RECORDING November 2024 - 19

How did you get into technology and recording?
When I was 14, I made an audition tape to get into the Interlochen
Center for the Arts. It was a multi-track instrumental, where I played
all of the parts, which was, as you know, a big deal in 1980.
I did the drum part first, then added the keyboards, and I did the
synth bass. I had my first synthesizer, an ARP Omni 2, a Rhodes
and a piano. I remember the director of Interlochen calling me
and saying, " Have you ever done anything in the studio before? "
I was like, " No, I'm 14. "
When I was 15, I got my first job at a recording studio in Bethesda,
Maryland, called JRB Sound Studios, which is no longer there,
but I got an internship with the guy who owned the studio, John
Burr. John walked me through the real basics of a studio-here's
what a tape machine does, what a mixing board does, what a
microphone does, how you coil a cable and all that stuff.
It was very old school-essentially, here's how you record
things. He would have me mic things, and we would talk about
why this microphone was better than that microphone. The biggest
thing I learned from John was a healthy " distance " about EQ.
A " distance " about EQ?
He taught me to be very careful with EQ and that proper microphone
placement is the best EQ, and a lot of those lessons have
stayed with me for the 40 years of my professional career.
How did you get involved in commercial/
soundtrack work?
At the same time, I was working at JRB in the keyboard room
at Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center, which is still a great
music store.
A guy from the local NBC affiliate, WRC, heard me playing
and said the station wanted a synthesizer arrangement of the
new theme that John Williams had just written for NBC News.
He wanted to know if I could do it. I really had no idea what he
wanted, but of course, I said " Yes. "
Two Emmy Awards
So, my first professional job was arranging this John Williams
theme with my synthesizers and multi-track cassette tape deck.
They were thrilled with it, and it went right on the air. They paid me
$500, which I thought was all the money in the world-especially
in the early 1980s.
Having all this stuff happen within a year of each other when
I was still in high school was life changing for me, and I knew I
wanted to do it professionally. Eventually, I worked my way into
an entry-level commercial music job in New York.
So, in many cases, it sounds like you were
at the right place at the right time.
Being in the right place at the right time is important, but you
also need to possess the talent, skill or whatever got you there.
I ran a record company for two years, and people are like,
" Wow, how did you go through all those demos? " It was easy
because the really good stuff was so much better than everything
else, while 99.9% of it was terrible.
So when you get an opportunity, you've got to have your act
together. You've got to be ready to go. That's a preparation thing,
a training thing and most of all, a mental attitude thing.
I've worked with many interns over the years, and I think what
takes a lot of people out of the business is their attitude. They go
in with a sense of, " Aren't you just so grateful that I'm here and
you get to work with me? " And I'm like, " No, not really. You don't
really know anything, and you're not really valuable to me until,
you know, some stuff. " You can be confident, but you need to
be willing to learn and ready to jump at opportunities when they
come up.
When I started working at an entry-level job in New York City,
I did not go to sleep for two years. I listened to what people were
saying to me and to each other. The good part was that I got to
do so much music in those first two years.
So you were composing and scoring
as well as engineering?
My boss at the time, Jonathan Elias, was at this very interesting
intersection of doing advertising music, film music, TV stuff and
being a record producer. He produced a Duran Duran album. He
produced a Grace Jones album while I was there. He did three or
four feature films, where I got to work on some of the cues. He was
doing stuff all the time; and I helped wherever I could. Plus, during
the day, I was either doing my own music or working with other
composers on stuff they were doing-it was just insane.
It sounds like a cross between a master
class and musical boot camp.
It was like working on your master's and a Ph.D. simultaneously.
By the time I left in 1989 to go out on my own, I was very
well known in New York. With the money I made, I bought a
Synclavier and set it up in a tiny bedroom in my apartment and I
got work from every music house in New York and even a couple
in Los Angeles.
What is the difference between film, TV and commercial
ad work, and do you prefer one over the other?
That is a great question. I think I prefer TV scoring over everything
else because so much of what you're doing is based on
relationship and trust.
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RECORDING November 2024

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