John Vanderslice on finding beauty in imperfection
- Text by Huck HQ / Casey Jarman
- Photography by Jason Henry

#24 – John Vanderslice
John Vanderslice never saw himself staying in San Francisco long. But after eighteen years in business, his 1,700-foot warehouse recording studio on the edge of the city’s Mission District, Tiny Telephone, is still cranking out gems. Vanderslice, a critically acclaimed musician with ten solo albums under his belt, hasn’t just survived in the most expensive city in America – he’s expanded. In 2011, the wood-paneled studio ballooned into an adjacent space, and later this year, Vanderslice will open a gorgeous new sister studio across the Bay in Oakland. Bands like Spoon, Death Cab for Cutie, and Sleater-Kinney have recorded in Vanderslice’s building, but the space and its house engineers remain affordable for smaller bands, too. Vanderslice, an analogue diamond in the digital rough, talks about his role behind-the-scenes:
“Producing records is a good job. You get inside of them, and you take all that nervous energy that you’d put on your own record and throw it at someone else. You have that same feeling of release afterward. I didn’t want to give that up.
“What I’ve learned over time is that bands are afraid. Everyone is ashamed, especially singers. I know it sounds crazy, but a lot of what I do is to keep people from feeling shame: talking singers out of re-tracking stuff, or talking performers out of viewing what they’re doing as unfinished or sloppy. I think of it like make-up; you’re covering up what you see as being horrific on your face. But then the viewer sees the make-up more than the imperfections, and the make-up itself becomes really horrible. What makes a person think that pancaked make-up is better than whatever’s underneath? The fix is so much more warped and distorted than the problem. So own it. Your drummer sucks? Put your drummer out front.
“When I’m producing, I do all these automatic tricks to get to an end result. I’ll have players record under duress, or have them play with one hand literally restrained, or give them strange and ridiculous requests. ‘You have to write this piano line in forty seconds and then I’m going to start running tape.’ Then they enter into this panic mode where they can’t judge themselves or process the information – they have to fly on pure intuition. That’s when you’re truly connected to creativity. And creativity is not gamed. You can’t game it. Whatever it is, you can’t worry it into existence. You have to have some kind of connection, some kind of line to the unconscious, or you’re dead.”
This is just a short excerpt from Huck’s Fiftieth Special, a collection of fifty personal stories from fifty inspiring lives.
Grab a copy now to read all fifty stories in full. Subscribe to make sure you don’t miss another issue.
You might like

We took techno legend Chris Liberator to a virtual rave, here’s what went down
Stay acid forever — With VR experience In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats currently running at London's Barbican Centre, Simon Doherty brought the acid punk figurehead along to see what he thought, and reflect on the health of the rave scene today.
Written by: Simon Doherty

Bob Vylan top UK Hip Hop and R&B album chart one week after Glastonbury
The people said ‘Nah’ — Despite heavy criticism from politicians and media for leading chants of “death to the IDF”, as well as being dropped by their agent, the punk duo’s 2024 LP 'Humble As The Sun' has seen its purchases and streams spike.
Written by: Molly Baker

Kneecap now have 1.5 million monthly Spotify listeners
Not the story — The number has tripled from 500,000 in January, and comes after months of criticism from media and politicians as the Irish rap trio have expressed support for Palestine.
Written by: Molly Baker

In photos: The people of Glastonbury’s queer heart The NYC Downlow
Elation and family — Once a year, a meatpacking warehouse nightclub springs up in Glastonbury’s South East corner and becomes a site of pilgrimage for the festival’s LGBTQ+ scene. We met the people who make The NYC Downlow so special.
Written by: Isaac Muk

How pop music introduced queer culture to the mainstream
The Secret Public — Between the ’50s to the ’70s, pop music was populated with scene pushers from the margins. A new book by Jon Savage explores the powerful influence of LGBTQ+ folk.
Written by: Miss Rosen

Coming of age in New York’s ’70s punk heyday
I Feel Famous — Through photographs, club flyers and handwritten diary entries, Angela Jaeger’s new monograph revisits the birth of the city’s underground scene, while capturing its DIY, anti-establishment spirit.
Written by: Miss Rosen