Was there a particular point when you saw yourself as a producer or did you start doing it out of necessity? <\/em><\/p>\n The answer to that question is yes both ways. Yes, I saw myself as a record producer because I had to produce myself out of necessity. I used to have a band \u2013 it was the same band that wound up becoming Chic, but we had a different name at the time and we had been courted by a lot of the hot producers in New York \u2018cause we had gotten a really good reputation of being a live band having some pretty good songs. Every time record producers tried to work with us, instead of them enhancing our sound they started to conflict with our sound. Because if you listen to the first Chic album, the compositions are complicated but sound amazingly simple. Try and play a song like \u201cEverybody Dance.\u201d You can be the greatest bass player, you could be Stanley Clarke, try and play \u201cEverybody Dance.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Who would you say is the most important influence on your record production style?<\/em><\/p>\n Bernard Edwards. Both Bernard and I idolised certain types of producers. I happened to be more in line with jazz producers although I didn\u2019t quite know what they did, but when I looked on the back of Miles Davis albums and on the back of Wes Montgomery albums, I used to see those names. I only realised after the fact what they were doing but I would see the names as producers. At first I thought they raised the money. I didn\u2019t know that they were the equivalent of the director of a film which is basically what a producer is.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What did you learn from Bernard (Edwards) that worked for you?<\/em><\/p>\n Everything. Bernard taught me about the art of simplicity. I come from a jazz background. I started out studying classical music, but if I could only do one style of music and could never listen to or play anything else \u2013 maybe I\u2019d have to say funk, but I would say probably jazz because it feels the most rewarding to me because of harmonic complexity and things like that. So I really consider myself a jazzer even though I don\u2019t stay up on top of my scales and my chops aren\u2019t what they should be, but I would never be embarrassed playing. If I got up on stage with George Benson I would not be embarrassed. I mean I would of course go \u201cYou\u2019re the man.\u201d I played with John McLaughlin a couple of years ago, he was the man, but I hung (Laughs).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n You\u2019ve often described your production style in other interviews in very spatial terms: a house under construction, driving a vehicle, a ship being navigated. How important is the concept of space in your work?<\/em><\/p>\n For me it\u2019s everything. Just for clarity\u2019s sake, when I talk about producing like driving a car, what I mean specifically is the way that most people drive is if the car is going straight you don\u2019t have to steer and as long as the car is going in the direction you\u2019re planning on going you don\u2019t overcompensate. And that\u2019s my style of production, I try not to overcompensate, I let things happen naturally. When you get into a car you just drive. You look down the road, you don\u2019t look right in front of the car. If you look right in front of the car you\u2019ll probably have an accident, so you look where you\u2019re going and you just go there. When I do a record I envision the completed work, and that\u2019s not to say that it doesn\u2019t alter during the journey. In other words, you can stop and go eat some place. but the destination is very important to me, and the process, the act of getting to that destination is what it\u2019s all about. So driving some place could just be a linear thing. You could just think, \u201cOkay, today is Monday and we\u2019re going to Ipswich and we get in the car and drive there.\u201d No. no. no. It\u2019s Monday and we\u2019re going to Ipswich and we stop over here and we look at that and we go \u201cOh cool\u201d, let\u2019s get out the car for a minute, what are we listening to while we\u2019re driving there, what are we thinking about, what\u2019s the conversation about, you know, that sort of thing. So it\u2019s the journey and the experiences along the way.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n How would you say your background as a musician & songwriter has influenced your production<\/em> sensibility?<\/em><\/p>\n I think that being a musician and being a songwriter and being an arranger which is like a songwriter is the most important part of what I do. If I didn\u2019t know how to construct the song and if I didn\u2019t know how to compose and perform, I don\u2019t think I\u2019d be able to direct other performers and composers how to make their craft better or at least get it more correct.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And at the same time, while you\u2019re doing all of this you\u2019re making space again within the arrangement of the song.<\/em><\/p>\n Well, space is just something that I sort of cherish because I inherently am a complicated writer. I think that intellectually the more complex something is, the happier I am. So I start with a complex composition and then take away. I wish I knew another way, but I don\u2019t. It\u2019s hard for me to admit that I\u2019m not smart enough to write \u201c aaahhh, freak out.\u201d I\u2019m not smart enough, I don\u2019t know how to do that. But I can write something else and take way and then you\u2019re left with \u201c aaahhh, freak out.