Interview by Aaron “AO”Baker – courtesy of PardonMyFresh.com
How did you get started in the music industry?
You could say I got started twice. Towards the end of high school I was already quite successful as a bass player in the local scene in Munich, Germany, and on my way to being able to make a living as a professional musician in R&B, pop and rock. But after a year or so I felt I really needed to deepen my musical knowledge. I realized there was so much more music I knew nothing about. So I started studying composition at the academy in Cologne. Four years later I earned a scholarship to study at CalArts in Los Angeles. My first gig after graduating from CalArts was as assistant to film composer David McHugh, that’s when I finally re-entered the industry as a working musician. And that’s where I really learned how to write music for film. David also hooked me up with Hit City West, a recording studio in LA at the time. I worked there as a freelance sound engineer and MIDI programmer, and I met a lot of the artists and producers I ended up working with there. So, after almost going pro right after high school, I ended up spending another five and a half years as a full-time music student before returning to the professional world. Now I’m really happy I made that decision, I’m definitely a much better producer, composer and musician for it.
You play several instruments: which was the hardest to learn and which do you play the best?
The hardest for me by far was the trombone. Biggest problem with the trombone is that every day you kind of “start from scratch”. The first note in the day always sounds absolutely horrible, no matter how long you have been playing. And the trombone is completely unforgiving when you skip practicing even for just a few days. I’ve since pretty much given up on it, it’s one of those instruments that demands more attention than I have time to give. I’m still best as a bass player. The bass was my first love and will always be my deepest. And by now of course I’m really good at using the computer, which one could consider an instrument, too. But I still practice, play and record piano, guitar and bass regularly, plus some percussion and my own custom instruments.
What are some of the custom instruments that you use?
Most of my self-made instruments are not much to look at, just something I quickly put together because I need a very specific sound. Often I’ll just take something from the kitchen, modify it a bit, bang or scrape it, record it, and bam, it’s an instrument. But I also occasionally build something more sophisticated, like a fretless 6-string banjo with a cookie tin body. It sounds like the bastard love child of a Chinese instrument and a banjo. I sometimes use it with a removable pickup, and the sound changes completely when you place the pickup at different spots on the cookie tin, because of the resonances inside the metal. Another instrument I built is an assembly of flower pots on a metal rod. You strike it with a mallet, and it sound a bit like an Indonesian Gamelan. When I built it I went to Home Depot to select the flower pots by pitch – the sales people didn’t know what to make of the dude gently hitting and carefully listening to each flower pot. One of my favorite instruments of all time is very simple – stick a superball on a wooden BBQ skewer (carefully, or the ball will crumble) and drag the ball along any resonant surface while holding the skewer at about half it’s length. Sheet metal, drum skins or large windows work great. The faster you drag, the louder and higher the sound. The closer to the superball you hold the skewer, the higher the overall pitch. It can sound like whale songs or surreal alien lion roars… Fun!
You have experience in several arenas, such as scoring movies and TV shows, etc. Are there any differences in your creative approach when you make music for one or the other?
The creative approach differs a lot between writing music for film and writing music for CDs. TV and film are completely story-driven. Everything in the music, from style to form to instrumentation, comes from that. The music is very much an “actor” in the film, with everything about it determined by the “part” it is playing. When I write for film I always work very closely with the picture. First I figure out the overall approach – what style, what instruments – and then I map out the music for every scene in detail to the picture. Then, as I flesh things out, the film always keeps playing underneath the music. So it’s almost as if I was using virtual tracing paper to write music – placing it onto the film and tracing the music out on top of it.
Writing and producing a track for a CD is entirely different, since it usually starts from a purely musical idea. If it’s pop or concert music it may be a melody, a motif or a chord progression. If it’s urban, it may be a drum beat, a looped sound effect, or a synth riff. Everything else then builds on that. The form is also different. For instance, in pop, R&B and hip hop one usually can not have a track that has no chorus, or is all verses, or one that isn’t divided into groups of four or eight bars. But in film I do things like that all the time – the form of the film forces me to. So for me, the creative approach is quite different when working on film vs. when working on a track for a CD.
