How Ed Stasium Helped Shape The Raccoons Sound

Hi Everyone,

In my last blog, I talked about some of the behind-the-scenes stories about the music in The Raccoons specials and series. One of my favourites is how Ed Stasium, who has been heavily involved in producing the recordings of The Ramones, Talking Heads, Mick Jagger, Gladys Knight and The Pips and many, many more, came to know each other and how he ended up mixing The Raccoons album “Evergreen Nights” and the single “Run With Us” – featuring Lisa Lougheed.

From Bang, Bang – You’re Alive! to The Raccoons

Back when I was a young aspiring singer-songwriter, my writing and producing partner at the time, Gary Dunford, and I sold CJOH Television in Ottawa on the idea of a homegrown syndicated variety series. The show was called "Bang, Bang – You’re Alive!" and the host…was me! Seriously! lol!

Somehow, we were fortunate to attract a great, well-known director/executive producer, Jörn Winther, and through him an incredible line-up of famous guest stars at that time. They included Melissa Manchester, The Bay City Rollers, Martin Mull, Sally Kellerman, John Sebastien, Ian Tyson, Jonathan Edwards, and many more. Being the fussy (some would say anal perfectionist) audio and music person that I occasionally tend to be, I knew we needed an experienced audio guru to help put together a first-class sound production. I checked around with different musicians and studios I knew and Ed’s name came up as the young sound recording boy-wonder at the legendary Le Studio in Morin Heights Quebec. Not that far away!

Meeting Ed Stasium at Le Studio

I reached out to Ed and he generously agreed to come to Ottawa and supervise the sound for our new series. He was an amazing person and he did an extraordinary job!

Ed Stasium in his early studio days, around the time Kevin first connected with him through the Canadian music scene. Photo courtesy of Ed Stasium

Bringing The Raccoons Music to Life

Flash forward almost 10 years and Jon Stroll, my music partner on The Raccoons, and I were contemplating a possible music release for the songs from The Raccoons series. We had recorded the songs in Ottawa, Toronto, and New York and they were quite diverse in style and sound. We really needed an individual with the range of musical taste and talent to pull it all together. A superstar mixing engineer! We immediately thought of Ed Stasium. Ed had by now become a “real” superstar producer and mixing engineer. I have kept in touch with Ed all these years – who is still busy producing and mixing great music.

Decades later, Ed Stasium remains one of music’s most respected producers and mixing engineers. Photo Courtesy of Ed Stasium

And so, I reached out to him for his input on this blog:

Mixing Evergreen Nights and Run With Us

“I met Kevin Gillis and Jon Stroll in 1976 when I was a staff engineer at Le Studio Morin Heights in Quebec. I was contracted to be the audio consultant on Kevin’s television series, ‘Bang Bang, You’re Alive’. Several years later, while living in Manhattan Kevin tracked me down to mix the Soundtrack LP for his successful CBC series “The Raccoons’. It was a very enjoyable experience, the standout track being the song ‘Run With Us’ which is now making a comeback 40 years later! My memories of the sessions are a bit cloudy after all of these years as I’ve worked on a countless amount of songs since then, but I do recall that Jon was very particular about the balance on the backing vocal performances. On every song he would request to ’Solo’ the vocals and have me fine tune the various harmonies to his liking. What a great time it was!”.

Ed Stasium with The Ramones — one of many iconic artists he worked with throughout his career. Photo Courtesy of Ed Stasium

Why The Music Still Resonates 40 Years Later

Ed has a great memory! I totally recall that and also Ed’s incredible ability to tune out everything around him as he would go over and over (for hours at a time!), the drums one by one for each song - fine tuning their sound and timbre and synching them precisely to the bass guitar. He has the We mixed that album at Sigma Sound in New York – it was a joy for Jon and I to see and hear Ed bring our songs to a level that has sustained all these years!

Thanks Ed – you are a superstar and a great friend!

Kevin