that have been in that band there is a lot to draw from.

19. Is it difficult to marry the virtuosic chops often displayed by this band with accessibility to a wide audience? If so, how is this managed?

King Crimson does have wide appeal in certain parts of the world even now. When I was doing the new mixes of USA, my personal goal was that I wanted to present the 74 line up in a way the kids that dig Tool would be into. Its funny that they ended up Touring with Tool as year or two later.

Fripp is always trying to push boundaries and not deliver what is expected. I am not so sure if it’s a matter of virtuosity as it is the intentional challenging of the audience. Dave Mathews band are amazing musicians and they are really popular. King Crimson has always been about challenging the listener and for better or worse, most audinents do not really want to be challenged. I have worked with lots of amazing virtuosos in the worlds of rock, jazz and classical, but to me virtuosity for the sake of virtuosity is completely boring and unnecessary. When I am working with virtuosos, my concerns are the same as when I am working with a folk singer: Are we making something some thing that will move peoples hearts. It’s the reason why Mahavishnu, Yes and Michael Hedges records still sell and you never hear from all those guys in the 80’s that seemed to play fast for the sake of playing fast.

20. Which King Crimson album had the biggest impact on you, and why?

The Monumental King Crimson album in my life is Discipline. It is a perfect album. The fact that, to me, there is not a weak second on it and it came into the world without precedent and in terms of what it was doing artistically it has not been equaled. One of the amazing things about Fripp is that I think he has done this 3 times. A tiny sliver of artists will make perfect albums once in a lifetime but I think Fripp did it with Discipline, Let the Power Fall (Frippertronics) and Get Crafty (League of Crafty Guitarists cassette).

We’d like to give a big “Thank you!” to Ronan Chris Murphy for taking the time out of his what I’m sure is, a notoriously busy schedule, and the wonderful Curtis Smith at Maelstrom PR who handled us with the big ol’ kid gloves and got our questions safely out to Mr. Murphy.