Roger Nichols
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists:
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Roger Nichols
- Genres: Rock
Biography
Born in Missoula, MT, Roger Nichols and his parents moved to Santa Monica, CA, when he was a one-year-old. His household brimmed with music when he was growing up. His dad was a journalism graduate and a professional photographer who played sax in local jazz bands. His mother was a music major and a classical pianist. When Nichols started grade school, he picked up the violin, continuing his violin and classical studies throughout grammar and high school. His attention turned to basketball and Nichols forsook violin for the hoops but played guitar on the side.Recruited to U.C.L.A. on a basketball scholarship, Nichols played on the team for a year or two. Confronted to make a choice between music or basketball by his coach John Wooden, Nichols chose music. While in college, he majored in music and cinematography while still playing the guitar and adding the piano. After a brief hiatus, he returned to U.C.L.A. and began taking songwriting courses. After he left college, Nichols took a variety of jobs, working in a bank for two years, a liquor store for a year and a half, and serving six months in the navy. On weekends, he worked in clubs with his group, Roger Nichols and a Small Circle of Friends, that performed original songs written by Nichols.
Around 1965, the group was signed to a recording contract by Liberty Records. While at the label, the group briefly had the opportunity to work with Tommy Li Puma. Li Puma thought the group had some potential, but left Liberty shortly thereafter. With the label for eight months without having a record released, Nichols called A&M Records expressing interest in playing some demos for label co-owner Herb Alpert. He was switched to Li Puma who had been hired as the A&R man for the new label. Li Puma was still enamored of the group. Nichols then asked for and received a release from Liberty Records.
While Nichols waited for Li Puma to finish producing the Sandpipers and Claudine Longet, he wrote an instrumental for Alpert that he promptly recorded a week after hearing it. Though Roger Nichols and a Small Circle of Friends wasn't a big seller, Alpert urged A&M publishing company head Chuck Kaye to sign Nichols as a songwriter to their company.
During his second year with the company, Kaye introduced Nichols to lyricist Paul Williams. The first song that wrote was recorded by Claudine Longet, "It's Hard to Say Goodbye." The duo wrote together for four years, resulting in lots of album cuts, B-sides, even A-sides, but no hits.
An advertising executive approached a friend of Nichols asking for help with an under-budget commercial project for Crocker Bank. Nichols' friend gave him a copy of the Roger Nichols and a Small Circle of Friends album. The ad exec called A&M and made an appointment with Nichols and Williams to discuss the project. The exec said that he only had 300 dollars to make a demo and the rest of the project had to be done on speculation that the project would pan out and become a successful ad campaign, in which case this would lead to more money. Hoping to capture the youth market by softening the bank's image, Nichols and Williams were given the slogan, "You've got a long way to and go and we'd like to help you get there." They had just ten days to create a song, essentially a jingle. Waiting until the last day, after they've completed other projects, Nichols started noodling around on the piano and wrote the basic verse melody in a half hour. Williams joined him later and come up with some lyric lines. On the demo, Nichols overdubbed piano, bass, and guitar while Williams sang. It was approved by the bank who requested that they complete the song, which at that time included two verses and a bridge.
Crocker Bank had the advertising rights to the song, but the duo, along with A&M, retained the recording and publishing rights.
Richard Carpenter of the Carpenters heard the jingle on a TV commercial, and although signed to A&M, didn't know who wrote the track. He found out and the Carpenters recorded the song. "We've Only Just Begun" was nominated for a Grammy for Song of the Year, was included on BMI's million performances list, and received an award for selling a million copies of sheet music. Another Nichols-Williams song, "Out in the Country" by Three Dog Night, landed in the Top Ten. Six months later, "Rainy Days and Mondays" was another gold record by the Carpenters and Nichols' third gold record in a single year. Other hits were the Carpenters' "I Won't Last a Day Without You," "Travelin' Boy," and "I Never Had It So Good," covered by Barbara Streisand.
