The Musician as Producer

According to Homer (2009, p.86), many more people nowadays create music simply because the tools are much more accessible. The growing market of home recording studios leads to professionals losing some of their power, and to an ongoing process of changing expectations towards sound quality (Persson, 2006, pg. 18). Before the democratisation of technology, artists, who often had no other means to record than through a record label, often had creative and locative limitations imposed upon them (Hracs, 2009, p. 444). Often these limitations on creativity happened in the studio, as the place of creation of the sonic artefact, with the involvement of people undertaking different roles (sound engineers, songwriters, producers, session musicians, etc.).

In a study on musicians and their experiences with producers and sound engineers (Pras and Guastavino, 2011), it was found that when reporting positive studio experiences, musicians appreciated a lot of input from the producer; but when reporting negative experiences, they commented on producers being too intrusive. It is definitely a fine line between having an input in someone else’s music and controlling the musicians.

The producer Howard Benson recalls an experience in his early career of observing a ‘heavyweight’ of the industry produce the record of a band:  

'He made songwriters come and background singers come and the band that thought they were going to get more now saw that it was now his record. […] He had a room called the ‘intimidation room’. When conflicts came up, he would bring people into this room, with gold records literally from wall to wall, and then he would say ‘But what do I know?’ It was hardcore' (Grierson, Kimpel, 2009, pg. 82).

The role of a producer is to mediate between all the factors affecting the resulting production (the artist, the engineer and the record company, as financial facilitator) and to make creative choices based on critical evaluation (such as performance evaluation, mix, choice of microphones, etc.) which would lead to an outcome that will satisfy commercial aspirations (of the label, that has an interest to amortise investment and make a profit) (Howlett, 2012, unpag.). This will inevitably influence the creative decisions of the producer and of the artists. Of course, even without a label, artists can seek to appease to the general taste, which leads to them creating so-called ‘commercial’ music. But undoubtedly, when dealing with one’s own resources, the external pressure is much diminished and merging the producer with the artist into one entity will help bring the music to life with more fidelity to the initial creative idea. 

This ‘do-it-yourself’ philosophy is not new; the 1970s punk culture used it to define itself against the ‘mainstream pop and rock’ of the period and, in the same decade, it could be found in the New York hip-hop scene (Homer, 2009, pp. 86-87). 

The musique concrète experiments of Schaeffer, Stockhausen and Varèse were facilitated by technology and by a desire to interact with technology in innovative ways. Brian Eno described the studio as a musical instrument, arguing that high cost of studio time deters from the engagement in experimental activities and focuses one’s attention to tried and tested techniques (Cunningham, 1998, p. 335). Not only does technology enable musicians to record themselves, but it allows them to translate creative ideas into practice with close to no limit but their imagination; it is now possible to reproduce through virtual instruments and samples the sound of real instruments (with a sample library like Vienna Symphonic library one has a whole orchestra at the one’s fingertips), but also to manipulate sound in infinite ways to create ‘the impossible’.

Musicians who have gone down the self-production route include Moby, who describes himself as ‘a little bald guy who makes music in his bedroom’ (Cook, 2015). Moby’s multi-million selling album Play (1999) was recorded at his home using Cubase software and a traditional studio mixing desk (Sound on Sound, 2000). Similarly, DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing album (1996) was self-produced using ‘an Akai MPC 6011 sampling workstation’ and ‘a Technics turntable’ (Berk, 2000, quoted in Homer, 2009, p. 92). 

Homer (2009, p. 94) quotes from an interview with Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, published in Tara Brabazon’s text Thinking Popular Culture (2008): ‘Now, you can just get a laptop, get some software, put a microphone on it and make a record. You have to know how to do it.’  McGuinn emphasises the potential of home-recording technologies, but also the importance of know-how, of acquiring the necessary skills and literacies to use technology at a professional standard.

Self-producing one’s music removes the middle man and encourages limitless creativity, but often in the detriment of another type of creativity stimulated by the interaction with other people in the studio environment. On the other hand, it can be problematic for artists to critique their own work. It is interesting to note how the Internet encourages musicians to network and socialise, while the development of recording technology pushes the musician into a solitary environment. This observation is confirmed by Sexton (2009, p. 94), who notes the isolation of the musician-producer and the fragmentation of musical production in this context. 

I believe that the biggest challenge of being a musician and self-producer is the ability to stay fresh. When there are no other people involved, one can become anchored in the same processes and practices; As a songwriter, I normally write songs at the piano; I perform them by singing and playing the piano, and, if there is a backing, it is usually an arrangement of real instruments (most likely standard band set-up, with occasional synths or other acoustic instruments, such as violin or cello). Recently I tried to change this practice by incorporating electronic elements into my songwriting and trying out different different approaches to songwriting through the prism of creating music with computers. These approaches were mainly:
arranging a song from an acoustic version to a a more complex version, incorporating electronic elements in the arrangement - so starting from the melody, lyrics and chords and fleshing them up;

writing the instrumental first, then the melody and lyrics, in the style of a top line writer;

writing the arrangement and the melody and lyrics at the same time, building the song gradually in sections, with these elements constantly influencing each other. 

I found that alternating these processes helped; the new EP that I'm working on is significantly different in style to 'Monsters', the EP I released last year. The main difference is that it incorporates more electronic elements; but because the style is so different, I am forced to experiment different genre-appropriate, production techniques.

References:

Homer, M. (2009) ‘Beyond the Studio: The Impact of Home Recording Technologies on Music Creation and Consumption’.Nebula 6.3 pp.85-99. Available at: http://www.nobleworld.biz/images/Homer.pdf (Accessed: 20.10.2015)

Hracs, B. (2012) 'A Creative Industry In Transition: The Rise Of Digitally Driven Independent Music Production’ in Growth Change 43.3 (2012): pp.442-461. Available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2257.2012.00593.x/pdf (Accessed 19.10.2015)

Persson, S. (2006) Technology, Society, Industry and Music: The changing roles of the record producer and the recording engineer since 1970’. Lulea University of Technology, Music and Media. Available at: https://pure.ltu.se/ws/files/30999132/LTU-CUPP-06139-SE.pdf (Accessed: 17.10.2015)

Pras, A., and Guastavino, C. (2011) 'The Role Of Music Producers And Sound Engineers In The Current Recording Context, As Perceived By Young Professionals'. Musicae Scientiae 15.1 pp.