{"id":6614,"date":"2012-06-13T00:51:25","date_gmt":"2012-06-13T07:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=6614"},"modified":"2012-06-13T01:06:32","modified_gmt":"2012-06-13T08:06:32","slug":"howard-benson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2012\/06\/howard-benson\/","title":{"rendered":"HOWARD BENSON"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

HOWARD BENSON\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n

From aircraft to songcraft and from aerospace to star power\u00a0 <\/strong>\u00a0<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

For multiplatinum, Grammy-nominated producer Howard Benson, the crucial skill that led to success in the music business was \u2026 aerospace engineering? \u201cMusic has a math component to me,\u201d Benson explains. \u201cIt\u2019s complicated and fun, and I\u2019m blessed to do it every day. Plus the same organizational skills apply. Just instead of making turbines and airplane\u00a0wings, I\u2019m making records.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mind you, his musical foundation came first. Growing up in Philadelphia, he learned the technical side of music from his music-teacher mother while digging deeply into his father\u2019s wildly diverse record collection. Before long he was making music himself. \u201cDisco or pop, I didn\u2019t care what style I was playing,\u201d he recalls. \u201cAs long as it was music, I was into it. But when I was in bands that were recording, I always wanted to be the producer. I wanted to be in charge.\u201d<\/p>\n

He earned a degree in materials engineering from Philly\u2019s Drexel University and moved to California to take a job in the aerospace industry. He began moonlighting as a producer at Hollywood\u2019s Sunset Sound studios, which eventually became his full-time gig. He built a production career throughout the late 1980s and \u201990s, becoming one of Pro Tools\u2019 earliest major adopters along the way.<\/p>\n

Benson\u2019s major commercial breakthrough came with P.O.D.\u2019s triple-platinum 2001 album Satellite<\/em>. Since then he has worked with Santana, Kelly Clarkson, Bon Jovi, My Chemical Romance, Gavin DeGraw and Daughtry, among many others. He\u2019s recently been busy in the studio with acts including Flyleaf, Daniel Powter, Halestorm, BOY, We as Human, and Skillet. \u201cMy engineering background\u00a0taught me how to keep things straight with mental and physical\u00a0lists,\u201d he says. \u201cI also surround myself with very talented people. My job is to stay creative and ahead of the curve. Their job is to make sure I don\u2019t screw anything up.\u201d Benson discussed with us the secrets to finding the right sound in the studio\u2014and making sure that sound reaches its audience once it\u2019s released into the world.<\/p>\n

\n

How do you see your role?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Projects never end for me. I started off in this business trying to be a different type of producer than many of my predecessors. I wanted to stay involved, so when the recording process was over, I\u2019d still do all sorts of remixes and edits. I work on both sides of the fence a lot. I\u2019ll produce and help with songwriting and arranging, but then also be very involved in the business end\u2014lobbying the record company, calling the A&R guys, complaining to people that the album isn\u2019t doing well enough. (laughs<\/em>) I\u2019m very involved, and I think bands like that. It\u2019s just the way I\u2019m built. I want projects to succeed, and a lot of times my extra \u00a0effort has really helped.<\/p>\n

For example?<\/strong><\/p>\n

With Hoobastank, I was listening to the finished album [The Reason<\/em>, 2003] in the Philadelphia airport and thought, \u201cWe don\u2019t have the record.\u201d We had a couple of big singles, but we didn\u2019t have the taking-off point. I went back into the studio with them, recorded a couple of songs and we came up with \u201cOut of Control.\u201d Suddenly we had a single. It went up the charts and the rest is history. It was worth taking the extra time and going back to the well on that one. Daughtry\u2019s current single \u201cOutta My Head\u201d is another good example. I wasn\u2019t happy with how it turned out on the record. That version was rock, and we wanted it to be more pop, so I went in and re-produced it. I changed the guitars, added some keyboard elements, some loops and some dubstep, and put out a song that was a bit more pop. I also used a different mixing engineer. Even while we were working on that album [Break the Spell<\/em>, 2011] the market had changed, so I drove the process to keep his sound current. I was prepared for nobody to like it, but I played it for [frontman] Chris Daughtry and he loved it. I don\u2019t think many other producers would have gone that far on their own.<\/p>\n

How did you find Pro Tools?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I went down to S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil, to work with Sepultura [on 1998\u2019s Against<\/em>] and ran into a computer running this thing called Pro Tools. Nobody had used it much in the rock world. Given my background, I was familiar working with computers and had been using a two-track editing program called Turtle Beach\u2014but Pro Tools was different. Seeing it was a moment of clarity. I knew that\u2019s where the future was. I had sold some records, but was still pretty much starving at the time. I used the last penny I had in the bank\u00a0to buy a Pro Tools rig.<\/p>\n

