“Some [producers] exist to make shitty bands sound good,” said John Morand, local music producer and co-owner of Sound of Music Recording Studios.



“Some [producers] exist to make shitty bands sound good,” said John Morand, local music producer and co-owner of Sound of Music Recording Studios. “I’m the opposite. I’d rather work on bands that don’t need that kind of help…I don’t mind putting the work in and editing…but it’s better if you have a bunch of badass musicians and you just get out of the way.”

Morand started recording punk records in the mid-80’s for his friends.

His dad owned a multi-media company and he learned to engineer by working for him. At night he would sneak back in and use his dad’s equipment to record his friends’ bands.

“Most engineers I know, there’s one or two bands they started with that were responsible for most of their success…Mine was Honor Role because I went to high school with Penn (Rollins)…we didn’t know what we were doing …we just kind of figured it out.”

In the 22 years since, Morand has produced everything from Lamb of God to Daniel Johnston to Sparklehorse to The Hackensaw Boys to D’Angelo.

“I’m probably the only person who’s done both Hanson and GWAR,” Morand said.

That’s quite the combo. Maybe we could convince them collaborate on an album?

At it’s peak in the mid 90’s only “rock stars” could afford Morand’s studio.

“We were booked eight to nine months in advance then, back when the music industry was functioning,” he said. “It’s not that way anymore…which is a good thing actually.”

As the music industry changes, so does the recording studio. This is one of the reasons Sound of Music moved to its new location at 1710 Altamont Ave. in Scott’s Addition, it’s seventh in 22 years.

The new building allows more space for a second recording studio, but also provides more opportunities for multi-media art production, It has a darkroom and space for a live music venue.

Morand said he’s hoping to create a creative space similar to the Brille Building in Manhattan.

“We’re trying to get our video people in here, some tour promotion people, we’ve talked to some agents, we’re trying to fill the spaces with people doing cool things,” he said. “We’re gonna stretch it as far as a Pilates teacher, massage therapist…if someone’s having trouble with a chorus, we’ll send them over there, and they’ll take care of it.”

In this era of Pro Tools, Spotify, and home laptop engineers, according to Morand, what makes a band successful isn’t the number of albums they sell. Much rather, albums are little more than a promotional tool, the same as music videos and band artwork. They serve nicely as merchandise to sell after the real work: touring.