Nigel Godrich
Nigel Timothy Godrich (born 28 February 1971) is an English record producer, recording engineer and musician. He has worked with acts including Radiohead, Travis, Beck, Air, Paul McCartney, U2, R.E.M., Pavement, Roger Waters and Arcade Fire.
Nigel Godrich
Nigel Timothy Godrich
28 February 1971
Westminster, London, England
Recording engineer, record producer, musician, DJ
Keyboards, guitar, bass
1990–present
Early in his career, Godrich worked as the house engineer at RAK Studios, London, under the producer John Leckie. He met Radiohead while working on their second album, The Bends (1995), at RAK. Radiohead hired him to produce OK Computer (1997), which was a major success and brought him attention from major artists. He has produced all of their albums since, along with several projects with the Radiohead members Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood. Godrich won the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Non-Classical Album for the 2003 Radiohead album Hail to the Thief.
Godrich is a member of the bands Atoms for Peace (with Yorke) and Ultraísta. In 2006, he launched the music webseries From the Basement. In 2010, Godrich and Beck composed the score for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Godrich's first film work.
Early years and education[edit]
Nigel Godrich was born in Westminster, London, the son of Victor Godrich, a BBC sound supervisor, and Brenda Godrich. He was fascinated by recording at an early age.[1] As a child, after he asked for a machine to make records, his father bought him a cassette machine; Godrich used it to make recordings of his television, train sets and running water.[1]
Godrich was educated at William Ellis School in North West London, where he shared classes with his friend and the future Zero 7 member Henry Binns. Godrich began playing guitar, inspired by Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa. He first visited a recording studio at the age of 16, when his band recorded a demo at Elephant Studios, Wapping, and spent time asking the engineer questions.[2] He studied at the School of Audio Engineering (SAE), London.[3]
Approach and influences[edit]
Godrich credited the producers Phil Thornalley, John Leckie and Steve Lillywhite for teaching him his craft, saying they were "people I watched directly and emulated".[1] He named his "heroes" as the Beatles producer George Martin, for "inventing the job", and Trevor Horn, for being "the thing that really made me sit up and listen".[33] He said Joni Mitchell was his favourite artist, citing her "unique combination of musical and lyrical talent".[1]
Godrich said that although he enjoys listening to "clinical" and "shiny" music, he works best creating "organic" sounds: "Making a dark brown soup was more my skill, [rather] than making a big fairy cake."[33] He does not approach acts he produces; instead, he waits for them to contact him, as "I'm not under any illusion that I can improve someone I'm already a fan of".[1]
Godrich said he believes people place too much emphasis on studio equipment and "trickery", which is less important than musical sensibility and communication. He said: "I get very annoyed with people asking me what my favourite microphone is. It doesn't matter ... One of the reasons why music has become generally worse, and I'm sorry to say that, is that people think about technology more than the actual music they're making."[1] He feels that "the recording process is best when fast, because it's then the smallest obstacle to the actual music".[1]