Recording - July 2016 - 60

about that than promising something you
can't deliver, and then you've kind of screwed
yourself with that person in the future.
Continued from page 59
do you think about electronic elements, or
whatever?"-things that I'm not good at. And
if they're excited about it and they're like, "Oh
yeah, I hear the potential," then we move forward with that song. A lot of times I'll send
something and they are like, "Eh, you know.
It's all right." And I'm like, "OK, I'll try
another one."
How do you get past the hurt feelings if they
don't seem to warm up to what you send them?
You have to grow a tough skin. TAXI has really
helped me with that. I think the rejections... I
started in a band and I was trying to shove my
band's CD through that I produced five years
ago, and trying to get it [forwarded by TAXI]
to all these modern listings, and I was getting a
whole lot of rejection. And I thought, "This is
a really kick-ass CD, why is this getting
rejected?" That's when I learned to write to the
Listing, and then that's when I went into the
[TAXI Peer-to-Peer] Forum and started getting
feedback and meeting people that have
become life-long collaborators.
Do you guys ever say no when somebody
approaches you? A fellow member says, "Hey, I've
got something and the deadline is a week from
now; do you want to put down a guitar part?"
Carla: I was actually approached by [TAXI
member] James Kocian, and I wanted more
than anything to work with him.
Just for everybody in the room, James Kocian is
an extremely talented all-a-round guy...
He's a lovely person; he's just a great guy. But I
think this is a really good point to make. I
already had other stuff; I wasn't going to make
the deadline. I asked him right away, and the
minute I heard from him I said, "What's your
deadline?" And I said, "I am so sorry, but I
don't want to commit to this if I can't be
absolutely sure I'm gonna knock it out of the
park and have enough time to really focus on
it." And judging by the hug I got from him
when I saw him here yesterday, I think he
appreciated my candor. So that's something to
keep in mind as well. Say "no," rather than run
the risk of damaging the relationship. Now
James knows that I'm always going to be honest with him if I can't squeeze something in.
And he's going to come back again, as opposed to
if you had taken the gig and blown the deadline
and killed his chance of making the deadline. You
might have never worked together again.
Steven: That sets up that whole thing that you
were talking about, where you now have the
trust level that you're trying to establish with
other writers. It's way better to be honest
60

Carla: You play the long game, really.
I guess this is kind of along the lines of what
you're talking about. When you start the process,
the creative process, and then you realize at
some place, Scott, that it's not going to work out
creatively for whatever reason. It could be that
you just asked somebody to sing a vocal; it could
be that you've asked them to co-write, whatever
capacity they are working in. Is it hard to just
stop it and say, "Man, I love you, CK, but..."
Scott: I couldn't say that to her.
But you know what I'm saying. Is it really hard? I
would imagine that it's tough to say to somebody
that you have entrusted to work with you on a
piece of work and it's just not coming together,
because there is just no meeting of the minds. Do
you pull the ripcord and bail? Or do you finish the
piece that you're working on and go, "It's just
another song. There's always going to be another
one."
Scott: It's a bit of both. I mean, there's a timing factor for every song, also. If it's just bad,
it's bad. And if it's bad, it doesn't progress that
far. I have a pile of works-in-progress, WIPs.
They go into my WIP file, and then I'll refer to
that when looking for other things.
But the psychology part of it-the reason I am
Dr. Scotty Love-is because I will scream and
act like an idiot and an immature kid in my
pillow. And then I'll talk to FM [Scott's
frequent co-writer] and she'll tell me what to
say and I'll say it. You have to try to be professional; you have to try to be fair with the
situation that's going on. Usually people know,
and everybody has echoed the fact that there is
something about TAXI's [members being at a
certain level], and we all know what we are
supposed to be doing. Surprisingly enough...
I've played with amazing musicians that just
don't have the concept of how to write a
song... or record a song. They're great on
stage; they are great performers, but they just
don't get it. You can't make those
assumptions, but you can more realistically
and freely [make those assumptions] within
the TAXI community.
So they-your fellow members- kind of
know that, also. I've never been in a position
where somebody was jaw-droppingly
surprised. And I am the same type of person
who I would say, "This is my schedule. I'd love
to give it a shot, but I can't promise anything."
I just want the audience to know that I didn't
talk to any of you guys before to tell you to plug
this whole TAXI community thing or...
It's true, though.

Well, I know it's true. I just want them to know
that you're not shilling, that I didn't ask you to...
This is coming out of you...
Steven: When do we get the check? Go see
Angel at registration. [Laughter] Free Rock
Star [energy drinks, which are a staple at the
Road Rally].
That's right, plenty of free Rock Stars.
How do you deal with a collaborator tossing out
an idea or a part on a lyric or something, and you
think their idea stinks? Anybody want to take
this one.
Carla: Just Paul McCartney it and record right
over it. [Laughter]
What if they won't let it go? You could be twothirds of the way done with something and
you're two days out from the deadline-and
overall it's feeling pretty good-and they say,
"I've got a brilliant idea," and you're sitting there
on your end of the phone just cringing because
you think it's terrible. You try diplomatically as
you can to dissuade them, or push them away
from that idea. "Well, that's a really good idea,
but...." And they're not buying it; they are hooked
on that idea that you think is a song-killer, or an
instrumental-killer. What do you guys do to
squirm out of that one? Or does that not happen?
Russell: It doesn't happen very often. But if it
does between people that you're a collaborator
with, if they throw out an idea and you are
completely against it and they are completely
for it, you may go at it, but yet at the same
time, there is a reason they are completely for
it. And they are your collaborator, and there's
a reason they are your collaborator. And if
you're saying, "Boy, that really sucks," maybe
you've got to say, "Let me take another listen
to it." But if you don't have time, you just

"If it's bad, it doesn't progress that
far. I have a pile of works-inprogress."
-Scott Free
plain up and say, "Dude, we don't have time."
Or if it's completely taking the song in a different way that it's going to be turning it into a
different genre that's not going to get
forwarded and is not going to do anything,
and it's gonna be one of those things that goes
everywhere [stylistically all over the map]-we
heard all about that a little bit ago. If you
know it's going to be like that, then you have a
conversation about it. I don't think I've ever
had a problem with any collaborator. You do
come to an agreement; nobody really butts
heads, because we are all on a deadline, and
we don't have that many babies, really. Occasionally, you might have a little baby that's
really that important to you, but it's very, very
Continued on page 63

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