Rick and Daniel chatting for a while
May 23, 2023 8:18 AM Subscribe
Even if you don't know the name Daniel Lanois, you know his work. He produced The Joshua Tree, So, and Time Out Of Mind, to name just a tiny few from his broad ranging career. If you like hearing all manner of music-making tidbits from one of the best, Rick Beato sat down with Daniel for a three-hour conversation. Everything is discussed from music personalities to recording techniques and equipment to songwriting to simply the joy of finding the vibe. It's an astonishing interview that even at its length feels like it is too short.
Oh this is my jam. Love Lanois’ work on Wrecking Ball by Emmylou Harris and all the albums with Brian Eno. And his albums Acadie and For the Beauty of Wynona are both perfect for folks who think Aching Baby is U2’s singular album.
posted by zenon at 8:46 AM on May 23, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by zenon at 8:46 AM on May 23, 2023 [4 favorites]
Lanois previously: The CBC's Q interviews legendary music producer Daniel Lanois
Urban legend says that he also wrote the highly-addictive jingle for African Lion Safari , which you're not supposed to ask him about.
On the African Lion Safari thing, that was apparently Mike McCurlie who wrote it, but there appears to be a tangential connection to Lanois via Bob Doige, who produced it, and who also bought Grant Avenue from Lanois in 1985. But it was recorded there while Lanois still owned it.
40 years of musical history at Grant Avenue:
It was a natural progression. Doidge had worked at the studio from the start, first on renovations, then as a session bass player and a producer of radio jingles for local businesses like African Lion Safari (during the early days, those ads were key to keeping the business alive). In 1981, Doidge had become a staff sound engineer.
So it's not outside the realm of possibility that Lanois was involved beyond supplying the studio.
/weirdly specific Ontario ad jingle derail
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:49 AM on May 23, 2023 [4 favorites]
Urban legend says that he also wrote the highly-addictive jingle for African Lion Safari , which you're not supposed to ask him about.
On the African Lion Safari thing, that was apparently Mike McCurlie who wrote it, but there appears to be a tangential connection to Lanois via Bob Doige, who produced it, and who also bought Grant Avenue from Lanois in 1985. But it was recorded there while Lanois still owned it.
40 years of musical history at Grant Avenue:
It was a natural progression. Doidge had worked at the studio from the start, first on renovations, then as a session bass player and a producer of radio jingles for local businesses like African Lion Safari (during the early days, those ads were key to keeping the business alive). In 1981, Doidge had become a staff sound engineer.
So it's not outside the realm of possibility that Lanois was involved beyond supplying the studio.
/weirdly specific Ontario ad jingle derail
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:49 AM on May 23, 2023 [4 favorites]
For the Beauty of Wynona
I'd rank this as one of the most underrated albums of the 1990s.
posted by mcstayinskool at 8:54 AM on May 23, 2023 [9 favorites]
I'd rank this as one of the most underrated albums of the 1990s.
posted by mcstayinskool at 8:54 AM on May 23, 2023 [9 favorites]
I admit to mostly knowing him from U2. It was really cool when Aaron Funk(aka: venetian snares) released a collab: venetian snares x daniel lanois
posted by symbioid at 9:09 AM on May 23, 2023
posted by symbioid at 9:09 AM on May 23, 2023
The whole bit about keeping a Beta 58 mic plugged in and handy in the control room is pretty brilliant.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:09 AM on May 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:09 AM on May 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Daniel Lanois was also interviewed by Marc Maron in 2021 if you want something that comes in closer to an hour.
posted by furtive at 9:15 AM on May 23, 2023
posted by furtive at 9:15 AM on May 23, 2023
/weirdly specific Ontario ad jingle derail
I won't lie, when I heard that rumour I doubted it but you know I have always wondered... Now if you told me he did the jingle for Marineland? That would blow my mind.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:26 AM on May 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
I won't lie, when I heard that rumour I doubted it but you know I have always wondered... Now if you told me he did the jingle for Marineland? That would blow my mind.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:26 AM on May 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
That Maron interview is great. It's much more biography than music talk, so it's a good companion piece, really.
posted by hippybear at 9:31 AM on May 23, 2023
posted by hippybear at 9:31 AM on May 23, 2023
I love Rick Beato so so so much, or at least, as much as you can love someone you only know through their internet presence.
posted by tftio at 9:35 AM on May 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by tftio at 9:35 AM on May 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
I really love his album Acadie, as it hit a really specific time in my life. I was living overseas at the time when I first encountered via a Belgian friend who heard one of the French language songs from that album on a then contemporary international French music compilation. I hadn't heard an Ontario French speaker for a while at that point and it was a weirdly nostalgic for me. I would later develop a fondness for his production on Dylan's Oh Mercy.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:44 AM on May 23, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:44 AM on May 23, 2023 [5 favorites]
Rick Beato's an engaging guy, a good mixture of enthusiasm and technical knowledge without snobbery. I admit I like his soft spot for Sting, which is definitely not shared by some of the commentariat here. ;)
posted by praemunire at 9:50 AM on May 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 9:50 AM on May 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Acadie is one of my desert island disks. It dates me sure, but it's near a central place in my musical taste, along with Gabriel and Bush.
