{"id":4067,"date":"2011-11-01T11:03:30","date_gmt":"2011-11-01T18:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=4067"},"modified":"2011-11-01T11:07:11","modified_gmt":"2011-11-01T18:07:11","slug":"jay-joyce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/11\/jay-joyce\/","title":{"rendered":"JAY JOYCE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>JAY JOYCE<\/h2>\n

Whether it\u2019s country, indie rock or something in between, the vibe is king<\/h2>\n

By Michael Gallant<\/strong><\/p>\n

For Jay Joyce, producing isn\u2019t a matter of hitting every right note, tracking with the finest mics or working with the hippest software plug-ins. Nope, it\u2019s all about the vibe. \u201cMy job is knowing when and where a beautiful moment is happening, and capturing it,\u201d he says. \u201cMaking records is a totally spiritual thing.\u201d Joyce\u2019s approach has proven successful for albums by a wide variety of acts that includes Cage the Elephant, Emmylou Harris, Derek Trucks, Sleeper Agent and Patty Griffin, as well as last year\u2019s\u00a0all-star compilation Sweet Home Alabama: The Country Music Tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd<\/em>. Most recently, Joyce\u2019s third collaboration with country star Eric Church, Chief<\/em>, opened at the top of Billboard\u2019s Top 200 and Top Country Albums charts.<\/p>\n

Joyce found his calling early on. \u201cGrowing up, I was always the one who wrote songs, tried to record them and get what I wanted out of people. So in a sense I was producing records before I knew what it was called,\u201d he says with a chuckle. \u201cIt feels natural to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, he first made his name as a musician playing alongside artists ranging from the Wallflowers and Iggy Pop\u00a0to Macy Gray and LeAnn Rimes. He now brings those wide-ranging skill sets to each of his studio dates as a producer. \u201cI play a lot\u00a0on records I produce,\u201d he notes. \u201cGuitar, keyboards\u2014it\u2019s just a\u00a0nice thing to be able to do. If a certain musical element is\u00a0needed, I don\u2019t necessarily have to bring in a session\u00a0player to lay it down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joyce\u2019s musicianship always informs his production process. \u201cPlaying guitar in bands, I got a real sense of what works in songs and what doesn\u2019t,\u201d he says. \u201cNow, when I\u2019m producing, I come more from a player\u2019s perspective than from an engineer\u2019s perspective. If a player I\u2019m recording is feeling inspired, chances are the take is going to be great.\u201d We spoke with Joyce at his Nashville home studio about the scarcity of analog tape, the creative dangers of headphones and his endless quest for that all-important vibe.<\/p>\n

How did you develop your studio?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was working with Patty Griffin, I had a little eight-track setup at home. We cut some demos here that ended up being most of her album Flaming Red<\/em> [1998]. We did go into a \u201cstudio\u201d studio to overdub a few things, but the heart and soul was done here. From then on I started using my space for preproduction, but bands and artists would say, \u201cDo we have to go to another studio? This place is cool.\u201d I haven\u2019t done a record in an outside studio for quite a while. We\u2019re now into our third room\u00a0and we\u2019re still adding.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your technique like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Everybody\u2019s in the same room, except the drummer who\u2019s sometimes in another room nearby. It\u2019s not a typical separated studio environment. It\u2019s spacious, but everything\u2019s close enough to keep everybody unified. I\u2019m not a fan of huge studios that separate players. I want everybody together, sweating, talking, communicating. It\u2019s all about playing\u2014artists and musicians don\u2019t even notice we\u2019re recording, or at least I don\u2019t want them to notice. That\u2019s one thing that creates the vibe I\u2019m always looking for. Ideally nobody\u2019s wearing headphones\u2014they can prevent spontaneity, prevent a moment.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t use headphones?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying there aren\u2019t situations where they\u2019re thrown in. If the drummer is really loud and isolated, then of course he\u2019ll be using headphones. But everybody else is in my control room. We have a huge sound system here with four subwoofers. It\u2019s loud<\/em>. When it comes to headphones, though, as musicians we deal with lousy sound every night. We adapt and play and learn what we can get away with. Sometimes I even prefer a bad headphone mix. It can make people more comfortable to not hear things so perfectly\u2014it can give them less apprehension. It subtly affects the vibe, and the performances tend to be better.<\/p>\n

Do you do vocals live?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Depending on the project, I\u2019d say it\u2019s about 50-50. With Eric Church, at least 70 percent were live takes\u2014just capturing the moment. Then there are records like the new Cage the Elephant [Thank You Happy Birthday<\/em>], where we had some live takes, but other songs were built as we went. We could spend days nailing down the arrangements. In those cases the vocals would come later. If I\u2019m doing vocal overdubs, I like to get it done right away instead of booking another day. There\u2019s something about the moment, even in an overdub. There\u2019s a certain excitement going on. The singer might be coming from a particular mental place that he or she can\u2019t get back into later. I\u2019m not a believer in, \u201cLet\u2019s track guitars this week, drums the next, vocals after that.\u201d I like to record an entire track in a day. Sometimes we even mix the same day we track.<\/p>\n

