Lee Prebble
Lee Prebble is a New Zealand recording engineer and producer, and the founder of The Surgery Studios in Wellington. He has received 19 Aotearoa Music Awards nominations, winning six for engineering and production. Prebble is known for long-term collaborations with The Black Seeds, The Phoenix Foundation, Fly My Pretties and L.A.B. He has also worked with artists such as Mel Parsons and Dave Dobbyn.
Background and early career
Prebble was born in Hawke's Bay and studied radio broadcasting in Christchurch. After a six-month internship at Marmalade Audio in Wellington, he was employed as a full-time engineer, largely recording advertisements. There he met Barnaby Weir, frontman of The Black Seeds, who was recording commercials for Radio Active. The connection led to Prebble engineering the band’s debut album, Keep On Pushing, which achieved platinum certification.Prebble began collecting studio gear and analogue equipment, much of it acquired from Radio Active when the station transitioned to digital. He mixed live performances for The Black Seeds, Trinity Roots and other Wellington bands, using reverbs, delays and other effects.
In 2001, while still at Marmalade, he worked after-hours with Trinity Roots on their debut album True, recording in the band’s basic basement studio in Newtown. During these sessions, the band nicknamed him “The Doctor” for his ability to solve technical problems and improve sound, a moniker that evolved into "Dr. Lee." As the sessions progressed, the space accumulated more of Prebble’s gear, and by the end of the project they recognised they had established a functioning recording studio, which they named The Surgery. True achieved platinum certification and Prebble toured Europe with Trinity Roots as their live mixer.
Career
2000s–2010
During the early 2000s, Prebble engineered and produced albums for artists associated with the “Wellington Sound,” most notably The Black Seeds and Trinity Roots. In 2004, Radio New Zealand described his work as “landmark local recordings.” Prebble rejected the idea of a fixed “Wellington Sound,” saying it was simply “what happens” when musicians make music they enjoy within the same environment. He attributed his success to being fortunate to work with talented and open-minded bands who shared his preference for “not too clean” sounds and “interesting tones” shaped by dub and reggae influences.Prebble subsequently left Marmalade to formally establish The Surgery Studios, expanding the basement space into a dedicated recording and rehearsal hub for Wellington musicians. His work spans genres such as roots, jazz, folk, rock, and Te Reo Māori music.
Prebble was nominated for Best Engineer at the 2004 AMAs for The Phoenix Foundation's debut album Horsepower ''. He continued to receive nominations throughout the following years, winning Best Engineer and Best Producer in 2008 for The Phoenix Foundation's Happy Ending.
In 2010, he won Best Engineer for the band's album Buffalo, which received eight nominations and won four awards. He was also nominated for Best Engineer, and for Best Producer with Barnaby Weir for Fly My Pretties: A Story .'' In its coverage of the ceremony, The [New Zealand Herald] described Prebble as a “dark aural lord of sonic magic.”
2010–present
In 2012, the original Surgery building was demolished. Prebble designed and physically built the new facility inside a former warehouse in Newtown. Barnaby Weir described the studio as ‘having the feeling somebody’s loved it and built it from the ground up,’ noting that ‘there’s a lot of personality in The Surgery."He has consistently received recognition at the AMAs, winning Best Engineer and Best Producer for The Phoenix Foundation's Fandango with Brett Stanton. In 2014, RNZ highlighted his contribution to "some of the capital's most iconic albums" of the 21st century. In 2015, he won Best Engineer for Mel Parsons' Drylands with Oliver Harmer.
Prebble is known for long-term collaborations and has worked on every major album by The Black Seeds, Trinity Roots, The Phoenix Foundation and Fly My Pretties since their debuts. Since 2017, he has worked on all six of L.A.B.'s studio albums, which have achieved multi-platinum certification, alongside 20 multi-platinum and 12 gold singles.