Recording - November 2016 - 58

Continued from page 57
be student and I get in the studio all the time,
and I go, "OK, this is hot right now; we've got
about at least three months to start pitching
songs in this vein, but after that we're gonna be
dead. So if we're gonna do this, we need to
hurry up and get it done." And have your

"A lot of times, people will say to me,
'My God, how did you ever get to write
with Britney Spears?' Well, I'll give you
a hint-we were signed to the same
publishing company, and it never ever
would have happened otherwise."
-Jason Blume
pitches ready too, whatever you have. But in my
mind I think that's a production question. Do
you agree? To me, with sonics, it's a production
question. And if you want to sonically be ahead
of the curve, you have to be intentional about
either writing something timeless like a piano
ballad, which most of the time will live forever.
But if you're doing some type of production
that's hot yesterday, you're gonna run into trouble if you're not thinking about pushing the
envelope a little bit. Change it a little bit just to
make sure you don't run out of time with the
sound that you just created. Otherwise, like you
said...
How do you know when you've pushed the envelope too far? That to me is one of the great
mysteries of songwriting and production. Everybody says, "Find me something fresh; find me
something new." Then you come up with
something fresh and new and people go, "That
doesn't sound like what's on radio; that's not
gonna work at radio." But I've always subscribed to
the theory of 15%. Push the envelope by 15%,
because they have to have a certain level of comfort and familiarity, and at the same time go,
"That's never been done quite that way before." So
how do you know? Is it just a visceral thing that
you feel?
Marlin: I think being a student, just drowning
yourself in the music. A good way that this is
happening... Obviously it's happening in Pop,
but in Pop by proven veterans pushing the envelope, and DJs are pushing the envelope in Pop.
On the Hip-Hop side, I would say these are kids.
When Soulja Boy came out, Soulja Boy wasn't
necessarily thinking about [pushing the envelope]. He used what he had; for him it was
amazing, and it just took off. And it's happening
again with Silento and a few other kids-there
was another guy-where they are just using the
simplest sounds, and somehow making some58

thing that feels good in their heart, and when
the world gets ahold of it, it just catches fire. So
I think some use their instincts, something that
feels good in your heart. Unless you can get Max
Martin on the phone and his team, you know
what I mean?
Which takes me to the next question that I was
going to ask you about. What you said earlier to
just get yourself hooked up with, writing with
great producers, working with great producers.
Well, what if you're nobody? What if you live in
Ottawa, Illinois, and nobody knows who you are
and you haven't earned that right? In Nashville,
you've got to come to town, keep your head low,
keep your mouth shut, go to writers' nights, do all
that stuff and kind of pay your dues before they
really accept the fact that you're there and you're
serious. Outside of Nashville, what do you do to
find these great producers who are levels above
you that will say, "You've got something special
going on, I want to work with you"? How does that
happen?
Marlin: All right, this is a great question. Number one, you put in your 2,000 hours on your
own, eventually you'll get hot. Eventually, if
you're really, really talented, you just stick to it
literally for seven or eight years, nonstop, killing
yourself, in a good way. Eventually you start to
catch fire.
There are shortcuts, though, that cost you. Most
of the time, they are going to cost you. Everybody that took a shortcut, that shortcut cost
them. They find partnerships, i.e., publishing
companies; i.e., production companies; i.e.,
somehow you run into an executive that's gonna
plug you in to certain opportunities, and if you
deliver, it's great. But they're gonna take a portion of your income, because they put in their 10
years, and what they're saying to you is, "I
already have these relationships, and if you want
to take advantage of these relationships, it's
gonna cost you x, y, z. And sure I'll give you a
shot."
Other than that, you've got to put the time in
yourself to build those relationships. Because
the people in this room 10 years from now will
be somewhere else, so the people that 10 years
ago who were where I was-we all worked our
asses off-and now they're somewhere else, and
they go, "We're brothers." We were a part of the
creative community, or the A&R community,
and we all know each other now, because we all
killed ourselves for the last 10 years. So there
was no shortcut except for me to put that 10
years in, and now my friends have positions.
Does that make sense? So now they get access.
You either do that same process again, you find
somebody like these guys or me or some executive who already has friends.
Ralph: Nashville has a great expression: You
have to be present to win. It's that simple. I

