Archive for 'Producer Profile'

When you sit down to mix a song, you may find yourself bursting with excitement about delivering the best mix ever that you immediately begin dropping in plugins and tweaking like a crazy person. A little compression here, a little EQ there. You’re just going for it! But what if I told you that there was one crucial step in the mixing process that you can only do once and never get back to if you skip it? Would you be interested?

Hearing A Song For The First Time

I was listening to Grammy winning mixer Dave Pensado over at Pensado’s Place and he said something that struck me as very wise. In describing his process for mixing and how he starts, he dropped this insightful nugget of gold:

There’s only one time to hear a song the first time, and I like to catalogue my first impressions because I trust them. So I’ll begin the process by pulling out pen and paper and noting down the weaknesses and strengths of a song. - Dave Pensado, Mixer (Christina Aguilera, Destiny’s Child, Justin Timberlake)

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I recently had the pleasure of sitting down (over skype) with pro mixer and producer Mark Endert of Madonna, Maroon 5, and Fiona Apple fame. Originally from California, the now Floridian has worked with so many top artists and continues to mix major projects in his own studio. His discography spans even more people like Gavin DeGraw, Train, Five For Fighting, The Fray, Adam Lambert, and the list goes on. For a more complete list of his credits please visit his site.

This Guy Knows Mixing

If you want to make great recordings and mixes then go to the source, someone who does phenomenal work. Mark is one of those guys and his work speaks for itself. In this interview Mark was gracious enough to answer a lot of my questions and shed some light on the world of making hit records, including:

• How breaking the “rules” is crucial to being creative
• Capturing the right vibe is more important than sound quality
• Mark’s mixing workflow, finding what makes a song tick
• How to know when your mix is done
• How keeping separate mixing sessions is a life saver
• Your levels are like your first “EQ” in the mix
• How committing to sounds in the recording phase is crucial

One of the most successful and influential rock producers and mixers in the 90s (and to this day) is Brendan O’Brien. He’s responsible for killer albums (and Grammy awards) from bands like Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bruce Springsteen, Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave, and the list goes on and on.

From Atlanta To LA And Back

Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, O’Brien was playing in local bands at an early age. He quickly got into engineering and production and worked on projects from the Indigo Girls and other local artists. He really got going with his professional carreer when he engineered the Black Crowes album “Shake Your Money Maker”. People took notice of Brendan’s skills and he moved his family to LA to dive even deeper into the industry.

Soon he was working for Geffen records and specifically under the direction of legendary producer Rick Rubin. His early work on Stone Temple Pilots’ “Core” and Pearl Jam’s “Vs” propelled him to legit status. He soon moved back to Atlanta and continued his insanely successful career.

Part Of The Band?

Your role as a producer can vary a lot from band to band, but in a recent interview O’Brien discusses his intimate role with the latest Pearl Jam record…

Every artist is different. Everybody’s different. In this particular situation, they worked a lot on their own with the songs and I helped them with the arrangements. There was another writing session—I didn’t write the songs, but I was there—in Montana up at Jeff’s place where Eddie wasn’t around, it was just the band together, and it was sort of my job to help them pull all the ideas together and get them arranged. I feel like, on this record, they allowed me to be more of a part of it than maybe in the past.

And if you ever look at the credits on many of those killer rock albums O’Brien has produced or mixed you’ll notice his name in their as a musician as well. Brendan is a solid musician and is regularly brought in by bands to lay down additional guitar or bass parts. I think that is one of the best signs of a healthy producer/band relationship, when the band actually wants the producer to “play” with them on a record. And the proof is in the successful pudding.

In this video interview with Anberlin, they guys talk about putting their trust in O’Brien as a producer on their 2010 album. It’s a good example of what a producer can do for a band and how he can help bring out the best in them.

O’Brien’s Killer Discography

Like I said, Brendan O’Brien is one of my personal favorite producers, mostly because the albums I grew up listening too sound incredible and they were all produced by him! Here’s a select list of some of his work either as a producer or mixer:

• Blood Sugar Sex Magik - Red Hot Chili Peppers (with Rick Rubin) (1991)
• Core - Stone Temple Pilots (1992)
• Vs. - Pearl Jam (1993)
• Superunknown - Soundgarden (1994)
• Purple - Stone Temple Pilots (1994)
• Vitalogy - Pearl Jam (1994)
• Evil Empire - Rage Against the Machine (1996)
• No Code - Pearl Jam (1996)
• Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop - Stone Temple Pilots (1996)
• Yield - Pearl Jam (1998)
• Follow the Leader - Korn (1998)
• No. 4 - Stone Temple Pilots (1999)
• Issues - KoЯn (1999)
• The Battle of Los Angeles - Rage Against the Machine (1999)
• Conspiracy Of One - The Offspring (2000)
• Shangri-La Dee Da - Stone Temple Pilots (2001)
• Drops of Jupiter - Train (2001)
• The Rising - Bruce Springsteen (2002)
• Out Of Exile - Audioslave (2005)
• Revelations - Audioslave (2006)
• Light Grenades - Incubus (2006)
• Black Ice - AC/DC (2008)
• Dark is the Way, Light is a Place - Anberlin (2010)

With a rock resume including bands like Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, Jimmy Eat World, Muse, and Foo Fighters, producer/musician Butch Vig is the real deal. Most notably known as the drummer for the 90s hit band, Garbage, Vig has had a successful career of creating music on both sides of the “glass.”

Musician To Producer

Growing up in Viroqua Wisconsin and eventually going to school in Madison, Wisconsin, Vig went from playing music in bands, to starting a studio, to eventually producing major rock records. His career really took off after he produced and recorded the legendary Nevermind album from Nirvana in 1991.

His work on that record helped shape a sound that countless bands copied for quite a few years. The combination of stripped down rock arrangements with raw vocal performances plus a steady consistent drum and bass back beat gave Nirvana’s catchy songs a perfect radio platform.

Back In As A Musician

In 1995, Garbage’s self titled debut album was released and Butch Vig spent a few solid years focusing on drumming and producing for his own band. Selling over 14 million records, Garbage was a total hit.  While doing a little producing from ’95 to 2005, Vig was mostly drumming for his band.

Since 2005 however, he has swung back into the producing role of things, and most recently produced and recorded the new Foo Fighters album, Wasting Light, which has garnered some attention as being tracked completely analog and in a garage.

Quite A Resume

Butch Vig has produced some killer rock records over the years and he’s not slowing down. Here are just a few of his notable projects he’s produced (or played on)…

• 1991: The Smashing Pumpkins - Gish
• 1991: Nirvana - Nevermind
• 1992: Sonic Youth - Dirty
• 1992: L7 - Bricks Are Heavy
• 1993: The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
• 1995: Garbage - Garbage
• 1998: Garbage - Version 2.0
• 2001: Garbage - Beautiful Garbage
• 2003: AFI - Sing the Sorrow
• 2005: Garbage - Bleed Like Me
• 2007: Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light
• 2009: Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown
• 2009: Foo Fighters - Greatest Hits
• 2010: Muse – “Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)“
• 2011: Foo Fighters – Wasting Light

If you want to stay up on what Vig is doing, you can follow him on Twitter: @butchvig and see what he’s up to.