Don’t shag the producer!

Or any of the band members either! Sure, people meet at the job but there is a reason for bigger firms that it’s forbidden to have relationships between employees. Ok, the music industry doesn’t have that but you should see it that way.

I had an artist that was produced by her boyfriend. It was not meet on the job. They had been a couple for a long time so it became kind of natural that they start doing some music together. He naturally produced her first ep and album. Things were going quite well and a record label came onboard. They were very enthusiastic but felt the music had to step up. Why don’t hire a good producer?

She got stuck between a rock and a hard place. Go home and tell her boyfriend that his producer career wouldn’t get on with her career? Or that he wasn’t good enough? It just became mission impossible. Every time the subject comes on at the record label meetings she was avoiding the topic. The record label just took that as she was a diva and didn’t see their new super-producer as cool enough. After a couple of meetings, the record label was not so enthusiastic about their new signing any longer.

The recording happened anyway. Don’t really know how she broke the ice? Her demand though became really strange. The whole recording session she needed to bring her boyfriend with her to the studio. Okay, I don’t know if he thought she would shag the new producer. At the same time, the producer found himself in an awkward position where he now should produce new songs with the old producer sitting on the sofa next to him watching every move.

The production came through. The record label was losing even more interest in the project, so the song was more laying on the shelf. Then six months later the artist came with the super idea (she thought) that her boyfriend could make some arrangements in the production that was done. Make it up in style.

The worst idea ever and the record label just saw that they would be stuck with this mediocre producer stuck to a good artist. There was no way her songs or productions would go any better she had reached her peak. And letting the boyfriend go in and change in the production and get the other producer to go on with that. Not even a solution. In the end, they just released the song with no marketing what so ever and dropped the artist.

Another artist I know that did the thing to become involved with every producer. Releasing her record was like having five angry ex-boyfriends working against the release. Any delay they could do they would do it. In the end, we just had to tell her to stop dating the producers.
Then suddenly every demo that she did in was not in the usual quality. The artist was talented, not writing songs, but finding guys that where good producers and songwriters and literary shag them to get a good product. She couldn’t write anything herself.
Latest I saw something from her she had a great looking video for a really poor song. My friend told me she was shagging the photographer nowadays.

And yes, we all know the famous breakups around artist and their relationships. Lady Gaga and her first producer. Yoko Ono and The Beatles. Dave Stewart and Shakespeare sisters.
The final advice, do like the big companies, stay away from relationships in the professional world of music.

What's the point of a producer if you do it yourself.

Back to explain things from the industry again. I seems to bump into this quite many times. Today it's the urge to work with a producer. In all artist's career they suddenly start to think that a producer is a key to their success. Often with no knowledge what a producer really means.

To have a producer means that you handle your material over to another person.

To have a producer is not that a genius comes into the studio and give compliments to all your musical ideas. No, this person is here to take that stuff to another level. And in many of cases, you will not agree on the things they actually change. Yes, they ill take of that long nice drum solo that you like. Literally, they will come in and just change the look of your baby.

 The artist thinks they need to spend a lot of money on a hotshot producer. This is also a cliche that you get really often. The more money or things they have done is better! In so many cases it's not.
Yes in many ways a producer can make wonderful things with the material. The artist can learn from their creative process and discover new dimensions. But that is if the artist is open to new ideas and also have a balance to know what can be changed what can not. If they are not open then you can spend as much money you like around it.

If the artist clicks with the producer they also stay with the same producer. In the end, the producer is just as a member of the band. But then also the around and everything stays the same. In the majority of the cases, the artist goes back and starts to produce themself. And it can be a costly adventure to make that lesson. 

The problem is that the artist just thinks the producer adds some small things to the sound. A bit of echo here and some reverb there. In reality, if they do their job they take everything down and grind it and build it up again. A reason why artists just hate different producers even how successful the producer made them. A good example is Bob Rock with Metallica and AC/DC. Still, they have not got close to the albums Bob did in sales. Still, they will not work with him again.

It is the reason I don't bring in a producer until the artist knows what they want. I have spent too many hours with artists throwing out of the window stupid ideas not letting the producer doing their job and in the end, coming out with something mediocre just to pleas all member will.

More or less if you hire a creative person for projet you need to let them do their work. You hired them for their knowledge. If you try to press their things into a box fitting your idea it won't be perfect. 

Also, don't hire a person that is doing the things exactly as you would do it. If the dynamic is gone you just surrounded yourself with people that say the same. Then you just hired a bunch of friends to hang out in the studio.

The producer won't get you streamed.

It's not actually that important who produced the record as long as it sounds good. Too many are looking too much onto the name dropping. I got my third mail just today with bands being produced by a producer name. Yes, producer name, to the main public these producers are unknown. I bet if I went down to my local grocery store and ask random ten people, name a famous music producer I bet that eight can't. One will say ABBA, which was not the producer. And maybe one can say a name like Michael B Tretow who actually produced ABBA. Maybe also Rick Rubin would get on there. But I doubt it.

So when bands come up and say, well this is produced by so and so that produced Terence Trent D'Arby, Unknown Indie artist and some local band. It's like, who cares?

First with crappy songs the producer can't really do anything. It's like polish a turd. And many of these producers need money to stay afloat so they might do a job, and keep quiet themselves. Then they might be good songs and the producer let them shine. But that hit they produced was accompanied by a great PR team which is missing here. And even with the best songs without PR, it's tough to get them going. Is actually better to have a bad song and a good PR team than a good song and a good producer.

In many ways, it feels like the producer is just a teddy bear for a nervous artist. Especially if it just comes down to namedropping that the producer has done this and that.

To get the right producer, don't go by name go by how the producer can enhance your sound. And that can be a rather unknown producer that is right over the ones with big names.

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