TAPING INTERVIEW – SCOTT HELLER – 2019

Since the late 1970´s the musician and taper Scott Heller has been into the flow and service of music. If not playing music in various bands himself, then recording many various bands and concerts trough all these years from the audience. With experience from many decades and recording countless bands we sent over some questions to the taper-pro.

                                                       R-09 - Digital Recorder.


First of all we got to know a bit late that you also have been taping for so many decades, and if we´ve known earlier you would of course have been included in the new taping book “Tapers Of The World”. Let us know your humble beginnings as a musician and a taper and why you started to tape concerts?

In the late 70s, when I moved to New Mexico, I became obsessed with music. IT was all I lived for. We had a great record store called Merlin’s Record Worshop (Albuquerque) and there was a guy named John Langdon who worked there. They sold bootleg vinyl in the back room toilet as it was still consider very illegal at this time. I was collecting Pink Floyd boots.  Anyway, John had revealed that some of he and his friends recorded shows.  This was interesting for me.  He gave me a contact for a guy named Sam Romangi, who lived in Arizona and sold bootleg recordings (he was eventually bused and sent to jail!).  So I got it into taping shows myself because I needed to have something to trade with these people!!


Can you recall your first concert as a musician as well as a taper? Which experiences and memories do you recall?

I have always recorded all the shows that I have ever performed. My first live concert was in Hamburg Germany in 1999 with the Swedish band, Pseudo Sun. I have been been friends with Juha since I met him at the Space and Rock Festival in Jonkoping, Sweden in 1998.  His band was coming to play the Hawkfan Festival in Hamburg. I had come the year before to this festival and Pseudo Sun were playing and he asked me to join them to make some spacey sounds. I had only just started playing synth at this point.  Some of this concert was actually released on a vinyl record in 200 copies with handmade sleeves so my debut concert actually became a vinyl record. Far out...The first concert I ever recorded was Ted Nugent at the Pit in Albuquerque in 1980. I had borrowed my friend Jeanine’s brothers SONY cassette recorder. I was super paranoid after we managed to sneak it into the show and we ended up just putting it on the floor, which made the recording be way too bassy but I had never done this before and did not know anything about how to do it properly. 


As far as we know, you have been recording all over the world. What made you move around and which recordings from the first years would you put in your own “top 5”?

Yes.. It is true, I have moved around a lot and recorded shows in New Mexico, California, Boston and all over Europe at festivals but mostly in Denmark.
  
My top shows for the first 5 years of taping?? One would be Motorhead in 1981. This my first show to record was Ozzy and Motorhead in El Paso. That was memorable as we were late and I was pissed as Motorhead was my favorite band at the time and we could hear them playing. I just ran right through the ticket gate with the recorder turned on and managed to get the last 20mins of the show. It is one of the only recordings from Motorhead had on that tour that exists! UFO and Iron Maiden at the Long Beach Arena, CA Aug 4th, 1981.Iron Maiden, Saxon and Fastway- Tingley Coliseum, Albuquerque, New Mexico 7/13/83, Rory Gallagher- Grand Central Station, Albuquerque, New Mexico 5/22/85 and OzzyOsbourne and Metallica. (backstage pass- I got to interview Cliff Burton and also to meet Ozzy!)- Tingley Coliseum, Albuquerque, New Mexico 5/13/86. 


Just recently we´ve seen some of your many master tapes being digitially available on lossless recordings sites likes “Dimeadozen.org” where the german taper “Hanwaker” has been putting up some of your masters. What is your view on digitizing your masters and is there any tapes that you would never allow to be shared and if so why?

I think all of this music should be shared with the world unless the band or musician does not want it to be. I would still like a chance to convince them though that letting the world hear their classic or rare performances can only help them get more fans and make the die hard fans happier. 

Could you tell us about what equipment you used in the beginning and when you changed recording equipment and made some upgrades?

I had an AIWA TPS30. I used this to record from 1981 to 1996!!!
My friend Greg had bought one 6 months before and was recording shows in Albuquerque and getting decent recordings with just the internal microphone. It was metal and really made very well. In 1992 I bought a SONY stereo mic that I started to use. This made the recording more clear but the low end was not as good. You have to remember at this time, I was a poor student doing my degrees (BS, MS and PhD) and just did not have money to buy really good gear even though I wanted it. 

In early 1997, when I was doing my post doc (and finally had some decent money), my penpalHatsumi in Japan sent me a SHARP mini disc recorder! This I loved. It was perfect with the 74 or 80min discs, easy to use and really nice sound. I also bought some Core Sound Cardiod microphones, which I used for years until I had some problems. In 2004, I bought an Edirol R-09 recorder and in 2006 or so bought a new pair of Audio Reality Cardiod microphones This was my set up until 2019. I most recently upgraded to aEdirol R-07. Sadly, I have lost my microphones after the Sonic Blast Festival in Portugal this summer and now only have the internal mics until I can get some replacements. 

                                                          AIWA TPS30 - Tape Recorder.


Which taping rig that you´ve had so far, has been in your ears, the best sounding and why so?

The Edirol with the Core sound Cardiod microphones is the best I ever used. I think the Audio Reality Cardiodmics are nearly as good but better assembled. I had many problems with the connections with the Core sound mics and not very good service from them.   Today, I have a professional Universal Audio Apollo home studio so I can really EQ, compress and use some nice plug ins to enhance the recordings I make today. 


