Brian Eno

Working with Brian Eno was fantastic

« Working with Brian Eno was fantastic but I very nearly didn’t get the chance because of an awful experience – I suppose this is the time I’ll have to lay it all out there> I almost seriously F’d it up!!! And in the end I snatched success from the very jaws of defeat to get that gig… » – James Sanger

James is eternally grateful for his time assisting Brain Eno who taught him everything from how to use a EMS VCS3 to how to use a YAMAHA DX7 with a grey matter E board… also James credits Eno with teaching lot of stuff about ‘creativity’ and ‘creative recording’ philosophies and techniques.

Story time : « Snatching Victory from the jaws of defeat!« 

Working with Brian Eno was fantastic but I very nearly didn’t get the chance because of an awful experience–  I suppose this is the time I’ll have to lay it all out there–> I almost seriously F’d it up!!!

And in the end I snatched success from the very jaws of defeat to get that gig…This is what happened–>

Snatching success from the jaws of defeat!

You see years ago in about 1998 I was already working as a programmer for Bryan Ferry after Bryan Ferry had heard my single Spikey Message on the BBC Radio One and said he liked my weird vibey programming and he asked his management to track me down and invite to his studio… The same single that I got viral interest with my Alien Stunt (look another place in this thread)

While I was there Brain Eno was invited to come and do a session and that how I got to meet him

In fact when Brian Eno came to the studio he had with him a Yamaha DX7 keyboard replete with the sought after Grey Matter ‘E’ expansion card… I must admit I was quite starstruck,  Brian Eno was my idol after all, ambient music guru and really cool ethical person… 

The day when Brian Eno was coming to the studio for a session approached and he arrived  and I plugged in the DX7 into my midi interface as I did with every other keyboard… but to our mutual horror the keyboard just went completely absolutely nuts!!!!… All the keys seems to be playing weird crazy notes at completely odd pitches and the user programmable sound patches, all his presets,  bank 7 and 8 were gone!….Brian was… understandably more than a little concerned!!.. Of cause I was totally crestfallen 🙁 .. I had somehow broken his favourite DX7!! …. I was terrified that from now on I’d be known in perpetuity as the idiot who destroyed Brian Eno’s celebrated DX7 and lost all his sounds!!!  I was absolutely beside myself..I wanted to dig a little hole and pull leaves and a bush over myself and tell people to ‘go away I’m hiding!’ 

Bryan Ferry made me feel even worse by saying in a whispered voice… “Erm James this is really bad…embarrassing… you’ve let the studio down .… “ 

…and my hero Brian Eno was well, really quite a bit p*ssed off!  he kept pressing, hitting even,  the keys of the DX7 saying “o my God all my sounds… 20 years of work gone!! I can’t believe it !!!  ” etc etc…. I couldn’t even get on it to try and help sort it out…

Anyhow it was a Friday and the whole afternoon session I fretted around in a sort of nightmarish frenzy… I was frantic (actually ‘Frantic’ was the name Bryan Ferry ended up giving to the album!.. but that’s another story)… 

5 o’clock approached and it seemed like nothing would get done.. Brian Eno had tried everything he could to sort out the keyboard but to all intents and purposes it was f*cked!!! …and I felt exactly the same as the DX7!… my future as a rising star programmer looked very faint, well diminished…

So, at 5.30-ish we called it a day and I said to Brain…”I am really sorry about this, please please let me take the keyboard away for the weekend and I will do everything I can to get it working for you over the weekend and I’ll have it back for you at your studio Monday morning… would that be ok? “

To which Brian Eno replied a bit snarkily… “well I suppose so you can’t mess it up any more than it is…”and off he went.

I drove back to my studio unit in Whitechapel with Brian’s Yamaha DX7 propped up in the passenger seat and as soon as I got back I set about learning everything I could about the Yamaha DX7 and the Grey Matter E expansion board inside it… In those days there was no WWW internet!… it was just dial up message board and I remember scrolling for hours and hours online with the keyboard beside me brainstorming to the maximum capacity of my front stressed out and fearful mind….even now It makes me anxious and sweaty just thinking about it…

And then pay -dirt!!  Somewhere on an obscure Yamaha DX7 ‘BBS’ or bulletin board there was a post about ‘midi feedback loops and how they can disable the Gray Matter expansion board’… I then set about finding the correct parameter and click it and VOILA, hey presto !!!!! It worked!!!!

It was about 3 or 4 in the morning and I could let out a big yelp of excitement and joy so I hopped around bitting my hand ‘YEs YEs YESSSSSSS YEESSSSSSS!!! YIPPEEEEE !!!!’

So Sunday I had a listen to Brian famous patches in bank 7 and 8… if you are a music programmer like me you’d find that really interesting… I found out how to send and relieve banks of sounds so that you could back up the sounds inc ase they really got lost and I played around with Brian ’s sounds.. they sounded golden! — ok so I backed up all the sounds just in case! 🙂

So bright and breezy early on Monday morning I find myself in London, waiting outside Brian Eno’ studio with a big Yamaha DX7 sized cardboard box… (In fact Brian’s Studio was next door to someone who had  24 hour armed police protection… the policemen was quite interested to know what was in my cardboard box… I thought perhaps I’d have to open it up for him to check but happily not.)

So Brian Eno arrived and with a little trepidation I recited my little spiel about how sorry I was and I handed him the DX7 and a letter that I had prepared,  I turned to leave but he motioned me to wait 

…I got the feeling again that I was in trouble. Waiting for the teacher to read my chit for being off Rugby practice…. but In the letter I explained how a random ‘midi feedback loop had occurred and how I’d clicked the box to turn on the E card again and I explained how to do it again in the future should the same thing happen again….’

After he finished the letter he just said ‘wow that’s so impressive, I thought I knew all there was to know about the DX7 and Gray Matter E board but you’ve cracked it in one weekend!!… wow… how would you like to work for me in my studio and assist me here?

So… that is how I plucked success from the jaws of defeat and how I got to work as Brian Eno’s programmer and studio assistant for around 18 months… how I met lots of other well known musicians and got a chance to work with and learn from one of my idols in music! »– James Sanger