As the Bossa Turns – The Making of Dominoes
Installment 2: How Slowly quickly turned into a full length cd
So, as I mentioned in my last installment, Bill Demain and I instantly had a musical connection and out of our first session came the song Slowly. Slowly was soon followed by Until. I came up with the entire melody to Until one morning as I awoke from the air mattress in my friend Kate York’s attic. Kate and I only knew each other through friends when she graciously allowed me to stay at her place during my stay in Nashville. I’ll always remember that kindness. With the melody in my head I went to my meeting with Bill and he pulled out the ingenious concept of Until. He had always wanted to write a song where the payoff was this word Until, suspended in time. It was a perfect fit for the melody. With two bossa songs for myself as well as a few great country sessions, I left Nashville feeling re-vitalized by the experience of following the creative flow.
When I got back to LA, Ethan Johns and his family were in town. Although he was no longer my producer at that point, he was still my publisher, so we got together and I played him some of the songs I had written in Nashville, for the country market and for myself. As soon as Ethan heard Slowly and Until he said “WE HAVE TO MAKE THIS RECORD.” Next thing I knew, Kenny MacPherson and Jamie Ceretta at Chrysalis gave the go ahead and even took the unusual step of funding the project. I say unusual because that is typically not what publishers do. But this is the same team that developed Ray LaMontagne with so much success and with Ethan back in the driver’s seat, they were willing to take a chance on the project. I felt grateful.
The next several months were spent honing in on the precise character of Dominoes. Ethan is a proper producer. By that, I mean he is very hands on. He steers the vision of a project the way a director does for a film. Because I’m primarily a songsmith, I enjoy working with producers who have the big picture in mind and I’ve been fortunate to work with two of the best hands on producers in the business (the other being Jeff Lynne.) I was dealt a strong hand when it comes to creative partnering on musical projects.
So, the next several months of pre-production were spent sending Ethan songs to hear… and getting shot down! I had to work backwards to discover what was right about the first couple of songs so I could successfully connect the dots! He’d make these obtuse comments like “it needs to be more brunette with fringe” (that’s British lingo for bangs.) I’d have to interpret the meaning of that, in song (I got: more edgy and sophisticated.) At first I kept hitting walls and felt really frustrated by it. But then, something clicked. The overall voice of the project emerged more clearly in me and became a thread that tied all the songs together. Remember those days, when a whole album took you on a complete 45 or so minute journey? That’s what we were creating… he, by guiding me in an over-arching way and me with each 3-5 minute vignette of song.
In my next installment I’ll get into the making of a few of the other songs on Dominoes, like the especially naughty title track. There’s a great story to go with that so stay tuned…
Leave a Reply