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Question:
Mark, please tell me more about album production. I am interested in becoming a producer. What is the best way to do this? Should I go to school for it? I am also in a band, should I start off my career by producing our first album? Please Help!
Answer:
Thanks for your letter. As for producing, I don't know how I can specifically help you. I learned how to produce by trial and error in the studio. My first two demos and first album were self produced with the help of knowledgeable engineers. This allowed me to make every mistake in the book. Our second album was produced by Mark Heimerman (the producer for DC talk and Michael W. Smith). I learned most of what I know from him. This made a huge difference in the sound and quality of our recordings. I produced our third album with another band member and was finally set free to produce by myself the first project that I was truly proud of (WordSound&Power). On this album I also taught myself how to engineer in a studio. This was quite an experience.
Ultimately, the best way to learn is through experience. It is very hard to get experience without schooling, time in the studio and connections. Time served in the studio and who you know is what makes or breaks you. Schooling is good. It can teach you knowledge, but true experience is key and is very hard to come by. Then, when you finally get into the studio, most people end up doing grunt work by producing or engineering music or artists that they don't like or agree with. If you are just a producer, the best way to get a break is to find some local band that you believe in and take them into the studio to record their first project. However, this can be a risk for the band. Let them know this from the start. This rarely pays any money and can cost you a lot of time with no guaranteed return. But if the band blows up big and gets a contract, see if they can include you in their production deal or at least let you be and engineer or assistant. By the way, the engineer is the guy who does the most work in the studio. It is a tedious, difficult and often thankless job but it can also be a lot of fun.
However, in this day and age, most artists are breaking free from the ways of old and beginning to co-produce and eventually produce themselves. If a band likes the sound of another artist, wants to do a duet with an artist or get signed on the producer/artist's label they usually have them work on their next project. This is a huge trend. It seems that some of the biggest producers today started out this way such as Dr. Dre, Prince, Lenny Kravitz, Baby Face, Puff Daddy, R-Kelly, Etc, etc, etc...... You get the picture. The way that the industry is moving, it seems that the members of the bands of today will become the biggest producers of tomorrow. In fact, two of the greatest movie soundtrack producers of today; Danny Elfman and Mark Mothersbaugh began this way. Mark Mothersbaugh was in the 80's New Wave band "DEVO" and went on to produce the sound on various TV shows and movies (Including the "Rug Rats"). My hero Danny Elfman has advanced the greatest in producing in the last 15 years, from being the lead singer of "Oingo Boingo" to creating the musical theme for "The Simpsons", and writing and producing the scores for movie sound tracks such as "Pee Wee's Big Adventure", "Edward Scissor Hands", "Bat Man" and "Sleepy Hollow" movie just to name a few. However, this is not always the case. There are always exceptions. If you are good and have a lot of initiative, with time you can make it happen.
One last note, too many artists today, particularly in the genre of Christian Reggae are starting off by producing themselves. Please learn from my mistakes. Excellence is key when it comes to representing your talent and the gospel of Jesus Christ. It seems that once someone writes their first song they want to make a quantum leap into producing themselves. Please take my advice and learn all of the ropes from an expert at least on your first few projects. VERY, VERY rarely does someone self produce a first album that is a masterpiece like "the Mis-education of Lauren Hill", and even she had years of experience in the "Fugees" under the tutelage of other great producers before she journeyed out on her own. Such an uneducated risk of initial self production can be detrimental to your career/ministry. As Christians we need to set the standard, not be substandard. You want the world to hear your music and message, shabby production can seriously hinder this.
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