Roy Merchant

Interview with mulit-platinum awarding winning producer from the Dairy studio in London – Roy Merchant :

How long have you been recording/performing?

• I started assisting in a London studio around 1990 aged 17 and professionally producing in ’94 after learning as much as I could about studios and how they used to operate.

What are your thoughts on Phoenix audio processors?

• Really like the Phoenix stuff.. I only first heard of them about 3 years ago (2013) when an old studio mate recommended the N16 as a summing amp. I got home that night and randomly saw a reconditioned one on Ebay and had it shipped over. Haven’t looked back since….. Its called a Nicerizer for a reason.

How do you use your Phoenix Audio in the studio/live?

• I have a bunch of lovely mic pre/EQ’s in my set up but to be fair the DRS-Q4 mk2 has been the go to for quite a while now. It’s sitting on the mix bus at the mo, love the EQ and saturation!

What projects have you used the gear on that you can talk about?

• Been working on a project called “Ella on the run”. She has a down tempo cover of “All that she wants” (Ace of base) which was snapped up by the same label that had the original. Off the same ep we’ve had a sync with H&M. Again that was the DRS-Q4 on the mix bus

Have any songs or albums you’ve recorded with Phoenix gear garnered any acclaim or awards?

Top10 hits (anywhere), music awards, press…

• I did a Pop album last year (Bars and Melody) that was No 4 in the uk album charts and recently went platinum in Poland. That was the nicerizer.

What piece/ kind of gear would you like to see us make next? Or, what Phoenix gear do you want next?

• Love the DRS, stay on that track, maybe built slightly more “brickshithouse”-esk…..