John Wood is an English

sound engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...

and producer, best known for his work with

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, Nick Drake, the

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and Squeeze.

Career

After first working for

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...

recording studios Wood honed his skills at London-based Levy Sound and Oriole studios before he and Geoff Frost opened

Sound Techniques Sound Techniques was a recording studio in Chelsea, London that was operational between 1965 and 1976. Housed in a former dairy, it was founded by recording engineers Geoff Frost and John Wood. The studio became well known as the place where man ...

during the winter of 1964. The studios were housed within a converted dairy in

Old Church Street Old Church Street is a street in London, England in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelseabr> It runs from Chelsea Embankment to Fulham Road, crossing Kings Road. The section to the north of Kings Road is sometimes called Upper Old Church S ...

, Chelsea, and soon went on to become one of the country's first independent professional music recording studios. In 1966, he met

Joe Boyd Joe Boyd (born August 5, 1942) is an American record producer and writer. He formerly owned Hannibal Records. Boyd has worked on recordings of Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson, Nick Drake, The Incredible String Ba ...

, who worked with him closely. The two formed a partnership, whereby Wood tended to the record's sound, while Boyd looked after its musical direction. However, Wood, well known for his forthright approach, often gave his opinion on musical direction. According to Boyd: "professional session musicians regarded the pair of us with curiosity: the normal deference of engineer towards producer didn't seem to apply. He would give a withering sneer...I would tell him just do it and not give me any shit. If my resolve melted in the face of his contempt, it probably wasn't such a good idea in the first place."Boyd, 205 Wood engineered all three of Nick Drake's albums, and was one of the few people the notoriously withdrawn singer trusted. According to Drake's biographer Trevor Dann, "He and Nick hit it off immediately, Woody the perfectionist soundman, Nick the perfectionist musician."Dann, 58 He lives in Aberdeen, Scotland, and remains in the business as an engineer and producer.

Notes

Sources

* Boyd, Joe (2006). ''White Bicycles – Making Music in the 1960s'', Serpent's Tail. * Dann, Trevor (2006). ''Darker Than the Deepest Sea: The Search for Nick Drake'', Da Capo Press. London. 2006.

External links

Wood's official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, John Year of birth missing (living people) Living people English record producers English audio engineers Nick Drake