Music Smarts

You could hum a few notes from Peter Gunn to a hermit in the Himalayas and chances are he’d pull down his shades and start tapping his foot in time to the classic jazz soundtrack of the 50s.  The Pink Panther theme is probably more widely recognized, and liked, than “The Star Spangled Banner.”  Croon a little “Moon River” and generations of movie romantics will get all blubbery and nostalgic.

Just a few of his movie scores: Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Days of Wine and Roses, Charade, Arabesque, The White Dawn, Silver Streak, 10, Victor/Victoria.  Television: Newhart, Remington Steele, What’s Happening, The Blue Knight, The Thornbirds. The stats are substantial:  17 Academy Award Nominations; 4 Oscars, 20 Grammys, 7 gold albums, a Golden Globe.

BONZAI: Do you have any gripes with the scoring industry — anything you would like eliminated?
MANCINI: Well (laughs), first you shoot most of the directors and producers.  That’s a sweeping statement, and there are some that are sweethearts, that are a big asset, and then there are those that are afraid.  You are messing with their baby and you better not put the wrongs clothes on it.

BONZAI: Is that a crushing experience when you come up with something that you feel is lovely, and perfect, and you get shot down?
MANCINI: Yeah, but then there’s the next case, judge.  I don’t take it personally and I consider where its coming from.  Many times when you get shot down, it’s the right decision.  Sometimes you get shot down by your friends, too, you know.  A composer isn’t the end all and the final judge of what is right for the picture.  Sometimes the people who make the picture have an instinct.  I always leave the door open.

Henry Mancini is in MUSIC SMARTS.  Read a new review from Music Connection here.

Spinal Tap’s 25th reunion album, Back From the Dead, arrives on June 16.  You’ve probably been wondering how they get that massive Derek Smalls  bass sound and that breathtaking Nigel Tufnel guitar sound.  Here is the secret, from my Mix magazine interview with the band’s producer/mixer CJ Vanston:

BONZAI: How do you get that massive bass sound?
VANSTON: Derek has an amp that has tubes from a Russian fighter jet in it. Some guy in Latvia built the electronics. The speaker cones are actually woven by hand, although we recently discovered that those hands were children’s hands in China.  After a long deliberation, we decided that only enhanced the childish innocence that Derek brings to the band. Ed also uses some Tube-tech multi-band compressor on it to reign in the terror that is Derek’s bass part.

BONZAI: How do you get that breathtaking guitar sound?
VANSTON: What is interesting is how well David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel compliment each other’s guitar sounds. Nigel as you know has his amps built special, at least the knobs are special, but David is happy with whatever happens to be in the studio.  We used amp boxes to keep the leakage to a minimum.  The Village has a really great studio (D) that has lots of nooks and crannies to put all the extra cabinets that Nigel and David use. But when it comes down to it, it’s the shear rage that they both play with. I put down a ban on all therapy during the making of this record, the last thing we want is a bunch of happy guys playing all la-la rainbows and daisies.

And if you’d like to hear the boys talking about the album and their career, click here for my two-part video interview.

I’ve seen Ross Hogarth at work many times and he is not only smart, he’s got a lot of heart.  He creates a roomful of comfort, with special considerations for each of the musicians.  It’s a pleasure you can feel in the music he’s recorded with artists such as REM, Ziggy Marley, Keb Mo, Jewel, Melissa Etheridge, John Mellencamp, John Fogerty, and Motley Crüe.

Hogarth continues to work at the finest studios around, but as a result of the massive changes in our recording industry, he has created a personal workspace in his LA rancho which he calls BoogieMotel.  He has a wealth of vintage outboard gear, mic-pre’s and microphones, plus a powerful computer supplied with an impressive arsenal of plug-ins.  He selects the gear depending on the project.
Hogarth is a master of old school analog recording and he has utilized that knowledge in creating digital product that has an uncanny analog touch.  Let’s talk recording with him and delve into the technology and philosophy

BONZAI: How do you integrate your analog outboard gear with your in the box approach?  You have to come out of the digital and go through them, and then convert and go back into digital.  Is there any degradation?
HOGARTH: In a clinical way, you could say there is.  One of the reasons I don’t use an analog summing box, is I don’t want my entire mix degraded.  The elements that I choose to go out to analog gear requires a very careful decision about the sonic that I am going to get out of that “degradation” compared with the plus that I get from that outboard piece of gear.  Aside from the effects there are only ten or twelve pieces of gear that are going to be used in my mix.  That process, compared with the plusses those boxes give me, far outweigh any degradation issues.  I am using this analog gear as an insert in ProTools.  It’s basically plugged in, going digital to analog out, then analog to digital back in.

