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Visit blueapron.com/slash terms for more. Mm. This is Morocco. Musician John Mayer and director Mick G have something big in common. And they're telling Sunday mornings Tracy Smith all about it.
So these are the recording studios? Yes. This is Chaplin Recording Studios. It has such a nice smell. Thank you.
We have new carpet smell. The carpet is actually custom-made to look exactly like the carpet that was here in the 70s and 80s when it was AM Studios. Seriously? Yes. So that was one thing I thought, okay, let's have, let's have a Let's have a historical nod.
And uh This is what was here, was close to it.
So I did a little bit of what McGee did with the paint. Where Pick a couple things that have a nod to the past. and all the photography is either from my collection or Um Picked it out. for this place or it was donated. to the to the building.
And um I mean, to me and us, this is the matron saint. of recording in this area of town and in this building because Joni Mitchell made so many of her You know, really iconic albums here. And so, this is the largest photo in the building, and it kind of presides over. The main area. And my understanding is at the same time, Joni Mitchell was doing blue, Carol King was doing tapestry in there, and the carpenters were doing carpenters.
The carpenters had an office outside. Yeah. in this place. Yeah, and that's we're trying to get it to where that's there's there's just the modern day, the current day version of that. I think community is making a comeback.
I think we've all uh fully explored what it's like to do things on our own. and from home. and in a solitary way. And yes, it is very impressive what people can do. alone.
It's very impressive how someone could play the drums. Guitars, bass, keys, produce it, engineer it, mix it, and master it. It's impressive. But Once you run through that. You kind of You kind of yearn for something else, which is community.
And I think if you kind of Lay out the chronology in terms of what COVID did to people in their rooms. They learned how to play instruments. I mean, some of the people making music in the studio got their start during COVID, right? They learned how to produce music at home. And if you track that chronologically, that's fun to do for five, six, seven years, and then you go.
I'm starting to like music where people Get their load lightened by working with other people, and there's more input from other people.
So I think we're entering a period of time in the music industry. where people are starting to look out over their fences at one another and going, hey, what can we do together now? that um Because you know, the dirty secret is now that publishing is a form of banking. And so, the attempt to hold on to your publishing to be able to say, well, I did this all myself. Um There's almost a sense of like, okay, let's then...
bring everybody in and let's make the best song possible. as opposed to saying it was done by one person.
So many people can record an album at home. in their bedroom, in their garage. Do you think people still need a place like this? Yes. And I think anyone who said that there are so many people who are doing that that this wouldn't work as a studio, I would just very naturally say that just raises the statistics of The cohort of those people who, of that overall group, who say, I want to go into a big room, I want the drums to sound like they're.
They're banging off the walls. And also it comes down to this. I want my record to sound different. than everyone else's record.
So if everyone has the same Software? and the same equipment. There's only so many plug-ins that you can use in your computer recording. A lot of them are the same. on people's records.
A lot of records sound the same only because the technology they're using to record it was downloaded from the same place. And so I think you've got artists who really are looking around going, I want to make a record that doesn't sound like everyone else's record.
So if you go back to the 70s and 80s, Yeah, there were a lot of rock bands, but everybody's rock album sounded different, right? ACDC sounds different than Led Zeppelin, sounds different than Aerosmith, sounds different than the Stones. And you think that's because of studios like this? Yes, the rooms are different. The air is different.
Where you put the microphones are different. The thought process is different. And when you're working alone at home, and by the way, God bless them because they had to get their start. They had to get their music out. First of all, artists are really bright.
They're listening to everything else and they're going their ones and zeros are coming out of the same software my ones and zeros are coming out of, and I can hear it. and I want to do something that's unique and stands apart. And there's always a different sounding record no matter who you are and what building you go into. You emerge with a different record.
So Yeah, you could definitely eulogize. the uh the lack of People who are making music in studios, but the more people who are making music at home eventually get the idea that there's more out there. And that ultimately banging your head against a wall in your own house for a year and a half. you can do that in a, I don't know, a tenth of the time if you multiply the number of people working on it. and you open the windows up to some other ideas.
that aren't you. I'm going through it right now. I used to have to make a record for so long that I had to become five different people over a period of time. to make an album or a song that sounded complex. And I just went, just get five people, do it in a day.
