There’s been an incalculable number of words printed that venerate the Strokes’ seismic 2001 debut, Is This It And, with good reason. That turn of the millennium album both re-directed the course of guitar music and established the Strokes as the reigning kings of back-to-basics rock n’ roll across the ensuing decade.
As the years wore on, a troupe of similarly minded, leather-clad guitar-toters tried to recapture the early Strokes’ natural cool. From Arctic Monkeys to The Libertines and The Killers to Bloc Party, a truckload of bands were inspired to attempt to re-bottle the same magic they’d been consumed by back in 2001.
We sat down with the Strokes’ pivotal first producer, Gordon Raphael, to find out more about helming the desk for the Strokes most important early work. From their first EP to Is This It to 2003’s searing follow-up Room on Fire and swathes of 2005’s First Impressions of Earth, Gordon was the band’s trusted studio godfather.
Surprisingly, as Gordon remembers, he wasn’t looking to work with the Julian Casablancas-fronted outfit at all when he first heard their music…
“When I first saw the Strokes performing in New York, I was much more interested in the band that opened up for them,” Gordon remembers. “Then a couple of days after I handed the Strokes my business card, Albert [Hammond Jr – the Strokes’ guitarist] came over to my studio to suss me out.”
It proved to be a fateful meeting for both parties and the ensuing history of guitar music was forever changed. The Strokes subsequently spent a weekend recording in Gordon’s Transporterraum studio in New York City, the result was a riveting three-track debut EP, The Modern Age. This fruitful first collaboration would cement a solid working relationship ahead of making their debut album proper with Gordon.
“I gave the Strokes a three-day, three song deal,” Gordon says of his initial connection with the band. “So come in on Friday, leave on Sunday night with three songs in your hands – and that was it. It was the music from that weekend that turned into The Modern Age EP. I thought it was just going to be a little demo and never even expected it would be heard by the public.”
As a teenager growing up in Seattle, Gordon fell in love with music from an early age, embracing the hammond organ, synths, string ensembles and any other sounds or pieces of kit he could collect. It was joining a band called Medusa towards the end of his teens in the seventies that ignited his interest in studio intricacies.
“The leader of the band had recorded incredible symphonic rock music with a four track reel to reel tape recorder, an Echoplex, a phase shifter and a bunch of instruments,” Gordon says.
“It sounded really good and inspired me to start hacking away at expanding my own understanding of tape recorders and synths. I wanted to write my own music and record it with no one watching me so I was free to do anything.”
Gordon used borrowed gear from Seattle’s music community to help him evolve his craft, recording any would-be collaborators he could find.
“It was a four track reel to reel for many years, later a MXR digital delay unit, then an Oberheim DMX drum machine and digital reverb,” he says.
“I learned a lot and recorded hundreds of songs as part of this community of extremely creative weird people,” Gordon continues. “Many artists in Seattle were a strange bunch, you could see the oddness in the grunge bands like Mudhoney, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains. It’s the Pacific North West so it rains all the time, there’s nothing to do other than stay in and practice music.”
From the beginning of Gordon’s musical journey, the ARP Odyssey synth has been a particular favourite, and an instrument he dedicated himself to understanding.
“I was pretty hit or miss with it to begin with, then I started getting the idea, and within two years I could make any sound that came to my imagination,” he says. “I love it because it doesn’t have any memory, or digital parts, it’s all about making sounds by hand with sliders. You can change all these audio parameters randomly at will which is hard to do with digital equipment.”
While growing up in Seattle, Gordon remembers having a realisation that although he’d learned a lot in the city, the only way to get further ahead in the music industry was to move to either LA or New York.
“I didn’t see myself surfing or hanging out on the beach, I saw myself grinding away in the East Village with the other weirdos so that’s where I ended up,” he laughs.
He initially tried to move to New York in the eighties, then returned to Seattle and enjoyed some success with his grunge band, Sky Cries Mary. After the city’s scene collapsed in on itself, he headed to the East Coast again and this time stayed and started to make a name for himself.
“I had just been very successful in Sky Cries Mary, we’d toured, made videos, been on late night television, so when I got to New York I was feeling confident,” he says. “I found this digital/analogue space hybrid that was a brand new concept when I moved there.
“All of the weird things I’d done at home in little dusty four-track studios, that was all the information and sounds I had in my head that I could apply in New York, from using spacey effects to more aggressive sounds. Everything I applied I had learned from my earlier formative years.”
During the late ’90s and the start of the 2000s, Gordon remembers how guitars had started to feel a tad out of fashion. Instead, cooler kids were into jungle, drum and bass and hip-hop rather than the now tired cliches of rock n’ roll. Still, he was determined to immerse himself in New York’s band scene with his studio handily located in the middle of the East Village.
