A Quote by Ben Harper
There is a difference between a great producer and somebody who is a big advocate of your music. Just because you're a big advocate for a band doesn't mean you need to be in the studio with them, and at the same time - we don't need to get into this conversation - you can write a hit, but it might not hit.
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I don't know that I make a big distinction between the big pieces and the little pieces, because I don't experience them in that way. I mean, by the same token, you're out touring with a band and then you're writing string quartets, and in a funny way, isn't it all the same, in a way? It's all just music.
For me I always need to have two sides to me when I play! I need to be a performer and at the same time the producer. So I need to be somewhere up in the air and producing my music. I can't just be the performer; otherwise I can't see the whole view. I need the big view!
I never want to record something that I'm not proud of just because I think it might be a big hit. There's no positive about that because if you record a song you hate and it's a big hit, then you're singing a song every night that you hate. And if you record a song that you hate and it isn't a hit, then you sold out for no reason.
Everybody wants to go see the big hit [at the theatre]. Not because it's any good. Because it's the big hit and everybody wants to be able to talk about the big hit.
You don't just go to the studio and say, 'I'm going to write a hit.' It becomes a hit when people like your compositions.
The batsman does not always need to create big hits. He can hit a boundary, then pick up some singles and still gets nine runs. To avoid that, I need to plan in a way where he must look to hit wherever there is a fielder. That is what is called 'bowling to the field.'
What I think you need to do is be aware and be your own best advocate. Get on the Internet, do your research, and find a group that you might be able to get involved with.
Since the big band started I'm just always swamped with movies and things. It certainly pays the bills and it's very satisfying, because I get to write all these big charts and all this crazy music.
When you're like, 'Yo, we gotta write a hit song, we need a hit song right now,' that never works. Every time that happens, I never write a hit song.
You need somebody to have the idea, you need somebody who can deal with the studio and the normal things, but it's too different of a credit. That credit is usually given to the executive producer. It's not the producer.
If you hit somebody hard enough, they will give up. You can feel their body go limp and they'll just surrender. So every time I hit somebody, the goal is to knock myself out. I know that if I hit somebody hard enough that I can feel it, it's hurting them 10 times worse.
When you're making this kind of music, you don't need a producer. If you're making pop albums or trying to write hit singles, then yeah, but if you're writing 20-minute prog epics, as long as you know how to make it sound good, and you have a good mixer, that's all you need.
People represent their constituencies and have particular interests based on who they are and the experiences that have formed them. You don't have to be a child to be an advocate for children. You don't have to be a woman to be an advocate for women. You don't have to be Hispanic to be an advocate for Hispanics.
Getting older doesn't help you in the fact that you might have covered some of this ground before. So you're listening to a song that you know is a hit, but it just can't be a hit for you, it's gonna be a hit for somebody else. That's tough.
There's a big confusion in this country over what we want versus what we need," Morrie said. "You need food, you want a chocolate sundae. You have to be honest with yourself. You don't need the latest sports car, you don't need the biggest house. The truth is, you don't get satisfaction from those things. You know what really gives you satisfaction?...Offering others what you have to give...I don't mean money, Mitch. I mean your time. Your concern. Your storytelling. It's not so hard.
Everyone wants the same thing in this band, so we definitely respect each other. I mean, all of us have had hit songs, so it's a band full of people who really know what they're talking about, so you have to respect that even when you think something you have might be great, and they go, 'Man, it's not as great as you think it is.'
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