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Continued from page 58 Adam would never say that, because that’s where his checks come from. I’m just the interviewer. But how do you figure it out when you get a script for one of these shows. Is that the first thing that happens? Do you they send you a script? I’ll get a script or just nothing, and they’ll say, “Hey, we got this new show.” And I’m like, “Cool, I’ll do it.” Then, sometimes I know nothing. It’s all like top-secret stuff. You’d think they were inventing… Well, how can you write to nothing? You know, like on The Surreal Life, I would go to the mansion each time and they’d decorate it all funky. I’m a hippie, you know, so I’d just write on vibe. It was like, “Oooh, hey, it looks like ’50s meets whatever…” So I’d take a little ’50s and take a little whatever and mash them together. So it’s like instead of having just peanut butterand-jelly, you can have tofu-and-honey. So I do that with music. If you don’t have much to go on, you create something to go on. You create a vibe. How do you know tofu-and-honey is the flavor of the show? I mean, you can, obviously, make an educated guess, but how do you know the weasels—as I love to affectionately call them— are gonna go, “Oh, that’s exactly what we’re looking for.” I just make stuff that I think is great and hope that they’re smart enough to like it. [laughter] Do you have magical powers? I’m still working on that. I mean, if they’re paying me money, I’ll do whatever they want. I try to save them from themselves as much as possible. That’s a great perspective—save them from themselves. Because, you know, I understand exactly what you’re talking about, having done audio postproduction for ad agencies in New York. That’s all I did all day was save them from themselves, because they would sit there and go, “Let’s hear the voiceover again,” for the 135th time. “No, you had it in take three.”“Oh, really? Oh, you’re the engineer, you must know. OK, three’s good.” And back to the agency they’d go. Something about that one take. My friend Patty and I and this girl Lisa Carver were doing a song the other night, and the first take, laid it down, and I was like, “Oh my God. This is great, let’s not mess it up.” Then, you know, “Oh, we’ve got to do harmonies.” “Uh-uh, let’s just leave this.” Let something be good if it is good. So I’m still trying to teach the producers that. But yet you’re a fanatic about work. You do crazy

hours. You’ve done five shows simultaneously. I don’t think any other human being has ever actually done that, and I’m not being facetious here. There are a couple guys, and people crew up for that. You have assistants to handle things. But you don’t. It depends on what I’m doing. When I’m doing that many, I’ll have some happy helpers. It’s a great way to be able to stay alive. How do the helpers help you? They can’t write the stuff, so are you having them do mixes or submixes, or what? Different people do different things. I’ve had some people who are the most amazing orchestrators—this one young lady who is just great at

that. I let her do what she’s great at. Some guys are great at doing grooves and beats. And some guys are great at copying things, so when the producer says, “Oh, we want to do a rip-off of this,” I’m like, “Hey, you want to do a rip-off of this? Don’t get us sued.” I hate doing that. So when it’s time to rip somebody off, you hand that off to the assistant? [laughter] Yeah. Don’t get sued. Just makin’ sure. I only know you to be ethical, so I’m glad you hand that stuff off to the assistant. [laughter] Make sure to read Part 2 in next month’s TAXI Transmitter!

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Recording - June 2012

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