In our book “Tapers Of The World” there´s an understanding that in USA there were better opportunities to “tape” in a more relaxed context than in perhaps Europe. From “Grateful Dead” and the some-what legendary “Taperssection” what is your view on taping in different countries and continents in the world?

I have never seen or heard of a Tapers section at any shows in Europe, except when PHISH came and played 3 shows in Den Grå Hall in Christiania way back (1997-98?) and my friends went and said they had an area with all these people taping.  I recorded 100s of shows in Copenhagen and rarely has it every been a problem and I usually ask the band it if is is ok to record or not and 99% of the time they say yes.  I have also recorded lots of bands at festivals as well. IT is often pretty easy to set up your mics at the soundman booth if you want for the smaller festivals.  Even though there is no taping allowed officially at festivals like Roskilde Festival, Sweden Rock (I used to go every year and in the early years I would record a few bands everyday), it was easy going and no one seem to care or hassle you.  

It was much more difficult in the early 80s to sneak your gear in. In Albuquerque, we had a lot of great shows at the Civic Auditorium but few were recorded as it was nearly impossible to get a recorder in. They really had a strict search policy and you almost always were going to get caught. I managed a few times after I figured out I could hang my Aiwa recorder around my neck so it sort of hung into the middle of my back. This worked as they would pat you down up and down your legs and waste but rarely touch your back. Tingley Coliseum and the Country Coliseum (El Paso), two places I recorded quite a few shows, were much easier. 


If we switch a bit to the present time, what is going on with your musicianship and your taping?

I am retired from being a scientist so I only make music with my main bands and solo music. Øresund Space Collective is my main band that I play in and manage and we have been playing live since 2005 and are about to release our 32 album, 34th release. I also play with the Norwegian band, Black Moon Circle. Both bands are jam bands and we do a lot of improvisation and all our shows are up on www.archive.org. I also have a series of solo albums under the name Dr Space’s Alien Planet Trip.  I also guest with bands live and on their records. In the last year I have had releases with Deep Space Destructors (Finland), JOY (San Diego, CA), 3rd Ear Experience (California) and Black Moon Circle meets Øresund Space Collective.  As for taping, now I live out in the countryside in Portugal so I rarely get to see shows. I did record the Mad Farmer’s Liberation Front, a great local world music act that plays around a bit. I also recorded some bands at the Unifant and Sonic Blast Festivals this summer. So I am out there recording a few shows.


Many old tapers dwells that the cellphones and iphones are making “taping” these days too easy and without any “quality control”. What is your take on all of this?

I can’t image what this would sound like but someone said that there are stereo mics for Iphones?? Maybe you could make a decent recording? That is my main concern. Most of the stuff people record on their phones on your tube is of poor audio quality but this is what most people in the world listen to so, poor quality compressed MP3, sounds ok to people. They could not even fathom what a great sounding DAT recording played back at 24/48khz would be all about??? I guess I would still rather have it recorded than not. It might have been an important night for someone out there and now someone has captured it! I don’t have the time to hear poor quality audio unless it is an old Grand Funk or Edgar Broughton Band show from the early 70s or something like that!!!


Except for audio and sound recordings have you ever videotaped any bands and concerts, and if so, what is the biggest challenge in comparison with pure audio taping?

I have not really been into video that much simply because it takes too much time. A recording I can have on and be making dinner but video you have to or should take the time to watch it.  I have had a music blog of my own called Writing about Music for the last many years (7-8) and have done music journalism for several fanzines and Aural Innovations for years. In the last years when I got a digital camera I would try to film one song from most bands that I saw and add this to youtube(I have a channel and 420 subscribers) and insert into my reviews but I never filmed entire shows. This is a real art. I let my friend Anders from Sweden do that as he is brilliant and has been filming bands for many many years.  A few years ago my band, bought an old video camera from Anders and we have been using this to film all the Øresund Space Collective shows (with an external SONY stereo mic). A lot of the Black Moon Circle shows have also been recorded.  It takes a lot of work to post process a 2hr video though so most of these have never been seen. Just not enough time. This summer I did bring the camera and film one song of about 8 bands at the Sonic Blast Festival in Portugal. 



One of your bands or jam-projects that you are involved in, “Oresund Space Collective”, usually record your own concerts on a multitrack. How do you decide which concert is good enough to be released and what makes a live recording great in your ears?

We try to get as many multitrack recordings as possible but it is not always possible. Probably about 25% of the recent shows are multitrack recorded. Either Jonathan Segel (Camper van Beethoven) or myself mix them.  As for deciding what to release, it is all about if the jams were awesome or not. The current band is really killer and we played some incredible shows the last few years so there are some nice releases from these (Live in Berlin 2CD, Live in Tampere CD-R, Live in Liepaja CD-R). Also, this year in Jan, we stared up a subscription on our bandcamp site and the multitrack recordings seem to be the favorite of the subscribers. They have received quite a few that the rest of the world has yet to hear (Warsaw, Porto, and others). 


If you would only choose one of your master recordings that you have taped, which one would you mention and why?

I would say Gov’t Mule in Paris. This was the first tour in Europe. I was a huge fan of the band back in the day seeing one of the first 10 shows they had played at this time in Boston in 1994. I have seen and taped them many times between 1994-1997, before I moved to Denmark. Anyway, I was dying for them to come to Europe so I arrange to travel to Paris for work and also catch the MULE. I set up my recorder at the mixing desk with the mics up as high as I could and the recording was just amazing. When I shared this recording, people were really surprised. This is one of my prized recordings. 

Many thanks for taking your time to answer the questions for us!