EP158 - Kevin Metcalfe - 50 Years of Sound Mastering

Paul Weller Fan Podcast

Part of the music industry for nearly 50 years, Kevin Metcalfe takes a break from enjoying his recent retirement to join me on this episode of The Paul Weller Fan Podcast.

Kevin is an industry legend. A sound mastering engineer with an impressive repertoire of all kinds of artists and all types of musical styles under his belt. This fella has played a key role on hundreds, if not thousands, of singles and album releases over the years including David Bowie, Adele, U2, Queen, ELO, Depeche Mode, Pulp, Simply Red, The Who, Brian Eno, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Mark Stewart, Adrian Sherwood and more…

This is one of those episodes where we hear the connections to Paul Weller ( he mastered Illumination, Studio 150, As Is Now and Catch-Flame) but also plenty of tales from a career that started in 1973, as a 20 year old cutting discs with cassettes and 8-track at RCA…

He soon moved to Delane Lea / CTS Studios at Wembley ( or The Music Centre as it came to be known) - where they scored the Bond movies and the world’s great reggae artists who’d pop in straight off the plane from Jamaica.

It was at Utopia Studios from 1979 to 1983 that he really built his reputation as a sound and engineering mastering expert. Kevin worked with Roxy Music, Duran Duran, Ultravox and Japan. As the punk scene took off, Kevin worked with The Clash, Siouxsie Soux and more…

Kevin got asked to join Virgin Records in 1982 (which later became part of EMI) and ended up staying for 15 years. He then went on to create his own company Soundmasters UK in 1997, which led to the work with Paul Weller, along with Adele, Damon Albarn, Can, Gary Clail (another personal favourite), Orbital, African Headcharge…

We also have a few other PW connections with former podcast guests - Nick Heyward, Kathryn Williams and The Zombies!.

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