Students from the Los Rios Rock School in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., recently covered “Runnin’ With the Devil” at the same studio where Van Halen originally recorded the track 40 years ago. The kids attempted to copy every detail— even standing in the exact places where Van Halen members stood at the microphones all those years ago.
They looked into the archives and found a copy of how Van Halen had the studio set up, and it was recreated as closely as possible for the student’s recording,” photographer Alex Kluft noted in a press release. “Drums, amps, microphones, the console and echo chamber were set up the way that it was documented that Van Halen did it 40 years ago.”
“Right before finishing the album recording, the very last thing that we did was to record the car horn sound that … you can hear at the beginning of ‘Runnin’ With the Devil,'” Produce Like a Pro’s Warren Huart said. “It was 2AM in the parking lot when we recorded it the same way the band did. To record the car horn, we used a [microphone] outside, ran a long cable back into the studio, surrounded the mic with several cars – and at the count of three, everyone blew their horns. It was an amazing way to finish up this project and get a fun insight into what it was like to make the original record.”
