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Home , Anna McGarrigle, Five Leaves Left, Joe Boyd, Nick Drake, Way to Blue

ISSUE #29 MMUSICMAG.COM ISSUE #29 MMUSICMAG.COM producer How’d the Drake tribute come about? my head. With the Nick record, because I’d worked on a recent spate of live tribute the are quite formal and the concerts—the first happened about five audiences were respectful, people seemed years ago. I did a tribute concert after [Pink to let the last note die away and then erupt Floyd founding member] died, in cheers and such, so we felt that we could and I thought it turned out wonderfully. That do it. Also, somebody told us that BBC tilted my psychology about the idea of live Radio 2—the most important outlet in Britain tribute concerts, so when I was asked to for this kind of music—has a rule where they put together a celebration of Nick’s music don’t play tracks with applause. Sometimes at Town Hall four years ago, I they dial it out themselves, but we chose to said, “Let’s try it.” And the audience thought take it out instead. it was fantastic, the musicians had a great time, and the singers loved getting their teeth If you were back working again with Pink into these songs—and they sounded so good yeah, I love him!” When I asked if she would Floyd in 1967, what would you change? singing them. sing that song, she said that she loved that The main thing I’d do differently would be one as well. She does it quite differently from to somehow make sure that I could get a How did that become an ? how Nick did it, but it’s exactly what I heard, bigger advance from Polydor Records to We’ve done about 15 of these concerts, imagined and wanted. compete with EMI and try to hold on to them! and they’ve gotten better and better. The As to the actual process, it was great. I had a audiences loved them, and the songs How did you approach the sound of really good time with them, and we were all flourished in the hands of singers, who were the album? happy with the results. One of the strangest, all very different from Nick. The BBC recorded Basically, I just took the multitracks and nicest things anybody ever said about me the concert, and then we went to went into a studio I love mixing in, with came from an Austrian radio guy who told an engineer I love mixing with, Jerry Boys, me that he’d just interviewed [ who’s a Grammy winner and has worked on drummer] Nick Mason who said he had felt projects like Buena Vista Social Club. The that Syd was very comfortable with me in the studio had great analog reverb and lots of studio. He’d always wondered if Syd would analog outboard gear, and we just warmed have somehow had a less bad reaction to it up and mixed it like it was a studio record. becoming famous and wouldn’t have gone We were able to get such a good sound that off so much if they’d still been we dialed out the applause, so you can listen working with me. If you could rerun history, it to it like it’s a studio record, even though would be to keep Syd happy and productive. there are no overdubs and it’s all live. We put the applause at the very end of the record. How do you establish an artist’s trust? The key thing for me is making artists feel Why dial out the applause? that they’re recording for somebody who There was an interesting moment when I was loves the music. When people feel you are From Clapton to Kubrick, this creative giant has worked with them all playing it for a friend of mine and I skipped totally committed to them and their work, Australia and the Australian Broadcasting right to track five on the CD player. The song and you share a vision of how the recording by Michael Gallant Corporation recorded a couple of concerts. started clean and played all the way through, process is going to go down, that’s how you In both cases, we worked out deals with and then the applause came in at the very get people feeling relaxed and making the “If you had told me 25 years ago I would be become a singular career, boyd has racked up impressive production them to get access to the multitracks. I went end. My friend was engrossed and loving best recordings. Usually, you don’t get into producing tribute concerts about Nick drake’s music, it might have credits including , the Incredible string band, back in and remixed what I thought were the performance, but the clapping made him the studio in the first place until you have a depressed me,” says Joe boyd with a chuckle. fortunately for boyd richard thompson, Pink floyd, , 10,000 maniacs, maria the best takes. Then I played them for the jump. He didn’t realize that it was live, and it rapport, so in a way you have to convince the experience turned out to be “kind of wonderful.” muldaur, Kate and , , the flaming lips, singers and musicians and asked, “What kind of shocked him. That put the idea into people you’re the right person to produce It’s a fitting project for the veteran producer. having helped four tet and r.e.m. do you think? Should we put this out?” pioneer the british folk-rock movement, boyd became impressed boyd, 71, has also made his mark on the film industry.a s head They all said, “Yes, great,” so here we are. with drake and produced the legendary singer-songwriter’s first of music for warner bros., boyd oversaw music composition for album, , in 1969—along with his two subsequent A Clockwork Orange and , including its hit “dueling Did it turn out as you expected? records. decades after drake’s death in 1974, boyd continued to banjos.” boyd also produced and co-directed the 1973 documentary. In some ways, yes. There was one song, bring his music to life—first as a series of live concerts, and this year , and he published a memoir, White Bicycles: Making “Time Has Told Me,” that, when I heard it on on the album : The Songs of Nick Drake. Music in the 1960s, in 2006. “I’m working on another book right now,” Nick’s demo tape in 1969, my first thought a native and graduate, boyd began says boyd. “It’s taking me a lot longer to write than White Bicycles took, was to send it to Roberta Flack, because I his career in europe working for noted jazz producer but it’s a different sort of project. It’s a history of the phenomenon of thought that she should make it the follow-up as tour producer for artists like and stan getz. his world music, the wealthy, decadent, western bourgeoisie and its thirst to the “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” first taste of notoriety came from producing the Powerhouse, which for exotic authenticity.” boyd discusses quenching his own musical She never did, of course, but I always had included eric Clapton, steve winwood and Paul Jones. In what has thirst, reinventing timeless songs, and earning the trust of a-list artists. in mind a soulful, possibly African-American Max Crace, Joe Boyd; J. Michelle Martin-Coyne, The Flaming Lips Max Crace, Joe Boyd; Martin-Coyne, The J. Michelle woman singing that song. When I heard Krystle Warren perform in concert and went ‘The key thing is making the artist feel they’re recording backstage after her show, I asked if she had ever heard of Nick Drake and she said, “Oh for somebody who loves the music.’ The Flaming Lips

