What’s New Podcast Transcript Season 3, Episode 14: Inside the Pop Music World March 24, 2020 Host: Dan Cohen, Dean of Libraries and Vice Provost for Information Collaboration at Northeastern University. Guest: Bonzai Caruso, a five-time Grammy-winning recording engineer and producer. Dan Cohen: Host (00:06): Making a hit song involves inspiration, talent, and more than a little luck. How are songs created in today's high tech recording studios, assembled in software and beamed around the world? And how has this process and the global exchange of music changed the sound of pop music itself? Today on What's New, we'll look at the technology and art of contemporary pop music with the insights of a Grammy- winning producer. Welcome back to What's New. I'm Dan Cohen. And joining me from his recording studio in Las Vegas is Bonzai Caruso a five-time Grammy-winning recording engineer and producer. Since the 1980s, Bonzai has worked with top reggae musicians as well as pop stars. And he has helped to create dozens of gold and platinum singles and albums. Welcome to the show, Bonzai. Bonzai Caruso (01:09): Hey, thanks for having me. Dan Cohen: Host (01:11): We are delighted to have a Grammy-winning producer on the show. I can't say I double checked our guest list for the podcast, but I'm pretty sure you're the first guest with the name Bonzai. So, I thought we could start maybe just by asking how you got that name. Bonzai Caruso (01:24): It's kind of a term we used. I used to race motocross back in the East Coast. I raced at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey. It's kind of a term used in motocross, basically meaning kamikaze. I was a crazy dirt bike racer. So, just kind of since I was nine years old. So, it just kind of stuck. Once I got a job in the studio it just... Yeah, it just really clicked. Dan Cohen: Host (01:48): Yeah, it sounds like a great name to have, both for motocross and for the music studio. So, how did you actually make the transition from racing to the music industry? Which is... I've always heard is really hard to break into and especially into something like pop music production. Bonzai Caruso (02:03): Yeah, I mean, I was blessed to just been attracted to music so much as a kid. And it was like a safe place for me and it was a very emotional thing for me. So, I started playing guitar. I was about 13 or 14 years old. As soon as I graduated high school, I was 17 and I found out about a school in Manhattan called the Institute of Audio Research. It was part of NYU, I believe at the time or I could move my credits to NYU if I wanted to, but it was a fantastic course. And from there I got a job in the studio right away, used to be 1 owned by Todd Rundgren, a great songwriter from the 70s. And yeah, started interning at the studio, working 90 hours a week, making $5 a day. Dan Cohen: Host (02:50): Well, and what were you actually doing? I mean, were you on the mixing boards or were you really setting up the cymbal for a drum kit or something like that? Bonzai Caruso (02:59): Yeah, it started out with cleaning toilets and running for sandwiches. But as soon as everybody left, I'd spend the night tinkering around with stuff, trying to figure out how it all worked. Dan Cohen: Host (03:10): Yeah and I assume Todd Rundgren had a pretty... I mean, he's known for not only songwriting, but lush productions and layering and things like that. It must've been a great sort of a tutoring experience. Bonzai Caruso (03:22): Yeah, unfortunately I came in at end of his ownership of the studio and he had sold it soon after I started there. So, I didn't really get to work with him very often. Dan Cohen: Host (03:31): So, who did you start with? Bonzai Caruso (03:33): Oh, in those days- Dan Cohen: Host (03:34): Or some names that maybe our audience would have heard about? Bonzai Caruso (03:36): Oh, in those days my first sessions were Spyro Gyra who's a jazz thing. Whitney Houston's mom, Sissy Houston, did a gospel record with her. Actually, she would bring Whitney Houston in to do backgrounds and harmonies and stuff. And Whitney and I are pretty much the same age. So, we got along pretty well. Yeah, it was that. And then it was... This was 1982, it was the start of hip-hop and drum machines were a new thing that had started being implemented in making music. And so I got to learn how to program drums and started working with all the hip-hop guys were calling and say, "We want to work with that kid. What's his name, Bonzai?" Knowledge of the drum machine and how it syncs up and works and all that. And it was guys like Melle Mel, Grandmaster Flash, all the Africa Islam, Afrika Bambaataa, were the fore founders of hip-hop really. So, it was a really good time for me. I was very blessed to be there then. Dan Cohen: Host (04:34): That's great. So, you go from an artist like Sissy Houston who I think our audience should know. I mean, she sang on some of the most famous records and was part, obviously, of a famous family. And very much an analog music person to you working with hip-hop artists with, I assume, something like a Roland 808 drum machine or something like that, also being tracked in to the music. 2 Bonzai Caruso (04:57): Right? 808, there was a DMX, there was the LinnDrum. There's four or five new drum machines on the scene then. Dan Cohen: Host (05:05): And were things digital beyond that? Or were those the sort of first digital machines in the studio? Bonzai Caruso (05:11): Yeah, I mean, there were some synthesizers around that were starting to pop up. Yamaha came up with the DX7 which was all digital, was kind of cool and a couple of others. In terms of actual digital recording, no, that didn't come about until late 90s or mid-90s I would say, I guess. Dan Cohen: Host (05:31): So, what was it like when you went into a studio with someone like a Grand Master Flash or Melle Mel or some of these early hip-hop stars? How did you put together a song at that point in the early 80s? Bonzai Caruso (05:43): Yeah, it was quite different then. For instance, we'd have to sync up the drum machine to the tape using a time code, SMPTE time code or various other ways of syncing with a tone or a complex wave thing that it would hook up to. And keep the sync and then track the drums from right out of the machine, create the breaks. Or we would create the breaks after it was recorded by just muting things. And just record it and a lot of times they get... If there was three or four rappers on the song, they'd be all on out there on the mic simultaneously at the same time. Dan Cohen: Host (06:21): At the same time. Bonzai Caruso (06:22): Yeah, which was kind of cool. Doing everything in real time was neat. Dan Cohen: Host (06:25): Yeah. So, it still had that feeling a little bit more of a live production than it is probably today, where I assume if you have three or four rappers there, they might even be in different continents at the same time recording. Bonzai Caruso (06:36): Yeah, that's right. Dan Cohen: Host (06:37): Or even at different times recording. Bonzai Caruso (06:39): Yes, absolutely. Yes. Yeah, it's quite different than the way we used to do it back then. 3 Dan Cohen: Host (06:44): I noticed in your discography that you've been particularly interested in reggae music and made a lot of connections to some pretty famous reggae musicians. How did you start to meet with those musicians? And how did your career flourish in that world? Bonzai Caruso (07:02): It's a great story because I had done this record with this artist, her name is Diana King. I think she was signed to Sony, if I'm not mistaken. And so yeah, I did this record called Shy Guy with Diana King. And it got the attention of Stephen Marley and the Marley family because of the way the mix sounded. And so they rang me up and started a relationship with them working with them in Miami. Oh, my God. We started in '96 I think, we started working together. And we still, I was just with them last week. We are still working together 25 years later. So, that's how I got... All because of that one record. And then of course, working with Stephen and Damian, the calls just started coming in like crazy. And now I found myself doing reggae constantly, which is great. I love it. Dan Cohen: Host (07:52): So, tell me about now.