Episode 66
Show Notes:
Live with Matt Rad - Episode 66
September 21, 2021
w/ Peter Asher - Week 1
Show notes by: Bradley Will
Q: How do you stay excited about making records? How do you find that joy?
Peter:
It’s natural to have phases over time where your enthusiasm flags.
It’s common to get a mid-project blues where you are unsatisfied with the record you’re making. Just give it a few days and you’ll feel much better about it again.
I get perspective by sitting down and thinking about it. You can sink into hopelessness or ask yourself “what is there to be done?”
Matt:
Many people who are a few years into making records don’t realize that this is a normal phenomena.
Q: Where do you feel like you fit in as a producer? What is your approach?
Peter:
Most of us producers have not seen each other work. Most of us judge other producers by the results. Only the artist knows.
I consider myself to be an arranger. Not like Quincy Jones, but as someone who can come up with concept of how to do the song. What kind of instrumentation, tempo, groove, etc.
The mood of the session can count for a lot.
One of the producer’s functions is knowing when to stop.
When have you got the right take?
When working on a song that’s not working and knowing when to not press forward with a song that nobody’s feeling.
Matt:
Sometimes the artist needs to be told when to do more takes and sometimes they need to be told when what they have is already great.
Q: What are the qualities you see in an artist that will lead to success?
Peter:
Ed Sheeran is determined, organized, and ambitious, all in a friendly way.
He always has a plan.
He’s taken the time to learn the music business and its ins and outs, which has allowed him to succeed.
He could be a successful manager if he wanted to.
What makes a great manager? A great client/artist.
James Taylor was ambitious, and talented, but he was not organized.
Despite himself all I had to do was to get people to listen to him and it would do the rest.
Bad managers happen, but an artist can still succeed.
James Taylor was the type to write songs as they occurred to him, not in a pre-meditated way.
Q: What prompted you to do two drastically different versions of ‘Carolina In My Mind’?
Peter:
The primary reason was legally motivated.
We had a Greatest Hits record coming and I wanted to have some of James’ early songs included on the compilation.
We could not license two of the tracks from Apple. There was nobody to talk to because of the label being in legal chaos at the time. So we decided to cut the songs again, which presented us with an opportunity to redo them in a less complicated way.
Matt:
I feel like all of the best creatives I know always have something that they wish they could change.
Q: How did your record with Robin Williams come about?
Peter:
Comedy albums used to be huge. But at the time of this record they were not. We knew the DVD would take precedence.
We knew that the draw of the CD would be that we could combine all of the best performances because we were able to record the audio every night.
We also got to include a second CD with nothing but Robin doing jokes about the city he was in each night.
Q: How did your Hans Zimmer collaboration come about?
Hans is an old friend. He wanted to have an in-house producer from time to time.
He asked me to come on board as director/producer for the roadshow that went to Coachella.
Q: How do you think about balance in your life?
I worked full time for a period of time. I was probably away more time than the ideal father would be.
Looking back I’d have liked to set more time aside.
Finding the right partner helps too.