Just get five people instead of five months as five different people as yourself. And I just believe if I've thought it. Other people will think it too. There's a path artists follow. If everyone started making music, if there was a big tag in to making music in 2020, 2021.
Now these artists are successful enough to be able to come into a major Commercial studio, and they're curious enough to go, I want the real experience my heroes had. This is your place? This is my place.
So this is Studio C. I was originally just a tenant in 2018. I just, this room has been a lockout for a while for people.
So in 2018, I got the place and we renovated it. And then a couple years ago, When we bought the place, it just still stayed the room I record in.
So I'm not just one of the owners, I'm a client. And to me, this is like the The first studio of what I think is a new aesthetic of studios for the modern era. Gone are like the tapestry and the string lights.
Some people still like that. I wanted a place that. It felt like other places I'd been or felt Again, this idea of like reframing what it's like to be a musician.
So the lighting in here, we're still working on the lighting. But this is decidedly a different world to make music in. The colors are completely customizable. You could have it feeling like a nightclub if you're working at night. Do you change the colors?
Yeah. If other people come in, you go, what color do you want? We're working on something that will change the color with the the settings on. And I think that'd be very interesting, like for circadian rhythm, if you're in here and there's no light information to just feel the dimming into a different color based on what time the sun goes down would be really nice. You can go a little nutty, especially this room is not giant, as you can see.
It's sort of, what would they call it, like a railroad style room? And I love it because it's big enough to create in here, but it's not so big. That you feel as if you're dwarfed by the space. Because if you're just working on a song idea, it's a tough thing to do in a big room that's made for drums and amps and all these things. You still if you don't write a song in a big room, you feel even worse.
If you don't write a song in a little room, you're just working away. You're just working. This is the project studio. But that's a fully functioning live room. This board is an API that was custom made for the room.
And It's really, you know, even before I bought the place, it was an investment in this being the spot I was going to make music in. You can't really get a room this size that can. really support the gear. but not be so large again that you're dwarfed by it. This is the perfect size planter to grow a seed in.
And if it's bigger, you go over to D and you record with a full band. But this is where I really like it. I sit here. I can sing here. And I can talk, I can work with someone else to sort of like pilot and co-pilot if it's a co-writer, if there's a producer.
They can have their laptop out. I have my laptop out. We can both be linked up to the music. They can put a beat down. I can go, oh, that's a cool idea.
I can pull out a keyboard and I can play something. I go, give me a guitar. I just pull this guitar up, it's a hit of a button, everything is hardwired already.
So the idea is what I call the speed of art. If you have an idea and you gotta get the note down, bing, bang, boom. you're getting the idea out. We all want to drive home with a song. And if we can't.
it gets under our skin. And we come in the next day. We think we know it. I think I got it today. I think I got it today.
And when you get it, you walk on air. When you don't, We'll get it tomorrow. And this is a great arena. For that kind of battle. It's just the best arena.
Maybe today is the day you write Thriller. Chances are it's not, but the only way you get to the to the chance that it is is you sh keep showing up. And this place is for people who keep showing up.
So, what's the best moment you've had in this room? In this room. I recorded a song called New Light in This Room. which was a a pretty big hit for me. And so I remember being here.
Someone had brought by Prince's guitar. This was after Prince had passed away, and someone had brought by his guitar. And I went, I'm gonna put it on the song.
So there's a part of that song in the bridge where I'm standing here playing one of Prince's guitars. That was cool. Um Working on people's records, writing with people in here. Um Listening, a lot of times people want to play me something, and I go, Don't play it off the iPhone. We just did that last night.
Play it here.
Someone's sitting there, I'm sitting here, and we're both doing this. you know I mean, I don't look at my phone. When someone's playing me a song, I am just So lucky to hear a song that's not out yet. I think I'm not over that. I'm not over.
that in these in these hallways are people working on songs I haven't heard yet. There's magic to it. An artist you know and love, they made another one. Don't you want to hear it? I think that stuff is so fun.
