Exploring The World of Music Production
‘Where words fail, a producer’s touch speaks’ - Jai Paul
I get this question a lot: what does a Music Producer actually do?
It’s a confusing role, and not always explained clearly to the public. It doesn’t help that a ‘producer’ in other non-musical fields often has wildly different responsibilities, making the term’s meaning elusive at best.
Simply put, a music producer works with artists to take the beginnings of a song (usually chords, lyrics, and/or melody) and work to record and create a final version of the song to release into the world.
An alternate version of an ep cover made by the amazing @analogprints back in 2021.
Typically, this means the producer helps come up with the arrangement, tempo, key, style, and more… And then it means co-creating the song alongside the artist, where very often, a producer ends up playing instruments like guitar, bass, synthesizers, keys, banjo, bouzouki, mandolin, and or whatever else they may need (well, at least this is how I work). So in some cases, working as a producer means songwriting, or co-writing with the artist, if the project calls for it.
It also means engineering, which requires me to capture instrumental and vocal performances both of the artist, myself, and potentially other musicians we hire. On other days, it means means mixing, which is the final balancing and perfecting the sum of all the recorded tracks that make up a song.
Other days, it means messing around with this rocket-ship cockpit briefcase (known as a eurorack modular synth).
But what it really means is that I get to work in a studio most of the day and create, while also helping to ensure that my artists properly plan the project, make deadlines, and have a fun creative environment. Probably the best comparison would be to liken a music producer to a film director — in that metaphor, the artist is the star of the film. Many directors needs an actor to make the movie a hit — but many actors also need a director to help them hit their full potential. This symbiotic relationship underpins every recording artist and producer dynamic (unless they produce themselves).
The music producer is almost always unseen, but never unheard.
I’ve produced, engineered, played on, mixed, written, and mastered quite a few tracks. Likewise, probably a lot of what I do hasn’t been heard by you, so here’s a chance for a little overview.I will definitely do deeper dives into many of these tracks in future newsletters.
Click the song title below to listen on Youtube:
~ synth pop, indie, apocalyptic rock ~
Credits: co-produced, co-engineered, co-mixed, synthesizers, keys, mellotron, sound design
2023 Mcclendon and I in East Nashville
Believe it or not, Mcclendon and I had actually finished a version of this track last August, but due to an accidental erasure on our hard drives, we were forced to restart the whole process… But sometimes out of the ash, something even more beautiful emerges — specifically, the synth brass/horns in Chorus 2 as well as the synth arpeggios came about during the sessions where we tried to recreate what we had originally had. Yet the final version ended up eclipsing the original.
Note to future-self: sometimes massive losses can turn major blessings. The challenge of recreating something that once was inevitably creates a different result, sometimes all that much better.
I felt pretty damn addicted to working and listening on this song — I hope you get hooked too.
I originally had 3 more to send out, but let’s be real: we don’t have the attention span for that. Although if you want to hear more of what I’ve made, check out the Produced by Tommy Champion Playlists available here:
Produced by Tommy Champion Playlist (Spotify)
Produced by Tommy Champion Playlist (Apple Music)
If you dug this, consider forwarding this email to a friend, or sharing a track by text or social media.
Reach out and communicate !
Much love,
Tommy Champion