Brave Words: My Interview With Greg Haver About Producing The New Edition Of The Classic Debut Album From The Chills

It was the Manic Street Preachers that prompted me to want to interview producer Greg Haver. While I remain gobsmacked at how amazing Brave Words from The Chills sounds now thanks to his work, it was a 2004 record from the Manics that first made me notice his name in the credits. Oddly, I had never noticed he was involved with Welsh band Pink Assassin. Their "Small World" single (released on his Big Noise label) was one of the things I bought at my first (and to date, only) visit to Rough Trade in London way back in 2000. (The others were Primal Scream's XTRMNTR, and The Holy Bible and "The Masses Against the Classes" CD-Single from the Manics.)

I sat down for a chat with Greg Haver ahead of this new edition of Brave Words from The Chills arriving in the world. I wanted to know how he did it. How was this magical reissue birthed? How did he take a tinny, flat-sounding (though beloved) record from 1987 and clear the dust away so that the tunes sounded as fresh and vibrant as if the band had just recorded them yesterday? The Fire Records release sounds amazing. I suppose that shouldn't be a huge surprise given Haver's production on Snow Bound a few years ago. But this is a special, legendary release we're talking about.

Acknowledging the need for a new mix, Haver said that Martin Phillipps "never quite got what he wanted' with the original 1987 version and was "unhappy" with it sonically. Tasked by Martin himself, Haver took on this mission with New Zealand engineer Scott Seabright who wasn't even born when the album was first released. With a mission to fix the record, Haver and Seabright operated from a position of piecing together Brave Words using the original, available multitracks and introducing no new elements. Given the limitations, Greg said he wanted to inform the younger Seabright on the methodology and workflows that were available in the mid-1980's, instead of reaching for modern studio techniques that would have made the job a bit easier, Haver would say, "No, we can't use that as they didn't have that in 1987."

While most tracks were extant thanks to New Zealand's Alexander Turnbull library along with Haver being aware of how recordings were made in 1987 and where it was recorded, things were set in motion. One challenge, however, was the absence of a full set of "Dark Carnival" mixes. "For that one, we had to piece together different stereo mixes with mastering engineer Chris Chetland, without introducing 'anything new'" or "anything that wasn't available then" while retaining the spirit of the original selection.

"This line-up of the band doesn't exist anymore," Haver explained, "So reaching out to those musicians" wasn't an option for things like piecing together "Dark Carnival", and others. "We had to use what we had," and Haver, with his familiarly of Point Studios, where Brave Words was originally recorded, was put to work. Though he said it was almost "easy," he hesitated to use that term to describe a process like turning Brave Words into Brave Words: Spoken Bravely (The Remix). "The original sessions were not complicated, really" and so it was "easy in a sense," he explains. "I was constantly aware of trying to make this sound the way it was meant to sound" as it is "a special album to a lot of people." But it all comes down to intention. "Martin's intentions were clear" and "the band had different members then" so there was no option to ask them for input, or recreate any piece, should that even have been considered. "This was the band's first album so it was done simply" but the sound was lacking. "I wanted to restore the sound of the band playing, create space" in this version of Brave Words. Originally the plan was to do all the mixing on analog equipment, but that proved "unrealistic," particularly during Covid restrictions so "we had to use the tracks we had digitally" and work from there.

Asked if, in general, he serves the music or the artist as a producer, Greg paused and said, "The artist. It's all about intention and communication. Without that, without an idea of what the goal is, there's no way I can do what I do." That question was one I posed in a general sense, but I think I was really curious about Martin Phillipps' wishes. Given the hoopla over the new edition of Tim, a project seemingly getting producer Ed Stasium more attention than the actual surviving members of The Replacements, I think I wanted to draw out an answer from Haver that would set this project apart from that one. And "intentions" is what it is all about. Haver admitted some nervousness about fans hearing this, whether they'd be happy with a new version of such a cherished album. "But it really came down to making Martin happy. I sent him the mixes to spend some time listening. After a day or so I heard back from him, and he said he had played the mixes and sat there crying while playing them as that is how he'd envisaged the record originally. That was enormous praise. I had achieved what I needed to achieve because if Martin was happy, that was all that mattered." While Haver wonders if fans have played this version next to the old one (I have on a couple of tracks), he really wanted this to be the version people reach for. Brave Words has a spacious, "full" sound now, with the "band then sounding like they were always meant to sound like" which should make this Brave Words the final word on the record.

When I expressed some distaste at the way the recent Tim remix has been presented, I don't think this is similar because, as Haver stressed, it "all comes down to intention." I never had a problem with the sound of Tim, but Brave Words did possess a flat sound, a tinny one even, so Haver acknowledges there was a practical reason to do this. "Martin was never happy with the original" which is why this had to be done. Given that, and given Martin's instructions at the start to Greg Haver and Scott Seabright, there seemed to have been little chance they'd go wrong. "We only used what we had, those mixes so there was little chance of anything new being added to the mix."

Of course, given his connection to the Manic Street Preachers, a band Greg Haver says he owes his career to, our discussion shifted from The Chills to the Manics. However, more on that at a future date, most likely nearer the release of a possible 20th anniversary reissue of Lifeblood in 2024. Haver's work on that 2004 effort was never quite appreciated when it should have been. And the album itself was much-maligned. But as far as I'm concerned it's one of the trio's peaks next to The Holy Bible and Everything Must Go.

Many thanks to Greg Haver for this time with this interview (and his work on this record).

Brave Words (Expanded and Remastered) by The Chills is out now via Fire Records.

[Photo: Greg Haver; The Chills photo, Fire Records]