So you wanna be a music producer, eh? Well that’s a good thing. I can think of few things I enjoy more than creating great music in a studio with uber talented people. But the path to get there can be long and bumpy. So allow me to let you in on a little secret that will hopefully make your road a smoother one;

You are not the artist.

Let me say that again… You are NOT the artist. Nor are you the vice president of A&R who is handling the artist, the director of the film, or the creative vice president of the ad agency.

This is a fact that you must understand and accept before any other; that while you have a great deal of control and input in the music you are making you will rarely be the person who has the final approval or the last say in how that music will be used or sound. From this day forward you, my friend, are in a service business. You are ultimately working to make the people you work for happy.

Life Outside The Bubble

If you have never had to answer to someone for the music you are making then it can be quite a strange feeling when encountered for the first time. It is a fact of life in the real music world and rarely dealt with until you are working on a project of some stature or financial consequence. I truly believe that composer/producers who understand this early in their career end up doing much better than the classic tortured geniuses who constantly gripe about the “tone-deaf and talentless gits” who they must deal with on every project.

The truth is that you are like a chef in a restaurant. Whether your restaurant serves 5 star French cuisine or beer and burgers (yum!) is up to you. But if a customer wants to make a substitution of a side dish or add cheese to a Chilean Sea Bass entrée (blaspheme!) you must do it regardless of how you feel it compromises the taste of your creation or the presentation of the dish. They have chosen to eat at your place because of your vision and creativity but if the experience is not good, they’ll eat somewhere else next time.

Technology is such that we as producers can live in a bubble; creating music in our studios for our own approval with encouragement and positive feedback from friends, collaborators, and family. It’s easy to feel great and get excited about the music you are creating; focusing on all the good things about the song, track, or score. Creating music is a fun process, but the fun you have can sometimes cloud your judgment of the bigger picture. Too often we get tunnel vision and are excited about the incredible groove or mix we just finished but have lost sight of the fact that the song isn’t that great, or not exactly right for the artist, or the cue isn’t really helping the scene. You will see that in the professional music world there will be someone there to set you straight and lead you back to the path of righteousness (i.e. their opinion). This person is your client. Love them, embrace them, for whether you like it or not, they hold the key to your future success.

Of course most times, hopefully, they are coming to you because they respect your opinion and artistic sensibility and will let you do your job with little interference. But understand that they do have the final word. Even superstar movie directors rarely get “final cut”(the authority to approve the final version of the movie before it gets sent to theaters) and have to make changes suggested by the suits at the studio.

You’ll come to see that most of the people you have to answer to know absolutely nothing, or far less than you do, about music. Their iPods and CD racks are filled with music you wouldn’t be caught dead listening to, and all they talk about is how rock’n’roll just isn’t the same since Styx broke up (now they may have bought Miles Davis “Kind of Blue” because they heard it was cool to have, but that doesn’t count). They will make comments and ask for changes to your music that you find outlandish, stupid, cheesy, artistically destructive, and even morally reprehensible. But guess what? They can, because they are paying you. They are paying you to make the album they will market or score the film they will distribute, and they want it to be exactly what they envision so they can stand behind it with confidence. Sometimes these changes are demanded for solely political reasons even though they are quite happy with your work.

The Art of Compromising Your Art

A producer friend recently came to me with a story that illustrates how complicated it can get making decisions by committee, especially when you don’t have the last word regarding the music you are making. He had just finished an album project and the artist as well as everyone at the label was thrilled. He played it for me and it sounded awesome, especially some truly amazing mixes. Well it seems that everyone was thrilled except one VP who happened to have great influence over marketing plans and budgets. This VP felt, but could give no specific feedback as to why, that the mixes just weren’t “up to snuff” (silly me; I still don’t really know what “snuff” is, but whatever... ). He wanted to bring in a mixer he had worked with several times over the years to remix the album. Of course this mixer was an old friend with whom there was a long relationship. I also mean old as in a bit older - and probably somewhat out of touch with the music of this project. In fact, if you made a list of the 25 best choices of mix engineer for the album, he wouldn’t have even been on it. After much debate and insistence from others on the project that the mixes were great, the VP held his opinion that they could be better.

