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Here's a list of some of the questions I am frequently asked. Before you e-mail me (although I don't mind it) look over this stuff and maybe save us both some time.
Nirvana FAQ
What projects have you worked on lately?
How did you get started as a producer, and what kind of education did you have? (Variations: "How can I get started doing what you do?" "Should I go to a recording school?" etc, etc.)
What does a producer do? (Warning: lengthy, self-serving rant.)
In that case, what does an engineer do?
What the heck is 'mastering'?
Do you have your own studio?
(updated 2007) Are you still active as a musician?
(updated 2007) How can I get you to record me/my band?
But how do you decide who you will work with? And if I do get you to record my band, how soon can we get started?
How do I get my band 'out there'? (Variation: "How can I get a deal/get signed/get someone to listen to my tape/band/songs?)
I'm about to graduate from a recording school, and I want to break into the biz. Do you ever take interns or assistants? I'll do anything, fetch coffee, whatever!
I'm coming to Seattle for a visit, and would really like to meet you. Can I buy you a beer?
I'm doing a research paper/school project on the Seattle Grunge Movement. Can you write me something about what it was like recording all those bands?
I'm doing a doctoral thesis about the Seattle Grunge Movement. Can I interview you?
I'm writing an article/preparing a documentary about Seattle/A famous band/Grunge/etc for a newspaper/magazine/radioshow/TV show. Can I interview you?
Can I send you a demo of my band just to get your opinion about it, and maybe get some advice?
Can you recommend any cool records you've heard recently?
Do you work for, or can you get me signed to, Sub Pop?
What's up with C/Z Records?
Look at the top of my production discography; whatever's on the top of the list is the latest to be released, though not necessarily the latest to be recorded. For more info, see "What's Up with Jack" or just go to my home page for a quick-loading index of this whole website.
I'm self-taught, like many recording engineers I know. If you have a basic physics/science/electronics background it helps a lot. I do have a BSEE (U of W) which is helpful but doesn't have much direct bearing on what I do now; I majored in electric power, not audio. There are a few good recording schools, but if I was you I would save all that tuition money and use it to buy some good books, an 8-track machine, a mixer, and some mics, move into a house with a sound-proofable basement, and start learning by doing it. [2004 Update: Now I'd tell you to buy a Digi002 rig and a PowerMac G5.] It also helps if you play an instrument, no matter how badly, the more the better. I started out as a drummer, then played bass a few years, then was guitarist in Skin Yard for 8 years. If you're not AROUND this stuff all the time, it's hard to know the best way to deal with each situation - drum tuning, gtr amp knob tweaking, different kinds of speakers, strings, etc: all the hardware and the physics of it. I cannot emphasize this enough. If you are not at the very least a BAD musician, you are at an extreme disadvantage. And musicians instinctively trust another musician more than some recording school grad!
Once you have the basement-recording thing down pretty good, you can start thinking of working at a real studio - but it's way better to start on your own, no matter how small-scale. NOTE THIS PLEASE: there are very few actual "JOBS" in this business. Almost everyone I know who is a fulltime recording engineer is self-employed, meaning they either work freelance like me, or they own their own studios no matter how small-time. That's just the way it is; deal with it.
Me, specifically? OK, I worked in a Naval Shipyard (PSNS, Bremerton, Wa) for a few years as a civilian Electrical Engineer (now, there was a gratifying, soul-nourishing job) and saved all my pennies, then quit and took a year off, moved into a rented mobile home in a remote rural area with my 4-track Tascam 3340-S, a 6-channel Tapco board (Greg Mackie's old company!), three mics, a drumset ('67 Ludwig), a Fender Twin, a guitar and a bass. After 8 months I was ready. I moved back to Seattle, set up a $5/hour 4-track studio in my friend Peri Hartman's basement, and eventually co-founded Reciprocal Recording with Chris Hanzsek (known for earlier doing "Deep Six" and Green River's "Come on Down" EP). Then I just starved and worked like a madman for several years, and shit started happening.
