- This is Steve Albini’s 4 page letter to Nirvana, pre-dating and setting some of the ground rules for the recording studio sessions that would become the In Utero album.
I identify with Steve’s inspirational message here on many levels. I wish I could help bands make albums in a week, but due to time constraints it’s just not possible with most of the bands I work with. I do, however, notice the records that have been made at my studio are better when no one overthinks anything. It’s something everyone should keep in mind. But don’t take it from me, take it from one of the masters of the craft:
Cool read, though I wish the photographer and taken a bit more care getting some of the photos in focus! But yeah, even with my electronic music I have noticed my best stuff is made in the shortest time periods. It reminds me of this quote from Woody Allen: Spending too much time tweaking and tuning the idea not only removes it further form the original concept but makes you lose the interest and excitement you had in it. I did my degree dissertation on how music technology has affected composition and I think a couple of the paragraphs from it may be relevant here. The first is about how over-production can affect the compositional process: This second excerpt is some opinions on how technology can effect creativity in a recording situation:'The best an idea gets is when it's in your head. From then on, it's just a matter of how much you ruin it.'
A study by Chris Watson on interaction with music notation software (henceforth referred to as MNS) presented some interesting observations. With the instant playback of music and ability to hone in on a specific part of the composition, a considerable amount of time was spent just listening to a small snippet of music. Up to 44% of the total working time was solely spent listening to the music. Modification and input of new material was usually brief and interspersed with short auditions of the new sounds. The most interaction happens at the point where the music ‘runs out’ (Watson, 2006). In his article “Spectromorphology: explaining sound-shapes”, Denis Smaley analyses this method of ‘reduced listening’ as helpful as it is damaging. For one, many composers believe this reduced listening as an ultimate form of perceptual contemplation. However, once they’ve discovered an aural interest in the minute details it can become increasing difficult to once more perceive the piece as a whole. “Secondly, microscopic perceptual scanning tends to highlight less pertinent, low-level, intrinsic detail such that the composer-listener can easily focus too much on background at the expense of foreground.” This results in perceptual distortions for the composer, despite the advantages of encouraging deeper exploration (Smalley, 1997).
As an expansion of this, music producer Robert DiFazio argues that digital sound recording has lowered the artists expectations of themselves. “When the clients know they’re on tape, they’re on point. They’re not expecting me to work miracles as soon as I hit stop...If you screw up, this is not a keeper.” Digital recording has allowed people to not make decisions and essence of performance is lost with excessive post-production editing (DiFazio, 2007). Indeed, this a common negative viewpoint. Simon Frith comments on the opinion that technology is somehow false or falsifying. Technology creates an artificial presence which acts as a barrier between composers and their audiences. This is unnatural, alienating and empties music performance of creativity and expressiveness. Frith opposes this view, however, stating that technology is more often an aid rather than an obstacle. Digital technology enhances creative production by providing sounds and tools that would otherwise be inaccessible (Frith, 1986) (Solomon, 2012). Lowis shares a similar standpoint.
I have seen this post elsewhere, cgod submitted a version the other day. I've always liked the way that #lettersofnote has had a photograph or scan of the original document followed by a transcript. That would serve this letter well. The photos are blurry.'The best an idea gets is when it's in your head. From then on, it's just a matter of how much you ruin it.'
What a wonderful quote. The best songs that I have ever written have basically fallen right out of me. I didn't have to work at them, craft them in any way… they were simply finished upon arrival.
You might have seen Albini's essay The Problem With Music, it's achieved a bit of notoriety now. Steve has a pretty strong voice about bands getting the most out of their career and recordings. I always catch Shellac (Steve's band) when they come to town. The fact that they have an ethic about the sound they produce pops right out. They play those strange Travis Bean Guitars and their amplifiers only have one knob, Steve uses a metal pic everything is extremely particular and unique. Tod Trainer the drummer is a fantastic pocket drummer, the only time you see him put his ego before exacting execution is when he is just having a shit ton of fun drumming (I think if you are filled with drummer joy, and are fantastic drummer it's ok to step out once in a while). There is no band I like to see live more than Shellac.
is that this thing