roadcrewlive

Issue #4 is the King of Sound....Davie Kirkwood!!! On October 3rd 2011 we lost a brother of the road and a great man. Davie Kirkwood passed away in Woodland Hills California. Gone but never forgotten!! R.I.P Davie

RCL-Q- We at Road crew Live are big Ian Paice as well as Deep Purple fans. What are some memorable tours you have done with that lot?

1. I started with Purple in 1975. This was Ritchie's last tour. By the way, he never did get along with Coverdale or Gillian. I think the only singer he kind of liked was Ronnie Dio. In 1976 I did a world tour with them. The guitar player was Tommy Bolin who I liked allot. Sorry he's gone. We went to the far east to play places like Japan, Indonesia and also Australia and New Zealand. While in Jakarta we had a riot on the second night. Allot of people broke into the soccer stadium and the army was called in. The show was cancelled half way through. We also had one of our security guards killed there, when he supposedly fell down a lift shaft. Yeah..Right!!!

RCL-Q- You are one of the most respected in the industry as a live engineer. How did you start off in the business and with whom? What is the roster of Rock acts you have worked with over the years? Narrow it down. We know it must be in the thousands.

2. Well I started playing in a band when I was 16 years old. I was the singer so I had to buy the P.A. I was also working to be a Telecommunication Engineer. I wanted to be a Rock star like everybody else. When I went to London in the early 70's and failed to get the right breaks, I became a sound engineer. The hard thing there was, there were no schools you could go to in those days. There was really only one guy who really taught me some things. His name was Martin Birch who produced a bunch of albums for Purple and then later on he was responsible for most of the hot Iron Maiden albums. Great guy!! Some of the bands I have worked for include Purple of course, Rainbow, Dio, Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, E.L.O, M.S.G, Motley Crue, Scorpions, Poison. These are just some of the heavier bands I worked with. I also do lots of work with different music like the Italian artist Zucchero to the American Idols tours as well as the young English girl Joss Stone who has a fantastic voice.

RCL-Q- In a conversation RCL had lately with you, we talked about the old arena's such as Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Just what did PA's for the most part consist of in the 70's and if you had the rigs of today, just how heavy would it be now in those halls?

3. Most of the PA's then were JBL or Altec and old Martin rigs. These days with all the new designs, it would of course be way heavier. With some of the new line array's the sound is just great, even in some of rooms that have really bad acoustics'. When I started working with Motley Crue I think I was one of the first engineer's to use the V-Docs sound system for a Heavy Metal band. It was fantastic.

RCL-Q- What is the mixing console of your choice?

4. As my career began to grow, so did the company called Midas, so it's always really been my favorite mixer. Right now of course I like the Midas XL4, but recently I just used the new Digitech D.S computer mixer which is very interesting.

RCL-Q- What is your take on drum triggers? Do you prefer them or do you still go with the straight up mic technique on an acoustic drum kit?

5. I still prefer the real mic's as long as you have good quality mic's. Of course with the Crue we used a mixture of both for Tommy Lee.

RCL-Q- Which make of drums have you had the best luck getting good sounds from?

6. I've been very lucky. Somehow I've always did good with most companies from DW to Yamaha, Pearl, Ludwig etc.The most important part is to have a good drummer. I remember us using Yamaha drums with Cozy Powell. He had his drums so lively that you really had to work hard. That way I became very good at dialing in drum sounds.

RCL-Q- What about amplification for guitar. Lots of choices. Does Marshall still stand up for hard rock, or is Soldano and Mesa Boogie etc becoming more the norm for the rockers of today?

7. Well the great amps of the old days are still around because they were better made and still sound great. I'm noticing allot of guitar players are now using a mixture of different amps for certain songs. Sometimes maybe a Marshall and sometimes a Fender or Mesa Boogie or Matchless etc.

RCL-Q- You are one of the most flexible sound engineer's on the planet. You can mix high powered acts such as Motley Crue, Dio, Deep Purple, etc, then you can go out and kick ass for Diva Joss Stone or mix the kid's from American Idol's. How do you keep those ears so fresh?

8. First thing is, I don't do monitors. Second thing is, I stay away from the stage. Third thing is, who said my ear's were fresh.

RCL-Q- What artist's are you listening to lately? Any unknown talent you have seen that we should know about?

9. I haven't really been listening to many artists lately. Doesn't seem to be allot of good music around right now. The only one I can tell you about is Joss Stone. Really wonderful. New album out at the end of September. Going to be a huge star. http://www.jossstone.co.uk/

RCL-Q- Where is your favorite city to re-visit on tour and why? You reside in California. Do you get back to Scotland much?

10. Haven't been back to Scotland in a long time, but I'll be there in November with Joss Stone. I have allot of fav cities I like to visit. Especially if I have some old friends there. London, Tokyo, Toronto, and New York.

RCL-Q- You are now on tour with American Idol's LIVE (09/15/04). What is the future looking like for Davie Kirkwood?

11. Well after this tour finishes at the end of September 2004 in Honolulu, we go to Singapore for one show. Then I come back to the states for 10 days off. Then I'm suppose to fly to Germany around October 18 2004 to start working with Joss Stone again. I've also been talking to some other people but I can't comment right now.

RCL-Q- This is your chance to plug any projects, websites, artist's, companies you wish Davie. We at RCL are honored to have you on our interview roster. We're not Worthy...We're not Worthy...Thanks Buddy!!

12. Well I'd like to thank all the great people who were very helpful to me over the many years. All my friends in the audio companies around the world of course. Audio Technica, Shure, Sennheiser, T.C. Electronics, Lexicon and of course thanks to you (RCL) for being a good old friend.

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