Today I’m listening to JD Wood’s new pop rock songs. His music came to me through musicsubmit.com and I immediately loved the tunes.
JD has that rare combination of truly great songs, an amazing voice, superior skills on multiple instruments all brought together with killer production.
He is really is an outstanding talent and I highly recommend checking out the CD:
Album: In My Dreams Listen to CD: http://cdbaby.com/cd/jdwood
I got to ask JD Wood some questions about his approach to writing, recording and performing. It turns out that he came to his current place with music mostly through trial, error and experience.
Your tracks are really well produced, and I see you have lots of experience as a producer. How did you learn all the technical and audio engineering skills that you need to create great recordings?
To be honest, I am mostly self taught. At the age of 16 I started schooling in electronics, but this had nothing to do with music at all. Later I decided that making music should be my way. For sure, I’ve had several idols and opportunities to look over the shoulder of well known recording and mixing engineers but most things were learned by doing.
Who else was involved with recording “In My Dreams”, where was it done and how did you go about putting together the project with everyone?
While I know many musicians who were willing to help me with this project, there were only guitarists on this particular album. Every other instrument is played or programmed by me. So the arrangement, producing process and mixing, so as the mastering are done in my own little studio in Aschaffenburg, Germany without any help.
As a producer do you stick with certain song writing principals that apply to your clients as well as yourself?
Oh, I find inspiration in different ways. I don’t always come up with a line first and put music around it. Sometimes, I write the music and put the lyrics to it. Sometimes sounds (even by mistake) can inspire me for a song, so I don’t have a fixed strategy for writing a song.
Are you a naturally good singer or have you taken voice lessons and do you practice and warm up as a vocalist?
I never had lessons but for sure I have friends that are singers who sometimes gave me a little help. I was playing trumpet for a long time and so I had the right breathing technique already. Yes, I warm up but I do this by choosing the right listing of the songs. I start with something that I can sing very easily and then I increase the difficulty.
What advice would you offer to other musicians in terms of writing, recording and producing the best album possible?
This is a difficult one. First it was just important to know for myself what I liked about my own music. Eventually, it becomes important to reach out to others. Perhaps the most important thing: Put all your heart into it and if you think your abilities might not be enough, don’t be too proud to ask others for help and opinions (no close friends or relatives, they might only tell you what you want to hear, what not always what is the best for the product) …. At least you don’t want to be the only one to listen to your music. Having feedback from others becomes part of the process of growing as an artist, I think.
Again, I really think you should take a listen to his album. Then sign up to get more reviews and interviews from the best artists I find!
Peace,
Dan-O