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A lot of creative tension in this business arises from the friction between the organic and the technological. How do you get that balance right in your own work?<\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s getting more right as I get older and wiser. At first I, like a lot of people, were threatened by technology on some level, but I was an early adopter. If you listen to the last couple of Chic records, even though we had one of the greatest drummers in the world, Tony Thompson, I still used drum machine and I still used sequencers in a minimalist way because I liked what restrictive groove technology did. In other words, I wish I could play like a machine. Here\u2019s something that most people do not know: The Chic song called \u201cI Want Your Love\u201d was my attempt at being (German disco & new wave era producer) Giorgio Moroder. I never knew that there was a machine called the sequencer that actually electronically put things in the pocket. I though Giorgio Moroder was the baddest fucking funking person that has ever walked the earth! When I first heard those Donna Summer records –\u00a0 and prior to that I was into Sly (Stone) and people I thought were incredible groovesmiths, Ron \u2018Have Mercy\u2019 Kersey and those kind of people who just were like tight, tight, tight in the pocket \u2013 then all of sudden I heard Giorgio I was like are you kidding me, somebody could play like that? So \u201cI Want Your Love\u201d is me trying to imitate Giorgio Moroder. I had no idea, and then when I found it was a machine I was like, \u201cOh man!\u201d But still, it helped me write \u201cI Want Your Love.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So there was an oblique technological influence even in the early days of Chic?<\/em><\/p>\n Yes, and then of course Kraftwerk changed my way of thinking. It was great.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What do you see as some of the major positives and negatives regarding the ways we now use digital technologies in record production?<\/em><\/p>\n The only negative to me is when you compensate for the lack of skill on the part of the user, but that\u2019s not a bad thing because earlier on (in a panel discussion) I gave the example of anti-lock brakes.\u00a0 The first time I bought a car that had anti-lock brakes it felt uncomfortable. I pushed the pedal down and all of a sudden it started braking for<\/em> me. I was like, I don\u2019t wanna do that, and then I realised that the computer was smarter than the human because it didn\u2019t have emotion. When you jammed down the brake pedal because you were afraid, the car knew you wanted maximum stoppage but you don\u2019t want to go into a skid. So it did that and it kept you from skidding. So I had to realise that computers can fill in what you don\u2019t have, and also I became a lot more open because I\u2019m a product of a wonderful school system. When I was a kid, America had nationalised education programmes. My mom had me at 13 years old but it didn\u2019t make any difference because whatever school I was in from whatever neighbourhood I moved around we were all at the same level. So the intellectual standards were incredibly high and we had music, we had art, we had theatre, we had all of that stuff. It doesn\u2019t make any difference whether you were good at it or not \u2013 you were exposed to it. And if you gravitated towards one subject, you could pursue that. I happened to gravitate towards music, so every time I checked into a new school \u2013 my mom at 13 didn\u2019t provide a stable home, I was going, as we say in America from pillar to post \u2013 I would register with the band and usually they would assign me an instrument where the position was already filled, so by the time I was 11 I knew how every instrument in the symphony orchestra functioned. I knew the written range so I became an arranger. So by the time we did Chic, I could do all that stuff.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So all the time you were getting this training\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n Not realising that it would come and benefit me in my later years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What are some of the factors that influence your involvement in a project or that make you decide not to take on a project?<\/em><\/p>\n There are a number of things. Usually the seal and the credibility of the person who\u2019s recommending the project. Secondly, my own enthusiasm after I become familiar with that work. I can\u2019t work with a person unless I\u2019m a fan. Let\u2019s say it\u2019s a new artist \u2013 I have a new artist right now, she\u2019s signed to Interscope.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Is that Lanz?<\/em><\/p>\n Yeah. The first day I met her I became a fan. I was in a studio which was the last place I wanted to be. I was managing a producer, a hip-hop producer, a guy who I love, and I was trying to help him \u00a0get his life together. I said the greatest thing that ever happened to me was when I was younger. I listened to business people, and they said to me there\u2019s gonna come a day where you\u2019re not gonna be the hot guy. There\u2019s gonna come a day where you\u2019re gonna be sort of pass\u00e9 in the business. He said I could teach you how to be rich your whole life. I was like \u2018Wow, really?