Do you find that one industry is more enjoyable to work in compared to another?
Not per se. In each industry there are people that I enjoy working with more than others, and in each industry there are situations that are more rewarding than others. I do prefer the music industry for the working hours – I’m a night person and love working late. Film people tend to get up early.
You’ve done a lot of traveling throughout your life, coming across different cultures and their music. How has that affected your music?
Those influences are all over my music! I lived in Brazil for a year while I was in high school, and went back again a few years later. I also toured in Russia and the Ukraine, and been all over Europe. Playing music in a number of different countries really opened my ears to how much else is out there. By now I’m not just influenced by the places I’ve lived in or visited, but also by music from other cultures that I studied – for example, I’ve never been to Indonesia, but I played in an Indonesian Gamelan orchestra for a year here in LA. Of course one year of practice doesn’t make you an expert, but it gave me tons of new musical ideas that I can now use in my own work. My various influences are now so much part of me that I often couldn’t even tell you where the different ideas and elements originally came from – it all becomes part of my own musical language.
Is there one place that you haven’t been that you’re looking to travel to?
Japan. It’s my favorite cuisine by far, plus I love the music and the art, so I’d like to spend some time there. I’d also like to visit Africa. My cousin’s husband is from Rwanda, so maybe I’ll go there. He and I jammed a bit at my sister’s wedding a few years back, and even though he says he’s not a musician he plays a wicked guitar – all that wonderful African poly-rhythmic stuff. So I’d love to explore the music of Rwanda more and meet the rest of his family. I also studied with two master musicians from Ghana while I was at CalArts, so that’d be another country I’d like to get to know better.
What is one of your more memorable studio sessions?
One of my favorites was at Hit City, when James Gadson came to the studio to lay down some drum tracks. He came in wearing a bright green track suit and he was playing a rather small kit. At the time I had no idea who he was, and I remember thinking he was just a rather odd looking dude. Then the engineer hits “record” and from the very first downbeat James lays down the absolute tightest groove I’d heard, ever! First take, bam, done. He truly is a phenomenon. Another highlight was a session when I was MIDI programming for Bobby Womack, and at various times people like Sly Stone and Ike Turner came to visit. Here I was, still pretty much fresh off the boat, working with one of my all-time musical heroes, while some of my other all-time musical heroes casually drop in to keep us company – I felt like I had won the lottery.
Talk briefly about working with the legendary Bobby Womack.
Bobby is hands down the most talented musician I have ever worked with. We were introduced when he came to the studio to put together a contemporary Gospel album. I ended up producing five or six tracks for that project, plus I did the programming for some of the other producers – one of them was Ali Woodson from The Temptations. A while later, when the Gospel project was ultimately shelved, Bobby didn’t forget me, but called me to produce a track he did with Ron Isley for his album “Resurrection” on Continuum. He didn’t have to do that, I was still very much a rookie at that time, but that’s the kind of guy Bobby is. We have lost contact over the last few years, but I owe him a lot.
You recently had the chance to work on “Stay Cool” which features Hilary Duff. How much did you get to work hands on with her?
Unfortunately not at all. She was on the film strictly as an actress, and while I did get to visit the shoot a few times, she was already done with her shooting days by the time I got hired. When you write the music score for a film, you really only work with the director, the producer and the editor, because the bulk of the work on the music happens in post-production, after the film is shot. But I did get to meet and hang with Hilary and her beau Mike Comrie at the Tribeca Film Festival premiere last spring. Had a great time, she’s really wonderful.
Have you two had a chance to speak since?
No, but I’d love to do a track with her when she gets back into music mode. We’ll see. Right now she’s very busy acting.
