Industrial-metal provocateur Al Jourgensen has built a career on pushing distortion to destructive extremes. But one of his studio experiments once caused unexpected collateral damage when it shut down a recording session by electric bluesman Eric Clapton.
The incident occurred in the late 1980s at Town House Studios, in Shepherd’s Bush, London, where Clapton was working on his 1989 album, Journeyman.
Jourgensen and his band Ministry were in another room, doing what they often do: overdriving equipment to see what would happen. As longtime collaborator Paul Barker explains, pushing gear past its limits is practically the band’s operating principle.
“We overload everything,” Barker says. “Sometimes things sound good. Sometimes they sound really crappy. We've had some EQs that sound really brilliant overdriven and some that sound completely like shit. We like to see what a piece will do when we slam it.”
I found a piece of tape on the floor. I didn't know what it was, so I put it in the middle of a song I was editing,”
— Al Jourgensen
Jourgensen says the approach sometimes produces happy accidents. When they’re lucky, the mishaps occur during recording.
“Like when a speaker goes,” Jourgensen explains. “Then we’ll go, ‘Did you get that?’”
At Town House, the accident began with a random length of discarded recording tape.
“I found a piece of tape on the floor. I didn't know what it was, so I put it in the middle of a song I was editing,” Jourgensen recalls. “It turns out to be about 50 dB higher than the rest of the song — like a fuckin’ hydraulic lift.”
The mastering engineer wasn’t worried about the extreme jump in volume.
“He’s going, ‘Ah, we’ll put a little compression on it, boost 100k at about 3 dB, boost 12k at about 3 dB. I’m going to go get some coffee.’”
Moments later, disaster struck.
“All of a sudden there’s this noise and all the power goes out,” Jourgensen says. “Everything is blown. I’ve never seen an old fat guy run so fast in my life. I was heaping full proud.”
The commotion drew artists and producers out of the neighboring studios — including Clapton himself.
“Clapton was in the studio that day too,” Jourgensen says. “Even he came out, gave me the thumbs up, and walked off. He was speechless.”
All of a sudden there’s this noise and all the power goes out. Everything is blown.”
— Al Jourgensen
Clapton isn’t the only artist Jourgensen has “shut down.” He once invited Ministry frontman Trent Reznor to join him on a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Supernaut.”
“He invited me to come hang out with him in the studio, and I was like, ‘I can’t believe it… I’m hanging out with Al at Chicago,’” the Nine Inch Nails frontman recalls to Vice.
“He goes, ‘Hey, you want to try singing this?’ I’m like, ‘Fuck yeah I want to try singing this…’”
Ultimately, though, the time spent alongside his hero made him feel like an imposter. “I also felt like here’s this Nine Inch Nails, some pussy pop band wannabe around the guys that really felt like they were credible to me at the time.”
Jourgensen is set to show off his acting skills upcoming grindhouse comedic-horror film Jesus Cop. The ensemble cast includes Green Jellÿ singer Bill Manspeaker and Jackass star Bam Margera as the voice of God.
