Whenever people talk about Don and I recording again, which almost everybody usually mentions, I always say ‘Well, there’s plenty of things that you haven’t heard! Plenty of things out there to discover!’
I have done a bit of recording and the songs are available on iTunes, and I’ve got some nice comments. It’s something I enjoy doing, but I’m not looking for a singing career any time soon. As long as one person gets enjoyment out of it, I’m happy to make it available.
The thing is, I was more blues-oriented, more of a purist than in the pop world. That led me into a folk rock trio and to Ginger Baker before I started recording on my own.
I’m recording freely, and if I make a song, I release it immediately, so I’m more likely to believe in one song at a time as opposed to albums.
I know that James Brown recording where he sings about Chicago. I think he sings, like, ‘Chicago, my hometown!’ That’s what I think of when I think of Chicago. And I think of Chicago Bulls.
Somehow, magically, I’ve become an electronic musician, and I have a recording studio that looks like the bridge of the Enterprise.
Then I loved the fact that we were actually recording live.
I knew that it was my only shot to be taken seriously in the recording industry, because it’s fast and broad.
People wanted to know where I was and what I was doing. Was I still recording? Was I touring? Was I putting a band together? Was I writing songs? Was I even still singing?
The advantage of the Genesis is that it’s a rock-solid camera, made by a company with an enormous history and a huge support base. Plus, it’s very good in low light using all the Panavision lenses. The downside is that you’re recording on tape.
I came into the business where Will Smith was pretty much taking over the world – or defending it, if you will. He was showing success on so many different fronts – television, recording, movies. So that was really my prototype in terms of looking at the business and seeing where you fit in.
We honestly felt a bit more at home in the TV studio than we did in the recording studio.
I met Jim Jarmusch when I started recording my album ‘Ya Nass.’ He was writing the script for ‘Only Lovers Left Alive.’ Jarmusch was always a great inspiration to me, way before meeting him. Working with him was fantastic.
When we were recording, sometimes I wondered if what we were doing would even be possible to play live.
Performance capture is a technology, not a genre; it’s just another way of recording an actor’s performance.
I was just writing songs in my spare time, and recording because it’s fun to do, and Sub Pop called me and said they wanted to put some stuff out. I had to weigh whether I wanted to put the time into it because it’s a commitment. But, in the end, it seemed too good to pass up.
Bob Rock taught me a lot. His friendship has taught me a lot about what you should expect from a recording session and, more importantly, how you shouldn’t expect anything less than absolute joyousness. You should feel great. You should feel 14 to be doing it. It’s true and it’s rare.
I do pay performance royalties on others’ songs I perform live, but I’m not recording these songs and putting them up for sale.
I started recording in ’67. In the first part of ’68, my first single was ‘Backup Train.’ That was success to a degree. Four years have passed by since then, and I have managed to come up with a few measly sellers.
I used to record songs, like, play the beat from one phone and have another phone recording me and just rap. Moving from that to a studio was like, ‘Damn, I never knew I could sound like this.’ It was just magic.
I don’t really have any interest in recording at places that are institutionalized for recording.
There is a common misconception that when you’re a singer working for a recording company you get to pick everything you’re doing. Very few people have been accorded such a luxury.
When I was recording from ’70 to ’82, I always played piano and laid the tracks down. But I used to talk to the other musicians while the track was playing.
But I’d say recording and playing on stage are two completely different things. Being up there in front of all those people is like jumping off a cliff into icy water. The recording process is a totally different energy.
Acting and recording an album at the same time, that’s not my sport. I could write a movie when my attention was paid to that. But I’m good at one thing at a time.
I’m a recording artist, a performing artist and a producing artist. All those things have everything to do with the outcome of my shows. I get myself studying every part of the game and not everyone has the characteristic to do that. In my mind, you need all three to become an artist.
‘Melodies’ is just about having fun! The song’s message is about being who you are and having a blast. I had such a great time recording it – I’m glad it’s my first single.
In Spanish, I record a lot of single-voice tracks, and in English, I ‘stack’ a lot of voices, so it’s very different, and I think I got so used to recording in Spanish for six years that it was really refreshing and challenging to get in and record ‘Double Vision’ in English.
I basically make my living writing songs, so I’ve been able to go around in my trailer. If I got tired of a place, I could move on and roam around. It’s a nice environment for writing songs, as opposed to sitting at a recording studio console all day.
I can still deliver behind closed doors, we just need to get a recording of the fans singing and shouting in the arena so I can hear them chanting.
I’ll always leave the same set of strings on my guitars when I’m recording. If I break one I’ll just replace it instead of putting on a whole new set of strings.
Each album takes two or two-and-a-half years to finish between recording and touring. It’s like being with an old boyfriend every single night watching the same things on TV. There is a world out there going on that I’m missing.
I waited until the end of the ‘Behold Electric Guitar’ recording sessions to record ‘A Herd of Turtles,’ as I knew the unusual arrangement might raise some eyebrows.
I wanted to get my recording and become a musician again, work; with other people, do that kind of thing because I kind of got away from that for a while once we started happening, you know, selling records, sold out concerts.
I still love recording and still love the stage, but like my dad, I have the most fun when I am in front of that glorious orchestra or that kick-butt big band.
My son Wesley has just turned 13. He was 12 during the recording of this record and he is quite a drummer already and has been studying drums since he was four, but he’s also very interested in African percussion and studies percussion.
It’s hard enough to make a good song and a good recording of that song. But to try to tailor it to some outside force is just like – It’s never been a factor in what I’ve done or what the band’s done.
Actually, recording the Suite Chic album was so much fun and while working on this new album, people that I’ve worked with from Suite Chic has lend their voice.
Documenting and recording paperwork, managing services like passport renewals, and processing patent applications are practices that could all be dramatically improved with robotic automation.
I use Auto-Tune but it’s not to mask anything. If you come to see me live, I can sing on the spot. Auto-tune is just for the recording. It keeps everything really precise.
I’m not a businessman, so I don’t know how to solve the problems of the recording industry.
I’ve made music for grownups most of my life as a singer/songwriter – often with my band, Nine Stories – recorded many albums, and 10 years ago I started recording kid’s music, too.
When we were recording ‘This is Somewhere,’ we were still super green, super from Vermont, super not knowing what to do.
In the 1960s when the recording studio suddenly really took off as a tool, it was the kids from art school who knew how to use it, not the kids from music school. Music students were all stuck in the notion of music as performance, ephemeral. Whereas for art students, music as painting? They knew how to do that.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s career is kind of how I want to create my career. He’s very involved with his recording and production company and also worked on some really great projects.
When we were first recording, I was wearing a bag on my head.
Well, when you’re recording an album, artists have what they feel like is good music, and the label, they’re trying to sell the album. So those two ideas clash sometimes, but in the end it always works out. When you put the two together, that’s a good thing.
I am not a natural singer, but I can sing, and probably the way I sing is more imitative than from myself, which is why I am never going to be an amazing recording artist.
I was at a slight disadvantage in that I had never played in bands or done any performances before, and that’s just as important as writing, recording, and putting records out. It’s been a lot of hard work, balanced with a lot of pinch-myself moments of touring in crazy parts of the world.
The actual work of recording a record or making a film just requires that you consciously block the time out to do that and nothing else. That’s what I do.
Recording should be fun.
I sequence during the entire recording process. The sequencing changes as I’m recording and as I’m listening. From when I’m, like, four songs in, I start trying to figure out which song should come after which. Which is important, and it changes as the album goes.
