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A Primer On Feel
I am posting this article here (as well as on my website), due to its apparent popularity. Music is every bit as visceral as it is engaging for the mind (if it is not moreso). It is a total, fulfilling experience and even though it doesn’t engage other senses (in the way motion pictures and […]
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Good Isn’t Actually Great/The Feeling Is Everything
After I published a recent blog (parenthetically entitled ‘My Manifesto’), I received a lot of comments regarding one particular assertion I’d made. The assertion I made was this; no one has made a truly great piece of popular music in years. Many people were infuriated by this statement. From some of their responses, I got […]
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A Crescendo Grows In Hollywood
In mid 1987, I began work with The Red Hot Chili Peppers on their third album. The first day we started recording at Capitol Studios was a milestone of epic proportions for myself and the band. This was far more than just our first day in the studio- being at Capitol designated closure for us. […]
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The truth hurts and vanity kills
In 1999, my life had arrived at a perfectly acceptable, yet utterly untenable place. I was at a high point in my career and had been nominated for a variety of awards. My marriage had also dissolved and my emotional state was questionable. I was living in a small apartment on the Hudson River and […]
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There are no bad people, just bad ideas
World history has come to a unique and remarkable point of convergence. With each new moment, current events are literally recreating, rewiring and redirecting the course of civilization. Technology is playing a tremendous role in all of this change. The capability to distribute information and to communicate with others is unprecedented. Data flows through the […]
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The work ethic and breeding stillborn artists
The concept of a work ethic has always figured strongly in the output of artists. It can be seen in every important piece of art down through the ages, from St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican to The White Album. It is implausible that such remarkable things could have been created by people who didn’t […]
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The unbearable agony of focusing
Sometimes, it’s so easy to become literally and thoroughly absorbed by whatever creative project I’m working on. When this happens, it’s as if I’ve entered into some kind of alternate universe. Instantly, I lose track of the time and everything around me begins to recede into the background. People simply fade away, objects vanish, appointments […]
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It’s all about intent
Modern digital recording technology is as miraculous as it is still relatively new and undeveloped. From a technical and historical perspective, what could be achieved with previous recording platforms is dwarfed by what can be accomplished with current systems. The fact that there are now software programs which can alter the individual notes of an […]
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The gift
One evening, I was listening back to a track I’d been producing at Conway Studio in Los Angeles. From out of nowhere, I felt a rush, a great intensity surge through my being. It was like a tidal wave of dopamine- in an instant, all my senses became heightened. My muscles clenched and my teeth […]
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Red carpets and pots of gold
In 1986, I was working out of a tiny, makeshift 8 track recording studio on St. Mark’s Place in Manhattan. The studio was in the basement of an old tenement building, and was next door to a shop that sold guitars (which looked suspiciously as if they’d been spirited out of some nearby apartment for […]