Nicolas Launay (born 5 March 1960) is an English record producer, composer and recording engineer, currently residing in Los Angeles, California. He has produced albums by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Anna Calvi, Idles, Blue October, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Arcade Fire. Noted for his flamboyant style, he is among the most successful producers of the post-punk era, helming records from pivotal acts including Public Image Ltd, Gang of Four, Killing Joke, The Birthday Party, and The Slits.
Launay is known primarily for his passionate approach to recording with emphasis on raw sounds and capturing mood. Some of the artists he has worked with include: Kate Bush, Talking Heads, David Byrne, INXS, Models, Midnight Oil, Grinderman, Lou Reed, The Veils, Anna Calvi, Supergrass, The Living End, Band of Skulls, Silverchair and IDLES. He lives in Hollywood, United States and travels to London frequently. More recent work includes producing Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Mosquito, It's Blitz!, mixing Arcade Fire's Neon Bible and The Suburbs, producing and recording Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' Push the Sky Away, Skeleton Tree along with Grinderman and Grinderman 2, We Mean It, Man! by Gogol Bordello, and Cartoon Darkness by Amyl and the Sniffers.
He is also known for setting trends by finding lesser known recording studios in the world and making them popular. In 2012, he encouraged Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds to record what became the Push the Sky Away album at a little-known studio in France called La Fabrique. At the time, no foreign band had worked there. Since then Morrissey, Radiohead, and Foals have all followed suit. Similarly with La Frette studios he produced Skeleton Tree and then recommended it to Arctic Monkeys via Domino Recording Company owner Laurence Bell. Alex Turner now records all his projects there, and others have followed.
Biography Background The son of French author André Launay and fashion model Eve Launay, he was born in London, England and moved with his family to the village of Frigiliana in Spain at age eight, where his parents adopted a bohemian lifestyle. The family returned to England in 1976, where Launay developed a love of punk rock.
Career In 1978, he began working at Tape One studios on Tottenham Court Road, where he was trained to edit hit songs for K-tel Top 20 compilation albums, reducing their length to 2½ minutes in order to fit 20 songs on one album. He recalled: "The trick was to keep all the good bits that people would recognize."
According to his website, Launay was late at work one night "frantically editing and reconstructing an experimental version of "Pop Muzik" by UK pop band M, for his own amusement, when he was visited by respected mastering engineer Denis Blackham." Blackham was so impressed with the new extended version, he played it the next day to M's Robin Scott. Launay says his version was released as a 12-inch single and became a Top 10 hit in the UK and other countries.
In 1980, Launay moved to Virgin Records' Townhouse studios, where he worked as an assistant engineer on albums including The Jam’s Sound Affects and XTC's Black Sea, assisting producers John Leckie, Tony Visconti, Steve Lillywhite and Hugh Padgham.
In 1981, as the most junior member assistant engineer, he was conscripted to work on a Public Image Ltd recording session for a single, "Home is Where the Heart is". In a PiL fan site interview Launay recalled:
Days later Launay was told PiL wanted him to mix a new song they had worked on. He was asked by the Townhouse manager whether he had done a mix before. "I remember lying and saying, Yes of course I have," he said. "She told me I would have to work alone, as no other assistant would do it. Once again I couldn't believe my luck."
Launay co-produced the band's The Flowers of Romance album (1981), which brought praise for its sonic oddities and prompted other bands including Killing Joke, The Slits, The Birthday Party and Gang of Four to collaborate with him in the studio.
He worked for two months as engineer on Kate Bush’s self-produced The Dreaming (1982), about which he remembers:
He worked with producer Colin Newman of Wire on the Virgin Prunes' If I Die I Die (1982) before securing his first major production role on the fifth album by Midnight Oil, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (1982).
