Stereo, The - Rory Philips

By: Dominick A. Miserandino

In his life after The Impossible, Rory Phillips of The Stereo tells the Cafe that the key to a successful long-distance relationship in music is retaining a good studio engineer. Without one, things could fall apart.

DM) What ever happened to your first band, the Impossibles?

RP) Basically, after about four years together, we realized that we all had different agendas and things we wanted to do with our lives. I wanted to pursue music, and everyone else wanted to go to school for different reasons, which I can totally understand. Touring is not for everyone, and I don't always understand why I like it so much. But either way, I think everyone is happy now, so it all worked out for the best.

DM) Since you were living in Texas, and the rest of the band was in Minneapolis, how did you get together, and how do you practice?

RP) Well, the whole band originally was just myself and Jamie, and we both knew each other from touring together when I was in The Impossibles and he was in Animal Chin. So we recorded the record by ourselves. Now we have the two Jeremys, and, basically, we don't practice unless we're getting ready to tour.

Before our first tour, we got a room in Minneapolis and spent a week working out the songs and writing six new ones which should be recorded soon. It's not the best system in the world, but it's worked so far. Jamie (Woolford) and I both have four tracks, so we're able to work out songs fairly independently, and then JT (Jeremy Tappero) and Jeremy (Bergo) flesh out their parts when it's all put together.

DM) How has it been this recording across the country?

RP) So far, it hasn't really been that big a deal. I mean, to be honest, there's no studio in Austin I would want to use for a serious release at this point. I've recorded at what are considered "the best in town", and I've never been entirely happy with the results. So the fact that we get to use really amazing studios, like Inner Ear in D.C., is great. Overall, as hectic and out of the norm as this recording session was, I think it came out really well...

DM) Does the studio make that much of a difference in the recording?

RP) I think it really depends. The main thing for me personally is to get a good engineer in a room that he's familiar with (and J. is very familiar with Inner Ear), so he knows all the good and bad points of working there...and how to get the best results possible. But for the most part, from studio to studio, you're dealing with a lot of the same basic equipment. It's the subtle differences that make a good recording or a bad one for me at this point.

DM) Can an engineer be objective, or should he know the band like a fifth member?

RP) I think it really depends on what the band wants. I know with us J. was much more like an outside ear who could take what we made and translate it into something we all could appreciate. I think that not having a full band also had a lot to do with how we approached that situation, and I would imagine that the next recording will be completely different. Personally, I think that having someone outside the band working with you is a necessity for keeping everyone's sanity. He is one of the players and the referee all at the same time.

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