Recording with Robin Trower and Matthew Fisher

The following article is excerpted from the book Gallagher, Marriott, Derringer and Trower : Rock Chronicles by Dan Muise: recommended for all fans of Robin Trower ... and indeed of Matthew Fisher! You can order the book from Amazon.com using this dedicated link , from Amazon in the UK using this one. or from Amazon in Germany here

In 1974, Robin Trower released Bridge of Sighs, a collection of eight original songs that form as powerful a collection of music as any album of that time or since. Matthew Fisher hired Geoff Emerick, former recording engineer with The Beatles. Emerick and Trower were definitely on the same page when it came to experimenting with guitar sounds. Each song is a masterpiece, as is the album as a whole. The mixing of the record and the performances were superb.

Robin Trower
(Matthew) did a great job producing the first couple of albums but we were lucky. Especially with Bridge of Sighs. We had Geoff Emerick, who had a huge input with how that album turned out. He was brilliant. He actually got the sound. I wouldn't say we particularly had an idea of how it should sound. That's why Bridge of Sighs sounds so different from the first album, because of Geoff.

Matthew Fisher
Geoff came into it fairly late. We'd already recorded a couple of tracks at Olympic. Geoff had been working at Apple. Apple was wound up by then by the Official Receiver or something. The Beatle thing was all falling apart and Geoff came to work at AIR. At the time I was sort of planning my first solo album using this drummer, Geoff Wetner. His brother was a tape op at AIR. So his brother told Geoff about Geoff Emerick joining the staff at AIR, and Geoff told me. So I thought, 'Wow. The Beatles engineer!' Geoff didn't record any of my album but he mixed it. And although we already had a couple of tracks in the can, we switched from Olympic to AIR and Geoff did the engineering for most of it.

Author
Was working with the band an easier task second time around?

Matthew Fisher
I don't think it was much different. I suppose we spent more time on things. Rob's band was never one to work things out in the studio. They were always rehearsed. They actually would go and play the stuff live before they recorded it. So really all we had to do when we got to the studio was set the mikes up and go for a good take. Everyone knew what to do. I was particularly fussy. I used to wait until one sounded particularly right to me. That had something that I thought, 'Yeah, this is the one.' And sometimes it might come on the second take or sometimes not until the fifth or sixth.

Robin Trower
Matthew'd sort of sit there and say if that was the take. Whether the parts were working well. Basically oversee the performance and make sure it sounded good. I think it is a good idea to have an objective viewpoint. I really believe in that. It's very hard to judge your own work. You can hear it two weeks later and decide about it but the minute after you've performed it, it's impossible to actually know what its effect is.

I was always there. With Bridge of Sighs I remember we all sat there at the desk and moved the faders and did the mixing. Me, Geoff and Matthew. But Geoff really was the guy. He would set it up and I would say to him, 'Can I have this guitar louder?' And he'd say, 'Turn it up as loud as you like' (laughs). He was the one that set the sounds up. Give us the effects. Stuff he had brought from The Beatles.

Author
Did you have a sense of how good that album was at the time?

Matthew Fisher
You can go make an album and you can think, while you're making it, that it's your best and it sounds really good. But if you put it out and nobody likes it, it colors your own judgment. And the reverse can happen. You can think, 'Yeah, this is pretty good,' and then it goes triple platinum. It's difficult to be objective about what you do. There were a lot of things on that album. I can remember really being impressed by what Rob was doing. Specifically, the track In This Place. He put down loads of tracks at the end. Just layered things on top of each other again and again. He was playing a tune on a bass guitar through a wah-wah pedal, which Geoff Emerick was kind of going crazy about. 'It won't work, it'll never work!' And it did work (laughs). Rob was incredibly inventive on that album. And the same with the track 'Bridge of Sighs.' On the fadeout section of that he was coming up with all sorts of weird ideas. On that very long fadeout, there are things going on in the background and him standing in front of a microphone and mumbling. But it all sort of works.

The opening riff for the song Bridge of Sighs was a melody that Robin carried in his head for close to half a year before he could come up something to turn it around with. It was important that the music meshed with the opening notes and formed a perfect union.

Robin Trower
It's what I call the bridge/chorus part. It's a straight lift. It's the only time I've ever lifted something straight from another record. And it was Down And Out In New York City by James Brown.

Author
Wouldn't you agree, though, that everything has pretty much been done before?

Robin Trower
Oh, yeah (laughs). It's very hard to come up with anything completely original.

Author
When Bridge of Sighs started to take form, did you know how good the album was?

Robin Trower
No. I remember being in the middle of doing it, I said to Matthew, 'How good is this album, do you think?' And he said, 'Well, it's not Sgt. Pepper but it's going to be very strong.' And that gave me a sort of sense that I'd done some good work.

Derek Sutton
I have an image in my mind of the day the tapes for Bridge of Sighs arrived. We had an office on Hollywood Blvd. in a major office building. I can actually picture, in my mind, sitting behind my desk, putting this reel-to-reel tape into my player and turning it on. And the hairs on my body standing up when the first few notes came out! We had been asked by the building not to play any music really loud. I cranked this thing so I could really get it. Everybody from the floor came in with their mouths open! People from all kinds of businesses. It was just outstanding! Michael Papale, head of promotions at the time, came running into the office screaming, 'Jesus Christ, what's that?' We knew what we had got.

Author
Chrysalis knew immediately that Bridge of Sighs was great. Were you made aware of how the record company felt?

Robin Trower
No. I didn't have a lot of contact with them. I didn't seem to be able to communicate with people that weren't musicians. I was somewhere else.

Reg Isidore
I honestly would have to say that I didn't know it would have that effect. It's a good album but it took me by surprise, actually.

Derek Sutton
Radio was all over it! It was an absolute staple for radio. There were three tracks that were played to death. Bridge of Sighs, Day Of The Eagle and Too Rolling Stoned. And Daydream, from Twice Removed, got played a lot. They went back to the first album looking for something that was in a different kind of tempo. Daydream is such a brilliant song. One of Jimmy's best ever vocalizations. And you're hearing my personal preference coming through. I love that song.

At that time, radio was in a space where they would play three, four, five tracks deep off an album and play them consistently. Not just one track, play it to death, next track ... until people got sick of it. They would actually get into an album. Different from today of course.

Robin Trower
It's quite a thrill when you think people are that into it. I also sort of felt that we were a bit unique in what we were doing.