[Note: This is taken from my interview with producer John Leckie who worked with The Stone Roses among others, and it offers some insight into the recording process he used.] Mike Ragogna: How did you separate The Stone Roses’ sound from all the other acts you were producing? John Leckie: For the time, it wasn’t […]
Continue readingMike Ragogna: What is the story behind your writing “Society’s Child”? Janis Ian: As best as I remember, I was on a bus headed to school, and I saw a black and white couple necking, totally oblivious to everyone else on the bus. They were very happy, but nobody else on the bus was, and […]
Continue reading[Note: This was taken from my interview with Janis Ian and might be inspirational for new artists.] Mike Ragogna: You were so young when you had that hit, and apparently, your teachers at New York’s High School of Music & Art were belligerent towards you because of it. What was it like having to endure […]
Continue reading[Note: This is taken from my 2009 interview with Jonah Smith and contains some useful information new artists.] Mike Ragogna: Sometimes people think, because you’re using Pro Tools, it costs almost nothing to record an album. Jonah Smith: Yeah, well, I had a producer on board plus strings and horns and a lot of musicians, […]
Continue readingSinger-songwriter Jonah Smith has many extremely loyal fans. Make that “friends” who went out of their way to contribute hard earned cash to fund Jonah’s newly released album,Lights On. This may not seem all that unusual given the need to improvise because of the shape of today’s withering music business. But while most of his […]
Continue readingTo catch everyone up, Raphael Saadiq was the former lead singer for Tony! Toni! Tone!, earned a #2 R&B smash with “Ask Of You” from the Higher Learning soundtrack, produced huge hits for D’Angelo and Joss Stone, and contributed as a songwriter to or collaborated with Whitney Houston, Mary J. Blige, The Roots, Lionel Richie, John Legend, […]
Continue reading[Note: This is taken from my interview with Raphael Saadiq since concepts like what inspires artists and of really “listening” to music are discussed briefly.] Mike Ragogna: …The Way I See It really isn’t a tribute album as much an application of classic soul elements to your music, right? Raphael Saadiq: I think every artist pays […]
Continue readingYou most likely know Buffy Sainte-Marie from her many Vanguard folk albums or instantly identifiable hits. She’s penned An Officer And A Gentleman‘s Academy Award-winning theme song “Up Where We Belong” (released by Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes), plus the classics “Piney Wood Hills” (recorded by country legend Bobby Bare), “Cod’ine” (covered by Donovan, The Charlatans, […]
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