Renaissance Man

Aug 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Mike Levine

Whether Producing, Mixing, Playing or Programming, Carmen Rizzo Excels.

So you're running the show as far as the arrangements and instrumentation?

Absolutely. If somebody wants a safe record, they don't go to me. I pride myself on doing something a little bit different where the instrumentation is different, the arrangement is different. Something almost a little European sounding instead of U.S. sounding. Another great thing that I bring to the table is that I'm well traveled and I've done a lot of world-music albums. I think that's something that people recognize now in my work, from making a lot of records in France: a lot of world-music elements. So when I choose the instrumentation of records that I produce, I try to bring in instruments that the artist might not know of, or they've never heard, or they wouldn't put those two instruments together.

If you're mixing electronic and organic, you have a large palette to choose from.

Absolutely. And I think that was why with Niyaz, the three of us worked so well. You know, trying to blend and to make a sort of fusion of East versus West. Often, those types of records can be really cheesy. It was not easy to make it tasteful.

What are the most challenging situations you run into when producing?

Choosing the right songs. That's something that's not easy. The first thing a good producer does is to choose the best songs for the artist. That's something that's always a challenge: trying to convince the artists that certain songs shouldn't be recorded.

So typically, they'll come to you with demos and you have to pick from them.

Yes. They might say, “These are my demos.” And I'm somebody who will be the first to say, “I'm the wrong guy for this song. I think you'd be better suited with someone else.” Another thing that's hard to relay to an artist is when they say to you, “I need a radio hit” or “I need a chart hit.” And I always say, “You're talking to the wrong guy.” Because that's not what I do. I do what I feel is the best for that song for this artist. If it happens to be a hit, then great.

Do you have a home studio?

I refuse to [laughs]. My philosophy is: when I go home, I'm at home. I've got children. I work enough as it is, so when I come home I want to just be at home. So I have a studio outside my house [see Fig. 2; also read the Carmen Rizzo online bonus material all about his gear] that's in a wonderful building in Hollywood that's becoming a music mecca. There are quite a few people in the building. Dave Stewart [from the Eurythmics] is right below me; Glenn Ballard; Michael Danna, who's a big film composer. It's right in the middle of Hollywood, and I get inspired walking out on Hollywood and Vine.

I understand you recently did your first film-scoring project.

I did. It was a film called The Power of the Game (Pathé Pictures International, 2007), directed by Michael Apted, who's a big British director.

What was the work flow like for that project?

They would send me a QuickTime [movie], I would load it into Pro Tools, and I would score it to picture and then send an MP3 to them for approval. Once it was approved and I would score any sort of adjustments, then I would post it on my server as an AIFF file, and it was done. The only negative thing I would say was that it was before I had my Xeon Intel Mac. And I had a G5, 1.8 GHz single. Boy it was hard, because I was running picture, virtual instruments, audio, live MIDI, and recording at the same time. I would say a prayer every time I hit play. It was not easy. That poor Mac, God bless it, was just huffing and puffing.

You've noticed a big difference with the Intel Mac?

Oh my God. Praise Intel for getting in bed with Apple, because it's made such a huge difference.

So you never have to worry about how many tracks and plug-ins you have going?

No. With my Intel Mac and my two Universal Audio cards, I'm like a kid in a candy store. I've got my TDM stuff, I've got my UA stuff, I've got my RTAS stuff — I couldn't be happier. And it's all thanks to Intel.

If you had to give a few pieces of advice to people who are producing songs in their own studios, what would they be? In terms of production techniques, things to watch out for or home in on, etc.

One would be monitoring. I think people don't monitor well enough.

You mean like having good acoustic treatment so that they hear things accurately?

Having a good set of monitors and trying to position yourself in a good listening environment. I think that's something that's overlooked. The second thing is, if you make music through or with a computer, you have to invest in power. People think they just need to get a computer, but then if they have no [extra] RAM, no drive space, they're shooting themselves in the foot.

Power in the computing sense.

Yes. Having a powerful engine. The third thing, which is something that I've always prided myself on, is, you have to take every artist seriously. I could give you countless stories of discovering artists who could not get arrested, who I took seriously because I believed in them, and who have become very successful stars. One example is an artist called Jem, who is very successful, probably sold a million records around the world. I couldn't get her arrested, I couldn't help get her a record deal. But I worked with her because I believed in her.

Any other advice?

Know your equipment the best that you can. I find often, a lot of my colleagues have a museum of gear, but they don't know how to use any of it. They have all this gear, but they end up using one thing. If I look back at my past, I made my best records when I had an MPC, a keyboard, and a sampler. And I knew those three boxes like the back of my hand. Know the gear as well as you can before you buy more gear. If you're on a desert island with a drum machine and a keyboard, you'll be making great music. But a lot of these guys have, like, 50 plug-ins and all this stuff, but they don't know how any of it works.

Click here to see Carmen Rizzo's discography

Mike Levine is an EM senior editor.