{"id":4307,"date":"2011-11-13T22:29:52","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T05:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=4307"},"modified":"2011-11-28T14:52:25","modified_gmt":"2011-11-28T21:52:25","slug":"joe-henry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/11\/joe-henry\/","title":{"rendered":"JOE HENRY"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>JOE HENRY
\n<\/strong>Being himself helps this artist-turned-producer help others do the same<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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

\u201cWhen I listen to music, all I want to know is what works and why it works,\u201d says Joe Henry. \u201cI don\u2019t care about genre distinctions. I\u2019m happy to do anything that\u2019s of quality.\u201d Apt words from a prolific producer who has helped craft distinctive albums for artists as diverse as Elvis Costello, Aimee Mann, Mavis Staples, Brad Mehldau, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Hugh Laurie and many more. Henry built his name as a singer, songwriter and guitarist before earning notoriety as a producer\u2014an evolution aided in no small part by veteran producer T Bone Burnett, who he describes as his \u201cprofessional godfather.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henry began working as a producer regularly in the late 1990s, but his career behind the board truly blossomed in the new millennium with his work on albums like Solomon Burke\u2019s 2002 Grammy winner Don\u2019t Give Up on Me<\/em>. Henry worked both sides of the glass on his own latest album, Reverie<\/em>, recorded over just three days with guitarist Marc Ribot, bass player David Piltch, drummer Jay Bellerose and keyboardists Keefus Ciancia and Patrick Warren. \u201cWhen I come back to make a record for myself,\u201d he says, \u201cit\u2019s easy for me to take what I\u2019ve gleaned from other projects and use\u00a0those tools on my own behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crew recorded in a studio housed in the brick- and stone-lined basement of Henry\u2019s vintage Los Angeles home, built by President James A. Garfield\u2019s widow in 1904. \u201cWhen we bought it, we knocked out crumbling plaster walls, boosted the electrical capability and reclaimed it,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a unique, versatile, soulful space.\u201d Henry enjoys working there not just for the ambience, but also for the creative flexibility the space allows. \u201cBudgets can be modest, given the climate of the industry,\u201d he says. \u201cWorking here, I\u2019m able to take on projects I care about deeply. We could never afford to do many of them if we had to pay daily rates at a rental studio.\u201d We spoke with Henry about his methods, his mentor and the often blurry line between artist and producer.<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018What interests me is making something meaningful come out of a pair of speakers.\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

How did you get to know T Bone?<\/strong><\/p>\n

T Bone produced my third record, Shuffletown<\/em>, in 1990. I was on A&M at the time. He was actually my advocate even before we met\u2014he had overheard my A&R director at the label speaking discouragingly about the record I hoped to make and said, \u201cThat guy\u2019s great. You should let him do what he\u2019s doing. In fact, I\u2019ll help him do it.\u201d He put himself as a buffer between the label and me, which was an incredibly generous move. About the time the album was released I moved to Los Angeles, where T Bone was working. He needed some help and thought I had something to offer, so when I wasn\u2019t touring I worked for him as a production associate. I still work on projects with him, and I turn to him all the time for advice.<\/p>\n

What have you learned from him?<\/strong><\/p>\n

To let the music speak. Don\u2019t go into every situation with a preconceived notion of how you think a song needs to be or how it can live. Listen to what\u2019s happening. I learned that from him even before I\u00a0knew I was learning it.<\/p>\n

How do you carry that out?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t tell musicians what to play. I invite the right people into the room and give them enough encouragement to feel fearless. When people feel supported, they\u2019ll give you everything they\u2019ve got. It\u2019s a different philosophy from, say, a Phil Spector character who stands there and tells everybody what to play\u2014or how Prince works, where everything is in his head and he just needs people to articulate that vision. I\u2019m much more about discovering what can happen, rather than dictating what I imagine must happen. That\u2019s something I learned from T Bone.<\/p>\n

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

I don\u2019t believe in preproduction. My version is to have demos of the songs we\u2019re doing in the most skeletal form possible, so the musicians can make notes for themselves and very quickly move past learning the basic structure, tone and chord changes. Once we\u2019re in the studio, the idea is to immediately put the song in the air and listen to what it\u2019s trying to become. There\u2019s a moment of discovery that inevitably happens with every song. Sometimes it\u2019s the first, third or fifth take, but it usually happens early on when a song stands up and presents itself. That\u2019s<\/em> the moment I want to record. And if it happens in a rehearsal space rather than the studio, you\u2019re chasing your tail forever.<\/p>\n

So you prefer live takes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I always work from the point of performance. A song has the best chance of being revealed when people are standing together in a room in real time, on a journey of mutual discovery. Mistakes and miscalculations can all be sorted out, but you\u2019ll never\u00a0get that moment back.<\/p>\n