So the A&R person assigned to the artist tells my friend that they have to remix with the album with the VP’s mixer friend and there’s really nothing they could do about it. Why? Because even though the final result would probably be nowhere near as fresh and inspired as the original mixes, it would most likely be good, or at least good enough. But more importantly, it was crucial that the VP with the marketing power be excited and feel he was a part of the project so they could count on a big push for the album. In this situation there were absolutely no direct threats made or even implied (“Hire my buddy or the only ads this album gets will be bus benches in Milwaukee”), but there was an understanding of the fact that this person needed to be included and heard so he would feel involved and want to make the project a success.

Remember that people are committed to that which they are a part of. What ended up happening was they used most of the remix versions but the original mixes on a couple of the focus tracks, even though it was a frustrating situation and a great expense emotionally and financially.

Making Your “Place” Your “Home”

Knowing your place on the project’s Totem Pole is very important. When I was scoring one of my first feature films I learned a valuable lesson about giving up control over the music I was making.

I had just finished a cue that had a very cool groove, which was driven by some heavy drum and percussion programming, something I enjoy doing and am pretty good at. I felt really great about how this cue looked and sounded against picture and was quite proud of what I had done. So the director comes by to see the week’s progress on the score and I confidently hit play and waited to see his reaction. There was no reaction. He watched it again and said “Hmmm, I like some of it but not all of it”. So I start soloing things to see if he can identify the stuff he wasn’t liking. When all was said and done he asked me to mute all of the drums and percussion. I’m thinking “Huh? You’re kidding, right?” I probably had a very strong reaction and said something like “Man, that’s like ripping the foundation right out from underneath a house, you just can’t do that. The house will fall apart!” The director looks at me and says “Well I don’t give a shit. Maybe I want to see what a house without a foundation looks like, now show it to me!”

The lesson here is this; My opinion ultimately didn’t matter because my opinion was focused on the music and his was focused on the film and nobody goes to see movies just for the music (well I do, but I’m nuts like that). Regardless of what I felt that decision would do to the music it was not mine to make and I had to respect that even though to this day I feel it was a bad one.

Ultimately you have to consider that the people you are working for have a bigger picture in mind and they may know things about the project that you don’t. They may know things about the market that the artist will compete in that you don’t. They may have ideas about the underlying emotions of the film that you don’t understand or agree with. Understand your place in the scheme of things and make it your home; surprisingly, you will feel more powerful and secure to truly create and do your best work for the project.

The kicker here is that even if you don’t respect the person you’re working for you have to respect their position and give them what they want. This can be very difficult when the 55 year old studio executive wearing plaid pants and white vinyl shoes puts down his cell phone just long enough to tell you that the song you’ve written “just isn’t funky”, even though you’ve created a track that shakes the building off it’s foundation and could scare Prince, Dr. Dré, and Jay-Z into early retirement.

Driving The Bus…

Tone-deaf and talentless clients aren’t the only ones you’ll have to collaborate with and respond to. Many times the very artists you are producing are of questionable musical ability but are trying to realize a vision they have for their album. Just because they are the artist doesn’t mean they have to know how to build a groove or sing and play like a studio pro. They are artists and that’s why you’re there; to bring their vision to life. You may be “driving the bus”, but it is their bus; let them choose the destination and then you figure out the best way to drive them there. If you don’t believe in their vision, then get off the bus.

