Behind the Board: Koko Love Discusses Writing, Recording & Microphones

With streaming and digital releases changing the music industry so much, you have to hand it to artists like Koko Love, who have tried something a little different. Before giving his debut album, The Cost of Freedom, its digital release, it was only available via Bandcamp and on vinyl. It was important to Love for the album to exist in the real world first. With its release initially being somewhat limited, it enabled the album to build a fanbase in a more traditional manner. It was primarily sold in person when Love was playing live, which created a special kind of word of mouth. For Love, physical releases are important because they make the finished product feel less disposable. It provides a more real-world experience, reminiscent of when people used to excitedly show up at the record store on the day an album was released.

The Cost of Freedom was a life-changing experience for Love. He produced the album himself, along with a helping hand from his close friend and collaborator Soran Dussaigne. The record turned out exactly the way Love envisioned it would, which was extremely satisfying for Love, considering what he put into it. It was a completely all-encompassing experience, touching every part of his life. He put the money up to record it, saw it through from beginning to end, and learned a lot along the way.

Today, we are pleased to be joined by Koko Love for a Behind the Board interview. We discuss working in the studio, production, microphones, and more.

Analog vs. Digital—pick a side and tell us why.

Koko Love: “Analog all day. It’s conducive to imperfections. to what makes us human, and it’s conducive to the fun too. And maybe I’m a romantic, but something about analog just feels ‘right.’ Some *je ne sais quoi*.”

Describe your ideal studio space.

“Probably a ridiculous amount of space. I need space to think, to move. And I’m a minimalist at the core. Unfortunately, studio spaces often end up crowded with stuff. I would love a gigantic space that never gets overflowed with stuff and feels minimal, even though it’s filled with gear.”

If you could have any artist, living or dead, produce your next track, who would it be?

“I would love to get in the studio with Danger Mouse. He seems like an interesting fella.”

What do you do when you’re stuck creatively in the studio?

“I go for a long walk.”

Koko Love with Soran (@soranatole), photo by Alex Naim

Have you ever scrapped an entire project after recording? Why?

“I would say I scrapped 99.9 percent of all the music I’ve ever made. Still to this day, I have the bad tendency to erase my past. Erase past projects, create new aliases. I recently deleted all my biggest songs from streaming for that reason. It feels like only now, at 27, I’m coming to terms with that.”

What’s your opinion on Auto-Tune and pitch correction software?

“Autotune ruined music, in my opinion. Unless used creatively, as an effect. It created a generation of artists who can’t sing. And there’s a feeling to autotune. A feeling I genuinely dislike. It caps the possibilities. In reality, there are really more than twelve notes. There’s an infinity of notes between the notes, so it’s really unfortunate that we use a tool like autotune to tune up everything to those twelve notes. When in reality there’s an infinity of micro-notes and possibilities. All the feeling is in there.”

What common mistakes do artists make when first recording?

“They use too many plugins. I was a victim of that, too, by the way. Took me ten years to realize it. You don’t need that many plugins. In fact, you don’t need any plugins. Focus on making sure all your levels are ok when recording. Everything is gain staged correctly. And you’ll be surprised by how good it sounds. Way better than smashing a series of plugins, that’s for sure.

“The tools you use, your guitar, your microphone, your interface, were designed to sound a certain way, and there are people who put a lot of thought into that. If you feel like you need to use plugins to correct it, it probably means the tracking wasn’t done right. Better to prevent instead of correcting. It’s like health. Prevention is better than the cure.”

If you could only use three microphones for the rest of your career, which would you choose?

“I’ve been around the block a few times at this point in my career. I’d probably go with the basic Shure triple threat. They’re cheap dynamic mics. I’m talking about the SM57, SM58 (I like the Beta 58), and the SM7B. It’s as basic and cheap as it gets, so there’s no excuse. They’re pretty polyvalent and perfect for working in non-traditional studio set-ups since they don’t pick up a lot of the room, so if you’re working in an imperfect room, those mics are perfect for you.

“And there’s just something about the sound of a Beta58 on a vocal that’s oddly satisfying to me. Special mention to the Electro-Voice RE-20, which is similar to the SM7B.”

Koko Love, photo by Soran (@soranatole)

How much of producing music is technical skill vs. intuition?

“It’s definitely both. Skills are definitely important, but they will only take you so far. You need to learn to let go and listen to your intuition. In other words, you need to learn to have fun. Worry about the details and technicalities later.”

Who is the most underrated producer or engineer, in your opinion?

“Soran. You probably don’t know him yet, but you will.”

Which album do you consider perfectly produced?

“The Strokes, The New Abnormal. It’s their sixth record, and they did the impossible, which is capturing the energy of their first album while pushing the boundaries of their sound. More hi-fi, it sounds classical but new, timeless yet modern. Not an easy task for a band that had massive early success and such a distinct sound. Shoutout Rick!”

Koko Love ‘The Cost of Freedom’ album artwork