Mr Mister: ‘I Wear the Face’ - I had just met the other three Misters and we got a record deal within a few months, so while I had done other recordings I had never tracked with them. Our producer Peter McIan was on top of American radio with his Men at Work hits. He insisted that I use the same single headed drums as Jerry from Men at Work, which he tuned.

We were recording in the new Michael Jackson room at Westlake, one of the driest, deadest rooms ever and on top of that Peter wanted more separation on the drums so we built foam baffles between each tom tom, between the foot and snare and around the hi hat, he also had me change my set up so my cymbals were more centered to the snare (I like to set up off axis). This all took some getting used to but the clincher was his snare miking technique, he liked a black dot head with a sm57 placed all the way to the black dot, I had already made enough records to learn I sound better with some distance to the mics, more of the English Glyn Johns style than a close miked R & B style. All was going along ok until we started to track, I immediately knocked the capsule off the 57, they brought in another and within a few bars I did it again, and again and again until the studio was out of 57s. I imagine the other guys were getting concerned about their new drummers ‘red light fever’. With broken plastic all over the room we realized that that capsule is just a plastic wind screen and the diaphragm sits further up inside, I negotiated with Peter to put a broken mike up but to give me the extra inch the broken capsule used to take. This made all the difference and we were on our way. As we progressed we replaced the toms with Timbales, so I had 5 or 6 of the smallest and biggest badest timbales lp made, but still a puney sound.

Jack Wagner: 'All I Need' - Yes this was Jack the TV star and golf fanatic. This record had a number one pop song on it “All I need”, but I did not work on that one. I did the rest including a  big sax ballad known to me as ‘Laura’s Theme” from General Hospital. This was one of  the most played TV songs in the USA for many years.

An interesting note on this record is the Producer. I got the call from Quincy Jones Production to show up for a date, but when I arrived no Quincy! Instead it was Cliff Magnus and Glenn Ballard (my old pals from MCA songwriter demo days). As you may have figured out, this is the same Glenn Ballard that produced and wrote many hits with Aerosmith and the mega-seller of all time from Alanis Morissette. This session included a rental drum kit with a solid iron Keplinger snare, the prototype of what Ayotte sells now.

The Rembrandts: 'The Rembrandts' - I have known Danny & Phil since around 1981, doing demos and solo records. These two are the most competitive band mates I have ever seen. When Island decided to sign Danny and not Phil in 1983, Phil left for greener pastures, so I was interested when I heard that Phil was back to give it another go. They had no record deal when they reformed as the Rembrandts. Phil would fly to L.A. for writing sessions. At this time I was rehearsing and writing another Mr Mister record at Rich's home in Malibu, since we started in the afternoon, to give Rich time to surf in the mornings, I developed a routine of stopping by Danny's around 9 am to help out every couple days. They had 2 songs when I first checked in but soon we had 12.

We did these recordings in Dan's garage, a tiny 11x11 carpeted space, on a fostex 8 track, just the three of us with one drum mic (akg 414) and all our gear in that room, in fact Phil crashed in there on the same mattress we used as a baffle. In a few weeks they got a publishing deal and the money was quickly spent on another microphone, and a move up to a 16 track fostex transferring our 8 track masters to continue.

In no time they got a record deal. The signing came from Derrick Shulman (from Gentle Giant!), then the president of what was at that time Atco Records, which later merged and become Elecktra and eventually East West records, the label run by Sylvia who dropped them. When Derrick signed the band, Los Rems said "Great, give us a budget and we will go cut the record" but Derrick said "No I love the demos", in fact he loved the order he had received the songs in every few weeks. So if you listen to the drums they go stereo about half way through, the exception are the first two songs, the hits, that I cut last, overdubbing to old midi drums.

* A side note - One day I answer my phone and it's an English woman from some record company, she asks if I have ever heard of Mat Johnson? Yes!! I tell her, I was infected with 'Infected' and used it as a sonic template for an earlier Mr Mister track. She said Mat had heard my drumming in an adjacent studio (they where mixing a Cock Robin record) and wondered if I would like to work together. Yes I say!! She asks what else have I done, so I tell her this and that, but in the background I thought I heard 'It's just the way it is' (the radio in her office?) by the Rembrandts and I tell her, she is excited and tells me how much she loves the record (it was her cd). She says she will call back to set things up, after a few days not hearing back I track her down and ask what's up? She says well....Mat heard that track and....didn't like it. I was crossed off his list. From then on I requested to audition anonymously.

The Sugercubes: 'Stick Around for Joy' - Producer Paul Fox and I go way back (to the MCA basement demos, gay bar gigs and beyond) and we had already done many records together, like XTC.

Paul would often call me in to ghost drum or overdub to help fix other timing problems he was having. With the 'Cubes, like the Egyptians, he had me work with the band's drummer. The 'Cubes drummer, Ziggy, is fantastic and we had a great time doing shakers, bells, blocks, bongos and more together.

