From Music Week 22/2/97
"I'm not much of a studio hopper and prefer to use either Real World or Rak when I'm in the UK," says Stephen Hague. He's equally choosy about his engineers and sticks loyally to Richard Norris and Spike Drake.
The basic programming and demos for the Dubstar album, which is tentatively scheduled for a late spring release, were done by the band's principle writer Steve Hillier at his home studio before the project moved to Hague's new facility in Woodstock, NY. There the tracks were trensferred from ADAT to Hague's new Otari Radar 24-track hard disk recorder. Hague is full of praise for Hillier's writing and programming and admits that a fair amount of the original demos made it through to the album.
"He's very talented and very prolific. I think he's probably the Vince Clarke of his generation," says Hague.
After the initial work in New York, Hague and Norris decamped to Real World to be joined by vocalist Sarah Blackwood and the rest of the band. Here the tracks were transferred to twin Sony 3324 machines, which Hague finds preferable to working on a single 48-track.
The choice of residential studios for Dubstar was a practical one, since they all live in different parts of the UK. Hague also likes the place.
"Everything here is top notch. Jacquie Turner is my favourite assistant and because I'm a regular customer, I have a good relationship with the company when I need dates at short notice," he says. "Technically, the maintenance department is a really crack team, and there is rarely a problem that they can't fix while you wait."
Hague intends to mix on RAK's SSL desk. The new Dubstar album will be longer than its predecessor Disgraceful, with maybe as many as 16 tracks. It will also feature more live instruments. "At the moment it's about 80% programmed, but we're adding live bass, drums and guitar so it will probably end up about half and half," says Hague.