RUSH ORDER
Nov 1, 2006 12:00 PM, Kylee Swenson Remix Editor
I'm not trying to sound like a big baby — or a master of the obvious, for that matter — but stress has an enormous effect on everything you do, music included. The words “stress” and “deadlines” are more on my mind than ever. While we're working hard to grow Remix into a full-on multimedia adventure (more on that next month) and to keep on dropping the science on music production and performance, in my own world, I'm also working every day on recording an album. And I'm getting married in two weeks. (If you're reading this, hopefully I survived.)
The reason I bring this up is not to be like, “Oh, poor me — things are crazy.” The last year has been a good experiment in what stress does to a person and what it does to his or her art. One, it makes you sick — a lot. Your immune system can only handle so much when you're dealing with a constant level of stress. As for what stress does to your production process? Well, it is certainly hard to see the forest for the trees.
I've heard many producers say the same thing when asked, “When do you know when a song you're working on is finished?” “When its due to the record label,” they say. Why is it that many important artists' debut albums are considered the best in their catalog? For one, it's because they didn't have some hard deadline to meet. As for producers who have deadlines, like, every single day, I don't know how they do it. For one, having a team of engineers (if you're Dr. Dre or Timbaland) helps. But not many of the people you'll read about in this magazine have a team of engineers, nor do the musicians who work at Remix, nor do many of the readers of this magazine.
But we can learn to gauge what kind of workload we can handle. Breaking your back to get your album or your live-stage show ready in two weeks may not be feasible. Remember, you can't take back what you put out there to the public. So what's better, getting the 12-inch, EP or LP with the “just okay” vocals out in November 2006 or releasing your CD with the tracks you're really happy with in June 2007? Seems pretty obvious to me. Would you rather have a lukewarm reaction to your album or a really hyped-up, excited reaction? If you let stress get to you and try to kill yourself to make a self-imposed deadline, then you're just going to make yourself sick — and your album suck. Now, if you're signed to a label, and there's label pressure to get the album done by a certain date, then I hope your negotiation skills are good, ‘cause you should be convincing them to give you more time. The artists in Remix do it all the time. I can't tell you how many times I've expected to put an artist on the cover one month, and then I find out I need to push the story two, three or more months. If you're good, and you take the time to make your music the way it should be, people like me will wait to cover it. Take a deep breath, beg for more time and then get back to work with fresh ears and a calm approach. As for me, I plan to do that after I freak out for a couple more weeks.
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