August 31, 2007 11:54 pm
By: tiffreviews
 | Globe and Mail - Daniel Lanois lounged on an ivory leather sofa in his loft studio in Toronto, dressed all in black, with eight silk-covered buttons marching up his sleeve. A few feet away, in a soft pool of light, stood an enormous mixing board, just arrived from England. Lanois, who has often manned such a board for Bob Dylan, U2 and many others, spoke of his new acquisition with pleasure, but also with a sense that anything he could tell me about it would be beside the point. He can talk audio gear with more authority than most, but in the end the circuits that really matter to him are the balky, surprising conduits that lead to the heart.
“The application is just the vehicle for dragging something out of somebody,” he said. “What you want is the heart and soul of the people in the room. The sounds and how you build the thing are only ever a canvas, or an invitation for the soul to jump out.”
Invite the soul to jump out. That’s a pretty concise description of what a good music producer does, but how does it happen in the real world, with actual musicians trying to find the right shape for something that maybe didn’t exist before they entered the room?
The short answer is that it probably happens in a different way every time, depending on the personalities and the moment and a million other variables. The 90-minute answer is Here Is What Is, Lanois’s debut film about music and the art of making records, coming soon to the Toronto International Film Festival… [Full Story] |
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