One of the highlights of my week was listening to Bob Harris interviewing Ethan Johns on his Radio 2 show. Ethan Johns is a producer, engineer and an accomplished musician and has worked with the likes of Ryan Adams, Ray LaMontagne, Laura Marling and Paul McCartney. He is also the son of accomplished producer Glyn Johns who has credits that read like the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and include Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Eagles, and Bob Dylan.
I write that to contextualize the question for discussion.
During the interview Ethan talks about his new album Silver Liner and the writing and production process. Johns talk about how his long time friend and drummer Jeremy Stacey produced the album, explaining why this was the case he said he wanted to concentrate on the songs and have someone else make the production decisions (paraphrased) He goes on to say that surrendering the production to someone else as 'such a relief'
This led me thinking about modern recording, Pro Tools has enabled all of us to become producers and in many cases self-producers, but is that a good idea? I'm not sure, for me it's a bit like cutting your own hair, which is entirely possible but perhaps not the best idea. However for many of us it's more a case of not having anyone else to help on the production process, a person we can trust both technically and musically.
There are many example of amazing self produced albums by both individuals and bands, again this is not a question asking if it is possible, but is it a good idea?
So, there's the question for discussion - Is self production a good idea?
Either join in the discussion or grab your popcorn.