How has your working relationship with Eric Church evolved? <\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a building experience, like old-school recording days when bands and artists had time to develop and grow together. We had to figure out how to do music in the country realm, and at the same time how to make music that we liked\u2014not necessarily an easy task. We didn\u2019t get stuck in that \u201clet\u2019s get that country radio hit\u201d mindset. We wanted to come from a live performance vibe, where he\u2019s playing for people who love\u00a0him and his music.<\/p>\n

What about Cage the Elephant?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just like with Eric, we really feel like a team. The first album [Cage the Elephant<\/em>, 2008] was very live and done very quickly. This second one is the classic case of a band having their whole lives to write the first record, then having to write the next album in one year while touring for 300 days. Some songs were completed before we were recording, but some weren\u2019t. So half was very live and worked out in preproduction, and the other half was constructed. There was a lot of experimenting, trying different bridges, finding the one that works best, possibly even inserting another take into the master take, editing things like that.\u00a0It was interesting.<\/p>\n

What was it like doing the new Emmylou Harris record, Hard Bargain<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We spent a year picking and choosing songs for her record. We had initial plans of bringing in other players, instruments and singers but we ended up doing the whole thing with just her, [engineer and multi-instrumentalist] Giles Reaves and myself. There were lots of live vocals\u2014a few were overdubbed, but Emmylou is feel-based. She\u2019s very particular about her performances, and she\u2019s not afraid to keep some imperfections that would feel better than the \u201cperfect\u201d note.<\/p>\n

What if an act wants that perfection?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, that happens. If I get that sense from someone, things can take a while. In that situation I often go back to the first take and say, \u201cListen to this,\u201d and A-B the first and the 20th take. It\u2019s obvious that there\u2019s a feel that\u2019s lost when you hone in like that. We\u2019re all human, and sometimes I go there myself. When you put something under the microscope, you can get lost. Coming back to something can be\u00a0a perspective changer.<\/p>\n

How\u2019d the Skynyrd tribute go? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Doing Lynyrd Skynyrd music when you\u2019re not Lynyrd Skynyrd is not what you\u2019d think. The music is simple and repetitive, and you realize that it was the heart and soul of the vocals that made the originals work. We ended up getting some good stuff out of that record, and it was a chance for me to bring in some of my favorite artists to work with\u2014Jamey Johnson, Randy Montana, Eric Church and Ashley Ray.<\/p>\n

How did you approach the recording?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I hired Skynyrd\u2019s live guitar player [Mark Matejka]\u2014he had a real sense of how things should go. The rest of the players knew the songs, but weren\u2019t rehearsed or ready to go right away. That was the best way to make it fresh. Some of the songs you can\u2019t mess with. It\u2019s sacrilege. We ended up doing two versions of \u201cSweet Home Alabama\u201d with Ashley Ray. One was straight up, and the other was kind of a spaced-out acoustic ballad\u2014and the ballad, interestingly enough, ended up working out much better.<\/p>\n

Do you prefer analog or digital?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We generally record to tape, and then after an hour or two of tracking we\u2019ll dump it into Pro Tools. I like to do overdubs in the box. Especially with acoustic instruments, sometimes the noise floor with tape can be too much. Depending on the project, sometimes we\u2019ll still do vocal overdubs on tape. But I like the sound of doing overdubs in Pro Tools\u2014and the audio is still going through the transformers of my tape machines, even if it\u2019s getting recorded digitally.<\/p>\n

Is getting tape difficult?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Getting tape sucks. I buy used reels from a guy I know who fixed my tape machine. He has old reels that have been used maybe once. They sound great. Also, after we put audio into Pro Tools when we\u2019re tracking, we go right back and re-record over the same reel. I\u2019ll use the same tape for quite a while.<\/p>\n

Is there a particular genre you\u2019re more comfortable with than others?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t really want to be connected to any genre. I\u2019ve been fortunate to work on many different types of records. For me, it\u2019s two types of music\u2014good and bad. I enjoy going from Cage the Elephant to Emmylou Harris to Greencards to Sleeper Agent. My rock sensibility is a good thing to have on an Eric Church record. My songwriting sensibility is something useful to bring to a Cage the Elephant project.<\/p>\n

Do you have any advice to offer to <\/strong>up-and-coming producers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Any time you have a specific bull\u2019s-eye that you\u2019re trying to hit, you\u2019re not going to hit it. Often you have to step back and say, \u201cYesterday, this all worked in my head. Why isn\u2019t it working now?\u201d The answer is, \u201cThe song\u2019s not letting me.\u201d Each song is its own entity. It\u2019s just going to take you wherever it\u2019s going, so the best thing you can do is go along for the ride.<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018Each song is its own entity. It\u2019s going to take you wherever it\u2019s going.\u2019<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JAY JOYCE Whether it\u2019s country, indie rock or something in between, the vibe is king By Michael Gallant For Jay Joyce, producing isn\u2019t a matter of hitting every right note, tracking with the finest mics or working with the hippest software plug-ins. Nope, it\u2019s all about the vibe. \u201cMy job is knowing when and where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[1536,832,2315,2737,2740,2736,2682,157,970,2738,2739],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4067"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4067"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4072,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4067\/revisions\/4072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}