that piece , sometimes there are no changes to be made to tailor it , and sometimes there are 100 . It all depends , but that ’ s part of the fun !
CM : It ’ s interesting that in separate conversations with Canadian Musician recently , two oldschool rock-oriented producers , Daniel Lanois and Gavin Brown , both brought up the fact that they like listening to rap and R & B specifically because it ’ s so different from what they do , and so they find it interesting and inspiring . That got me wondering if you purposely listen to other stuff outside of rap and R & B for the same reason ?
David Strickland : Oh , totally . I ’ m always trying to try new stuff and I see what they ’ re saying . I actually know Gavin , but I haven ’ t seen him in forever . I met Gavin when he was producing Alexisonfire or something over at EMI and I was engineering over there at night . We were doing Ghetto Concept records all night , smoking the place out [ laughs ]. But those guys , there is a typical formula in those genres , right ? So , I see what they ’ re saying . Sometimes we tend to be unorthodox . Like for myself , lately I ’ ve been reversing stuff . Because I can ’ t sample , so I ’ ve been recording sounds and then reversing them and playing them . So , taking the sound , flipping it backwards , and playing that sound that I created because now it ’ s a new sound .
So , I ’ m trying new stuff because I ’ m not a classic musician , per se . I ’ m not a guitar player or a piano player . I call myself a hack because I can play everything because of MIDI .
FrancisGotHeat : Oh , most definitely ! You know already that rap is heavily sample-based , so a lot of inspiration comes from other genres and other songs .
I grew up listening to a lot of jazz . So , I still go back and listen to a lot of the jazz classics , like Charlie Parker or whoever . I listen to a lot of them still . Aside from that , honestly , when I ’ m by myself in the car or whatever , I hardly listen to rap music . It ’ s always like 1980s synth classics – just instrumental film scores – or Latin music like Gypsy Kings and all of that .
London Cyr : Yeah , for sure . That ’ s where I get the most inspiration from because all other genres have different elements that are unused in each other , as well as some similar ones that usually sound great when you blend them . I try to do that a lot in my production .
Prezident Jeff : You make a great point and that ’ s actually interesting that those two gentlemen do that . It ’ s almost like peering over your backyard fence , right ? But I ’ ll listen to a record like “ Nights Like This ” by Kehlani and Ty Dolla $ ign , right ?
That record obviously leans more on the dark R & B end of things , but there ’ s so many pop sensibilities in that record , that every time I listen to a record like that , or something like that by , say , Dua Lipa or JoJo or anyone like that , the sound design element is there that is prevalent in hip-hop and all the crazy ideas , especially from the production end , but it ’ s the pop sensibilities that make those records go . I always ask myself , like , “ Dang , how do you guys know when enough is enough ?”
You ’ re saying like , “ How do you guys know when not to go too far in certain areas ?” It ’ s one of those things where it ’ s really innate , unspoken , and really hard to teach . It ’ s just one of those things that you either just need to do the sheer work , doing something over and over again , or you just get it and you just have the ear for that stuff .
So , it ’ s funny how you mention those two gentlemen will , like , look over on the hip-hop side and be like , “ Dang , how do you guys do that kind of stuff ?” Maybe there ’ s a bit more creative freedom on our side ? Maybe we have a bit more freedom to do what we please . But honestly , I accidentally catch myself looking on that pop side like , “ Dang , the sooner I can learn some of that sauce …” about what makes a great pop song , the better off I ’ ll be .
Taabu : In my opinion , great music is great music , regardless of style or genre . I listen to a ton of EDM , dubstep , and reggae day to day ; Skrillex is one of my favourite producers . The textures , sound design , and drum
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