In the past, my process would start with a sample of another song, and I'd chop it up and use that as the basis of the song that I was making.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
So I'll set a cycle in motion and pop it into record and I'll lay down a drum pattern, a bass line, a keyboard and guitar part, and once the groove is going I launch into the song and sing my song over the top.
I would have to work on the song and figure out how they wanted the song done, because they're such high-intensity songs. We figure that out first, then I go back and listen to it and go over and rehearse stuff with it and try to get a feel for the words.
I'm making music the way I would have done before modern equipment and music recording.
Once I'd chosen the songs, it seemed like it would just be a question then of recording them. But it's a case of trying to re-invent the songs; taking them in different directions.
I've always recorded the same way. I put down as many ideas as I have, then strip them away at the mixdown. It's better to have too much music than not enough.
I kind of just stumbled into producing. It was more that I was a writer, and the only way you were going to get your songs done was to do them yourself.
Some of the songs I've made, I'm really disappointed in how I mixed them.
You can do a lot to shape the feeling of a song by the way you record it.
I knew I wanted to make a concept record in song-cycle form, like my favorite Marvin Gaye records where everything just continuously flows.
I had 25 or 30 songs. Sequencing the record, I left that to the producer. I'm not into doing that stuff.