Justin Gleich

Justin formed MotorCity Daredevils with Frank Reagan from Viking Skull & Raging Speedhorn. They quickly signed a deal with World Domination Music & are presently recording their 3rd Album. The Devils have had airplay all over the world & “Bear In The Air” a song co-written & recorded by Justin, appears on the Tony Hawk’s “Proving Ground” Computer Game. It’s sold over 20 million copies.

Iain Wetherell, the owner of Premier Studios gives his take on Justin Gleich, Premier’s latest addition:

“Justin is the only Sound Engineer I would trust to do a session instead of me, and I don’t say that lightly. I have spent 35 years in music and Justin is a rarity. He has all the attributes that I believe the best Recording Engineers have got to have. He’s an amazing guitarist, fronting his own bands, MotorCity Daredevils & Thunderhorse, he sings, he’s extremely passionate about music, and he has bucket loads of patience, whilst also being very modest about his abilities and achievements. He’s very easy going and is excellent at getting the best out of a band.

Justin started playing guitar when he was 15, devouring his Dads vinyl collection (his Dad saw Jimi Hendrix in a 300 capacity venue in Hawaii!). Pretty soon he could play most of his Dad’s record collection, and was becoming increasingly fascinated at exactly how these amazing records had been recorded.

Various 4 track and 8 track machines later, Justin was getting a good grip on how to record. So much so, that he didn’t feel any compulsion to visit other studios as he felt his recordings were as good. That was until he heard a recording of a band called “Blue Rinse”. “Blue Rinse” had just finished a demo at Premier Studios. A demo which got them a deal with Warner Brother Records. This prompted Justin to come to Premier Studios.

12 years on, after many sessions with his bands, I asked Justin to engineer for me. At that time he couldn’t make it but 2 years later he gave me a call and he’s in! As I said at the start, Justin is as passionate about recording as I am. It excites him. He wakes up thinking about snare sounds! He’s the engineer I trust to get a band a result.”

Ian Wetherall

Iain left school with A levels to become a chartered accountant, what went wrong?!

Music took over and his hobby and passion turned into a full time job with his band “Energy”.

The band secured a publishing deal with Nigel Gray, the producer for the first three Police albums with hits like Roxanne and Message In A Bottle.The band demoed all their songs in the same studios as the Police had used, and this had a big impact on Iain, who was always the band member most into the recording side.

The relationship with Nigel ended after the band took 300 fans 90 miles to London for a showcase gig and none of the invited Record Companies turned up, (surprise, surprise.) Looking back, Iain says they should have stuck with Nigel but they were so devastated at the time, they became disillusioned, and felt it was Nigel’s fault, which of course it wasn’t, ITS THE MUSIC BUSINESS, it’s unlike any other. Iain realizes now how naive he was and that perseverance is a major, major ingredient for success in the music business.

The band continued to tour the UK, Europe, Middle East and eventually found themselves in New York with a Management Company. They showcased in a massive New York rehearsal room in front of 2 rows of Record Company personnel. “The scariest gig I ever did”, is what Iain say’s about it now, and he wouldn’t recommend doing it like this, because it was so sterile with zilch atmosphere.

Gigs are all about atmosphere and this wasn’t, going to be achieved in this situation. Again, some of the band members became disillusioned and this split the band.

Iain was devastated since the band was all he had known for over 10 years and the dread of having to get a “real” job raised it’s ugly head.

Fortunately for Iain, his talent for recording had been noticed by his brother Bip and the local bands which talked him into recording them. When the band split, Bip set up “Premier Studios” with Iain behind the desk. Iain’s years of experience and perfectionist attitude quickly saw him inundated with Recording projects.

So here we are now, with Iain seeing his role as a “mentor” helping bands avoid the mistakes he made.

He runs rehearsal rooms for the local bands and puts on ‘Rockschoollive’ gigs with his nephew, Glen, for them to hone their talents.  He’s also writing a book, inspired by all the bands he has come across desperate for knowledge about recording and being in a band. “I speak to loads of kids that have completed recording courses costing thousands, and they are invariably disappointed by the lack of detail, hopefully I can fill in some of this detail. There were no recording courses in my day, so I had to make lots of mistakes and develop my own methods to get results. The book is all about that.”

Incidentally. if you come across any Energy vinyl singles, they are listed in Record Collectors Rare Record Guide as being worth £100 or more, (checkout ebay)if they are in good nick.

“It’s not because of the recording quality!” say;s Iain. “One of them I recorded on a 4 track cassette based Portastudio, and I cringe when I hear it now!”