THE NEW SMOKER
S
WHAT THE
P#%FF
I
landed in Oakland, CA in 1994. fresh from the safe haven of Charlottesville,Virginia after a few years attending college and with a tidy little double degree in creative writing and world affairs. I was knowledgeable in the recording studio, having logged many hours at studios and on 4-tracks since the age of 13, and had developed some natural talent for arrangement, music, and sound within the confines of the ever-morphing calculus known as Pop Music. A good enough keyboard player to hang with any local band, and enough of an engineer to know when to stay quiet, when to check a mic, when to make more coffee. Let’s just say I was pretty well prepared for looking for a career in the recording industry, but nothing could prepare for me this little five letter word and how I would get to know it: SPLIFF.
L
ooking back on my life as a record producer now, I recognize more clearly what I was really up to in the beginning. I was basically a journalist giving myself assignments. Discover an artist, fall in love with it and take on the self-assigned task of getting to know them, convincing them they needed a producer, to be documented, to be noticed, to be paid attention to. Creatively I’ve always felt less compelled to alter or change what an artist is doing, but to witness it, realize it, water it, watch it grow. I love being 20
Did I Know...? by Jim Greer
around music and musical people - for some reason it is endlessly fascinating to me, and learning the skills to participate from top to bottom has been a lifelong journey - one I feel I’m still squarely at the beginning-middle. I’m convinced that frequency and vibration are the stuff of the universe, and something about tapping into through music is a spiritual and unique experience. I can’t even begin to comprehend the evolution that has led to our ears, brains, musical notes, and how it all connects. It’s a freakin’ miracle.
I
n 1997 I officially began the hard work of immersing myself in the San Francisco music scene by taking on a job as assistant talent buyer at the Paradise Lounge at 11th & Folsom. What an experience! I went from a totally disconnected bartender in the East Bay to being perhaps the most in-demand person in the music industry in San Francisco - everyone wanted to play the Paradise Lounge, and the buyers there were so overwhelmed at the demand that they had all but given up trying to keep up with it.
H
elps to be an ambitious midwesterner occasionally in life; in the music business, it’s a blessing that so many people are such outrageous flakes, because those of us that at least show up on time manage to get a lot of work done.