\u2019. Because all you got to do is be successful for a short period of time, and then do the right investments and set your life up properly and you will never ever have to worry again. He says think about it. He says being a musician is like being a professional athlete, especially being black you only have a certain amount of time. So do it well and do the proper investments and you have earned your life forever. So I tried to help this dude out, and he said, \u201cI\u2019m working with this new artist, help me figure out the deal.\u201d\u00a0 I was like, I don\u2019t wanna be here, and I was falling asleep \u2018cause I was up the night before. This little white girl, tiny little Jewish girl from New Jersey walks in the studio, I\u2019m like I definitely don\u2019t wanna be there. And she\u2019s doing hip-hop and she opens her mouth and the most brilliant shit comes out of her mouth. And I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat was that?\u201d And then she started doing this other rhyme and she had a hook and she was singing, and then she went right from the singing right into the rhyme. There\u2019s a few people who can do that but they don\u2019t, because in hip-hop you\u2019re either a rapper or a singer, and she did it without even dropping a beat. She kept doing it over and over again and it was always spot on, so I developed my own relationship with her. The next thing I know, Jimmy Iovine (head of Interscope Records) and these guys are signing me up as the executive producer of the record. Go figure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n How do you account for the scarcity of black producers like yourself operating outside of the conventional boundaries of R&B, jazz & hip-hop? Why don\u2019t there seem to be more black producers working with a Jeff Beck, a David Bowie, or a Mick Jagger?<\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to speak to that. I think that historically if you\u2019re a young black producer now usually your musical taste gets broader once you start making music. The cultural experience of young blacks right now, it\u2019s so controlled because of the money making machine. In other words, we\u2019re targeting those people in America. Its whole lifestyle, marketing and branding , and they\u2019re into it and they\u2019re aggressive because they know that that\u2019s the largest growth area in the music business. So it\u2019s all about the \u2018bling\u2019 and the cars, and it\u2019s not about spirituality so to speak. And a lot of music that\u2019s outside of your culture presupposes a certain amount of spiritual and intellectual growth. You have to be open.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I liken it to food. In order for a person to eat something that\u2019s culturally not normal for them, they have to be open. You don\u2019t wake up one day and say \u201cI need some beluga.\u201d Your palate becomes wider as your brain becomes more open. It\u2019s spiritual development, it\u2019s human development, and if your world stays small because of forces outside of you trying to keep it small it\u2019s gonna stay that way. Now when you become very famous like a Jay-Z or a Pharrell not only does your world open up organically because you\u2019re in the mix, but also because those people are attracted to you because of what you do. Their worlds are open. So it\u2019s not odd that Linkin Park would be aware of Jay-Z .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n When I wound up doing Let\u2019s Dance <\/em>with David Bowie, he came after me. I didn\u2019t go looking for David Bowie \u2018cause I would have never thought that was possible. The only artist in my entire history that I ever sought out \u2013 that I woke up one day and said I want to work with that person, I\u2019m gonna beg and fight \u2013 was Peter Gabriel. He\u2019s the only person ever and I wouldn\u2019t take no for an answer. I followed him, I went to a concert and said look let\u2019s meet for sushi, I was relentless.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And it paid off.<\/em><\/p>\n It paid off spiritually. We never had a big hit record, but some of my best work I think was (with) Peter Gabriel. We did a record called \u201cWalk Through The Fire\u201d in the movie Against All Odds<\/em>. That shit is the bomb, it\u2019s a great record! It\u2019s just that at the time there was Phil Collins who was one of the hottest guys in the world, and Lionel Richie was at the top of his game. So you had Phil Collins and Lionel Richie in line in front of us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What aspects of vanishing technology do you miss the most and the least?<\/em><\/p>\n I don\u2019t miss that stuff because we\u2019ve replaced it very effectively with software and it works better, it\u2019s all in tune.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It\u2019s cheaper too.<\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s a lot cheaper! More memory. I mean, look, the things that I do now<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If it wasn\u2019t for the Synclavier there would be no records like (Duran Duran\u2019s) \u201cThe Reflex\u201d, B-52s \u201cRoam\u201d, \u201cLike a Virgin\u201d – Madonna. I played \u201cMaterial Girl\u201d\u00a0 on a Synclavier. I played a couple of things. Same thing with Let\u2019s Dance.<\/em> I don\u2019t miss that technology because that stuff has gotten better. Sampling technology has gone light years ahead of where it was when I got my first Synclavier. Music writing programmes, Sibelius compared to the Synclavier \u2013 night and day – it\u2019s just great.