BONZAI: Looking back and thinking about today, what is your philosophy of recording?
HOGARTH: I think the technology keeps changing and my philosophy about what I do is in a place of certainty that allows for constant change.
I have always believed in the song and the muse. I believe there is no fooling what comes out of the speakers. It either sounds like music or it doesn’t. I try to capture sounds and performances so they hold up over the test of time. In recording I try and use the right mic and the right placement for the application without needing to add gobs of EQ or manipulation.
I try and move swiftly so as to not complicate the process with my own self-importance in the recording process. If I move faster and I am one step ahead, then the artist gets to follow his muse and it helps let the music flow. In the end I want to record quality mixable sounds that have attitude or at least the initial integrity of the sound. I have had to re-learn some of the technology in terms of analog versus digital, but I am still the same recording engineer I always was as far as making sure that the speakers don’t lie.

If you would like to read the whole enchilada, with minute technical details, proceed to MrBonzai.com and follow the trail.

Here is a stiill frame from “Mark’s EXplosive Organ,” filmed with Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh on location at his Mutato Muzika studios in Hollywood.  Mark included this film in his 6-Volume collection of organ music.  Witness Mark’s explosive creativity as he strides into his music lab, warms up the electric organ, and whips up a tune that will rock your socks off!  Mark’s beloved pug, Fibi, makes a brief cameo appearance and occasionally barks on beat.

Mark is, of course, adept at composing music with the latest digital software and hardware for films, television, commercials, and for his band DEVO.  But here we step back in time to witness a live, no-edit, performance on this mighty instrument, an Elka EP-12, circa 1985.

To see the 3-minute short film click here.

CJ Vanston is one of the most gifted and diversified musicians I have met in my Hollywood decades.  He’s a composer, keyboardist, bandleader, engineer, producer, and he also knows where to find the best restaurants.

This year, Spinal Tap re-recorded their entire first album, This Is Spinal Tap, with additional new songs and a DVD, at The Village in Los Angeles, with Vanston producing and ace engineer Ed Cherney recording what must be one of the most anticipated juggernauts of comedy music mayhem ever conceived!  Back From the Dead is coming out June 16, 2009.

*************************

Pictured (L-R) are CJ Vanston, David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel, and Derek Smalls.

********************
BONZAI: What do you do for Spinal Tap?
VANSTON: I have multiple functions with Tap, ranging from being their producer, keyboard player, musical director, photographer and archivist, etc. I also find Chinese restaurants in each city that still use MSG. Hard to find these days, but the boys love their MSG.

**********************
BONZAI: How do you get that huge Spinal Tap sound?
VANSTON: Well, we cut everything to 2-inch analog at +9. Which is fine. But the trick is this: engineer Ed Cherney and I transfer everything to ProTools and back to get that modern, hashy sound that the kids are used to with their MP3s and such.  Most of the old guys are out of touch with the quality of recorded music these days and make the mistake of making things too warm and rich. We live in a harsh world these days, and I believe the sound of the band should reflect that.

*************************

Much more of this interview, as well as a chat with the members of Tap will appear in the June issue of Mix magazine.  We’ll also have a short filmed interview with Vanston and the Tap.  Stay tuned for details.

You can enjoy another excerpt from the interview at   www.MrBonzai.com

Greetings from Hollywood, Entertainment Capital of the World.  I actually live right under the HOLLYWOOD sign, which used to read: HOLLYWOODLAND, before the “LAND” fell down after repeated earthquakes.  It is the world’s first themed residential community and believe me, this city really rocks.  This week I’d like you to check out this BonzFire film we shot for you students in the virtual Berkleemusic classrooms.  Music was composed and recorded by one of your fellow students.  Everybody loves a winner…

Robin Goodchild, a Commercial Music Production graduate of England’s University of Manchester, and apprentice audio engineer at Ocean Way recording studios in Hollywood, recently completed his first online course with Berkleemusic, Music Theory 101.