It's important to point out that I had another career to fall back on until I was sure I knew what I was doing...i.e., don't quit your day job right away!
Hmmm. Now that would be telling, wouldn't it? OK, here's how I see it.
A prologue: Producing, folks, can be a bit of a scam. This is why Albini refuses to let people call him one, even though he's obviously more than just an engineer. Maybe we should coin a new word. I too was uncomfortable with it for a long time, preferring the credit "recorded by..." rather than the more unwieldy "produced, engineered and mixed by...". At a certain point other people started calling me a producer because apparently I was doing more than just turning knobs, and it was that extra stuff people wanted as much as my "guitar sound" or whatever. Still, in the punk-rock environment in which I got my start, it seemed ludicrous having a "producer" credit on records which took a week or less to make.
But if you don't take yourself seriously, no one else will for long. People took me seriously as a producer before I myself did, due to the hype going on here. But people liked my records and still do, even the eight-track ones. So eventually (duh!) I got a clue and realized that I was in fact "producing". Job offers from around the world (10 countries so far!) further beat this into my head. I discovered that what was expected of me was just what I had always done instinctively... just more of it.
So what does this mean, and why the potential for scam-hood?
Unlike most other high-profile careers, there are no formal requirements to call yourself a record producer. Any Tom, Dick or Harry can call themselves a producer, and lots of 'em do, and knowledge or skill has nothing to do with it. An engineer, at the very least, needs to know how to turn knobs; but anyone who can talk a good line can get away with being a "producer" (for a while... particularly in LA). Some people who get their names on records as producers never even set foot in the studio; and then there's those mysterious "executive producers": no one can tell you what they do, but you can bet they're getting paid for it. Welcome to the music biz.
A real producer covers four areas: 1) the science of SOUND and ENGINEERING, finding sounds and getting 'em to tape; 2) broad as possible knowledge of music, songwriting and arranging; 3) psychology, working with people closely in creative situations for long periods of time (and omigod, those people are MUSICIANS); and 4) business, as in the music biz, and also as in self-employment. Lots of us started as either musicians or engineers and learned from there; and of course we were, and remain, music fans first. We're workaholics and will work 14 hours a day to make your record. So what's the problem? It has to do with the nature of fame, hype, and the BIZ itself.
The potential for abuse comes from the insidious idea of the producer as an omniscient, all seeing sage who knows more about what's good for a band's music than the band themselves. Major labels like to promote this view, particularly if the producer is one of their employees or good buddies. And there are plenty of musicians, ripe to be scammed, who in fact want to have a "daddy" holding their hand and babysitting them through the awful, terrible, grueling, emotionally scarring recording process and telling them just what to do. There is even a type of producer who is basically a glamorized cheerleader/psychiatrist/babysitter with a genius for self-promotion. He might be the famous producer du jour, but his real skill may be in hiring the right engineers to do all the real work. Or he might just be another famous musician. Beware hiring this type. It's your money paying him - make sure you know just what you're paying for, other than a famous name on your record.
On the other hand, those who rightfully decry the "omniscient producer" paradigm sometimes make the reactionary mistake of putting their faith in an equally erroneous idea: that of the "omniscient musician". I'm sorry, but the number of ways that musicians can (and frequently do) shoot themselves in the foot in the studio are limitless. Knowing how to play your music is one thing, turning knobs and capturing sounds on tape is another, and MAKING A GOOD RECORD is something else entirely. As a musician you may make a few records, perhaps a dozen if your career is really long. But a good producer may have made hundreds, and has seen and dealt with a lot of potential pitfalls. There is a "punk rock" viewpoint that says that all a band needs is an engineer who should press "record" and otherwise keep his mouth shut; this seems really stupid and pointless to me, and is the difference between a record and a demo. Some seemingly mediocre bands may have great records in them because of their ideas, or their emotional intensity, or something -- but it needs help to come out! Even the most trivial suggestions (like "tune that guitar") from an outsider with a good ear can make an enormous difference in the final result.
