Inside MPI (Home Studios Are So Overrated)

Nobody would argue if you said that the innovation of user-friendly technology in the last two decades has given a Member’s Only card to unknown musicians worldwide for advertising, recording, selling, and communicating with fans. However, what that card doesn’t cover is the edification and roundedness music gets in a real recording studio.

That is, the professional sound that you get from a Neve pre-amp, clarity and precision from monitor speakers made by Digidesign and oodles of more goodies (altogether averaging $350,000 worth of this and that… about 90% more than what a garage-band-schmo pays for your above average Q-base editing/recording software at $350). Oh, throw in a guy who has dedicated his education and livelihood (the average non-freelance Nashville studio engineer makes around $200k a year) to making music sound it’s best, and you’re in the scene.

Not completely transcendent of the tech-y side of things, recording outside of a pro studio leaves you lacking in other ways, too. The studio is the specialized and certified backdrop to most of the music that we all listen to. That is, whether you’re a musician, or a wanna-be (will-be) producer, you’re not going to learn what you learn in the studio anywhere else. The studio familiarity is nothing like what you get in audio school, or your house-studio. It’s a ridiculously soul-stirring inspirational experience for anyone interested in music in any of its forms.

It all starts here, and no one but Steve Fishell of Music Producers Institute is giving people a chance to experience and witness the really expensive magic that is born in-studio. How is he doing this? And why? That’s what I set to find out when I sat in on his recent session with Oregon-born singer/songwriter Todd Snider.

The “how” is answered thus: it’s an Internet model, that is, he recruits his studio attendees through the artist’s (who will be recording) email list, and through venues like Facebook (Todd himself has 7000 friends on Facebook). Essentially, artists need to make tracks more and more economically these days. People are coming up with all kinds of clever ways to finance themselves nowadays. Google Jill Sobule, who raised 75k to make last record by offering fans donation awards. For $10 or so, you receive a signed CD, or for $10K you can sing background on album, etc. With Fishell’s model, artists can have their recording costs underwritten by their own fan base through their $1200 payment to MPI. But instead of a signed CD, you get to sit in the studio, hang out with the artists and ask questions.

The artist approves the email blast created by Fishell to advertise to fans a chance in to spend time in the studio. He’s effectively using the Internet to steer around labels. Current systems, label or publisher, gives the artist an advance that has to be paid back. It’s not free money, and the artist (in this case, Todd) doesn’t own the master. Fishell is different because he’s a third party. “I don’t own the master, the artist owns the master. I’m using my school as a tool to lower recording cost, the artist owns the track…I’m not interested in ownership.” After all, we don’t all have the clout of Jack White (he can and does negotiate contracts with his label that allow him to keep his masters).

To boot, Fishell has a mini-lesson at the beginning of each day on topics like “The Loudness War” and “What is a Record Producer?” He also addresses a specific array of themes directly related to being a music producer, hence the name of his business. Topics like vocals, tracking day, having the ear of a music producer and others are not only addressed but witnessed. This is a vital part of understanding the reasons and complexities of the sound that ultimately comes from the studio.

In the 18 months since Fishell has started this venture, he’s had 14 artists, in 10 sessions, in five different studios through Austin and Nashville. “I decide the locations based where artists reside. Musical destinations offer more of a chance for me to fill up the classes. It’s hard to interest potential students to fly where there aren’t good artists and good studios. I’d like to eventually be in L.A., Atlanta, and New York, too.” And since such is the case, he makes personal suggestions in the way of foodstuffs both verbally and in the packet each MPI member receives. He lists a few local secrets, and also supports my recommendation that the best record shop is to be sure Grimey’s in Nashville. So, MPI members get to participate in the soul of the city with MPI’s studio approach, but they are educated about the not-so-inclusive local scene and encouraged to access it.

As far as the reasons behind it all, Fishell unarguably possesses a humble philanthropic spirit, yet it’s not this that drew him to this industry. He was in A&R for six years in the late-’90s and gained extensive exposure within mainstream country music. (He’s a steel player and won a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album in 2005 with Emmylou Harris.) He noticed that available deals were shrinking for artists. He saw a window of opportunity for artists who sought to lower recording costs in a shrinking environment, and climbed through it with MPI.

The most appealing factoid about the whole caboodle is that Fishell is the only musician/person/business who has noticed this transom, or at least the only one who has acted on it. And, anyone who is interested and who has an extra $1200 bucks can partake in the once-in-a-lifetime musical thrill.

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