Stephen Burns & The Scruffs Return to Work with Adam Hill and Lucas Peterson


In the picture, L to R: Jody Stephens, Stephen Burns, Bobby Kildea, Mark Rodgers, and engineer Adam Hill.

Stephen Burns of The Scruffs traveled to Ardent this winter to produce a new record with engineer Adam Hill and assistant Lucas Peterson.

Burns and The Scruffs have a long history with Ardent, having recorded their first two records here in the late 1970′s with John Fry engineering, and have been back twice within the last four years to mix two new ones (2007′s Pop Manifesto and 2010′s Conquest). Adam Hill was the assistant engineer on both those mixes and must have made a good impression as this time around, Burns put him in the engineer’s seat. This project also marks the first time Burns and The Scruffs would be tracking AND mixing at Ardent in more than 30 years.

Burns, the band’s primary creative force, wrote the songs and handled guitar/keys/vocals. Bobby Kildea of Belle & Sebastian provided bass/guitar/percussion and vocals. Mark Rodgers (who’s been a member for 10 years) joined in once again on drums and percussion. Guests included Peter Buck (R.E.M.) and Memphis players Jake and Toby Vest (The Third Man, The Bulletproof Vests), John Whittemore (Neighborhood Texture Jam, The 1-4-5′s), and Al Gamble (The City Champs).

They also enlisted the help of some vintage Ardent gear, including the Spectra Sonics rack (channel strips pulled directly from the console that was used at Ardent’s National Street location and re-seated in a custom rack by technical director Chris Jackson), the Fairchild 660 and 670 (vintage tube compression), and Chris Bell’s mid-60′s Gibson ES-330.

All tracks were cut to ProTools, but keeper tracks were bounced to analogue before mixing. Naturally.