In 1972, the Nichols-Williams team parted ways. Somewhat disgruntled, Nichols returned to his native Montana, bought a house, and relaxed. A few years later, he returned to composing and primarily background scoring. In later years, Nichols' hits were more associated with the TV shows that he scored like "Love Theme From Hart to Hart." ~ Ed Hogan, Rovi
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Roger Nichols (recording engineer)
For the songwriter, see Roger Nichols (songwriter).
| Roger S. Nichols | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Roger S. Nichols |
| Also known as | "The Immortal" |
| Born | September 22, 1944 Oakland, California |
| Died | April 9, 2011 (aged 66) Burbank, California |
| Genres | Rock, folk, jazz, country, multiple others |
| Occupations | Recording engineer, record producer, inventor |
| Years active | 1963–2011 |
| Associated acts | Steely Dan, John Denver, et al |
Roger Scott Nichols (September 22, 1944 – April 9, 2011) was an American recording engineer, producer and inventor.
Nichols was best known for his work with the group Steely Dan and John Denver,[1] but he was the audio engineer for numerous major music acts including the Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder, Frank Zappa, Crosby Stills & Nash, Al Di Meola, Roy Orbison, Cass Elliot, Plácido Domingo, Gloria Estefan, Diana Ross, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Rickie Lee Jones, Kenny Loggins, Mark Knopfler, Eddie Murphy, Michael McDonald, James Taylor, and Toots Thielemans, among others. In 2006 Nichols' work was formally recognized by The Recording Academy (Grammys) Producers and Engineers Wing, and Nichols was posthumously awarded a Special Merit/Technical Grammy Award on February 11, 2012, his eighth overall.[2]
In May 2010 Nichols was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He died from the disease at his home, surrounded by his family, on April 9, 2011.[1][3] In his subsequent New York Times obituary, Nichols was referred to in the headline as an 'Artist Among Sound Engineers.' [4]
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Contents
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Early life
Roger Nichols was born in Oakland, California. His father was an U.S. Air Force B-47 pilot; as a result the Nichols family lived in various spots in the U.S. for the first eleven years of his life. In 1957 his family settled in Cucamonga, California, where Nichols attended High School. One of his classmates was Frank Zappa; Zappa would drop by Nichols' house to "play guitar, and we would do multiple passes of guitars and bounce them together" on Nichols' first recording device, a reel-to-reel tape deck using quarter inch tape.
He attended Oregon State University where he studied nuclear physics. From 1965 to 1968 he was a nuclear operator at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (aka SONGS).[5][6]
From nuclear operator to recording engineer
Nichols and some friends created their own recording studio, Quantum Studios, in Torrance, California in 1965. The facility originally was a four-car garage; it was converted into a four-track studio to record high school bands. A hi-fi supply store, created as a side business by Nichols and his partners, brought in clients and contacts that led to recording commercials, with future stars Karen Carpenter and Larry Carlton performing on some of the spots; another musician Nichols recorded is this era was the former Mouseketeer Cubby O'Brien, on the drums. Nichols also recorded Kenny Rogers, then with the First Edition; the studio was expanded into a former post office and upgraded to 16 tracks.[5]
Sales of recording equipment and machinery to ABC Records' first recording studio led to a contact with Phil Kaye, who was in charge of the facility. Nichols was hired in 1970 to maintain the equipment and do engineering work with Kaye and Steve Barri. Some of the clients Nichols recorded at this time included John Phillips and Denny Doherty of the Mamas and the Papas, the Grass Roots, and Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds.[5]
The Steely Dan years
First meeting
In 1971 Nichols met Gary Katz, newly hired at the ABC Dunhill label as a record producer. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were also working at ABC as song writers; one night Nichols was drafted, when no one else on the staff wanted to be involved, to stay and engineer a demo session that Becker and Fagen were holding to record their tunes for use by other artists.[7] Nichols discovered he had a great deal in common with the then-unknown duo, including sharing a taste for impeccable audio quality. Nichols was asked to engineer their first record album in 1972, and he would wind up working with Katz, Becker and Fagen in recording the first, decade-long incarnation of the band that became known as Steely Dan.[6]
"Nichols once ascribed his close professional connection with Steely Dan and Mr. Katz to the obsession they all had with getting the most out of the technology in the recording studio.
