Recording - December 2009 - 49

CDs—like that kind of stuff. Michael says in his best Rock Star voice;“But duuuude, that feels like I’m selling out. Why can’t I just do what I feel and hope that the world loves it?” Brian: That’s never gonna happen. The reality of it is that it’s just never gonna happen. And if you to do that, it’s cool, but maybe it’s best to go in an Indie direction. Go to a foreign country where they like that kind of stuff, you know? Make some polka music in Germany … Tony: How much of that is the writer thinking that they’re selling out by crafting a hit song versus the songwriter doesn’t know how to craft one? When we started with No Doubt way back when, they were writing songs that were like 15 minutes long. They’d start with a guitar solo, they’d go into a Continued from page 47 everything that the Pussycat Dolls do in their career, whether it’s acting, merchandise—every aspect of their career. It saved our ass. We got 20% of $40 million without selling a record. Who needs to sell records? I’ve got to say as a male, I’m thinking about calling the ACLU, because if we’re being underpaid compared to the women, I’ve got an issue with that. [laughter and applause] OK, Brian, you’re a hit songwriter, multi-platinum producer, and the CEO of a record label with an imprint under Interscope. You’ve experienced every side of the music business and done incredibly well, and you’re very qualified to answer this question we get from our members all the time. “Why can’t I just do what I do, create what I create, and let the industry figure out what to do with me? Why is it so important for me to write songs with commercial appeal that fit in a radio format?” Brian: Well, it’s exactly what Tony said. With my label at Interscope I’ve only signed one band in two years. Right from the start, we do a 360 deal, where you’ve got to build brands and everything. That’s just one aspect of it, so if you don’t even have that right… You have to have music that at least gets played on the radio, because the radio still drives whatever sales are left. It still does drive that aspect of it and kind of gets the ball rolling. And, from my experience, it always starts with the song. If you have a great song, then everything else builds around that. You have to start with a great song. But it’s very subjective, so as long as it’s very catchy and hooky, and it’s not like prog rock with 7/8 time signatures. There are certain math parts of it that you have to get right. There’s the creative part, then there’s the math part. And the math part is that the majority of people will like it. You have to play a little bit by the rules some of the time. You can always break the rules on some things, but for pop music for sure, you’ve got to give the audience what they want. Be more specific. What’s the math? Brian: The math… Like it can’t be 10 minutes before the chorus hits, and some big long intro with no hooks in it. You know, I love that kind of stuff too. It’s like Radiohead. They had “Creep,” which they hated, and they don’t even play it live, but that’s the song that broke that band, and that was a pop song. You take out the crunchy guitars and you could play it on an acoustic or something. The Pussycat Dolls could do it, you know what I mean? You always have to have those kinds of songs. And they don’t have to be cheesy. You don’t have to sell out what you want to be as an artists, but you have to tailor it enough in the direction where at least the mainstream—the listeners, the people that listen to radio, and the people that will actually go and buy verse, then they’d go into another juxtaposition kind of piece of music. It was convoluted, and we told them that they’d have to be more concise if they were going to transfer from the first record to Tragic Kingdom—which sold 25 million—and that they were going to have to make some changes. And they went kicking and screaming. We brought in a very seasoned, qualified songwriter, Matthew Wilder, who went through hell to get these guys to change their way of thinking. He would just say, “Just try it. You don’t have to marry it. Just try it.” And they tried it, and they thought, “Oh, that sounds kinda cool,” and they got a hit. They could do whatever they like after that. Brian: That’s it. You need the first hit to open the door.

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Recording - December 2009

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