Do you think the Beatles were great musicians? Maybe, maybe not. They were undoubtedly great artists (probably the greatest pop music artists of their century) but rather average musicians at best. However when they wrote and played together the whole was 100 times greater than the sum of the parts. Can you imagine what would have happened when John Lennon asked George Martin to “make the vocal sound like it’s spinning underwater” or “can’t the piano sound more green?” if George Martin said “Look, Blokes, I luv the pippy little songs but how ‘bout we leave the producing to the professionals? Let’s forget all that bally-hoo, go back in the studio, play your tunes, and shake your mop tops.” I can tell you what wouldn’t have happened; the Beatles and the greatest pop music of a generation. George Martin listened to these new and unconventional ideas that came from 4 lads who didn’t know half as much about music as Sir George had already forgotten, and helped to make music that would literally change the world.

You are quite possibly the best musician on the project, but guess what? Nobody needs to know that. You are there to facilitate great music from other people on an album, or provide music that supports a directors vision on a film. Sure, maybe you’ll write and play on the project too but the most important thing is that the artist shines, the musicians and engineers feel they’ve made a valid contribution and the client (label, studio, or artist) is happy with what you have done.

When Things Heat Up

Sometimes conflicts do arise and things get testy (“In this business? Really?”). When you’re dealing with difficult people in difficult situations it’s important to stay calm for as long as possible. This is tough and I haven’t always been good at it, but I’m getting better. There will be plenty of time to roll your eyes and talk about what tone-deaf, talentless gits these people are later. Right now, you need to make them happy. If not, they will find someone who will. Of course you need to stand your ground for what you believe in and doing so in the right ways will only make people respect you more.

There will also be times when it is your best interest to walk away from a project you feel is sinking and taking you down as well, but make sure you are truly aware of when that is. But you must choose your battles wisely, because conflict is expensive on many levels. Most of the time you should concentrate on doing the best you can to make the people you are working for look the best they can, because this will always make you look the best you can.

Trading Places…

I always find it helps to understand as much as possible about the position of the person that I’m working with; to try and put myself in their shoes. Then I can best keep my creativity focused on the right thing for the project. One thing I’ve come to understand is that not only do most people know absolutely nothing about music and how to communicate their ideas, but that communicating ideas outside of your specific area of expertise can be difficult for anyone.

The first time I ever had to oversee and make final decisions on the artwork for a CD package was an eye opening experience. I am very comfortable with speaking in visual terms (mad props to my Mom, who was an art teacher – Yo, MAWM!!!) but the designer and I weren’t exactly on the same page. I asked for some thing not at all conservative, that looked cool and irreverent, and gave the feeling of artsy but lo-fi cool (quite a description, eh?). The first draft I got back could best be described as throwback 70’s meets organic and flowery new age. Hmmm. I thought I had given a clear description of what I wanted but maybe it wasn’t as clear as I thought.

This was definitely a talented designer who had done similar stuff but we just were not connecting. What made it worse was that the budget was totally “low rent” and I wasn’t aware that though the ideas I had were simple they took a lot of detail oriented work. So even though I was determined that we get it right, going back for each revision was difficult for me because I hated being the picky client and I saw the designers frustration and waning enthusiasm. It took some really direct but positive communication from me to finally get what I wanted but I was left with a true understanding of how frustrated some of the people I work with and for must feel at times.

One Last And VERY IMPORTANT

Point The fact that you are not the artist many times in your career is the exact reason to be an artist somewhere in your life. No matter where you are in your career you should always be writing and recording music for yourself; music that gives you the same thrill that pulled you down this path in the first place.

Writing without restriction and from pure inspiration nourishes us and is why we chose this crazy life of creativity. It is also a great way to try new ideas and refine creative concepts before bringing them into your working world. Besides, it will be much easier to let go of some control and truly collaborate if you make some music in your life that is just for you.

So while you must always understand that in most of your professional situations you are not the artist or person with the final say, have some little corner of your world where you are. Do something just for yourself and it will benefit everyone you work with.

Good luck on your path and remember to always try and enjoy every project without taking it too seriously. After all it’s music not brain surgery.