HYPERLINK "http://videos.theonion.com/avclub_video/2011/poppilgrims/POP007-Ardent_02.flv" \t "_blank" http://videos.theonion.com/avclub_video/2011/poppilgrims/POP007-Ardent_02.flv A.V. Club Pop Pilgrims Dan Telfer (Host): When the A.V. Club Travels we always make time to visit pop culture landmarks. If something memorable happened in the world of film, TV, books, or music, we want to go there, we are not just tourists, we are pop pilgrim. This week on Pop Pilgrims, we are headed to Memphis, birth place of pro-wrestler Viscera the world’s largest love machine and the source of a staggering amount of American Culture. I’m your host Dan Telfer and I’m here in the car with crew members Brendan and Jaime on the way to Ardent Studios. Ardent Studios was where many classic albums were recorded by artists like R.E.M., ZZ Top, Isaac Hayes and Big Star. John Fry (Producer, founder of Ardent Studios): Well, Dan we are here in the lobby of Ardent Studios and I’m John Fry I’m the founder. We always say we started in 1966 which was when we got a real commercial studio building but I really started out sooner than that, I started out as a teenager recording in my home and I had a home studio before anybody who had a home studio was you know the Stax portrait of the Stax Marquee as a place of honor in our lobby because there are a lot of connections with Stax when we opened up in 66, Stax started sending us all our overflow work and we did all of that from 66 until Stax closed in 75. But all of these records, they are here displayed or things so that most of which you have recorded in their entire at least some at least some of them are things that only partially did and certainly a great variety of things that we have done. We kept a lot of things and among things we have kept are a lot of our vintage musical instruments. For example here is our Hammond organ and then this is kind of interesting piece of equipment that we bought in the late 60s, it is a Melltron and this was used on many records including Big Star records. Dan Telfer: What was it like when you first got to work here creatively? Jody Stephens Studio Manager and Big Star drummer: You know with just a little magic wonderland you know you sit in the studio and you bang around on drums and you pick around on guitars and you twist a few knobs and all of a sudden you have this great melodies and pretty cool songs. Dan Telfer: And what was it like to record the third album? Jody Stephens: That was again a completely different adventure because we have gone from a 4-piece to a 3-piece and now we are 2-piece and we have some session players sitting around us and we also had a producer named Jim Dickenson so we could look to Jim for guidance in addition to John Fry who would engineer all these sessions and you know the brilliant man behind the just incredible sonics of those records. John Fry: Working the guys in Big Star was a special privilege for me. If anybody asked me what were my favorite records that I worked on you know I think they always expect me to say well they would be the ones that sold the most or they were the very most successful in the charts or something like that but I would have to say that they were the Big Star records because they were close to my heart musically but because of the people in the band were such good friends too. It is hard for me to believe that 75% of the original members are now deceased. Jody Stephens: That first day I started January of 1987 here on the business side of things. Jim Dickenson was in our studio B recording with The Replacements and what was to be The Replacement Pleased to Meet Me. John Fry: Which was kind of an interesting session, they are kind of tied and I think in my memory for drunkest bands with Primal Scream, I don’t know who gets the ultimate prize so on that but they are running neck and neck in my memory. They were perfectly nice I mean you know the amount of drinking didn’t seem to interfere with the recording process at all, I mean it was a good album, it sold well and they even stuck a song called Alex Chilton so here you go. The dots all seemed to connect some how. Dan Telfer: What do you think it is that continues to draw artists here? Jody Stephens: Well I think John Fry said it best and that good things can happen here and you know they can indeed, I a have had you know obviously great experiences here myself. I mean it is a great studio and it is a great vibe and you have to feel comfortable where you are working to some extent. John Fry: You know I have been coming to work at the same job for 45 years and I haven’t lost interest in it or I’m not interested in quitting as long as I’m healthy enough and I think I can be effective, I want to keep on doing it. Ardent Studios 2000 Madison Avenue, Memphis, TN Behind the Scenes with FIAT Big Star recoreded for house label Ardent Records, which was distributed by Stax Records. When Stax went out of business in 1975, it basically took Ardent Records with it. Ardent Records re-launched as a Christian music label in 1959. Its artists frequently use the studio to record. Other notable albums recorded at Ardent: Cat Power, The Greatest; The Cramps, Song the Lord Taught Us; ZZ Top, Eliminator.