Justin Stanley has been in the music business for decades – and his catalogue of collaborations is impressive, to say the least: Prince, Eric Clapton, Beck, Sheryl Crow, Celine Dion, Quincy Jones and many more. Credentials box: checked.
We’d headed into downtown Los Angeles to check out Justin’s Core 47/Core Sub-based 5.1-channel rig – but that almost turned out to be a detail as the day went on. He undeniably loves the sound he gets from the system (“It’s a sonic space that you can live in the whole day and be really pleasantly absorbed with”), but we really didn’t spend a lot of time talking about speaker calibration, cone materials or crossover frequencies.
It quickly became clear that, to Justin, gear – of whatever vintage or pedigree – is simply a collection of tools that facilitate the creative process. And when you sit with someone that passionate about the music above anything else, you just want to explore that path. So, we did – and in much more detail than we had ever been able to imagine.
Step out of the California sun into Justin’s studio/playground and it takes a couple of minutes for your eyes to adjust. Vintage lamps and fixtures provide the dimmed light, and the vibe is warm and welcoming. And the place is huge – much bigger than you’d think from its nondescript door on an anonymous street. Inside it’s like a maze, with each corner-turn revealing yet another studio, drum-room, vocal booth or control-room. They’re all densely packed with instruments and gear.
We’re left with no doubt that he’s living in the moment; when inspiration strikes, there should only be seconds between that first thought and hitting ‘Record’.
Justin says this is how he always works – regardless of whether the subject is a legendary artist with more Grammy awards than shoes, or the editor of a speaker-manufacturer magazine. Our Creative Director, John, eventually got roped in – in a very hands-on way – during an interview that developed into a live jam/studio session.
“I’m not a pre-production person,” Justin says in his mellow Aussie accent. “I listen to the songs, I look at arrangements, but beyond that it’s instinctual, where they’ll come in and we’ll go: ‘Let’s try this song, starting here,’ maybe the guitars or whatever. Just find the key, the vocal placement, and then I’ll just kind of feel it. And that can be reactive to the mood I’m in or they’re in, or what we’ve talked about. You have to be very vulnerable and able to share yourself with the people in the room.”
To illustrate that mindset, Justin shares a tale from a session he did with Celine Dion, Quincy Jones and a host of other well-known engineers: “She was singing a take, and then one of the guys went to stop her. ‘Why don’t you try going up there at the end?’ The next guy was, like: ‘Do you mind phrasing that a little bit differently?’. It happened three times. The fourth time, when they stop the tape, and before anyone can say anything, Quincy stands up and says: ‘Will you just let the woman bloody well sing?’ She did one more take and that was it. It was beautiful! Sometimes you’ve just got to shut up and let the artist do their thing.”
That’s the Justin Stanley Way, and that’s how he goes about it when he hands John a delicious 1970s Fender Stratocaster.