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A lot of things I miss because I have the skill level to do it, but if I had to do it every day I probably would say I like the new stuff. I like writing charts because that\u2019s how I grew up, but if I had a machine that could just do what I thought of I\u2019d say sure, let\u2019s do that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It\u2019s interesting that your background is very organic in the way you develop ideas and yet you\u2019ve been an early adopter of all sorts of digital technologies.<\/em><\/p>\n Absolutely.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Where does that curiosity come from?<\/em><\/p>\n I figure that anything that can help me be better, help me serve my clients better, is important. Very early on, I adopted a philosophy of every time I start a new record I\u2019m gonna buy a new piece of gear and I\u2019ve been doing that for years. I have a basement full of gear. And I do that now \u2013 every time I do a new record I buy a new piece of gear.\u00a0 I just bought that Roger Linn box (M.A: Possibly the AdrenaLinn effects unit). It was wonderful. I took it and I used it live with the Arabic musicians that I was just working with (in L.A.), just plugged it in,\u00a0 I could set the delays right on the spot, tempo, it\u2019s great for a couple of hundred dollars. So I\u2019m sure it\u2019s gonna wind up on the new Chic record I\u2019ve been threatening to make for all these years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n How do you balance support of the artist and their creative vision with the often conflicting goals of the record company?<\/em><\/p>\n That\u2019s hard. That\u2019s probably, to a large extent, why I\u2019m not the mister-in demand guy, because it\u2019s quite well known that I almost \u2013 not almost but always cede to the demands of the artist. So the record companies are looking for people who cede to the demands of the company because nowadays making their money is really important. They have to make their quotas. Nowadays, and I know you can hear it, why do record companies cut 30 songs on J-Lo? Because when it comes time to schedule her release date they have to have enough product so that they can put together an album and have it come out. That\u2019s why. Lanz \u2013 the same thing. Lanz\u2019s record is great now. They\u2019re gonna cut another 10 songs. It\u2019s just how it is \u2013 cut another 10 songs at least, and the record is great. It can come out right now. So I argue, why do we have do cut more songs. Let\u2019s just make the ones we have better. No one can make a decision in today\u2019s world and that\u2019s because they don\u2019t own the record labels, and if you make a bad decision you get fired and now you can\u2019t have the perks that you had. Like if you work for a record company now, you can be just a Senior Vice-President – a Senior Vice-President at a record label makes more than the CEO of the record labels made when I was at Atlantic. I mean (Mirage Records head) Jerry Greenberg\u2019s take home salary in those days was probably \u2013 I don\u2019t know – $200,000 a year with stock options? Now, when they fired Tommy Mottola I think his take home salary was $20 million with stock options. $20 million dollars? Are you kidding me? It\u2019s insane.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n How do you deal with artist\u2019s moodiness, sulking or conflict in the studio?<\/em><\/p>\n I deal with it just fine.\u00a0 I obviously don\u2019t have any set way of going about it because every person is different and I don\u2019t have standardised stuff that I do, but my general attitude is that unless you have some sort of apparatus of coercion \u2013 and I\u2019m not that kind of person, I\u2019m not Phil Spector, I don\u2019t have a gun \u2013 so if I\u2019m working with an artist and things aren\u2019t going the way they\u2019re supposed to go or the way I feel that they should go, I say let\u2019s go to the movies, let\u2019s go to a restaurant, let\u2019s take the day off \u2018cause we can\u2019t make it happen. I never try and force it. If it doesn\u2019t work, it doesn\u2019t work. Come back in a few hours, it\u2019ll work then or come back tomorrow.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In the case of Diana Ross, we were working on an album, and somehow we offended her even though we were trying to say in the most delicate way possible that she was singing just a little bit flat. She walked out of the studio. I never saw her for another two months. But when she came back it was cool (Laughs). She didn\u2019t come back and say \u201cDon\u2019t tell me I\u2019m flat ever again.\u201d She just came back and we resumed and we knew better.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What vocabulary do you use in the studio to describe sounds to engineers and musicians?<\/em><\/p>\n I hope that I\u2019m using the standardised vernacular of gear and musicians. I cal stuff what it is commonly known by, I would imagine. I don\u2019t ever remember an engineer looking at me going \u201cWhat do you mean by that?\u201d (Laughs).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n When we talk about Nile Rodgers as a producer we always focus on the albums that really hit. But there are a lot of things like the Dan Reed Network album<\/em> \u2018Slam\u2019 (1989, PolyGram Records) which I think is a great album\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n Brilliant! Brilliant!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u2026that for one reason or another didn\u2019t catch the market. How does that affect you as a producer when you know you\u2019ve done a great job, but the product hasn\u2019t reached its audience?