I think we were probably playing live for about 12 months before we got a recording deal.
Robert Fripp and I will be recording another LP very soon. It should be even more monotonous than the first one!
It is important to know that what I do is not artistic. I am just a film-maker. I live how I live and I do what I do, which is recording moments of my life as I move ahead. And I do it because I am compelled to. Necessity, not artistry, is the true line you can follow in my life and work.
The joy about the recording is that you are your own boss. You don't have a director telling you how to do it.
Believe it or not, most people think of me as a recording artist, but actually the way I think of myself and the way I earn my living is as a performing artist.
When I'm recording my album, I want to be acting, or when I'm on set, I want to be making music. I guess we'll see how it turns out and which one overpowers the other... but I couldn't really see my life without them, both of them.
I started off as a recording engineer and a beatmaker. I was this skater kid that would skateboard to auditions, and then I would use the money I'd make and buy a bunch of equipment and make a bunch of beats. I still am that kid, just with a little more money.
Today, with a recording, he can hear the thing enough times until he really gets acquainted with the language, and then he can begin to make an estimate of the intrinsic, aesthetic value of that piece of music.
Many fail to realize this great recording industry was built by so-called jazz artists. And at the other end of the spectrum, a base in European classical music as well.
In some of the greatest recordings ever made, the performance is a part of the recording. Dylan's 'Rainy Day Women No. 12 and 35' is all about the esthetic of that performance. You can hear the room.
I've got a studio at home, and I'm always recording.
I used to almost not look forward to recording, because it was like, 'Okay, what am I going to have to sacrifice?'
To be honest, I think I have a nice voice. A good voice... and I loved recording.
I'm always in that mode - whenever I have a little free time, I'm always recording songs, writing, whatever I gotta do. It's like my job is my vacation.
In addition, I'm finishing a track for the movie 'Waking Up In Reno', but there are numerous other singers I look forward to recording with in the near future.
Originally a record producer more or less hired a bunch of professionals to participate in a recording session, the performers and the technicians, and a music director was put in charge. That directly related to a film producer's job.
The art is what can't be put on a timeline. You can't say, 'Well, I'm going to make a record in May because that's when the producer has a window.' So just recording and getting things out is paramount for me.
Recorded engine sounds, however, are a deliberate deception. They're like going to a concert and listening to a recording. On the other hand, I wouldn't mind buying a BMW recording and installing it in my '96 Jeep Cherokee.
My old man was a musician - that's what he did for a living. And like most fathers, occasionally he'd let me visit where he worked. So I started going to his recording studio, and I really dug it.
It's almost like, it's often the bad recording quality of things which makes them interesting.
When working with an orchestra, you never spend more than 20 minutes per recording session.
I began hearing rumors of apossible recording session with Neil Young. I was a huge fan of Neil's.
I'm still amazed by the process of recording.
I've always been fascinated with the juxtaposition of technology in music, not only in recording, but in the keyboard. It's amazing the way you can apply technology to an art form.
Of all liars the most arrogant are biographers: those who would have us believe, having surveyed a few boxes full of letters, diaries, bank statements and photographs, that they can play at the recording angel and tell the whole truth about another human life.
Recording at home enables one to eliminate the demo stage, and the presentation stage in the studio, too.
Harmonies come really naturally to me. I don't have to labor too hard over them. I'll sing a lead vocal, and then I will immediately have all of these other ideas for vocal harmonies. I think that some of the most fun parts of recording, for me, are the vocal harmonies.
I'm recording another demo for another batch of record labels that we'll shop it around to.
Sometimes when you have multimedia, people use it too much. It has to be a tool and not the end product, if you can use it as a tool. The same thing apples when you are recording. We had this problem in the 80's, we got so computerized there was no heart and soul in the music anymore.
I prefer recording drums in the analog format, but that does not mean I would only do it that way.
Next time we need to be on drugs and have lots of suffering and alcohol abuse going on while recording, I'm kinda picturing a Jerry Lee Lewis session from the mid Seventies.
When we were making Speaking in Tongues and Remain in Light, we were jamming. From that we were taking the best bits and then recording and improvising on top of those.
Texture is very important. Just the feel of everything. It's not always about recording everything in pristine quality and having everything mixed where it's absolutely perfect. It's more about a vibe.
We're all players and musicians and we sure all get along good. We just clicked right off the bat. We started playing and then we almost immediately started recording.
I always knew that we were going to be successful and accomplish and succeed at our dreams. There was never a doubt in my mind. When we were recording 'Appetite For Destruction', we all knew.
Well, for the My Generation album, there was nothing to be nervous about in them days. We used to take every day as it came. Every day was just a gig and I think we did the recording between gigs literally.
