In the course of my career as a musician, I’ve been blessed to have done things that other aspiring musicians have only dreamed of, complete with minor exposure to the national and international stage; to have had the opportunity to at least climb the foothills of that mountain. And I’ve been particularly blessed to have worked on occasion with some of the master music-mountain-climbers in the industry, those who have been at the summit and have viewed the vistas few have been fortunate to see.
This chapter of my life, for various reasons, has moved to less from the performing end of music and more deeply into the depths of music production and delivery aspects of the industry. With recent changes, a la our new post-Covid “normal”, many musicians are out of work, and those who are working are not doing so at the scale or level from before; they have been socially distanced right off of the stage. For me, I wasn’t dragged kicking and screaming off of the stage, this has been a gradual transition. I still play, but my main focus has changed.
I’ve always had an interest in music production, possessing more or less a heavy lay technical bent. This is the direction in which my interests have morphed in recent years. In the early 70s I worked at a radio station in Baltimore, the NPR affiliate station which focused on jazz, classical music, and talk. I was a board operator (often referred to as a bored operator), manning the broadcast console of a 50,000 watt radio station which played a ton of pre-recorded material.
Most of the job was similar to flying an airplane, in that it was hours of total boredom occasionally interrupted by moments of sheer terror. Some programs ran an hour or more in length. It was in those times where I had nothing to do but occasionally monitor the on-air content that I spent a lot of time in the production studio adjacent to the main control room. I worked the night shift and had the place all to myself.
That’s where it all started. So it’s a natural progression that I call on that experience and resources to move into this direction at this time.
Anyone who heads in this direction, specifically as an aspiring music producer (I hesitate to use the term “record producer”, because it has become an arcane term, and “recording producer” is a bit too unwieldy), at first thinks it’s easy. They revel in their egos over the distinction of the title, as if it automatically elevates them to a higher position. At first the tendency is to think that anything they put out is great, but it quickly pales when compared to the body of material that has come before. Many drop out because the world doesn’t “get them.” The same is true of musicians. We don’t know what we don’t know, until we do.
But one must realize that it’s all a process. A learning process. Sometimes it takes a long time to hone that sword to its sharpest and strongest through many trials by fire.
One producer with whom I had the honor to work with on and off over a couple of decades was a gentleman who I now regard as a mentor. Not in any formal way, but in the times that I worked with him I was paying very close attention to what he was doing, to learn how to produce good music. Going back over the old tapes of stuff that I had engineered and recorded over the years, some of which today I would consider embarrassing, show a clear progression in the payoff from paying attention.
The first time we worked with this particular mentor engineer/producer, whose anonymity I will protect as it is not germane to the discussion at hand (and I would request anyone who knows who I’m speaking of likewise respect his anonymity), I was engrossed not only by his recording techniques, but by the things he did outside of the studio control room.
This man has been to the summit of the highest mountains in the music industry, with direct involvement in some capacity or another of many of the greatest rock recordings of all time. Names and songs you would definitely know. I viewed him at the time as magical, because he would have our group do things together that were not music related, At the time I thought this guy’s been to the top and he knows secrets, not only electrical and acoustic in nature, but deep spiritual secrets of forbidden human knowledge that one can only obtain by previously having made that choice at the crossroads, so to speak. Occult things. I have since realized that these little games and exercises we would do at his direction outside of the studio were in fact nothing occult at all, they were all team building exercises.
He retired from the music business decades ago, but I had occasion to visit him for several hours last year. I hadn’t spoken to him for more than 30 years. When we met we talked about the view from the top, certain recording techniques, how to get the best end result, etc. He affirmed the team-building exercises we did way back when. But also we spoke of the fact that to be a top-level producer you also need to be a consummate psychologist.
The engineering producer’s job is to not only record things cleanly and make executive decisions at appropriate times to keep within budgetary and time constraints, but also, and most importantly, in the process to extract from the artist the very best they can deliver. This does not mean that the producer must coddle the divas; rather, it means that an important bond of trust must be established with the artist. And a bond based upon integrity and sometimes brutal truthfulness delivered in as diplomatic of a way as possible.
Sometimes the bond is very short term, like a one-off recording session. In others it’s a longer term circumstance, a true relationship. In those an air of mutual respect must pervade the relationship, where the producer and the artist become a long-term team. It must be this way because there is tension in any creativity; the skin must be either thick enough to accept sometimes brutal criticism and the tri-weave rope in the bond of trust must be strong enough to not snap under that creative tension.
In recording, as in life itself, some days you get the bear and others the bear gets you (or sometimes you’re the bug and sometimes you’re the windshield). In a long-term producer/artist relationship everyone understands that, and it doesn’t deter them in their quest for the “magic chord.” For a good take in a recording, the energy has to be there…sometimes the artist doesn’t have it, sometimes the producer doesn’t have it, sometimes neither one of them does. But when the energy’s there, look out! It takes perseverance and focus to catch those magic moments that make memorable recordings. And those moments are fleeting.
As with anything related to the arts, this is an undertaking of passion, not finances. The finances part can be great, for sure, but that cannot be the main motivating force. If finances come along as a result, fantastic. They do start to come along organically, however, as one becomes more proficient and in-demand.
The proficiency is developed over time, as with any endeavor. You cannot just slap a title on yourself and expect people to come beating down your doors. When you start out, you may have some basic idea of what you’re doing, but truthfully you’re really not good at it.
Gears and ears, they say. That’s what it takes to turn out a good recording. You have to have professional gear and dog-hearing. But there’s more to it than that. Like in any successful business, you have to jump in wholly and fearlessly, and be open and willing to learn your craft. Earnestly accept honest feedback, not just ego strokes. Through trial and error, you gradually start turning out stuff that you would be proud to have played on the radio or streamed on the internet on par with the mega-stars. Sometimes it takes a long time to develop those skills and a facility with vision of the end product.
And it takes honest feedback to hone those skills, which requires that thick skin. The only way you’re going to get truly honest feedback is through the relationships you have cultivated. I have said in the past, “Don’t just tell me you don’t like something, tell me why, so I don’t have to play a guessing game.” Have a brutally honest, yet not unkind, dialog. We all want the best end-product that can be had, so let’s work together to get there.
The song reigns supreme, not the ego. One of the largest challenges for the producer in working with the artist is not only to keep a laser focus on the task at hand, but to also relax and cut up in the studio when appropriate. Most importantly, to read the vibe of the moment, and know the difference. It’s part of the vision.
When we recorded the Ravyns album in LA, we would occasionally spend a whole day playing pranks and in general do anything but record music. In retrospect, what we thought was a waste of the record company’s budget, was in fact a team-building day.
Artists are not robots and creativity does not always arrive on demand. Gears and ears, yes, but also wisdom and experience of when to press the “Record” button. I’m still learning but improving my vision and learning to focus a little better every day.