The Proof "It's Safe"

[Xian00]

Hello John,

I was curious if you had any recollections of producing The Proof's "It's Safe" LP. I have a personal connections since my father was good friends with the frontman Tom Cohen. My parents used to bring me to the shows when I was about 7. They opened for the Ramones, Pat Benetar, etc. I still play the album from time to time. I believe they had a pretty big recording budget for that record, and the album sounds great today and holds up sonically.

Thanks again!

Christian

[johnleckie]

Hi Christian
I may have been at one of those gigs! Not many people know of that record. It was for Nemperor which was run by Nat Weiss who was old timer in NY who was with Brian Epstein/Beatles etc. We recorded at Power Station in NYC which is now called Avatar and pretty much same as now except now SSL and was Neve. 24 Pultecs lined the back wall in both studios. We worked studio 2 nights starting at 7pm cos it was cheaper and during day studio was used by Chic so I was checking all drum mics and settings! In big studio all the time was Bruce doing The River with Bob Clearmountain and Jimmy Iovine and we always had dinner together cos Proof was kind of same management as Bruce. Also saw some Meatloaf sessions there. The band were great players and songs were hard hitting powerpoprock and Tom had great voice. The band were arranged tightly and I think Tom's brother was drummer? and they had crazy lead guitarist who was good fun but not as 'serious' as rest of them and he added a lot of excitement on stage. And good songs too
Thanks for memory
Cheers
JL