Nigel Godrich
English producer and musician (born 1971)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nigel Timothy Godrich (born 28 February 1971) is an English record producer, recording engineer and musician. He has worked with acts including Radiohead, Travis, Beck, Air, Paul McCartney, U2, R.E.M., Pavement, Roger Waters, Arcade Fire and Idles.
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28 February 1971
Nigel Godrich | |
|---|---|
Godrich performing with Thom Yorke in 2018 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Nigel Timothy Godrich 28 February 1971 Westminster, London, England |
| Genres | Alternative rock, experimental rock, electronic |
| Occupations | Recording engineer, record producer, musician, DJ |
| Instruments | Keyboards, guitar, bass |
| Years active | 1990–present |
| Member of | |
| Formerly of | Atoms for Peace |
Early in his career, Godrich worked as the house engineer at RAK Studios, London, under the producer John Leckie. He first worked with Radiohead while engineering their second album, The Bends (1995), at RAK. Radiohead hired him to produce OK Computer (1997), which was a major success and brought him attention from major artists. He has produced every Radiohead album since, along with several other projects with the Radiohead members Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood.
Godrich is a member of the bands Atoms for Peace (with Yorke), Dragonflies, and Ultraísta. In 2006, he launched the music webseries From the Basement. With Beck, Godrich composed the score for the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
Godrich was nominated for the Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2009. He won the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for the 2003 Radiohead album Hail to the Thief and was nominated for the same award for the 2017 Waters album Is This the Life We Really Want?.
Early life
Nigel Godrich was born in Westminster, London, the son of Victor Godrich, a BBC sound supervisor, and Brenda Godrich.[citation needed] He was fascinated by recording at an early age.[1] As a child, after he asked for a machine to make records, his father bought him a cassette machine; Godrich used it to make recordings of his television, train sets and running water.[1]
Godrich was educated at William Ellis School in North West London, where he shared classes with his friend and the future Zero 7 member Henry Binns.[citation needed] Godrich began playing guitar, inspired by Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa.[citation needed] He first visited a recording studio at the age of 16, when his band recorded a demo at Elephant Studios, Wapping, and spent time asking the engineer questions.[2] He studied at the School of Audio Engineering (SAE), London.[3]
Career
RAK Studios
After graduating from SAE, Godrich became a junior staff member at the Audio One studio complex, working as a tea boy.[3] He did not enjoy his time there.[4] According to Godrich, "With a beeper in my pocket, I'd wait next to the kettle, ready to deliver my hot beverages. I wasn't even allowed in the studios, but I [would] hang there thinking, 'OK, it's only the first rung, but at least I'm on the ladder.'"[3]
After the closure of Audio One[4] in 1990, Godrich joined RAK Studios, London, first as a messenger and later as a studio assistant. He would stay late at night, inviting musician friends to play there while he practised recording them.[3] At RAK, he became a tape operator for the producer John Leckie, with whom he worked on albums by Ride and Denim.[4]
After four years, Godrich left RAK to go freelance and set up his own studio, Shabang, where he planned to create dance music.[4] Six months later, he was hired to engineer and mix The Sound Of... McAlmont & Butler (1995), the debut album by McAlmont & Butler. Godrich said it was a "brilliant experience" and credited Bernard Butler with teaching him how to produce records.[4] Godrich produced the Silver Sun, the debut album by Silver Sun, released in May 1997.[4]
Radiohead
I can only ever have one band like Radiohead who I've worked with for this many years. That's a very deep and profound relationship. The Beatles could only have ever had one George Martin; they couldn't have switched producers halfway through their career. All that work, trust, and knowledge of each other would have been thrown out of the window and they’d have to start again.
