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Overview
Without a niche, Rubin has taken greater risks than any producer in the record industry over the past quarter century. Pushing his artists into new territory has garnered Rubin seven Grammys, including Producer of the Year in 2007, and made him the most in-demand record producer working today. Now for the first time, Rick Rubin: In the Studio offers the behind-the-scenes stories of how Rubin created hit albums with such diverse legends as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Run DMC, Johnny Cash, the Beastie Boys, Audioslave, Tom Petty, Metallica, Danzig, Slayer, LL Cool J, The Cult, Weezer, the Dixie Chicks, Linkin Park, System of a Down, Rage Against the Machine, Jay Z, Neil Diamond, Sheryl Crow, and Slipknot.
This book chronicles his meteoric rise, from his early days as DJ Double R in the early ’80s, founding and running Def Jam Records alongside Russell Simmons from an NYU dorm room, discovering and producing the Beastie Boys and LL Cool J, to his transition in the early ’90s into a successful independent record executive, signing and producing the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Johnny Cash, to his role as the most influential producer of all time (currently as the co-head of Columbia Records), and his continued successes with rock/metal supergroups Audioslave, Linkin Park, and Metallica.
This in-depth look at the life and times of Rick Rubin — in the studio and beyond — is a must-have for any music fan.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781554904402 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | ECW Press |
| Publication date: | 08/01/2009 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 232 |
| File size: | 3 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Rick Rubin
In the Studio
By Jake Brown
ECW PRESS
Copyright © 2009 Jake BrownAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-55490-875-2
CHAPTER 1
Production by Reduction
Rubin's Approach in the Studio
WHEN RICK RUBIN ENTERS THE STUDIO, his goal is to record music in "its most basic and purest form" — no extra bells and whistles; all wheat, no chaff. "When I started producing [minimalism] was my thing," he explained to Music Wizard. "My first record actually says, instead of produced by Rick Rubin, it says, 'reduced by Rick Rubin.' ... It's still a natural part of me not to have a lot of extra stuff involved that doesn't add to the production, and [to get] to the essence of what the music is. ... You want to feel like you have a relationship with the artist when you're done listening to their record."
That relationship between listener and artist begins with Rubin's own relationship with the artist. As he told MTV.com in 2007, "I have to really like them as people first and foremost. Then I talk to them and hear their vision for the project, see what's going on in their life and see if it feels like a potential there for great work to come." Finding that potential and seeing how to realize it, he told Mix in 2000, "can be the best part. And then the actual work of having to get it there is just going through the process. Once you hear it in your head, it's like being a carpenter — trying to build the thing when you already know what it is."
Rubin's job as producer is to "find what's good about [a band] and help bring it out. And I'm clearly involved in what it sounds like, but it's almost more like I join a band when I produce a record. But, I'm unlike all the other members of the band, who each have their own personal agenda. The bass player is concerned about the bass part; everyone is concerned about their own part. I'm the only member of the band that doesn't care about any of those particulars. I just care that the whole thing is as good as it can be." Claiming to the Washington Post that he doesn't "even know what a traditional producer is or does," Rubin is clear on what he brings to his work. "I feel like the job is like being a coach, building good work habits and building trust. You want to get to a point where you can say anything and talk about anything. There needs to be a real connection. My goal is to just get out of the way and let the people I'm working with be their best."
Because he is in such high demand, Rubin has to assess projects to see "whether the potential is there to warrant the investment. It's so different, case by case, and I like so little in the first place. Very few records come out that interest me at all, very few bands do I ever see that interest me at all. I have to be honest, I don't really think about it that much. I just kind of do it. A lot of times I'm overworked. I'm a workaholic." It's not easy to peak Rubin's interest, as he explained to Shark magazine. "I guess I'm bored by regular stuff. Things really excite me or else they mean nothing to me. I don't like anything that's mediocre. I'd never talk about anything, 'Oh, that was okay.' I hate it or I love it." He described himself as "attracted to bizarre things. I'd like to call them progressive things ... I like extreme things — good, bad. I like it when people take things to their limits, regardless of whether or not I agree. Because I think that's the only way we find out about new things."
Famous for his ability to move between musical genres, Rubin draws creative energy from this experimentation. "I love having a variety, as far as styles go. I feel like it keeps me fresh. I get to work a lot, but I never really get bogged down, because every time I go to the studio with a different style of artist, it forces me to start from square one and really tune in to what the artist is about. If all I did was make hip hop records or metal records, I feel like it would run its course," he told MTV.com.
