It is going to sound like a cliché (or B.S., take your pick), but for the band and crew for Hootie and the Blowfish, it really is a family affair. Ten years after their debut record exploded out of South Carolina to sell something like 16 million copies, the same four guys are in the band with auxiliary players who have been with them for years. And back at the bus, you'll find much of the same crew that started with them. That includes FOH mixer Billy Huelin, who has been at the console for 13 years ("since they were doing frat parties"), and monitor guy John Adair, who has been at side of stage for seven years. After their sophomore record Fairweather Johnson "massively disappointed" their record company, selling "only" about four million out of the box, the band largely disappeared from the pop radar, but never stopped working. Today, they have a new record (the first single was the #1 add on AC radio as this interview took place) that they are releasing independently (it is being distributed by Vanguard but it is still an indie release and, yes, a band with combined sales of 25 million is unsigned), a new manager (Doc McGhee, who has steered acts like KISS, Aerosmith, Van Halen and Bon Jovi) and are still working about 150 dates a year.
FOH caught up with Billy and John after soundcheck for a recent show in Las Vegas.
Billy Huelin: We've gotten into a really nice groove where we basically have two busses and one truck every summer. And in that one truck, we can do consoles, monitors, some moving lights–things like that. But we haven't carried a P.A. in 10 years. For me, it's always about constants and variables, and if you can reduce those variables down to getting local racks and stacks, you get that comfort level.
We do everything, you know–we did the Mountain Winery this week up in Northern California, in Saratoga. It's a beautiful gig, but it's a real small place, very low sound limit thing up in the hills. And then, we have Pine Knob again this year on the calendar. There's a real wide variety.
Your Midas is seven years old. That's an awful lot of mileage.
BH: Not only that, but that thing has been to Cuba. It's been to the Middle East. It's been all over the place. I was amazed at how well it's held up. We were really, really lucky to do these U.S.O. shows for the troops, and we did them carrying our own gear. But it's a little bit scary because all of a sudden you're out there and it's 123 degrees in Guantanamo and you're like, "I don't really know if this thing's gonna make it through it." And then, it's 20 degrees in Bosnia or something like that. It's surprised me that it's really held up that well.
John, You're on a PM1D, right?
John Adair: Yeah.
Did you carry your console on these shows, too?
JA: Oh yeah.
What's the monitor situation? Band on PMs?
JA: Mostly PMs. So I've got five out of six that are consistently there.
Let me guess… It's the guitar player.
JA: That's the last holdout. He's doing good, though. We rehearsed with PMs earlier this year and he's been about 50-50. When I started seven years ago, there were 16 wedges on stage. The stage volume was insane.
BH: You would stand in this pocket up there and it was ungodly. I mean, it was full-on stereo P.A. band mix up on stage. It was great in a way, but it's been really nice not to have to deal with that part of it.
I don't want too much of it to go away, though. I like to turn the P.A. off and hear a good-sounding stage. That has everything to do with John. I never ever want to get away from that. That's part of the sound. There are a lot of open mics up there. The flip side of that being I wouldn't want to be the guy sitting out there and it's 105 coming off the stage and you're just going, "Oh my God, what do I do now?"
JA: Otherwise, it's just so out of control that it's a humongous roar and you're just fighting for your pitch or your groove or something. You can actually hear what's going on. I think it's translated into better playing and singing for the guys, too.
You do a lot of very varied gigs. What does that do to gear plans?
BH: We probably have about three types of sets leading up to the full band thing. So there's the very acoustic thing, so if we tell them, "You know what? It's two monitor mixes, a djembe and some acoustics," then we do that. We have the next step where we start getting into a small trap kit, one guitar amp, bass amp– it's what we call the "hopped-up" acoustic thing. And what we've found is that we can actually pull off a pretty electric set without opening Pandora's box and having to have the 40 inputs and the risers and all the gear.
It must be a great situation to have that kind of flexibility from a band.
BH: The band was very amenable to it because we want them to be comfortable. We did Tiger Woods' wedding this year–perfect example. We didn't want to go and do this guy's wedding with a full band and everything. So we did this hopped-up acoustic thing, and you know what? It was a rocking set and it was fun, and everybody had a great time.
The choice of PM1D– has that been due to PMs or…
JA: I think it's more of a show-saver for me because of the fact that the guys play multiple instruments in multiple positions. Pre the digital console, I had an H3000, and the period between songs was a frantic button-pushing and knob-turning experience.
I was actually really lucky because last year, right after we got the PM1D, we spent four nights in one place. Each night, they did a CD plus a few covers. So, over the space of four nights, I got every song I was ever going to do.
BH: The set list is actually only a recent invention.
JA: It is. That's been within the past few years. It used to be that they'd come out and decide what song to play. And then, song-by-song, they'd decide where to go. But I started to learn the little hand signals and the motions and the gestures that they'd make…
BH: I would always look up and I could tell by the combination of instruments. I could narrow it down to a few possibilities. Even now, it's hard for our lighting guy because he definitely lives in a programmable world out there. The guys will just veer from the set list with no indication to anybody. And it's not as bad for us because we're used to it. It's a matter of "Oops. Whatever. Move on." But he's always looking at me like [confused gesture]. But he's smart enough–he'll just say, "Is it fast or slow?" and try to hang in there.