What was the reaction?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A lot of people wouldn\u2019t hire me because of Pro Tools. They insisted on tape\u2014no computers. They thought it would make music sterile, and some people did mess up and edit things to death. But great artists have made tons of computer-generated records that still sound emotional. I\u2019m certain if Mozart had had access to Pro Tools, he would have loved it and created\u00a0amazing music with it.<\/p>\n

Was there a learning curve?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I recorded Less Than Jake [Hello Rockview<\/em>, 1998] with Pro Tools, but I had to convince them to let me use it. Also, Digidesign had sent me a floppy disc with some new program called Auto-Tune. I knew about Fourier transforms from physics classes, so I knew it had something to do with pitch. When I put the band\u2019s vocals through it, and it changed the sound from a rough out-of-tune singer to a rough in-tune singer, it was like seeing the future. I overused Auto-Tune on that album, though\u2014I tuned everything, including the horns. I got carried away with it, but it still sold well. I also had to convince P.O.D. to let me produce them using Pro Tools, but it worked. The computer leveled the playing field for bands like them, who were great live but hadn\u2019t been able\u00a0to pull off records.<\/p>\n

What do you look for in an act?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Star power. If an artist has star power and is willing to co-write songs, then I\u2019m pretty much in. When I don\u2019t see that compelling element in an artist or an artist\u2019s message, that spark you need to be an entertainment star, it can be hard. You can fix everything else, but you can\u2019t fix that. My Chemical Romance had messy songs and messy writing, and they didn\u2019t understand arrangements. But I knew that [singer] Gerard Way was going to be a star, and I knew that he could take instruction about how to put songs together. Chris Daughtry is another great example. When he walks in, he fills up the room. That\u2019s the kind of thing you look for.<\/p>\n

Did you always look for that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my early days as a producer, I produced a band called the Ernies. Their songs were about physics, molecules and stardust. As an engineer by training, I loved it\u2014but it turned out to be the worst-selling record I ever did. I don\u2019t even know if it sold a single copy. I thought the record [Meson Ray<\/em>, 1999] was awesome, so how could I have been so wrong? My biggest problem when I was starting was that I was looking for bands that weren\u2019t stars and trying to turn them into stars. I realized that the only way to do things right was to start with great songs and star power and then turn it into a great record.<\/p>\n

When did you realize that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meeting P.O.D. They were the first huge band I produced. When they first walked into the studio, there was so much star power coming off of those guys that the women in the studio were falling over. I felt like an insignificant dot in the room. I thought, \u201cWow, this is where it\u2019s at. People want to be around them.\u201d That was a lightbulb moment for me. I remember being intimidated by those guys but I knew I had to produce them. The only thing they needed help with was their songs. They were rapping certain parts, and I got [vocalist]<\/p>\n

Sonny Sandoval to start singing them instead. I\u2019d sold maybe 100,000 records total before that point, but Satellite<\/em> was selling 100,000 copies per week. That\u2019s what it\u2019s about\u2014great songwriting, great vocals and star power. Who cares about the other stuff? You can worry about guitar and bass sounds, and that stuff is cool, but that\u2019s not what people are buying. They buy songs and stars that turn them on. They want to be part\u00a0of something powerful.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s tribal. Your reptilian brain kicks in: \u201cI want to be part of that,\u201d or \u201cI want to sleep with that guy or girl.\u201d It\u2019s a basic, fundamental thing, and once you\u2019re in touch with that, it\u2019s big. We sell a lot of albums to women because there are so many male bands out there. You have to think to yourself, is the girl in the audience going to want this singer in her life? Does she want to meet him? Is he speaking to her? Does she want to take care of him? Rock music has always had a lineage of sexuality at its core. A lot of records I was doing before P.O.D. just didn\u2019t have that. You also have female superstars like Adele,\u00a0Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, and there are a lot of similarities. They have great songs, sexual star power and the fundamentals of lyric writing that makes listeners say, \u201cI want that.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your own favorite style?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a blessing or a curse, but I love all types of music. I\u2019ve done everything from Kelly Clarkson to Sepultura. Sometimes when I have a hit record, I don\u2019t even really think about it. I\u2019m on to the next thing. It\u2019s the engineer in me, I guess.<\/p>\n

\u2018Seeing Pro Tools was a moment of clarity. I knew that\u2019s where the future was.\u2019\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n

\n<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HOWARD BENSON\u00a0 From aircraft to songcraft and from aerospace to star power\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 By Michael Gallant For multiplatinum, Grammy-nominated producer Howard Benson, the crucial skill that led to success in the music business was \u2026 aerospace engineering? \u201cMusic has a math component to me,\u201d Benson explains. \u201cIt\u2019s complicated and fun, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3844],"tags":[1676,3859,3851,3852,3857,3855,3848,3856,1686,3858,3850,3845,2959,3849,3754,2343,3847,806,3854,3861,3846,3853,3860],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6614"}],"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=6614"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6626,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6614\/revisions\/6626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}