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Issue #45 – Mentor News
by L. Swift and Jeff McQ
Like many of our mentors, when his apprentices show that kind of motivation, Edwin likes to keep working with them even after they graduate, even including them on some of his bigger projects.
“I just recently recorded and produced Brian McKnight,” says Edwin, “and one of my graduates [Mike Possemato] accompanied me to the Hit Factory in Miami where I recorded the strings. We did all the string work out there, and then I mixed in New York City. He was my assistant there as well.” Edwin has tapped another of his recent graduates, Frank Lupariello, to help on an upcoming Robin Thicke project. “We will be traveling to L.A. to record Robin Thicke on a project coming from a label here in the New York area. [Frank] will be joining me with that.”
As part of his no-nonsense training approach, Edwin focuses on teaching his students what they need to know, not just what they want to know. For example: “Some of my students are EDM-based, aspiring producers,” he says. “That’s not what I do here. I really try to motivate them and just say, “Listen, call somebody over there [at RRF]. I’m sure they have somebody standing by to answer any of the questions. I, on the other hand, this is what I want to focus on. This is what I want to teach you. This is really what you need to learn, so that someday when someone comes to hire you, you’re ready for this–because not everybody that’s going to hire you is going to need the EDM record.”
Another thing that’s clear with Edwin is that he’s not big on excuses—and one of his pet peeves is the “just a producer” excuse he sometimes hears from people who try to explain away shoddy recordings. “Get your music right,” he says. “Get it recorded well, and people will listen to your music. If it’s not recorded well, don’t go anywhere with a bag of excuses, ‘Oh, you know what? I’m just not an engineer. I’m more of a producer.’ You know what? You had a chance to be an engineer and you goofed that up and you want to become a producer. Sometimes, you really have to be that engineer before you become that producer that you want to be. At the end of the day, that’s the decision you need to make if you really want your music to sound well and presentable. We’re looking for finished products these days. We’re not looking for excuses.”
Edwin has mentored quite a few Recording Connection students over the past several years because he understands the benefits of training in the “real world” of recording. “I think at the end of the day, learning by watching someone is far better than learning with just sitting in the classroom,” he says. “I really love that about this program because that’s the best way to learn, and especially when you’re learning from someone who’s done it…When you are in the real recording studio watching someone who’s sold 20 million records…that holds a lot of weight.”
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