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Richard Thompson Chuando & Frey ‘The songs flourished in the hands of singers, who were all very different from Nick [Drake].’ R.E.M.

their album, and that involves building trust first three R.E.M. , there’s a certain Tools. Just hooking it up to the PA system and convincing them that you love their music. element of that—the lyrics seem like little and putting everything down digitally has Pamela Littky, Richard Thompson snatches of thoughts, images that are strung huge advantages. It’s cheap, functional Example? together without a seemingly linear order. and efficient. But I got Richard Thompson’s With R.E.M., initially, it was [guitarist] Peter Stipe had been a little guarded with me in the new album through the post yesterday and Buck who liked the idea of my producing studio at the beginning—he didn’t really know listened to it. It sounded amazing, so much the record. The other guys didn’t know that me and, unlike , wasn’t a student better than any new record I’d heard in much about me or why I was working with of Nick Drake records, so I imagine he was ages. It jumps out of the speakers at you them, so it took a little while to get them all asking, “Why is this person producing us?” with warmth and clarity at the same time. to buy into the idea. On the fourth day in the studio with R.E.M., I looked on the back and saw that it was somehow the subject of cut-ups came up recorded on 16-track, 2-inch analog tape How did you handle that? and I mentioned that I had met Brion Gysin and mixed to analog. It was nice to have all An interesting story: William Burroughs and once in the ’60s. He stopped, dropped what of my prejudices reconfirmed! Brion Gysin did a famous series of recordings he was doing, and stared at me. “You met called “cut-ups” where Burroughs read his Brion Gysin?” From that point on, I was fine. Describe your ideal recording space. poetry, they recorded it, and then snipped I had earned my credibility. High ceilings and a nice, bright, live sound. up the tape with scissors. They put the It would be a big room, ideally with some strands in a basket and scrambled them You’re not a fan of digital recording. baffles, so everybody could be in the same before reassembling them in random order. On the one hand, recent projects I’ve been space at the same time, just making live If you think about Michael Stipe’s lyrics in the involved in wouldn’t be possible without Pro music in the studio.

Check out a few of the many albums that showcase Joe Boyd’s production prowess.

Various Artists, Way to Blue: The Songs of Nick Drake (2013) Various Artists, White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s (2006) The Flaming Lips, LateNightTales (2005) Kate and Anna McGarrigle, The McGarrigle Hour (1998) R.E.M., Fables of the Reconstruction (1985) Maria Muldaur, Maria Muldaur (1974) Nick Drake, Five Leaves Left (1969) essential boyd The Incredible String Band, The Incredible String Band (1966)

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