A producer has to know enough about music, sound recording and the delicate art of MAKING RECORDS to be able to know when and how to tell the musicians that something isn't working as well as it could, in such a way that they MIGHT actually believe him. And when they (even accidentally!) do something brilliant, the producer can call their attention to it so they don't prematurely discard it. Constructive criticism is essential, if the musicians are not too arrogant to listen to it. (If they are, why hire you?) Equally often, musicians are their own worst critics and can't see the forest for the trees. Too much perfectionism will kill the music dead. How can you help them to get where they are trying to go? You need a big, objective, broad overview of the whole situation, including the band members' personalities and tastes, their past recordings, their live shows, their favorite albums, how clearly they can articulate just what it is they want. And you need a good overall knowledge of Popular Music History - the Big Picture.
You listen to what they're trying to "say" musically, and help 'em say it clearer. Present them with options to try. Show them possibilities. Be an "objective" outsider when necessary. And yeah, sometimes you have to be a cheerleader/psychiatrist/babysitter... Just make sure it sounds good.
Something else the producer is sometimes stuck with, is being a mediator between band and record label over song choices, etc, etc. This can suck. If you've come up in the indy scene where labels are more laissez-faire, this can be hard to get used to, especially if the A+R guy is some fresh-from college kid who knows less about music than you do. Luckily, most of the major label people I've worked with respect the artist and seem to trust my judgement without interfering in the record-making process too much. (Truer outside the US, though.) I always make it a point to really grill the label people and find out just what sort of record they are expecting; I'll make both band and label happy if I can. If the band has other ideas, hell, its their record, I'm not going to contribute to all the producer horror stories; but if band and label have drastically different ideas, its a bad scene (worst case: band gets dropped) and you should avoid it like the plague - try to find out this stuff before you take the gig, or you may later become someone's scapegoat. (Perfect example: all the totally predictable crap Albini had to put up with for In Utero, all because the band was determined not to make "Nevermind II", and he was happy to oblige them.) The label is risking their money - the more money, the more potential for interference (and, it could be argued, the more right they have to interfere) - but if you are an independent producer, you are hired by the band, not the label. Remember however that it IS in everyone's interest to keep the label happy and well fed, or your record (and career?) could vanish without a trace.
(Note: A great historical view of the evolution of the independent producer can be found in Beatles producer George Martin's book "All You Need Is Ears".)
Alex Newport has some pithy and succinct things to say about the 'producer scam' on his website also.
And for the real scoop, here's a great book: Confessions of a Record Producer, by Moses Avalon, Guitar Player Books, 1998. This will really open your eyes.
A "recording engineer" is at minimum a knob-turner, and at maximum a Scientist of Sound. He may not yet be good enough to call himself a producer and get away with it. Or maybe he doesn't want to, or doesn't want the responsibility. Or maybe he's too much of a specialist, but has found the niche in which he excels. Anyone who knows how to operate the equipment in a recording studio and make a recording can call themselves a recording engineer, but really good ones will find the world beating a path to their door. If they are indeed producer material, the world will let them know.
I guess for me being a producer has to include at least a bit of engineering. That was how I, and most other producers I know, started; we are producer/engineers. There are some producers who are not engineers, and lots more who used to be engineers but now hire engineers to assist them, but most of them at least know enough engineering to know how to get sounds. Some very good producers are experienced or famous musicians who've made a lot of records and who know which engineers to hire to be their hands and ears. (But sometimes this type is hired just for celebrity value, getting his name on the record and pocketing a fee, while the engineer does all the actual work.) The engineer is crucial to the recording process, but the Producer gets all the credit no matter how much of a bozo he is. The upside of this for the engineer is that the producer gets blamed if things go wrong.
