From left to right: film producer Robert Evans, Nuno Bettencourt, Etty Farrell and Perry Farrell.
The Village Recorder in West Los Angeles recently hosted album projects for Satellite Party, Meat Loaf, Scorpions and the Smashing Pumpkins.
Satellite Party, the latest band assembled by former Porno For Pyros and Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, released their full length debut, Ultra Payloaded, on May 29. The band—which includes Farrell’s wife, Etty, and former Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt— took over several private rooms at The Village while they wrote, tracked, overdubbed, mixed and mastered the project on the Neve consoles in Studios B and D. Ultra Payloaded was produced by Farrell and co-produced and engineered by Bettencourt, with executive producer Steve Lillywhite. Satellite Party guests include Flea and John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Fergie (Black Eyed Peas), Peter Hook (New Order), Hybrid, Thievery Corporation, Peter DiStefano (Porno For Pyros), composer/orchestrator Harry Gregson Williams, and one of the last vocal performances—previously unreleased—by Jim Morrison.
Meat Loaf’s old parking spot was still available when he returned to The Village.
“Cry Over Me,” the second single from Meat Loaf’s latest Platinum-selling album, was released on May 7. Meat Loaf spent many weeks at The Village working on Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose during 2006, and returned this year to record the voice-over for History Rocks, a two-hour special for the History Channel, on the AMS Neve 88R console in Studio D.
German heavy rock legends Scorpions were in Studio F on the Digidesign ICON system working on a new concept album, Humanity Hour 1. James Michael produced the project and co-wrote some material. The album was co-produced by songwriter Desmond Child, and also features writing contributions by John 5, former guitarist with Marilyn Manson. Jules Gondar engineered the sessions with assistance from Noel Zancanella. Steve Churchyard, who engineered Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell III sessions, also stopped by to engineer a video shoot with Scorpions in The Village’s Studio D.
Village studio manager Brooke Boyle, Billy Corgan, Village CEO Jeff Greenberg and Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin.
Smashing Pumpkins spent a couple of months at The Village in Studios A and D tracking and mixing their reunion album, Zeitgeist, with producer Roy Thomas Baker. Baker also lent his engineering expertise alongside Bjorn Thorsrud. Second engineers Chris Owens, Vanessa Parr and Noel Zancanella assisted. The band also brought in producer Terry Date to work on separate tracks.
For more information, visit www.villagestudios.com.