“We’re all perfectionists,” Mr. Nichols said. “It wasn’t a drag for me to do things over and over until it was perfect.” He added: “It would have driven a lot of other engineers up the wall. In my own way, I’m just as crazy as they are.” " - Conclusion of Roger Nichols' New York Times obituary by noted music writer Ben Sisario.[8]Engineering the birth of Steely Dan
As a result of working with Nichols, Becker and Fagen and producer Katz were determined to have him seated behind the recording console for the 1972 start of studio sessions their first album, Can't Buy a Thrill. This conflicted with Nichols' summer vacation, and the decision was made to postpone recording until Nichols returned, much to ABC president Jay Lasker's annoyance, due to the amount of money advanced to the fledgling band. Once begun, the process was exacting. Nichols later commented: "We finished it in six months, which was quick for them. But even then their acceptance level was way above everyone else's. They never had the attitude of 'It's getting late that's good enough', or 'No-one else will notice'. Everything had to be as near perfect as technically and humanly possible." The album sold well and yielded two hit singles, ensuring Nichols would be tied to the band's fortunes.[9] Nichols was involved in engineering every Steely Dan album to date.[10]
Nickname: "The Immortal"
Interviewed in 1993 for 'Metal Leg, the Steely Dan Magazine', Nichols stated (regarding his nickname that appears on many of his credits): "...they were trying to kill me. I was working on a Johnny Winter session on the weekends, with Steve Barri all day and with Steely Dan all night, so they had me going 24 hours a day. They tried running me into the ground, but it didn't work. Then there was the time when we were working at Cherokee Studios when two of the tape machines were grounded improperly and I touched both of the machines and everything shorted out. The face plate on one of the machines was completely melted but I didn't feel a thing. They figured something weird was going on." [5][11]
In an interview after Nichols death, Donald Fagen stated that "The Immortal" name came from Roger's likeness to Lee Majors, "The Six Million Dollar Man".
Innovations for 'Countdown to Ecstasy', and 'The hand'
When Becker and Fagen expressed frustration during the band's second album Countdown to Ecstasy with the difficulty in acquiring a steady drum tempo, Nichols was forced to improvise. The track Show Biz Kids had proved especially challenging in regards to a steady beat. As quoted in Brian Sweet's biography of Steely Dan, Reelin' in the Years, Nichols recalled:
"It was just one of those tunes that that was so very difficult to play exactly in tempo, with every instrument in sync. ... There were no drum machines in those days, so we made a 24 track, eight bar tape loop, which at 30 ips was a considerable length of tape, trailed it out through the door into the studio, around a little idler which was set up on a camera tripod, back into the studio and then copied that to a second 24 track machine. Everything was on tape except the lead vocal and the lead guitar. It worked like a dream."[citation needed]
The album's back cover photograph featured a photo of Steely Dan in the recording studio control room, and included Nichols' seemingly disembodied hand on the mixing console while he hid beneath it.[12]
Steely Dan's studio-only years
After the third Steely Dan album Pretzel Logic and the tour by the band in support of it, Steely Dan ceased touring and turned into a band that only performed on recordings. Nichols' duties became more diverse, and ranged from diagnosing a flaw on the master tape of the band's biggest selling single, Rikki Don't Lose That Number, (a workman's gob of mustard on the tape was found by Nichols to be to blame), to helping to recover the sound on their fourth album, Katy Lied, which had been recorded at ABC Studios and had suffered when the master tape was processed through a faulty DBX noise reduction system while mixing.[13]
Grammy Awards with Steely Dan
Nichols would win three Grammy Awards (Best Engineered Recording — Non-Classical) for his late 70's-early 80's "meticulous studio work" [11] with the band on Aja, FM (No Static at All) and Gaucho and won three additional Grammys, including the notable achievement 'Album Of The Year' for his efforts on the Steely Dan comeback album, Two Against Nature (2000).[14]
Inventions
In 1978, Nichols pioneered the technique of "digital drum replacement" by inventing the Wendel sampling computer, which was used to provide some of the drum and percussion sounds on Steely Dan's album, Gaucho, notably the song "Hey Nineteen". This technology is now commonplace in music production around the world.[15] He invented and produced a rubidium nuclear clock under his company name Digital Atomics. The purpose of the clock was to provide the accuracy of nuclear timekeeping to better synchronize digital recording equipment in the studio, but at a lower cost than the typical cesium clocks such as those used in military and aviation applications.[citation needed]
Other activities
Roger Nichols was a columnist for many years at EQ, a professional audio magazine.[11] Roger was also a guest lecturer for the Berklee School of Music, University of Miami, and Recording Workshop. [16] Nichols was an airplane pilot, and was close friends and flying buddies with singer/songwriter John Denver.[17] Nichols engineered and produced albums for Denver over a nearly twenty-year period, including the 1998 children's train album titled All Aboard which earned Denver his first Grammy awarded posthumously. Nichols was on his way to California to fly with Denver in his new experimental Long-EZ plane when he learned of the crash in which Denver was killed.[citation needed]
Personal life
He was married to writer/musician Conrad Reeder with whom he had two daughters, Cimcie & Ashlee. He started a company called Roger Nichols Digital[11] in late 2005. The next year the company took over licensing and distribution of the Elemental Audio plugins.