<\/em><\/p>\n That always hurts because that\u2019s a great record. Dan Reed Network, it\u2019s great. You know, I do the same thing every time out. I do the best record I can at the time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So lack of commercial success on a pet project doesn\u2019t really affect you?<\/em><\/p>\n I don\u2019t dwell on it. It bothers me a bit at the time, but I really don\u2019t dwell on it. The same way I don\u2019t dwell on the hits. Bernard said it really great. When we did \u201cWe Are Family\u201d and it was the big theme song of the \u201979 Pittsburgh Pirates when they won the World Series, we didn\u2019t even know. We got on the plane and went \u201cLook at that, check that out.\u201d I look at success and failure almost as the same. Success doesn\u2019t make me want to succeed more.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What happened with the Outloud album (1987)? A (Warner Bros.) record company executive reportedly said it was \u201ctoo artistic<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s a good word for \u201csucks.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Most people that I know who\u2019ve heard the album have been very turned on by the production style, the songwriting, the musicianship, and also this was released at a time when you were extremely hot as a producer, so I\u2019m wondering why there were problems with the record company?<\/em><\/p>\n Well think about it, look at the time \u2013 1987. Music didn\u2019t sound like this in 1987. As a matter of fact, can I burn this?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I\u2019ve got two copies. If you don\u2019t have a copy, you can have that one.<\/em><\/p>\n Yeah, I don\u2019t have a copy.\u00a0 I\u2019m just looking at this going \u201cOh, I remember some of these songs, these are cool. You know, this is why I\u2019m me. Like I just do stuff that I like doing. I like playing with these people, they\u2019re great. I like writing weird shit like this. I\u2019ve always loved Sly \u2013 look at me, I\u2019m covering \u201cMusic Lover\u201d and knowing that I can\u2019t do it as well as Sly, but still I just love it. The fact that I did it like a medley and had to pay double royalties \u2013 I wasn\u2019t thinking about the business. I\u2019m just a guy doing what I wanna do. At that time I had enough power.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It was a very elaborately produced album.<\/em><\/p>\n I don\u2019t even remember it. I don\u2019t even know what it sounds like!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n You\u2019ve got Synclavier, DX7, you name it. And you\u2019ll find all of the credits at the back of the CDs booklet.<\/em><\/p>\n (Reads credits) Wow, holy cow! Look at that. Man, look at all the guitars I was using! And see now, I wasn\u2019t doing this because of endorsements. I didn\u2019t have endorsements with any of these guys. I just wanted people to know what the gear was.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n When I think of Nile Rodgers as a producer. I also think of this album along with Madonna\u2019s<\/em> Like a Virgin and David Bowie\u2019s<\/em> Let\u2019s Dance.<\/p>\n I was a big star making lots of money. When you\u2019re making lots of money, they can do what they call fuzzy math. They can say, this is the same guy who just sold 21 million Madonna albums. It\u2019s alright .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As a producer, what motivated you to set up your own distribution company and independent label?<\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s really a historical political thing. When\u00a0 I was very, very young, my uncle took me to a rally to hear Malcolm X in Harlem somewhere. My uncle was super, super black militant and I remember hearing Malcolm X saying black people in America will never truly be free until they control the means of distribution. I didn\u2019t even know what that meant, but it sounded cool. It sounded poetic. So at a certain point in time I was financially able to purchase a distribution company. Up until I bought that company, no African-American had successfully been able to own a national distribution company in America, and believe me, people have tried. (Berry) Gordy tried it, and Berry was like \u201cMore trouble than it\u2019s worth.\u201d Dick Griffey who had Solar Records tried it, and I\u2019m sure certain others. But it was just a neighbourhood that we were sort of locked out of, because on some level distribution \u2013 even though it\u2019s not a glamorous job \u2013 it really is power. It really represents that you\u2019re dealing with the money. You\u2019re a banker. At that point, you\u2019re the bank. You\u2019re consigning the product, you\u2019re collecting the product, you\u2019re dealing with vendors directly. You\u2019re a black man dealing with Best Buy, Target, Sears, on that level. That\u2019s power in America. Very few of us have that kind of power when you\u2019re dealing with national vendors on that level.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n You also seemed to have moved ahead of the curve regarding video game soundtrack production. How does that differ from the conventional record production?