Inside the Album ‘Out of the Cellar’: Juan Croucier & the Other ‘Other’ Voice of RATT – Recording Background Vocals/Bass
The excerpt below was taken from the full in bloom interview with RATT producer / engineer Beau Hill.
Juan Croucier & the Other ‘Other’ Voice of RATT
Beau reveals his secret to RATT’s background vocal sound with bassist Juan Croucier.
The excerpt has been transcribed below or you can listen to it via the embedded YouTube clip below.
The entire Out of the Cellar podcast can be heard at this location, or directly on YouTube.
Interview Excerpt:
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Beau Hill: Juan (Croucier) is a very good bass player and he was also a very good singer. So, Juan and I did 90% of the background vocals, just the two of us. And on some the lower stuff like “Lay It Down,” Robbin (Crosby) sang a little bit on that one. Primarily it was Juan and I, and I did all the vocal arrangements, so I had everything charted out. And I’d give it to Juan, you know, in my Sanskrit notation. I’d say, ‘ok, let’s do this part this way.’ We always sang everything in unison, so that the combo of our two voices made this other third person. I don’t know if that makes any sense. So if there was like a three-part harmony, Juan and I together would sing the low part, then together sing the middle part, then together sing the high part. So it didn’t sound like Juan and it didn’t sound like me…it sounded like Fred. (laughs)
full in bloom: So that’s your background vocals on that album as well, huh?…or on all the RATT?
Beau Hill: Yep.
full in bloom: Bass. Would you record Juan direct or would you mic him up? What was your go-to?
Beau Hill: Both. We would do a DI and we would mic his amp. I think he was playing the standard kind, back in those days, the Ampeg SVT, I think. I could be mistaken with that but that’s what I’m drawn to right now.