posted by bonehead at 9:58 AM on May 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by bonehead at 9:58 AM on May 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
from the Beato talk, my fave bit is where they get to talking about "that 80s drum sound"
I don't mind having hockey hair in an old picture but I don't want it in my sound.
posted by philip-random at 10:11 AM on May 23, 2023 [5 favorites]
I don't mind having hockey hair in an old picture but I don't want it in my sound.
posted by philip-random at 10:11 AM on May 23, 2023 [5 favorites]
Lanois has occasionally got roped into some slightly less radio friendly projects in the broader Enoverse - here's Michael Brook's Hybrid from '85 which he produced and played on.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 10:33 AM on May 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by thatwhichfalls at 10:33 AM on May 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
I don't know his work comprehensively at all but I really like Flesh and Machine, which is a kind of rocky ambient record that I gather was like composed from the mixing console.
posted by grobstein at 10:53 AM on May 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by grobstein at 10:53 AM on May 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
What an excellent combination of guys to listen in on while they gab about music. Thanks for this!
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 11:09 AM on May 23, 2023
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 11:09 AM on May 23, 2023
I don't really know Daniel Lanois, but I was sitting in the audience for a Crash Vegas show at the late, lamented Ontario Place Forum in 1990. Daniel's sister Jocelyne was the bassist for the band at the time (quoth Wikipedia, "Lanois left the band on acrimonious terms later that year,") and at one point singer Michelle McAdorey mentioned introducing a special guest, and the shaggy-haired guy sitting next to me got up and ambled down to the stage to sit in with them for the rest of the set. As I say: I don't really know Daniel Lanois, to the point I failed to recognize him sitting next to me for a half hour.
40 years of musical history at Grant Avenue:
It was a natural progression. Doidge had worked at the studio from the start, first on renovations, then as a session bass player and a producer of radio jingles for local businesses like African Lion Safari (during the early days, those ads were key to keeping the business alive). In 1981, Doidge had become a staff sound engineer.
So it's not outside the realm of possibility that Lanois was involved beyond supplying the studio.
/weirdly specific Ontario ad jingle derail
Doidge engineered an album I played on at Grant Avenue. We were paying the then-princely sum for sixty dollars an hour for recording time. He's an amiable guy and -- at least then -- was an aviation enthusiast, and not infrequently he would tell us some story about an emergency landing or a near-miss, averted by a combination of pilot skill and sheer luck: the sort of thing that the Discovery Channel was spinning hour-long shows out of a decade later. As his stories hit the eight- or ten-minute mark, I'd occasionally ponder that I could have gone and seen a movie for what we paid to hear about some general aviation incident in Tucson two years earlier.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:23 AM on May 23, 2023 [7 favorites]
40 years of musical history at Grant Avenue:
It was a natural progression. Doidge had worked at the studio from the start, first on renovations, then as a session bass player and a producer of radio jingles for local businesses like African Lion Safari (during the early days, those ads were key to keeping the business alive). In 1981, Doidge had become a staff sound engineer.
So it's not outside the realm of possibility that Lanois was involved beyond supplying the studio.
/weirdly specific Ontario ad jingle derail
Doidge engineered an album I played on at Grant Avenue. We were paying the then-princely sum for sixty dollars an hour for recording time. He's an amiable guy and -- at least then -- was an aviation enthusiast, and not infrequently he would tell us some story about an emergency landing or a near-miss, averted by a combination of pilot skill and sheer luck: the sort of thing that the Discovery Channel was spinning hour-long shows out of a decade later. As his stories hit the eight- or ten-minute mark, I'd occasionally ponder that I could have gone and seen a movie for what we paid to hear about some general aviation incident in Tucson two years earlier.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:23 AM on May 23, 2023 [7 favorites]
"that 80s drum sound"
I haven't watched the interview yet, but I knew as soon as I read philip-random's words what they were referring to! Having watched just that specific exchange, I agree with Lanois that it was a novelty that outstayed its welcome.
In fact, when I was attending a recording-engineer seminar at a recording studio in Orlando as a young adult in the mid-80s I asked one of the senior engineers about that sort of drum sound I was hearing on the radio, and he had no idea what I was talking about. I had an excuse for not knowing about gated reverb, but surely he should have been aware of it...
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:01 PM on May 23, 2023
I haven't watched the interview yet, but I knew as soon as I read philip-random's words what they were referring to! Having watched just that specific exchange, I agree with Lanois that it was a novelty that outstayed its welcome.
In fact, when I was attending a recording-engineer seminar at a recording studio in Orlando as a young adult in the mid-80s I asked one of the senior engineers about that sort of drum sound I was hearing on the radio, and he had no idea what I was talking about. I had an excuse for not knowing about gated reverb, but surely he should have been aware of it...