Lotsa people confuse this with "mixing". Mixing is when you think you are "finishing" the record, creating the final two-track stereo versions from the multitrack masters... "mixing together" 24 tracks (or more) of sound into just the final two left/right tracks that people will be able to listen to on their stereos. Mastering, however, is when you actually finish the record. When mixing, your ears and perceptions will change slightly during the course of the project; songs mixed at different times may sound very different in tones or in relative volume from each other. Mixing is a kind of intense and subjective process, and it's hard to maintain absolute consistency through the entire project. Each song may sound fine by itself, but one may be subjectively louder than the next, making the following song seem "smaller" than it should; or your ears may get fatigued and the mixes slowly get brighter and brighter as your ears lose sensitivity to the high frequencies. Enter the elite mastering engineer. His job is to make your CD as loud as possible without changing the sound of the music too obviously: everyone wants to get as close as they can to the maximum digital output level (known as "digital zero") so their music will sound louder than everyone else's on the radio. (I'm not saying this is good, it's just the way it is.) This is a very tricky, exacting job requiring some very hi-powered digital processing gear and much care. Another job of the mastering engineer is to make things sound consistent if that is what is desired (it usually is), both tonally and volume-wise, so a rock song is not quieter than the preceding acoustic guitar song, to take an extreme example; or so one song is not "duller" sounding than the others. Imagine the tone controls on your stereo, but exaggerated into surgical instruments. The mastering engineer has to have a feel for the abstract "ideal average stereo" out there in the real world, and his most important job is to make sure that your record will sound great on the maximum number of stereo systems that exist, not just that crummy 70's-era Kenwood receiver in your bedroom.
Mastering engineers usually have their own control rooms, called "mastering suites", and never work anywhere else, because this allows them to really get to know how the sound in their room relates to the rest of the world. Once they know "how things should sound" in their room, they can make decisions quickly and with confidence. As an engineer working in many different rooms all the time, I know how hard it is to always be sure of the relationship of what I'm hearing to the, uh, "outside world", because just about the time I really "learn the room" I'm off to the next job! I deal with this by steering most of my mixing work to one or two studios I am very familiar with, whenever possible.
I have recently begun doing some mastering work for a few indy projects, using gear at my favorite mixing studio here in Seattle; but I can't make much money because I am much too slow and meticulous at it, and most of the money I charge ends up going to the studio. I will do this for friends on a limited budget, but I'm not efficient enough to want to make this my main gig. To really excel at mastering I would need my own room and would have to do it to the exclusion of all else. There are two professional mastering engineers I enjoy working with in LA (when the budget allows), who have been able to actually follow written instructions and seem to be on my wavelength: Eddie Schreyer at Oasis Mastering, and John Golden at John Golden Mastering. These men understand rock, and usually get it right the first time. I do not insist on attending distant mastering sessions; the travel and hotel expenses can be a significant addition to the budget (charged to the band's account, of course!) and unless there is a lot of tedious, exacting work for me to oversee, I've found my presence (or the band's presence) there has scant relationship to whether the work is done properly. Instead I prepare detailed, written song-by-song instructions, maintain phone contact, and receive reference CDs by FEDEX. Some mastering engineers I've worked with seem unable to follow the simplest written instructions; but these guys can. Others that I respect are Greg Calbi, George Marino, Alan Douches, and Bob Ludwig; but there's lots of great mastering engineers, and sometimes what they can do to your record is miraculous. Do not discount this final step.
No, though I was a minority partner in Seattle's Reciprocal Recording for a short time when it first opened in July 1986; I let Chris Hanzsek buy me out because we didn't agree on some things and that way I could go free-lance and not have the worries about overhead, insurance, etc etc. Most of the studio owners I've since met are pretty nervous people because in the studio biz, you're selling time, and there's only so many hours in a month, so there's a built-in limit to how much money the business can make; and every minute of that time that is wasted is money out of their pockets. I have always successfully resisted the urge to have my own studio, and as a result I have been able to make records in 10 countries. If I owned a studio, I could never leave. (Someday, however, I will probably settle down with my own place.)
