It’s all very well offering ideas of how to be creative and how to create creativity, but what happens when things start to go wrong?
Wrong in a creative sense, wrong in a technical sense, and wrong in a personnel sense.
Artists and musicians can be sensitive and temperamental souls and the close confines of the studio environment coupled with creative energy and egos can tend to magnify issues and heighten any underlying tensions that may be lurking.
As the producer, you need to be aware and prepared to combat these situations in order to keep the session on track.
It is worth bearing in mind that, although we have chosen to split the possible areas of adversity into three main types (see below), there are many issues that may fall outside of our collectives.
Indeed, some issues may seem to fall into one category when in fact the fundamental cause can be traced to another (for example, creative or musical indifferences that are actually caused by personnel issues within the band).
Many difficulties that you may come across in the studio session are interrelated and are therefore not easily separated or straightforward. The following is intended as a guide and not a definitive answer.
Creative & Musical Issues
If things are going wrong in a creative or musical sense, the first question to ask is, why is this happening? (This may sound like we’re stating the obvious but unlike technical problems that are generally easier to diagnose, creative and musical issues can be a little trickier.)
If you can answer this question then you are halfway to solving the issue, whatever it may be.
Taking from our own experiences and those of the producers we have interviewed, many of the musical issues that occur during sessions seem to stem from either a misunderstanding of, or a lack of, the vision or direction for the session or even the project as a whole.
Although you may presume that the prevention of this is to clearly discuss creative and musical intentions with the artist or band at the outset, do not assume that this will be enough to keep musical ideas on the straight and narrow within the session itself. As the producer you need to keep a constant eye on things as the session progresses.
A driver should keep both his hands on the wheel at all times.
Taking one hand off or letting go entirely may cause the vehicle to swerve to the left or the right. Similarly, if a producer lets go or takes one hand off the wheel, the session may start to swerve in the wrong direction!
