It's Called The Music Business -- Beau Burchell of Saosin

FACE THE MUSIC

The hardest part about producing your own music is knowing what’s best for the song. When you write a song, it’s like a mother giving birth; there is an automatic love for something that comes out of you, and sometimes it’s hard to take a step back and say, "This part is not as good as I thought and needs to be changed." I see it all the time with some of the younger bands I have recorded. They get so attached to their own personal parts that they are unwilling to make changes to benefit the song.

The real question is, "Why do you want to produce yourself?" If you want to produce your own band as a learning experience, that’s fine. But don’t expect the outcome to be amazing, and you might find that you could learn more from watching someone you respect and trying to pick up on what they are doing. If you are producing your own band so you can save money, then I think it’s a great idea. Recording time isn’t cheap; neither is the gear, or someone who knows what they are doing.

GOT THE TIME?

I am extremely fortunate to be able to work on other bands’ records, as well as with my own band. But with that comes twice the responsibility. For instance, on our last world tour, I was constantly trying to find time to finish all the editing and programming for another record I was working on. It usually ended with me staying up all hours of the night, and then having to perform the following day on only an hour of sleep. It’s like having two full-time jobs. There just aren’t enough hours in the day, without spreading yourself too thin.

Sometimes it’s also really hard switching from band member to producer and then back to band member. It’s two totally different mindsets, almost like a split personality. Scheduling is also a big hurdle. If your band start to get momentum, touring 10 months out of the year, your production chops can get a little rusty, and vice versa.

LIVE AND LEARN

The best way I’ve found to learn is to be around production. Surround yourself with other engineers or producers, or even people who have the same goals as you. Discuss your findings with them and learn from each other. If there is a studio nearby, apply for an internship. If you have friends who are recording, ask if you can sit in on their session and just watch.

The internet has made available so many resources when it comes to learning: You can find countless articles interviewing your favorite engineers or producers; you can look at diagrams of different mic techniques; learn about phase coherency; or pretty much anything else you might want to know about engineering. There are thick books on super-geeky stuff, like how to calculate wavelengths at different frequencies. It’s really great to learn this stuff if you actually care about capturing the sounds you are hearing and documenting them correctly with some sort of artistic expression.

Producing, on the other hand, is a whole different animal. It’s 80 percent psychology. If you have a hard time getting along with people, or giving credit where credit is due, then being a producer is not for you.

But most of all, just like anything in life, you gotta really bust your ass, and work at it every day.