When they’re all out on display it looks like a Germanic invasion force. Then there’s the mic collection… did anyone say Neumann U47? Briggsy has three of this model alone, along with several pairs of KM84s, 83, 85 and 86is, 87s, 67s, KM74 and KM56 peanut valve Neumanns, a TLM170 and a host of AKGs. Briggsy still collects guitars, although strictly speaking the most recent purchase was a mandolin: “a 1918 Gibson that I just bought from a guy in Kentucky called James Brown.” Old Gibsons, Fenders, Martins, Voxes, Marshalls and Mesa Boogies abound at the Production Workshop – David’s studio of 30-odd years – the result of years touring in the US with The Little River Band. There’s also Briggsy’s fabled guitar and amp collection, which will have you choking on your tea if it’s described to you mid-sip. Briggy’s walls are literally covered with framed gold and platinum-selling albums, and I’d wager there must be others gathering dust in a back room somewhere. In the years since, he’s mixed and/or mastered more albums than just about anyone else in the country. He produced the seminal Boys Light Up album for Australian Crawl soon after, which went multi-platinum in Australia and made the members of the band household names. He enjoyed a No.1 worldwide hit with LRB with his song Lonesome Loser in 1979 (which saw him collect an ‘Advance Australia Award’ for Outstanding Contribution in Music in the same year). His knowledge base is wider than a Bob Clearmountain mix, and even more detailed.īriggsy – as I’ll call him in this article from now on – is probably best known for his career as the lead guitarist of The Little River Band, for which he was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2004, along with the rest of the band. “If it’s got buttons and lights on it I’m instantly attracted to it, and if I can pull it apart, even better.” If you want to know the facts about something, Briggsy is most often the man to ask. “I’m just a big kid with an enquiring mind,” he says of himself.
Well-known for engineering all day and reading and studying all night, Briggsy is one of the most gregarious, knowledgeable, scientific and opinionated men in the audio business. Whether the topic is songwriting, production, the science of recording, the benefits of the latest plug-ins – “I have them all” – mastering levels, down-sampling errors or bugs in DAW upgrades, ‘Briggsy’ always seems to have an educated response based on first-hand experience (and reams of documents to back it up where applicable). To me David has always been the guy with the straight answer… along with the loudest and most contagious laugh in the history of audio. David Briggs and I have been talking audio for about 20 years now, with gaps in the conversation here and there admittedly.