Grammy-nominated mastering engineer and owner of Infrasonic Mastering, Pete Lyman (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile) speaks on the raw power of Chris Stapleton’s debut solo album ‘Traveller’.
Now a certified classic, ‘Traveller’ was recorded at RCA Studio A and Blackbird, with fellow veterans of the Nashville scene, producer Dave Cobb and engineer Vance Powell, who would also mix the record. It won Album of the Year at the 2015 CMA Awards, where Stapleton performed album track ‘Tennessee Whiskey’ as a duet with Justin Timberlake, a dramatic moment that shot the album and Stapleton’s career from industry recognition to genuine mainstream superstardom.
#TilYouMakeIt is a collection of stories chronicling those moments and capturing wisdom from the game’s most esteemed producers, mixers and engineers.
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TRANSCRIPT
Honestly, I don’t know if I’ve ever said this in an interview. Maybe I shouldn’t, but I’m gonna say it anyways. Like I heard the record and I’m like, this record is amazing. No one is gonna listen to it. Because it was just too good.
When I mastered Traveler, the first Chris Stapleton record, I remember getting that record and just sitting down and listening to it and it was like, wow, this is amazing. We mastered the record. It came out. And none of us had any idea what was gonna happen, and it just kind of sat there for a while, and then the Justin Timberlake thing happened and then all of a sudden, The roof blew off of it and it’s just been runaway train since that record. Couldn’t happen to nicer people and more talented people.
Dave Cobb is amazing and Vance Powell’s amazing mix mixes on these records. There are quite a few of the tracks on Traveler that are pretty much just flat transfers with no eq. They agonized over those mixes. But it’s been so fun to see this happen ’cause it, it, it just gives me a lot of faith, like, oh, people like good music.
It doesn’t have to just be all of this, like really manicured pop stuff. And not that that’s bad, but it’s cool to see someone get up there and just do something wrong
