music
The Relationship Between a Musician and their Producer
If you have chosen to read this article, it is pretty obvious to assume you have an interest in music: finding new tracks, artists and songs that fit perfectly into that playlist you have been updating every month since you were fifteen. I bet you, like me, listen to music every single day. Your playlist is the soundtrack to your entire life, and the songs you played at specific points in your life are enough to transport you back to moments from yesteryear. Despite such huge portions of our lives revolving around music, we hardly ever scratch the surface of what actually goes into making the tracks we all know and love. We all have artists that we cling to, yet we don’t often acknowledge that without legions of workers, that artist and their music would cease to exist. It is incredibly rare for a musician to go rogue and do it alone. The pandemic has given rise to ‘bedroom-pop’ artists writing, pro33
ducing and releasing music entirely of their own accord (see Nina Nesbitt’s comedic Instagram series). Yet, as we slowly begin to regain normality, musicians return to a reliance on their teams, without whom they wouldn’t be able to achieve their success. The artist, for examples sake, is like the idea. It has an outline and potential to be something beautiful. Yet it lacks resources; it needs various tools to bring it to fruition. An artist is just the surface of what goes into actually making a record. Behind every artist is a producer, creative directors, managers, entire record labels that go into creating a singular hit. The relationships between an artist and their team have the potential to be really beautiful, creative love affairs. Yet the power dynamics at play can often go sour when creative visions are in opposition. A musical marriage at harmony, as rare as it is, is often the backbone of a successful artist.
