When you think about the role of a record producer, it might help to think about the role of a film director on a film. For example, not all of them have been actors, some handle the technical side better than others, but it’s what they can bring out of an actor that matters. The same applies to a record producer’s relationship with an artist.
The role of the producer, like many in the music business, is an organic and often highly individual one. While some producers concentrate on the technical side of achieving the best sound possible, others take an active role in the creative process, helping out in the writing, and sometimes in the performing, of the tracks. What’s evident is that there is no clear cut definition of where the role of producer ends and that of a songwriter begins.
When the music industry was in its infancy in the 1950s, pioneering producers like Sam Phillips (who discovered Elvis Presley) owned a recording facility and rented his studio to whoever walked in off the street - or, in the case of Presley and Johnny Cash, actually signed them to his label (Sun Records).
‘a producer creates an environment in which the writer becomes more relaxed or focused’
During the 60s, 70s and early 80s, the role of the record producer became the interface between the recording artist and the label, for example the late Arif Mardin, who was both an executive of Atlantic Records as well as a record producer and George Martin started as an A&R executive on Parlophone records before becoming an independent producer. He was one of the first producers to insist that producers were rewarded with royalties.
The role has now gone full circle, as is often the case with new independent acts, which align themselves with a record producer in the early stages of their career. The producer takes on a quasi A&R/R&D role, where he or she helps the band or artist establish both their sound and their identity prior to releasing the material themselves on their own or the producer’s label. If this route becomes successful on an independent level, it still allows the artist the greatest flexibility when licensing to a major record company.
Steve Levine started life in the business as a studio tea-boy in 1975 before progressing on to engineering, mixing and producing. At CBS he was lucky enough to be involved in demo sessions with punk and new wave acts such as the Clash and The Jags. He also engineered many sessions with Beach Boy Bruce Johnson. But it was meeting John Moss of Culture Club which gave Levine his first really big break, producing Do You Really Want To Hurt Me and all the band’s subsequent hits.
Levine says the producer does have a creative role, and often songwriting is influenced by new technology introduced by a producer. ‘A new sound can really push the writing—like setting up a delay which becomes a riff on the song,’ says Levine. ‘It was especially true with artists like Eno doing things through synthesiser modules. And a producer can create these soundscapes which influence songwriting—creating an environment in which the writer becomes more relaxed or focussed.’
Nick Tauber, who has produced and engineered acts including Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath, Toyah, UFO, Soup Dragons and Marillion, says changes introduced by a producer can be wholesale, but do not constitute songwriting. ‘I’ll sometimes change the whole song around—make the chorus the bridge and make the verse the chorus,’ he says. ‘But that’s arranging, that’s not songwriting.’
Tauber says that some producers, especially big American producers, will claim songwriting credits, when they are merely fulfilling the brief of a producer. ‘You can’t claim a sound as writing,’ Tauber adds.
Hugh Gadsdon has been a publisher for 20 years. He also manages Alan Winstanley and Clive Langer, who has produced Madness, Morrissey and Elvis Costello, among others. ‘If you’re going in and being paid a fair points scenario and a fee with a record producer’s hat on, that’s what you’re going in as,’ he says. ‘If you sit down with Morrissey to write a song, you’re a songwriter, and you agree that before you go in. That’s pre-production.’
Producers Tim Hawes and Pete Kirtley started out as writers, setting up their production company Jiant in 1999. While Kirtley was writing for adverts—which he describes as ‘great training’ for subsequent work in writing songs to record company briefs—Tim Hawes was working with The Spice Girls in the formative part of their career. They wrote Pure and Simple for Hear’Say which was a number one for three weeks and sold a record-breaking 1.3 million copies. Since then the pair have written and produced for the Sugababes and they are currently working on their own girl-band project.
As far as his production work goes, Kirtley says that the most important for him is getting a good performance out of the artist. ‘There are guys who are more obsessed with the technical aspects,’ says Kirtley. ‘The performance you can get out of the singer, for example, is more important, for me, than fiddling with the knobs.’
