Arctic Monkeys’ debut album at 20: ‘Alex Turner told the most amazing stories with his lyrics’

Few UK bands can lay claim to surfing the zeitgeist to huge success. The Beatles undeniably led a cultural revolution in the sixties, while Oasis and Blur powered Britpop to the very top of the national conversation in the mid-nineties. Just over a decade after the latter came Sheffield’s Arctic Monkeys, who capitalised on an unstoppable wave of hype — powered by their frenzied, sold-out gigs and widely shared online demos — with the release of their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not in January 2006.

‘There were loads of guitar bands around at that time, but [Arctic Monkeys frontman] Alex Turner just told the most amazing stories with his lyrics,’ the album’s producer Jim Abbiss tells M 20 years on. ‘For a young guy, just turned 18, to put all these references into their songs was so impressive, and I loved it. Alex was almost like this really creative rapper singing over a band. Arctic Monkeys had such an energy… it’s easy to see why they stood out.’

Completed by guitarist Jamie Cook, drummer Matt Helders and since-departed bassist Andy Nicholson, the four-piece had signed to Domino Records in June 2005 with anticipation at fever pitch. But they more than delivered: as well as scoring two UK number one singles (I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor and When the Sun Goes Down) and their first BRIT awards (British Breakthrough Act in 2006; British Group and British Album of the Year in 2007), Whatever… became the UK’s fastest-selling debut LP as it immediately raced to the top of the albums chart. Glastonbury headline slots, more big award wins and a further six albums have all followed in the 20 years since, cementing Arctic Monkeys as one of UK guitar music’s biggest success stories.

Rewinding two decades, though, Jim recalls time being of the essence after he was hired to produce Whatever….

‘We only had 15 days together to record the album, which is an insanely short amount of time,’ he tells M. ‘It was like going back to a recording approach from the sixties — it definitely wasn’t popular back then. Most bands had started embracing these increasingly elaborate recording methods, but we decided to record live as much as possible. Getting them in a room together to play just felt like the best way to capture their energy.’

'Arctic Monkeys had such an energy… it’s easy to see why they stood out.'

A longstanding music lover who would look beyond the album artwork to check out the studio personnel behind a release, Jim admits that while he always knew he wanted to work in music, ‘I wasn’t destined for the stage’.

‘I ended up moving to London in the pre-acid house days, which was a really exciting time,’ he remembers about the origins of his career. ‘I initially got a “tea boy” job at Power Plant Studios, and the first album I worked on there was by Terence Trent D’arby [now known as Sananda Maitreya]. There was some amazing music happening [there]: Bomb the Bass would come in, and Neneh Cherry worked there.’

Jim steadily made a name for himself in the studio over the coming years, securing engineering work on records such as Björk’s Debut, Massive Attack’s Protection and the soundtrack album to Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. As he moved more into production, Jim found himself in studios with the likes of Kasabian, Editors and Suede.

‘With Kasabian, their label liked my mixes of their songs, so I met the band and we just got on well,’ Jim explains. ‘I started to get more involved in recording parts together, and it grew into working on a whole album [their 2004 self-titled debut] as a kind of co-production. It was a very natural process all round.’

'I was blown away after seeing them play live — we started work in the studio the next day.'

His first interaction with Arctic Monkeys came through work he’d done with Clearlake, their labelmates at Domino. Label boss Laurence Bell liked the sound Jim had honed for the latter, and asked him in mid-2005 to mix a couple of tracks for his exciting new signings.

‘Laurence was quite guarded about [Arctic Monkeys],’ Jim recalls. ‘He eventually came back to me and said the mixes weren’t quite right. Their original demos had this amazing rawness and energy, but sounded a bit small and thin. While these newer recordings sounded much better, the band’s takes were a little lacking. He asked if I could marry the two by getting them back in the studio.’

