In his excellent TED Lecture, David Byrne says that we write and perform music to fit into the spaces we know we will be in. Those spaces include the outdoors, enormous churches, CBGB’s and sports arenas. Byrne speaks of reverberation as one of the key factors determining how complex and how quick music can be. Mozart wrote “frilly” and complicated compositions that for small chambers where all the details would remain in tact. U2 writes medium tempo rock ballads that very carefully and deliberately change key for enormous sports arenas where any more detail would render as clutter. He gives many examples that prove the point.
With its endless reverb choices, modern recording allows us to build whatever kind of space we like. Byrne uses Chet Baker’s “My Funny Valentine” as an example of how the microphone created a new, previously impossible, venue. Baker’s recording is dry and close, and every detail can be heard, right down to each breath, consonant rasp and vowel shape. Byrne says “It’s as if he’s whispering into your ear,” and that’s because, effectively, he is.
To achieve this effect we record the singer very close to a very sensitive microphone, and then we make sure the reverb effect gives the impression that the singer is right next to us. This production technique builds an intimacy that’s almost impossible to have with anyone in the real world unless you’re lovers sharing pillow talk.
Baker’s song is a great example, and countless other examples come to mind, including Johnny Cash’s American Recordings, Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind, The National’s High Violet, Daniel Lanois’ Shine, Nina Simone’s Wild is the Wind, Sigur Ros’ ( ), Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Neil Young’s Harvest, Springsteen’s Nebraska, Radiohead’s Kid A and Beck’s Sea Change. What’s interesting is that most of these albums are considered high-water marks in these musicians’ careers; they are the albums on which the singer-songwriter made an artistic statement that seems to have had an initially challenging, but ultimately timeless, impact. Many are considered masterpieces.
If you consider the vocal approach of the records that preceded these, the vocal technique is often more bombastic – perhaps not intensely so, but there’s a difference. For me this has always seemed as if the artist is finally opening up, as if the courtship has ended and now we’re going to really get to know this person. You know that moment: you’re getting to know someone and they fall into a hushed voice and say, “Hey, can I tell you something? It’s kind of personal.” That’s what these records are like, and part of how they achieve it is to use the microphone technique and production style Byrne describes in Baker’s famous recording.
Of course the music is integral, but one can think of the music of many of these records as the sonic equivalent of the artist’s private space. These are intentionally uncluttered, small spaces where whispering can be heard. Many of us are taken in by the fact that we’re in this private space (wow, it’s like I’m in his bedroom!), but in the end I believe the artist creates these seemingly private spaces so that we can hear them when they whisper intimately in our ears. It takes a lot of guts to record this way, and I’ve seen more than a few singers literally squirm while first trying it out. But the gutsy moves really pay off artistically.
Watch the TED Lecture – it’s excellent. And if you can think of other examples, please share them.