‘you can’t claim a sound as writing’
And there’s no consistency it seems in how producers get paid either. Legendary producer, song writer and of course Chic’s brilliant guitarist, Nile Rodgers describes what happened when he was asked to work on Madonna’s second album, Like A Virgin. Rodgers said he negotiated a ‘humongous’ chunk of the royalties ‘if it sold a ridiculous number of copies—ten million or something’. The record turned out to be a massive hit selling, to the great surprise of the label, over twenty million copies worldwide and earning Rodgers a very tidy return. ‘If you are a producer and a musician, the chances are you’re going to start contributing stuff,’ he says. ‘And in theory taking no money upfront is the worst thing to do. But I bet on myself and I’ve been lucky.’
But this can be a risky route to take. Hugh Padgham, who has produced and engineered numerous big artists including David Bowie, Genesis, Hall & Oates, Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson, XTC, The Bee Gees, The Police and Sting says: ‘Nile’s way is one way of doing it, but these days the pragmatist would say, “What’s the chance of my record selling? Probably not very much so I’ll take what I’m given now”’. He adds: ‘the normal fee for a decent producer nowadays is anywhere between £3-5,000 a track and you might get three, four or five points as well. So you might say, “I’ll do it for nothing but I’ll take ten points”...At which point they may say, “Well, we won’t do that either...!”’
As far as how much creative input the producer has, Padgham is essentially responsible for the Phil Collins drum sound, which has become a trademark of the artist. But, on the issue of producers straying into writing Padgham says you have to take great care.
‘I’ve always been concerned that it’s a line that you don’t really want to cross,’ he says, ‘because it will create problems. But I’ve known other producers who have said once the album is finished that they think their contributions warrant a piece of the writing. But I don’t think that’s right unless it’s sorted out beforehand. You can’t come back and say that afterwards. Not unless it’s offered - which is an act of generosity.’
Steve Levine agrees: ‘It’s all cards on the table. ‘ Levine is currently working on an album with a new indie-folk band 6 Day Riot. ‘My relationship with the band is a partnership where everyone contributes the various skills that we all possess and the album is the result of our joint efforts. From that, any potential earnings that we make will be split between us. I think the current climate is much more open and honest and more business-like actually. Artists do need to be on top of the business world and focussed in a way that they weren’t 30 or 40 years ago.’
Almost 40 years after the Beatles split up, the world’s most famous producer Sir George Martin and his producer son Giles have hit the headlines following the late November release of LOVE, a reworking of 30 Beatles tracks in stereo and 5.1. It is the first Beatles album available in 5.1.
The legendary producer and his son worked with the entire archive of Beatles recordings to create LOVE. The result is what EMI call ‘an unprecedented approach’ to the Beatles’ music.
Father and son spent three years working in their own secure and dedicated studio space within Abbey Road studios. The album came about after the producers were asked by the remaining Beatles, Ringo and Paul, along with Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, to make experimental mixes from Beatles master tapes for collaboration with a Cirque du Soleil production of the same name in Las Vegas.
‘This album puts the Beatles back together again, because suddenly there’s John and George with me and Ringo,’ said Paul McCartney. ‘It’s kind of magical.’
Ringo Starr commended the duo saying ‘George and Giles did such a great job combining these tracks. It’s really powerful for me and I even heard things I’d forgotten we’d recorded.’
The album has been vying for Christmas sales this year along with ‘best of’ albums by U2 and Oasis released on the same day. The CD contains 78 minutes of music. All are Beatles recordings apart from one deviation on While My Guitar Gently Weeps, for which Sir George composed a string arrangement. Speaking in The Guardian, Sir George said: ‘The project was a labour of love and rounds things off. In 1965 I did my first score for Yesterday and this is my final score - it’s a sort of top and tail of my life.’