Larry Crane, the long-time friend of the late singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, has revealed he has been receiving objections from fans over his decision to oversee the re-mastering of Elliott Smith’s 1994 solo debut ‘Roman Candle‘.
Speaking to Spinner, Crane insited he shared the fans’ reservations when he first took on the project: “My first thought was, ‘Am I doing the right thing?'” he said. “I said to my girlfriend, ‘My God, should I be doing this?’ She said, ‘Are you making it sound better?’ I said, ‘I guess’. She said, ‘How can that be wrong?'”
However, it seems some fans feel the record should be left alone: “I’m getting (complaints) on message-boards for something nobody’s heard,” he continued. “Some people are like, ‘Oh my God, how can you do that?’ I’m not smashing it and flatlining it like a Metallica record.”
'Roman Candle'
‘Roman Candle‘ was released in July 1994 while Elliott Smith was still a member of the band Heatmiser. Smith first found geniune mainstream success in 1998 when he was nominated for an Oscar for his work on the soundtrack to the film ‘Good Will Hunting‘. After years of battling with drug addiction and depression, Smith tragically took his life in 2003.
Larry Crane also said he didn’t believe his work on the record could be described as a ‘remastering’, because the LP was never originally mastered: “He used really cheap mics on the record,” he explained. “Some sounds are really jarring. I was very timid at first, but the more I listened and altered the volume on those squeaks a tiny bit, the guitar playing just became more clear. I know it’s going to sound different to some people, but I cannot imagine that they’d have a problem with what we’ve done.”
The reissue is due to hit the shelves on April 6th, alongside a new version of the 2004 posthumous album ‘From a Basement On the Hill‘.