Music Mags

Leafing through a couple magazines, I came across some good stuff. For example, in EQ (I think that was it), there was a cool interview with Linda Perry, who is turning into a really hot producer. It was interesting to see her philosophy. I mean, EQ is completely Greek to me, since it's all about sound engineer stuff, but she talked about how all of her setup is completely guided by her ear. When she first started producing, someone had said, just plug something in and see how it sounds. If you don't like it, try something else. She also said that when stuff sounds bad she'll play the "random mikes" game and just grab some mikes and try them randomly until she finds something she likes. Also, on someone's record, don't know if it was Christina Aguilera or the woman from No Doubt, for one song she had her sing each line into a different mike, just walking down the line, to get a different sound/emotion for each.

From my experience of doing the record, I found that the engineer I hired (Gary Mankin) was so great, but I could never do what he does. I mean, I found sitting in the studio hour after hour so claustrophobic. I would do yoga to pass the time. I would be standing on my head behind him and suddenly he'd say "What do you think of this?" and I would crumble to the floor and have to pay attention. I'm referring to the mixing here--recording of course was a lot of fun and very active.

So here's something else, in Frets magazine: An interview from Oct. 1980 with Chet Atkins, king of fingerpicking guitar (I did not know that before I read this): Q: "How do you feel about your reputation?" A: "I'm not all that impressed with myself as a guitarist. In fact, I have to psych myself up all the time, and tell myself, 'I must be pretty good or they wouldn't have me on!' I guess that's the reason I'm always trying to learn new things."

That made me feel better, and I think perhaps that is a reason to learn new things--so long as it doesn't mean you're a dilletante.

There's also an article in this issue about Ani DiFranco--funny how she uses all these alternate tunings, until she lost her long-time guitar tech so now she's back to standard tunings for stuff. I haven't listened much to her, but I admire her awesome indie prowess.

From Keyboard mag, here's Chick Corea: "My approach to the piano and technique has always been guided by the demands of whatever musical project I have going on. My compositions are the things that push me to have to practice and learn to play them. I'll whip them out as an improvisation, or as a written idea. Then I'll really need to apply myself to the notes in order to learn them myself. You just have to start with the attitude that it can be done, then you go for it, and you can do it."

"What's really inspired me was the realzation that true friendships are the richness of life. There's nothing more dear or precious than real friendship. Then when you have a friendship that also includes musical creativity, you have a God-like relationship. I found my life at that point to be richer than I had imagined. Not because of anything I had accomplished in the past, but because of the existence of these friends."

Wow, that's inspiring. I guess I am rich after all.