The S&V Interview

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The S&V Interview
Collective Soul Shine Sonically on New Live Album
Mike Mettler  |  Dec 06, 2017  | 
Photo: Joseph Guay

The five men in the fine Atlanta-bred alt-rock collective known as Collective Soul had a very specific mixing rule for Collective Soul – Live: “There are no overdubs here,” confirms Collective Soul frontman, vocalist/guitarist Ed Roland. To further delve into the sheer liveness of Live, Roland and I got on the line to discuss the balance of dynamics in the band’s live mixes, why their biggest hit “Shine” comes across so well in a live setting, and which classic live albums they referred to as inspirations.

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The S&V InterviewAudio Video News
How Origin Is Making Beautiful Music with Amazon
Bob Ankosko  |  Nov 22, 2017  | 
15 Minutes with Origin Acoustics CEO Jeremy Burkhardt

Spend a few minutes on Jeremy Burkhardt’s LinkedIn page and you quickly gain an appreciation of his passion for custom installation and desire to create products that simplify installation and push the boundaries of performance — to “innovate,” as he would say. You also find an executive who is anything but your typical corporate CEO — a man who talks about breaking “all the corporate rules” in describing his work history as CEO for SpeakerCraft, the pioneering custom-installation company he helped build before leaving in 2012. Today, Burkhardt is at the helm of Origin Acoustics, the architectural speaker company he founded in 2014, and his desire for innovation is as strong as ever. Origin was the talk of CEDIA 2017 with the launch of its Valet amplifier, which provides an ingenious way to integrate voice control into a whole-house music system. We caught up with Burkhardt to learn more about the system and get his take on the future of voice control.

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The S&V Interview
Arlo Guthrie Gives Thanks for 50 Years of “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree”
Mike Mettler  |  Nov 22, 2017  | 
Is there a more hallowed Thanksgiving tradition than the annual spinning of Arlo Guthrie's magical 18-minute tale about one fateful Thanksgiving Day encounter that's also celebrating its 50th birthday this year, “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree”? Guthrie and I discuss the song’s sonic origins, what had to be done to ensure it fit perfectly onto one album side, and the Guthrie family’s storied annual holiday tradition of playing Carnegie Hall in New York.
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The S&V Interview
Blondie Seeds Their Signature Sound on Pollinator
Mike Mettler  |  Nov 08, 2017  | 
As defined as the sound of legendary new-wave icons Blondie may appear to be on record, it’s how they’re able to open things up onstage while supporting their buzzworthy new album Pollinator that keeps things interesting for the bandmembers themselves. Drummer Clem Burke and I got on the line to discuss Blondie’s special chemistry on record and onstage, how to be creative while working with click tracks and drum machines, and the special kick he added to the back half of “Heart of Glass.”
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The S&V Interview
Gavin Elder on Filming David Gilmour’s Live Return to Pompeii
Mike Mettler  |  Oct 25, 2017  | 
Photo: Sarah Lee

David Gilmour’s July 7 and 8, 2016 concerts at the storied Pompeii ampitheatre marked the first time anyone had performed there in front of a live audience since the gladiators put on their own special brand of swords & sandals entertainment back in 79 A.D. Director Gavin Elder and I recently got on the line to discuss the logistics of filming in such a historic locale for Blu-ray, the goals for the concert’s color palette, and how his team figured out a way to accommodate Gilmour’s lone specific visual wish for the production.

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The S&V Interview
Talking With Tom Petty, The Man Who Never Backed Down
Mike Mettler  |  Oct 11, 2017  | 
Photo: Mary Ellen Matthews

I had the privilege of interviewing the late Tom Petty for Sound & Vision on three separate occasions. In these previously unpublished back-and-forths culled from my sitdown with Tom in Malibu in 2010, Tom tells me how The Heartbreakers truly got their start, how the band worked together to create new material, and shares his hopeful thoughts toward the band’s future.

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Ronnie Montrose Rocks the Nation with a Fabulous Final Studio Album, 10x10
Mike Mettler  |  Sep 27, 2017  | 
Ronnie Montrose. Photos courtesy Bill Towner.

“His guitar speaks for itself.” It’s a phrase that could be applied to many a dominant and influential guitar player of the rock era, but it’s no accident it was also stickered on the front of albums bearing the name of Bay Area guitar legend Ronnie Montrose. Montrose initially made his mark laying down indelible riffs for the likes of Van Morrison (“Wild Night”) and The Edgar Winter Group (“Free Ride,” “Frankenstein”), but when he joined forces with a then-unknown Sammy Hagar to form Montrose in 1973, he shepherded a band immediately described as America’s answer to Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple, all rolled into one. (“Rock the Nation,” indeed.)

