How Everything Works
The ins and outs of making great entertainment.
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Pop music today is dominated by electronic instruments, jack-of-all-trades producers, and musicians with a DIY determination.
But session playing isnt a lost art.
I dont need to put my stamp on their record, he says.
I need to make their song a little bit better because I was there.
Contemporary session musicians have to do other stuff, too.
They write, produce, or tour; some record their own music or are members of bands.
You dont find that youre out working in a session like 200 days a year.
What hasnt changed is the magic, as its often put, of a good session.
Then a couple hours later, it all comes together.
Thats not always the case, of course.
There are many chances for things to go wrong.
A finished piece of music, when it all clicks, is a small miracle.
People throw that word around willy-nilly, but she legitimately, actually is one.
So, there was this Chicago-legend energy around the whole thing.
A lot of the work Ive done in the studio has either been my own stuff or features.
So Ill lay some harmonies, but its my session.
This was a new endeavor for me.
But then they just wanted to work with me.
You have such an incredible voice.
She is someone who could certainly have an air about her if she wanted to.
And she doesnt, like at all.
I was pretty sick that day.
I had just had a seizure a few days before.
I suffer from epilepsy, but I dont have seizures very frequently.
I was also sick, unbeknownst to me at the time, with Lyme disease.
I think that, mixed with some stress I was under, caused the seizure.
So I wasnt actually sure if I was going to make it to the sessions at all.
We need you in this industry.
It was so inspiring to have her applaud me [like that].
Definitely one of the highlights of my music career.
Were looking for a bass player for this tour with Phoebe Bridgers.
I was like,I dont know who that is.
One of my goals was playing more electric bass.
So I was like,Actually, this is really aligned with what Im trying to do right now.
She didnt tell me what it was for.
Lucy [Dacus] and Julien [Baker] were there, whom I hadnt met.
None of the music had been played before with a band, so we were starting from scratch.
Its not a huge room the size of a small living room.
I was sweating a little bit for sure.
At times, people would forget that we were tracking.
So people would start a conversation or start joking around, when Im still tracking the part.
It was definitely a good group of people and a good vibe.
I think she played me a Bon Iver song where the bass is playing chords as a bass line.
It turned out really nice.
I was like, Im so sorry, I dont think its possible to play it.
I felt so bad.
I didnt think that far ahead.
And especially in that environment where theyre all very open.
Our managers at the time were working with Frank Ocean.
And I did an audition in between doing those Coachella weekends.
We both got the Frank Ocean gig, doing California Live [his 2013 tour].
I knew about Mac Miller, but I didnt listen to his music.
Hes just chill as fuck, you know what Im saying?
Hes got his blunt; hes just vibing, joking around.
But then creatively, he was so in tune with everything that we were doing.
But he basically already had his vocals laid down.
I just love his musicianship.
He was open to everything.
It wasnt like my way or the highway; it was this collaboration, as far as ideas.
It wasnt difficult I love that effort, where youre just thinking of something fresh.
He was literally with us the whole time.
It was unfortunate, once you heard that he passed away.
I was like, damn that was my first and only time meeting him and working with him.
That made that session that much more special.
Youve got to cherish that.
I definitely became a bigger Mac supporter and fan.
Especially just hearing the music world, too even Chance always goes back to hisK.I.D.S.mixtape.
He was like, Yo, that shit kind of inspired me to do likeAcid Rapand even like10 Day.
Not to be too dark, but I mean, were musicians.
The songs were filled with so much light.
Youve just got to utilize the music and utilize the blessing that we have.
When I was younger, I linked up with Tia Fuller, the saxophonist.
She took me under her wing, and shes a mentor of mine to this day.
She introduced me to Kristin Torres, and then Kristin introduced me to Derek Dixie.
Thats how I got involved working with Derek Dixie at Parkwood.
Then just hearing it all together, it always comes out so great.
Being too serious can ruin things sometimes.
Everybodys pretty much in touch with whats going on.
We were definitely excited when it came out [by surprise].
But I remember that day, we were ready to turn up.
Instantly, the first thing I picked up on was the importance of discipline and investing in a team.
She has a team of people who help bring her vision to life.
A lot of us out here, were like, I dont need nobody.
Im not a big fan of that concept.
I love how shes a go-getter.