Expanding on that same point to Music Wizard, Rubin revealed he sometimes gets flak from artists for moving on. "Almost anytime I've had success doing a particular kind of music, I end up doing something else next, as opposed to staying with what I've had success in. I've had complaints from people I've worked with who say, 'Why change? You had so much success doing rap records. Why aren't you making rap records?' I'm not feeling rap records where at the time I was doing them it was really a different time. It was an exciting movement for me at that time. It was a new exciting community that I was a part of. I don't feel rap now. I still like it, but I don't have the same relationship to it that I did before. And the same is true as time goes on, with always trying to do new things, and really trying not to get stuck with, 'Well, you do this.' I've never had that tag. I've broken through enough times of what I'm supposed to do that people now luckily let me do what I want to do, and leave me alone."
Ultimately, the bottom line for Rubin to take on any project is, as he told Mix, "falling in love. I'm not looking for any type of anything or to fit any mold. I'm not looking for the next Prince or something. It's really an emotional connection that transcends any genre." More than a decade before that, he told MTV News in 1989 that he was "not trying to find great new stars, I'm just being true to what I like." That strategy has worked for him, with Rubin maintaining, "Usually when I'm in the studio, it feels special. In fact, I try to work on projects that feel special before we get in the studio whenever possible."
The fundamental element Rubin values in a project seems obvious but is far too often overlooked in commercial music recording. As he said to MTV.com as the 2007 Grammys approached, "I tend to believe overall in the quality of content over everything else. ... So we spend a great deal of time working on material long before we ever think about going into a recording studio. It's about finding songs and writings songs and really exhausting that before thinking about things like performance and what the album's going to sound like." The importance of the material is something he emphasized in a New York Times profile: "Whether it's producing, or signing an artist, [it] always starts with the songs. When I'm listening, I'm looking for a balance that you could see in anything. Whether it's a great painting, or a building, or a sunset. There's just a natural human element to a great song that feels immediately satisfying. I like the song to create a mood." One of his primary functions as producer "is to hear through production and look at a song."
An avid and career-long advocate of pre-production, Rubin first focuses on working out the songs before heading into principal production. Speaking to Billboard about a project with Metallica, Rubin explained his approach: "We really have to feel secure about the music and know it's good. Then in the studio, we're free to only worry about performance and not worry about writing a song. Hopefully, we've done our homework." That homework, in what could be compared to a masters course in songwriting, is tackled from a particular perspective. "I try to get [a band] in the mindset that they're not writing music for an album," he detailed to Time. "They're writing music because they're writers and that's what they do." By encouraging his artists to experiment and take some joy in the process of songwriting, Rubin hopes to end up with better material for the eventual album. "I try to get the artist to feel like they are writing songs for the ages rather than songs for an album. As they write, they come over and play the songs for me. For some reason, most people will write 10 songs and think, 'That's enough for a record. I'm done.' When they play the songs for me, invariably the last two songs they've written are the best. I'll then say, 'You have two songs, go back and write eight more.'" Rubin feels the real work of making an album is in the songwriting, but that work can be drudgery. "Writing is dull and unglamorous stuff. For most people, it's really pretty miserable. But if you write 30 songs, there's a better chance that the 10 on your album will be better than if you just write 10."
"What we do is really a big experiment, and there's no reason not to try different things," Rubin said to Mix. "If it doesn't work, we all know it doesn't work. Usually. And we get in the habit of trying a lot of different things. You get everyone thinking in terms of 'nothing's in stone, there's the potential for more.' Usually." And one trick of the trade of songwriting, particularly when approaching it in this organic way, is to get "artists those little cassette recorders that you can carry around with you — the little tiny ones. I tell them to keep the recorder in the car and in case something comes to mind because ideas do go away quickly."
