The Commerce of Magic: Music Production (Part Two)

Here's part two of my notes from Jonathan Snyder's monologue on music production.

Working With People You Haven't Worked With Before
While the musicians are setting up, find out what their strengths and weaknesses are, and then the first chance you hear something played well, complement them, but whatever you do, 'Don't fake it!'

This may be hard to take for some musicians, but because music production is a business: 'Occasionally, you have to replace somebody. Your obligation is to the result, not necessarily the musician'. I guess this counts as much outside of the studio as in: Miles Davis being a pretty ruthless example.

The Necessity of the Producer
'It's hard to be the artist and the audience at the same time'. The producer also works as a bridge between the 'suits'—the record company execs—-and the musicians, who more often than not, don't speak the same language. He quotes G. K. Chesterton, 'Art is limitation. The essence of every picture is the frame.', joking that musicians just want to play, sing, and write, so it's his job to add the frame and to focus the musician's performance.

Biggest Problems for Young Musicians in the Studio
Lack of preparation. It doesn't all 'just happen' in the studio. He sounds like a killjoy at this point, but he's bound to be right: 'Party after your work ... !'

Getting Started as a Producer
'You need to have a goal and a plan to achieve that goal. It's not good enough to just say "I want to do this." … Go to a band and say, "I really like what you did and stay with that band, go and see them more often, and talk to them more openly … For a band to be successful they need to have some kind of analysis of what they do to break it down into its component parts, to figure out what defines excellence in every aspect of it and how do you get there.'

On What Motivates Jazzmen
'I've seen jazz musicians of the first rank play better when a pretty girl sits down … I guess guys will be guys. So there's no telling what's going to motivate people …'. So, if you have Pro Tools but no pretty girl, it seems like you're not going to be very successful.

Tomorrow, I'll be posting the final instalment on this producer's tips and advice.