You went to Berklee [College of Music] and then you got a deal with Phil Ramone's [Tape Op #50] N2K [N-Coded Music] label. What would be the best way to encapsulate those years of your life?
Well, I'm often asked, "How did you get into music?" In my case, I can't remember. I was in music school when I was five, and my relationship to music is identical to my relationship with oxygen; I love doing it, I want to continue doing it. But if I didn't love doing it, it wouldn't matter because I'd still have to do it in order to be alive. My "career" really began with Terry Manning and the record deal with Phil Ramone. Looking back, it's all a wonderful experience that taught me an enormous amount. The record deal part of it also taught me what not to do as a label owner. I've been lucky to have had powerful mentors in music; I was able to apprentice under them and learn from them, and, eventually, I'd healthily disagree with them in certain ways so that my music and how I make it would become my own. That's what we're all supposed to do. Today, that chain of master/apprentice has been broken, with people making music much more isolated from each other. I feel lucky that right when my career was starting, I was able to find myself under the wings of Terry Manning and Phil Ramone. I also feel very lucky that, of the people who are in my circle – my friends, my crew, other New York City musicians that I know and love – I'm one of the only ones who got a major label deal and made a record [Anger's Candy in 1997] that I still love. Although Ramone's label had many problems, one of the irresponsible things they did was they allowed me to make exactly the record I wanted, with the person I wanted.
You got to record with Terry Manning when he ran Compass Point Studios?
Yes, it's really all because of Terry. Through a friend of mine, who was acting as my sort of manager, Terry got a hold of some early recordings that I'd made and – unbeknownst to me – he really liked them. Even more unbeknownst to me, he got on a plane from Nassau, Bahamas – where Compass Point was – and flew to Miami, sat in Chris Blackwell's office, and refused to leave until he would meet with him, saying "You're going to sign this guy, and I'm going to produce the record." The same manager/friend went to Phil Ramone, pitched me to him, and, when he heard that Blackwell was sniffing around, he made me an offer. Phil was always lovely; a great music maker, and a great musical mind. He treated me with love and respect. Not the greatest label owner, he'd be the first to say it, but a beautiful man. In our first meeting, like a young and impetuous person, I said, "The two things I want are: I want to know that I'm going to be with this label for my entire career. And I want Terry Manning to produce the record with me." I'd already met Terry, and we'd fallen in "musical" love by that time. Phil said, "Well, you're out of problems. So, are you going to sign?" I did, and he signed me to a seven-album deal having heard only six songs of mine. As a label owner now myself, I have to tell you this was terribly irresponsible, but it worked out! [laughter] Terry and I ended up making the record together. Lenny Kravitz sings a duet on it with me. Terry is still one of my dearest friends. And Terry, and his imprint Lucky Seven Records, are now signed to my label, ECR. It's truly full circle, all these years later.
Anger's Candy sounds great. Thanks to Terry, it has such a timeless sound.
He does have a timeless fingerprint, indeed. I think the reason is something fundamental that he taught me: He taught me to make decisions in the studio. What I learned from Terry, more than anything, is to make decisions. Have a vision, make decisions, and stand by them. Print the effect. Choose a microphone and then stick with it. Which I do to this day. One of the first things I do on a record that I'm going to produce – either for myself or for all the artists that I work with – is I storyboard the record as if it's a film. We'll do a microphone test, and we'll pick one. "Is this a [Neumann] U 47 record? Is this an AKG C12 record? What works on this vocal?" Then I'll try to use that microphone as much as possible for everything on that record, from the acoustic guitar to the far room mic on drums. He taught me to make decisions and to stand by them, thereby trusting one's vision and one's instincts. That's one of the reasons that his work stands the test of time, because he was coming at it from a timeless standpoint as opposed to something more ephemeral. I wonder if you agree with this, but in music – even with professionals, and certainly with laypeople – I think people are fundamentally unsure of what a producer really does.
Oh, certainly!