“I was surprised at how much I learned—by the end of the course my confidence had grown immensely,” Robin says. “Music Theory crops up in everything that I do, and if I had known about this course a few years ago I think I would be a lot further along by now.”

Hollywood’s famed Ocean Way houses some of the best sounding large live rooms ever built. Constructed in 1958, the studios have been the site of an astonishing number of classic hit records which have sold in excess of a billion copies worldwide.

To view the film, click HERE.

Read down to the bottom for the free song.

I haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting the enigmatic and unpredictable Bob Dylan, but I have met a number of musicians who have worked with him, including drummer Jim Keltner, who once told me, “Everybody’s got a story about Bob and a lot of them are about how cold he is.  I’ve heard people say that they worked for Dylan for 12 hours and he never said a word.  That always makes me laugh, because I’ve been in that situation, too — but I know the other side of him as well.”  Mr. Keltner was the drummer in the quiet supergroup, the  Traveling Wilburys, along with George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison.

I recently spoke with singer/songwriter Mark Turnbull, who is by far the most knowledgeable and insightful Dylan scholar I know.  He told me that none of the many, many reviewers of the new album, Together Through Life, have noticed that it has a connecting conceptual storyline.  “It’s like a film,” Mark told me, “with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Very cinematic.”  The new Rolling Stone has a long and surprising interview with Mr. Dylan.

Here are some Dylan reflections from my new Berklee Press book, MUSIC SMARTS:

Meeting Heroes
“Bob Dylan spoke of the end of idolatry after he met Woodie Guthrie. By meeting them, it makes those artists not only human, but often less than human. You see that all the pieces don’t have to be there. That’s what can make them unique—their limitations.”
—David Was

Play in the Moment
“What I’ve seen as a producer is a small handful of guys like Keith Richards, Willie Nelson, and Bob Dylan, who know how to let go and play in the moment, and not think about it. They lose musical self-consciousness.”
—Don Was

Building the Wilburys
“At night, after we’d finish the sessions on George Harrison’s album, we’d have a drink and say, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have a group with anybody we want?’ That’s how it really came about. George said, ‘I’ll have Bob Dylan,” and I said, ‘Then I’ll have Roy Orbison.’ We’d both known Tom Petty, and I had been working with him, and Tom seemed the ideal person, and it all fitted together.
—Jeff Lynne

Revelations
The people that really blew my mind—that changed me radically and constantly—were Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Stones, Van Morrison, and Joni Mitchell—writers who plumbed the depth of their experience and revealed things about all of our lives.
—Jackson Browne

David Bianco recorded and mixed the new album from Bob.   Courtesy of David’s manager, Frank McDonough, here’s a link — listen here to “Beyond Here Lies Nothing.”

If you’d like to find out more about the adventures of Mr. Bonzai, click HERE.

 For those of you who enjoy humor and music, this week we pull some words from the archives: a 1997 interview with “Weird Al” Yankovic.

BONZAI: Al, what is the first music that you remember hearing?
WEIRD AL: One of my earliest musical memories is a song called “Boa Constrictor” – sung by Johnny Cash and written by the brilliant Shel
Silverstein.  The recording ends with the boa constrictor belching — which to a five-year-old is, of course, the pinnacle of cerebral humor.
The first pop song I remember hearing was “These Boots Were Made For Walkin’” by Nancy Sinatra.  And even as a small child, I could play
that guitar solo.

BONZAI: What great truth did you learn from your grandfather, Blind Lemon Yankovic?
WEIRD AL: Grandpa Blind always told me, “Son – remember… you can pick your friends, and you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t keep
your eyes open while you’re sneezing.”  And I never forgot that.

BONZAI: Who were your heroes when you were getting started?
WEIRD AL: The artists that influenced me the most were Spike Jones, Allan Sherman, Stan Freberg,Tom Lehrer – people that I came to
appreciate through my weekly exposure to the Dr. Demento radio show.

BONZAI: How would you like to be remembered in the Encyclopedia Brittanica?
WEIRD AL: Well, I think I’d like to be remembered as the all-powerful master and ruler of the universe.

