John ‘Spud’ Murphy – Hellfire Studio

John ‘Spud’ Murphy joins Kevin Paul to reflect on his path from cover bands to the studio, exploring how he combines live and digital workflows and uses multiple recordings of an instrument to craft his signature ambient, textured sound.

Show Notes

Chapters

00:00 – Introduction
00:42 – The Origin Of The Name ‘Spud’
01:28 – From Cover Bands To Recording Originals
02:14 – Being Drawn To The Studio
03:34 – Combining Live And Studio Elements
06:14 – Recording False Lankum
10:57 – Creating A Comfortable Recording Environment
15:57 – Motivation And Collaboration
17:39 – Balancing Direction And Creative Space
20:15 – Techniques For Getting Atmospheric Textures
25:37 – Mixing Traditional And Experimental Sounds
29:57 – Working Mostly In-The-Box
33:42 – Creating Something Unique
35:05 – Current Projects

#uad #mooseelectronics #valhalla

John ‘Spud’ Murphy – Biog

John ‘Spud’ Murphy is an Irish producer, mix engineer, front-of-house engineer and multi-instrumentalist whose work has become central to Ireland’s contemporary underground music scene. His credits include acclaimed projects with Lankum, Katie Kim, Ye Vagabonds, Pretty Happy, Junior Brother and Woven Skull, and his reputation now extends internationally through collaborations with UK experimental acts such as caroline (Rough Trade), black midi and Goat Girl, as well as European free-jazz figures Evan Parker and Peter Brötzmann.

As Lankum’s producer and front-of-house engineer, Murphy has played a key role in shaping the band’s atmospheric, textural sound, producing their RTÉ Choice Music Prize-winning album The Livelong Day (2019) and their 2023 release False Lankum, nominated for both the Mercury Prize and the RTÉ Choice Music Prize.

Known for his focus on texture and acoustic architecture, Murphy’s production approach blends natural dynamism with expansive sound design, capturing the distinct sonic identity of each artist he works with.

https://johnspudmurphy.com
https://www.instagram.com/guerrillasounds
https://www.facebook.com/GuerrillaStudiosDublin
https://x.com/gs_spud

Interviewer: Kevin Paul – Biog

Kevin Paul started his career as a DJ but quickly found his passion was sound engineering. His first audio job was at Soho Studios in 1991, moving to Konk Studios six months later, where he worked alongside successful producers and engineers such as Bob Clearmountain, Adam Mosley, Pascal Gabriel and Gil Norton, as well as bands such as The Kinks, Galliano, Terrorvision, UFO and Elastica.

After working on archiving the Depeche Mode back catalogue in 1994, he was offered an engineering role at Mute Records’ in-house studio, which eventually lead to a position as Head Engineer, which gave him access to the entire Mute Records roster. Highlights include mixing Goldfrapp’s ‘Felt Mountain’, David Bowie’s ‘Hours’ and Nick Cave’s ‘No More Shall We Part’. He also worked in 5:1, mixing Moby’s ‘Hotel’, Goldfrapp’s ‘Black Cherry’ and more for DVD.

In 2004 Kevin went freelance and re-mixed the entire Depeche Mode and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds back catalogues for SACD/DVD. Since 2008, Kevin Paul has been in charge of mixing and remixing performances at the iTunes Festivals in the UK and Germany. He has mixed over 100 artists to date, including Adele, Ed Sheeran, Alicia Keys, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The XX, Calvin Harris, Foo Fighters, Jack White, Linkin Park, Florence & The Machine, Deadmau5, David Guetta, Jessie J., Norah Jones, Oasis, Mumford & Sons, N.E.R.D., Lykke Li, James Blunt, KT Tunstall, Hot Chip, Paul Weller and many more.

He continues to record, engineer, produce and mix many projects in music and film, runs the mixing and surround mixing modules for the Masters Degree course at UK’s Westminster University, and divides his time between London and Berlin. Recent works include the international-selling new album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and mixing the latest album of Denmark’s ‘Dúné’ with the first single premiering at the Danish Music Awards, plus the latest iTunes Music Festival.

http://www.kevin-paul.com

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