When good things go bad

[colinmiller]

Hi Butch! (thank you so much for being here!!!)

While it sounds like most of the projects you work on are great and enjoyable, and that you work with people because you have a good chemistry, I was wondering about the other times.

Assuming you must, like everyone else get in projects that you don't enjoy, or maybe working with people that after a short period you don't enjoy working with, or have a hard time getting along with, or maybe their artistic direction changed so much from yours....

Do you have any general tips for how you deal with the not so great situations? How to try to inspire yourself when a song you are working on is not inspiring you, or just plain taking away your motivation/inspiration? Or when working with someone who's vision goes against what your ear tells you (ex: your every instinct tells you to a production needs to be hard and dirty yet the artist insists on it being clean and pretty)?

Of course it's the artists vision and they are the one who has to live it. But any advise on tricks you have come up with the plow through it when you come into such conflicts?

Because when someone of such a great status as yourself speaks, the questions are generally geared towards the greater projects and this can give some people a somewhat false sense that when they are in a position like yours, everything is fun and great and every project is swell. And perhaps I am making this sound negative, but was just hoping you could share your insight on maybe the not so great scenarios to see the other side of the balance. And sometimes it's comforting to know that even the top pros get some tough gigs too! :-)

[ButchVig]

Originally Posted by colinmiller

Hi Butch! (thank you so much for being here!!!)

While it sounds like most of the projects you work on are great and enjoyable, and that you work with people because you have a good chemistry, I was wondering about the other times.

Assuming you must, like everyone else get in projects that you don't enjoy, or maybe working with people that after a short period you don't enjoy working with, or have a hard time getting along with, or maybe their artistic direction changed so much from yours....

Do you have any general tips for how you deal with the not so great situations? How to try to inspire yourself when a song you are working on is not inspiring you, or just plain taking away your motivation/inspiration? Or when working with someone who's vision goes against what your ear tells you (ex: your every instinct tells you to a production needs to be hard and dirty yet the artist insists on it being clean and pretty)?

Of course it's the artists vision and they are the one who has to live it. But any advise on tricks you have come up with the plow through it when you come into such conflicts?

Because when someone of such a great status as yourself speaks, the questions are generally geared towards the greater projects and this can give some people a somewhat false sense that when they are in a position like yours, everything is fun and great and every project is swell. And perhaps I am making this sound negative, but was just hoping you could share your insight on maybe the not so great scenarios to see the other side of the balance. And sometimes it's comforting to know that even the top pros get some tough gigs too! :-)

I approach every project like it's going to be a big record, like the band is the bees knees, and I will give them 100% complete attention and passion. And that goes back to when I started producing albums in 1984. Musicians and artists can be very fragile, and as I learned how to make records, the most biggest thing I took from all those early sessions was how important the psychological aspect is....what is the band's dynamic, what are their strengths, weaknesses, how do I motivate them, how do I tell them the song sucks, how do I stop them from punching each other!
I have done LOTS of projects, both big and small, where the vibe was incredible at one point in the session, and not so schveet a half hour later. A producer's role is to turn it around when things go bad. Figure it out, motivate the band...that's my job!