“Where I lived was maybe a seven minute walk from Ludlow Street where all the clubs were, so places like the Mercury Lounge, Lunar Lounge, Maxfish and the Pink Pony coffee shop,” he says. “Whenever I needed to work, I’d go to these clubs and hand out my business card to any band that seemed cool.”
The Strokes ended up in Gordon’s basement recording via such a meeting. After a few failed studio attempts with other producers, it was his eccentric space and creative flair that appealed to the five-piece garage rock outfit.
“When Albert saw how strange and artistic my basement studio was with its silver walls, dark lights, old antique equipment and strange dolls hanging from the ceiling, he loved it,” Gordon states. “When the Strokes came in to record, I was so impressed by them, how seriously they were taking the music and how they let zero mistakes go by.”
The three songs that became The Modern Age were the title track, the soon to be ubiquitous Last Nite and Barely Legal. It was released in January 2001 without any edits from Gordon’s session.
Even though the band and their label Rough Trade loved the demos, they initially chose to enter the album sessions for their full-length debut, Is This It with a different producer. But these recording attempts never came to anything. Remembering how easy working with Raphael on their EP was, the band returned to work with Gordon and his signature lo-fi basement sound.
“Rough Trade and the band came back to me and we went on to make their debut album,” Gordon says. “My personal favourites from the record have changed over the years. When I heard Take it Or Leave It during recording, I was sure that it was a masterpiece and we’d captured something unbelievable in terms of its impact and aggression. Now I like Trying Your Luck, which is more subtle but magical in its rhythm.”
Is This It was an instant classic, and had a colossal footprint following its launch in the summer of 2001.
As a result of its popularity, Gordon found himself in London as one of the most in-demand indie rock producers. With his photo on the record’s sleeve, he was constantly recognised and being pulled in different directions to work with bands and artists.
“Everywhere I went in London, I was being asked to produce so many acts,” he recalls. “Then a big difference was every studio I was using, one of the ones was called The Garden in Shoreditch. It was a phenomenal studio with these giant SSL boards, they had great microphone collections and tape machines. Every band that came through, I recorded to tape.”
While working at The Garden, Gordon recorded Skunk Anansie’s Skin on her solo material and also parts of Regina Spektor’s critically acclaimed album Soviet Kitsch. Gordon’s nomadic lifestyle continued with another relocation, this time to Berlin courtesy of a connection with the German producer Moses Schneider.
“I just thought I could leave my UK rock and roll fantasy and start the European classical painting era of my life,” Gordon laughs. “But when I went there, no one was really introduced in rock music. In the mid-2000s, it was all about minimal techno and Ableton. Everything was needed except for me. I still enjoyed my time living there but I was flying around the world to South Africa, Belgium, Iceland, Mexico and Argentina to record bands.”
For Gordon, these globe-trotting adventures working with creatives, bands and musicians were what his younger self had always dreamed of doing
“Everywhere I went, no matter what language people would be speaking, I’d be talking in music,” he says. “Kick drums, guitar amps, distortion, vocals, mixing, speakers, every individual wants something slightly different but the currency is equal around the world.”
Fast forward to today and Gordon, now based in Hebden Bridge in the English county of Yorkshire, is busier than ever looking for new talent. He’s worked with The Abomic Toms and Widows of the Night, either from Leeds-based Eiger Studios or jetting off to different countries to record and produce. From his perspective, guitar music has never been healthier. A social media call on Instagram to work with new artists saw him inundated with production requests.
“I said, ‘Hey, does anyone want to work?’ I did this on Instagram and I got 60 bands in New York who all wanted to work with me,” Gordon says. “I wound up recording 20 of them, then I went six months later and ended up recording 20 more. There are so many amazing bands out there at the moment.”
Raphael feels new generations of music lovers are also discovering some sounds and styles for the first time.
“Some of these kids are so young, they think the new album from the the Strokes is like discovering a new band. It’s really weird that this is happening,” he says.
“Also, this generation were so impacted by the pandemic, actually, we’re over computer and internet stuff, instead let’s get out there and play electric guitar, start bands and do shows.”
For now, Gordon is content capturing raw energy and guitars in his Leeds studio. He’s been utilising the space for more than five years.
“It’s nothing super fancy but I have a lot of my gear there, there’s a very comfortable room where it feels good to make sounds and we get great recordings,” he states. “I’ve had bands from all over coming out to Leeds to work with me. As long as I can carry on meeting artists and new bands, then I’m going to be in good spirits.”
