Re: Brad Sundberg seminars: Making Music With Michael Jackson
Inviato: 4 giugno 2021, 9:00
Brad Sundberg is with Debbie Sundberg.
Recording In The Land Down Under - Part 1
>>Thank you so much for all of the recent kind words and encouragement. I have been wanting to write a book for quite some time, and these TBT post are sort of my way of building the framework, exercising my writing and sorting through events. It means a lot that a handful of people enjoy reading them, so seriously, thank you.<<
In the fall of 1987 Michael Jackson was on his "Bad" World Tour in Japan, and I was working with Bruce Swedien at Westlake Studios in Hollywood on remixes and dance mixes for the "Bad" album.
Before each of the nine (!) singles from that album were released, Bruce would do a complete series of remixes and edits for dance mixes, video releases, etc., as needed for the record company. The "Bad" album production was part of my daily life for roughly two full years.
The irony wasn't lost on me that while Michael was preforming before tens of thousands of people in massive stadiums on another continent, Bruce and I were debating which ribs from Tony Roma's were the tastiest as we mixed and edited.
It was a bit of a funny time because we would see him on the news or on MTV performing the very music that we were fine tuning for upcoming releases.
As soon as we would finish a mix Michael's office would have FedEx pick it up and send it to whatever hotel he was scheduled to be at.
I had previously custom built him a mammoth portable entertainment system in giant cases which his crew would set up in each hotel so he could evaluate the mixes or video edits.
We never really expected to hear from him as Bruce essentially had final approval authority, but that was our process.
Mixing. Editing. Joking. Dinner. Repeat.
Then Bruce received a very interesting phone call.
It was Michael's office, and it sounded a bit urgent. Bruce got off the phone and looked at me and said, "Pack your bags, we're going to Australia!" Then he immediately picked up the phone and call his wife Bea to tell her the news.
Bruce had a warm and infectious laugh, and I could tell even he was excited about this!
My international travels to this point were basically Canada and Mexico. Australia may as well have been around the corner from Jupiter in my mind. I had studied it in school and liked Olivia Newton John and Men At Work, but that was about all I knew.
Bruce gave me a quick summary that we were going to Australia and New Zealand to record several of Michaels live concerts and then mix and edit them down into one massive live album. I immediately thought of "Frampton Comes Alive" and imagined this could be the biggest selling live album of all time. I couldn't stop smiling.
Details. So many details.
I had to find the recording trucks and studios.
In Australia.
And New Zealand.
With no internet.
I was making phone calls in the middle of the night so as to catch people during normal Aussie business hours and blindly try to decide if they were the right fit for a project like this.
It became nearly a round-the-clock endeavor to put all the pieces together.
And the clock was ticking.
Michael's office called me and asked about my passport.
"I don't have a passport, do I need one?"
There were a few moments of awkward silence then she responded, "Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. sharp go to Federal Building downtown. Go to office XYZ (not really the office number) and ask for Marty (not his real name). He'll be expecting you. Don't be late."
This was like Mission Impossible kind of stuff. I loved it.
I went to the instructed office past waiting rooms and lines full of people and was whisked into a small office with Marty.
I'm being honest in that I don't remember all of the details, whether or not I had to bring my own photo, etc., but I walked out and had my first US Passport delivered within about 24 hours.
And my work visas, which I had no idea what they even were.
To be clear there was nothing improper about this, rather large touring companies have the experience and inside track to get things done very quickly. Still, for a young guy in desperate need of a haircut to see red tape literally vaporized was pretty amazing.
Piece by piece the puzzle was coming together.
I was on a first-name basis with the studio and production teams we were building in Australia and New Zealand.
I was getting pretty good at knowing what time it was in Perth versus Auckland.
I was picturing myself holding koalas and chasing kangaroos and, yes, eating giant shrimp... on the barbie.
I was so looking forward to trying that experiment of water going down the drain different than it does in the US.
And I was reminded that November is summer time in the southern hemisphere, so I might even have a beach in my future! Bruce always used to remind me that I had the skin tone of an aspirin from spending so much time in dark studios, so this might be my chance to see the sun!
The dates were solid.
The studios and remote recording trucks were booked.
Bruce's equipment lived in about 15 huge Anvil cases so I could have it ready for the Cartage company with about six hours notice.
