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Tape Op - Bill Bottrell Interview
StoreTags: bill botrell, tape op, industry
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I get the free subscription to Tape Op. Usually there's a killer interview somewhere in the middle (last issue it was Matthew Herbert). I make no pretenses at being a producer or engineer or anything, I don't really even understand the distinction really. So most of the magazine is stuff I completely don't understand (what the fuck are you going to do with 48 bits and 24 tracks of audio?) or just can't qualify (do people really care what mic you use on that snare?). But some of those interviews have some serious insight.
The May/June issue came in the mail yesterday. I started reading it on the bus and when I got home, I laid on my side to read it while my infected ear absorbed the sterile otic suspension I'm taking twice a day for a week (seems to be working well so far but still no treble in that ear since Saturday  ). I flipped over to the Bill Botrell interview and it seemed a little too long so I just kind of skimmed it, then I saw the caption: "There's a concept that's kind of been lost in the last fifteen twenty years where hierarchies and pyramids do exist, and if you're at the bottom and you want to move up, you've got to eat it a little bit. You don't walk in at the bottom of the pyramid and start making demands." Damn. Should probably go back and read the rest of this.
I was already feeling pretty existential since I got laid off from my (other) job yesterday, and I just started questioning the value of what I have to offer, with programming, music, writing, photoshop, any of this stuff I know how to do passably. And while the interview was pretty gloomy, it brought to light a lot of things that have kind of been bugging me about where music was going. Because we all love music, but it's kind of time to start thinking about what it's really worth now, as it sounds like it's hard to sell music even online anymore. For what it's worth, this is a guy that worked with Madonna, the Jacksons and Sheryl Crow, probably not the favorites of too many people on here, myself included. And I don't think he even mentions the internet, which obviously most of us depend on for everything from distribution to even the acquisition of our tools. But some of what was said seems very important to me.
Anyway, you can't read this online as far as I know. If you're getting a subscription, you'll probably end up reading it anyway. If not, borrow a friend's. If you can't do that, well, here are a few choice snippets:
I can't negotiate with the business climate anymore ... It's absolutely hopeless. Nobody is stepping up with any courage or dealing on behalf of the music or the musicians. Everybody is out for a killing. Everybody's trying to hook on to something that seems like it might be cool or profitable and everybody's guessing.
As the public's distaste for music grows, the record companies have to increasingly shove it down their throats and that costs money, and that gets counted against the producer's recoup.
TapeOp: Where do you see the music industry going?
I see recorded music being free. I see it going to live performance, which in this world is the only thing that can truly be owned anymore, and the only thing that doesn't require a big corporate infrastructure to present to the people. That's where I'd like to see it go.
The techniques were to break everything down as much as possible, keep recording one thing at a time, make slaves on analog, endless slaves, and pile them up in a locker somewhere and hire a professional to come in and just throw stuff down and sort it out later.
TapeOp: Sounds like now.
It is like now. These things come and go and I thought, "All the great records in a hundred years of recording weren't done that way" - at least the great bulk of them. They were done where you could hear the poeple in the room. You could hear that it was a moment in time. The record industry had caught the movie industry disease of "bigger and more manipulated is better" and stopped telling human stories.
Limiting overdubs, letting all the instruments bleed into each other - the most essential component of it is to stop controlling everything. Lack of control is the essence of rock and roll.
[A]s time went on, the tools became more about control and people in general became more intrigued with technology in the arts - the number of people who talk like the people behind the glass started growing. Pretty soon you had the producer in league with the engineer about the drum sounds or about getting it perfect, about controlling things and controlling wildness. By the time we got to the mid-'80s, the musicians were starting to agree. "This is what we want." They would come in and join in the chorus of people saying, "Let's make it tighter and cleaner." ... [B]y '96 we have the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and we have Clear Channel taking over such a high percentage of radio and the obvious need for them to standardize everything, and then you have radio on the wrong side of the glass, but you still had the public who love wild, free music - human beings aren't going to change. They are going to love free expression in music if it can get to them, but without radio it can't get to them, or so the record companies say.
I think anybody should get their tools together and stick with them - tools they love and sell off the ones they don't love. If they love it they should stick with it, whether it's through five years or three decades. If they stop loving any of it, then sell it off and replace it with something new that they do love.
Everyone is a producer now and so be it. It's the democratization of music and it's worse on a lot of different levels. Everybody is also a rock star now. I don't know who all these engineers and producers are going to produce because everyone is already a rock star and I don't know if it's going to become where everybody has got their CD, or let's say three quarters of the houses on any one block, the people have their own CD and they give it to the other people on the block. The other people on the block love it because it's their buddy that they see every day. This is the sort of vibe that I'm getting. It's just ultimately democratized. | |
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05/17/07
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djugel
well .. I never made the "in" music ... so it doesn't really affect me. It just helps when there's something to play off of.
I'm doing fine... just puke everytime I see a magazine.
edited: May 17 2007
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djugel
Bunch of lazy asses that just imitate and don't think about the "big picture" .. venue, sound, etc. Everyone is an artist.. where the fuck are the engineers... promotors... ...
Me and my "art scum" friends are the only one's doing anything (around here).. we want competition!!
05/17/07
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astroid
Was I bored? No, I wasn't fuckin' bored.
I'm never bored.
That's the trouble with everybody.
You're all so bored.
You've had nature explained to you,
and you're bored with it...
You've had the living body explained to you,
and you're bored with it.
You've had the universe explained to you,
and you're bored with it.
So now you just want cheap thrills
and plenty of'em..
and it don't matter how tawdry
or vacuous they are as long as it's new..
as long as it's new, as long as it flashes
and fucking bleeps in different colors.