Godrich first worked with the rock band Radiohead when John Leckie hired him at RAK to engineer their EP My Iron Lung (1994) and their second album, The Bends (1995).[3] The band nicknamed him "Nihilist", approving of his efforts to take their sound in new directions.[3] When Leckie left the studio to attend a social engagement, Radiohead and Godrich stayed to record B-sides. One song, "Black Star", was instead included on The Bends.[3] In 1995, Godrich produced Radiohead's charity single "Lucky".[6]
Radiohead invited Godrich to co-produce their third album, OK Computer (1997).[3] It won Best Alternative Album at the 40th Grammy Awards[7] and sold more than 4.5 million copies worldwide.[8] Working in improvised studios without supervision, Godrich and the band learned as they went, and credited the success to the open process. In 2013, Godrich told the Guardian: "OK Computer was such a big thing for me because I was given power for the first time. Some of these incredibly intelligent and insightful people said 'do what you want' to me so I worked my arse off for them and together we did something that represents where we all were at the time. And it stuck for some reason. People got it, so that changed my life."[9] Godrich has produced every Radiohead studio album since.[3]
Pavement, Travis and Beck
Following OK Computer, Godrich mixed most of Natalie Imbruglia's hit album Left of the Middle (1997)[3] and R.E.M.'s Up (1998).[3] Godrich produced three albums by the American singer-songwriter Beck: Mutations (1998), Sea Change (2002) and The Information (2006). The first two, particularly Sea Change, were noted for their atmospheric folk/pop sound, a departure from the spontaneous, sample-heavy style Beck was known for.[citation needed] Godrich produced Pavement's final album, Terror Twilight (1999), with Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood contributing harmonica on two tracks.[10] Godrich, a Pavement fan, hoped to help them find a bigger audience with a less "sloppy" record.[11] The songwriter, Stephen Malkmus, later described the album as "overproduced" and described conflicts with Godrich.[12] In response, Godrich tweeted: "I literally slept on a friend's floor in NYC to be able to make that album."[12] In 2020, Godrich said that he loved Terror Twilight and had enjoyed making it.[12]
Godrich produced the second album by Travis, The Man Who (1999), and its followup, The Invisible Band (2001).[3] According to the Travis songwriter, Fran Healy, Godrich was frustrated after the gruelling sessions for Radiohead's albums Kid A and Amnesiac, and so "took it out on us because he couldn't take it out on Radiohead".[13] The mood settled after an argument.[13] Healy felt it was good for Godrich to work with "melodic" bands such as Travis as well as more experimental acts such as Radiohead.[13][citation needed]
In 2001, Godrich remixed U2's "Walk On" for its single release, and mixed and contributed production to Air's albums Talkie Walkie (2004) and Pocket Symphony (2007).[citation needed] In 2002, Godrich was nominated for the Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical.[14] He was nominated again in 2004, 2006 and 2009.[14]
Failed Strokes sessions and Paul McCartney
In 2002, Godrich was hired to produce the second album by the Strokes, Room on Fire (2003). He was fired when their work, according to the band, proved "soulless".[15] Godrich said he and the singer, Julian Casablancas, were both "control freaks", and that his involvement was pointless if the band were not willing to accept his ideas.[16] Godrich won the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Non-Classical Album for Radiohead's sixth album, Hail to the Thief (2003).[14]
Godrich produced the 20th-anniversary version of "Do They Know It's Christmas?", released in December 2004, which featured artists including Yorke, Greenwood and Paul McCartney.[17] McCartney hired Godrich to produce his album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (2005) after he was recommended by the Beatles producer, George Martin. Godrich fired McCartney's touring band and demanded that he abandon songs Godrich found clichéd, over-sentimental, or subpar.[3][18] Chaos and Creation in the Backyard was nominated for several Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, and Godrich was nominated for Producer of the Year.[3]
From the Basement
Godrich produced, engineered and curated the music television show From the Basement, which first ran between 2006 and 2009. It features performances from acts including Radiohead, Sonic Youth, the Fall, PJ Harvey, Fleet Foxes, My Morning Jacket, the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Aimee Mann.[19] The series focused on intimate performances without a host or an audience. Godrich said, "I'm really interested to capture some really iconic, bigger names– really the whole point is to get people who are having their moment, to try and get a definitive record of what they're doing."[20] A new series began on YouTube in 2022, featuring acts including Idles, Warpaint and Caribou.[21]
The Eraser, In Rainbows and Atoms for Peace
Godrich produced The Eraser, the first solo album by the Radiohead singer, Thom Yorke, released in 2006.[22] Godrich said that working with Yorke alone was more straightforward than with Radiohead, as he did not have to manage the relationship between Yorke and the other band members. On The Eraser, he and Yorke were able to "pull in the same direction".[23] Godrich also produced Yorke's albums Tomorrow's Modern Boxes (2014)[24] and Anima (2019).
