Remember When a Phil Collins Single Introduced One of the Most Distinctive Sounds of the Decade in 1981?

The 80s developed a distinct musical identity from all that came before that decade. Several specific sounds were distinctly distinguished during that time period. Musicians and producers returned so much to these sounds that they almost became cliched.

Perhaps no sound epitomized the decade like the drum sound made most popular by Phil Collins. He utilized it on a hit single in 1981, ensuring that many more would copy his success.

Dazzling Drums

Gated reverb is the technical term for what Phil Collins utilized to great effect on both his solo records and his work with Genesis. While other artists and producers started to bring this explosive drum sound to light in the late 70s, Collins boosted it to the mainstream with the 1981 single “In The Air Tonight”.

But how did Collins arrive at the sound? He was helping his former Genesis bandmate Peter Gabriel on his third solo album, which was self-titled like the first two. Collins was playing drums, and Hugh Padgham was in the control room producing.

At one point, Padgham opened up a talkback channel to speak to Collins. Collins didn’t know it at the time and started playing the drums. Padgham and everyone in the control room heard an explosion unlike any other drum sound they’d previously experienced come through the talk-back monitor. If they could harness it, they’d have something special.

Storming the “Gates”

Padgham had an engineer create a new channel on the board by which that particular drum sound could be recorded. He also took it one step further. To create an effect by which the drum sound would come booming out but then quickly cut off, he added an aural “gate.” Hence, the term “gated reverb.”

Gabriel used it on the song “Intruder”, which led off that album. Note that you don’t hear any cymbals in the song. That’s because the principals realized that the cymbals created distortion when the gated reverb effect was attempted.

When Gabriel’s album was released, he was still more of a cult artist than the pop star he’d become. Phil Collins, meanwhile, was just starting to come into his own as the lead singer of Genesis in Gabriel’s absence. And he was also thinking about a solo project to get some of the tortured feelings about his divorce off his chest.

“Air” Collins

When Collins made the album Face Value, he brought along Hugh Padgham to help him produce it. The pair wanted to utilize the fantastic sound they’d recently discovered. Only they wanted to make sure to use it in moderation.

“In The Air Tonight”, written by Collins as a kind of allegory about his feelings of mistrust and hurt in the wake of his separation, seemed like the perfect track for the strategy. It was moody, featuring cold, eerie synthesizers as Collins sang a bluesy melody.

Most of the song goes by at a low boil. But as Collins moves into the chorus late in the song, the gated reverb effect is used as he pounds away at his kit. The release of all the tension that had been building up makes for an indelible musical moment.

“In The Air Tonight” turned into a somewhat unlikely hit single, considering Collins was far from a high-profile star at the time. It was the first time that many folks had ever heard the gated reverb drum sound. Thanks to how skillfully it was deployed, it would be far from the last.

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