Behind The Mix: Matt Wallace on FNM’s 'Epic’
Matt Wallace has worked extensively with the iconic rock band, Faith No More, producing many of their biggest recordings including their debut, We Care a Lot, and their breakthrough album, The Real Thing, featuring the mega-hit, Epic. We asked Matt to give us the inside story behind the mixing of Epic.
"In general, working with the band during pre-production and rehearsals was an ideal time to try and work out any arrangement issues and ideas, although the band was really good at taking care of most of that themselves, especially by the time we started working on The Real Thing.
It was definitely challenging because each member of Faith No More would generally play quite a bit (or almost all the time), so it was challenging when it came to mixing. To make things sound 'big,' I had to, at times, mute other instruments to create room or 'space' for whichever instrument I wanted to be featured.”
What do you recall about the panning choices you made in the mix?
I generally tried to pan the keyboards slightly to one side and then pan the majority of the guitars, as much as possible, to the opposite side. Again, to make sure that each instrument was heard, I wasn't able to make everything as 'big' sounding because I needed the space or room to make sure that everything was audible.
How did you treat Mike's vocals?
Lots and lots of compression while tracking and then lots of compression during mixing. Panning was helpful to establish different 'vibes' in terms of the vocal overdubs and background vocals. In general, Mike sang each vocal part with its own signature sound, and that, along with doubling or harmonies, helped create the vocal ‘sound' that he and I were going for.
Were there any special considerations regarding the mix once you sensed this would likely be a massive radio single?
The song Epic was well on its way to becoming a hit single when the label asked me to do a 'single mix'. So, once I put together a more 'pop' version, it just ended up not being used because the album version was already making an impact. It was the album mix for MTV, but, from what I can recall, there was an edit or two done to shorten the song a little bit.
Did you sense when you were mixing the song what a classic tune it would turn out to be?
The band always thought and said they were making a popular album with plenty of singles. Still, I believe that them saying that was based more on naïveté and wishful thinking because radio certainly was not playing this kind of music (some would eventually categorize as 'rap metal') on the radio, and I always felt that the band was too smart and their music a bit too challenging for the general masses.
But, I always believed that the band would, one day, break on through. From where I see it, it was because of their incessant touring, connecting with audience members, one by one, and carefully and consistently building their fan base.