Photo By Gary Miller
Panel: Producers and Their Process
Austin Convention Center, Saturday, March 15 When a musician enters the studio with a mind full of ideas, a van full of instruments, and maybe a voice, these are the guys that turn it all into an album. They record, engineer, add, subtract, write, arrange, and until recently, aside from a few award ceremonies, reside in the shadows of an artist's arrogance. At the Recording Academy's "Producers and Their Process" panel, five top producers had their say about the creative process, from pre-production to finished product, and the mounting pressures from record execs hungry to turn music into profit. There's no set process, so the panel began with a rundown of the different processes and the varying degrees of handholding needed to create anything from rock to hip-hop. When the band thinks they're done, these are the guys who push them. That turned out to be the perfect cue for tardy Star Trak/Neptunes producer Pharrell Williams, who entered to applause and brought with him candid energy and a firey presence for phase two of the discussion. Williams empowered the role of producer, paralleling his success and star power as featured solo artist, before aggressively speaking out. "We have something they can't do," he said forcefully. "We make the music, and when you hear melodies that give you goose bumps, they can't pay for that. It's corporations that only care about numbers and quotas. Don't do what these companies want you to do. Stand up, home in on what your feeling, and don't try to fit in, 'cause your only cutting yourself short."
