Production
As Pomegranate enters into our 8th and 9th album release in the coming months, I thought I would share some of the more nitty gritty details on how an album evolves from the point of when I get the sound master. While on the road in New Mexico, I received an email from classical guitarist Iakovos Kolanian in Athens, Greece that he was finished with the first draft of his new CD- Guitar Masterworks of Agustin Barrios. He stated that he had shipped two copies to our producer, Kevork Imirzian in Boston. As I mentioned before, Kev and I had taken a working trip to New Mexico in order to discuss the new release at length. After he left, I stayed on in New Mexico for another week and a half to do some personal projects. On Sunday night, Kev stated that he had the master CD-R of Iakovos's album and that I should come over and hear it. At this point, I want to mention that this is one of my favorite moments in the life cycle of an album on my record label. It's the point in time when you hear the music for the first time, before all of the window dressing such as the design, marketing, etc. All of that stuff is to sell the album. When you hear the music for the first time, that is the whole point of the project, creation of art by some very talented people.
The leap of faith comes with the first album by an artist in your professional relationship. I have been fortunate to have artists like Gor Mkhiktarian, Hover Chamber Choir of Armenia, and Iakovos return to my label. Their first album always seems to be where I hold my breath because it product is unknown. After the first, you trust whatever they may bring for the second helping. That was not really the case with Iakovos since he has been a proven recording artist Europe. With the Barrios guitar CD, he nailed every song right on the head. Of course, I say this from a non-professional guitar ear, but, it has everything a label owner would want from an effort. Emotion, nuances, technical brilliance, and most of all, lyricism where the composer begs for it. Or course, the producer of the album, Kevork was very happy with the result and that is where it matters most. The producer drives the bus in this process. So, my wife Natacha and I, along with Kev and his wife listened to the new Iakovos album for about 15 minutes and we all approved. So, on to the next step.
The next step in the process is to have the producer give feedback to the artist on his take. Thus, Iakovos will re-record some parts and re-arrange some fo the track sequencing to fit the producers direction. We are lucky that Iakovos has an in-home studio to do all of his recording. Obviously, for an independent label, this is a huge money saver, and for the artist, he can record at his whim in the comforts of his own home. The constraints of walking into paid session time and being asked to perform spot-on for a lifetime document can be overwhelming. While the re-recording takes place, I listen to the album a minimum of about 50 times to get a feel of how to market, brand, and name the album. In this case, I have asked Kev to name the album with me branding the tag line. In this case, it will be "Guitar Masterworks of Agustin Barrios".
Simultaniously, we start thinking of album cover ideas and the issue of what is going to be in the booklet. In this case, Kev will once again write the liner notes (something I usually do) given his intimate knowledge of the classical guitar reperoire and his strong journalistic background (Masters Degree in Journalism). It's a potent combination, along with his expert camera ready eye and fluenct in Spanish (which makes the Paraguayan origin of Barrios more accessable because of the research invloving Kev reading Spanish). This is where I stop and say that surrounding yourself with high quality people makes or breaks a project. After the liner notes, photos, and everything else are ready, we send off the "materials" to our designer, Arsineh Khachikian. You all probably know that Arsineh is my most trusted professional contact, and good friend. She has expertly designed every single Pomegranate album, in addition to creating our logo.
The next area is funding. I'll go into that next time. This is where the Armenian Diaspora plays a big role.
More later.
The leap of faith comes with the first album by an artist in your professional relationship. I have been fortunate to have artists like Gor Mkhiktarian, Hover Chamber Choir of Armenia, and Iakovos return to my label. Their first album always seems to be where I hold my breath because it product is unknown. After the first, you trust whatever they may bring for the second helping. That was not really the case with Iakovos since he has been a proven recording artist Europe. With the Barrios guitar CD, he nailed every song right on the head. Of course, I say this from a non-professional guitar ear, but, it has everything a label owner would want from an effort. Emotion, nuances, technical brilliance, and most of all, lyricism where the composer begs for it. Or course, the producer of the album, Kevork was very happy with the result and that is where it matters most. The producer drives the bus in this process. So, my wife Natacha and I, along with Kev and his wife listened to the new Iakovos album for about 15 minutes and we all approved. So, on to the next step.
The next step in the process is to have the producer give feedback to the artist on his take. Thus, Iakovos will re-record some parts and re-arrange some fo the track sequencing to fit the producers direction. We are lucky that Iakovos has an in-home studio to do all of his recording. Obviously, for an independent label, this is a huge money saver, and for the artist, he can record at his whim in the comforts of his own home. The constraints of walking into paid session time and being asked to perform spot-on for a lifetime document can be overwhelming. While the re-recording takes place, I listen to the album a minimum of about 50 times to get a feel of how to market, brand, and name the album. In this case, I have asked Kev to name the album with me branding the tag line. In this case, it will be "Guitar Masterworks of Agustin Barrios".
Simultaniously, we start thinking of album cover ideas and the issue of what is going to be in the booklet. In this case, Kev will once again write the liner notes (something I usually do) given his intimate knowledge of the classical guitar reperoire and his strong journalistic background (Masters Degree in Journalism). It's a potent combination, along with his expert camera ready eye and fluenct in Spanish (which makes the Paraguayan origin of Barrios more accessable because of the research invloving Kev reading Spanish). This is where I stop and say that surrounding yourself with high quality people makes or breaks a project. After the liner notes, photos, and everything else are ready, we send off the "materials" to our designer, Arsineh Khachikian. You all probably know that Arsineh is my most trusted professional contact, and good friend. She has expertly designed every single Pomegranate album, in addition to creating our logo.
The next area is funding. I'll go into that next time. This is where the Armenian Diaspora plays a big role.
More later.
posted by Raffi at 7:40 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home