Since 1980 - when his funk-disco-jazz collective Was (Not Was) first burst onto the scene - bassist, multi-instrumentalist and record producer Don Was has sprinkled his magic on a quite simply phenomenal number of classic records.

A three-time Grammy Award winner - including Producer of the Year in 1995 - Was’s production discography is packed to the brim with top calibre artists covering just about every musical genre you could feasibly imagine: The Rolling Stones; The B-52’s; Bob Dylan; Roy Orbison; John Mayer; Van Morrison’ Lucinda Williams; Elton John; Bonnie Raitt; The Black Crowes; Ziggy Marley; Stone Temple Pilots; Neil Diamond; Brian Wilson; Richie Sambora; Ringo Starr; Glenn Trey; Iggy Pop…. the list really does go on and on.

In 2012, Don was also made president of one of the most prestigious record labels in the history of popular music, Blue Note Records, famed for the incredible jazz recordings it has presided over since its inception in 1939.

Before he runs us through his 5 top tips for producers, Don spares a little time to give us some insight into his production approach for LA soul troupe Vintage Trouble’s superb sophomore album 1 Hopeful Rd., released on Blue Note earlier this year to significant critical acclaim.

How did you first come across Vintage Trouble and what made you see them as a perfect fit for Blue Note Records?

“You know the actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus? She was in Seinfeld and she’s in this show Veep, which just won an Emmy. Our kids went to school together and they played on a volley ball team together and she came up to me at one of the games and she said, ‘I was on the David Letterman show last night, and there was a band on there and they’re perfect for you - you’ve got to check them out!’

"That was the first I heard of them and I totally got it straight away. They’re for real. They are genuine soul. First time, I went to see them live and saw Ty [Taylor] sing, I thought, ‘Man, this guy is fucking for real! He's not imitating Al Green, he’s not imitating Otis Redding, he’s not imitating Marvin Gaye…he's got his own way of doing it!’ and - if you look at him - every inch of his body is into the song and radiating the message.

"I think he's one of the great soul singers of all time. At Blue Note, when I first got the gig, the idea was to keep the label moving forward and not just simply trade in our legacy. And, actually, the guys that started the label in 1939 wrote a little manifesto that laid it out very clearly.

"It wasn't so much that they were locked to any style of music, or it had to be a certain type of jazz - what they cared about was authentic music. And I thought 'Well, fuck man, this fits the bill!’”

Did you immediately have a vision of how the album should be approached from a production perspective?

“Well, another thing that totally knocked me out seeing them play live a few times was that they were getting up in front of audiences who didn't even know all the songs… and they had them enraptured and dancing, and they didn't lose a single person. The energy just kept rising and rising and rising. That's a real gift to be able to do that.

"So, the first thought was, ‘We have to capture who you guys are. Let’s not necessarily doctor it for the sake of getting on the radio. Let's make sure you’re introduced to the world as who you are’. At first, I didn’t want to produce the record because I thought it should be someone younger than me. But then we started meeting with a bunch of different producers - all of whom were really good and all of whom make great records and had very wise things to say - but, for the most part, it simply wasn’t a reflection of who the band was. It was someone's vision of how to get them on the radio.

"That's the number one crime committed by a record company, when they sign a band because they love them and then they immediately try to change them. It happens all the time and it's the death of a lot of bands.”

So what was the next stage in the production process?

“They wrote some new songs and I went up to the rehearsal room to hear them and it was a tiny little room, maybe 10' by 10'. It was really packed in and really loud and there was no sitting back from it. If you're sitting in the room, you're in the middle of the band… and it just sounded so fucking great!

"And I said, ‘This is how the record should sound. This sounds so good to me sitting here right now, this is how we should do it!’ So we did a little bit of pre-production to try to capture the sound of the room and we put three mikes up. And that was based around a conversation that I and some other guys had had many years ago with Sam Phillips.

"Someone asked, ‘What mic did you use on Scotty Moore's guitar?’ And he looked perplexed. He said, ‘There wasn’t a guitar mic. I didn't mic the instruments, I mic'd the room. I’d walk around and hear where it sounded good and - in those spots - I’d put a microphone there.’ So Scotty Moore's guitar mic was also Elvis's vocal mic and that also picked up the bass and the drums. Those records sound so good because of that, because it feels like you're in the room.

"So, I thought, ‘If it sounds great in this room, then let’s do the same.’ We rented three RCA 44s and we put two in spots that sounded good and one kind of in front of Ty and we recorded for ten days. It sounded really cool so we said, ‘Okay, now let's go and do a studio version of this approach.’ So we went down the hill to EastWest Studio 2 which is one of my favourite rooms.”

And so you cut the actual album in a similarly live fashion?

“We just set up exactly the way they were set up in the rehearsal room. All in one room, very few baffles, and many songs cut without headphones. We had speakers set up so everyone could hear vocals and occasionally we used headphones… but the idea was just to replicate the sound and the feel and the relaxation of the rehearsal room.

"Everything was cut live including Ty’s vocals, which isn't to say he didn't come back and re-sing a couple of songs, but not every song. We were going for it with the vocals, although there was a little bit of iso around him so that we could keep the live vocals.

"It was great. We just tried to capture the sound of that band in that room and we used a great engineer named Howard Willing, who I've made a number of records with. He's a lovely guy and a great engineer with a great ear. He’s made a lot of records in that room so he knows the room and the board and set-up.”

Vintage Trouble are currently on tour in the UK and their new album 1 Hopeful Rd. is out now on Blue Note Records.