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Interview with Grammy
Award-winning songwriter, producer, studio musician Jay Graydon Part 2 (Page
1)
Jay Graydon is a Grammy award
winning songwriter and producer, as well as a successful studio guitarist
and songwriter for film and television.
He did the guitar solo on Steely Dan's
song, "Peg," had a role in Al Jarreau's success in the 1980's, and won Grammys
for co-writing George Benson's "Turn Your Love Around" and Earth Wind &
Fire's "After the Love Has Gone." Jay Graydon his own music label,
Sonic Thrust Records,
and is currently writing a series of books with Craig Anderton on recording
and mixing. His latest CD will be released in early 2006. Recently James
Auburn caught up with him, and here's the resulting e-mail interview.
Continued from
Part
1
JA: On albums you produced or had a hand in producing (the Al Jarreau
albums, Marc Jordan, Steve Kipner, etc.) were you going for a particular
sound?
JG: Since a studio musician for quite some time, I learned many
musical styles. This was a great advantage for record production.
The key to producing is to quickly realize what the artist is musically all
about. Note that the producer is usually hired for past productions noting
their style. Ironically, producers get "bagged" in a style but may have more
to offer in other musical fields.
Regarding Kipner: the first of my professional record productions,
since his songs (and a few we wrote) were very melodic pop, I did my best to
make them little melodic masterpieces. The sound I was going for was mature
pop.
Regarding Jordan: basically the same but understated as a more
personal singer type of artist.
The five Jarreau albums: From the beginning of this series, my concept was
to make an album that would sell across the board - Pop, R&B, Adult
Contemporary, and Jazz.
The hard part was to get the pop audience in such a mixture of all the
styles mentioned. Humbly I state I pulled that off.
Those were the artists you mentioned. Similar to different concepts for
other artists I produced.
JA: How did you manage to get it with different session players?
JG: I did my best to think through whom to call for the sessions. For
the most part, the best rhythm section was called. There were a few cases in
which I re-recorded the track but rarely.
JA: Do you find that your best musical ideas come spur-of-the-moment
without trying too hard, or during hard work perfecting a song or project?
JG: Simply, musical ideas happen when they occur.
JA: Any horror stories of getting screwed over by a label or other
shady characters?
JG: Revisiting such stories is not fun so please excuse me for not
mentioning.
JA: What advice would you give young artists, songwriters, etc. today
as far as protecting themselves and their intellectual property?
JG: OK, this ties into horror stories I wish to not mention BUT I
will state I have received the legal shaft many times over the years and
each time, I noted and made sure to fix in future agreements.
I consider myself one that knows music business contract law very well after
many years of direct negotiations. This is "C" student material and so
important to learn!
Become a lawyer. I am not kidding! After a breech of contract twice (which I
was put into by a manager/lawyer of the time in which he did not "connect
the dots" regarding other contracts) I humbly state for the past many years
I have protected my rights when directly involved in negotiating the
agreement. After a year of negotiations for a publishing administration deal
with a world wide major, the lawyer mentioned he wanted me to negotiate his
next agreement as I had gotten away with wording not included with their top
two artists. It is all about experience BUT you can get an edge. The
following is a must read.
Page 2
Part 1
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