Miro Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Edit: To save you all from any heart attacks it's NOT about the 3rd album or at least it's not mentioned explicitly I know it's not really news about Mika but it's Greg talking about him so yeah here it is! These are the questions related to Mika, for the whole interview http://www.softube.se/interviews.php?p=interview&id=8 Greg Wells: Producing Mika and The All American Rejects using Softube plug-ins Stefan Hedengren, Softube, Sep 2011 Greg Wells is a two time Grammy nominated producer and songwriter based in Los Angeles. He has worked with major artists such as Mika, Katy Perry, Timbaland, OneRepublic and Pink. CD's featuring Greg's songs have sold over 60 million units worldwide. When you start a new project, whether it be MIKA or The All American Rejects, where do you begin? The first conversation, which often can be long and ongoing, is regarding song collection. A great song virtually solves all the problems - it makes the mix sound better, makes the producer look like they know what they're doing, makes the drummer sound better... Just makes everything better. And a song that's OK, but not amazing, is always a struggle. Most of the time everybody gets blamed for it except the actual quality of the script or the song itself. You always hear "oh, we did it at the wrong studio", "we used the wrong producer or guitar player" and often none of that is really the problem. If you're on your second week of a song trying to crack something it's probably because there's something wrong with the song itself. For instance with MIKA, or the rock band I'm working with now The All American Rejects, both bands are fantastic songwriters, they're really highly inspired and crafted storytellers and all the songs are really, really good but I get to help pick the great ones. How much of MIKAs work were you involved with. Did you do any writing or was it more producing and mixing? He does all the writing. I'm his band, I'm playing almost all the instruments on those records and I produced and mixed. So I was very hands-on, but he's unquestionably the storyteller and the songwriter. With a band like All American Rejects you obviously didn't play as many instruments as you did with MIKA? Exactly. MIKA is a good piano player but it's really just the two of us making those records most of the time. I'm his right hand in making them sound like he envisions it. Probably in some way! All American Rejects and MIKA appear to be very different productions and I assume you work with them very differently. How would you explain those differences? It starts with the differences between the artists themselves - MIKA is a self-contained guy, the Rejects are a band very used to democracy. With MIKA and me we usually see eye to eye but when we don't it's OK and I'll let him chase something or he'll let me chase something and we just try to stay as reasonable and objective as possible. With the Rejects it's a slower process because it's four of them and they all got to agree with everything and then I come in. Most of the time democracy and creativity don't really go hand in hand so I'm always trying to find the way forward where everyone feels they had their say. But at the end of the day the record is king, if someone gets upset it's not personal, we have to do what's best for the record. That difference right there leads to all kinds of different decisions. With MIKA I am the band but the Rejects are a band. I might play some keys but not like with MIKA. With the Rejects the demos might sound like a record themselves. Other than that it's really the same set of concerns - how do we serve the song the best? Do we have the right mic? Is your throat in condition to sing right now? My job is like a movie maker and I have to be sensitive to everything that particular day. What happens when you start to record? When you start building the songs... I like to chase what feels like the most important part to build the song around so in the case of MIKA I want to get a scratch vocal down as fast as possible. Again it comes down to accompanying. I think a mistake a lot of people make is they wait way to long to put the vocal in the track. You can chase all these guitar parts but you're not really accompanying the most important part of the track, which is the voice, and I like to hear the voice as quickly as possible, even if we don't end up using it. That way we will build the track around it rather than trying to fit the vocal on top of the track that we've built. With everyone I work with I try to get the scratch vocal down as fast as possible. So I might get a guitar part down to a click track, maybe some kind of drums, just something for the singer to sing to! When I have the scratch vocal I will usually chase drums first and then harmonic support like synths, piano, guitar or whatever it is, then bass. Then there will be enough for the singer to sing to and we'll start chasing the lead vocals and replace the scratch vocal. Although sometimes the scratch vocal is great and we'll end up using parts of it so I always use the same mic, preamp and compressor for it that I would cut the lead vocal on. Then we just continue the journey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lollipop_monkey Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Very cool, thanks for sharing! It's always interesting to get these behind-the-scene glimpses as to what goes on in the studio, and it's always interesting to hear what Greg in particular has to say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucrezia Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Thanks for sharing!! It's a very interesting interview:i'm a fan of Greg!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAK1 Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Thank you for posting this. I'm always interested in reading about the processes involved in making music. This enforces the statement Mika himself said, about it being like building with Lego. And it's good to read about how Greg deals with different artists. It's like he has to be a diplomat with bands, as there is more than one persons input to deal with. So I guess it must be like a tightrope to work with some bands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabine64 Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Thank you very much for finding and posting. It´s really interesting to read all the background stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Thanks Miro, that's very interesting. I totally agree with him about the vocal being the most important part of the track, especially where Mika is concerned. I am also a huge fan of Greg and was lucky enough to see him perform and talk a bit about his early start in being a musician and working in the music industry. I'm glad Mika was able to connect with him so early in his career and have a producer who really gets him and complements his skills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyaboutmika Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Thank you Miro That's really interesting to read, it reminds me of Mika's Vlogs when he was making TBWKTM I love how Greg Wells says he builds the musical background around the voice and the way he describes his team work with Mika Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mari62 Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 oh that's really interesting! thanks for posting Miro! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camille* Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Thanks Miro! Very interesting indeed Thank you Miro That's really interesting to read, it reminds me of Mika's Vlogs when he was making TBWKTM I love how he says Greg Wells builds the music around the voice and the way he describes his team work with Mika Sadly I was not around at the time of these vlogs When I watched them after becoming a fan (or while becoming a fan as they made me love Mika even more) I used to think 'I can't wait to watch such vlogs for the 3rd album, and this time I'll be one of the first to watch them' Hmm any new vlogs, anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nenartus Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Thanks Miro. Greg is a very interesting person, I love his tweets, and all that he said in this interview about recording confirmed my thoughts about how they work on recording. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmmaImogen Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 T4P! They always seem like the perfect little music-making team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miro Posted October 29, 2011 Author Share Posted October 29, 2011 You're all very welcome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Very interesting article - T4P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathouzouf Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 how I wish I could be a fly on the wall:roftl: quite interesting:biggrin2: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Sadly I was not around at the time of these vlogs When I watched them after becoming a fan (or while becoming a fan as they made me love Mika even more) I used to think 'I can't wait to watch such vlogs for the 3rd album, and this time I'll be one of the first to watch them' Hmm any new vlogs, anyone? It was such an exciting time. I had been out when the first new music vlog was released and when I came home my MSN was lit up like a Christmas tree, there was so much buzz. But I had to just watch the video myself and didn't want to speak to anyone until I'd had a chance to process it. Ever since that day I think I've had complete faith that Mika is always going to make music that I love even if I like some songs better than others. I hope he starts letting the fans into this process again as the recording is nearing completion because I think it's very important to get people excited about the music before it's released. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttonslovesu Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 It was such an exciting time. I had been out when the first new music vlog was released and when I came home my MSN was lit up like a Christmas tree, there was so much buzz. But I had to just watch the video myself and didn't want to speak to anyone until I'd had a chance to process it. Ever since that day I think I've had complete faith that Mika is always going to make music that I love even if I like some songs better than others. I hope he starts letting the fans into this process again as the recording is nearing completion because I think it's very important to get people excited about the music before it's released. Agree with this:thumb_yello: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suzie Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 This article is a great find, thank you for sharing it, Miro. Sadly I was not around at the time of these vlogs I never realised that. I always thought you were a fan before the second album. Anyway, I'd like vlogs or snippets of music again, too. I remember last time we heard bits from TB, Rain, WAG and BIOTG. With the exception of Rain we had no clue about the songs themselves so it was interesting to guess what type of songs these would turn into. At the same time, I must add that these vlogs raised expectations, too. I really looked forward to the Andre Crouch gospel choir or Owen Pallett being more integral parts of some songs, for example and the end result after the mix let me down in that respect . However, that was a good guessing game ( about how these bits will be used in the end result), so I'd love to see / hear something similar again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertina Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 this is interesting! thank you! I wish we had more producer's stuff and less shoemaker's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyaboutmika Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 I hope we'll get more twit from Greg:blush-anim-cl: I've thanked him twice on twitter Hopefully he will twit more updates and pics Mika's Vlogs were so sweet:wub2: and I miss them too, but with or without them, I'm all about The Origin Of Love because I have a feeling his sings will be the best ever since I hear Underwater and fell in love at once I also love Karen and Elle me dit, but Underwater makes me melt again and again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camille* Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 It was such an exciting time. I had been out when the first new music vlog was released and when I came home my MSN was lit up like a Christmas tree, there was so much buzz. But I had to just watch the video myself and didn't want to speak to anyone until I'd had a chance to process it. Ever since that day I think I've had complete faith that Mika is always going to make music that I love even if I like some songs better than others. I hope he starts letting the fans into this process again as the recording is nearing completion because I think it's very important to get people excited about the music before it's released. I feel the same.. And thanks for sharing the 'vlog feeling' (Now that I write that I realise I've only had one or two vlogs since I'm a fan the ones in Asia) I never realised that. I always thought you were a fan before the second album. It's good to know I don't look like some sort of newbie then My Mika story is very strange.. I could talk about it for a while I've always liked him and had LICM right from the beginning but I was caught in 'real life' at the time. I became a fan with TBWKTM 2 years ago next week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willywonka Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 noisemaker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nas Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 This was very interesting-thanks for sharing! i've also become a fan of greg's from twitter....he's a talented dude... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nas Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 This was very interesting-thanks for sharing! i've also become a fan of greg's from twitter....he's a talented dude... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willywonka Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 This was very interesting-thanks for sharing! i've also become a fan of greg's from twitter....he's a talented dude... This was very interesting-thanks for sharing! i've also become a fan of greg's from twitter....he's a talented dude... I like it when people are so assertive about their opinions they post it twice... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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