If you’d like to see what Mr. Yankovic is up to today, visit MrBonzai.com

If you’d like to make a comment, please do.  If you have a question for Al, go right ahead.  I will be seeing him soon during the mix sessions for his new songs.  I will try to get your answer…

Here is a bit of a very long interview with Kristofferson from 15 years ago, when he was one of The Highwaymen.  Only Willie and Kris are left now.  Kristofferson’s got a new album coming out this year, once again produced by Don Was.

BONZAI:  Was performing with The Highwayman a high point of your performing experience?

KRISTOFFERSON: It was definitely one of them.  When I look back on my life for some kind of perspective, it seems like something you would fantasize — seeing myself with Barbra Streisand, and looking next to myself onstage and seeing people who were my absolute heroes.  When I went to be a songwriter, I did it for the love and not for the money.  I loved everything about it and admired the people who were good at it, and Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson were right up there at the top.  And Waylon is the closest to a hero.

To be up there with them and singing along on these songs that are such a part of your soul because you grew up with them — it’s a wonderful thing.  I’m sure it drives ‘em crazy sometimes when I’m harmonizing. [laughs]  One time John said, “I don’t think there’s another person in the world who would have the nerve to sing harmony with me on “Folsom Prison.”  And I didn’t know how to take that! [laughs]  So, I didn’t do it for the next show, and then I guess he got to feeling bad about it and told me to start singing harmony again.

from my new Berklee book:

Due Diligence
“Paying the dues is learning how to believe in yourself, when all the evidence is to the contrary.”
—Kris Kristofferson

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON
“Road Scholar” 1994

When Ed Cherney told me he was mixing Kris Kristofferson’s new album down at Brooklyn Recording, with Don Was producing, I immediately asked if I could drop by for “lunch.”   When I arrived, Ed was working on a mix, so I settled back into the sofa and heard a riff fly by a few times while he made some final adjustments.  The band was tight, the words were right and Kristofferson sounded confident, natural and never better.

Don Was, who must juggle a dozen records every day, was “running a little late.”  Kristofferson arrived, hands were shook all ‘round and Ed unveiled the mix.  Kristofferson hunkered down at the board, concentrating, nodding, then smiling, and finally just throwing his arms up and laughing with sheer joy.

When Don appeared in his signature “casual” wardrobe, he said, “Oh, Mr. Bonzai!  I’m sorry man, I forgot about the photos —  and here I am in my pajamas…” Someone wisecracked from the sidelines, “C’mon Don — you’re always in your pajamas.”

Don sat down at the Neve 8078 and offered a few suggestions for bringing out a guitar.  Ed described some frequency collision areas and together they worked on it a bit more, laid it down, popped it in a boom box just to make sure it was done, and Ed set up for the next mix.

Kristofferson was born in Brownsville, Texas, and moved to California in his teens.  While in college he was awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship and continued his education at Oxford University during the late 50s.  It was here that he started writing songs, which continued during his days as an Army pilot, eventually landing a job as “studio set-up guy” in Nashville.  Songs such as “Help Me Make It Through The Night”, “Me And Bobby McGee,” and “For The Good Times” established him as a major writer and launched his hardworking career as a performer, recording artist, actor and outspoken spokeman for human rights.

BONZAI: What do you primarily think of yourself as?
KRISTOFFERSON: Songwriter.  I think that I can interpret my own material honestly and effectively, but I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t write it, because I haven’t got the tools — for my ears — to sing something I didn’t write.

MUSIC SMARTS features hundreds of quotations from a vast array of artists and industry gurus, reflecting on influences, heroes, integrity, performances, and many more critical aspects of being a music person. These gems of hard-won wisdom cover not only the highs of success, money, and fame, but also reveal the lows of missteps and rejection.

NEW REVIEW BY DAVID DAVIES FROM PRO SOUND NEWS EUROPE:  click here.

NEW REVIEW BY BARRY RUDOLPH FROM MUSIC CONNECTION: click here.

Drawn from 25 years of feature interviews by notorious studio insider, Mr. Bonzai, and edited by Mix magazine creator, David Schwartz, Music Smarts features razor-sharp insights from the music industry’s savviest artists, producers, technicians, and business execs, and showcases the brainpower that has made popular music the most influential force in modern culture. This handbook also includes a visual “who’s who” of the music biz with original portraits by Mr. Bonzai of the featured artists.

Look Inside the Book and order a dozen at Amazon.com

For more of Kris Kristofferson, visit:  www.MrBonzai.com