No matter how high up you might be, theres still room for growth.
I started playing these honky-tonks when I was 13 places my parents had never been and would never go.
Im such a bashful guy I literally would never have gone and knocked on the door of a studio.
These state-line honky-tonks were rough, and Im 13.
When the band took a break, I was afraid to get off the stage.
So I would go sit behind my piano and practice acoustic guitar.
Of course I did.
There was not really a dedicated acoustic player, so it happened at a good time for me.
But because there wasnt an acoustic player, I got to go and play with all of those folks.
And getting to learn from all of them at once was fabulous for me.
The deal down there is, its got to groove.
That is what made this session so hard.
I got called to overdub on an album that a band had come and recorded.
I probably wouldnt tell their name if I could remember it, but I cant remember it.
I never met them they had already recorded all their tracks when I got there.
What I need you to do is to get between them somewhere and stay there.
Its no big deal.
But in those days, it was analog tape.
My nature is to play I dont want to saybehindthe beat, but to be really relaxed about it.
And it was an entire album; it wasnt one song.
They just said, Here are the charts.
Just do your best.
It was one of the hardest things that Ive ever done.
There probably never were four bars in a row that felt like I was helping things.
I learned from that one that its all relative.
In retrospect, I worked my butt off.
I just didnt go home as happy as I usually went home.
Even just bringing it up stood the hair up on the back of my neck.
Im not the guy who plays the hot guitar solo.
Its not a big, standout job.
Its sort of a workmans job, but I do love it.
I had fractured my femur, and as a relatively young person, its really hard to do that.
So I have to spend three months on crutches.
And I also had bruised the bone on my right arm, so holding a bow was very difficult.
I really wanted to be a part of it.
Finding Phoebe has been like a new-generation version of my affiliation with Bon Iver and Antony and the Johnsons.
I finally hear from Phoebes people saying the deadline for turning in the album is October 15.
Im looking at my calendar and my next free day is in November.
There were these two travel days on the Sara Bareilles tour [that I was music directing].
Would anybody else do this, much less while being on crutches?
Probably not, but this is what Ive got.
(Actually, I think it was great Method acting for Phoebe Bridgers stuff.)
I felt the pressure to almost one-up myself from the previous album.
A lot of people come up to me and say, I love what you did on Smoke Signals.
And I wanted to have a new thing for those people to chew on.
I ended up writing this melody for the first reintro that I was really proud of.
I was so attached to this.
And I know that when I leave, this thing is just going to disappear.
When I listened to her music before this, I thought it was going to be completely different.
It was a big band: three different percussionists and five horns, and bass, piano, guitars.
I didnt know it was going to be all in the same room.
Thats sort of where I come from in jazz music, where everyones just playing together.
She was also singing live in the room, so it was super old-school.
Thinking back, its like,Wow, it was pretty risky of her.
She didnt know us that well.
I had three saxophones and a flute.
And were just doing full takes, straight through, so theres no stopping and correcting stuff.
We did a shitload of takes of every song.
Everyone spoke Spanish except me, basically.
So I was just really quiet most of the time.
The producer was Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, from the Mars Volta, and he was translating a little bit.
I dont want to be this random dude from L.A. who cant hang with this music.
Mon and Omar navigated the session to make everyone feel really comfortable.
From a producing standpoint, I think thats really masterful.
Ariel [Rechtshaid] and Rostam [Batmanglij] are totally like that also.
Rostam would get me to play shit that I wouldnt have thought that I could play.
So we go in there, and Mark shows us these demos of Paul McCartneys.
The demos are super hooked up.
I was like,Uh-oh,its not going to be easy to get better than that.
We work on the songs for what I remember as the whole day.
Then Paul comes in.
I think I could do it better though.
And it was a shuffle, which is not something that I like to play.
Penny Lane, theres a classic Beatles shuffle.
As a session drummer, I just dont do shuffles very well.
And Im just not shuffling right.
He ended up not using any of the shit we did that day.
It was just not my best day.
It makes sense: Youre Paul McCartney; Im just some guy.
I just think it wasnt meant to be.
Thats the beauty of the Beatles records they put all these ingredients together and everything was magical.
Its like any social situation, where you have people you get along with and people you dont.
Are you a backing musician with a great session story to share?
Let us know at stories@vulture.com.