think all of us basically turned up...and turning
up here... This is a great 15th step or 20th step.
It's part of the pattern of just being present. You
have to be present to win.
Jason: I want to add that I don't want people to get
the impression that giving away a big chunk of your
income is necessarily a terrible thing to do. If you
are with the right publisher, that publisher will create opportunities for you that you could never,
never create on your own. And I much prefer having 50% of a mega-huge hit than 100% of nothing.
A lot of times, people will say to me, "My God, how
did you ever get to write with Britney Spears? How
did you ever get to write with the Backstreet Boys
when they were so hot?" Well, I'll give you a hint-
we were signed to the same publishing company,
and it never ever would have happened otherwise.
So from my point of view, I think your goal is sign
with a publisher. I think that there are unbelievably
few instances of anybody really breaking through.
I'm not saying going on afterwards without a publisher, but even Diane Warren had a publisher in
the beginning, before, so she could establish the
credibility I think you have to... There are just rare,
rare instances-one or two-of people who got
that breakthrough, got to a huge level and stayed
there without ever being with a publisher. That's
what [publishers] can do, because in today's world
they are the ones who can hook you up with those
right situations, with those artists, those producers, those track people, whatever. It's very hard
to do that on your own.
Marlin: Look at it like corporate job. If you
start at like an internship-not a free one, a paid
one-or an entry-level position, you work your
way up, you get raises over time, so you're gonna
start off... Make sure you have an exit strategy,
though, that's the only thing. No deal is really a
bad deal if you can see the exit in the near
future. That's how I look at it. That's how I look
at every deal ever, and I've had a lot of deals.
Some were really bad, but I go, "Worst case, in
three years I'm gonna be out of this. I'll be free
and then I'll get that portion of my income
back, hopefully I'll be higher up the scale, and...
You understand what I mean?
Richard: Where did you say this [fictional] person you used as your example was? My
geography of this country is pretty poor, to say
the least. But I think you have to be in an area
where people that are doing what you're doing
tend to congregate. If you want to be a fisherman, you don't live in the middle of the
desert-you've got to go and find sea or some
water somewhere to start fishing. So I moved to
the States; I moved to Los Angeles. I knew this
was the center of the music business. And I sold
everything; I just thought, "Screw it, I'm going,"
and I just left, and thank God after some low
points, like three months at Guitar Center, which
nearly killed me... It was not a high point in my
Continued on page 61



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - November 2016

Contents
Recording - November 2016 - Intro
Recording - November 2016 - Cover1
Recording - November 2016 - Cover2
Recording - November 2016 - 1
Recording - November 2016 - 2
Recording - November 2016 - 3
Recording - November 2016 - 4
Recording - November 2016 - 5
Recording - November 2016 - Contents
Recording - November 2016 - 7
Recording - November 2016 - 8
Recording - November 2016 - 9
Recording - November 2016 - 10
Recording - November 2016 - 11
Recording - November 2016 - 12
Recording - November 2016 - 13
Recording - November 2016 - 14
Recording - November 2016 - 15
Recording - November 2016 - 16
Recording - November 2016 - 17
Recording - November 2016 - 18
Recording - November 2016 - 19
Recording - November 2016 - 20
Recording - November 2016 - 21
Recording - November 2016 - 22
Recording - November 2016 - 23
Recording - November 2016 - 24
Recording - November 2016 - 25
Recording - November 2016 - 26
Recording - November 2016 - 27
Recording - November 2016 - 28
Recording - November 2016 - 29
Recording - November 2016 - 30
Recording - November 2016 - 31
Recording - November 2016 - 32
Recording - November 2016 - 33
Recording - November 2016 - 34
Recording - November 2016 - 35
Recording - November 2016 - 36
Recording - November 2016 - 37
Recording - November 2016 - 38
Recording - November 2016 - 39
Recording - November 2016 - 40
Recording - November 2016 - 41
Recording - November 2016 - 42
Recording - November 2016 - 43
Recording - November 2016 - 44
Recording - November 2016 - 45
Recording - November 2016 - 46
Recording - November 2016 - 47
Recording - November 2016 - 48
Recording - November 2016 - 49
Recording - November 2016 - 50
Recording - November 2016 - 51
Recording - November 2016 - 52
Recording - November 2016 - 53
Recording - November 2016 - 54
Recording - November 2016 - 55
Recording - November 2016 - 56
Recording - November 2016 - 57
Recording - November 2016 - 58
Recording - November 2016 - 59
Recording - November 2016 - 60
Recording - November 2016 - 61
Recording - November 2016 - 62
Recording - November 2016 - 63
Recording - November 2016 - 64
Recording - November 2016 - 65
Recording - November 2016 - 66
Recording - November 2016 - 67
Recording - November 2016 - 68
Recording - November 2016 - 69
Recording - November 2016 - 70
Recording - November 2016 - 71
Recording - November 2016 - 72
Recording - November 2016 - Cover3
Recording - November 2016 - Cover4
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