In the case of most bands, a brainstorming approach is ideal creatively: "It's really a completely collaborative effort. Anyone who's got a good idea, if it makes the record better, we use it." Rubin told the LA Times, "It's one of the things we talk about at the beginning of a project. 'Let's try every idea and see where it takes us, not prejudge it.' Sometimes it still comes up where someone in the band makes a suggestion and part of me says, 'That's a bad idea. Let's not waste time on that.' I stop myself and think, 'Let's try it and see what it sounds like,' and very often it sounds good." If Rubin feels a song is headed in the wrong direction, "I may start by pointing to one line and suggesting it's not as good as the rest, and the artist may say something like, 'I think it's the best line in the song.' So, I'll just keep gently pressing the point until I get to where I can see the artist isn't going to change. In this case, I might say, 'It doesn't resonate with me. What is it you like about it, how does it fit the song?' and so forth. You're not always successful. Ultimately, it's their album, not mine." Since he can't fight over every point, Rubin chooses his battles and is known and respected for being forthcoming with his highly valued opinion. Rubin outlined his trademark no-nonsense style to Mix: "If I think something can make or break the song, I'm more emphatic. But ultimately, it is the artist's record. ... There's nothing better than telling the truth. When I start working with a band, I explain, 'Look, I'm just going to tell you everything I think. I'm telling you that, not in any way to criticize what you do, but to do my job.' ... And they can listen to what I say, accept it, and try it, or they can say, 'You know what? What you don't like about this is what I like about it. Fuck you, it's fine.'"
Rubin concedes that some artists are more pleasant to work with than others, and his theory is that it boils down to confidence: "The more confident a band or an artist is, the easier they are to work with. ... The more insecure they are, the more they tend to hold onto things that don't really matter. Before Roy Orbison died, I did a track with him, and he was willing to try anything. Because he knew, no matter what I had him do, it wasn't going to take away from him being Roy Orbison. Sometimes young artists, or insecure artists, hold onto things that don't matter because they feel, 'This is what makes me "me."' They have this image that some little thing they do makes them what they are. But it doesn't." Self-taught in the art of production and a self-described amateur in technical production, one of Rubin's most valuable qualities is his own confidence — in his perspective on music and his ability to convince an artist of the validity of that opinion.
During pre-production, Rubin tries to steer his artists away from the distraction and pressure of the Hollywood spotlight and striving for commercial success. A principal part of his job is "taking away any fears [artists] had about what they were doing and not let anything get to them to where they would soft-pedal anything in any way." Rubin challenges artists to do their best for the sake of the work rather than succumbing to industry pressure. "So much is about the process and pleasing ourselves, not thinking, 'Can it get on the radio, will it be done in time?'" he told USA Today. "I try to erase all the restrictions that I've seen impede great art over and over. If the album is great, everything else will follow."
What can be challenging for both artist and producer is the pressure from record companies to have commercially viable songs. Rubin feels that no one "is good at trying to figure out what will be a hit. The best thing you can do is reach for something that excites you and the artist." Creating these records is "not an accident. You already know what the sculpture is, but you have to do all that work of chipping the stone away, and that's not the fun part. The fun part is knowing what it is. But no one else gets to know what it is unless you do the work." A good test of a song's mettle is stripping it down to its basics; as he explained to Time, "If a song is great on an acoustic guitar, you can make a hundred different versions of that song and it'll still be great."
As detailed and lengthy as the pre-production process can be, Rubin's productions tend to be quite short on actual in-studio time, as he told Mix. "I often make records faster than a lot of other people. It usually has to do with how prepared we are in advance. ... But it's the pre-production time that really makes the difference. Sometimes that's a couple of weeks, sometimes it's a few months, sometimes it's a year of getting ready to go into the studio and cut the whole album in a week. The preference is always to get as much done before you go in the studio as possible."
A former night owl, after more than 20 years of record producing, Rubin's personal preparatory process now begins in the morning and outdoors. "When I wake up in the morning now ... [I spend] 20 minutes in the sun. When it was suggested to me, it sounded like jumping off a cliff. I always slept late, wore dark glasses, spent more time up and out at night. But I changed my hours [in 2004], so I wake up in the shock of the sun before nine, and there's more natural light, and I really love it," he told the Washington Post.
Another staple of Rubin's routine is meditation, which he got into when he was just 14 years old at the recommendation of his pediatrician. Finding it beneficial to all aspects of his life, meditation helps Rubin with his focus and with the creative process, as he explained to the LA Times. "I think the act of creation is a spiritual act. The more involved we are with nature and the spiritual side of life, the more it seems to have a good effect on creativity. I think about how seeing the sunset can take your breath away. That's the same feeling I get when I hear a beautiful line in a song or a great guitar solo. I don't think great songs stem from us. They are just kind of in the universe. The best artists are the ones with the best antennae that draw it in, and meditation helps get rid of tension and tune into the ideas that are out there." Meditation allows Rubin "to stay open and really listen. I know in the production process often, I feel like I don't really know what I'm saying, but when I hear [the resulting recording], it sounds right."
