Featured Story - EMI Music Publishing

EMI Music Publishing has a peerless reputation within the music industry, and represents the single greatest music catalogue in the world: a total of 1.3 million songs, 1000 UK and US number ones in the last 85 years and Billboard Publisher of the Year for 12 consecutive years. It’s no wonder then that EMI Publishing’s own studios in London is one of the capital’s busiest facilities, and acts as home for the stellar array of acts signed to EMI’s ranks.

Such a hotbed of creativity demands premium tools, so it was natural that EMI would choose a Moog Little Phatty analogue synthesizer to stimulate the writing and recording process. Resident EMI studio engineer Ben Jackson confirmed that the little Moog had become a permanent fixture, and showed no signs of letting up:

“The Little Phatty’s been an absolutely smashing addition to the studio setup. At the moment it's in Studio A - the HD room. Everyone signed to EMI’s roster goes through that room at one point or another. We have two studios here and the Little Phatty gets moved back and forth between them regularly. Ishi is in here at the moment (producer of Tinie Tempah’s second album), and we’ve had Beverly Knight, Alexandra Burke and Autumn Rowe all working here too. Kele from Bloc Party was using the Little Phatty on his record – things are better here now than they’ve ever been.”

In addition to this impressive client list, the studios are a proving ground for a range of unsigned acts that get studio time to see if the sparks fly. The Moog gets played by everyone, as Jackson explains:

“Our A&R people go out to see gigs all the time, and give studio time to artists they think show promise. A lot of artists coming here see the Little Phatty and just want to use it – even indie bands too, who knew Oasis were using Moogs! It’s one of the best synth purchases we’ve ever made.”

One of the Little Phatty’s key benefits for EMI is ease of use, and USB connectivity for MIDI has contributed no end to what makes the Moog such a favourite:

“We're a strict studio - we finish at 7.30pm on the nose. Often I've got to actually kick people out! So we always need quick solutions. Probably the best thing is that you can connect the Little Phatty via USB straight into a computer to control it – it’s so easy. It's what makes us want to use it! We have USB hubs around the rooms, so you can just plug-and-play straight into a hub.”

And there is some pretty stiff competition in the studio:

“We have some great other synths, but the Little Phatty really holds its own. It’s built like a real workhorse – it goes and goes. We’re moving it back and forth between the studios all the time and it somehow still looks basically untouched. It’s really solid build quality, you just fire it up and away it goes! Loads of other kit we have is just not built like it used to be, but the Moog keeps on going.”

Amen to that – and here’s wishing EMI many more years of happy service from their Moog!