It is magic. It never, I know.
Well, it is. The magic of going from not having a song to having the start of a song. 100% magic. After that, it's coding. How we do the first part, no one knows how we do it.
I would never teach someone how to do it. If I ever taught a class in songwriting, I'd say, you're on your own with the magic part. Because you can't explain it. But once you have a thing to work on, that's when. you can instruct someone how to do it.
But the rest of it is coming in here. You know, I mean I've been doing this for so long. I still look at people who are in the room with me on a day that I didn't write anything and I want to say, I am so sorry. I am so sorry I wasted your time. You do not want to, like you're going to come in tomorrow and there's probably not going to be another.
I'm wasting your time. You still feel that? Yes. Oh my goodness. I've done it for 25 years and I still look at the people I'm working with and I say, I'm sorry I've taken you from your families.
So have you had a low moment in here, the lowest moment? All the time. I mean it's it's The low moments are banging away at something that dies on the table. Those are always really hard. I mean, you think you got something?
They all look the same at the beginning. They all have this look to the stink to them that you're on to something. and you chase it down and then in the middle of it You go. Let's call it. It's not going to work.
And I've had a lot of pep talks. I've either given a lot of pep talks to people or had a lot of pep talks. Because Socially Nobody wants to flop in front of somebody. It's a performance sometimes when you're writing, especially if. You're writing with somebody or someone you haven't really known very long and they're producing, you want to show off for them.
And it comes when it comes. And when it doesn't, You go.
Well, okay. I mean, we got a little, this is always this great. There's like this conversation where you're like, we got something. Yeah, we got something. I mean, that's a good thing.
That's a good little thing. Yeah, that's a good thing. And you walk out and you go home with the radio off, and you go, why am I doing this? And then you wake up the next morning and you go, I might have one. I might have one.
And it brings you back. These are the lifers. This is the life of someone. It's your calling. You drive home and you go, I'm done.
I don't have another one. And then you find one. And you're floating on air. How long? A day.
Because then you got to write another one and you're back in the slog. But if you've got to have that kind of relationship with the highs and lows. This is the place I want to do it. Because when you say goodbye on your way out, you feel like you went to the office. You feel like someone who's heading home.
And it's nice to have music. be a place that you clock into. I I get here at about three o'clock. I leave it about Eight? If I'm making a record, those hours are totally different.
I get home, I feel like a normal person.
Next day, we're going to show up again and we're going to work on something.
So it's a very mature way to look at. of fairly um misfit. kind of life. In this space is where Joni Mitchell recorded Blue. This is the studio that Joni recorded Blue in.
She actually stopped in a few years ago. To see it, and it was like Rose coming back on the Titanic at the beginning of the movie, and she was definitely seeing what was here. Before. She was not looking at what I was looking at, she was looking at the former version of it. It was really beautiful.
to have her see the room again. Can you explain What it means to you to have that history in this space when you. Yeah, I mean, I think certain places you can just mine. ideas. And maybe making a certain pivotal album in a room.
leaves that room a little different.
So that future generations of musicians come in With at least a kind of, if not inspiration, like encouragement. We are room people. Musicians are room people. We go, this room might have it. Musicians stay in a room too long, might have changed the room.
So the idea that If you can make blue in this room. Surely You're not out of ideas. This it's not the room's problem. You know, you're just keep pushing, just keep pushing. Has a lot to do with writing.
Is mining. Certain rooms are just really good for mining ideas. And this building is so good for mining ideas. And I do think, to some extent, the work that's made in here. is left For the next person to come in, if they know about what was made here, and it's a hand-me-down thing, you just keep.
The excitement of knowing that if so-and-so made that in this room, I. it's not the room. And the more you can get an artist to realize it's no other variable but them, At first that's really Daunting. Daunting. And then it's kind of encouraging.
Nothing is stopping you. I'm Jane Pauley. Thank you for listening. And for more of our extended interviews, follow and listen to Sunday Morning on the free Odyssey app. or wherever you get your podcasts.
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