Originally introduced to the band as a sound engineer for Aha Shake, Jacquire King was specifically chosen to capture what he does best, live performance-based sound.
“He is a really cool guy,” says Followill. “He is laid back and lives in Tennessee which made us like him right off the bat. I still remember those sessions for Aha Shake so clearly. We were in the studio early on and Jacquire got a Fed Ex package. Now anytime somebody gets a package your natural curious instinct wants to know what it is. We were like, ‘Let’s see what it is.’ Instead of opening it he put it up on the shelf behind him and left it sitting there all day long. By the end of the day we were all dying with suspense, like ‘Fuck it already, open the stupid package.’ He knew the whole time what was in there, he was just letting it eat away at us.
“Turns out,” Followill finally shares, “it was a Grammy that he won after working on a Buddy Guy recording. Jacquire, in a no fireworks manner, said ‘Oh, a Grammy’ and then put it back in the box and just kept on working.
“What a fucking asshole,” exclaims Followill as a burst of laughter falls over the conversation. “When Jacquire King touches our records they sound amazing. Still to this very day I think sonically Aha Shake is my favorite sounding record. He is big on getting good drum sounds and I’m a drummer, so naturally…”
Jacquire King is indeed a fine man and after an absence on Because Of The Times he returned to the Kings for the Only By The Night sessions back home in Nashville.
“Part of what happened is over the course of their four records they began with a production aesthetic that was very simple. It was straight performance-based, and it was live,” says Jacquire King. “By the third record the band had grown and wanted to experiment more with production. They wanted to take a little bit more time in the studio. They wanted to have an opportunity to layer on some things and do some editing of arrangements after the recording. The role of the studio was changing as well. It became more than just a place to document, it became a place to experiment.
