Danny ‘Woodman’ Woodward has picked up a variety of names and pseudonyms in the past 7 years. Most of them include the word ‘wood’; the majority are not too demeaning.

Since graduating from the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts in 2003 with a Sound Technology degree Danny has been a professional sound engineer working in recordingstudios and live sound reinforcement.

“I love the exhilaration and instant satisfaction that you get from doing a great live show but also the creativity and fun you can have in the studio”

A lot of his earlier career was spent touring the UK and Europe with bands like Hot Club de Paris and The Hot Melts. During these years Danny Started to record local bands and honing his experience of recording of live gigs.

Further tours of UK and Europe and a strange week in India gained Danny valuable live sound experience that ranged from tiny basements and front room gigs to stadiums and arenas. The most recent tour was supporting Linkin Parks lead singer Chester Bennington on his new project Dead by Sunrise.

“Doing such huge shows and some very exciting gigs I was finding that although I loved it my creative side wasn’t getting much of a work out. That’s when I decided to do a lot more recording and working with bands in studios.”

By doing recordings in various studios, churches and houses with many as many bands as possible Danny’s creative and recording experience has increased massively.

‘Setting up and getting used to the challenges of working in lots of different spaces was exciting it helped me learn a lot about room acoustics and mic placements. It gave me a chance to experiment (sometimes not though choice) and I got some really great results from the most bizarre circumstances.’

The first release gave birth to the woodman name as the band got Danny’s name wrong citing Dan Woodman as the engineer. The next few were a little more successful with a single recorded for local legendary band Ambulance (Not the same Boy) and an album with the godfathers of the Bandwagon scene Tramp Attack (Call in Sick).

From there on Danny has recorded many other Liverpool acts, some highlights being Hot Club de Paris, The Hot Melts, Indica Ritual and many other great bands.

His recording skills have since taken him further a field, engineering on the latest Ladytron Album (velocifero) in Paris and more recently co-producing and recording the Delta Fiasco album (Blood  will have Blood) in LA. As well as mixing a Ladytrons only live album ‘Live at Astoria’.

Whilst gaining recording skills he has also taken to record production.

“I’ve always been most interested in record production, I love trying to work out why some songs are genius when others don’t quite work. Working in the studio and having years of working live gigs I’ve heard a lot of music and can pick up on the great ideas bands and artists have.’

Depending on the bands sense of direction and experience I am happy to take a producer role but I see myself as more of a co-producer.

I don’t write the songs and see my role as getting what the artist hears in their head to come out of the speakers. That could be down to song arrangement, engineering/sound choices, writing parts for songs or just keeping the session running smoothly and with a sense of fun and excitement”.

On Whitewood Recording Studio

Danny and Rob Whiteley set up Whitewood Recording Studio in October of 2008.

“Working in various studios around the area myself and Rob were finding that no studio fitted the way we like to work. There would always be something that didn’t quite suit or less than ideal, the better run ones were too expensive to hire for the length of time we needed for the budgets we would often work with.

We have built the studio with our experiences in mind to hopefully make something that is unique in Liverpool and even much further a field. We believe we have created a great sounding live room with great and interesting gear and is affordable.”

The Large control room is a comfortable place to work and the overall feel from the studio is relaxing but professional. Many of our clients return to do further work, which we think is great testament to the studio and the work we have produced.