One of my FAQ's is what was Bjork like, well amazing as you know. By the time I overdubbed half the band had gone back to Iceland, but Bjork, Ziggy and Anar were still  there. While I was setting up, Bjork entered, walked right up to me and said “How do you say when your lovers blood is one with you?” I was baffled and described how American Indians had blood brothers, they slice each other and mix blood. I don’t think this is what she meant, she was trying to translate some concept into English. I must add that about a year later I went to a Sugercubes show and went backstage to see my pal Danny Faragagher, who was in the opening act “Cracker”, from down the hallway I heard a small voice shout ‘Masteleetoo!’, it was Bjork, I was shocked she would remember a side man she hardly met, much less my name.

Mary Lou Lord: 'Real' - I got this gig through Crafty's Steve Ball and Sanford Ponder. Sanford lived in a loft in downtown L.A., 21st floor at 16th & Spring, tough neighborhodd. I had been recording there with Steve, Sanford and Gavin Harrison. During a break Steve had seen Mary singing in a Boston subway and brought her to L.A., fantastic, beautiful, amazing voice but a quiet one. My drumming was way too big in this open loft, (at night it was like Blade Runner looking out the 3 sided glass windowed room) so we looked for the driest place we could find and it was....a closet. I set up a little kit and played as soft as I could with brushes in a tiny coat closet full of clothes. Very hot and very dry with no sightlines but it worked.

King Crimson: 'B'Boom' - This was the third meeting of this Crim. We went to Buenios Aries for 5 weeks. It's rare to play one city for more than a few days, a month in one city is extremely unique. Week one we rehearsed in a recording studio, which strangely enough shows up in the KCCC cd pictures in 'The VROOOM Sessions'. Week two we moved to a small discotec where we rehearsed days and played nights. Week 3 in a theater a few blocks from our apartments (yes apartments) and again rehearsing days and playing at nights. It must have looked like a Broadway audition, we 6 "producers" sitting out in an empty theater facing the stage to hear playback of our rehearsal dats over the P.A. Week 4 we went out to three or four neighboring cities, in one, La Plata, where Ade took us for a tour of one of the great dinosaur museums, we got the key to the city! Week 5 back to the same theater as week 3, our home, we were the house band. Every night more crowded than the night before as word of mouth spread and, by the last nights, we added double shows, on the last of which Ade came to us as we went on and said "I think I want to sing that ballad idea tonight". It was 'Walking on Air', the first time he sang it was on stage in front of 1,500 people. Many memories of this theater, but not its name. Long warm ups under the stage in a tunnel, huge back lighting on the balcony as we played 'B'Boom' every night, a HUGE chair I keep behind my kit to sit in during Bill's other solos. Rich Mangicaro and Will Kennedy showing up, and....Signing the flats: Possible Productions had asked us to sign a Trillion mats to stick in our Vrooom cds, since the outliner pens take forever to dry we all had dozens and dozens of flats all over each of our apts, everywhere for 4 weeks. A great family of crafty promoters, Colorful Mercedes Buses, Brazilian and Tango music, late nights, the novice guitarist practicing early in the morning out our windows. Fun Times. Then off to Real World.

King Crimson: 'THRAK' - What can I say, one of my biggest thrills ever. We did this record at Real World, one of the greatest studios in the world, but it did have the shitiest headphone mix of all time. We originally set up with everyone in the wood room, but Tony was quick to move to the control room and Adrian to the vocal booth, and then I was asked to move to the next studios cutting room, the stone room. Fine, I loved that room but not the eyesight lines, I could see a bit of Robert's left hand and Trey's right, Adrian's nose (if he leaned forward) and way in the distance through 4 panels of reflective glass my drumming buddy Bill, he was sort of a bopping head with a blur of hands, I could not tell what he was hitting, or if he was smiling, conducting or grimacing (this is how we Crims know if our part is working).

Since I was so far away the headphones had several extension cables on them, and as we learned this draws different power than the guys 40 feet away.

Thank goodness we had done rehearsals and three weeks of gigs in Argentina, so I  sort of knew the tunes, the improvisations are another story.

Around the last day Robert suggested a Musical Blindfold Test, he gathered us around and laid out a plan - 4 beats of this chord, 7 beats of the next, etc, etc, as we all scribbled notes. Then we went out to play. We did one take with some of the team falling out on the way. When we finished we said lets go again, but I asked to lay out, I thought I had stayed true to form. Bill questioned me saying I had mistakes and I should  replay, but I suggested that  they all go again and then I would fix to them.

Well that's the last track on the Thrak record and I did not go back to punch in anything.

My big surprise on hearing the cd, my voice at the end going "Yeah!!".

I had said that as I got up to leave my kit, long after the track had died out, but after additional overdubs it appeared right at the end of the mellotron decay.