Kevin Lemoine on Mixing Green Day

Green Day’s long-time FOH Engineer Kevin Lemoine shows us why he chose a Rupert Neve Designs 5088 for Green Day’s 2021-22 Hella Mega tour. Watch the video, below.

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As soon as this thing comes up, it’s like a whole other planet. It’s unbelievable the way this thing is…throwing noise out of the speakers. It’s incredible. Hi, my name’s Kevin Lemoine. I’m the front of house mixer for Green Day for the last 21 years, and today we are in Columbus, Ohio. I’d never worked on a 5088 before this one here. And in a live setting, it’s fantastic. The amount of energy, everything you’d expect from a Rupert Neve console, it translates pretty well in a live environment. This was my idea. I live about 45 minutes from the Rupert Neve Designs compound, and have been in communication with them for a long time. Went over and have a look at this thing, had them pull it apart, see if it would be roadworthy. They did a few mods, secured the transformers, a little more tailored to road use. We integrated a server air conditioner, and I’ve got hoses that we hook up when it’s warm, that go right up into the air intake underneath the fader bank, and it cools the entire console really well. The System Engineer and Crew Chief at Eighth Day, Clark Thomas, had a road case built for it, and here we are. This console, for our show, it’s set up to where it’s just input coming straight into the preamp / EQ, straight into the channel strip, faders assigned to groups, and straight out from there. All inserts are just done remotely, and it’s all UAD x16, so there’s no external outboard gear. So the routing itself is about as straight-forward as you can get. The preamp and the EQ is…I don’t know, it’s hard to describe, but it evokes a lot more emotion. And it’s especially noticeable in the crowd. Whenever I’ve worked on digital consoles in the past, or even lesser quality analog…just the end result that’s coming out of the speakers off of this 5088 just seems to really touch people. You see tears, and you see goosebumps, and people losing their voice. I think it’s just because what the band guys are doing translates really well through this guy. It’s an incredible difference. It’s been a thrill using this, and I hope that we get to use it for a long time from here on out. This is a whole new ballgame. It’s definitely causing a ruckus.