Production technique Asked in the Mix interview for his formula for making a record, he said he usually went into rehearsals for about two weeks, experimenting with songs and arranging them in different ways, but with "strong, solid ideas" about how the songs should be arranged. After about two weeks' work, he enters the studio with the band:
Production credits
1980: "Heart of Darkness" by Positive Noise 1981: "Flowers of Romance" single by Public Image Ltd 1981: The Flowers of Romance by Public Image Ltd 1981: "Follow the Leaders" single by Killing Joke 1981: What's THIS For...! by Killing Joke 1981: "To Hell with Poverty!" single by Gang of Four 1981: "Release the Bats" single by The Birthday Party 1981: "Earthbeat" single by The Slits 1982: "Empire Song" single by Killing Joke 1982: "Pagan Lovesong" by Virgin Prunes 1982: Junkyard by The Birthday Party 1982: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 by Midnight Oil 1983: Seance by The Church 1983: The Pleasure of Your Company by Models 1983: Grapes of Wrath by Spear of Destiny 1984: Red Sails in the Sunset by Midnight Oil 1984: The Swing by INXS 1985: Big Canoe by Tim Finn 1985: Out of Mind, Out of Sight by Models 1985: Over the Rainbow by Virgin Prunes 1985: Waiting for the Floods by The Armoury Show 1988: Bonk by Big Pig 1990: Code Blue by Icehouse 1991: Honeychild (album) by Jenny Morris 1992: Sand in the Vaseline: Popular Favorites by Talking Heads "Popsicle", "Gangster of Love", "Lifetime Piling Up" 1992: Uh-Oh by David Byrne 1993: Earth and Sun and Moon by Midnight Oil 1994: Peach by The Lupins 1995: Example by For Squirrels 1996: Amazing Disgrace by The Posies 1997: Freak Show by Silverchair 1997: Transmitter by Automatic 1997: Never Bet the Devil Your Head by Subrosa 1998: Feeling Strangely Fine by Semisonic 1998: Freak*on*ica by Girls Against Boys 1998: Vicious Precious (EP) by Primary 1999: Neon Ballroom by Silverchair 1999: Chronicle Kings by Earth to Andy 2000: Consent to Treatment by Blue October 2000: Stereodreamscene by Deckard 2001: Roll On by The Living End 2002: Androgynous Jesus by Must 2003: Nocturama by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 2003: The Art of Losing by American Hi-Fi 2004: Aiming for Your Head by Betchadupa 2004: Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 2006: Nux Vomica by The Veils 2006: State of Emergency by The Living End 2007: Young Modern by Silverchair 2007: Grinderman by Grinderman 2007: Welcome the Night by The Ataris 2007: Is Is by Yeah Yeah Yeahs 2008: Diamond Hoo Ha by Supergrass 2008: Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 2009: It's Blitz! by Yeah Yeah Yeahs 2009: Quicken the Heart by Maxïmo Park 2009: Ignore the Ignorant by The Cribs 2010: Grinderman 2 by Grinderman 2011: Ornaments from the Silver Arcade by Young Knives 2013: Push the Sky Away by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds 2013: Mosquito by Yeah Yeah Yeahs 2014: Himalayan by Band of Skulls 2015: Coming Forth by Day by Cassandra Wilson 2015: Freedom by Refused 2016: Skeleton Tree by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds 2018: Wrong Creatures by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club 2018: Hunter by Anna Calvi 2018: Joy as an act of resistance by IDLES 2019: Scatter the Rats by L7 2019: Ride Again by Shakespeare's Sister 2019: Devour You by Starcrawler 2024 Cartoon Darkness by Amyl and the Sniffers 2026 We Mean It, Man! by Gogol Bordello
Mix/Recording credits
1981: The Dreaming by Kate Bush 1981: Face Value by Phil Collins 1985: Behind the Sun by Eric Clapton 1990: Suicide Blonde 12" by INXS 2004: A Song Is a City by Eskimo Joe 2005: Animal Serenade by Lou Reed 2007: Neon Bible by Arcade Fire 2008: Twenty One by Mystery Jets 2010: The Suburbs by Arcade Fire 2018: Joy as an Act of Resistance by IDLES 2019: Peek by CRX 2021: Comfort To Me by Amyl and the Sniffers
Filmography Plush (2013)
Awards ARIA Music Awards The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987.
! |- |1997 | Nick Launay for Freak Show by Silverchair | Producer of the Year
|1998 | Nick Launay for "The Door" by Silverchair | Engineer of the Year
|rowspan="2"|1999 |rowspan="2"| Nick Launay for "Supposed to Be Here", "24000", "This Is the Sound" and "Come to Take You Home" by Primary and Neon Ballroom by Silverchair | Producer of the Year | |rowspan="2"| |- | Engineer of the Year
|rowspan="2"|2001 |rowspan="2"| Nick Launay for Roll On by The Living End | Producer of the Year | |rowspan="2"| |- | Engineer of the Year
|rowspan="2"|2006 |rowspan="2"| Nick Launay for State of Emergency by The Living End | Producer of the Year | |rowspan="2"| |- | Engineer of the Year
References
External links Official site Interview, HitQuarters Nov 2009