Death
Nichols was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer on May 29, 2010. In early 2011 he was reported to be "fighting for his life." Nichols died on April 9, 2011, aged 66.[3]
Grammy Awards
- 1977 "Best Engineer Non-Classical" Steely Dan Aja
- 1978 "Best Engineer Non-Classical" Steely Dan FM (soundtrack)
- 1981 "Best Engineer Non Classical" Steely Dan Gaucho
- 1997 Producer "Best Children's Album" John Denver "All Aboard!"
- 2000 "Best Pop Vocal Album" Steely Dan Two Against Nature
- 2000 "Album of the Year" Steely Dan Two Against Nature
- 2000 "Best Engineer Non-Classical" Steely Dan Two Against Nature
- 2012 Special Merit/Technical Grammy Award for "contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field."
References
- ^ a b Cromelin, Richard (April 13, 2011). "Roger Nichols dies at 66; engineer gave Steely Dan its distinctive sound". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-roger-nichols-20110413,0,6145566.story. Retrieved April 22, 2011.
- ^ "ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND, GLEN CAMPBELL, ANTONIO CARLOS JOBIM, GEORGE JONES, THE MEMPHIS HORNS, DIANA ROSS, AND GIL SCOTT-HERON HONORED WITH THE RECORDING ACADEMY® LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD DAVE BARTHOLOMEW, STEVE JOBS AND RUDY VAN GELDER HONORED WITH TRUSTEES AWARD CELEMONY AND ROGER NICHOLS TO RECEIVE TECHNICAL GRAMMY AWARD®". http://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/press-release/dec-21-2011-1109-am. Retrieved December 21, 2011.
- ^ a b Morris, Christopher (April 10, 2011). "Roger Nichols, music engineer, dies". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118035225?categoryid=16&cs=1&cmpid=RSS%7CNews%7CLatestNews. Retrieved April 10, 2011.
- ^ Sisario, Ben (April 17, 2011). "Roger Nichols, Artist Among Sound Engineers, Dies at 66". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/arts/music/roger-nichols-artist-among-sound-engineers-dies-at-66.html?_r=3. Retrieved April 22, 2011.
- ^ a b c d "Roger Nichols interview". http://www.granatino.com/sdresource/21nichols.htm. Retrieved August 7, 2010.
- ^ a b "Roger Nichols". http://www.absy.com/ABSMMI/ITV/NICHOLS/ukitvrnich.html. Retrieved August 7, 2010.
- ^ Sweet, Brian (1994). Steely Dan: Reelin' in the Years. London, New York, Sydney: Omnibus Press. p. 44. ISBN 0-7119-3551-3.
- ^ Sisario, Ben (April 17, 2011). "Roger Nichols, 66, Artist Among Sound Engineers". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/arts/music/roger-nichols-artist-among-sound-engineers-dies-at-66.htm. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
- ^ Sweet, 1994, pgs. 46-7
- ^ "Steely Dan: Recording Everything Must Go". http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug03/articles/steelydan.htm. Retrieved August 9, 2010.
- ^ a b c d Sisario, Ben (April 17, 2011). "Roger Nichols, 66, Artist Among Sound Engineers". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/arts/music/roger-nichols-artist-among-sound-engineers-dies-at-66.htm. Retrieved April 24, 2011.
- ^ Sweet, 1994, pg. 60
- ^ Sweet, 1994, pg. 97
- ^ "Engineer Roger Nichols Dies". grammy.com. http://www.grammy.com/blogs/engineer-roger-nichols-dies. Retrieved April 24, 2011.
- ^ "Roger Nichols Digital Unveils Universal Binary Versions of Pro Tools plug-ins for Intel-based Macintosh Systems"
- ^ http://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/news/florida-chapter-sets-recording-academy-honors
- ^ "Roger Nichols". The Daily Telegraph (London). June 16, 2011. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8580588/Roger-Nichols.html.
External links
- Roger Nichols official site
- Roger Nichols on video as he demos plugins at NAMM show
- Roger Nichols' New York Times obituary
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