Take a fab song . . . and make it better
Giles Martin shares a birthday with John Lennon. So perhaps it was in the stars that the son of George Martin -- aka 'the Fifth Beatle' -- should end up following in his father's footsteps and working as a producer on the Fab Four's back catalogue.
If Martin Senior acted as the Beatles' creative midwife when they were in their prime, then Junior is responsible for the 40-year check-up. Giles first got his metaphorical stethoscope out for the Beatles Anthology compilations in the 1990s, helping to re-master the old analogue tapes for a new digital era. The baby was still in rude health; it was just the bathwater that needed freshening up.
Giles, a 39-year-old Londoner (who incidentally is married to an Irishwoman -- a film producer he met in London and married in Howth) was then hired to oversee the Love album a few years ago -- an ambitious project that creatively fused or 'mashed-up' Beatles songs with each other for use in the extravagant Las Vegas circus show Cirque du Soleil.
Speaking exclusively to the Irish Independent, Giles Martin explains the thrill of having unfettered access to pop music's holy grail: the Beatles' master tapes.
"When we did Love," says Giles, "we won Grammies! All the Beatles fanatics got excited about it, saying it sounded vibrant and clean. That was because we didn't do anything to it! The weirdest thing about hearing the master tapes for the first time is that it doesn't sound old. It's not as though vocals, for instance, sound better now than they did then. Recording techniques haven't changed that much."
How did Paul and Ringo react?
"Well, I met up with Paul, Ringo, Yoko and George (Harrison's) son Dhani. They had to approve everything. With Love I had the licence to be creative. I did mash-ups. Paul and Ringo said 'do what you want with it -- if we don't like it, no one will ever hear it!' And I did do stuff that no one ever heard!
"They like to innovate. If you don't excite Paul and Ringo, you don't really catch their attention. With Paul, his attitude is 'this is our music; me and my friends have done this -- it's not money for old rope'."
It must have been a blast -- but were you nervous about tinkering with their legacy?
"I remember my dad flew out to Vegas and spent seven months there working on the Love project. Paul turned around to my dad when we were all listening to 'Get Back' in the theatre with the acrobatics, and he said, 'I remember writing this on a paper bag and now it's become this!'
"I also remember 'Come Together' was in the show. Both Paul and Ringo listened to it and said, 'It was such a great day when we did this -- we were all playing so well.' They really nailed it -- that's them playing live on the record. It's things like that that make you realise that you're not just dealing with the Fab Four with their mop tops -- it was deeply personal for them ... and for me now too."
Now this Wednesday, the Beatles Rock Band is being released -- a project on which Giles has laboured lovingly for a year and a half.
The hi-tech, state-of-the-art video game allows users to play along to Beatles' songs using plastic replica instruments -- such as Paul McCartney's Hofner bass, John Lennon's Rickenbacker guitar and Ringo Starr's Premier drumkit -- while belting out the words, karaoke-style, as though you were playing to thousands of screaming, hormonal, knicker-flinging girls in Shea Stadium rather than, say, in front of a gathering of rock hacks, gamers and publicists in a small pub in Camden Town ... I was in this corner of North London to witness a special preview demonstration of the Fab new game.
When it was my turn to give it a whirl, I grabbed my three minutes of fame by the plectrum. Beatle Nick was in the house.
A southpaw-like Sir Paul, I prayed to Macca as I strapped on the left-handed plastic Hofner bass. I then 'played' the guitar in sync with the colour-coded dots on the screen at my feet, as funky CGI graphics of the Mop Tops were doing the twist-and-shout.
Not sure what old Ed Sullivan would have made of it all, but it was great fun in its own way, even if ultimately it made me long to hold an actual guitar in my hands and play the songs for real ... And you know that can't be bad.
I've a strong suspicion that this game is going to be, whisper it, bigger than Jesus.
Giles agrees. But was it odd going from working on albums to a video game?
"It's something I never thought I'd end up doing," he admits. "I flew over to Boston to meet the video people. I thought it was going to be a nerd-fest. And I found that the two main guys who invented Guitar Hero were actually very creative.
"The creative director envisaged how it was going to be -- we had them (the virtual Beatles) in Abbey Road Studio 2, had the walls melting away, all trippy and dreamy. It suited the Beatles. I hope I'm not speaking out of turn, but they had no idea of the format they were dealing with. I had more of an idea."
How do you feel about the video game phenomenon?
"People need to interact with music. This is a really good way of doing that. We did a test of five songs. One was 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'. You know that Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Freebird' is going to be fun to get drunk and play guitar to. I wasn't sure if any Beatles stuff would be. I was worried it would be too quaint. But I started playing the plastic Hofner bass. And I thought it was great fun."
How do you see this affecting the Beatles' legacy?
"It has made them ageless in a way. Kids will play this game and see the Beatles as they were then -- but we didn't want to make it look like some kind of retrospective medal of honour. That said, we didn't want loads of explosions either!
"I had some friends back over from Australia. I know the mother very well -- she's 68, the son's my age, 39 -- and he has a daughter of 11. We all ended up playing 'And I Saw Her Standing There'.
"The grandmother's playing bass; the son's playing guitar; the daughter's playing drums -- and they all know the song. It was great fun. Video games are here to stay. It's great to see generations really get into it. You're allowing people to see that the Beatles aren't ghosts."
The Beatles Rock Band video game is launched at a special gig in The Village, Dublin, on Wednesday, featuring tribute band The Classic Beatles, The Shoos, Ham Sandwich, Codes and The Chapters. And starting tonight, it's Beatles week on BBC 2 and BBC 4 TV.
nkelly@independent.ie
