Petra's Dream Team Sound

[curt]

I agree with Preacherman that the sound was always changing. However I still think there was a quite unique Dream Team Sound that can be heard even though things changed. Well at least until they released Wake Up Call, which sounded quite different than anything they did before that. So in that way I think you can say that John and Dino Elefante had quite a lot to say when it came to sound.

So what are the caracteristics of the Dream Team Sound? Well I can think of quite a few. First of all the sound is not quite natural or realistic. If you're a musician, you probably know what I mean. A lot of it doesn't sound like something you could do on you own instrument. Remember that the drums were not real, they used fake bass at times and so on. To put it short, it's not a sound you would be able to make if you put five guys together and asked them to play. You can hear that this is partly fake, partly mixed to a level that gives it a not very natural sound. While Bob Hartman called the sound of Wake Up Call "more earthy" the sound of the other Dream Team records is "not very earthy". It's a computer-like sound, not very natural, but clean and harmonic to a very high level.

No sounds or instruments strike me as "dangerous". Not even on On Fire which is quite rocky and with some hard riffs. The guitar is not really noisy, there's no feed back, there is no disharmonic or noisy sounds that are unpleasant to your ear. It's definitely not like the more pure sounding rock records with a sound that reminds you of the sounds your own guitar makes. No matter what you think of grunge you can say that a lot of the grunge music sounds like the instruments sound when you plug them into an amp. That means there's noise, feeds, disharmonics and all the more natural things that any guitarplayer playing electric guitar knows. Listen to the drums on the song This Means War. They may be loud compared to the other sounds, but they are not "dangerous". It's not like standing in a room with real drums. It's a fake like sound, very smooth, very pleasant to many ears, but not very realistic.

Wake Up Call was quite different. It sounded more natural. It sounded more real and I believe the drums are even real? And now that we all know they used a new producer on that record, it makes it quite obvious to think that the producer means quite a lot. Of course there's no way we can know, and it can be a combination of many factors. There were trends at the time which probably also influenced a lot.

I actually liked the way David Lichens and Jim Cooper played the Dream Team stuff. In my opinion they were not as talented as Bob and John, but especially Lichens was able to take the old stuff and make it sound much more up to date by playing it in a more natural way. He used vintage guitars and more natural sounds. That was trendy at the time. But it made it sound all the more real and was an interesting "update" of the old stuff.

[Dan]

I think the dream team sound had mostly to do with the Elefante bros, this being the reason the that all the really rocking songs on OF,BB,UP are co-wrote by John & Dino with Bob, Bob does have all the lyrics on the songs but there are a heap where John E. wrote the music, this gave the songs a Def Leopard sound, which as a kid I just loved.

The Dream team had a sound that was hard to replicate in the later years I agree, I think Lichens and Cooper did a good job of keeping the sound but by the time Orta came on the scene it was all funky rock.

The closest I ever heard to the dream team was Enosh and his band play with John solo, they had the melodic rock that was created with the dream team down pat. I think if the dream team ever got back together, the Elephante Bros need to be involved in getting the sound back.

Mark Kelly is an asset to any line up of Petra vocally, he was good with Volz, and sounded great on BTTS and TMW.

I must add I am disappointed that you can't hear Mark Kelly singing at all on BTTR, he could have made the album sound even better.

John Lawry's backing vocals sound like a kangaroo being cut up alive with a chainsaw...
Ronny's Backing vocals sounded like he was being shot at with a bb gun.

I think the success to making a good record is backing vocals with John E. or Mark Kelly..

There you go my longest post.

[Shell]

Who on earth is Mutt Lange?

He's a record producer and pretty much stays away from the media, which is probably wise of him. (Mutt is a nickname, his real name is Robert). He produced some records for AC/DC, Def Leopard and the Cars and was married to singer Shania Twain. He produced some of her records too.

[brent]

Who is Mutt? Are you kidding? Ever hear of AC/DC, Def Leppard, Shania Twain and the list goes on?

[BriGuyPEI]

I put Mutt on there as kind of a joke, since the Elefantes seemed to be emulating his style quite a bit. Particularly Def Leppard's Hysteria album.

[Shell]

Not everyone really pays much attention to who produces albums. I only know who he is because I liked some of Shania Twain's music and happened to know she was married to him. He is kind of reclusive.

[Boray]

Who is Mutt? Are you kidding? Ever hear of AC/DC, Def Leppard, Shania Twain and the list goes on?

Why would I know of a foreign producer of music groups I'm not even into? I don't even know the producers of many artists I like... so...

[Muleya]

Actually, Mutt's a pretty well known producer. I got the joke and thought it was funny!

Interestingly, I just learned he was born in Zambia. I lived in Zambia for 6 years, worked with a relief and development arm of my church teaching secondary school "in the bush", as they say. Though that was the 90s...Zambia was a very different place then, from what it was in the 50s!

[rexreed]

Who is Mutt? Are you kidding? Ever hear of AC/DC, Def Leppard, Shania Twain and the list goes on?

Why would I know of a foreign producer of music groups I'm not even into? I don't even know the producers of many artists I like... so...

Good question. Why would you want to know about one of the most successful rock and roll producers in history? Why would you want to know about something outside of your bubble? Ever heard of bands like The Cars, Def Leppard, Nickelback, Bryan Adams or AC/DC ? Of course not. I am sure that there is little chance that the artists you do like were influenced by the above mentioned.

[Mountain Man]

The Elefante Bros. defined Petra's sound during the Schlitt era primarily because they called the shots in the studio. The layered, in-your-face harmonies and pounding drums is an Elefante staple.

[Boray]

Ever heard of bands like The Cars, Def Leppard, Nickelback, Bryan Adams or AC/DC ? Of course not.

I haven't even heard of them? Thanks for telling me - I didn't know that either. Good to have someone telling me what memories exists in my brain.

[Boray]

Who is Mutt? Are you kidding? Ever hear of AC/DC, Def Leppard, Shania Twain and the list goes on?

Why would I know of a foreign producer of music groups I'm not even into? I don't even know the producers of many artists I like... so...

Good question. Why would you want to know about one of the most successful rock and roll producers in history? Why would you want to know about something outside of your bubble? Ever heard of bands like The Cars, Def Leppard, Nickelback, Bryan Adams or AC/DC ? Of course not. I am sure that there is little chance that the artists you do like were influenced by the above mentioned.

Question: Does it offend you that I didn't know who that was or why the harsh words? Is it my duty to learn about american producers or whatever nationality he is? Do you for example know who is behind the Abba sound? If you don't know, should I then feel offended that you don't know about Swedish producers?

[executioner]

I think what Brent is saying is this man over the last 30 yrs has dominated the music industry in the States and UK. He has produced and co written material for anyone from AC/DC Def Leppard to Shania Twain, Maroon Five, Backstreet Boys, and Lady GaGa.

[Shell]

Folks, all he did was ask a simple question...Not everyone pays attention to who produces albums. Lighten up a little bit. There's too much tendency to judge and read too much into stuff around here.

[curt]

The Dream Team Sound strikes me as rather outdated. I'm not saying this is necessarily bad, but in some way I think it is, probably because I don't like the unnatural sound of it.

In this context I can't help but to mention Pink Floyds classic record Dark Side Of The Moon. It was released in 1973 and sounds rather modern, natural, real and impressive. It's not my favorite Floyd record, but I'm very impressed by the sound and feel of it. Most of the Floyd/Waters/Gilmour sounds are so impressive.