Michael B Tretow

that was great, thanks. I'd seen bits and pieces of that in quotes but never the whole article.

SHOWTIME: How did it feel to be able to step into a studio like Polar with all its possibilities?
MBT: It was the dream that came true, clearly! Suddenly, I was able to work with both close-up and distance on the microphones, without loosing a lot of other instruments. This was a procedure that was almost impossible in other studios, because they did not have different rooms that were completely separated from each other. At Polar we have five different rooms with very different acoustic environments, eg. glass and marble room for the grand piano or drum set. There you can move the microphones at different distances and search for the best sound without fear that other sound goes into the same microphones.

SHOWTIME: Where does the development with distance microphones come from?
MBT: Yes, it really is a decline to something you worked long before. I remember that when I started using ambiency microphones, there was hardly anyone who used that technique. It was probably the "live feeling" that I was looking for already then.

SHOWTIME: Pretty soon you came to use the digital technology at Polar, how did you feel and how did it sound?
MBT: In the beginning I thought it sounded cold and nasty, but the music has changed too, now I think it sounds quite right. I do not react at all to the digital sound nowadays, rather I think that analog sounds fuzzy!

SHOWTIME: The "Super Trouper" LP is said to be digitally recorded, but there are some analog elements there after all?
MBT: A couple of the songs are analogously mixed. I was so disturbed at the beginning of the "cold" digital sound that I mixed down some songs analogously. Today I would not have done so, but then it did not feel good with the digital sound.

SHOWTIME: If we were to enter into your cooperation with Björn and Benny, how are they as producers?
MBT: Björn and Benny are unique, both as people and as musicians, clearly better than other producers, simply outstanding! There is an incredible warmth in the music they create.

SHOWTIME: How much does the arrangement and empathy mean in a song?
MBT: The arrangements mean everything! To come and beat the loose E-string on the electric base and think that it should sound like the base in "When I'm Sixty-Four" just doesn't work.
- Björn and Benny are very aware of the importance of the arrangements.
- Nor should one forget Agnetha's and Frida's significance in this context. Their song means a lot, especially as they sing with such energy and conviction. Something that is often lacking on Swedish records.
- When we record it is with a tremendous energy and dreadfulness, everyone is betting everything and throwing himself headlong performing the burn. Sometimes it fails, but then we fix the errors with a little "punch in" here and there!

SHOWTIME: What was it like to work with a producer like Mike Chapman on Agnetha's solo LP?
MBT: I was very exited for the collaboration with Mike, and also admired his records. But there were no drastic things you had to learn from him, rather the other way around! In fact, he and other foreign producers often turn on things that we in Sweden do not think are remarkable at all. Among other things, Adam Ant came and used strings and winds on every song and thought it was very cool, while we thought it sounded like typical Sylvia Vrethammar accompaniment or Dutch schlager.

SHOWTIME: How is it that foreign producers turn on completely different things from us?
MBT: They think it sounds exotic. An accordion or a spilopipa can crack a foreign producer!

SHOWTIME: You mean that little Sweden nevertheless claims to be quite good internationally?
MBT: Yes, no doubt. The attitude in Sweden has always been that "why does it sound so good in England and the US, why can we never sound like that?". We have worked and therefore made every effort to the gentle degree that we on many occasions "passed by" without ourselves understanding it. An Englishman can surely come here and be really crazy about that we has so good studios, or talented studio musicians, completely in class with the pros in the US and England.
- I remember once when I was in a studio in New York where Stevie Wonder had recorded some super record. Guess what they used for echo; of all, an Orban feather! Then I was in another studio where there were a number of Sennheiser microphones, which for us are not particularly remarkable. What did the Americans play with these? Bob Dylan's song addiction! For them, the Sennheiser mix was an exclusive thing because it is manufactured in Europe. In a legendary studio like Electric Ladyland you could find adhesive patches and old parts from cuckoo clock that held the mixer tables together!

SHOWTIME: You have an advanced own studio at home in the living room where you among other things. makes a lot of own recordings. Is it the musician Mikael B Tretow looking forward then?
MBT: I have always wanted to play myself, after all I was a musician from the beginning. But when I entered the Metronome I was cracked by all the good studio musicians, so I did not come in for an instrument for several years. When I have finished with "Chess" I should actually go and learn to play by notes, because I have never been able to. Without a doubt it is an advantage to be able to read notes!

www.blaskoteket.se/artiklar/showtime/1984-12/michael-b-tretow/

So do I, contro.
Thanks again!