"The more artists I work with," said Rubin, "the more I see whether they understand it, like Donovan who really understands his spirituality, or Johnny Cash, who [was] a very religious person. There are some artists who don't know where it comes from, but it comes." That ability is oftentimes part of a larger "star quality," which draws audiences in and renders tolerable whatever shortcomings the artist may have. "We're talking about those people with that special magic, the people who light up a dark room; you have to be prepared to take whatever comes along with it," Rubin explained to Shark.
Once in the studio, Rubin continues to rally his collaborators, asking that they set their expectations of themselves high. "We put everything we have into it all the time, whatever it takes," he told the Washington Post in 2006. "If we're going to do it, let's aim for greatness. Because, honestly, the physical act of documenting the ideas that you have is not fun. So if it's not going to be great, I'd much rather go swimming. Really. I might rather go swimming anyway. But at least aiming for greatness is a good foil for not being in the water." On the eve of the 2007 Grammys, Rubin explained to the LA Times how strength of conviction has helped him and the artists he works with consistently achieve greatness: "You and the band have to believe what you are doing together is the most important thing in the world. ... [but] you never want them to think that what they are doing today is most important. You don't want them to ever think, 'Oh my God, I have to get it right today or else.'" To create that sense, Rubin doesn't adhere to strict schedules for projects, instead opting to experiment and see how the process evolves.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Rick Rubin by Jake Brown. Copyright © 2009 Jake Brown. Excerpted by permission of ECW PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Part I: In the Beginning
- Chapter 1: Production by Reduction: Rubin’s Approach in the Studio
- Chapter 2: Growing Up in Long Island
- Part II: The 1980s
- Chapter 3: DJ Double R and the Birth of Def Jam
- Chapter 4: Run-DMC: Raising Hell and Making History
- Chapter 5: Beastie Boys: Licensed to Ill
- Chapter 6: Public Enemy Brings the Noise
- Chapter 7: Rick Rubin Goes to Hollywood
- Chapter 8: The Cult: Electric
- Chapter 9: From Rock to Metal: Slayer and Danzig
- Part III: The Early 1990s
- Chapter 10: Building Def American
- Chapter 11: Red Hot Chili Peppers: Blood Sugar Sex Magik
- Chapter 12: A Tug-of-War Album: Mick Jagger’s Wandering Spirit
- Part IV: The Mid-to-Late ’90s
- Chapter 13: The Man in Black: American Recordings
- Chapter 14: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Wildflowers
- Chapter 15: Ballbreaker and One Hot Minute
- Chapter 16: Three Legends: Tom Petty, Donovan, and Johnny Cash
- Chapter 17: Slayer and System of a Down
- Chapter 18: Dream of Californication
- Chapter 19: “We’ll Meet Again”: American III: Solitary Man and American IV: The Man Comes Around
- Part V: The 2000s
- Chapter 20: The Rise of the Supergroup: Audioslave
- Chapter 21: Red Hot Chili Peppers: By the Way
- Chapter 22: Rick’s a Believer: Weezer and Neil Diamond
- Chapter 23: Out of Exile and Mezmerize/Hypnotize
- Chapter 24: “The Best Album We’ve Done”: Stadium Arcadium
- Chapter 25: Dixie Chicks: Taking the Long Way
- Chapter 26: Linkin Park: Minutes to Midnight
- Chapter 27: Metallica: Death Magnetic
- Chapter 28: Rick Rubin, Record Executive
- Selected Discography
- Selected Sources
- Acknowledgments
What People are Saying About This
"With his great beard, Rick Rubin looks as if he could be the lost member of ZZ Top. In reality, he's a music exec of historic proportions—he founded Def Jam Records—and one of the top producers of our times. The artists he's worked with range from Run-DMC to Johnny Cash. Brown, a Nashville-based music biographer, didn't speak with Rubin, but he did get stories from some of the musicians he produced, bringing readers into the studio for some of the last 25 years' most influential and best-loved albums." —New York Post
"Brown's writing style here is likewise breezy and easy to follow, particularly given all the studio details. For students of the recording process, I can't imagine coming across a better read than this one." —Blogcritics.org
"It's all here in the only biography available. The author has done an admirable job of assessing Rubin's career without muddying it up with too much sideline rah-rahing." —Curled Up With a Good Book (www.curledup.com)
"Appealing to musicians old and new, Rick Rubin: In the Studio is not only a great read, but also a great textbook for anyone interested in a career in music." —Abort Magazine
"A smooth read with enough musical jargon to satisfy the musician's curiosity while not overwhelming the folks just looking for a good biography." —Synthesis
