1. Nigel Timothy Godrich was born on 28 February 1971 and is an English record producer, recording engineer and musician.
40 Facts About Nigel Godrich
1. 2.
Early in his career, Godrich worked as the house engineer at RAK Studios, London, under the producer John Leckie.
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Nigel Godrich first worked with Radiohead while engineering their second album, The Bends, at RAK.
4.
Nigel Godrich has produced all of their albums since, along with several projects with the Radiohead members Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood.
5.
Nigel Godrich won the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Non-Classical Album for the 2003 Radiohead album Hail to the Thief.
6.
Nigel Godrich is a member of the bands Atoms for Peace and Ultraista.
7.
Nigel Godrich was born in Westminster, London, the son of Victor Godrich, a BBC sound supervisor, and Brenda Godrich.
8.
Nigel Godrich was fascinated by recording at an early age.
9.
Nigel Godrich was educated at William Ellis School in North West London, where he shared classes with his friend and the future Zero 7 member Henry Binns.
10.
Nigel Godrich began playing guitar, inspired by Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa.
11.
Nigel Godrich first visited a recording studio at the age of 16, when his band recorded a demo at Elephant Studios, Wapping, and spent time asking the engineer questions.
12.
Nigel Godrich studied at the School of Audio Engineering, London.
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Nigel Godrich would stay late at night, inviting musician friends to play there while he practised recording them.
14.
Nigel Godrich said it was a "brilliant experience" and credited Bernard Butler with teaching him how to produce records.
15.
Nigel Godrich produced the self-titled debut album by Silver Sun, released in May 1997.
16.
Nigel Godrich first worked with the rock band Radiohead when John Leckie hired him at RAK to engineer their EP My Iron Lung and their second album, The Bends.
17.
When Leckie left the studio to attend a social engagement, Radiohead and Nigel Godrich stayed to record B-sides.
18.
Nigel Godrich won the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Non-Classical Album for their sixth album, Hail to the Thief.
19.
Nigel Godrich's father died during the recording of Radiohead's ninth album, A Moon Shaped Pool.
20.
Nigel Godrich has been dubbed the band's "sixth member", an allusion to Beatles producer George Martin being called the "fifth Beatle".
21.
Nigel Godrich plays Chieftain Mews, a long-running character who appears in Radiohead's promotional material.
22.
Nigel Godrich has produced most of the solo work by the Radiohead singer, Thom Yorke, including his albums The Eraser, Tomorrow's Modern Boxes and Anima.
23.
Yorke credits Nigel Godrich with helping edit his work, identifying which parts need improvement and which have potential.
24.
Nigel Godrich engineered Junun, a 2015 album by the Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, the Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur and the Indian ensemble the Rajasthan Express, recorded at Mehrangarh Fort in Rajasthan, India.
25.
Nigel Godrich produced A Light for Attracting Attention, the debut album by the Smile, a band comprising Yorke, Greenwood and the drummer Tom Skinner.
26.
Nigel Godrich produced three albums by the American singer-songwriter Beck: Mutations, Sea Change and The Information.
27.
Nigel Godrich produced several albums by Travis, including their commercial breakthrough, The Man Who, and its followup, The Invisible Band.
28.
Nigel Godrich co-produced the Travis albums The Boy With No Name with Mike Hedges.
29.
Nigel Godrich produced Pavement's final album, Terror Twilight, with Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood contributing harmonica on two tracks.
30.
In 2001, Nigel Godrich remixed U2's "Walk On" for its single release, and mixed and contributed production to Air's albums Talkie Walkie and Pocket Symphony.
31.
In 2002, Nigel Godrich was hired to produce the second album by the Strokes, Room on Fire.
32.
Nigel Godrich was fired when their work, according to the band, proved "soulless".
33.
Nigel Godrich wanted to do it his way, I wanted to do it my way, and obviously that's the point of me being there.
34.
McCartney hired Nigel Godrich to produce his album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard after being recommended by the Beatles producer, George Martin.
35.
Nigel Godrich fired McCartney's touring band and demanded that he abandon songs Nigel Godrich found cliched, over-sentimental, or subpar.
36.
The album was nominated for several Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, and Nigel Godrich was nominated for Producer of the Year.
37.
Nigel Godrich conceived From the Basement as a means of authentically documenting music being made.
38.
Nigel Godrich credited the producers Phil Thornalley, John Leckie and Steve Lillywhite for teaching him his craft, saying they were "people I watched directly and emulated".
39.
Nigel Godrich said Joni Mitchell was his favourite artist, citing her "unique combination of musical and lyrical talent".
40.
Nigel Godrich said he believes people place too much emphasis on studio equipment and "trickery", which is less important than musical sensibility and communication.