By the way, Chris pulled the plug on Reciprocal in '91 after five years because the studio had outgrown the rather rustic building. Since then, that odd triangular building in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle has been (in order) Word of Mouth Productions (91-93), John'n'Stu's Recording (1993-2000), and currently Hall of Justice (run by Chris Walla of Death Cab).
These days I do most of my work out of a Seattle studio called Soundhouse, although I can sometimes be found at Studio Litho, Bob Lang's, Avast, Jupiter Studio, Bear Creek Studio, and Electrokitty Studio. Complete info on Northwest studios can be found at Recordingstudiosearch.com.
I've gone through phases, but never really stopped. In 1991, as my longtime band Skin Yard was winding down, I decided that the world seemed to want me as a producer more than as a musician. Rock guitarists are a dime a dozen, aren't they? This decision was enhanced by the fact that musicianship had never earned me enough to live on. (On the other hand I made 7 albums, never LOST money or went into debt, and nobody owns my ass. Never had to pay for a producer either...) Nonetheless I can't entirely stop myself; if I don't play a gig for too long I start to get antsy. So now I do it for the reason I started out years ago, because its fun to play and make records.
Skin Yard folded in 1992; see the Skin Yard Page for the full story and discography. The on-again-off-again Endino's Earthworm managed to come out of hibernation long enough to play a show in April of '96 and then go into the studio and record some basic tracks; I thought I was making a second Earthworm record, but it stalled. On these sessions were Barrett "The Polymath" Martin on drums (ex-Skin Yard, Screaming Trees, Mad Season, Tuatara, Wayward Shamans), Rob Skinner (ex-Coffin Break and Popsickle) on Bass, Pat Pedersen (ex-Skin Yard, Sister Psychic) also playing bass on some songs, and yours truly on guitar and vocals/screaming.
A later project was the Suitcase Nukes, consisting of me along with Josh Sinder (ex-Tad, Gruntruck, Accüsed) on drums and Alex Sibbald (ex-Gruntruck, Accüsed) on bass. These guys liked to, uh, splatter a bit more so it was pretty fun. Our first show was Sunday, March 23, '97 at RCKNDY in Seattle opening for (of course) Screaming Trees and Tad. (Another Inbreeding Nite in Seattle!) This was the first, er, "above-ground test" of the Nukes, and was followed soon after by another gig at Seattle's now-defunct Colourbox. I thought it would become a band, but my life got complicated by too many deaths and funerals, a failing marriage, and too much work; I didn't have the time/energy to keep it going. The Nukes recorded some stuff, but it took me until April 2004 to finally finish and mix 5 of the tracks.
In 2000-2001, I played bass with Wellwater Conspiracy for maybe half a dozen shows, one of which was opening for Pearl Jam at the Seattle Arena (Nov 6, 2000), another was Terrastock in Seattle, and another was opening for Guided By Voices in New York. That ended when I was called to Brazil for three months to make my fourth album for the might Titãs... on which I ended up playing a lot of guitar and bass, oddly enough.
In 2003-2004 I spent some time as on-again-off-again "temp" bassist for Upwell, an excellent band whose debut CD I had recorded, though not played on. I told them I'd keep playing with them as long as they could put up with my studio schedule, and until they found a permanent bassist... which finally happened, to my slight disappointment, because they are a killer band and great people to hang with. (But their new bassist Kirk is way better than me.) We did record one 4-song EP, "Number Nine," during my stint with them on bass. I recently recorded their 2008 CD, "Sell The Sky."