"The story of a true auteur of the recording studio control room . . . an inspirational read for everyone interested in all that goes into the production of great records." —Music Connection
"Pure insight into a genius mind . . . If you are someone who followed the Chili Peppers, Cash, Audioslave, Petty, Metallica, Danzig, Slayer, The Cult, Weezer, the Chicks, Linkin Park, System of a Down or even Neil Diamond, here's a great place to glean great insight into their studio approaches." —Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Online
Reading Group Guide
There is no greater an enigma than Rick Rubin working in record production today, but one thing is crystal clear: the records he produces are sonically and stylistically beyond reproach. Rubin has rejected the comfort and complacency of working in a niche, instead taking on artistic collaborations that are truly original and which often lead the artists to their first commercial or critical breakthrough. His career began in hip hop; Rubin co-founded Def Jam Records with Russell Simmons in 1984, producing LL Cool J’s Radio and the seminal 1986 Beastie Boys album Licensed to Ill, not only rap’s first number one album, but also widely credited for launching hip hop as a viable commercial medium. Not only a producer who could launch new groups, Rubin proved early on in his career that he had an ability to breathe new life into old acts, giving Aerosmith a new chapter in their history with “Walk This Way,” their Run-DMC collaboration. Refusing to play it safe, Rubin jumped ship from rap to metal, leaving Def Jam to found his own label, Def American, where he signed and produced groundbreaking acts like Danzig and Slayer. His eclectic taste was nowhere better reflected than in 1987’s Less Than Zero soundtrack. Rubin also proved his mettle as a top A&R man, executive-producing controversial but commercially successful acts like Public Enemy, the Geto Boys, and comedian Andrew Dice Clay. After his work on the hugely successful and critically acclaimed Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Rubin was only seven years into his career and already a living legend for his ability to break a band like the Red Hot Chili Peppers into the mainstream while respecting their musical roots and simultaneously pushing them to new heights. Though he worked with legends like Mick Jagger, AC/DC, and Tom Petty in the early 1990s, it was his recordings with Johnny Cash that still stand out as his most astonishing and studied collaboration. A partnership that began in 1993, it gave Cash renewed credibility and its commercial success allowed Rubin to be selective about who he worked with, choosing diverse artists like Donovan, Rancid, Sheryl Crow, and System of a Down and returning to those he’d produced before, most notably on the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Californication. By the turn of the century, Rubin had invented, reinvented, or re - defined so many musical genres that there was no way to categorize his style — every producer’s dream. Despite Rubin’s stoic persona, the critics had caught on to the producer’s legacy in the making, with USA Today commenting, “Rick Rubin may be as impossible to pigeonhole as the starry and swollen catalog of music he has produced,” Rolling Stone singling him out as “the most successful producer of any genre,” and Esquire concluding that there were “four words we trust: Produced by Rick Rubin.” But the praise and album sales didn’t shake Rubin’s focus as he dedicated himself to artist after artist. In 2002, the Rubin produced Audioslave debut was released and once again he had helped to launch a new statement in rock ’n’ roll: the supergroup. By 2005, MTV would hail him as “the most important producer of the last 20 years,” and Rick Rubin continued to live up to that title, by resurrecting the career of pop-crooning legend Neil Diamond, helping to shape the solo career of Justin Timberlake, and working with the Dixie Chicks on their comeback album, Taking the Long Way. Grammy nominations and awards poured in as 2007 began, including a Producer of the Year win, but Rick Rubin, workaholic and recluse, found himself too busy to attend, hard at work on Linkin Park’s Minutes to Midnight. Not surprisingly, that album was a massive critical and commercial success upon its release. Rubin had already turned his sights to what some argued would be his greatest challenges yet: producing heavy metal monsters Metallica and taking a new position as head of Columbia Records.As this generation’s most legendary record man remains focused on the future of a business he has been instrumental in revolutionizing, Rick Rubin: In the Studio looks back at more than two decades of sonic supremacy, offering the stories behind volume one of Rubin’s greatest hits.