The passports and visas were in place.
There was just one thing left: The plane tickets.
Recording In The Land Down Under - Part 1
>>Thank you so much for all of the recent kind words and encouragement. I have been wanting to write a book for quite some time, and these TBT post are sort of my way of building the framework, exercising my writing and sorting through events. It means a lot that a handful of people enjoy reading them, so seriously, thank you.<<
In the fall of 1987 Michael Jackson was on his "Bad" World Tour in Japan, and I was working with Bruce Swedien at Westlake Studios in Hollywood on remixes and dance mixes for the "Bad" album.
Before each of the nine (!) singles from that album were released, Bruce would do a complete series of remixes and edits for dance mixes, video releases, etc., as needed for the record company. The "Bad" album production was part of my daily life for roughly two full years.
The irony wasn't lost on me that while Michael was preforming before tens of thousands of people in massive stadiums on another continent, Bruce and I were debating which ribs from Tony Roma's were the tastiest as we mixed and edited.
It was a bit of a funny time because we would see him on the news or on MTV performing the very music that we were fine tuning for upcoming releases.
As soon as we would finish a mix Michael's office would have FedEx pick it up and send it to whatever hotel he was scheduled to be at.
I had previously custom built him a mammoth portable entertainment system in giant cases which his crew would set up in each hotel so he could evaluate the mixes or video edits.
We never really expected to hear from him as Bruce essentially had final approval authority, but that was our process.
Mixing. Editing. Joking. Dinner. Repeat.
Then Bruce received a very interesting phone call.
It was Michael's office, and it sounded a bit urgent. Bruce got off the phone and looked at me and said, "Pack your bags, we're going to Australia!" Then he immediately picked up the phone and call his wife Bea to tell her the news.
Bruce had a warm and infectious laugh, and I could tell even he was excited about this!
My international travels to this point were basically Canada and Mexico. Australia may as well have been around the corner from Jupiter in my mind. I had studied it in school and liked Olivia Newton John and Men At Work, but that was about all I knew.
Bruce gave me a quick summary that we were going to Australia and New Zealand to record several of Michaels live concerts and then mix and edit them down into one massive live album. I immediately thought of "Frampton Comes Alive" and imagined this could be the biggest selling live album of all time. I couldn't stop smiling.
Details. So many details.
I had to find the recording trucks and studios.
In Australia.
And New Zealand.
With no internet.
I was making phone calls in the middle of the night so as to catch people during normal Aussie business hours and blindly try to decide if they were the right fit for a project like this.
It became nearly a round-the-clock endeavor to put all the pieces together.
And the clock was ticking.
Michael's office called me and asked about my passport.
"I don't have a passport, do I need one?"
There were a few moments of awkward silence then she responded, "Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. sharp go to Federal Building downtown. Go to office XYZ (not really the office number) and ask for Marty (not his real name). He'll be expecting you. Don't be late."
This was like Mission Impossible kind of stuff. I loved it.
I went to the instructed office past waiting rooms and lines full of people and was whisked into a small office with Marty.
I'm being honest in that I don't remember all of the details, whether or not I had to bring my own photo, etc., but I walked out and had my first US Passport delivered within about 24 hours.
And my work visas, which I had no idea what they even were.
To be clear there was nothing improper about this, rather large touring companies have the experience and inside track to get things done very quickly. Still, for a young guy in desperate need of a haircut to see red tape literally vaporized was pretty amazing.
Piece by piece the puzzle was coming together.
I was on a first-name basis with the studio and production teams we were building in Australia and New Zealand.
I was getting pretty good at knowing what time it was in Perth versus Auckland.
I was picturing myself holding koalas and chasing kangaroos and, yes, eating giant shrimp... on the barbie.
I was so looking forward to trying that experiment of water going down the drain different than it does in the US.
And I was reminded that November is summer time in the southern hemisphere, so I might even have a beach in my future! Bruce always used to remind me that I had the skin tone of an aspirin from spending so much time in dark studios, so this might be my chance to see the sun!
The dates were solid.
The studios and remote recording trucks were booked.
Bruce's equipment lived in about 15 huge Anvil cases so I could have it ready for the Cartage company with about six hours notice.
The passports and visas were in place.
There was just one thing left: The plane tickets.