good as when it's been learned, possessed, completely owned and ingrained, no matter how many nice, vintage, esoteric gear things you have in the chain. I'd like to think Aretha Franklin wasn't trying to remember how to sing her parts when she opened her mouth in front of the mic. Otherwise I have the same pet peeves as everyone else, things not working -- not even in a cool, "broken but interesting-sounding" way. I don't like that most recording situations seem to involve an uncomfortable chair. I don't like people having ongoing conversations when I'm editing or mixing or working, so I guess I don't like recording situations that don't involve a place for the rest of the band to go -- I don't really feel like the whole band or their friends need to be in the control room the whole time if they're not going to pay attention. But I understand it's exciting and necessary to be involved in the process and I wouldn't want to take that away from a band, especially when most of the time people don't realize they're doing it. It's probably my fault for generally trying to make records more like a hangout than this clock-watchingpanic-attack, unless that's the vibe I'm trying to record. I don't like tripping on people's cases when I have to go back and forth from control room to studio a million times a day. No matter how nice or how much I of a dick I am about it, it always happens. I guess it's the hangout thing. What do you think are some necessary qualifications for being in the recording business? A business degree. No morals. A prescription to speed. I financial backer, family, drug dealer, girl/boyfriend, whatever, to pay your rent while you party with people who can advance your career so you don't have to waste your time working. A good lawyer. A gun or a bat. Wrong question to ask me, as I'm a complete fuck-up when it comes to "the biz." (said with appropriate irony). I make money solely from it and a rare freelance audio job, so I guess I'm good at sticking around, living in NYC without working very much and maintaining my integrity in the process, means I work with people I know and trust who make music that attracts me, that I can make a personal investment in. So you either have to be someone that can steamroller through the mess of the industry or someone who people like to work with. I definitely have maintained through the latter. I guess if you're an asshole and out for a quick gain, you probably need things from that list, but otherwise I think just being a music head, a true fan of music and the people who make it, being a musician, or having had experience at one point being with a band, interacting on that level, performing in front of people and spent hours dorking out about records, listening to them, really being able to immerse yourself in what makes listening to music something that you can't live without -- I think those things make tolerable all the really, really shitty aspects of the music business and subsequently the recording business.
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