Elliott Smith's XO & Jackpot! Recording Studio

notes on the songs from the Jackpot! sessions in 1997 - text and photos by Larry Crane

Elliott Smith’s XO album came out in August of 1998. Jackpot! was only a year and a half old, and we had two tracks on an album by our friend and (sorta) studio co-founder that was getting a lot of attention. Many of the songs on the album had been “tested out” at Jackpot! Recording Studio by Elliott over the course of 1997, including "Waltz #2 (XO)", "Bled White" (2 versions), "Waltz #1", "I Didn't Understand", and "A Question Mark". I engineered most of these tracks, and in some cases had forgotten I had until I looked at the reels a decade later as his archivist. “Baby Britain” and “Amity” were also tracked at this time, but actually made the album’s final cut.

(Larry’s photo of the monitor section of Sunset’s console during XO.)

“Miss Misery” was supposed to be on the album as well, but after its Oscar nomination (Good Will Hunting) co-producers Rob Schnapf, Tom Rothrock, and Elliott (he produced as well) thought it had a life of its own and would have to be cut. They decided this while I was visiting Elliott’s sessions in February 1998, and I was kind of bummed out. The track still technically only exists on a musically-random CD soundtrack release, which is a shame in my opinion.

“Baby Britain” was credited as recorded by me, but Joanna Bolme actually was the engineer for the Jackpot! session. The drums had been left up from another band, as likely were the mics I’d been using. Paul Pulvirenti was the drummer on this, yet Elliott completely forgot this and Joanna’s credit when it came time to sort out the liner notes. That’s pretty typical - details would escape him. I dropped by and took some photos that day but did not engineer.

Elliott used to roll into town (he’d moved to Brooklyn summer of 1997, 6 months after we opened the studio together) and would ask if any days were open. Usually I’d have just worked 15 days in a row, so I remember asking if Joanna could do the tracking so I could have a day off! Looking back, I wish I’d hung out and tracked this song with Joanna. It was always super fun working with her back then, and Elliott and I helped get her up and running as an engineer though I suspect she already knew a few things!

(Joanna Bolme at the MCI JH-16 deck)

When XO was being worked on in L.A. initially, I recall Elliott and Joanna asking me for the reel that had the “Penny Lane”-type song on it, and I had no idea what they were talking about as I had not engineered it! I did find the reel, luckily.

(Joanna and Elliott listen back)

“Amity” was tracked by me after Pete Krebs and Elliott wrapped up a small tour together, likely after May 6 in 1997. I was surprised to hear a rocker from Elliott at that point! On the original tape Pete had sung the “ahh” vocals and harmonies, but I remember Elliott decided to re-track those himself at Sunset Sound. Both of these songs were tracked on my MCI-JH-16 tape deck, and then dumped over to 24-track by Rob and Tom at Sunset, with various parts replayed and such. I remember the drum sound I got on “Amity” was cool, with a random pingy snare tuning that was interesting, but they had to fly in a snare sample from the verse to get a clean sound on the chorus due to ride cymbal bleed. I tried to up my drum recording game a bit after that!

(Rob and Elliott playing basketball at Sunset Sound’s courtyard during XO sessions.)

Looking back, I was learning how to record professionally and learning fast. Sessions were non-stop, and many were with great artists, like Quasi, Richmond Fontaine, The Maroons, Satans Pilgrims, Land of the Wee Beasties, and even my own band, Elephant Factory. But nothing beat working with Elliott Smith in the studio. It always went fast, songs were arranged well, and he would never belabor parts and takes or make the process tedious. The results are telling.