For their seventh album, In Rainbows (2007), Radiohead initially hired a new producer, Spike Stent. According to the guitarist Ed O'Brien, Radiohead wanted to get out of the "comfort zone" by working with a new producer,[25] and the bassist, Colin Greenwood, said Godrich was busy working with Charlotte Gainsbourg and Beck.[26] Radiohead re-enlisted Godrich after their sessions with Stent proved fruitless.[27][28] Godrich co-produced the Travis albums The Boy With No Name (2007) with Mike Hedges.[citation needed]
In 2009, to perform songs from The Eraser, Godrich and Yorke formed Atoms for Peace, with Godrich on guitar, keyboards and synthesisers. The band also includes the bassist Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the drummer Joey Waronker of Beck and R.E.M., and the percussionist Mauro Refosco of Forro in the Dark.[29] Their debut album, Amok, produced by Godrich, was released in 2013,[30][31] followed by a tour of Europe, the US and Japan.[32]
Scott Pilgrim, Ultraísta and Junun
In 2010, Godrich and Beck composed the score for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Godrich's first film work.[33] In October 2012, Godrich, Waronker and the singer Laura Bettinson released an album as Ultraísta.[34] Godrich produced the 2015 live album Roger Waters: The Wall,[35] and made a cameo as a Stormtrooper in the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[36]
Godrich engineered Junun, a 2015 album by the Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, the Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur and the Indian ensemble the Rajasthan Express, recorded at Mehrangarh Fort in Rajasthan, India.[37] Godrich's father died during the recording of Radiohead's ninth album, A Moon Shaped Pool (2016). Godrich wrote: "Making this album was a very intense experience for me. I lost my dad in the process. Hence a large piece of my soul lives here in a good way."[38]
Roger Waters, Arcade Fire, Idles and the Smile
Godrich mixed the Red Hot Chili Peppers' eleventh studio album, The Getaway (2016).[39] He produced the fifth solo album by Roger Waters, Is This the Life We Really Want?, released in June 2017.[40] Godrich, a fan of Waters' work with Pink Floyd, was critical of Waters' previous solo work and felt his role as producer was to "encourage him, to push him a little bit".[41] Godrich provided sound design for Kid A Mnesia Exhibition (2021), an interactive experience created for the anniversary of Kid A and Amnesiac.[42] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Godrich produced the Arcade Fire album We (2022).[43]
Godrich produced A Light for Attracting Attention (2022), the debut album by the Smile, a band comprising Yorke, Greenwood and the drummer Tom Skinner.[44] Godrich mixed Jarak Qaribak, a 2023 album by Greenwood and the Israeli rock musician Dudu Tasaa.[45] Godrich produced the 2024 album Tangk by Idles. Bowen said Godrich taught him how to use tape loops, distortion and delay in new ways to create textures.[46] In July 2026, Godrich launched the band Dragonflies with Dhani Harrison. Their debut album was released that September.[47]
Approach and influences
Godrich credited the producers Phil Thornalley, John Leckie and Steve Lillywhite for teaching him his craft, saying they were "people I watched directly and emulated".[1] He named his "heroes" as the Beatles producer George Martin, for "inventing the job", and the producer Trevor Horn for being "the thing that really made me sit up and listen".[16] He said Joni Mitchell was his favourite artist, citing her "unique combination of musical and lyrical talent".[1]
