The saga of the yellow ear plugs. In 1979 after the recording and mixing of Cornerstone we had our traditional listening party at Pumpkin studios. This was generally attended by the band, our families and friends. This was an especially important night for me because I had convinced the band to move out of Paragon studio into Pumpkin a little and I mean little, untested studio run by engineer Gary Loizzo. We had done some demos at his garage studio for other albums including PO8 and had used him as engineer on Man of Miracles in Pekin Illinois, the only Styx album not recorded in Chicago. We all liked the demo we did at Pumpkin for Renegade and were collectively disappointed in the one we did at Paragon. That version went on to become the one playing right now somewhere around the world. Thats called demo poisoning, meaning you fall in love with the demo then cannot reproduce it then fail to remember how good the song was. But the number one reason I wanted to move was the un professionalism exhibited by the entire staff at Paragon. The daily breakdowns of equipment and the lack of dependability of the personnel was maddening. Add to that my belief that the art rock side of the band should be scaled back believing as I did that prog rock had seen its day. Instead we went for a more organic approach using more acoustic instruments. real horns and strings. This was something Loizzo was good at. The title of the album Cornerstone was Tommys idea. I spent more hours mixing that album then any album I had ever worked on in an effort to prove to the band that the move was not folly. It did go on to garner us our only Grammy nomination for best group vocal performance. It was also nominated for a Grammy for engineering which the time spent on the mixing most certainly contributed. So there we were with the playback up as loud as possible celebrating like Mardi Gras in New Orleans. As the night wore on three of us remained in the control room basking in the glow of the finished product, kinda like spring training when every team can win the pennant. I was talking to my friend Tom Short standing right in front of the huge playback speakers about the discs future when John Panozzo wandered in and went behind the counsel in search of the button that would enable the counsel board lights to chase thereby putting on a little light show. John pushed the wrong button and sent a !K signal tone roaring thru the speakers at approximately 110 db. Both John and Tom stood about ten feet away. I was not so lucky because I was standing inches away from the speaker my left ear turned right toward it. The sound was so loud that I didnt recognize it as a sound but more light a plane had crashed into the studio. Holy crap!!!!!!!! I was momentarily disoriented and then the ringing began. It would not stop. Days went by and any normal sound was painful and seemed amplified. I was scared stiff that my music days were over. I went to an ear specialist and I heard the word tinitus for first time in my life. Constant ringing that never goes away is how it was explained. I wore ear plugs daily for the next year and have worn them ever since when performing. I took nearly four years for my ears to calm down. Since that night I have never heard any rock performance I have ever done (orchestra shows included)without the minus 29db E.A.R plugs I use. For both Paradise Theater and Kilroy I used them in the studio when playing, singing and mixing. This has taken the true joy of performance away from me because what I hear is muffled and quite simply uninspiring. To avoid the volume problem on stage my monitors only have my voice and my instruments in them, no drums and no guitars. The acoustic shows I have done are great because I do not have to wear them. I tried in ears for a time on the 96 tour which are magnificent for singers and musicians alike because no matter where you are on stage the sound is the same but they brought back the ringing. I say this not for sympathy but to clarify why you will see those beige, of bright yellow things sticking out of my ears, no that is not wax build up. cheers dennis
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 20:22:59 +0000
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