As the 20th anniversary of Arctic Monkeys’ debut album approaches, one of the producers instrumental in shaping their sound has shared his reflections on working with the Sheffield band.
Released on January 23, 2006, *Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not* became the fastest-selling debut album by a British band in chart history.
Featuring hit singles like “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” and “When The Sun Goes Down,” the album sold 360,000 copies in its first week and went on to achieve worldwide sales of 2.5 million.
Alan Smythe, who co-produced the album and also mixed the band’s early demos, which later formed their debut, stated, “I’m very proud of it. I knew we were working with something very impressive. The lyrics are astounding – don’t forget they were 17.”
“They were everything you’d expect: very excitable, really good fun to be around, very funny, witty, charming, annoying. Exactly as you’d imagine for kids at that age,” he recalled.
Smythe, who had previously collaborated with Pulp, another prominent Sheffield band, initially compiled 18 tracks by Arctic Monkeys that comprised their *Beneath the Boardwalk* collection of demos, which the band distributed at their performances.
He remembers witnessing the band perform at an early gig at The Boardwalk in Sheffield in 2003.
“They did about eight or nine songs, four of which were their own,” he recounted.
“But it’s the quality between their own songs and other people’s songs. There was something immediate for me.”
Lead singer Alex Turner had previously approached Smythe about a potential collaboration, having met the producer at his 2Fly studio on John Street in Sheffield city center.
Smythe recounted: “John McClure, who went on to form Reverend and the Makers, was in a band called Judan Suki, who I used to produce.
“Alex Turner and Matt Helders were in that band, too. Alex was the guitarist and Matt was doing bongos and percussion.
“During one session, Alex popped himself into the little control room that I had at that studio and said, ‘Alan, we’ve got another band that we’re in called Arctic Monkeys’.”
According to Smythe, Turner’s new band recorded everything “at a pace.”
“We had to work fast. You’re talking about kids who had no money, so we did four songs every two days,” he said.
Smythe explained that one of his techniques to ensure the band played in time and “tight” was to employ a click track for the first minute of each song.
“It was a timing reference point. There’s a tendency when bands are wearing headphones to not be quite as akin with everyone else in the room,” he stated.
“It kind of locked the song down, because they had a tendency to just start accelerating a bit.”
Following their work with Smythe in Sheffield, the band recorded the remainder of the album over a two-week period at Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire, with producer Jim Abbiss tasked with capturing their raw energy in late 2005.
Smythe emphasized that replicating the band’s live sound was consistently the most significant challenge.
“Jim kept on coming back to 2Fly and he kept saying, ‘how did you do this? How did you make it sound so alive?’,” he recalled.
On the Sunday night preceding the album launch, an unofficial album launch took place at the Leadmill in Sheffield.
Arctic Monkeys were supported by local acts Milburn, Harrisons, and Reverend and the Makers.
According to Omar Solliman, a student at the time and now a writer documenting the band’s history, the gig was “rammed all night from seven all the way until midnight.”
“It was so full on, you couldn’t move. It felt like such a celebration for the Sheffield scene,” he said.
The HMV store on Fargate in Sheffield opened at midnight to provide the band’s most dedicated fans with the opportunity to purchase the album early.
Arctic Monkeys headlined Glastonbury for the first time in 2007 and subsequently performed on the Pyramid Stage at the festival twice more, in 2013 and 2023.
To date, the band has released seven additional albums, achieving total worldwide album sales of over eight million.
Back in their hometown, Smythe’s 2 Fly studio has relocated from John Street to a new facility on Bailey Road, near the University of Sheffield.
Smythe stated that he continues to collaborate with young local bands and still enjoys listening to the early Arctic Monkeys recordings.
“The songwriting is great and you can’t really go wrong with good songs,” he said.
“The way Alex sings over the top and plays his guitar at the same time, I don’t know how he does that.
“I’m a guitarist and I play, but I can’t do what he does on that album.”
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