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The S&V Interview
Avant-Garde Pioneer Irmin Schmidt on Can’s Singular Sonics
Mike Mettler  |  Sep 12, 2017  |  First Published: Sep 13, 2017  | 
When Can began releasing their structurally challenging, progressive/electronic music out of Cologne, West Germany in 1968, they essentially ushering in the movement that came to be known as Krautrock, and their far-reaching influence has been cited by such convention-defying artists as David Bowie, the Talking Heads, and Radiohead. Can keyboardist Irmin Schmidt called me to discuss the band’s new The Singles collection and their singular improv-compositional style, when surround sound mixes are (and aren’t) options for their catalog, and what Can song avant-garde German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen gave his rarely handed out seal of approval.
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Steve Earle Embraces His Outlaw Country Roots on ‘Wannabe’
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 16, 2017  | 
Call singer/songwriter Steve Earle a curator/progenitor of the music movement known as outlaw country, and the man also known as the “hardcore troubadour” bristles at the thought. “You know, I’ve always been kind of uncomfortable with that term,” Earle admits. “I’ve been called that for a long time, and it’s a lot to do with where I came from [San Antonio, Texas]. What I actually think outlaw music is all about is artistic freedom. That’s what it’s really about.”
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The S&V Interview
Santana & The Isley Brothers Testify About the Power of Peace
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 02, 2017  | 
The very idea of an Isley Brothers–Santana mashup appears to be quite the sonic dream team on paper, and I’m more than pleased to report the proof is abundantly clear in the grooves of Power of Peace’s baker’s dozen of tasty tunes. I sat down exclusively at the fabled Electric Lady Studios in the heart of Greenwich Village in New York City with both families — i.e., the Santanas (Carlos and Cindy) and the Isleys (Ernie and Ronald) — to discuss the best way to listen to Power of Peace, the DNA behind the album’s sonic template, and what each family plans on doing next.
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Little Steven Explores His Musical Roots in Soulfire
Mike Mettler  |  Jul 19, 2017  | 
Believe it or not, even Little Steven—Bruce Springsteen’s longtime guitar foil and songwriting soundboard in The E Street Band, and the decorated Godfather of the Underground Garage and Outlaw Country radio formats—feels the need to recharge the creative batteries every now and then. “This record turned out to be a really wonderful reset, reintroduction, and rebirth of myself,” Little Steven admits about his first solo album in 18 years, Soulfire (Wicked Cool/UMe). “It was a wonderful opportunity to start again, and really show my roots in a way I had never done before. I mean, I never put a blues song on a record before, I never did a doo-wop song before, and I never did a cover of anybody before I did this thing!”
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The S&V InterviewAudio Video News
ATSC 3.0: TV’s Next Generation
Bob Ankosko  |  Jul 19, 2017  | 
15 Minutes with ATSC President Mark Richer

ATSC 3.0 is hailed by its proponents as a revolution in technology that will transform TV broadcasting by bringing together internet and over-the-air signals with a common IP backbone. We reached out to Mark Richer, president of the Advanced Television Systems Committee, to learn more.

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The S&V Interview
Slide Maestro Sonny Landreth Is Right at Home, Live in Lafayette
Mike Mettler  |  Jul 05, 2017  | 
Sonny Landreth is the consummate slide player’s slide player. His smoky, swampy, down-home, Nawlins-certified slide playing carries such a unique blend of influences and originality that the phrase “slydeco” was coined just to describe it. I got on the horn with Landreth to discuss his SQ aspirations for the double LP Recorded Live in Lafayette, respecting and building on music history, and how learning to play wind instruments influenced his guitar style.
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The S&V InterviewAudio Video News
OLED Turns 30
Bob Ankosko  |  Jun 22, 2017  | 
15 Minutes with the Society for Information Display’s Dr. Taka Tsujimura

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the OLED display, we reached out to Dr. Taka Tsujimura at the Society for Information Display (SID) to discuss the past, present, and future of a TV technology whose future looks nearly as bright as it did three decades ago when researchers cobbled together the first practical OLED device.

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John Mellencamp Explores His American Roots With Sad Clowns & Hillbillies
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 14, 2017  | 
John Mellencamp has never been known to pull his punches. “I saw through the music business very early, with the ‘Johnny Cougar’ thing,” he says, referring to the cringeworthy stage name given to him by a former manager in the 1970s. “I had the reputation of being very difficult—but I’m not, really. I’m just doing what most guys don’t do, which is stand up for yourself.”
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