“You lose your shit privately – Paul McCartney, Keith Richards and Elton John are fully capable of producing an album by themselves”: Andrew Watt on the importance of keeping his cool as a top-level producer
Few producers have as stacked a resume as Andrew Watt. His exploits have found him working with mainstream heavyweights including Post Malone, Cardi B, Rita Ora and Lana Del Rey, as well as rock royalty like Ozzy Osbourne, Pearl Jam and The Rolling Stones. And these names are just a drop in the bucket.
But that’s not to say Watt doesn’t find himself starstruck when working with the world’s best-known artists. And with that, he needs a mental strategy to remain grounded and stay professional.
READ MORE: David Gilmour’s strap breaks onstage during Comfortably Numb – and is fixed just in time for his guitar solo
In a new interview with Variety, he explains that the key to keeping cool is to “lose your shit privately”, and not showcase your fandom to the stars for whom you’ve been hired to work.
“Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Elton John, Eddie Vedder – they’re fully capable of producing an album by themselves,” he says. “They understand song structure, mix, a good snare drum sound, they’ve done this forever. So none of them need a producer – but they are choosing to hire a producer.”
Watt’s foray into the rock realm got truly underway when he and Post Malone – with whom he’d collaborated numerous times before – had the idea to hit up Ozzy Osbourne for a single, which later became Take What You Want.
“One night we went out to the Rainbow [on Sunset Boulevard] and he bought a picture of Ozzy right off the wall there,” Watt recalls. “I said, ‘We should do a song with Ozzy!’”
After some conversations Ozzy invited Watt to work with him on his 2020 LP Ordinary Man, but the producer was hesitant due to his lack of experience in the rock genre.
“I was so honoured, but I was a pop producer, so I wasn’t sure. But Chad [Smith, RHCP drummer] and Duff [McKagan, Guns N’ Roses bassist], who has become a good friend, were like, ‘You’ve got to do it, and we’ll do it with you.’”
On how he’s managed to attain such an impressive list of collaborators, he says: “Just ask.”
“When I asked Paul McCartney to play bass on a Rolling Stones song: silence for 10 seconds, then ‘Yeah, I’d love to.’ Just ask the question! The worst that can happen is no.”
The post “You lose your shit privately – Paul McCartney, Keith Richards and Elton John are fully capable of producing an album by themselves”: Andrew Watt on the importance of keeping his cool as a top-level producer appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