Godrich said that although he enjoys listening to "clinical" and "shiny" music, he works best creating "organic" sounds: "Making a dark brown soup was more my skill, [rather] than making a big fairy cake."[16] He generally does not approach acts he produces; instead, he waits for them to contact him, as he does not assume he could improve the work of acts he already admires.[1]
Godrich takes differing approaches to mixing and production depending on the project. On Terror Twilight by Pavement, he took a minimalist approach as a mixing engineer and producer, doing much of the mixing work during recording sessions. Conversely, on Radiohead's Kid A and OK Computer and Jason Falkner’s Can You Still Feel? he used dense arrangement and complex mixing and production techniques. He often records at different recording studios and with different equipment according to the needs of the artist.[48][49][50]
Godrich records onto reel-to-reel tape, uses tube compression and often records and mixes on SSL consoles. He is influenced by avant-garde and dub production techniques, and frequently uses distortion and pitch manipulation as a mixing tool. He uses high compression on drums to give a "slammed" effect.[49][51]
Godrich said he believes people place too much emphasis on studio equipment and "trickery", which is less important than musical sensibility and communication. He said: "I get very annoyed with people asking me what my favourite microphone is. It doesn't matter ... One of the reasons why music has become generally worse, and I'm sorry to say that, is that people think about technology more than the actual music they're making."[1] He feels that "the recording process is best when fast, because it's then the smallest obstacle to the actual music".[1]
In 2006, CBC described Godrich's collaboration with Radiohead as "the most adventurous band-producer partnership in modern rock".[3] He has been dubbed the band's "sixth member", an allusion to Beatles producer George Martin being called the "fifth Beatle".[3] Godrich also plays Chieftain Mews, a long-running character who appears in Radiohead's promotional material.[52] Yorke credited Godrich with helping edit his work, identifying which parts need improvement and which have potential. He gave the example of the song "Black Swan", which originally was "a six-minute load of crap, except for this one juicy bit, and [Godrich] goes past and goes, 'That bit. Fuck the rest.' Usually it's something like that."[53]
Discography
| Year | Title | Artist | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Scandalo | Gianna Nannini | Assistant engineer |
| Tune In | The Silent Blue | Engineer, producer | |
| 1991 | Superstition | Siouxsie and the Banshees | Assistant engineer |
| 1992 | Vivienne McKone | Vivienne McKone | |
| 1993 | Buffalo Skinners | Big Country | |
| 1994 | Carnival of Light | Ride | Engineer |
| Heitor | Heitor | ||
| My Iron Lung EP | Radiohead | Producer, engineer | |
| 1995 | The Bends | Engineer, producer ("Black Star") | |
| Feeling Mission | Harvest Ministers | Engineer | |
| Totally | Tee | ||
| Booth and the Bad Angel | Tim Booth & Angelo Badalamenti | ||
| 1996 | English and French | Hopper | |
| Sun..! | Sun..! | ||
| Sound of..McAlmont & Butler | McAlmont & Butler | Engineer, Assistant engineer, Mixing | |
| 1997 | OK Computer | Radiohead | Balance engineer, recording technician (Producer) |
| Silver Sun | Silver Sun | Producer, mixing | |
| Plagiarism | Sparks | Engineer | |
| Left of the Middle | Natalie Imbruglia | mixing | |
| 1998 | Mutations | Beck | Producer, mixing |
| Sisters in Pain | Jamaica | Engineer | |
