Production Is A Piece Of The Art

Two editorials this week...this is the first:

I always wondered why you never hear anyone ever talk about the productions of mainstream music, or basically any other music besides prog metal. This could be for many reasons: One is that mainstream music usually involves some quantity of money, or that most people don't know the differences between good and bad productions as most radio music sounds good via FM. The other is that people don't care or know what goes into making good music, they only listen to it for the songs or enjoyment and could care less how much money it cost to make a pop disc or New Age disc sound so good. People are interested in the music alone, and most recordings are taken for granted by the listener. Even the metal bands of days gone by sounded great on disc, and of course, this was because of the large amounts of money labels poured into the recordings only to get their money back during the first leg of a monstrous tour which followed.

Unfortunately, this is not the case in prog metal or prog rock. Because of the unaccepted styles, and unavailability of money to fund quality recordings, bands have had to compromise their sound for the sake of getting their music noticed and hope that some small label will pick them up and fund their next recording. This is much due to the fact that the first attempt at recording themselves or paying someone who at least can twirl some buttons and has limited knowledge of the mixing board pretty much broke the band financially. Either that, or the band didn't even have enough money to fund a decent recording and tried to put some sound down on their miserable, low quality recording equipment and hope that their music is good enough to attract a label, or catch the ear of some people who can steer their music in the right direction. Any way you look at it, the band is taking a gamble that could ruin their career immediately as the frustration of having to spend most of their daylight working a job to support their music in which they spend most of their night time hours trying to perfect. This in addition to trying to raise a family in the meantime. After spending months, even years, writing their first piece of music and having to beg, borrow and steal money to press 1,000 copies of their music, along comes the avid prog listener and/or reviewer that pulverizes the recording. The band watches their creation pretty much crumble in a few lines of text that took them many months hard at work creating what they thought was their best shot or hope at making a name for themselves in a difficult and underground genre.

I'll be the first to admit that I am BIG on production values - and for what I feel are good reasons. First, let's look at the money aspect from a buyer's point of view. Most prog listeners are more than willing to spend countless dollars on their favorite form of music, and pour tons of their hard earned cash into vendors who can supply them with all the prog music they can handle. Again, these are also people with jobs, raising families, traveling many miles to see their favorite prog artist, spending most of their free time indulging in the love of their life, the music. They expect to pay for at least a quality recording, regardless of whether or not they like the music. Trading is heavy in this area, and most know that someone out there will scoop up any music that is available at a reasonable price, as long as the sound quality is good. Too many discs have ended up on the CD rack because the sound was of low quality. And it's a shame for the listener to have to pay for it, as well as for the band whose disc just got shelved after a listen or two. The only thing they'll hear about it is that the music was good, but the sound sucked. A hell of a reward for a band who have spent a year or more toiling for many hours to release their art, hopefully to a receptive world.

Second, I view a prog disc as a work of art. A painting created by an artist, or in this case, a collective group of artists who all contribute to the painting by adding in the many different colors that make up a quality painting. This painting is going to be hung for the world to see - if poor colors are used, low quality brushes are used, a low quality canvas, the final product will hang in the art museum and people will certainly turn their noses up as they walk by to the next, higher quality, painting. Certainly an analogy, but let's use our ears as the source in the music world. A band has an idea. The members collaborate and then decide which members will contribute to the creation. The ideas flow. The writing begins. The music starts to come alive. Soon after, songs start to appear. Possibly, a concept disc is in the works - a single idea divided into many parts, each with a different message, meaning, another piece of the puzzle. The band toils night after night - sacrificing the normal life activities to "create" what might be their masterpiece, their statement to an unsuspecting music world, the highlight in someone's musical life. Finally, the idea is complete; the puzzle is almost complete. The music, the efforts, the ideas, the time, the collective efforts, the CD artwork, no label, and barely enough money to survive.

The dilemma: To release the disc with as much sound as we can give it, or wait until we finance a recording properly. Should we hope that someone recognizes the fact that the music is quality and that the sound will be overlooked, or should we wait to give them a total quality product - one with as good a sound as the effort that went into creating the piece of art.

I believe that sound is as important to a disc as is the creative effort that went into the ideas behind it. The sound is the final seal of approval from the band that the art piece is worthy to be seen (in our case heard) by the eyes (ears) of the world ... the sound is the means that the artists bring their creation to the listener. The music is the story; the sound brings the story to the listener. Without sound, there is no story. The words fall on deaf ears. The band suffers - the ratings go down, the reviews are negative, the frustrations of the many hours of work crumbling in a few short words of someone's text. Someone who will then go out and buy a quality recording and rave about it. The band contemplates splitting up. Is this all worth it?

What would great masterpieces like Ayreon's discs, Eternity X's The Edge, Payne's Gray Kadath Decoded, Queensrÿche's discs, Fates Warning's discs, and so on sound like with poor recordings? Would we praise these discs if they contained poor sound? I think not. Sure, some of them have the money to have the quality recordings. What about the indy bands who do it? Reading Zero, Zero Hour, Aztec Jade, Carisma, Event, and the many others who have created great sounding discs on their own or at least seek some help from others in the know? It can be done on a small budget - this has been proven. In the prog world, it's not only a collective effort on the part of the band to create the piece, but it's the fans who help spread the word about the band to help get them recognized. And I know for a fact that bands help other bands and would be willing to offer assistance in the sound department if needed.

Production is a piece of the art - it's the final piece of the hard work that you created from nothing. It's the storyteller - it's the final say in how your music is heard - it makes your art shine moreso than you could imagine. Use the sound to bring your art alive, don't let it die a quick death with low quality sound. Wait until you can somehow come up with the means to achieve the sound, don't throw it into a pit of vipers and hope that it doesn't get eaten.

Let the sound be your last word.

Before you move on to editorial two, I would like to take just a little space here, though he deserves more, to formally introduce Tony Emmerson to our ranks. Tony is a UK based journalist whose work has also appeared in Progression, "as well as in fanzines and the official websites of artists." Already for Progressive World he has contributed a review of live Yes, a review of a live show by the new Wetton, Palmer, Kilminster, and Young project Qango; look for much more this week and in the weeks to come.

Second Editorial

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Published on: 2000-03-11 (2617 reads)