Slash the competition

Ben H. Allen is forced, like much of North America, to toil long hours in front of a computer screen. The night I interview him, he’s antsy to escape his Maze Studios, which he calls home.

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Our interview is just one more in a string of long sessions behind the sliders, as Allen offers up a live review and preview of his recent projects, including his work on Gnarls Barkley’s chart-scaling track, “Crazy.” Allen’s burned through a lot of daylight recording as the long-time engineer for Cee-Lo Green, a prolific musician and one-half of funky, role-play sensation Gnarls Barkley. But recently, Allen spends an increasing amount of time sharing his story.

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A mixing engineer is similar to a film editor, says Allen. They both act as the last line of quality control. Both take an existing storyline and weave it into its most cohesive presentation. Mixing engineer is one of those professional titles that has little profile in the public consciousness. Outside liner notes and trade magazines, you rarely hear what mixing engineers have to say. But with every hit single, you hear what they have to add. A mixing engineer pushes the song’s soul against the window.

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Athens-bred Allen isn’t new to the game. He worked for Diddy’s Bad Boy Records during its golden age before he moved back to the Atlanta area. He’s inked plenty of credits in his log, including his ongoing relationship with Gnarls Barkley/Cee-Lo, mixing independent crunk singles, co-producing a track on the new Christina Aguilera record, and coordinating Constellations (an as-of-yet unreleased Gorillaz-style Atlanta collaboration). Allen represents an increasingly prevalent force in the recording industry: the all-in-one entity. Like Dallas Austin or Butch Walker before him, Allen adds slashes to the job description as effortlessly as some kids add MySpace friends.

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“A year ago, I was an engineer-slash-mixer, now I’m a mixer-slash-producer,” says Allen. “Diversifying is exactly what you have to do. And it’s a very interesting music business right now — healthier, more vibrant and fresh, I think, than it’s ever been. I think the record business is in the worst shape it’s even been in. But, to me, it’s exciting, because the record labels have stopped doing artist development. They’re sticking to pop, and that’s fantastic because it’s the only thing they’re good at. And they’ve left this whole middle ground where people who are smart and entrepreneurial can develop themselves with complete creative control — record it, mix it, master it and package it, and then maybe talk to a label about distributing it, using their own means to move forward.”

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Nondescript. That’s a word to describe Allen’s immediate scene. It’s not meant derisively, it’s just that on entering Maze Studio’s unmarked door in a characterless industrial complex, you won’t be greeted by statuesque women bearing freshly squeezed orange juice. (Allen, who works in Los Angeles, swears some West Coast studios employ hospitality representatives solely to dispense refreshments.) Additionally, Allen either has his diamond-encrusted dog medallion tucked into an unremarkable short sleeve shirt, or just fails to wear bling on the evening he interviews in his equally unembellished workspace.

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“The most important part of my — and the studio’s — involvement in the Gnarls Barkley project is ... look around this place; we’re not a world-class establishment with marble foyers and girls paid to bring you freshly baked chocolate chip cookies,” says Allen. “And without a half-million-dollar console, we made ostensibly the biggest record of 2006 worldwide in a little place like this. The point is not that we’re the shit, it’s that all it takes is a good idea and good execution. The technology is so cheap and easy to learn, you could have made Gnarls Barkley.”

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Well, probably not Gnarls Barkley. That project took certain ears to frame Cee-Lo’s bright profile in clever arrangements that sound weathered but never weakened. What Allen helps bring to the mix is a looseness that respects the hypnotic density of beat-based music, yet fights its limiting exactness without losing any commanding presence. Allen suggests those with adaptable palates and personal drive could find themselves in a similar position to thrive.

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Allen is further hyphenating his career as a writer. Through industry associates, regular collaborators Allen and Tony Reyes heard Christina Aguilera was open to submissions for her Back to Basics album (released Aug. 22). The two constructed the song “Here to Stay,” a horn-borne jam with Hitsville USA swing, and ended up flying to L.A. to sculpt it to Aguilera’s terms. It was only later that the pair heard Aguilera had drafted submission guidelines they had never received yet serendipitously nailed.

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Reyes has since written with Joss Stone. Meanwhile, Allen plays Rick Rubin-meets-Diddy impresario of sorts with the pavement-to-penthouse playground funk of Constellations. In Constellations, Allen plays various instruments alongside MC Kirkland Underwater and Elijah Jones of Gates of Berlin, among others. Following the DIY model, Constellations material has been wholly self-produced and is currently being shopped around the UK. Allen has also found work overseas mixing and remixing artists, including Lily Allen, White Rose Movement and Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, among other bands honing bedroom recordings.

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“Everyone is looking behind the curtain thinking there’s a huge giant behind the music, but what’s so cool is, more and more it’s just a little guy with a good idea,” says Allen. “The people who are symbols of a style of music they didn’t even create aren’t the future. The future is getting back to innovative entertainment created and performed from the ground up ... and he who is the fittest wins.”