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Stroll into Smart Music Studios in London and there’s a good probability you can see Jon Moon on the helm, producing, engineering, mixing, or mastering with the identical quiet authority that has outlined his profession because the Eighties. He has been a part of the studio’s DNA for thus lengthy that it’s exhausting to separate the 2.
From Rent Firm to World-Class Recording Hub
Jon first arrived at Smart in 1987, when it was primarily a rent firm supplying gear to artists and producers throughout London. Again then, he was as a lot a chunk of “employed tools” because the samplers he accompanied on location. Purchasers renting an Akai S900, S1000, or Roland S50 sampling keyboard would additionally get Jon, each to function the machine and to make sure inventive outcomes.
Over time, Smart expanded from gear rental into recording, with Jon serving to to construct the primary small studio room. He remembers early voiceover work with actor Martin Clunes, all whereas juggling keyboard gigs on the cabaret circuit, generally supporting future stars like Lee Evans and Eddie Izzard.
By the early Nineteen Nineties, Smart was tackling large-scale reside recordings. Jon’s first main job of this type got here in 1992 with Earth, Wind and Fireplace in Brunei. Quickly, he was capturing performances by Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Elton John, and Sting, at all times with redundant tape programs operating lengthy earlier than Professional Instruments might deal with such calls for.
In 1994, the enterprise moved to its present dwelling on Brewery Street, London N7, increasing right into a purpose-built studio facility. A Euphonix CS2000 digital management and analogue sign console turned Jon’s weapon of selection, providing snapshot recall and full dynamics and EQ per channel.
Amy Winehouse and the Artwork of Capturing Efficiency
By the early 2000s, Smart had constructed a repute as a cushty, performance-focused house the place growing artists might create with out strain. That atmosphere led to one in every of Jon’s most celebrated collaborations, Amy Winehouse.
Amy arrived on the studio to rehearse, however her administration additionally needed Jon to document the periods. She famously brushed apart his Neumann U47 in favour of a Shure SM58, proving she knew precisely what she needed. Jon recorded early rehearsals together with her reside band, capturing takes that may turn out to be a part of Again to Black periods, together with live-in-the-room variations of tracks like Tears Dry on Their Personal.
There may be nonetheless a vault of unreleased materials from that interval, together with two-tone covers, Valerie in its formative levels, and different gems that showcase Amy’s vitality and authenticity. For Jon, it was all about translating that reside magic right into a completed document.
Reside Credit That Hardly ever See the Gentle
Jon’s discography incorporates loads of family names, but a lot of his proudest credit are reside recordings that by no means reached vast launch“ The reminiscence and the expertise of engaged on this stuff is rewarding sufficient,” he says.
Roger Waters, Pink Floyd, and a Lesson in Timing
One in every of Jon’s extra vibrant profession chapters got here working with Roger Waters on Darkish Aspect of the Moon reside productions. Because the Professional Instruments programmer liable for syncing pyro, video, and click on tracks, Jon was operating full manufacturing rehearsals at Bray Movie Studios when a stray click on monitor reached Waters’ in-ears on the incorrect second. The present stopped and Jon obtained a public dressing down, one thing the veteran crew had warned him would occur in the end.
A couple of days later, in a hall outdoors the bathrooms, Waters supplied an uncommon reconciliation: “You have got at all times been Jon Moon, haven’t you?” Jon replied in type, and the pair moved on. That very same week, he witnessed an excellent rarer occasion, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Richard Wright, and Roger Waters in the identical room for the primary time in 25 years, foreshadowing their Reside 8 reunion.
Surviving Change and Carrying the Torch
When Shelby and Grace took over Smart Music, they inherited not simply the constructing however Jon himself. The transition got here at an important time, post-lockdown, with rising rents threatening the studio’s future. Jon was decided to remain, to “proceed the legacy” of the place he had helped construct over many years.
Immediately, his PMC displays, the identical ones he has trusted for over 35 years, nonetheless sit in his combine room, a relentless in a profession that has tailored to numerous shifts in expertise and the business.
From carrying samplers to reside gigs within the Eighties to shaping a number of the most compelling recordings of the previous few many years, Jon Moon’s story is a testomony to the facility of craft, adaptability, and the relationships constructed within the studio. As he places it, “I don’t remorse something. It has been an important experience to date and allow us to hope it continues.”
The submit Jon Moon: 4 A long time Behind the Desk at Smart Music appeared first on Produce Like A Professional.