Intrigued by the offer, Jim travelled up to famed Sheffield pub The Grapes to watch the band in action: ‘A lot of the noise around Arctic Monkeys was about their live shows, and I needed to see them live myself before committing to how to record them. They put on a gig upstairs at The Grapes, which I drove up to after returning from a holiday. I was blown away by them, and we started work in the studio the next day.’

Decamping to Chapel Studios in rural Lincolnshire, this 'isolated' choice of location enabled the band to shun 'all the media stuff that was building up around them,' as Jim explains: 'If we’d recorded in London, there would have been loads more distractions.'

‘We’d only met each other for the first time at that Grapes gig,' he continues. 'They were a little bit awkward at first: they were like a little gang, and couldn’t understand why the label didn’t just love everything they’d already recorded. My aim was to make the process as relaxed as possible. After we’d nailed a few songs, they seemed to enjoy it way more.’

With all 13 tracks already written (Mardy Bum, it should be noted, was recorded at Munich's Telstar Studios and produced by Alan Smyth) and a tight deadline in place, there was no time to overthink any approach. Instead, the process quickly became about recording a song a day and focusing on the job in hand.

‘Because we were in this small studio in the countryside and having to work so quickly, there wasn’t any sense of wanting to over-analyse or complicate things,’ Jim says. ‘We were in our own little world and just got on with the songs. The time limitations, ironically, worked in our favour.

‘We got on a roll: we’d record a new song by the evening, then [engineer] Ewan Davies and I would go through the takes and put our favourite bits together. We’d then work out what to do the next day: it might be an overdub or a little repair, then Alex would sing [his parts] in the afternoon. Being so busy, we just switched off from the outside world.’

'My aim as producer was to make the process as relaxed as possible. After we’d nailed a few songs, the band seemed to enjoy it way more.’

Alex’s lyrics across Whatever… drew largely from his late teenage years growing up in Sheffield, telling vivid and captivating stories of the debauched characters, plucky chancers and chaotic scenes he’d regularly witness on nights out in the city. With album closer A Certain Romance encapsulating that narrative, he elected to change the band’s recording approach.

‘A Certain Romance was the last song we recorded,’ Jim recalls. ‘We’d done as much live [recording] as we could, and by this point the guys seemed really confident in their performances. Alex suggested that we do this last song, including his vocal, completely live. I agreed, but it was our last studio day together so there was quite a lot of extra pressure. But the song was special to him — it captures this moment in his life. He was also keen for [the recording] to be fragile and keep in any mistakes, which seemed to be incredibly mature for an artist of his age.

‘We did a run-through of a few bars, then they went for it. It was pin-drop amazing and is what’s on the final record. That kind of magic has only happened a few times in my career, and he really nailed what is a beautiful song.’

'The kind of magic we had recording A Certain Romance has only happened a few times in my career.'

Domino were delighted with the results, with Jim and engineer Simon 'Barny' Barnicott subsequently mixing the tracks at London’s Olympic Studios: ‘We used this very old EMI mixing desk, similar to what was used on The Beatles’ Abbey Road. It’s a little desk with only 18 channels. We mixed it manually with no computer automation, meaning each song was mixed in a couple of hours. Again, that was against the trend as those were the days when everyone used automated SSL mixing. That old EMI desk definitely gave the sound a different character.’

Released on 23 January 2006, Whatever… went straight to number one in the UK after selling over 363,000 copies in its first week. Despite their successful team-up, Jim only recorded with Arctic Monkeys once more on their non-album single Leave Before the Lights Come On. But the producer, who notably went on to co-produce Adele’s 19 and 21 albums, still looks back with great fondness on his role in Whatever….

‘Making Whatever… was a reminder of how you can create something amazing in a short space of time,' Jim reflects. 'We worked killer hours, barely sleeping, but I loved it. By the time we’d finished mixing the album, I Bet You Look Good On the Dancefloor had come out and was getting rave reviews. I’m immensely proud of how we set out and then managed to create something so live and gritty.’