They’ll dive in on drums and guitar, too, when they have an especially appealing project like ’60s soul vet Floyd’s Eddie Loves You So. Thanks to some recent tour dates with Floyd, they’re even bandmates again.
Like the original Stax, American Recordings, Muscle Shoals, and a handful of other classic studios, Ice Station Zebra has a house band, with Steve Sadler on lap steel, bassists Marc Hickox and Dean Cassell, and drummer Andy Plaisted. “With a developing artist it’s about getting their best material,” Dinallo says. “Often younger artists don’t know how to arrange their material and best showcase their strengths, and that’s where pre-production and a good band comes in. But with a veteran like Eddie you’ve got to be more respectful. For example, he asked us not to use B-3 organ or horns too often. He didn’t want it to sound too much like the classic Stax sound, because he’d already done that.”
Carlisle interjects: “Should we tell him about our dream artist?”
“Sure.”
“Now that we’ve worked with Eddie, we’d like to do one with [’60s Stax veteran] William Bell. But what we’d really like is to make a gutbucket-nasty Whitney Houston album. If we could get her into the studio with whatever scars she’s got and get her to sing for real, she could make a great record.”
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