Working with Artists - The skill of communication

This blog is one that I've been meaning to write for a while but have just never got around to doing in full detail. Without further ado, let me begin blog #3 of the day - people skills. Throughout the course of this blog I'll be going over what it was like to work with Chase both inside and out of the studio as well as my experience with returning to organic recording and artist communication in general!

Communicating and working with an artist

This is probably one of the most difficult parts of working with an artist. If you don't maintain solid communication over the period of time you are working with them, its not only making your own job difficult, you're also leaving the artist in the dark and it makes them unsure as to whether you even want to work with them. In my case, I made sure to communicate with Chase at the very least once a week to keep him in the loop to let him know that I was still keen. Communicating is also (believe it or not...) the best way to extract information out of an artist to make it easier to record and work with them. In fact, it goes beyond just obtaining information about their performances and preferred sound. Building an actual real relationship with an artist is also really important and can be very useful. An artist will be much more comfortable in the studio with someone they know rather than a total stranger that they're only just meeting for the first time in their first session. Again, in my case scenario I was lucky as Chase and I have been good friends for a long time and I have been to countless gigs of his in our hometown of Bundaberg. This made the sessions I had with Chase very laid back and easy as well as making the experience really fun for Chase. However, with this being said...

Don't let artists walk all over you

What I mean by this is that when you are going to engage in producing an artist, make sure it is at a time that suits both the producer and artist so you have enough time to create an absolute heater of a final product. This is where I went wrong in my case as Chase was not available until very late in the trimester. However, because I was too lazy to go searching for another artist who was way more accessible and local in the city, I just worked around Chase and he came out from Bundaberg (our hometown). Looking back, it would have been easier to work with a local artist however, deep down inside I thought I had something to prove as I recorded Chase in the early stages of my degree where I knew close to nothing about audio. To me, this was a chance for me to show my progression as an engineer as well as deliver a product to Chase that he could use as a reference for his gigs in Bundaberg.

Overall

Working with Chase again was a really fun experience and I've taken a lot away from it as an engineer. As usual, I tend to learn from my own mistakes but we pulled through in the end! Next up, the post mortem, my last blog of the trimester. Seeya there!

Levels :)