The CBC's Q interviews legendary music producer Daniel Lanois

March 20, 2021 7:03 AM

From the CBC's program Q:

From gospel quartets to cattle barns, 10 things we learned about Canadian record producer Daniel Lanois

As a teenager, he built his first studio in the laundry room in his mom's basement. Where he recorded Rick James among others. Tony Bennett gave his mom a backstage foot rub at the Grammys. He made Brian Eno pay in cash upfront. And he locked Peter Gabriel in a cow barn to force him to finish Sledgehammer. Among other things.

The interview in full:

Daniel Lanois reflects on working with U2, Bob Dylan and Neil Young among others in this career interview

See also

Producing Bob Dylan and Neil Young Taught Daniel Lanois a Thing or Two

posted by y2karl (15 comments total)

Heard this yesterday in the car, fascinating guy! I've been dropping our kid off in the mornings recently, and, not having heard much of CBC before, have been really impressed with The Current and Q which are on around that time.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 7:21 AM on March 20, 2021 [1 favorite]

There is also a great self-produced documentary Here Is What Is

And, there is a very insightful interview with Lanois by Pharell (objectification of women alert).
posted by SNACKeR at 8:05 AM on March 20, 2021 [2 favorites]

Women Around the World at Work

His sister's band.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 8:15 AM on March 20, 2021 [2 favorites]

His solo work can be a little uneven but when he's on form there's no-one like him - here's The Maker from his first solo album.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 8:21 AM on March 20, 2021 [10 favorites]

He was also recently on WTF with Marc Maron, and it was a good interview.
posted by nevercalm at 8:24 AM on March 20, 2021 [4 favorites]

The interview with Maron was fantastic.

Lanois lives a block from me and my record store and I always hear from people that they run into him in the neighbourhood, but I never have. My dog likes his bushes.
posted by dobbs at 9:02 AM on March 20, 2021 [4 favorites]

Two degrees of Daniel Lanois, dobbs! I used to live next door to the Germaine Welles house in New Orleans when Lanois bought it. I never talked to him, but I did get to say good morning (he said it to me first!) to Paul Newman once when he was shooting there for some film.
posted by taz at 9:29 AM on March 20, 2021 [2 favorites]

He produced Emmylou Harris’ Wrecking Ball, which is just pure magic from front to back.

I listen to Where Will I Be and Deeper Well and it’s like the first time.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 10:16 AM on March 20, 2021 [7 favorites]

One of my favs: "Jolie Louise".
posted by No Robots at 10:22 AM on March 20, 2021 [6 favorites]

His KEXP session from 2015 is one of my favorite things of his I've ever seen.
posted by TheCoug at 12:01 PM on March 20, 2021 [4 favorites]

His KEXP session from 2015 is one of my favorite things of his I've ever seen.

Wow! That opening number is fabulous. Thanks for the link, TheCoug.
posted by No Robots at 12:10 PM on March 20, 2021

Agreeing so very much with Wrecking Ball. Where Will I Be gets me everytime, not to mention basically the whole album. Sublime in a word.
posted by blue shadows at 6:13 PM on March 20, 2021 [2 favorites]

Just for clarity's sake, the radio show is Q. The interviewer's name is Tom Power. Neither has any relation to QAnon.
posted by peppermind at 6:19 PM on March 20, 2021 [3 favorites]

I've always been envious of DL's successes, but he has always been extremely talented and hard-working, so it just makes sense. It's funny that his flukey big break was the result of Eno's love of Wabooba, but hey he also recorded Cyborgs Revisited..
posted by ovvl at 5:39 PM on March 21, 2021 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I heard this when it was on as well. Great interview. the Q staff does their homework. And musicians seem to really love Tom Power? It's a bit weird how effusive the interviewees are towards him.
posted by GuyZero at 2:30 PM on March 22, 2021