Dieter Dierks is one of those credit-line names that changes the temperature in the room. I see it, and I already expect the sound to come out glossy and slightly smugâin a good way, most of the time.
Before the big, billboard-sized rock thing, he was down in that late-â60s / mid-â70s German underground swirlâkrautrock territory, the kind of sessions where âweirdâ wasnât a phase, it was the point. Stuff like early studio work with Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel. You can hear what that era taught him: how to bottle chaos without letting it turn to mush.
Then he locks in with Scorpions, mid-â70s through 1988, and suddenly the same hands that could catch the strange stuff are building arena walls. From the raw bite of âIn Tranceâ to the polished roar of âSavage Amusement,â heâs basically the guy behind the curtain making sure the knives look sharp and the hooks hit like they mean it.
In the â80s the net gets widerâStommeln studios and beyondâpulling in hard rock and metal names like Dokken, Black ân Blue, and Plasmatics. And then, in 1985, he even jumps over to the U.S. to produce Twisted Sisterâs âCome Out and Play,â because apparently his passport also had a âmake it biggerâ stamp.
My favorite detail, though? Rory Gallagher preferred recording at night at Dierksâ place. That tells you more than a paragraph of praise ever could. Some rooms just sound better after midnightâand some producers probably do too.
