Interview: Guy Fletcher, Roxy Music, Dire Straits – English Version

Norbert:

Your extremely successful album Brothers in Arms is not only influenced by Mark’s guitar sound, but also by these incredible synth sounds. Was it clear from the start that you give the synth sounds more space than in the previous Dire Straits albums?

Guy Fletcher:
Yes, there was a lot of freedom for me to explore the new synth sounds both dynamic and textural. That was very much my realm, and still is.

Norbert:
Which synthesizers did you mainly use during this time?

Guy Fletcher:
At that time it was the Synclavier, the Prophet 5, Roland D70, Yamaha GS-1 and the mighty DX-1.

Norbert:
That was exactly in time when the DX7 changed the sound of the pop world. How did you feel then?

Guy Fletcher:
I used to get a lot of session work as I had one of the first in the country and learned immediately how to program in the FM world. I also acquired the DX-1 which was a whole other story. A fabulous synth…if you could manage to lift it!

Norbert:
Are you more the sound programmer or did you use the preset sounds of the DX back then? Was not that easy to tame the FM synthesis?

Guy Fletcher:
I always modified the presets, I still do. The sounds on Money For Nothing were DX-1 sounds, all modified from presets.

Norbert:
Of course, Dire Straits has remained a classic rock band – and yet, synthesizers obviously always played a big role. Did you have to as a keyboarder somehow enforce, or was it rather wild to enlarge with synths the sound spectrum of the band?

Guy Fletcher:
Mark has always been keen on using technology and we still try new things along side using the old. There has never been serious resistance to using synths. We even use soft synths now as they are of a standard which we feel can add something to the music we make.

Norbert:
You were one of the few bands who started sampling quite early – say the Synclavier. What did you mainly use it for – or especially for which songs?

Guy Fletcher:
We mostly used the FM side of the Synclavier at first. It wasn’t until The Princess Bride when we started sampling. We recorded quite a lot of Nylon guitar at 100k sample rate. Not bad for 1988. The Notting Hillbillies album was recorded entirely on the Synclavier 8-track ‘Direct to Disk’ Hard Disk system. All the drums were samples as well as the pianos and bass, I played them all.

Photo by Ben Peter Catchpole

Norbert:

Did you also use the HD recording and sequencer of the Synclavier?

Guy Fletcher:
The sequencer was used extensively on the Notting Hillbillies record. The Princess Bride and Last Exit To Brooklyn soundtracks were also entirely Synclavier performed and sequenced. The little sequence sound on the intro of ‘Money For Nothing’ was a very rudimentary 2 beat loop created on the Synclavier Sequencer.

Norbert:

Let’s get back to the band. Since that time you always has been on the road with Mark. Can you tell us a little bit about the relationship that you have?

Guy Fletcher:
Obviously it’s a good one. I’d say we know each other quite well both musically and personally. A lot of the decision making in the studio is unspoken as we both just ‘know’ which way to go. This helps on the road as well as in the studio. When you can work ‘on the same page’ as someone in the studio, you tend to save an awful lot of time NOT arguing about things. Egos can be a very destructive force.

Norbert:
Beside being on the road you are working as a producer. What makes the difference for you? Do have a special kind of producing songs?

Guy Fletcher:
I’m lucky to be in a position to be able to do both. I love making records, whether it be simply playing on them or immersing myself wholly in the production. I get as excited about it now as much as I did when I first worked in a studio back in 1976. That was at a studio called DJM studios in London where I worked as an assistant for a couple of years and then graduated to looking after the tape copying facility. I used to re-sequence Elton John masters that went to the various territories in the world for production. In the tape storeroom, I came across many original Beatles recordings, out-takes, rehearsal sessions and recordings of them fooling around, I thought nothing of it at the time. Of course some of them ended up on Anthology releases but not all of them. Rather ironically, before all that, my first job when I was 15 was at ATV music as a ‘runner’ (I delivered tapes, demos etc around London, which often involved running) at the back of the building where I was stationed was the Northern Songs office, a tiny little room with one man and a desk. Northern Songs was of course the company set up by Dick James and Brian Epstein to publish the Beatles catalog in 1963.