Natural Born Brain Surgeons

bIG tHING! 

We were approached by an a&r newsletter, you know the kind that says label A is looking for artists. Fair enough, we are always interested to hear from new people, so we agreed to have them include our little thang. We did get quite a few replies, some of them interesting, some less so. Then I got to thinking…

Everyone I know is always looking for the next big thing. That we should separately mention that “oh yes, we are looking” is a bit blah…. that we should or even could specify what we are looking for is doubly blah…. how the hell do I know what kind of artists we are looking for? Good ones preferably.

Obviously, given our background it’s unlikely that we’ll get tremendously excited by some grime artist or an experimental flautist playing jazz instrumentals.

So, we said we’re looking for young guitar bands, indie bands. But, hey, let’s be controversial: that’s not an invitation for every band that fits the description to send in their music.

Indeed, many of the artists that sent stuff through from this particular newsletter were premature in putting forward their projects. Almost everyone’s got potential. And those who have it should take their project beyond a “potentially good” stage before approaching the business. Information is a good thing and to spread it about is even better. But, newsletters that encourage artists to approach a&r are just adding to the cacophony of mediocrity that is filling inboxes everywhere in the world.

Just the other day we lunched with the head of music of a well known radio station. Even he was saying that the trouble with the world these days is that because there are so many artists putting out records on so many labels, it is very difficult for media outlets to decide which projects to back. One of the a&r guys at a major label was saying the same thing. Only he looked kind of panicked because he had no idea what band to sign.

I had a couple in mind, but modesty prevented me from suggesting either of them.

The digital revolution has brought with it an overdemocratization, should such a thing or word even exist! What I mean by that is that too many people are having a go.

My favourite description of the kind of act an a&r person would like to sign came from one speaking on a panel at a conference some seasons ago: “I’d like to sign great artists that make records that sell lots of copies in many territories.”

No shit.

My favourite description of what the raison d’etre for an artist is: “a plausible mission for artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit.” I didn’t think that one up. Kurt Vonnegut did. So it goes. http://www.vonnegut.com/

Hits Only!

We, in turn, subscribe to a couple of songwriter newsletters. They tell songwriters which artists are looking for songs, give a brief of what kind of song is being sought. Some briefs are very specific. They say things like “we want electro/rock with big soaring choruses with memorable hookline and lyrics that feature ideas like strong, majestic, adventurous; strong riffs, can be danceable, 85% programmed drums, 15% live guitars”

A couple of questions:

If 15% of the guitars are live, how do the other 85% of the guitars appear on the track?

Or, do you mean that out of everything that is audible, 15% has to be live guitars? If so, how does one calculate it?

Which 85% of the drums do you want programmed? The hi-hats? Bass drum?

Once we have navigated our way through this minefield of questions, we send in our demos and hope for the best - along with a million other songwriting hopefuls. Sometimes we get a cut, most times we just add to the aforementioned cacophony.

Writing songs for other artists is hard work. No one needs pretty good, pretty strong songs. Most people can write them on their own. When you’re a jobbing songwriter you gotta come up with “top drawer singles, hits only”.

The cool news is that we hooked up with our very dear old friend Ian Curnow to write something that perhaps would fit the description above or others like it AND be a hit record. Ian used to work at PWL as a producer. PWL were, of course, the pop powerhouse of the 80s with Kylie, Jason Donovan, Rick Astley, Sinitta, Sonya and a host of others on their roster. When Mat and I moved to London in the early 90s, Ian and his then partner Phil Harding were working out of Strongroom studios as a production team in their own right with massive success with E17 and others. We set up shop with them. Learned a helluva lot. You could say that Ian and Phil were our early mentors. It’s great to reconnect with Ian now to find a new phase in our collective careers.

It was with a certain amount deja vu that we learned that Ian shares a room at Strongroom Studios with the near legendary Tony Platt (no, he is not the guy who missed that big penalty in that footie competition ages ago, when England still pretended to rule the waves…). Good ol’ Old Street and surrounds. I will tell you this for nothing, the area ain’t what it used to be…. progress has been made.

If I’m not mistaked Ian has a degree from the Royal College Of Music. He studied french horn or something like that. He is a wonderfully gifted musician with a superb knowledge of the nuts and bolts of music. There is some serious talent, skill and application at work there.

Production Magic!

Speaking of producers, the legendary John Leckie spoke at a seminar we attended quite a while back. He spoke about how musicians these days don’t know how to play their instruments. And have little desire, it would appear, to want to learn. At the same seminar, the very legendary Nile Rodgers said pretty much the same thing. In addition to being an uber producer in the 80s, he was the guitar player in the disco era band Chic. Everyone knows the song Freak Out! He was saying that back in his day, they were shit hot players by the time record deals etc. were being discussed. Now when a record company sends him a demo of a new band they want him to produce, his reaction is often “YOU got a record deal…?” (Inject serious amount of disbelief in tone)

Maybe these old codgers are onto something. Goddammit! When was the last time we were working with a band whose guitar player was better than me? Seriously. Mat, who started out as a drummer in his teens, then gave up on the instrument for years, and recently bought a drum kit for the studio, is now, after a few months’ sporadic practice, a better drummer than most drummers in up and coming bands.

How fucked up is that?

 And just how did this happen on the left??

Nile Rodgers, incidentally, was a superbly motivational speaker. He had a great line about producing records: it’s the process of organising mistakes, he said. As in, musicians get together in the studio and start creating, make mistakes that sound great. A producer is on hand to help organise those mistakes into coherent pieces of music. What a wonderful idea! Of course, in order for a musician to be able to be creative and expressive with their chosen instrument, they have to know how to play it. In order for creative mistakes to occur in the studio, those wielding their axes must be able to wing it with panache and fearlessness.

The complete opposite is true so many times. Musicians come in and resist every encouragement to try out new things, new approaches.

Band goes: “That’s not how we’ve done it before!”

Producer goes: “And just how successful has that approach been for you so far?”

“Ahem.. er… yeah, but…”

“Precisely.”

Or, band comes in and says they want the live feel. You set them up to play live. Record it. Everyone listens back. That’s when it starts…. ummm, can we tighten that… autotune this…. splice that into place… sound replace and beat detect this… protool everything to death.

Some of my favourite records speed up and slow down, things are out of tune and out of whack  here and there. But I can’t help thinking that it sounds great. It’s got feel. It’s got emotion. It’s got attitude. It comes from a place that can’t be described.  And it takes you on a journey.

Surely, that is what music is all about.

And let me let you in on a secret: becoming great at doing that is all about the hours of practise you put in. There are no natural born musicians, just as there are no natural born brain surgeons.

Rock!

V.

This entry was posted on 23/06/2008 at 04:34 pm and is filed under News At Zen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.