There’s no ‘I’ in team.

On March 12th 2010 some of us atteneded a guest lecture with Alan Shacklock, a producer, song writer and performer.
Alan Shacklocks lecture was nice because he kept it light and in the beginning there were quite a few points of humour. It was interactive and he kept pointing people out and asking them questions. It felt like I was in grade school just praying he wouldn’t ask me. He gave a three hour lecture and it felt like taking a class but in a good way. He managed to cover a variety of topics; recording, mixing, mastering, song writing and more.
He also touched upon the importance of contracts and getting everything on paper which was interesting as it’s what our class is currently covering.
He had some good ideas and I respected his thoughts on working in a team, which he put great emphasis on, working with other people and feeding off of them.
Alan Shacklock seemed a bit stuck in 1980’s or around then. Not necessarily because of his music style but his thoughts on being a producer and constructing bands. I disagree with him almost completely. I believe that there’s no harm in making suggestions to bands and pointing out weaknesses but I would never tell a band how they should be writing their songs. From what he was saying he seems to strip them back to the bones and rebuild them. Maybe it’s my lack of experience but I don’t think so. I know myself that I follow more the Steve Albini train of thought, not in keeping everything analogue and technology needs to progress but his approach to bands. I would never call myself a producer even if I was technically producing, I’ll stick with being a recording engineer thanks.
Touching back on the topic of talking with bands and making suggestions, I’m a chicken; quite shy and I have found it hard in the past to stand up for what I want in recording sessions. Over the last year I have slowly gotten better at this task though and recognise the importance of saying what you need to. Of course there are ways of putting the remarks depending on the artist and your relationship with them. There have been sessions which I’m not at all happy with but I haven’t managed to say enough because I have found the band intimidating and there are others where I’m recording friends and I’m happy to say what I’m thinking straight up. It definitely can be a tough call but unless the recording was going horribly wrong I would only make small suggestions.
Alan Shacklock also put a lot of emphasis on being fanatical, basically saying it’s a necessity to geek out, know your craft.
When asked if SAE taught mastering someone answered yes. I’m going to have to disagree here but that’s a whole other topic.
If you missed the lecture it was recorded for Wave FM which is the SAE Radio station that will be launching in June.

Bibliography,
Alan Shacklock, About Alan [Online
Available at: http://www.alanshacklock.com/ [Last Accessed: March 12th 2010]

Electrical Audio, Steve Albini [Online]
Available at: http://www.electrical.com/staff.php [Last Accessed: March 12th 2010]