9/20/2023 0 Comments Youtube shes from the other studioWith the support of my awesome label, Signature Sounds, I was able to record this project exactly the way I wanted to. After all, if you can’t trust yourself with your own work, how can you ask others to trust you with theirs? Although it’s terrifying to produce one’s own music (you have to be both the speaker and the listener at the same time), I knew that if I could produce something great under my own name, perhaps others would start to see me in that role outside of my own music. When it came time to make Common Nation of Sorrow, I saw it as an opportunity to take a bet on myself. ![]() Everyone wants to make the right decisions, and it’s hard to be the first one to believe in somebody – I know this trap because I’m guilty of it myself! If I wanted to be thought of as a potential producer, I was going to have to build my own platform and show people that I could do it. People fit people into the molds that we’ve been shown, and people trust people who others trust. I started to realize, though, that because I am a woman, nobody was going to naturally think of me for that role, even if they liked my music. It’s a role of mentorship and guidance, as well as artistic influence. Typically, male artists (as opposed to engineers, another role that leads to producing jobs) are asked to be producers when other musicians like the records that they’ve made or been a part of. There’s no turning down, editing, tuning, or washing out a producer or lead engineer. These are roles that require real trust, as they are roles of power. I can’t get enough of it, and I want to do more.Īccording to a 2018 study by the University of Southern California, and reported on by, only 2% of music producers and 3% of engineers/mixers in popular music are women. Over the last decade of working in the studio in various roles, I’ve fallen in love with the production process: Starting with the songs, honing and editing until you’re left with only the meat, selecting the perfect musical voices to bring the song to life, and working with amazing engineers to get the sonic pallet perfect. ![]() I’ve had a dream for a few years now of being a producer. ![]() That kind of record credit is a career maker – not that Jones needs it, she’s doing great anyway – but why couldn’t she have that? To Harry’s credit, there are a couple of female instrumentalists (violin and keys, and a conga player) and assistant engineers (“Move that microphone for me please!”) featured on his albums (which is huge progress, believe it or not), but I would have loved to see Jones included as a true backbone of the sound, especially when she’s such a fundamental part of the live show, and clearly more than capable. Why? It’s as if the industry is saying “We love to have you on stage, but when it comes to the real work, let the men get down to business.” The audience sees a diverse band playing a live show, yet none of those musicians are featured on the record.įor example, I was thrilled to see Sarah Jones absolutely slaying the drums for Harry Styles live, but when I looked at the record credits, they had a male drummer listed. Societal pressure is driving folks to do better when they are working in public lineups, but in recording studios, there’s nobody watching, and no face on the sounds that come out of the box. That’s because the studio is invisible to the audience. While great strides have been made in the last decade with more women on festival bills, in radio programming, and even as instrumentalists in live bands, when you look behind the scenes, you rarely see women involved in making records, unless they are the featured artist or part of the featured band. Maybe there’s a female singer, photographer, or graphic designer – possibly a violinist in a string section, but it probably stops there. ![]() Take a look at the credits for your favorite records by artists of any gender, and you may notice that there are very few women listed. ( Editor’s Note: BGS contributor, picker, and singer-songwriter Rachel Baiman brings us into the production process for her new album, Common Nation of Sorrow - her first recording on which she’s credited as sole producer - for this op-ed feature.)
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