ISSUE #31 MMUSICMAG.COM ISSUE #31 MMUSICMAG.COM producer Do you know when you’ve nailed and guitars getting weird in spots. That a take? roughness isn’t as allowed in the pop world, I try to trust my gut more than anything. It sadly, but I try to get away with keeping as sounds a little pompous to say, but whenever much of that stuff in the track as possible. something gives me goose bumps, makes my eyes water, or makes my skin tingle, I How do you strike that balance for go by that a lot of times. If it made me feel artists like and ? something inside when I did it, I don’t think They are the slickest and most perfect as far there’s anything stopping people who are as mistake-free production that I’ve had my listening from feeling that as well. hands in when I do pop records. On projects like those, A&R guys and managers will You lean toward old-school for listen to rough mixes and want things fixed your music. that sound honest or normal to me. I’m not Being a musician, I grew up listening to know exactly when it would happen, but felt listening for the last syllable of a word being Tom Petty and the Beatles. Those records that it would be sooner rather than later. a tiny bit out of pitch. I would sometimes even were slick and very well executed in how We were best friends and I was dreading get A&R guys saying, in almost a negative the music was played and the vocals were it, so I channeled that emotion into writing tone, “Are those real drums?” It’s sad that sung—there was a little more roughness and the songs. I was being precious with them producing pop like that can be seen as a

j eff f asano attitude that was able to be left in, probably because of the lyrical content, so I would bad thing since so many make tracks on because they didn’t spend years making re-record them three or four times to make laptops with synthesizer programs and the those records and didn’t have ways to fix sure I was doing them justice. When he same drum beats over and over. I try to get passed away in the middle of doing the away with as much as I can, but I draw a record, I stopped. I had five songs I felt line. If I worked at Starbucks and wanted to were a cohesive body of work, so I decided make somebody my own version of a latte it needed to be an EP. I have to say that I’m outside of the protocol of what Starbucks very proud of it. I listen back and there’s allowed, I’d be fired. nothing I would change. Pop generally lends itself to digital. Unusual for a producer to say. It would be stupid to try to record a band I’m not a perfectionist when it comes to that’s on pop radio all the time to tape just making records. I go for things spur of to indulge in my own fantasies. Some kid the moment, especially when making pop turning on the radio and hearing his pop records. It’s hard not to have that stuff favorite song isn’t going to say, “Oh man, sound so watered down, mechanical and I like this one because it was recorded on Avril Lavigne methodical. Some people trip out because tape.” Plus, it takes a hell of a lot longer to I work so fast. I just don’t like to sit and make a record on tape than on Pro Tools. butch walker things after they were done. I usually don’t second-guess myself. I don’t know if it’s a One of pop’s hottest producers likes to play rough—when they let him do any of that stuff for my own records. I try blessing or a curse, but it’s working for me. How was it working with ? to stay the hopeless romantic, recording to They came in as a band and set up and by Michael Gallant tape and getting performances on the front Sounds like a rock approach tracked that way. That project was a very end, instead of fixing it in the mix. to production. big combination of live drums and sampled Butch Walker’s not only a jack of all musical Walker’s taste for vibe has not only led to success onstage It’s from years of making records and not drums, with lots of real, loud guitar amps. trades, he’s a master as well. from the producer’s chair, Butch and on both sides of the studio glass, but also recently transformed What was the biggest challenge having computers to fix things. Also, I love There was a lot of good singing and gang Walker has crafted hit records for everyone from Pink, fall out him into an accidental movie star. Walker explains: “these two producing Peachtree Battle? the grittier sides of records, those intimate vocals—working with them was the most Boy, and keith urban to avril lavigne, , and katy Perry. filmmakers, Peter harding and shane Valdes, came into the studio Having perspective. My last two records moments of squeaks in peoples’ voices rock ’n’ roll way of making a pop record. from the stage and studio, he’s the frontman of Butch Walker and while i was recording The Spade with Black Widows to shoot a little were with my band Black Widows, and that the Black Widows, which has achieved a cult-like following. the behind-the-scenes material that we could put online. next thing i was easier because they’re all accomplished 43-year-old Georgia native tours extensively and, not surprisingly, know, they wanted to make a movie about me. i thought it sounded musicians, songwriters and singers. I had produces his own records, including his latest eP, Peachtree Battle. like a terrible idea! i’m not Bono or michael jackson. nobody really tons of feedback, which was a good thing. “When i do my own records, it’s definitely kind of loose,” says knows who i am. But they said they wanted to make a movie about But when I make my own records, I want Walker, who favors analog tape but is equally comfortable in the somebody who lives and breathes music 24/7. i was reluctant but them to come from a more personal place. If digital realm for high-profile pop gigs. regardless of platform, the they never went away.” nobody’s in the room over my shoulder then versatile producer strives to maintain a level of grit. “there’s a certain the persistence paid off—Butch Walker: Out of Focus it’s a lot harder knowing if you’re doing the slickness and fun when you hear tracks that are flawlessly tuned, with premiered last year to packed audiences and critical acclaim at right thing. Another hard thing that came from drums perfectly timed and quantized—and there are those who freak numerous film festivals. Walker spoke with us about adapting to a Peachtree Battle was that it was originally out when they hear something loose or idiosyncratic on a record,” he wide array of artists, bridging the worlds of slick pop and gritty rock, going to be a full-length album, but I decided says. “to them, those elements are wrong. to me, it’s vibe.” and producing hits for the biggest stars in the business. midway through to make it an EP instead.

