Events

[ROCK] The Alan Parsons Project has had to cancel two East Coast shows this week due to heavy snowfall. Although the fact that neither cancellation is taking place in Buffalo is a pathetic outrage on behalf of Buffalo’s reputation for soul-crippling weather, the bright side is that fans will be able to enjoy the sounds of the long time great British man of mystery and Egyptian symbolism this Friday, January 30 at Kleinhans.

You’re coming to Buffalo to perform with the BPO.

Yes. It’s always a treat to play with orchestra, and this show in Buffalo is the only show with an orchestra on this run. It’s gonna be a bit of a squeeze on stage. (wink)

Tell me a little bit about your new book, Art and Science of Sound Recording.

It’s a companion volume to the DVD series we put out a couple of years ago under the same name. The book is doing really well—we’re getting a lot of interest from educational establishments, recording schools and so on. But having said that, it’s aimed at the layman as well. It kind of explains to people who’ve never seen a recording studio what goes on, how records are made and that sort of thing.

What does your book have to say about the quality of the massive quantity of music being produced using home recording software?

I think we tried to promote the virtues of a full blown commercial studio, versus recording on a laptop, but very good results can be obtained in a very simple home studio or bedroom studio. I think some good records have come out of very small studios, but having said that, I don’t really think there’s any substitute for having a really good band playing together in a proper live studio. When records are made in a fragmented way, one instrument at a time, I think the music suffers.

Can anyone work hard and become a great music producer? Or like flabby delusional youngsters dreaming to be sports stars should the weak ones wise up and weed themselves out due to an intrinsic lack of talent?

The interesting thing is that you can learn to have good ears. I mean, I knew nothing about sound until I got the job at Abbey Road studios and then I learned what good sound is and how to get it. So it can be taught, but there is no question that if you have musical or creative talent then that’s obviously going to help. Good engineering can be learned. Production is more difficult but engineering can be learned. There are a lot of engineers out there who have never played a note of music in their lives.

As a man involved in the creation process of famously psychedelic records, is it important to test the music out on yourself and experience firsthand the music’s ability to transport the listener into a realm of wobbling geometrical patterns?

In the studio I try to capture emotion in all of the performances… I never really thought of psychedelic experiences necessarily as a part of my music, but certainly you can try to capture moments that would cause an emotional response in the listener. Another way of saying it is are you making a hit or are you making a stiff? (laughs)

OH.. you mean you ask yourself “Does this sound hot?”

Hot. Yeah, why not.