PRODUCING HIP HOP WITH KANYE WEST?! By Mr. Bonzai Friday nights here in L.A., producer Jon Brion hosts a (humorous) musical variety show at Cafe Largo. Improvisation, new JONtunes, oldies BRION done with a devilish twist, surprise guests, retro instruments, color- ful rock and tasteful roll. You might hear Brion playing “Sympathy for the Devil” on an accordion. At his request for song ideas, someone shouts out, “This guitar PHOTO: MR. BONZAI string is wrapped around my heart,” and Brion weaves a believable song around it. the second Fiona record. He liked the fact that I got Born in the rough woodlands of New Jersey, Brion sounds that were different from the norm. has been living in L.A. for the past 15 years, gathering I discovered that he is a great drum programmer accolades for his ability as a multi-instrumentalist with and great at manipulating samples. I introduced him an eclectic collection of string and keyboard instru- to the Celeste and it blew his mind, and then to the ments, odd electronic gear and choice vintage mics. Chamberlin. I said, “Here is the original sampler, in- As a producer, the albums include work with Rufus vented in 1946, and there’s a tape player under every Wainwright, Aimee Mann and Fiona Apple. In the key, with recordings on this one of the Lawrence film world, he has created memorable soundtracks for Welk Orchestra recorded in the late ’50s.” I put my recording notes Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, Eternal Sunshine of the hand on the keys and you could see fire shooting out Spotless Mind and I Heart Huckabees. of his eyes, he was so excited. So here we are with The surprising news is that Brion has produced the instrument collection, and we are following my his first hip hop album: Kanye West’s Number One obsession of making new sounds appear in a very smash, Late Registration. Brion collaborated with West organic way. on creating the new songs, as well as playing guitar, You finally have all your instruments out of storage? keyboards and providing string arrangements. Guest Yes, here at Grand Master recording studios, famous vocalists include Cam’ron, Brandy, The Game, Jamie for sessions with Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Harry Foxx, Jay-Z and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine. Brion’s Nilsson and Beatles-related ’70s-era stuff. I came in longtime engineer, Tom Biller, gave me a tour of the to do a little instrumental project, and Kanye came funky Grand Master recording stu- by the very next day. He brought along some Pro dios, where tons of strange instru- Tools files, but I didn’t really know what he wanted ments were being hauled out of to do. I introduced him to The Pile, which is what storage to get the job done. Then we call this collection of instruments and old elec- I sat down and talked with Brion. tronic gear. Within half-an-hour, he was playing me rough mixes and I was suggesting things we could How did all this materialize with add. A microphone came up, and two days later, we Kanye West? had worked on three or four songs. He looked up at I was standing in a music store me and said, “Are you producing?” I looked at Tom and got a call. “Hey, man, it’s and we both laughed, and I said, “Okay.” Kanye. Thought we should get Did you go back and study his previous work? together.” His last album wasn’t I knew the last record, and I am incredibly impressed just boasting, as is common with by his instincts. He will do his rap, and then sing a rappers. He stayed on topic; he chorus, sing an octave above it, then come in and is focused on the songs. That’s listen. He tells me, “I need somebody with a reedy why I like working with artists voice to do the top part and somebody with a hus- like Fiona Apple and Aimee Mann. kier voice for the bottom part. He starts mentioning He came in with the basic samples and drum people he has in mind. I said, “You just wrote the beats, and sometimes a verse of the raps. We’re do- chorus and you figured out mentally how it should ing all sorts of things with real instruments. Turns be presented.” He thinks in frequency ranges. out he liked the soundtrack to Eternal Sunshine and —CONTINUED ON PAGE 128 122 MIX, November 2005 • www.mixonline.com recording notes modern or all retro. I hated the way reverb and samples FROM PAGE 122 were used on records in the I can recognize when ’80s and even today. Gener- someone sees music architec- ally, I don’t like digital reverb. turally, which is how I work. I was reacting against that and I see it as a spatial thing: left how records had “spatialness” JONto right, BRION front to back, up and based on how wet it was. down. It’s animated and it’s The only wetness they knew moving in real time. Kanye has was bright, hissy and awful. that. He said, “I see things in Multi-relays on guitars. And it my head and they are com- obscured what was originally plete and then I have to put it there. together in the recording.” He I started doing things as a tries things out until it fits, until result of hip hop influences, it sits where it is supposed to sit those accidental combinations and everything has the correct of fidelity. What if we had emotional function. He has real something that sounded like instincts like any great record- PHOTO: MR. BONZAI it came off a Nelson Riddle re- maker. Jon Brion’s engineer, Tom Biller, slaving away at the board cord and just in the left speaker? You’ve never made a hip hop And over here we have some- record. hear some of the wackier stuff and know I thing from this era. I wanted to make sure No, and I’ve wanted to make one for 10 have a love of early jazz and stride piano. that people realized it wasn’t strictly retro. years. The influence of that music is all over In the late ’80s and early ’90s, I was at- That Aimee Mann record [I’m With Stupid in everything I do. The first record I produced, tracted to hip hop because, unintentionally, 1995]—not a mid-’60s melodic pop record— for Aimee Mann, has tons of the influence of they were playing with different eras of fi- has lots of stuff that is decidedly modern with listening to hip hop and rap records. Nobody delity at the same time: Here’s this bit from some left-field material. ever gets it because they see the Beatles- the ’60s and something current right next You’re a troublemaker, aren’t you? esque pop things and recognize that. They to each other. Rock records were either all Yeah. Going back to the second Fiona pdf file 3/7/05 3:42 PM Page 1 Apple record, it was very much an experi- sounds that hit the spinal chord in the way vintage mentation of the influence of both electron- that Kanye wants. And Kanye is loving it. I ic music and loop music, but not looping have an excited artist. One of the reasons I tube technology things—using synthesizers for the most collect old equipment is because of the way part. Everything is played on that record. different artists react as they come into this Those aren’t drum loops; Matt Chamberlain unfamiliar environment. We get new sounds is playing those drum parts, except for one that are very, very interesting. They want to Optagon part that was looped. If there was experiment, they start playing around and a repetitive keyboard part, I played a three- that’s when I like to start recording. ■ to five-minute performance. It still has the hypnotic effect, but it has the human element, too—like a weird combination of electronic music, Reich and Eno influenced, modern and feeling classic because you have the human element. FROM PAGE 123 I thought this kind of sound would be years and managed to build up the clientele I great on hip hop records because it feels as was thirsting for. I worked with a lot of great solid and tight as a machine, but is human engineers: Bill Schnee, Humberto Gatica and and funky. Kanye is the first person to make Don Landee. I worked with Hall & Oates, the the connection on a purely sonic level. He MARKDoobie Brothers,LINETT Jimmy Webb—there was noticed some sonic signposts. And his deci- a lot of pop coming through the studio in sions are intuitive and not random. Once he those days.” Nearly three decades later, Linett was here, it freaked him out that I was play- would cut Smile there. ing parts-oriented stuff for the whole take After working as an independent for a rather than playing chords or noodling. while, Linett landed a job with Warner Bros. He came up with a great part the at Amigo Studios under veteran engineer other day when I set up a weird old early Lee Herschberg. “That was a great place sampling keyboard, the 360 digital key- to work,” he says. “It had a DiMedio/API board—the first commercially available sort console in Studio A, and Studio E had a of sample player. We are bringing out a lot Harrison.