Stefanie (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} _cornflakez) wrote,@ 2006-01-07 21:26:00 |
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| Current mood: |  lazy |
| Current music: | Lifehouse - You & Me |
| Entry tags: | kiefer sutherland |
Quite an old article.
KIEFER SUTHERLAND'S RECORDING STUDIO, IRONWORKS, HOUSES PASSION FOR GIBSON GUITARS.
By Michelle Nikolai
Kiefer Sutherland, star of the Fox TV hit series "24," has been collecting Gibson guitars for over 20 years, and now he's putting them to work in his new recording studio, Ironworks. His stash of 28 new and vintage Gibsons provides a full arsenal of guitar sounds for the artists who record in the new studio, which he built with musician and producer Jude Cole..
KIEFER SUTHERLAND'S RECORDING STUDIO, IRONWORKS, HOUSES PASSION FOR GIBSON GUITARS.
By Michelle Nikolai
Kiefer Sutherland, star of the Fox TV hit series "24," has been collecting Gibson guitars for over 20 years, and now he's putting them to work in his new recording studio, Ironworks. His stash of 28 new and vintage Gibsons provides a full arsenal of guitar sounds for the artists who record in the new studio, which he built with musician and producer Jude Cole.
"I don't play in a band, and I didn't build the studio so I could make a vanity record," Sutherland explained. "Jude and I built it together, and it was really to start a label that was going to help young artists that might not be able to find their way in what is becoming a very shrinking corporate music industry and try and make records for them, and either get them out independently or actually use the distribution apparatus of a major."
Ironworks Studio is housed in a historic ironworks foundry in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles; a bohemian suburb that attracts young, artistic hopefuls from all over the world . "Even as people have found success in what they're doing, they've ended up staying because there's such a fantastic community here, and it's lent a great kind of vibe to the studio," Sutherland said.
"We just want to make records and try to figure out how to get them out there."
The studio is managed by top-notch guitar tech "Captain" Mark Somgynari, and it's operating five to six days a week, 12 hours a day. "We don't rent the studio out," Sutherland said. "It's literally for bands that we have developed and that we're finding. It's unbelievable how many fantastic bands there are out there that are just not being heard. We just want to make records and try to figure out how to get them out there."
Guitars first enthralled Sutherland as boy growing up in Toronto. He took violin lessons as a 5-year-old, but his older brother's record collection turned him on to the guitar rock and roll of Boston, Led Zeppelin, Neil Young and Deep Purple. He begged his mom (actress Shirley Douglas) to let him study guitar, and she promised if he worked at the violin very hard for one more year, she'd buy him a guitar. Mom made good on her promise and gave her musically precocious 12-year-old a classical guitar. He took classical lessons with Liona Boyd's teacher, but would also grab a lesson here and there from other folks who taught him how to transpose what he was learning to rock and roll. He took up his other passion, hockey, when he was 5, thanks to his parents' desire to expose their children to a variety of opportunities (his father, of course, is actor Donald Sutherland).
"We're finding out now, music is such an important part of a young person's education."
"We're finding out now, music is such an important part of a young person's education," he said. "There are so many correlations to how a child studies math and how a child plays music. And we're finding as we're closing down so many of the musical classrooms in our public schools, that certain areas in young people's academics are just dropping through the floor."
"I think parents of the '60s generation were very astute in knowing that the more you can expose a young person to, the better chance they have at learning a wide variety of things."
At 14, after he received a couple of Christmas presents that he wasn't too thrilled about, he pawned them for a Gibson Sonex because he thought the guitar looked cool with its space-age resin body. "It was as light as a potato chip," Kiefer recalled. "It was almost like a Les Paul Jr. but with some kind of... it wasn't Teflon, but it looked like it almost, some very weird kind of body material and two double-coil pickups."
"My whole mood or sense can change by virtue of the music that I'm listening to."
He was in several amateur bands while in school, with admittedly bad names like Broken Glass and Insani Annie and the Crippled Christians. As he pursued acting seriously he gave up playing for a while, but when his career took off his love of music was rekindled. "It really dictates a lot about my life, how I view things and feel things," he explained thoughtfully. "My whole mood or sense can change by virtue of the music that I'm listening to. It really does affect me on a visceral and emotional level."
When Cole, his best friend was a struggling musician in the beginning, Sutherland bought him an Arctic White Les Paul Custom. The two began collecting vintage guitars and gear, and Sutherland would send his guitars on the road with his buddy. "When he started to do well, I said, 'Jude, remember all those guitars I lent you? I want them back,'" he laughs. "And then we realized we had amassed really an incredible collection."
His favorite electrics include a '67 ES-335 that faded from cherry to a golden salmon color after a lengthy stay in a storefront window, a '65 SG Special, a '59 Les Paul Reissue that was aged by Gibson finish specialist Tom Murphy, and his Les Paul Juniors and Specials dating from their first years of introduction (1954 and '55, respectively) up to 1959. On the acoustic side, he also loves his John Lennon J-160E, his 2003 Custom Shop SJ-200, and his '63 J-185, though his dog Molly put loving scratches on it.
The wide array of guitars provides players with every sound they need. "We had Mark Goldenberg in, who is just a phenomenal guitar player, and he said the nicest thing about playing here." Sutherland said. "After the first day, he never brought another guitar back, so that's a bonus, I guess."
Other artists who have recorded at Ironworks include Jason Wade from Lifehouse, a new Maverick artist named MoZella, and two acts that Sutherland and Cole are working with: The band Softcore and Rocco Deluca, artists that they're incredibly excited about.
Sutherland still takes guitar lessons, and he tries to learn different styles, integrating the techniques of his favorites players into his own. He works on the chord/two-bar riff/chord style of Jimi Hendrix, and incorporates rhythm and solo playing ala Eric Clapton.
"I try to take as many lessons as possible, because I think it helps me move forward as a player, instead of picking the same terrible thing over and over," he laughed.