One hundred to 200 gigs a year? That's a full-time gig.
BH: Part of that is also that everyone's married and has children, so there was a time that we were easily doing 250 a year, just dogging and dogging and dogging it. But now I think we're really fortunate to be able to work. There's nothing that says that you're gonna be asked back anywhere.
Anything else tech-related we need to talk about?
BH: I think for John and I, it's nice for us because we get along very, very well and we're into a groove. And we have really funny conversations about the digital/analog thing. But for me, it just has everything to do with how I like to work, and I do like to see it laid out in front of me. I don't do a lot of scene changes and hard mutes and all that stuff. I'm not opposed to embracing digital, but I'm not patient with, "You can't use this or you can't do that or blah blah blah…" My biggest problem right now is that I've used three digital desks, and I had the same problem each time. The techs don't know how these desks operate. And if they don't know that, it's very hard for me to step in. I think I'm a fairly quick learner, and I'm always asking questions and wanting to do things. But it's the same problem with these guys that have all been buying line arrays for the past five years. They don't know what they're doing with them.
A lot of guys are buying it because it's the new hip thing.
BH: Yeah, but that's my complaint about the industry in general, really. The thing is that we really are getting into a realm where physics does matter now. And that Midas is a constant. It's a proven. And I'm comfortable on it and I love the way it sounds. That's the one thing I'm not gonna sacrifice, because even if you told me that you could have something lighter, faster and all that stuff, if it doesn't sound the way that I particularly like something, then that defeats the whole purpose. That is the end result. (Turns to face Adair) And the other thing is, your damn console is only six inches shorter than mine in the case! I looked at it the other day. I know the XL4 is heavy–1,000 lbs. or so. But I looked at that thing and went, "It's not that much smaller!"
JA: With the 1D, now if you go with a 5D, it's all built-in, all one piece. The only thing external is the power supplies.
Does it ever enter in on the promoter's side that you're taking up too much space?
BH: No, only because I put racks together that could easily fit under the desk. I'm really only down to the size of the desk and the power supply rack. But I did that intentionally because I knew what I was getting into over these last few years. And I would love to have the big doublewide nice wooden racks, but I don't want to have to cram that stuff in and out of different places.
There's a difference, especially with the PM stuff. You're getting into a realm of the sonic quality and that quietness, that clarity is really important. I'm still in a world out there where a little buzz and a little hiss–you're not going to hear it. You're just not. So, as far as a selling point, it wasn't the idea that it's quieter and cleaner, because that's relative to me. Again, I'm not opposed to it at all. It's just I know how I like to work.
JA: It's about what makes for a great performance, and the ease of the performance, and there's certainly nothing wrong with the pre's on a Midas console, and if I could do it…
Have you used the 5D? Because everyone tells me pre's are a lot better than the 1D.
JA: Whenever we do fly shows or corporate shows. It's second on the list. But it's a totally separate operating system and memory card scenario. I was actually lucky because we anticipated that we were going to have to use the 5D some this year, so this winter, I set up in a warehouse with the 1D that I'm carrying and a 5D, and channelby- channel, translated everything over to have a rough starting point.
You know, the digital consoles are great tools. There's no doubt about that. I can remember 20 years ago, sitting on a bus going, "Boy, wouldn't it be great if we had a piece of gear that could do this?" You could do six acts in one day on it and share the console, and everybody could do whatever they wanted to with it. That's a great thing, but I worry that people will view it as the magic bullet and lose sight…
There is no magic bullet.
BH: That's what I was trying to say.
JA: Because the basic fundamentals still apply, no matter what kind of console you're working on, you know? It's about the mic selection, the mic placement, your gain stages, your EQ'ing.
BH: It's still funny to me that we take all of this wonderful technology, and then hang it in warehouses and sheds and tents and parking lots. That's amazing to me, but I think part of it is that you can't forget that. That's your environment, and that environment is such a variable. No piece of technology is going to take the humidity out of the air, and if you haven't learned to adjust, then you're in for quite a surprise because it's brutal out there. It really is. Everybody loves it, but what's a great night one night is a disaster the next.
Things disappear in bad environments, which is amazing. You might have the most tricked-out digital reverb you've ever heard, and you turn it on somewhere and you can't even tell it's there. It's fun, but you can't get rid of the human factor either. You could really think that you're having a great night and somebody else doesn't. Or worse, you could think you're having the worst time of your life and somebody says, "That's great!"
I'm not a snob about my desk and about digital consoles. It's a comfort level and you should have that variety. One console isn't going to do it for everybody. I mean, there are guys out there on 4Ks that they've been using for 10 years and they love them because they're comfortable. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but I think everyone wants to sell you something that is the magic bullet, and it doesn't exist. But this happens every five years. We hit this new thing and everyone gets all excited, and then we all come back right around to the same thing.
I heard somebody say one time that the problem with being a pioneer is you get a lot of arrows in the back. Some people take those arrows better than others. I don't have anything to sell, so that's why I don't have a vested interest. I want to go have fun.