Well, whatever else you can say about me,
I'm not fuckin'bored.
05/17/07
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license
 hear, hear.
05/17/07
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djugel
I blame Sonic Youth for basically everything wrong with music
05/17/07
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license
I wish I could. I have and still have only heard "Daydream Nation", and I only listened to it once. It was fucking boring. What's so important about them again?
05/17/07
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astroid
they made glenn branca popular
05/17/07
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parke02
From a post by Ricci Rucker on another forum:
all you have to do is look around and ask yourself, do people look inspired
the reaity is there isnt even any new material to a and b for comparison, everything is produced mainly the same
people do notice, they just dont speak on it, you can see it in how they act, think, move, its in all of the actions
can they tell you the difference from a technical point of view, or even pinpoint why it just doesnt feel like it used to, no
but they dont need to, thats not where to look to figure out if people feel a difference or not
thats like saying a kid with a cold doesnt have a cold cause he cant explain his ailments
whats sad is everyone in the music industry is waiting for the avergae person to say, literally, yes, i can tell the difference, but because they say they cant tell the difference, due to a lack of a sonically good comparison, and the proper equipment, how could they
the industry is running one on people, because they are saying science for some reason, is not applicable to the masses, and then print it up in their media to promote their cheaper ways, and build a hype
dr dre buys probably 200,000 of his own record when he drops one
theres a reason why, it looks better on paper
they probably asking these people if they can tell the difference when their listeing on shitty headphones like ipod ones, or wack speakers
its like you give people the worst reproduction system, then ask them if they can tell the difference, and when they cant, the tech geeks, want to rush and say, see , they cant tell
hmm, maybe if people upgraded their systems
ooh, no, but they cant do that, why, cuse people dont care, thats bullshit
industry creates demand, and its obvious that in these tests, they arent looking for the truth, they are leaning towards the ignorance of people, then want to take them for their word, not how people acted based on the past, and the example of different standards before
you wanna know if people feel it, its in the actions of the average person
people are not wanting to admit that music inspires people to do things, ask yourself, what are people doing
exactly
this is the point here
people take words too literally, and actions are a far second, look around, digital has effected not only the specific technical distribution of sound, but more so, its effected the relationship of how musicians and visual artists deal with their mediums, its a really cold, processing time delay, separation, and an over paid and over hyped relationship
look around, shit is wack, and a big part of that is the quality of sound, and the type of fake mentality where people think they can cheat science and do shortcuts, which has effected the construction of music, and its all around content
you went from harold melvin and the blue notes singing about he had to leave his woman because shes bragging about what she has to people who dont have shit
to mike jones and all these weak niggas talkin about baaaalin and saying the most repressive shit that has set black people back 40 years, to the tv putting up minstrel show after minstrel show
95 percent of all people who work in the music indstry from a technical equipment standpoint are completely fuckin idiots who look at music as a job, and dont even know who use their gear half the time, and what its really for
many people dont have the resources, insight, and application and representation to change the game, so your just gonna have to kick back and watch, but this whole trying to speak on it from a writing point of view, and how the industry agree,s is bullshit
ill tell you this, when a song is huge, and its sonically banging eveything else out the game, to the point where djs cant even mix it in or out of their set because its sonically deeper and louder than everything else they play, and they have to end their sets with these records which will get the people hyped the most, people are gonna ask, how the hell did you make it sound like that
this is when its gonna change
ruckazoid.
05/17/07
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papergoose
music isn't dead. The lines are converging, techno in rock, rock in techno, folk in whatever. In big part due to the internet. . . When I was in high school, you learned about other music, good music, from friends. . . And that was it. Or possibly a local college station. Or raves. But definitely not with the ease you can find something you like now...
In the past few years, I got really tired of electronic music, and drifted into more live based stuff... I wouldn't say "rock", but things that were more.... LIVE. Animal Collective, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Arcade Fire, LCD soundsystem... so much good stuff going on right now. SO MUCH. Esp. on the other side of the tracks, the indie rock side. Only recently have I heard much that made me like electronic again... mostly in dubstep. But at the same time, so many other bands are taking lessons learned from electronic and putting them into other forms of music, or vice-versa, myself included.
I still make electronic music, but it's definitely got loose and live elements. I leave certain timing mistakes in, let tails of sounds overlap sometimes, generally let the structure create itself. Also adding in manipulated but loose LIVE elements, like vocals and guitars and drums and aleatoric noises. It's part of the appeal, I think.
05/17/07
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nagrom
Clark has completely renewed my faith in electronic music. So much depth, emotion, and aural bliss on his latest record.
What's wrong with Sonic Youth? All they did was invent grunge and make noise popular. I think they did a lot of wonderful things really.
05/17/07
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jdg
i think we should put dj google in a timecapsle, or maybe put him on gold record and send him into space.
05/17/07
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astroid
we need another futurist movement.
one which will scare the fuck out of everyone, make fascism look like fascism made nationalism look like. one which worships the global arcology anthill and the demolishing of the personality.
they should look something like the process church of final judgement did.
05/17/07
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ricemutt
hah, ok, just one thing--music is NOT dead. Maybe boring electronic music made by disenchanted hipsters in their bedrooms is dead. But personally, I think there's so much amazing music in the world, all over the place, that it's absolutely incomprehensible and as big as 10 solar systems... It totally sucks that people can get so jaded when there's SO much inspiration out there and available to ANYONE who is willing to look out of the little chalk circle they've drawn around themselves.
05/17/07
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ricemutt
and more relevant to the orignal topic, I'm really excited to see where all this crazy democratization and open-sourcing of music goes... and I'm working hard on trying to figure out how to do good live electronic music ;)
05/17/07
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Fredo
very nicely put.
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