Interviews: Madina Lake: Inside Bendeth Boot Camp

Rock Sound talks to famed producer David Bendeth to find out what happened to Madina Lake when they made second record 'Attics To Eden'.

Posted Tuesday, 12 May 2009 in

In the latest issue of Rock Sound, Madina Lake tell us all about working with famous producer David Bendeth (Paramore, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Hawthorne Heights).

“I think we managed to play for 20 seconds,” vocalist Nathan Leone told Rock Sound. “David stopped us and started pointing his finger round the room and saying, ‘You are the worst player I have ever heard, that’s the worst song I have ever heard, you are going to vocal lessons right now as you suck ass and I don’t even know why you are in the band’. It was pretty shocking.”

Entertained, appalled and intrigued by this, we contacted Mr. Bendeth to find out more about what the ‘Attics To Eden’ sessions were like…

WHAT WAS YOUR INTENTION WITH MADINA LAKE?
“What I was trying to do was create a timeless record, something that wasn’t specific to just emo or pop or pop-punk or rock. We spent a lot of time taking lyrics apart, taking music apart and putting it back together again. It pushed them a little bit.”

IS YOUR AIM AS A PRODUCER TO GET UNDER THEIR SKIN?
“I don’t use those words. I call it challenging them. It is about me constructively criticising them as musicians and showing them a better way to play something.”

HOW DID MADINA LAKE RESPOND COMPARED TO OTHER BANDS?
“Every band that comes to me knows that they’re going to go through what is known as ‘Bendeth Boot Camp’. People don’t usually hire me unless they are ready for it. I’m not going to sit around and blow smoke up anybodies ass and tell them they are incredible then make a record over-using Pro Tools, hand it back to them and be done. When bands come to work with me they know it is going to be a rough ride but I don’t think Madina Lake knew how rough it was going to be.”

HOW ROUGH DID IT GET THEN?
“Was there screaming? No. What I do is take everybody back down to nothing and get the songs right from an acoustic standpoint, if you can’t sing it around a campfire it probably stinks anyway. As far as the drama goes there was no pushing, screaming, fighting and kicking but mentally there was a breakdown, yeah.”

DO YOU SHARE SOME OF THAT OR DOES IT AFFECT YOU?
“It affects me too, identifying everyone’s weaknesses and working on them at the same time can be difficult. It is one thing doing it with a band full of 18-year-olds but Madina Lake were older and more stuck in their ways, they needed to make a change and it was more complicated. Making music is like having a baby, there is pain and pleasure, my job is to make sure the thing arrives with all its fingers and toes. When I’m in the studio fighting, I’m not necessarily fighting for the band, I’m fighting for the songs. Concept records from my generation took a year to make, not a month or two months, so for Madina Lake to make ‘Attics To Eden’ it took a lot of cramming.”

MADINA LAKE SAID THEY WOULD WORK WITH YOU AGAIN, WOULD YOU WORK WITH THEM?
“Absolutely. Once a band has been through boot camp it is fine, they know what the drill is and it’d be much easier to work together again. Fact of the matter is that I love the guys in Madina Lake, I adore them. Why? Because they care.”

DO YOUR TECHNIQUES GET RESULTS?
“Making a record is an art form, it is no different to anything else in life, if you want to do it right you do so, if you want to half-ass it you can also do that. I’m coming off four platinum records with different bands; I cannot afford to make a shit record. For me it is not about sales, it is about great records, with technology today anybody can make a record, your mother could with her friends and with the right Pro Tools operator. What I do has to be more than just setting up the microphones and pressing record.”

DID YOU TELL THE BAND TO GET IN SHAPE?
“Too fucking right I did. Why not? I told the drummer to start running before he started playing drums as he was not in shape, he did and his drumming on the record was great. I was right!”

THANKS FOR YOUR TIME DAVID…
“Yeah, I know you are going to write a load of crazy shit about me but I’m used to it.”