[Glen Ballard: Having a Sound]

I think the idea of there being a Glen Ballard sound in my case is not true. I mean, I think the reason I've been around as long as I have is because I don't think I really do have a sound. I really try to adapt my sound to the needs at hand. If I'm producing POD, I know that the sound of the record is gonna be a lot different from the sound of a Dave Matthews record, or a straight pop record or a Barbara Streisand record, but I've done such a different range of things that for me, I think if I'd had a sound, my sound would be over now.

You know, when I did the Wilson Philips records in 1990, it was – everyone said, "You can't have three girls singing vocal harmonies. This is the era of grunge." And we did extremely well with that. It was kind of counter-programming at that point. But before I did that record, I was working with Quincy Jones a lot and the people thought I was just an R&B producer. And then when I did a really, really pop record, they went, "Well, wait, that's a pop record. But didn't you work for Quincy and do all – Teddy Pendergrass and Thelma Houston and Evelyn Champagne King?" I said, "Yeah, I did that, too." And then when I did Alanis Morissette, they said, "Well, that's got kind of a rock edgy thing, but I thought you were just a pop thing."

For me, it's all about who walks in the door. You know, if they're blue I get blue. And if they're red, I try to get red. For me, that's the secret for my longevity. My brand is kind of invisible. But there are plenty of other producers who very successfully have a great sound. You come to them for that sound and I think that's very smart. And I wouldn't recommend sort of not having the brand like me, because I've done so many different things. I've made country records, I've made strange records, I've made art records, and I've made hard rock records. It's a kind of mixed bag that is probably not so easy to maintain. For me, it's been my salvation 'cause I never get bored.

But I would recommend probably focusing on something that you feel like you really can nail and brand that, certainly. And then you can branch out.

I started off as a songwriter, and as a result, I was writing for whoever needed a song. And so that required me to write country music, jazz, pop, R&B, a little gospel thrown in. So I sort of had the training of writing for other people and it could've been anybody at that time, because I would write for anybody that needed a song. And just because I went to work for Quincy and I suddenly did a bunch of R&B acts, people felt, "Well, that's what he does."

Until when I was working for him, I cut a record on an actor named Jack Wagner and it was on General Hospital and we had another one hit, what they called All I Need. And then people said, "Oh, well you do that, too." So for me, I just kept moving through the different genres because I think because based on my background, it was easy enough for me to do that rather than just say, "Okay, this is all I'm gonna do and I'm never gonna do a country record or I'm never gonna do a pop record or I'm just gonna do rock." It didn't work out that way.