In 2005 I completed my third solo record, "Permanent Fatal Error". It has some of the above-mentioned Earthworm tunes, some Suitcase Nukes tunes, and some tracks with me playing all the instruments. I picked out the best of it all and somehow, made it into a coherent record. It was released on Wondertaker Records in October 2005, and I did a short west coast US tour with Dirty Power as my backing band.
In 2006 I took the summer off and did some thinking, and one of my conclusions was that I needed to be playing more music. A short-lived jam band called Nervous Freemasons drafted me in as a drummer (drums were actually my first instrument), and we played enough for me to get my drum calluses back. In short order I found myself in two real bands: Slippage, as their drummer, and now bassist, and Kandi Coded as their lead guitarist. As I write (Oct 2007), Slippage is almost done recording an album, and Kandi Coded's album "Time Wasted Is Not Wasted Time" was just released by Volcom Entertainment. Both bands are playing regular shows and have recordings posted on MySpace... check us out! (Slippage Myspace, Kandi Coded Myspace)
Am I working on another solo record? Well, eventually, but not yet... part of the reason I am in these other bands is that "doing it all myself" was nice just to prove a point and get it out of my system, but it's more fun to collaborate with other people.
And yes, my production career continues full-bore, and I do wear ear plugs at ALL gigs and rehearsals, just as I have since the 70s!
Easy. Send a tape or CD to the PO Box. But you better be serious about it; I don't have time to give free demo reviews so people can quote me in their press kit. I have a LARGE box of terrible-sounding, unasked-for demos here, and I'd rather have teeth pulled than listen to most of them. (Anyone at a record label will tell you the same thing, I'm afraid. I don't have a record label, so why do people keep sending me their tapes as though I can help their career? I can't; I'm just a studio rat.) Heck, I even have records I bought in the 70's that I haven't gotten to yet. Let me make this as clear as I can: my free time is very, very limited, and I have to spend it on stuff that directly pertains to keeping a roof over my head. (See Contact Info.) If I like your demo, we'll talk. Some of my coolest jobs came from mystery tapes I got in the mail! But be forewarned, I'm pretty jaded and I "pass" on tons of stuff. If I'm gonna spend days or weeks (or months?!) with someone's music, noon-to-midnight every day, I better like it a lot. Whenever I have taken a job because, say, the money was good even though the band wasn't that interesting, I have always regretted it. To the continuing chagrin of my management, I am often drawn to the opposite situation.
Important (very) to point out that I'm not just interested in heavy rock bands. I'm good with all kinds of music and always ACTIVELY SEEKING OUT new experiences, hence the 10 countries I've worked in during the past decade. I'm actually a total sucker for good melodies. Unfortunately I am still dogged by the grunge stereotype even though many of my best records have nothing to do with whatever is meant by this. ON THE OTHER HAND, I do have a comfort zone and some things are outside it. (Country music anyone?)
(NEW) Here's a quirk about my production style you should know about. If you want to make a LOUD ROCK record with me and have your drummer play everything to a click track all the way through every song, forget it. Your record is already fucked before it even exists, and I will have nothing to do with it. I am 100 per cent, deadly serious about this. Your drummer should BE the click track, period. If the drummer's good enough to play to a click track and not suck, he will play even better without it, 99% of the time. Partial use of a click or a metronome (a brief speed reference just for the starting count-off of a song, for instance) is fine though; it's how it's used that matters. Take off the training wheels and allow yourself to play some real music. Get rid of the fucking safety net. More on this in a future rant.
My fee? Depends. How many songs? How much time do you want to spend in the studio? What's the level of intensity of the work I am expected to do? Most important, what's your total recording budget? As these things vary, the size of a producer's fee should vary proportionally. (Remember: if a producer takes too high a percentage of the recording budget as a fee, there will not be enough studio time and it will suck. If he takes too little, it will be hard for him to give a shit, and it will suck.) Remember that anything is negotiable. Assuming I like the music, I'm open to projects with almost any sized budget; in fact, at this late date I view smaller budgets as sort of a pleasingly perverse challenge, as long as I have time open between the bigger jobs. (I'm still a workaholic.) They keep me on my toes. Note, however, that my days of doing whole albums in 3 days are well behind me...I think.
