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Old 12-28-2014, 03:42 PM
michelej1 michelej1 is offline
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The Examiner, December 27, 2014

http://www.examiner.com/article/flee...making-rumours

Ever try listening to a Fleetwood Mac song and not singing along? It can’t be done. For me, Fleetwood Mac are memories of being a kid, car rides and Stevie Nicks’ voice over the radio-airwaves. During the early 80s when MTV emerged, Fleetwood Mac’s music videos circulated all across the music channel. “Gypsy,” off of the band’s 13th studio album, “Mirage,” became the first “World Premiere Video” on MTV in 1982, and images of Stevie Nicks’ twirling are forever engrained in my mind. In later years, working in the radio industry, I would become more familiar with the band’s earlier music and enamored with its charm. Fleetwood Mac rendered an image of complete synergy, as if each member were born into the group, and from it they released music that was deeply rooted in majestic melodies, that has transcended generations.

In March 2014, Fleetwood Mac announced that they would be going on a 2014-2015 tour, titled, “On With The Show.” This tour would include all of the original members, which meant the return of keyboardist, Christine McVie, who quit the group in 1998 after three decades. To fully appreciate the significance of this “coming home” you have to delve into the band’s history. During the pivotal years surrounding Fleetwood Mac's momentous 1977 album, “Rumours,” coproducer of the record, Ken Caillat, documented his experience working with the group in the book entitled, “Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album.”

Music documentaries have a universal appeal, the narrative stories take you inside the striving creators and you envision their dire hopes and dreams of trying to make it. Often these stories are told through the eyes of the musician, it’s rare when the experience is shared from another perspective, a viewpoint from someone that is equally connected to the music - such as the audio engineer and producer. The book, “Making Rumours,” is not only a behind the scenes look into the making of the phenomenon that was “Rumours,” but is expressed from a very personal voice whose hands crafted each song through layers upon layers of many moving parts.

In “Making Rumours,” Caillat skillfully details the formation of threading together a song to where you can visualize him in the control room carefully manipulating different sounds and acoustics. Easy to grasp that a job of a recording engineer is key in the mixing and reproduction of sound but to be responsible for completely changing the direction of a song based on your ear is a talent all on its own. “I had actually played the console as if it were a musical instrument. In fact, I learned that it was. I almost felt as if I was one of the musicians in the band,” Caillat said when mixing “Go Your Own Way.” As I read each chapter I felt the intimate production that went into each song, the producers were guiding the musicians to bring each track to life by opening it up and stretching it to its ultimate potential, they were a team.

“Making Rumours” shares a similar vibe to the film documentary, “Sound City,” directed by Dave Grohl. The book opens the doors inside the studios of the 70s and you feel how each recording space created its own unique extension of sound, “Recording studios back then were designed to feel like a cocoon,” Caillat describes in the book. For Caillat and his coproducer, Richard Dashut, the studios were their haven for upwards to a year while composing from start to finish, rarely getting days off. Secluded from the world and thrown into close quarters for months with a group of rising musicians in the 70s you’d have to imagine there’d be some drugs, drama and good times, and there was. Family ties bonded and broken, and sadly, once success creeps in, the camaraderie once shared is all but forgotten through the years. But “Making Rumours” does not harp on the negative aftermath of stardom, perhaps that tale will be told in another book, yet it’s the story of a young aspiring recording engineer who just wanted to be good at his job, respected by the people he worked with and how he landed an opportunity of a lifetime working on the third largest selling album of all time.

I met up with Ken Caillat and my love of music, its history and the curiosity of the old studio days prompted me to ask the Grammy-winning producer, “What is the biggest difference recording in analog versus digital as far as the “feel” of the whole studio experience?” Caillat responded, “Digital Pro-Tools are so fast — there’s no rewind time, no time to talk to the artist and tell them what you liked, keep the doubts out of their mind.” “We need to slow the process down, give more time to digest and feel it.” We talked about making records today and how most musicians record at home, not because they want to but because it’s cheaper. Caillat suggested that if young artists want to record themselves, record at home - but then go to a studio and mix, sounds like a good compromise that would prevent so many studios from closing their doors. “Studios need to offer something that you can’t get at home, like really great reverb, really great speakers,” added Caillat.

Thirty plus years after the release of “Rumours,” Caillat watched Fleetwood Mac perform at The Forum in Los Angeles, not from the side of the stage or with a backstage pass but as a regular fan in the crowd. I asked Caillat, “So how did they sound?” Caillat replied, “They sounded great but it was like I fell asleep for thirty years and woke up and everybody was so old.” Caillat added, in regards to the music business, it’s sad when touring becomes “a grab for the money” and that most musicians in groups don’t get a along; they go on tour and they’re “stuck with each other, it’s like they can’t get a divorce.” Caillat isn’t especially close with the members of Fleetwood Mac anymore implying that the musicians are not accessible through their herds of assistants. The former Fleetwood Mac producer has managed to keep in touch with the group’s co-founder, Mick Fleetwood, and still talks to coproducer, Dashut, which is comforting as you get to know him in the book and follow their friendship through the making of the record.

Today, Caillat keeps busy as the CEO of Sleeping Giant Music Group, a pop and rock label in Los Angeles and heads a production facility in West Los Angeles, Village Studio E, inside Village Recorder Studios. In January 2015, Caillat will open a school for young adults interested in pursuing careers as performers, songwriters, engineers, producers and music industry professionals and his daughter, singer-songwriter Colbie Caillat, will hold the first session.

For more information on Ken Caillat visit his website KenCaillat.com and to grab your copy of “Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album” goto MakingRumours.com.
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