| Try Whistling This | Neil Finn | Remixer, mixing | |
| Up | R.E.M. | Mixing | |
| 1999 | Can You Still Feel? | Jason Falkner | Engineer |
| The Man Who | Travis | Producer, mixing | |
| Terror Twilight | Pavement | Producer | |
| 2000 | Kid A | Radiohead | Producer, engineer, mixing |
| 2001 | "Walk On" | U2 | Remixer |
| Amnesiac | Radiohead | Producer, engineer | |
| The Invisible Band | Travis | Producer, mixing | |
| Regeneration | The Divine Comedy | Producer | |
| 2002 | Rouge on Pockmarked Cheeks | Brazzaville | Producer, mixing, String ensemble, Fender Rhodes |
| Sea Change | Beck | Producer, engineer, mixing, synthesizer, percussion, keyboards | |
| 2003 | City Reading | Air & Alessandro Baricco | Mixing |
| Hail to the Thief | Radiohead | Editing, mixing, Operation, Recording, producer | |
| 2004 | Absent Friends | The Divine Comedy | Mixing |
| Heroes to Zeros | The Beta Band | ||
| Talkie Walkie | Air | Producer, engineer, mixing | |
| When It Falls | Zero 7 | Guitar, Sounds | |
| "Do They Know It's Christmas?" | Band Aid 20 | Producer | |
| 2005 | Chaos and Creation in the Backyard | Paul McCartney | Producer, piano and Epiphone acoustic guitar loops |
| Guero | Beck | Mixing | |
| The Roads Don't Love You | Gemma Hayes | ||
| 2006 | The Eraser | Thom Yorke | Producer, mixing, musician, arranger |
| 5:55 | Charlotte Gainsbourg | Producer, mixing | |
| The Garden | Zero 7 | Acoustic guitar, engineer | |
| The Information | Beck | Producer, engineer, mixing, keyboards, Programming, Effects, Scratching, Tambourine, percussion, background vocals, Speak & Spell, whistle, Tote A Tune, Kalimba, drums, Game Boy | |
| Dad's Weird Dream | Silver Sun | Remixing | |
| 2007 | Pocket Symphony | Air | Producer |
| The Boy With No Name | Travis | ||
| In Rainbows | Radiohead | Producer, engineer, mixing | |
| 2008 | Odd Couple | Gnarls Barkley | Engineer, mixing |
| 2010 | Turn Ons | The Hotrats | Producer, engineer, mixing, Additional instruments and noises |
| 2011 | The King of Limbs | Radiohead | Producer, engineer, mixing |
| Supercollider / The Butcher | |||
| The Daily Mail / Staircase | |||
| 2012 | A Different Ship | Here We Go Magic | Producer |
| Ultraísta | Ultraísta | Composer, engineer, mixing, producer | |
| 2013 | AMOK | Atoms For Peace | Producer, Programmer |
| 2014 | Warpaint | Warpaint | Mixing |
| Tomorrow's Modern Boxes | Thom Yorke | Composer, producer | |
| 2015 | Junun | Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood, the Rajasthan Express | Recording, engineer, mixing |
| 2016 | A Moon Shaped Pool | Radiohead | Producer |
| The Getaway | Red Hot Chili Peppers | Mixing | |
| 2017 | Is This the Life We Really Want? | Roger Waters | Producer, keyboards, guitar, sound collages, arrangements |
| 2019 | Anima | Thom Yorke | Composer, producer |
| 2020 | Sister | Ultraísta | Composer, engineer, mixing, producer |
| 2022 | We | Arcade Fire | Producer |
| A Light for Attracting Attention | The Smile | Composer, producer | |
| 2024 | Tangk | Idles | Producer |
| 2025 | Lux | Rosalía | Engineer |
| 2026 | Ride Lonesome | Beck | Mixing |
| 2026 | Dragonflies | Dragonflies | Composer, producer |
Composition credits
| Year | Song | Artist | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | "She" | The Sundays | Static & Silence |
| 2004 | "Speed Dial No 2" | Zero 7 | When It Falls |
| 2006 | "Movie Theme" | Beck | The Information |
| "Soldier Jane" | |||
| "The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton" | |||
| "Motorcade" | |||
| 2010 | List of composed songs
|
Nigel Godrich | Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Original Motion Picture Score) |