Recording - June 2012 - 23

know that the mic setup has to change and I might move it if I have to. I find that with drums especially, the more mics the better, but I might just end up using the one mic. With miking the piano, ironically, I am still a bit lost; I’m still learning on that and rely on the engineers. I heard a lot of real drums in your music. As a drummer myself, it’s great to hear real drums in more Dance-oriented music. Is it a stylistic decision to use an actual drummer as opposed to samples and loops? I like the blend of both; on stage, I love it when I have one of my drummers of choice combine playing to beats; I love the man-meets-machine vibe. On the Renegades album in particular I have Lil’ John Roberts on drums, and he’s one of my favorite drummers anywhere, so whenever we get together we just play. You work with really great singers and musicians. How do you approach working with them, from the technical to the psychological? I’ve never been in a situation where I’m recording a musician and there’s not absolute mutual respect. And I love working with vocalists. It was

almost an epiphany when, after making only instrumental records, I started working with them and realized that it really connected with the audience and it really resonated with me. Every vocalist is different. But I did not really respond well to the really sensitive types in London, who might

We really loved your bass sounds. What can you share about them? Maybe I’m just a frustrated bass player. I love Parliament Funkadelic, how they defined the bass line, and how it was redefined in Hip-Hop later on, that left a huge impression on me. Jaco left a huge impression on me, and so did Paul Jackson and Michael Henderson; he knew all the theory, but he played so ignorantly. I also play a lot with Pino Palladino. He has a language of his own, and that’s been very influential. There’s a fundamentally shared language in that larger musical family, where everyone interprets it differently. Plus, a lot of keyboard players find it odd, but I play bass with my right hand! You’re really playing melodies, though. Exactly. And I like particular kinds of sounds for bass; and you can break it down to sine waves, or saw tooth, but there has to be a certain amount of hump there.

not perform well if they had a bad day. Here in the States, though, someone like Sy Smith could be feeling sick, and still smash it in the session; it’s a gig, that’s her job. I work best with people who know themselves well enough that they can be open to me if I change a word, a note or a harmony, for example. I like to be hands on.

Check out Mark’s work at www.markdeclivelowe.net, and for more on the amazing songstress Sy Smith, go to www.sysmith.com.

http://www.mashibeats.com http://www.markdeclivelowe.net http://www.sysmith.com http://www.greatriverelectronics.com http://www.greatriverelectronics.com

Recording - June 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - June 2012