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Interview with "Mr TV Theme" Mike Post Even those that claim to never go near a TV set has probably heard a theme song Mike Post has written.
The Rockford Files Murder One NYPD Blue L.A. Law Hunter Law & Order The Commish NewsRadio Blossom Hill Street Blues The A-Team Magnum, P.I. Tenspeed and Brown Shoe CHiPs Hardcastle & McCormick Doogie Howser, M.D. Quantam Leap Remington Steele The Greatest American Hero Outside of TV, he received a GRAMMY for Classical Gas by Mason Williams, he produced Kenny Rogers & The First Edition's Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) and produced the album 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs for Dolly Parton among other things. It turns out he has a love for the blues and has just produced an album with a group of hired guns called the L.A. Blues Alliance titled... ...What A Life Stanley Behrens (harmonica, tenor sax, lead vocals) Mike Finnigan (Hammond B3 organ, piano, lead/background vocals) Bob Glaub (bass, percussion) Keb’ Mo’ (guitars, mandolin, lead vocals) Amy Keys (lead/background vocals) Sonny Landreth (guitars, lead vocals) David Morgan (piano, electric piano, lead/background vocals) John “JR” Robinson (drums, percussion) W.G. Snuffy Walden (guitars) http://www.labluesalliance.com/ Each of these participants has a pretty strong individual musical background. I was reading an interview Mike Post did in this month's Music Connection and a few of his comments just cracked me up. A couple of selected excerpts from the interview... MC: What was the recording process like? Post: All the songs that you hear on that recording are either take one, two, three or four. That’s all it is. In my opinion you’re talking about some of the greatest players in the world, so it’s not like we need to work on this a long time (Laughs). We’re all good at our jobs, so let’s fire it up. On purpose you can hear the drums coming through the piano mic and there’s a sound to that. We tried to contain it to a certain extent so that it didn’t sound like a throwback record, or a record where we were trying to sound like it was 1955. We used the technology, but we didn’t allow the technology to use us. There are no click tracks involved. There’s very little manipulating or moving of anything on Pro Tools. We just played it straight. Certainly we didn’t tune anybody or any of that bullshit. MC: Did you mix to tape? Post: No, and I’ll tell you why. I’ve got a pristine SSL 9000 J board, which is a pretty good piece of equipment for analog. It’s about as good as you’re going to sound. When I put the studio together, I bought the last of three Studer 24 track machines that were still in a box. I brought it in and when Pro Tools came out with a new sampling rate, every two or three months I would make a blind comparison between the tape and the computer. Honest to God, every time I’m choosing the computer. It just sounds better! I want to like the tape. I want the tape to be the thing. I made a lot of hit records that way. But you go where your ears tell you. The computer is sounding really good these days, but we didn’t go back and say, “Let’s quantize this,” or “Let’s straighten this out.” That’s bullshit. MC: How did you approach BabyRee Re-cordings to release the CD? Post: Actually, my son Aaron did it. He is basically the manager. The last thing I wanted to do is take this to some 25-year-old A&R guy at some record company and have him say, “Y’know, I think maybe on this particular tune there’s a little too much bottom.”Or “Too much compression.” I didn’t want anybody putting any fingerprints on this, so I went to a place where the people just took it at face value and said, “We’ll help you release this record.” The last thing I wanted to do was have somebody with very little experience –– but with a lot of agenda –– mess around with our record. MC: Where do you see this project going from here? Post: I did this for those nine people and myself. Now we’re going to do it in front of people. If they like it so much that they buy four or five thousand copies of the CD, then that tells me something. Maybe we ought to do it again. If we play, then maybe we’ll book a little thing at the end of the summer and do 30 dates or something. We’re going to play the business part the same way we played the music –– Let it flow and see what happens. It’s a complete lack of desperation and a complete love of the blues. tA Tribal Disorder http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431 [Edited 5/11/07 9:11am] "Ya see, we're not interested in what you know...but what you are willing to learn. C'mon y'all." | |
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Wow.... talented guy.
He gets the prize for prolific TV theme music composition, and Danny Elfman for movie theme compostion. Thanks - that was interesting. "Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive."
Dalai Lama | |
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Forgot to mention: I like his au naturel approach....
Youngsters, listen up.....take heed. "Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive."
Dalai Lama | |
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