Was Reverie<\/em> recorded that way?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Completely. There were mainly four of us playing at a time, and we set up in the same room as physically close to each other as possible while still leaving space for the engineer to move around us. Then we played aggressively, so there\u2019s a lot of bleed. You can hear drums bouncing off the walls and sounding in the piano mics, and you can hear my voice all over the piano mics as well. That\u2019s what gives it a careening, raucous, raw feel. We also left the windows in my studio open and miked them so the ambient sound outside could be recorded. Those sounds became musical to me, whether it was the sounds of cars, dogs or dishes being washed upstairs. This album is a movie, and ambient noise is its\u00a0particular sonic signature.<\/p>\n

Do you ever use a click track?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never done that in my life and can\u2019t imagine why I would. Music breathes, and it\u2019s supposed to do that. Even if you\u2019re going to add strings and edit a recording later, that doesn\u2019t mean you have to defuse one of the great ingredients of music: its swing and sway. That\u2019s insane. A click track is rigid, unpleasant, unmusical and not fun for anybody. So why in the world would we let it dictate policy for a song?<\/p>\n

Can you still edit between takes?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We do it all the time. Sometimes you chase a song for a dozen takes, but when you land the one that announces itself as the thing you want, you may still want to sculpt it. One of the great things about Pro Tools is that nothing has to be thought of as disposable. If you can find something that really speaks, usually you can use it. I can count on a few fingers the times we\u2019ve wanted to edit between takes and it hasn\u2019t worked. Usually, if you\u2019re in the zone of getting a take, people are observing a very real pulse that the song is dictating, and that pulse typically\u00a0doesn\u2019t vary much at all.<\/p>\n

Do you ever record to tape?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint\u2019s The River in Reverse<\/em> [2006] was the last album where my engineer used tape. Elvis couldn\u2019t have cared less. It slowed him down, actually. He\u2019s instinctive and fast in the studio, but I was trying to be diligent to a certain sonic aesthetic. Elvis said it was my call, so I insisted on two-inch tape. There were many times when he wanted to hit a new take immediately and I had to ask him to wait while we changed reels or rewound. It occurred to me then that tape\u2019s day was over.<\/p>\n

So you\u2019re OK with digital? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Analog-to-digital recorders are getting better all the time\u2014and more importantly, I\u2019m working with an engineer who can make things sound the way he wants them to sound with a computer. When we\u2019re working with Pro Tools, we don\u2019t have the benefit of analog tape offering additional sonic treatment to the signal we\u2019re recording, so we have to frontload the sound with whatever outboard gear may be necessary to get that sound. The computer won\u2019t enhance our sound, but it will take a beautiful picture of whatever we offer it, and I\u2019m perfectly\u00a0happy with that picture.<\/p>\n

How do you use session players?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When artists approach me to produce they usually want me to choose the musicians. I\u2019ve adopted a Motown philosophy, where I have a particular pool of musicians I turn to frequently. They know how to play together and they can all disappear into a song. I love working with musicians who have broad experience, but are willing to let it all go depending on what the song suggests.<\/p>\n

What about working with bands?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I produced the Carolina Chocolate Drops, they showed up as a band\u2014that was a given. When I worked with Allen Toussaint and Elvis Costello, we put both of their bands together. That was a given, too. When I\u2019m working with an established band, my work methods don\u2019t change. But I don\u2019t stack the cards in my favor in the same way, and I don\u2019t know exactly how they\u2019ll get fanned out.<\/p>\n

Is it hard to produce yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was first producing for others,\u00a0I saw a big distinction between what I\u00a0did as a producer and what I did as an artist. But the more I worked, the less that was true. I found that whether it was my voice and song or anybody else\u2019s mattered less. What interested me was making something meaningful come out of a\u00a0pair of speakers. When I\u2019m producing for others I\u2019m constantly being challenged with problems that are different every time, but somehow uniformly applicable. I\u2019ve stopped thinking of \u201cproducer\u201d and \u201cartist\u201d as different modes. When I produce myself, I still try to listen free of judgment. I try not to let my ego be the first thing I hear when I play something back. I don\u2019t want to hear myself in the picture. I just\u00a0want to see the picture.<\/p>\n

What do you consider yourself first?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m an artist first and foremost. I\u2019m a singer and a songwriter, and even as a producer that\u2019s how I approach everything. That\u2019s still my lens. My judgments come from wanting to know how a song speaks\u00a0from that perspective.<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018I\u2019m more about discovering what can happen than dictating what <\/strong>must happen.\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JOE HENRY Being himself helps this artist-turned-producer help others do the same By Michael Gallant \u201cWhen I listen to music, all I want to know is what works and why it works,\u201d says Joe Henry. \u201cI don\u2019t care about genre distinctions. I\u2019m happy to do anything that\u2019s of quality.\u201d Apt words from a prolific producer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[2816,2314,970,2615],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4307"}],"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=4307"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4443,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4307\/revisions\/4443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}