Things the Grandchildren Should Know – Mark Oliver Everett

E from the band Eels, on working with Tom Waits:

I immediately get off the phone and get my old four-track cassette recorder out of the closet, only to learn that it records at twice the speed of Tom’s four-track recorder. I bring this up to my recording engineer, Ryan, and we realize the best thing to do is to look on eBay for the same model Tom owns and we find one immediately, which is sent over the next day. I record my parts on to two tracks of the cassette tape and leave the other two tracks for Tom to fill. I send the tape to him with detailed instructions of what I want him to do. He ignores my instructions completely, accidentally erases my lead vocal track and sends me back a tape of him stomping on his bathroom floor, yelling and crying like a baby. You don’t tell Tom Waits what to do. It’s great. He’s very apologetic for erasing my vocal and offers to do yard work at my house to make up for it. I, of course, am thrilled by the whole thing. Tom Waits erased my vocal – Things the Grandchildren Should Know, Mark Oliver Everett.