I don't do any work on "spec" so don't ask. It's a 99 percent sure way to not ever get paid. I can't believe anyone still does this, but I guess people have to learn the hard way. (Working on "spec" means taking no payment up front, in exchange for a share of the profits down the road. Surprise... there usually are no profits!)
A nice by-product of the music business boom-and-bust cycle in Seattle is an oversupply of studios. As a result, recording costs here have come WAY down because of all the competition. Come to Seattle and record cheap!
(See RecordingStudioSearch.com for a complete list of Northwest studios.)
I should mention that there is a management company, World's End in LA. (323-965-1540) who sometimes take care of the wheeling and dealing for me, particularly when larger corporate entities or foreign travel are involved. If I'm out of town they usually know how to reach me. Try to contact me directly first however.
APRIL 2004: I just wrote an entire huge dossier on this subject, so you might as well go read it. Aspiring young producers and engineers, you might find this useful to read also, as a possible way of thinking about your own future working methods.
Man, this question gets pretty old. But how can you blame people for asking it over and over? I used to ask it myself. After the Nirvana questions this is the most popular. If you're sitting in your room writing songs and dreaming of being discovered, wake the hell up. The music biz in real life is not like that. The people who have gotten indy (or any!) record deals have done it by becoming self-employed, self-sufficient little gigging and touring businesses, shamelessly promoting themselves and playing in public and starving a lot until someone notices them. There are no guarantees even if you are actually good, which you may not necessarily be. I can't help you because a tape alone is worth practically nothing to a record company person (which I'm not), and besides, none of them listen to my opinion anyway. (I have few record company "contacts" outside Seattle. My occasional major label contacts - surprise - always get fired after about a year!) These people want to know that there is a live band they can go and see, or send someone to see. They want their friends to say, hey, I saw this great band the other night; if enough people say that to them over and over, then they may wake up and take notice. Why? Because music that is not specifically designed for the radio can be effectively promoted only one way: through live playing and touring.
If you're a singer-songwriter type (or just a songwriter), and don't have a band, I really can't help you; I've worked with bands (and performing solo artists) my whole career. Please ask someone else what to do!
Remember please: I record records, I don't know how to sell 'em or promote 'em. I'm a freelance studio guy, not a record company guy.
However, I was once in a band and learned a thing or two. Here's some steps a typical 'rock band' should follow:
1) Make a tape, any quality at all. Use it to get...
2) gigs. Play lots of gigs and get...
3) fans. Get better at playing and get...
4) lots of fans. If you get enough fans, and you play well enough, it will...
5) get people talking about you. At THAT point, not before, you can consider...
6) making a better sounding tape, and either...
7) send it around, or...
8) release it yourself on a CD, or BOTH. If you release anything yourself, you can get...
9) reviews. Send it to 'zines. People read these. If you can...
10) make enough of a buzz, the record industry will either come to you, or pathways will present themselves for you to get your foot in the door so to speak (thru people you meet, other bands that like you, etc). Good luck.
Finally, I'm going to give you a link you should consider. This fellow Chris Knab used to run an indy label in SF years ago, and has been involved with college radio and the music biz for years. He has a series of articles (his "Indy 2000" columns) on his website (www.knab.com) on this subject which should be required reading for any of you beginners who want to know "how to get signed", etc etc.
This is a tough question, because the need for "mentoring" is pretty well acknowledged in this biz. And it comes up often enough that I could have a different assistant every day of the year. These damn recording schools just keep pumping out grads, but the number of studios is not increasing. My answer, sadly, is usually a variation on the following: "I'm sorry, but I don't have a studio, I'm freelance, and my work (and locations) changes constantly. For various reasons, having a sidekick is just not practical... more and more of my work these days is mastering (done alone, late at night) or mixing (not a spectator sport). Go to my studio site: www.recordingstudiosearch.com and start contacting studios... there's about 100 of 'em listed in this area. Some of 'em do take interns."