<\/em><\/p>\n A lot of the artistic part is the same, but the business model is interesting for me. The business model that I adopted \u2013 I actually think I invented it \u2013 was one that was built on altruism, survival and fairness. I always thought that if I owned Chic records, how rich would I be? If I owned \u201cGood Times\u201d, if I owned \u201cLe Freak\u201d. You can\u2019t even imagine. Whatever number you think, it\u2019s not big enough. So I thought that if I were a record label wouldn\u2019t that be the greatest gift in the world \u2013 to give the artist back their records, and to have the model flip-flop. So instead of Atlantic Records paying me an artist royalty for the rest of my life as long as those records sell, what if I were able to pay them<\/em> a royalty for the rest of my life or the life of that product? So the way I\u2019ve set up my business, I license records from artists. One, it\u2019s economically viable for me as a company because I don\u2019t incur the production costs. Sometimes I supplement what they\u2019re doing and help them finish it, but I license the product from them, give them an advance for the license, use it for seven years. After seven years, the master ownership reverts to them then they pay me a royalty as if I\u2019m the artist and they\u2019re the label. It\u2019s great, so I spend the money building the career, making the product valuable, get to exploit it for seven years and then give it back to them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It sounds like that model is influenced by the fact that\u00a0 you weren\u2019t just a businessman \u2013\u00a0 you\u2019ve been an artist and you\u2019ve been a producer.<\/em><\/p>\n Right. It\u2019s economically sound too because I don\u2019t run the risk of exposure of being millions and millions of dollars in the hole before I can recoup. Now it\u2019s true the upside of that is that you own everything and you can sell it , but I think that the cumulative effect of the ownership of these copyrights and trademarks will still be a viable, purchasable business. And even though a person may not have all the rights that one would have if they owned the masters outright, they will have a constant revenue stream – they don\u2019t have to do anything. That money will come in and they still have the logo and the brand which will be able to form the business. So in other words,\u00a0 the only reason that I say this is I think that anybody in today\u2019s world would be foolish to start a business that doesn\u2019t have resale value.\u00a0 So it\u2019s a model that I\u2019ve adopted, and that I believe has good resale value, and also I own the distribution company too. So it\u2019s a model that works because obviously I get a good fee on the distribution side so I can make my money back there and I have product. You go to my site, you\u2019ll see I have lots of records. Not like I have just ten. I have hundreds, and in two years I\u2019ll have hundreds and hundreds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n You\u2019ve recently invested in a luxury recording studio complex at Amanyara in the Turks & Caicos Islands.<\/em><\/p>\n Yes, The only six-star resort in the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That investment suggests that you\u2019re very optimistic about the future of record production.<\/em><\/p>\n That investment says Aman is the nicest resort in the world. Before I became an owner, I used to spend god knows how much going to Thailand to go to Aman. I\u2019m not just a part of the studio, I also own 10% of the hotel so it\u2019s a little more than the studio. It\u2019s a financial decision, it\u2019s a spiritual and artistic decision, as well as having some faith that the music business will never go away. I think it\u2019s more robust than it\u2019s ever been. You just have to figure out how you\u2019re gonna participate in it. Yes, the true big studios have gone away. There\u2019s only a handful left, but there\u2019s always gonna be superstars and if your clients are the Madonnas, the Stings, the Bonos, the Bowies, The Eagles and those type of people there\u2019s a place for it. There\u2019s always a place for that upper tier.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What sort of adaptations do you think record producers need to make now to accommodate the digital era from the perspective of selling music to the consumer?<\/em><\/p>\n They\u2019re doing it now.\u00a0 The record companies have been somewhat threatened by You Tube and My Space and CD Baby. The fact that no one has broken super, super big like to the level of a Britney or Justin or something like that, I think it\u2019s all a matter of time. It\u2019s probably just like the early age of the recording business. Probably in the beginning, people thought that player piano rolls were still gonna be the standard, and then when they started to have the cylinder recorders and things like that, wire recorders, it started to catch on. And convenience changes everything. All of a sudden when they went to wax and vinyl that became a lot more convenient and now MP3s are even more convenient, so the more convenient music becomes the more widely consumed it is just as we see now. Coming up with viable revenue streams as the technology starts to far surpass the archaic record company models\u00a0 – that\u2019s gonna be the key.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nile Rodgers is a composer, arranger, guitarist and producer, and co-founding member of Chic. His production credits include Sister Sledge, David Bowie, Madonna, Diana Ross, Duran Duran and many more. In 1998, Rodgers founded the Sumthing Else Music Works label and Sumthing Distribution, focusing on the production and distribution of video game soundtracks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[34,5],"class_list":["post-557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles-editorials-provocations","tag-industry-perspective","tag-interviews","author-mike-alleyne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1541,"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557\/revisions\/1541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}