My car’s “scan” button (and LL Cool J) make me a better producer.

Except for a couple of news stations, I do not really use presets in my car stereo. The reason for this is that I love the “scan” button that moves through the dial playing little bits of each program until you hit the button again to make it stop on something. I do this for two reasons: One is just that I genuinely like variety, but, more importantly, I am constantly struggling to be a better producer. Exposing myself to new sounds not only keeps me current on new trends, but helps be see musical dilemmas from different perspectives.

I was thinking about this a lot a couple days ago. I am working out of a couple studios on the east coast this month producing an album for an iconic heavy metal band. I was driving back from White Star Sound near Charlottesville (my new favorite studio on the east coast) to Richmond.

I had been wrestling with one of the songs on the album, trying to find a way to get the vocals to really serve the song. We had good stuff, but nothing had really clicked yet.

So, I am driving along I-64 scanning through stations when it latches onto Richmond’s old school hip-hop session. They are playing LL Cool J’s classic “Mama Said Knock You Out.” As I am listening to LL’s amazing delivery, the answer to the production dilemma I had been wrestling with popped into my head: We needed to re-think how we were delivering the rhythm and groove of the vocals. “Mama said knock you out” has a fantastic delivery where the accents of the back beats (the 2nd and 4th beats of a bar in 4/4) are super tight and punchy, but the notes in between flow fairly free. This allows for lots of expression, while still maintaining a powerful groove. On the song I was producing, the singer and I had a situation where I wanted things to be tighter to the groove and he wanted the freedom to be expressive with the time. Listening to “Mama Said Knock You Out” gave me ideas how I could find a delivery that better served the song and got both of us what we wanted. Applying some of the techniques of LL Cool J helped us make a better heavy metal album.

I am constantly learning from a wide range of music and production styles. I have applied things I learned from a Katy Perry production to Americana projects. I get ideas about pop snare sounds from AC/DC albums. I get phrasing ideas on rock albums from traditional world music albums. I like the scan button on my car stereo, but you can do similar things bouncing around various playlists in something like Spotify. The point is to keep your mind open and keep learning. It helps make better music and helps you competitive professionally.

The Mountain Recording Retreat starts this Sunday, May 7, 20017. It is going to be amazing! If you want to come last minute we still have space and still have discounts available for those that need them. I want to thank my friends at LA Sound Panels for helping us treat the main room at the retreat and my favorite music store, Chuck Levin’s Washington Music Center for helping out with the monitoring for the main presentation room (with the surprisingly great Genelec 8040s).

Thanks
Ronan