While the Lamborghini Gallardo was launched in 2003, causing a stir with its guttural new V10 engine and comprising a second super sports model line for Automobili Lamborghini, in London’s East End recording engineer Liam Watson and American rock duo The White Stripes were also loudly making history.
As music enthusiasts around the world prepare to celebrate Record Store Day on 20 April 2024, this Lamborghini video captures the spirit of Hackney, its edgy music scene and a hotbed of creativity. In this industrial landscape that was witnessing the start of construction in preparation for the 2012 Olympics, British producer Liam had set up Toe Rag Studios in 1991 where, instead of harnessing the latest digital technology, he adopted analogue four-track tape machines and pre-60s recording gear. The emotive, tangible feel of analogue recording also appealed to The White Stripes, aka Jack and Meg White, who Liam met while performing gigs at London’s iconic The 100 Club.
As music enthusiasts around the world prepare to celebrate Record Store Day on 20 April 2024, this Lamborghini video captures the spirit of Hackney, its edgy music scene and a hotbed of creativity. In this industrial landscape that was witnessing the start of construction in preparation for the 2012 Olympics, British producer Liam had set up Toe Rag Studios in 1991 where, instead of harnessing the latest digital technology, he adopted analogue four-track tape machines and pre-60s recording gear. The emotive, tangible feel of analogue recording also appealed to The White Stripes, aka Jack and Meg White, who Liam met while performing gigs at London’s iconic The 100 Club.
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:01 Seven Nation Army is like chanted in football stadiums, still now.
00:06 [MUSIC]
00:08 The record was released in 2003 and I recorded it here in London.
00:11 [MUSIC]
00:13 It's amazing that it's still so popular.
00:15 [MUSIC]
00:19 Terrac Studio started in 1991 as a purely analog studio.
00:24 It was a reaction to the recording world as I knew it in London at that point.
00:29 And I knew a little bit about studios from the four track era.
00:32 And it was like, well,
00:33 the records made on those machines sound better than the records they're making now.
00:36 Why don't I try and find those machines and
00:39 set up a proper pro audio studio, but with a four track tape machine.
00:43 [MUSIC]
00:46 The first time I met Jack White was at the 100 Club,
00:48 because we were playing the same gig.
00:50 A month or so later, I got a message saying, could I come in and
00:53 just record a track this evening?
00:54 I said, yeah.
00:56 Jack said, this is great, I think I want to do the next album here.
00:59 [MUSIC]
01:03 What always comes through is a good song.
01:06 So if you've got something like Seven Nation Army,
01:09 that's a dramatic riff, isn't it?
01:11 And it's just like caught everyone's imagination.
01:13 [MUSIC]
01:14 Lamborghini means to me my son.
01:17 He loves cars.
01:18 Seven Nation Army came out in 2003.
01:21 The Gardo from 2003 is quite full on.
01:26 That's not shy.
01:27 [MUSIC]
01:29 When Jack and Meg were doing the live basic take of Seven Nation Army,
01:33 there was quite a lot of mixing as it was being recorded.
01:37 When it goes down to the [SOUND] that riff that sounds like a bass guitar,
01:42 but this was complicated.
01:43 The balance of the two mics on that track,
01:45 they're completely different to the rest of the song.
01:48 So I'm having to swap the microphones like that.
01:50 I've only just heard the song.
01:52 Can you just do it one more time?
01:53 I'm not quite ready.
01:54 [SOUND]
01:56 And then having to pull all the faders down on the drum set.
01:58 They were loud.
01:59 He was playing loud.
02:00 That wasn't how you recorded records.
02:02 That was not how you recorded records at all.
02:05 It just sounds different when you do it like that.
02:08 I would imagine it probably was the last sort of mainstream
02:14 record recorded in an analog recording studio.
02:18 In 2023, we've got to the point now with digital audio that literally
02:23 the possibilities are endless.
02:25 That's in some ways a good thing.
02:29 The Huracan Technica is impressive.
02:33 They certainly create an impression.
02:36 They're fast as well.
02:37 [MUSIC]
02:47 (dramatic music)