You helmed the surround remix of Ultravox’s Vienna for its recent deluxe edition. Describe your approach for the project.
Ultravox don't get anywhere nearly enough credit for their fusion of rock and new wave synthesizer use. I think Gary Numan gets all the credit and Ultravox gets very little of it. But of course, there were other contemporary people like John Foxx who came from a rock or punk background, who wound up exploring synthesizers like the Prophet-5 and creating music that still, to this day, sounds incredibly fresh.
Ultravox’s Vienna also has the progressive rock aspect on tracks like “Western Promise” and the Kraftwerk influence on “Mr. X.” So, I was hearing influences I wasn’t necessarily aware of as a teenager when I first heard and loved the record.
I think Vienna stands up as a very unique, innovative and influential record with great songs. There’s a parallel with The Future Bites and Vienna. In both cases, the songs are paramount. Yes, you can experiment with all this technology and sound design, but at the end of the day, you have to have good pop melodies, and catchy, memorable hooks. Vienna has those in abundance.
I remixed the album into 5.1. It already sounded fantastic in stereo. I usually always do a stereo mix along with 5.1 mixes, but I wasn’t going to go up against Conny Plank’s original stereo mix.
Vienna is one of my favorite albums growing up. I think I was the right person for the job in terms of deconstructing and reconstructing it, because I knew the recording very, very well. These days, I turn down jobs on the basis I’m not the right person to do it because I’m not a big enough fan. But in this case, I certainly was the right choice.
