Quote:
Originally Posted by Captain_jovi
This is one of my favourite articles to glean info from about the making of WAN: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniq...what-about-now
Not only is it about the actual music and recording, it talks to the engineers and mixers who have no reason to lie and aren't on the band's payroll to dictate a message. I legit think a lot of people's problems with the 2005-onwards periods is made up in their heads. Some issues hold water but it's a lot of conspiricies.
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As the writing and recording of What About Now progressed, Shanks's focus shifted more and more from songwriter to producer. "You take the rough mixes with you, and are listening to them over and over again, and you make notes of what needs to be done to them, like maybe the second verse could be shorter, or maybe it needs a guitar solo in a certain place, or maybe the lyrics need some lines changed. Jon and Richie make their own notes, and by the time we get back together again, each of us will have a laundry list of suggestions for changes, and when we compare them it allows us to look at each song objectively. It's almost like we're A&R-ing the record! For me, personally, because I co-write some of the songs, the more distance I have from the songs the better, so I don't think of them any more as mine or not mine. My job is simply to make every song as great as it can be. They each become like my kids, and I want them represented in the best possible light so they can reach as many people as possible.” |
Well the quotes part is exactly the main problem. He became equal partners (and later part of the band even) in songwriting and crafting songs. So producing is who, his assistants? WAN is terrible in production choices, quality of production, not so much mixing and technical aspects, but choosing where to pinpoint a direction of song. And that is his job, no matter how much he delegates. Richie was absent from that record mostly, Tico replaced by drum machines and Jon in a hurry to buy a football team. I would say that record mostly sums up Shanks as the main guy: it's all over the place. few good songs (Left of me, I'm with you, Water) destroyed by awful choices and style of production. With House in 2016 and 2020 albums its rather different
Also, first sentence in quoted part is wrongly attributing to described notions as "producing". He's not talking about producing, but about arranging and crafting a final structure of the song. He is still a "songwriter" in that mode.