Producer Spotlight: Rick Rubin
Producers play an integral part in the music industry. They make sure that the media that artists or any creative person/group of people is created and released to its fullest potential, without giving too much of a personal creative input.
In the context of music, this is recognisable by the section of the audience that prefer to analyse or critique the music they listen to. Certain producers have their own style and amount of input to the creativity of the music. Some prefer involving themselves as if they are an extra member of the band while others provide minimum input allowing creativity to flow and provide feedback to end results.
A famous producer known for the latter is Rick Rubin. With a plethora of number one albums and involvement with the success of huge artists, Rubin has a distinct style of input that are respected by some artists. He does not expect his artists to understand their instruments or craft if they desire to make a record, as he himself refers to himself as an “engineering dumb@$$”, not knowing about the technical aspect of production (preamps, equalisation, etc.) and simply prefers to “feel the music". (Drury, 2008).
As for involvement, most of Rubin's involvement is with regards to the audio quality of tracks, having the audio very loud with a lack of dynamic range in the master. He is one of the biggest producers in the modern era that encourages raising audio levels to have it louder across the whole track. American hard rock band ‘Metallica’ had their album in 2008, ‘Death Magnetic’ produced by Rick Rubin. Drummer Lars Ulrich commented on the quality of the album and Rubin’s preference, “It's 2008, and that's how we make records. Rick Rubin's whole thing is to try and get it to sound lively, to get it to sound loud, to get it to sound exciting, to get it to jump out of the speakers.” (Blabbermouth, 2008).
In regards to his involvement, Rick Rubin is known to be a “hands-off producer” with less creative input encouraging a more zen environment for creativity, yet gets “through stuff quicker” (Harris, 2008). He is known to appear during the mixing process of an album, “lying supine on any available squishy surface”, having a more relaxing feel to listen to the records being made, then giving his opinions of what he likes and dislikes (Hooton, 2016).
Yet his appearance is not the most frequent. Actually, his appearance is so infrequent that metal band Slipknot’s singer Corey Taylor has had cantankerous opinions about working with Rick Rubin on ‘Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)’, stating “I wouldn’t know what it’s like to work with Rick Rubin. I only saw him about four times.” Rubin has been known to have a habit of ineptly managing many productions at once which is why his appearances are rare. “He had eight different projects going on at the time. We were being charged horrendous amounts of money.” continued Taylor (Magazine, 2014).
Ultimately, regardless of controversial opinions by clients and audiences, Rick Rubin has formed a reputation of being one of the largest and most respected producers of the modern era, across eclectic artists and albums and revolutionising quality of production in his own distinct and creative methods.
References:
Blabbermouth. (2008, September 29). METALLICA’s LARS ULRICH breaks silence on “death magnetic” sound quality controversy. Retrieved from News, http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/metallica-s-lars-ulrich-breaks-silence-on-death-magnetic-sound-quality-controversy/
Drury, B. (2008, November 6). The Rick Rubin Approach to recording. Retrieved from Producing, http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/producing/the-rick-rubin-approach-to-recording/
Harris, C. (2008, August 8). Metallica compare hands-off producer Rick Rubin to longtime hand-holder Bob Rock. Retrieved from http://www.mtv.com/news/1592476/metallica-compare-hands-off-producer-rick-rubin-to-longtime-hand-holder-bob-rock/
Hooton, C. (2016, February 10). A brief history of Rick Rubin lying down. The Independent - Features. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/a-brief-history-of-rick-rubin-lying-down-a6864931.html
Magazine, R. (2014). Interview: Slipknot look back on the making of “Vol. 3: (the subliminal verses).” Retrieved from http://www.revolvermag.com/news/interview-slipknot-look-back-on-the-making-of-vol-3-the-subliminal-verses.html
