Wow. Two of the three posts today are about Nigel. When he’s not joining cover bands, Nigel is busy talking and this time he has been interviewed about his From the Basement series, which you may remember Radiohead being involved with last year, as well as producing in general.
Here’s a snippet of the interview:
JC: You mentioned a bit about the psychological approach to production, and I wonder how it is working with different acts and how you juggle those personalities. For instance working with Radiohead versus, say, Beck, do you have to alter your approach to get what you need?
NG: Yes. Completely. I mean, it’s like working in a factory versus working in an office. It’s just so different. It’s just a completely different scenario. Two very bad analogies I gave you there. [Laughs] But it’s so different. To be honest, I don’t really claim to know what I’m doing. When I talk about psychologies all I mean is the connections you have with people. So I have a set of skills and an open mind, and my agenda, what I like, my own aesthetic and I get together with a similar mind who I get on with. We get inside each other’s underwear and brains and it’s always a completely different, completely unique experience – apart from some very mundane technical things that kind of exist across the board. It’s as different as having two different friends; you have different relationships with different people. It’s as different as it can be. The music side of things is supposedly something that you enjoy or celebrate together. You create something that you both love. That is a very intimate experience and also a really wonderful one. I mean, my particular career has been based on a few different marriages to people, that’s the analogy, it’s like I have these very intense relationships with different people. It’s always a bit awkward when they’re all in the same room.
JC: Right, your name is often mentioned hand-in-hand with Radiohead’s, it’s that sort of relationship.
NG: I’ve invested so much of myself in that and it’s been 15 years that I’ve been working with them. You know…I love it. I love those people, I love making music with them and we all want it to be a very productive thing and it works and we just keep doing it. And I’m happy to do just that to be honest.
Read the full interview here.
(thanks to James)
