No one is ever left unscathed by the changing tides of politics and business. Not in Rome, not in the time of the Tudors and certainly not during the wild storms of a nascent country founded by John Adams, among other thankfully willful and persistent dreamers. Now that you know I watch a lot of HBO as my evening brain drain from producing records, let me relate a little more closely to this music life we have chosen.

The “Welcome to the Machine” mat has long been taken up for the artist and replaced by a dare to “come and get it if you can find it.”

 

And Welcome Live Nation, to the record business.

 

A recent NY Times article says:

 

As CD sales plunge, record labels and promoters are racing to secure deals that cut them in on all of an artist’s revenue streams- from recordings, tours, publishing and licensing rights, endorsements and other endeavors.

 

Jay-Z’s comment on his new $150 million deal with the concert promoter Live Nation: “Everyone’s trying to figure it out. I want to be on the front lines in that fight”. You see? Politics, war and business have never been such close bed-fellows. I am trying to hold on see where music actually fits in.

 

Another quote:

 

With the industry desperate for a new business model, EMI has turned to Douglas Merrill, a VP at Google. Mr. Merrill told Billboard: “I believe people will pay money for artists’ creativity. What I don’t know yet is where they’ll pay money and how much and for what kind of form.”

 

Gee, Doug, join the club ... I thought you had the ANSWERS?

 

I have been lucky enough to continually find great talent and musical chops (both discovered and yet to be) in my own back yard. It helps to live in New York!  Mostly I am in East Hampton though, bringing artists from all over out to my home and my studio and spending our long hours un-pressured by the big studio clock. When the budget allows, and the space is required I am always more than happy to bring my game to Legacy, Avatar or Kampo Studios in Manhattan where the warm wood of time- weathered rooms makes my job ten times easier and the artists happy for the chance to work in both the large and small media. Still trying to gracefully integrate the personal computer into the large format console listening position. There are only a few fully digital rooms that also have an analog path between mic and monitors and a large screen that doesn’t favor one ear during tracking. Until a full changeover is accomplished (which will be impossible, since everyone’s needs are ever-changing) I would love to see an easily retrofitted non-linear system with large screen monitor right in the middle of my Neve or SSL.

 

Check the Discography if you want project news. I have bla-blah-blogged long enough.

 

Ancient History Not On HBO:

 

One afternoon I sat in our makeshift recording mobile waiting for my equally young and ambitious partner to return from a Boston rental equipment vendor. Out he came with a hand truck, wheeling a console and a couple of amps to round out our rig for some serious live recording for the King Biscuit Flower Hour. (I told you it was ancient history.)  It was 1979 and I had finished college, started mixing live sound for a couple of punk bands and was making my way towards the conclusion that this was not going to be a PART of my life, but clearly would be my ENTIRE life if I were to make something of my career. The following song ACTUALLY came on the radio and a part of me died, my wasted but very free youth I think, as a bigger part of me took a silent commitment to the future. Anticipation and fear, passion and compromise would work their pas de deux within my soul for years to come. And today I am quite sure it was the only choice to make.