Today Bruce Swedien,
sound engineer of Michael Jackson turns 85 years old.
By the time of the first meeting with Michael Jackson, Swedien already had behind him recordings with Cant Basie (Stan Basie), Stan Kenton (Stanon), Duke Ellington (Woke Herman), Oscar Peterson ( Sarah Vaughan and Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington at Universall, before retiring to freelancing in 1967 and adding more famous artists such as Jackie Wilson, (Buddy Miles), and (Tyrone Daves) Chi-Lites to your track record. So when the opportunity arose to work with Quincy Jones and songwriter Rod Temperton (Rod Temperton) on Jackson's album “Off The Wall”, it was safe to say that Bruce was a full-time and successful recording engineer. Luck? Nothing like that!
In April 1982, when the “Thriller” recording started - the fifth solo record by Jackson “Off The Wall” was already the first solo recording, which appeared in four top-10 American charts and brought the first Grammy to the singer. So how the hell did the team manage to multiply “Off The Wall” sales of 20 million by 5 times? Looking back, I recall the phrase Quincey Jones, who always intrigued me: “We must leave room so that God can enter the room.” I asked Bruce to explain what it means in practice.
“He wanted to leave the opportunity to happen unexpectedly,” explains Bruce. “For example, I was given complete freedom in the choice of microphones, and no one ever said a word. I just did it. I used Shure SM7 on almost all the lead vocals of Michael: “Billie Jean”, “The Way You Make Me Feel”, and, I tell you, it caused a lot of surprised looks! But I love this microphone, I have six of them. And also Michael, Quincey and Rod were smart enough to leave me alone while I was mixing. It assumed that I was doing my job perfectly. They left the room and did not return until I finished the finished mix. Only after that they listened and made small remarks, but I don’t remember that something changed much. ”
“What I often hear in many modern mixes is overworked, squeezed music with no sense of reality at all, which for me is the height of disgust. I always try to add an element of reality to my work, a smear of blue sky. I will give you an example. In “Billie Jean” there is a string part, and I recorded it in an absolutely classical way in Studio A, in Westlake, with violins on the left, violas slightly to the right and cellos on the right. And when you listen to this song, it bursts straight at you. It's so natural and so simple, but it adds so much to the mix. "
Bruce Swdien recorded all his lifetime studio albums by Michael Jackson. Currently he teaches and leads master classes at UCLA, and at other colleges.
Question: What will you advise to all producers and sound engineers?
Bruce: First of all, be serious. And you have to love what you do in the name of music. If your goal is financial success, then you are doomed to terrible failure. If your goal is to create the best music you can create to the best of your abilities, then you will heroically succeed. And this is the way that really works.
