MAKING MUSIC

Wide-ranging conversations about musical alchemy.

Drawn from Tape Op magazine, these interviews feature music producers from the 1960s to the present. Of those two dozen producers, several are known to the general public (Brian Eno, T Bone Burnett); others are familiar to aficionados (Mark Ronson, Joe Boyd, Glyn Johns, Daniel Lanois, Finneas O’Connell); and still others are known only through the memorable music they helped bring into the world. Their resumes are as different as the artists they served. Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, also known as RZA, produced albums for the Wu-Tang Clan before creating a fully orchestrated ballet in 2024. Susan Rogers worked extensively with Prince in the 1980s, then earned a doctoral degree in psychology and taught music perception and cognition at the Berklee College of Music. Tommy “Snuff” Garrett was a disc jockey in Wichita Falls, Texas, before producing more No. 1 hits than Phil Spector, including “This Diamond Ring,” and “Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves.” The spacey, free associations of Jamaican producer Lee “Scratch” Perry make for a difficult interview, but most of the exchanges are lively and informative. Many revolve around equipment, others focus on rooms that lend themselves to memorable recordings, still others consider how producers set moods that allow artists to do their best work. Many of the best suggestions, producer Jon Brion notes in his interview, are conceptual rather than musical. Burnett once asked session players struggling with a song about Texas, “Do you know how when you’re standing in Texas and you look around and see miles in every direction?...That’s how it has got to be.” On the next take, Brion said, “everybody played their emotional, subconscious version of how they represent space as a musician.” It was the best example of good production he had ever seen.

A lively and informative collection about the art, craft, psychology, and technology of hit records.