A more honest response goes like this: "Short answer is no; I'm incapable of delegating and used to working alone. I dislike having people chattering and looking over my shoulder... and especially, bands are kind of weird about people they don't know hanging around. They hire me cuz they know me. Watching a band make a record is a little like watching someone undress. The band will usually go, "Um... who's that?" Interns tend to be associated with studios, not with producers. A lot of what I do is pretty tedious like mastering and mixing... one-man jobs with odd hours, at various different rooms. I don't have my own studio, I jump all over the place. Often, I'm traveling. So... I can't really have a 'sidekick'. Good luck in this biz! "
Here's what people don't want to hear: in my circles, everyone is either a self-employed freelancer OR a studio owner, with no "employees" anywhere to be found. Studios very rarely "hire" people. Indy-rock budgets mean indy-rock hiring policies at the indy-rock studios. You gotta literally create your own career out of thin air. See question above: "How did you get started as a producer?"
But if you want to just meet me and grill me about my experience in the biz, see next question!
This comes up often, and I don't drink, but I finally figured out how to make it worth my while. It's not that I'm unfriendly, just busy, and I don't owe anything to every stranger who asks for a couple hours of my time. Life is short and I value the time I have left on this planet. But the solution is wonderfully simple: if you just buy me LUNCH, you can pick my brain for an hour or so, my schedule permitting! Preferences: Thai, Greek, Chinese, Mexican. Vegetarian OK but not required. Expensive or fancy emphatically not necessary, but no fast food. Gotta have a table to sit down at. Prefer north half of Seattle (Fremont, Ballard). I respond well to food. Feed me, and I'll probably talk yer ear off!
Um... no. I'm a busy guy. If you have some SPECIFIC questions, I will try to answer them if I have time. Please start by reading thru this website; you can quote from it if you credit me.
This is when it really hits me: The joke worked too well, the massive cultural prank became reality! Oh nooooo! Well, OK, but if we have to meet in person you gotta buy me lunch (see above).
Yeah, maybe, if I have time... I deal with these requests on a case-by-case basis. Ask me. See lunch (above) if it's in-person. I like email interviews, but I'm pretty slow about answering them, so you better plan way ahead.
Please don't.You are asking to consume some of my life energy and scant spare time. People usually send me stuff to see if I will schedule studio time with them. That's the main reason I listen to someone's demo, cuz it's how I keep a roof over my head. I'm really, really not much interested in being a free advice service... it takes time to listen to something and formulate a respectful and intelligent opinion about it; hours, actually. I don't have those hours! For me, it is actually, literally UNPAID WORK. I should charge for it, but I haven't sunk that low yet. So I gotta discourage you from just sending me stuff for advice. Yes, I actually do have records I bought in the SEVENTIES that I haven't gotten around to listening to yet!
No, I hate music. Just kidding!... God help you if you're willing to trust my music taste, but if you really want to know check the "What's on my Stereo" part of this site. I haven't updated it in years though. I don't "get into" records the way I used to as a naive listener anymore. My fave record is usually the last one I recorded... which is kind of why I got into this biz in the first place. If you can't find enough records you like, you gotta make 'em yourself.
No, and no. Never did actually work for 'em directly. I'm independent; I work for the bands. Nor can I get you signed to anyone else. Record company people have their own agendas, which usually have nothing to do with how good your music is, or how good I think your music is. I have yet to meet one who is actually interested in outside opinions, even from someone like me who has been doing this 24-7 for way, way longer than most of them have had jobs. Life is funny sometimes.
This question arises often. Daniel House is still running it but is not longer signing new bands; here's the URL of the official website: http://www.czrecords.com/.
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