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:01 PM on May 23, 2023
I’m at work, but am really looking forward to this! Beato is such a nerd, but I am also a nerd about music, so. Lanois produced Yellow Moon, my favorite Neville Brothers album. I have always appreciated his dark and lush aesthetic. How he keeps records from being too bright and harsh, yet still very clear has always impressed me. I think maybe he hates hi-hats and crash cymbals nearly as much as I do.
posted by Devils Rancher at 1:15 PM on May 23, 2023
posted by Devils Rancher at 1:15 PM on May 23, 2023
I’m not actually completely sure whether the Sling Blade soundtrack was the first appearance of this piece (which also has some incredible live clips out there) but boy did it stun me in context.
posted by atoxyl at 2:53 PM on May 23, 2023
posted by atoxyl at 2:53 PM on May 23, 2023
Putting in a plug for this absolutely lovely, quiet, ambient album of instrumental pedal steel guitar. Thank you for the link.
posted by erebora at 4:36 PM on May 23, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by erebora at 4:36 PM on May 23, 2023 [4 favorites]
His Toronto studio is a few neighbourhoods over from us, my brother’s been there.
/weirdly specific Ontario ad jingle derail
He played guitar and engineered the theme song of the late-70s Canadian consumer show “Live It Up” at Grant Avenue (this is the theme song, audio only; here’s the show intro from a few years later with a different version of the theme.)
I wrote in to the show when I was 11 and they sent me a 45 of the song, which I still have.
posted by chococat at 4:54 PM on May 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
/weirdly specific Ontario ad jingle derail
He played guitar and engineered the theme song of the late-70s Canadian consumer show “Live It Up” at Grant Avenue (this is the theme song, audio only; here’s the show intro from a few years later with a different version of the theme.)
I wrote in to the show when I was 11 and they sent me a 45 of the song, which I still have.
posted by chococat at 4:54 PM on May 23, 2023 [3 favorites]
Beato is another one of those guys who I think is very knowledgeable and talented, but I'm much more in line with Pat Finnerty than Beato, so I don't think I could handle him for 3 hours.
posted by MtDewd at 5:05 PM on May 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by MtDewd at 5:05 PM on May 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Right around 45:00 they start talking about Larry Mullen's drum pattern on "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". I had never really noticed it before, and now I can't stop thinking about it. It seems backwards but the song wouldn't be the song without it.
posted by vverse23 at 7:21 PM on May 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by vverse23 at 7:21 PM on May 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Right around 45:00 they start talking about Larry Mullen's drum pattern on "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". I had never really noticed it before, and now I can't stop thinking about it. It seems backwards but the song wouldn't be the song without it.
I first heard ISHFWILF on my surprisingly good clock radio before dawn one morning in mid-1987: it was set at just the right volume to wake me gradually rather than with a huge blaring fanfare to startle me to the floor, so I was still two-thirds asleep when I heard it. I remember in my hypnagogic state thinking, "That is an amazing drum part..." and not being sure I was not dreaming this.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:38 PM on May 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
I first heard ISHFWILF on my surprisingly good clock radio before dawn one morning in mid-1987: it was set at just the right volume to wake me gradually rather than with a huge blaring fanfare to startle me to the floor, so I was still two-thirds asleep when I heard it. I remember in my hypnagogic state thinking, "That is an amazing drum part..." and not being sure I was not dreaming this.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:38 PM on May 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Beato is a good interviewer and I'm glad he found his way to where he is now.
That Lanois guy is something else, too. Golly, the ears on that guy! And, basically, how he talks about sounds... fucking fascinating. In an alternate universe he would have worked with Glenn Gould (also great ears) on something/anything.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:29 AM on May 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
That Lanois guy is something else, too. Golly, the ears on that guy! And, basically, how he talks about sounds... fucking fascinating. In an alternate universe he would have worked with Glenn Gould (also great ears) on something/anything.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:29 AM on May 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
I like Beato a lot when he isn't playing the cranky old man who just wants pop music to go back to the guitar and the forms of his youth & early adulthood, which always feels like he's crassly playing to the algorithm. His jazz interviews/jazz-theory videos are worth watching because they draw so much less interest than his pop-oriented material, but cover a really interesting period of jazz history. His interviews with Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Keith Jarrett, Gary Burton, and, last but absolutely not least, Ron Carter are delightful and worth a watch even if you only have a casual interest in jazz music.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 8:16 AM on May 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 8:16 AM on May 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
Yet again, another MeFi post connected to Chris Whitley. He connected with Chris at nowhere less than Industrial Chili in downtown NYC, was blown away, and invited Chris to come record his very first album, "Living with the Law" at his place in New Orleans. In recent years, he's worked extensively with Trixie Whitley, his daughter, who is sounding more and more like her dad.
posted by dbiedny at 5:04 PM on May 24, 2023
posted by dbiedny at 5:04 PM on May 24, 2023
Lanois' instrumental solo album Belladonna came out when I was a couple years into living thousands of miles away from the place I'd grown up and everyone I'd ever known. Some of these tracks (especially Agave) can instantly put me back in that lonely, excited, worried, hopeful young person's mind. I've moved often since then, always seemingly further away rather than nearer to where I started. It's something of a ritual to put this album back in rotation when I'm in one of those transitions. It sets the scene very well for mixed feelings around goodbyes and hellos.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 3:45 AM on May 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 3:45 AM on May 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm about 30 minutes into this and it's wonderful!
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:36 AM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:36 AM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
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