Recording - October 2015 - 67

Continued from page 64
way that you could kind of figure out how to do
that so you can be on time more.
Back in my day, there were one or two writers on a
song, maybe three. But nowadays it seems like there
are six writers on everything. So I'm constantly trying
to wrap my head around that. Why does it take six
people to write a frickin' song? But I think that the
competition is so intensely fierce that you need that
team. When you guys describe your studio complex, I
can envision some sort of religious cult fortress, but
without the FBI surrounding it with shoulder fire missiles and tear gas and stuff. But it's like a fortress of
creativity...
A: It is! Look, you don't need five people to write a
song, but there's sort of a political thing sometimes.
OK, let's say you're writing... I'm not saying this
artist for any particular reason, but let's say-hypothetically speaking-you've got Dr. Luke or Max
Martin, or whomever. So he's super-busy making
grips of money and he can't focus necessarily like
he used to, so he needs to hire people that he'll give
a little piece to. "OK, you're a really good lyricist, I
need a few lines from you," or "You have good
melody ideas, come here, come here," or "OK, I've
got Katy Perry coming in. I'm gonna bring her in
and she's gonna get a little piece." And then I'm
gonna maybe use one of my producers, or they
have a bunch of writers and they want to give
everybody a little taste. So they all get in a room
and they have fun and they order pizza and they
write a song. And the great thing is if I'm the big
guy [not Tim personally, he's speaking in the hypothetical], I've already carved out my niche. I get 50%
no matter what y'all do, or I get 75% no matter what
y'all do. So you five people go to town and give me,
"Oh, I got a good line from you," "I got a good line
from you," and I'm happy and I'm getting rich, and
my name is the only name that anyone cares about
anyway. So I don't care if there are 20 names on
there. Do you know what I'm saying? So to answer
your question, it doesn't take 15 people to write a
song. I mean, if you came up with a great song and
you're a newbie, and your song is amazing, then I'm
gonna take your song; I'm gonna change a few
things, because I've already bled for the last 10
years-and remember, I'm just talking about theoretically-and that's your foot in the door. Do you
know what I mean? So there are lots of ways to skin
the cat.

ent minds to go through a filtering process where
it starts to resonate with a lot of people. Again, I
think a lot of times as writers we're thinking
about our stories and our life; we're thinking
about our brand. You know, we make all these
decisions, but we're not thinking about the most
important thing...
A: OK, I'm gonna say it again. I don't think it
takes five people to write a song. I really don't.
I don't want to say anything disparaging about
anyone, because no matter what their method is
of their madness, God bless 'em and more power
to them. But, I think if you're a real songwriter-
like it's bred in your bones-you can write a song
by yourself. Or you could actually write it with

someone else, and that's really all you need.
T: Neil Young doesn't need six writers, that's for
sure.
A: Yeah. I think that basically that's the truth. I
mean, the other thing is more of a factory-feeling,
or more of something because you've got so
much else and you don't really have the time to
focus on it anymore because you're too big. You
know, you're a big corporation now as a producer
or a writer. But for the most part, I think, you
know, one, two, three writers maybe is good.
Read Part 3 of this interview in next month's TAXI
Insider!

T: Yes, you're right, and that's true. But there's
also creativity being democratized. There's duality
to everything; there's definitely that going on; it
always has been. But then there's also an interesting thing that happens with the competition
being so stiff. It's not a competition on an objective level; it's a subjective competition, and you're
playing for the public's attention and the public's
desire, and sometimes it does take a lot of differ67

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