Before The Rembrandts became globally recognised for I’ll Be There For You, (and after their power pop band Great Buildings) their self titled debut had already established them as writers and producers with a sharp pop sensibility. That’s Just The Way It Is Baby was the song that first brought them to wider attention, a tightly constructed pop rock single recorded almost entirely in Danny Wilde’s garage studio. The environment might have been humble, but the sound was anything but.
They tracked the album on a Fostex 16 track half inch machine and treated the process with the same discipline and intention as a commercial studio. According to Wilde, the rooms were soundproofed and surprisingly workable, and the entire setup was built around making professional sounding records with modest tools. Their approach proved that strong arrangements, good musicianship and a clear production vision could easily transcend the limitations of a home studio.
The recording centred around a Fostex console paired with two AKG 414s for vocals and drum overheads, Shure 57s for guitars and snare, and a selection of Yamaha SPX 90s and Alesis Quadraverbs for effects. The studio’s charm lay in its simplicity. Wilde described the equipment as largely the sort of gear any working musician might have at home, but pushed to its fullest potential. One of the most defining elements of the album’s sound is the use of a Vox AC30 for guitar tones.
Wilde collected vintage gear and favoured older tube heads such as Fender Bandmasters, which helped add character and warmth to the recordings. Even with the tape machine running only about five feet from the drums, they managed noise using mattresses placed strategically to isolate the motor. The result was a surprisingly polished sound that belied the garage setting.
Vocals and overdubs were handled with equal care. The duo used dbx 163 compressors alongside rented ADA noise gates and a small selection of Drawmer units, though Wilde pointed out much of the gear was fairly low end. What mattered was the performance and the intention behind every take. Drum recording was unconventional but effective. They used a Radio Shack PZM mic on the kick drum, a Shure 57 on snare capturing both the snare and the hi hat, and two AKG 414s as overheads. Ambient reflections added size to the kit, and after capturing solid takes they spent days fine tuning sounds before sending tapes to outside mixers for feedback.
Despite the limited number of tracks, they layered extensively. To work around the restriction of 16 tracks they would occasionally make small submixes, run them onto DAT, then return them to a pair of tracks on the tape machine to free space. That’s Just The Way It Is Baby, like much of the album, was built through this careful process of layering and reduction. Wilde commented that record companies constantly pushed for polished demos that already sounded like finished records, so he took that instruction literally and produced a debut that competed with major studio releases. The clarity, balance and immediacy of the production gave the album a commercial edge that helped push the single up the charts.