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Continued from page 55 promoting yourself. If you were starting out today… I’d join TAXI! [laughter] Good answer. I like that answer. But, if you were starting out today, what would you do differently than when you started out? I know exactly. I have no indecision about this. I would treat people better that I met when I was younger. Really? You weren’t a nice guy—this nice guy that I know and remember? I don’t know. I look back and I have so many regrets about things that it’s just mind-boggling. I think that it’s very easy for people to get hurt. Some little words can be said just in passing that are so hurtful or harmful or destructive or not positive. I probably was just too self-absorbed, and I wish that I had treated people better. That’s the main thing. I really try now, and I’m not perfect at it. But I try now because I know that when I was sitting listening to someone telling me what to do or trying to help me, I wanted to hear something that would resonate with me, something that I could take and maybe learn from and do better. But I think sometimes I didn’t do that. So that’s what I try to change. I remember when I was a pup in the industry, probably 19- or 20-years-old, working at Criteria back in the mid-’70s, and you were in an ad for probably a pair of speakers or something… I thought you were going to say a Speedo. [laughter] It was definitely not a Speedo. It’s funny, I can remember being on my living room floor with a pair of JBL 4311’s pointed at me, and I was in a prone position on my belly, thumbing through Recording Engineer/Producer magazine. I used to read the interviews and simultaneously listen to the records to learn about them—and I flipped the page and saw this guy with blond hair, Michael Lloyd, endorsing a product. I thought you looked like the nicest guy in the world. So many, many years later, when you and I met, you could have been a raging jerk and you still would have been a nice guy because of my preconceived notion. But I’m glad that you turned out as nice as you did. Would you rather hear an “A” song with “C” production on the demo, or a “C” song with “A” production? I would rather hear an “A” song every time. Something I encounter in my role every day as
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the head of TAXI … I think that you guys [in the audience] spend way too much time worrying about production. Now, I agree that in some cases it matters; I can’t make a blanket statement and say that it doesn’t ever matter. Certainly, if you’re doing a record as a band, production matters. But when it comes down to songs… If people are trying to get a song on a record that you’re producing, you would rather hear an “A” song and not really care about the demo production?

“Screw all the people that don’t want to hear your stuff.” —Michael Lloyd
Here are some parameters for some of this, I think. It depends on the situation; it depends on what you’re pitching a thing for. So if it’s a song to go into House or Grey’s Anatomy, whatever, some of those things are very simple. You’ve heard them; sometimes they are just voice and guitar, or voice and piano— very, very stripped-down. But it’s important that that stripped-down version be coolsounding. So that’s one. If you are pitching yourself as a record for some other use, well then, the demo has to kind of sound like the other things that are in that competitive environment. If it is a song that you’re pitching for someone to record, to me, it’s always better that the song be the “A” song, and the demo could be just piano. It’s not critical that it be some blown-up, special thing. There are so many different ways to pitch them, you just have to be aware of it and try to tailor the pitch. I’ve known you long enough and well enough to know that above all else you’re a family guy. Right before we went on stage, Michael was showing me a picture on his iPhone of all the grandkids, and I could see the love in your eyes. I am also aware of your addiction to basketball. He’s played for many years. This guy has broken his body playing basketball. The basketball stories are too numerous to mention here… By the way, when you walk into his house in Beverly Hills—he lives right by the Beverly Hills Hotel—and he does have a studio out behind his house in what would normally be a guest house… but in his family room area there is so much gold and platinum on the wall, it’s almost blinding. In the front of the house, just past the foyer on the right, I believe, there’s a glass case that Grandma would normally have her china in. Michael Lloyd has basketballs in there, and pictures of himself with Shaq and Michael Jordan, just about every famous player you can imagine. In the middle of all these autographed basketballs is this yellow-and-black basketball that says, “TAXI, the World’s Leading Independent A&R Company.” [applause] I can’t think of too

many times in my life when I’ve ever been that flattered. Thank you. That’s very funny. You know, if I wasn’t playing music, I’d be playing basketball. But I weigh 140 pounds. I used to be a good guitar player, but I’ve broken all my fingers playing basketball, my wrist and my ribs. I play with big guys. But everybody, of course, is bigger than me. Yeah, it’s every day—basketball every day. It’s great for everybody to have some sort of balance. I mean, this is what I do; this [music] is what I love. Basketball is just another kind of thing that kinda takes you away, then you can come back and worry about if the mix is right. So it’s a cool thing. I’ve tried to get Michael out to play, but… Ain’t gonna happen. Golf, maybe … basketball, never. Last time I played basketball, everybody else just fell down and laughed. It did permanent damage to my psyche. Tell us why giving back has always been so important in your life. You do a ton of charitable work. Because I was helped by people, I guess. If nobody had believed in me and had given me a chance, somebody else would be sitting here. A lot of people are talented, a lot of people are worthy, but if people don’t believe in you and give you an opportunity, what is there? So I gotta tell ya—what I said at the beginning—it’s because of you that I have a chance. I’ve gotta get songs, I’ve gotta get artists, I’ve gotta get things to do. I’ve gotta find things and discover what the connection is. Where can I help? Is there a fit? Is there some kind of a thing that I can do? So I really like talking to people about this stuff. I think it’s the only way for me to communicate, maybe, to other people how much I love what I do. And when I find other people that love it too, it’s pretty cool for me. I enjoy talking about all of this. That’s why I listen to the [TAXI members’] records and call them. It’s exciting, it’s fun. I think it’s great. Screw all the people that don’t want to hear your stuff. [applause] Last question. If you had one piece of advice for everybody who has ever made a record, made a demo … the people in this room who have joined us today from all over the world. If there’s one thing that you would advise them to do to be able to live the kind of life and have the kind of success and joy that you’ve experienced, is there any one thing that would be top of the list? I think that the hardest thing for all of us is to have constant faith in what we’re doing. It is an up-and-down battle. One day you’ve written the greatest song in the world or got this opportunity: “The TV show called and Continued on page 59

Recording - March 2011

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