{"id":7659,"date":"2015-04-24T03:00:24","date_gmt":"2015-04-24T07:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=7659"},"modified":"2015-04-24T03:00:24","modified_gmt":"2015-04-24T07:00:24","slug":"sometimes-people-remember-a-conversation-with-steve-barton-of-translator-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2015\/04\/24\/sometimes-people-remember-a-conversation-with-steve-barton-of-translator-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes People Remember: A Conversation with Translator’s Steve Barton (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you’re working with a producer like David Kahne<\/strong> or Ed Stasium<\/strong>, they care about the process, too,\u201d Steve Barton<\/strong> notes. \u201cEveryone has an interest in how the final record is going to sound. So it’s all of a piece: the punkier stuff on the demos, and how the records ended up sounding.\u201d There are any number of approaches a band can take in the studio. One is to attempt to capture a performance that more or less captures and documents the group’s live song. Another is to employ a studio-as-instrument philosophy, crafting a work as you go along. Barton believes Translator<\/strong> did both. \u201cOn the first album, Heartbeats and Triggers<\/em>, we were trying to capture ourselves live, but then we would do a few little [studio] touches here and there. On the second album [1983’s No Time Like Now<\/em>], we purposely wanted it to be more ‘produced.’\u201d Barton says that the group liked some of the \u201cproduction qualities\u201d found on classic albums by the Beatles<\/strong>, the Rolling Stones<\/strong>, and The Kinks<\/strong>. They modeled their approach on those records. \u201cIf we could have afforded it,\u201d he laughs, \u201cwe probably would have put flutes and strings on some of the songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barton continues a chronology of Translator’s albums and the aesthetic mindset for each. \u201cWith the third album [1985’s self-titled release], we wanted to do something a bit more stripped-down. And then with the fourth album, we again wanted to capture ourselves live.\u201d In fact, the original idea for Evening of the Harvest<\/em> was to record the songs live in the studio. \u201cI like all of the albums, \u201cBarton says, \u201cand we never wanted to make them all sound the same, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after the release of their second album, Translator issued a three-song 12\u201d EP called Break Down Barriers<\/em>. That disc featured a cover of a very early Beatles song \u2013 in fact, the only composition credited to George Harrison<\/strong> and John Lennon<\/strong> \u2013 called \u201cCry for a Shadow.\u201d In 1983 the Beatles Anthology<\/em> project remained off in the distant future, so the song was little known outside the cadre of Beatles fanatics. Barton was just such a fanatic. \u201cWe were a trio in L.A.,\u201d he recalls. \u201cand a friend of ours was getting married. We were going to play at her wedding. And another band was going to play there as well. The guitar player in that band was Bob Darlington<\/strong>, who later would be my Translator brother.\u201d At one point, the groups decided that they should play something together. \u201cI don’t know how we ever came up with ‘Cry for a Shadow,’ but obviously it was on all of our radars.\u201d<\/p>\n