Why? ‘I try to stay the hopeless romantic, recording to tape My father passed away. I was writing a bunch of songs about him anyway, because I didn’t and getting performances on the front end.’ Fall Out Boy

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Pink Chuando & Frey ‘I’m not a perfectionist when it comes to making records. I go for things spur of the moment.’ Katy Perry

How about Taylor Swift and Pink? Once he found out that I had co-written So how did you track Keith’s vocals? Both Taylor and Pink are super-focused, and produced it, he called wanting to go Some singers don’t want to use headphones know what they want, and know how to do to dinner so we could feel each other out, or track in the control room, and some like it. They’re very accomplished songwriters see if it would click. Trying to see if I could to do it in the tracking room—but Keith didn’t in worlds where many think their stuff is apply some of that same landscape from the mind either way. Sometimes he would stand propped up and written by somebody Fall Out Boy record to his style of music—it next to me and sing, and other times, he else. Taylor would send me demos of her sounded like fun and turned out great. would go into the big room, turn down the singing and playing acoustic guitar into an lights, and try to come from a different angle. iPhone. I would take it from there and build a What vocal chain did you use for him? production around it. Pink is the same way— It all depends on the scenario. I’ve got a What was it like being the subject of she writes all her lyrics and melodies. She $20,000 AKG C24 from the 1950s and I’ve Out of Focus? doesn’t play an instrument, but she’s really also got a $400 EV RE20 broadcast mic— I really didn’t have much to do with it. Once it good at working with music, not just coming you can run them through the same signal was all shot and edited, Peter and Shane sent in and saying, “Hey, what do you have for chain and sometimes it’s hard to tell them me a cut and I saw that they’d interviewed me?” I admire that, and I admire the same apart. If I’m cutting a singer live in a room with my family in Georgia and my old bandmates, thing about Taylor. a band, I won’t use a super-dynamic mic like which I hadn’t known. There were some the C24. I’ll use something directional like things said that I had never known but am How did you connect with Keith Urban? the RE20, so it cuts out a lot of the bleed glad I heard. I thought it was good. They He had heard a record I did for Fall Out Boy and we can actually use the vocal in the final won some awards, all of the screenings sold and said, “I want that for country.” (laughs) version of the song. out, and it’s now up on iTunes and Netflix.

Here are just a few albums that showcase Butch Walker’s production and artistic prowess.

Butch Walker, Peachtree Battle (2013) Keith Urban, Fuse (2013) Taylor Swift, Red (2012) Gavin DeGraw, Sweeter (2011) Butch Walker and the Black Widows, The Spade (2011) Katy Perry, (2008) Fall Out Boy, (2007) Avril Lavigne, Under My Skin (2004) essential walker

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