Producer Andrew Watt has discussed how he aims to get the best out of musicians when an album is under production, comparing the wildly different approaches of The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Elton John and Michael Stipe.
The five-time Grammy winner and Oscar nominee started out as a pop producer before moving over to rock, with his most notable productions including Ozzy Osbourne’s Ordinary Man and Patient Number 9 plus the Stones’ Hackney Diamonds and Foreign Tongues.
Watt tells Rolling Stone that work on John’s next album has changed dramatically from the past, after the 79-year-old lost most of his eyesight. “Elton writes songs by reading a lyric,” the producer explains. “He’s going through life in a completely different way, [but] my God, the spirit of this man is unlike anything else.
“He’s one of the great melody writers ever. We could throw on some drums for him that made him feel a certain type of way, and he could just play to the drums and come up with melodies first.”
He adds that lyricist Bernie Taupin had adjusted too: “He was able to then listen to that, hear a basic rough little melody of Elton and come up with ideas. And then Elton is the master of putting Bernie’s lyrics down to the song. Once Bernie came up with the lyric, we’d put it on a huge screen. Elton would scan through it; he’d go little by little, and it was perfect.”
Watt praises R.E.M. vocalist Michael Stipe’s approach to his long-awaited solo album. “He’s extremely hard on himself. He kinda beats himself up, I think, in a healthy way. I’ve seen him write lyrics, throw them out, write them again.
“He’s wanting to make sure that he’s gonna say exactly what he wants to say, and make a sound that’s exactly how he wants it to sound. He’s working with a bunch of different people, and then finding his way around them. He’s one of the all-time greats, great songwriter, great lyricist, great melodist. And really fun to be around.”
The producer describes working with McCartney as a college education. “He’s fearless. He was kind of teaching me the way he works – you can write a song out of anything, and then sometimes you switch it up and go to a weird thing, which changes form a million different times.“
He continues: “It was kind of like, ‘Let me show you how we can use the studio.’ He loves playing characters… his imagination is unlike anyone else’s. Like Mozart, you know? … Bouncing around the studio and playing every different instrument. He’s incredible at coming up with the perfect part on every different instrument and not making you feel like he played any instrument worse than the other. I mean, it just sounds like someone who’s a master on each instrument.”
Watt recalls sitting among the Stones in the live room while working up songs. “I would be in that circle so I could watch how they’re interplaying with each other,” he says. “You don’t want it to ever be an arduous process with a band like that. They’re magic.
“My job would be to have a mic and call sections – ‘B section! Okay, let’s go back to the A section! Take it out on that!’ They’re playing the tune they made, and I’m arranging it kind of as it’s happening, in the moment.”
Asked if another Stones album is under discussion, Watt says: “I don’t know. I didn’t know if there was gonna be another one after [our] first one. If they call, I’m there. It’s the greatest honor of my life being around that band.”
