Podcasts › Recording Studio Rockstars
RSR559 - Pat Sansone - Playing and Songwriting with Wilco, Autumn Defense, and Big Star Quintet.
What's in this episode
Why does the rough mix always feel like the real song - and how the hell do you get that magic back without ruining it? In this episode, Pat Sansone and I go deep into the lifelong puzzle of mixing: why the first tracking rough has all the energy, how chasing it can make you crazy, and why mixing is really more like photography than engineering. Pat walks through how his visual art - Polaroids, slide film, CMYK vs RGB, Lambda printing - has taught him to trust instinct, appreciate imperfections, and approach mixes like developing a print rather than fixing a file. We talk about turning the screen off while playing a mix, the weird phenomenon of hearing a song differently once another person walks into the room, and why limitations make better records. We also dive into Pat’s history with The Autumn Defense, Wilco, and the Big Star universe. Pat shares memories of making The Green Hour and Circles at my house - dragging the JH-16 up the stairs, tracking G-Whiz in the basement, and writing “The Answer” face-to-face with John Stirratt twenty feet from where we sat for this interview. He explains how the new Autumn Defense record Here and Nowhere came together after an eleven-year brea