How was the premiere for the movie? Was the expierence worth missing the ASCAP expo?
The premiere was awesome. “Stay Cool” opened at the biggest screen in the Tribeca Film Festival, with some 1500 people. Nothing like being in a room with so many people watching your work, and they laugh in all the right places and are moved in all the right places. So while I was bummed to miss the ASCAP Expo and especially the iStandardproducer Showcase, I’d have to say it was worth it!
What are some of the biggest differences between the movie and music industries?
To be blunt, the movie industry hasn’t yet been brought to the edge of destruction by piracy and other developments. Nobody looks at a filmmaker and says in all seriousness, “well, give your movie away for free and make money selling T-shirts.” As we all know, in the music industry you hear remarks like that all the time. So the movie industry business models are still somewhat healthy, compared to the music industry.
Now, as technology progresses, the same challenges that the music industry has had to deal with for the past decade or so are slowly becoming issues in film as well. I do believe most of these issues in music and film will be resolved sooner or later – there’s still a lot of money being made by the likes of Google, AT&T and all the other companies that ultimately profit from offering access to original content. Some of that money will have to find its way back to those who actually create the content. But right now we’re in an interesting transition phase, to say the least…
What projects are you working on now?
I’m preparing a couple of films, including one very interesting documentary feature about a skatepark in Kabul, Afghanistan. I’ll be writing a score using a mix of traditional Afghan music, skate punk, recordings of Afghani environments (like a market in Kabul) and recordings of skateboarding sounds used as percussion elements. It’s a great project, and a very inspiring story. The film is still in production, the filmmakers just returned from their third trip to Kabul. I’m also very actively looking for good new CD projects to work on as producer. Besides that I make sure I keep making new beats and tracks every day, even when there’s no immediate need. That’s when you are really free to experiment and come up with fresh ideas.
Who is the number one artist or producer you haven’t worked with that you want to? Why?
This could be a long list, since I work in so many different styles and fields. In hip hop, my number one would definitely be Eminem and Dr. Dre. To me, they redefine the genre with every album, including the latest one. Love it. It’s almost as if each track is its own short film, and that approach is more up my alley than something that’s completely club-oriented. Plus Dr. Dre’s productions always sound amazing, there’s so much I could learn by watching him close up while he works his magic! Other people I’d love to work with are Andre 3000, Danger Mouse, Kanye West, plus a lot more. The list is long, there’s a lot of amazing musicians and artists in the world, and I didn’t even include any artists outside of hip hop, or film directors.
Any advice to producers coming into the business?
Make sure you always focus on the music, and on getting the chops you’ll need to be in this for the long haul. It’s easy nowadays to get fooled into thinking you already have what it takes because you can assemble a decent sounding track by cutting and pasting a few commercial samples and loops together. But I am convinced that if you want to have a life-long career as a music producer you have to be able to play at least one traditional instrument well, you have to be able to read and write music to some degree, you have to be able to arrange and write parts for a horn or string section or background vocals, and of course you have to have great studio chops. Now, once you have the musical chops covered, you *still* have to be sure you come up with your very own, unique musical vision. With so many producers trying to get in the business you must contribute something new, different and exciting to stand out and have a shot.
Of course it’s also important to network, to know the business ins and outs, to be professional and reliable, all that sort of stuff. But if you have all that covered *without* having absolutely outstanding musical vision, talent and skill, well then you’ll make a great manager but you’re still not a producer. Your music is the only thing you ultimately have to offer to the world, and that’s what you have to focus on because it better be exceptional!!! So no matter how hard the hustle gets, keep practicing, studying and creating music every single day. That’s my best advice.
Tags: Hilary Duff, istandard, iStandard Blog, istandard producer showcase, istandardproducers, istandardproducers.com, Kubi, track
PianoMan…
Megacool Blog indeed!… if anyone else has anything it would be much appreciated. Great website Enjoy!…
Have a very happy new year