artist: Brent Adair - www.brentadair.com

 

Describe your music & vision:
I would describe my music as a tapestry of sorts, with threads of pop, rock, and even folk woven together into a coherent piece that brandishes melody before musicality and emotion before message. Lyrically, there are certainly a few overarching themes - like taking risks, challenging the status quo, finding love - but this is music that wants to be felt before being understood.

What makes you unique as an artist?:
True creativity, the ability to create something unique that did not exist in any form prior, I think is a rare and amazing thing. I don't flatter myself that I accomplish this, and so personally strive less toward creation and more toward innovation, which to me is the taking of existing forms and combining in ways that haven't been tried before,yielding an end result that is in fact distinct. That said, I'm finding one thing that distinguishes my music is an almost schizophrenic diversity. I love Ben Harper, but I also love Paul Desmond; after listening to Kelly Willis, I'm just as likely to put in John Scofield as Astor Piazzola, and I think this tendency has found its way into my own music as well.

What is your favorite thing about your music?:
Probably the diversity I mentioned above. Albums with that kind of eclectic content are the ones that seem to stay in my players the longest, and the fact that it's my own doesn't make it any different.

What do you want people to come away with when they see you or listen to your music?:
I get so caught up in what I have to do this afternoon, where I want to be tomorrow. We all know the danger of this mentality, and even strive to overcome it, but to our credit, life (at least contemporary American society life) doesn't do much in the way of facilitation. Good music does. Good music makes it impossible not to close your eyes, bob your head, do a stupid dance move on the kitchen floor. I would love it if my music did that for someone, starting with myself.

If not doing music, what is your dream job?:
I love pasta, canneloni in particular, and have always wanted to start an online broadcast series entitled, "The Varieties of Canneloni Experience."

What brought you to ITR/choosing us over other options:
Professionalism. Quality. Vision. Experience. Listening. Attention to detail. Technology. Integrity. Challenge. And that's just for starters. I looked at a variety of production options for this project, and two primary factors led me to choose ITR: (1) likelihood of achieving my vision, and (2)dollar-for-dollar value. To the first point, I found it difficult to assess the extent to which producers I considered understood my vision and direction as an artist. Mike's ability to listen, synthesize, and even step inside and stretch to new levels my artistic understanding left me confident that with ITR, I had the highest probability of realizing my goals as an artist. To the second, ITR provides a range of services that is virtually unparalleled in the mid-range market in which he competes. I found producers who were comparable engineers, but not vocal coaches; comparable equipment, but not into new artist development; comparable prices, but not comparable quality. Once factored into the equation, this array of competencies created a cost-benefit ratio that was shockingly low.

How would you describe your experience w/ITR:
Overall, a total kick in the pants. Making a record is fun stuff. Watching a song take on a life of its own is fun stuff. There were of course parts that were not fun. There always are with any endeavor that's worthwhile. But some of those same parts are also the ones that yielded the most growth. ITR understands this, and a good artist does, too.

What has been your favorite thing about working w/ITR:
The ability to track in a laid-back and relaxed environment. Particularly for developing artists, the pressure to perform on the clock can choke out a great deal of latent creativity. With ITR's blended approach, we got big room sounds where we needed them and avoided big room rates where we didn't, and as a result, I got both big results out of my own skills as well as big time savings on my pocketbook.

How have you grown as an artist?:
I now understand the record-making process, and can identify the various dimensions of a good sound recording. I know who my audience is, and how I'm trying to reach them. I can write a more engaging song, and identify and exploit my vocal style. These are claims I could not make prior to working with ITR.

Did ITR exceed your expectations?:
Amazingly it did, because I had excessive expectations, both of ITR as well as myself. After a five month, full-length recording project, I can say that both were surpassed.