Easter gains music inroad from garage
The Repository (Canton, OH)
Jan. 26, 1984
By Dan Kane

Although his name is not likely to ring a lot of bells in Canton, Mitch Easter has created quite a reputation for himself in pop music circles.

As a producer and engineer, he has helped assemble records by such acclaimed bands as R.E.M., the dBs, the Individuals, Pylon and Richard Barone and James Mastro of the Bongos. His Drive-In recording studio, a converted two-car garage adjoining his parents' home in Winston-Salem, N.C., has become a haven for young pop groups around the country.

Easter's latest endeavor is his own band, the curiously titled Let's Active, which has a nifty six-song EP out on IRS Records.

Easter, 29, was wrapping up production chores on the second R.E.M. album at a studio in Charlotte, N.C., when I called him last week. A friendly guy, he talked candidly in a Southern drawl about his various projects and uncharted career as a production whiz.

"We just finished the new (R.E.M.) album. I think it sounds really good, which probably means it will flop really big," he said, chuckling.

R.E.M., a beguiling pop quartet from Athens, Ga., had just been informed that it was chosen as best new artist of 1983 in the Rolling Stone magazine critics' poll, Easter said. R.E.M.'s Easter-produced debut LP, "Murmur," received near-unanimous critical praise and sold very respectably.

Let's Active, which features Easter on vocals and guitar, Faye Hunter on bass and Sara Romweber on drums, is liable to follow suit. Its first record, "Afoot," is full of clever, hook-filled pop gems.

"Every Word Means No" is a sublime single, propelled by intricate guitar and bass lines, hard drumming and cooing harmonies. Sung by Easter in a yearning, pleasantly nasal tenor, its lyrics speak of spurned love. A video of this one is getting steady play on MTV.

"Make Up With Me" has a bouncy, Bo Diddley rhythmic structure that underscores the troubled lyrics. On "Room With a View," Miss Hunter sings a smooth lead with Easter jumping in on the bridge. Easter's boyish bewilderment in "In Between" is quite amusing as he implores:

"Hey girls, what do you hear? There's much more I can say—don't disappear."

Let's Active made its first public appearance in 1981, opening a concert for R.E.M. in Atlanta. The "Afoot" EP was recorded over a year ago, and Easter said the band has plenty more original songs up its sleeve—enough to play hour-long concerts. On New Year's Eve, the band lengthened its set with a ZZ Top medley, he said with apparent sincerity.

In March, the band will begin a lengthy tour, which is liable to be routed through these parts. Although he has some studio work scheduled, Easter will give up outside production if Let's Active begins to demand all his time, he said.

How did Easter get involved in making records, anyway?

"I just started this studio in my parents' garage and it got very popular," he said. "I really just backed into production with no idea at all this would happen. I figured I'd just be making real dreadful demo tapes, and I guess it was just luck that all these cool bands wanted to record there.

"Plus, my place is real cheap."

There is a common thread running through Let's Active and all the bands Easter produces. Their music is a mixture of '60s pop influences with a modern, somewhat quirky, sensibility.

"There's a strong sort of pop thing, sure, but I'd be ready to produce Black Flag (a Los Angeles hard-core punk band) if they called me up," Easter said. "I'd love to produce Kraftwerk, something completely different than I've done, but I can't imagine approaching them. I just don't think of myself as a professional producer."

Asked about his contribution to the sound of the bands he works with, Easter was modest. He instead focused on what he doesn't do.

"When I'm producing a band, the whole thing is that I'm working for them, and it's got to be something they're happy with. I would never send a band a finished cassette and say, 'Here's your album.' It's essential that they be around."

In the studio, Easter is an experimenter. To get the bright snare sound on "Every Word Means No," he recorded the drum from both the top and bottom and combined this into a tape which he played through a speaker into a bathroom. He recorded that, then mixed the two tapes together.

"It's like singing in the shower," he said.

But how about all the latest high-tech recording equipment?

"All equipment is fun to use if you're not really queer about it," Easter said. "There are certain pieces that are very nice to work with, but at the same time you should be ready to hit that cardboard box if it sounds good. They've always said the percussion on 'Peggy Sue' was a cardboard box, and it sounds great to me.

"You have to close your eyes to really hear things. On a record, people won't know what it is."

back to timeline