In the summer of 2006, Gearwire ran a feature on Starflyer 59's Jason Martin. Gearwire's Joe Wallace interviewed Martin about stage and studio, and while a few of Martin's comments seem a bit terse and decidedly "pre-coffee", there is definitely some useful info here. Don't let Martin's tight-lipped one-liners fool you, he definitely has something to say, especially about the home recording process.

Gearwire: Starflyer 59 has been around for a long time. Since you started, what's the most important technological advance has been to help you record or perform your music?

Jason Martin: Being able to record music at home on my computer, and the options and time it has allowed me to spend on the recordings.

What kind of gear do you prefer? How does it help you produce the sounds. You want?

Not to sound too simple, but nice gear...If you have some good mic pres and some good mics it makes all the difference in the world to your recordings.

Peter Gabriel once said that when he made a recording, he gave it "the car test". He said that if the album didn't sound good on a slightly crummy car stereo, it needed some fixing before he'd be completely satisfied. Do you have any similar ways of evaluating a recording to see how you think it performs "in the real world"?

I think everybody does. If you listen to everything in a couple of different sources that you are familiar with, it is a good way to tell what is going on in your mixes.

What is the most important equipment that you use? How does it factor in to your work?

A lot of it comes down to your ears, and recording with people that you like the way they play. You can have the best gear in the world, but if you are recording a bad drummer you are doomed from the beginning. I would say it is a combo of your ears, the gear, and the players.

Let's talk about "live versus studio" for a moment. How do you evaluate how to "translate" your songs into a live context, and how do you do it? What does it take for you to be happy with the live versions over your studio work?

I prefer the studio any day over a live setting. There is something way more mysterious and magical to that setting, like listening to a record and wondering to yourself "how did they do that?" Because of the kind of band that we are on records, we can never afford the luxury of bringing out too many people on the road. So there is always a trade off of " less essential" parts of the songs that sometimes take a back seat to accommodate the live setting. That being said, it can also be nice thinning out the songs a bit, which at times has made the live version better than the studio version.

Can you give a personal anecdote on a recording studio horror story and what it took to overcome the problems?

Listen to some of my records, there are plenty on there.

What's the strangest mistake you've ever made in the studio that actually wound up in the finished product?

The drum sounds on our Gold album, I like them but I think they sound very strange.

You mentioned recording on your home computer. Tell me how you interface with the computer. What kind of A/D conversion you might use, capture card gear, etc. And most importantly, why you use what you have now and what you like about it on a technical level.

I use pro tools mainly for the reason it is what most people have. It is nice to be able to record something and basically hand off the hard drive to someone else to add instruments, mix, etc. So in a way, everyone has the same "studio" which makes the process go a lot faster and easier.

You mentioned good mics and pres, what do you recommend for someone who is just starting to build a home studio...what specific gear do you like and why?

Everyone has their own deal on what is better or not, it's kind of like apples and oranges...What I have and use all of the time is a couple channels of the Mercury AM16, Universal Audio 610s, and I pretty much run everything through an Emperical Labs Distressor. I also have some of the Universal Audio plug ins I use on occasion, but I try to stay clear of relying on that kind of stuff too much. I try to get a good source sound going in so I don't have to go plug in crazy to "fix" a sound later.

What kind of trial and error did you go thru to find the gear that works best for you? can you give me an anecdote about a piece of gear that really sucked and how you came to replace it with what you use and prefer now?

I've bought so much cheap gear from guitars, and amps, to recording stuff, that I've always gotten rid of because it sounded like junk. My only hot tip would be to have less gear but better gear, there is a reason that something costs a third as much as the other.

How do you thin out your songs for the live performances? How do you enhance them to sound better with fewer players?

We use tracks for some of the keyboard stuff, and as far as the guitar parts go I play the basic rythmn tracks of the songs, and my guitar player handles most of the leads. I wouldn't say it sounds thin or anything, just not every guitar line that is on an album will be there for the live show.

What kind of advice can you give to people who are still trying to find the right gear to help them record in home studios and get decent results?

Let me know when they find out!

Very pithy. Any advice for struggling musicians on the technical front? Warnings or words of wisdom?

Whatever you didn't like about your last recording you can always fix it on your new recording.

That's helpful, but give me an example of that from your own work.

You can obsess over a record to such an extreme that I think it sucks the life out of it. Every album I do at the end of it I think I should have added this guitar line, this song should have been faster, etc....it usually just gets me motivated to try some different things on the next one.