I really wanted to thank all you guys, especially Terry for initiating this, for giving me such a nice free feeling today where I felt that 10 plus years still somehow in whatever small way matter.
Those 10 plus years were full of heartbreak, decisions-a-plenty to walk away from large sums of cash, broken relationships, distance from family, total confusion, bad addictions, bad women, strange scenes inside the goldmine.
Being a small of 'those guys' who get alot of the guru-in-the-eyes-looks from kids approaching me with those heavy questions, the 'what should I do with my life question (and whatever you say is going to be religious)', I've had to weigh this stuff alot thru the years.
What do you tell early 20 somethings who obviously have talent and an unique perspective? Do you destroy all their dreams in single burned out answers, no. Do you encourage them to take the insane leaps of faith that you did, knowing inside how many times you searched out the tallest building to jump from? No.
Do you convert the conversation into a gear talk, yes! Because I think this is where kids are being led astray. Kids are promised such lies in the pages of 99% of the mags that if I can straighten them out on that, they will be better off to make a real decision from their own experience.
9 Months ago a 24 year old approached me with a great budget and 12 songs that represented his statement of life. It was imperative to him to get me on board, but, the money wasn't enough for me to change my blissful scenario of life then.
So I talked him out of doing drums separately at one of the many rooms in NYC he was finding websites for where honestly the guy isn't going to care (sorry if you're one of the guys that does and you should be rewarded for keeping any commercial room running now). I talked him into rehearsing his musicians for much longer than he thought necessary. I talked him into finding a warehouse with a good separate office section for monitoring. I talked him into borrowing and renting great gear and only great gear.
YOUNG ARTISTS!, look into the space in which you record, look into the event in which you create, spend time thinking about your song and your lyrics and what it is that needs to be said now. Rebellion. Is it too late? Is the machine too big?
Gear. It makes a huge difference and it always has. Just like the USA has to keep people buying to keep the economy pumped up, so the same in certain areas of the making music biz. But there are amazing things we didn't have then now and guys making real incredible tools and not rying just to profit.
Here is the crux of my advice to many for many years:
keep jobs that make real money but don't steal away your time and soul.
Save up for a great microphone. Think about ways of capturing things in extreme quality--whether that be Lavry converters, an Apogee thing or an Otari 1/2" machine recently tweaked and relapped.
WRITE WRITE WRITE!!! A great song does ALL OF THIS WORK FOR YOU.
There is alot of amazing gear available now if you've got a little more than minimum wage money. A Vintech 428 gives you 4 channels of beautiful preamps. Josephson sdc's are like $400. A pair of Focal Solo 6 is like $2k. GIKacoustics can straighten out your room usually for less than $1k. Cool ribbons are $99.
Just buy USAInsn some cases tweaked chinese-uhg)
In 1993 we had Tascam 16 track 1/2" machines and Alesis reverbs. We found a friend with a barn, parents with basements, friends with empty lofts, and made things sound imaginitive. The tools you have now are incredible, but just don't believe the hype on what you read in certain mags. They are trying to sell you shite and just keep you buying. All you need is an SM-57 and a 4-track dammit! Not even $100--THERE's no excude. Quit syudying gear like it;s going to make the difference in your career.
Sample collections--erase them. Make original recordings of original songs. There are a thousand of spaces for free to record in. Amazing gear is everywhere. Decent gear is everywhere. It's not the fear, it's the song, the feeling, the preformance.
Maybe most of all, get your damn heads out of your culture. Turn off the TV. Don't watch MTV. Don't listen to the radio. Don't think about what everyone else wants to hear. Don't fall in love for awhile. There seems to be this race to the great average nothingness now. I'm 40 and I can't fight that hard anymore. All I can do is have you come for a day or two and cut on the best. I cnnot possibly do your entire record, unless you're go deeep pockets. You 18 year olds have all the natural juice and energy to do anything.
Leave everyone behind and write a song that makes people cry or have a magic moment. Take all the money you would spend on these schools that teach engineering and write and record instead. Real experience, not the theory of experience.
Make that crazy record now and if you are crazy enough, you'll stand infront of emptying bars at 2Am like I did and sell your CD's for $10 to people that have a real hard time saying no. They drive somewhere the next day listening to you. 6 months later you sell-out 850 people in the Majestic Theater in Detroit and Ralph Valdez interviews you on the coolest indie rock show going in Detroit -three times!
I have to stop--this is too much.
I'll post a recording from that kid Peter next, the kid who did the recortd in the wharehouse with the best gear he could rent. I mixed it for what he could pay and I forced him to master it with Joe Lambert who I think is incredible.
Instore at Tower Record AnnArbor 1994