"i'm a very critical/cynical person"

you say this as if it's a bad thing. Who taught you that, your parents?

You seem so French Canadian it's uncanny. Sounds like you haven't accomplished much in the last 16 years and you want to flex or have your ego stroked.

 

I guess since you seem to already know my story, lol, I'll keep it to myself.

 

UGK
RIP Pimp C

 

I'm all right. Keeping things under control.
Nice to meet you and thanks for sharing .

 

Bun B was great to work with.... I had free VIP tickets to see Lady Gaga in concert, I easily skipped the concert to work with Bun, lol. He's old school, no punches, a verse has to be recorded all the way through or redone, it was great. He and Jazze were old friends too, session was a blast.

 

RIP DJ Screw.. Still bump a Screw tape once in awhile, going to this place is on my bucket list for sure.

Still melts my mind

 

No, you don't.... ...you just confirmed it whatever suits you best,bro!

 

@WillTheWeirdo , I'm listening to your solo instrumental production (I'm a huge Rap fan but I never heard of you before, I was more into the chicago/detroit scene )and I'm wondering how it would sound like with Punchline & Wordsworth or Del the Funky on top.
That would be one hell of a wonderful clash !
Whats your most eclectic ''rap'' type of production you ever made for you and why ?

 

That is not possible. Plus he is a decomposer now

 

I'm not totally sure what you are asking.

 

Will The Weirdo, impressive credits my friend! Nice to meet you and seems like you have a great outlook on life! Tell us the JB story haha.

martel80, Juno award for an album you worked on? Fantastic! Don't be so hard on yourself. Your still young. Learn from your mistakes.

One time I got pulled into a situation with a client that I had nothing to do with. The guy screamed at me for about 5 minutes and I kept my cool. After seeing that nothing could be resolved, I started to walk away to let him calm down. Then he really went ballistic, so I turned back around and told him I was going to take him into the parking lot and beat his ass in front of everybody. Seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Luckily I didn't get fired haha.

 

Looks like a nice little place despite being so banged up.

 

True untold in public story.

In the fall of 2009 before Justin's first Album came out, LA Ried personally sent Justin to Atlanta to work with us, we were in the Stankonia A room that night with David Banner and OJ Da Juice Man. Justin came in and sat there for 4-5 hours about 6 feet behind me the whole time, staring at the back of my head, lol. He was young and polite, we talked several times, I thought he was a respectful Pisces. I had worked with 2 people two knew Justin very well, so our conversations were kool as we had something to connect with.

At one point I asked Jazze quietly why we were not cutting a record with Justin, because LA Ried and Jazze were close friends, and we cut records on everybody that came in our sessions, so it was crazy odd, but Jazze brushed me off. I worked for hours wondering WTF was going on. Then around 3am Justin got up and left the session without cutting a single record. His album dropped later, we have nothing on it, it blows up, the rest is history. Part of the reason I'm not very well known to most is because of this type of situation, or just bad luck, lol. Had we cut the record you would all know me and my work and the other big work I would have gotten from that success.

You see, from my Engineer perspective in that situation, I want as many records as possible recorded, especially when a label head personally sends an artist to work with us, because that leads to more chances for placements and possibly a hit record, which leads to more credits and opportunities in the crazy music biz that wants to chew you up and spit you out broken and defeated, lol. So while you are grinding every night, not recording any artist that is in session, ready to work is crazy.... and it was the first and only time Jazze did it. It was also awkward for the whole room, another thing Jazze NEVER did, as he was a master at everyone having a great time in session.

By now I'm sure you are wondering why we never cut a record on Justin in that situation.

So......
Jazze had a young but very talented artist named Gavin, he was under a label that Jazze and a kid named Jamen had together, Juvy Hall Records. Jamen's father was SUPER rich (owned the Buckhead Mall rich), their house has been in music video's and TV shows type rich. I had worked with Jamen at the house and with Gavin on songs, including a song called "Twitter Her". So Gavin stayed at the house with Jamen, but Justin would stay there when in Atlanta, as Justin and Jamen were friends.

Jazze would get weekly progress reports about Gavin, his home schooling and activities. Unfortunately Jamen, Justin and Gavin would go a bit overboard with girls, drugs and party's, causing all kinds of "teenagers with millions of dollars", type problems. Jazze eventually had to send Gavin back to Vegas, to get his head straight, he was very upset about that and I believed he blamed Justin for most of the issues.

So when Justin came in to work with us, I believe Jazze ignored him to make a point... in the end I don't think it worked they way he intended.

So that is my JB story, my loss is your gain, lol.

 

Last edited: Dec 26, 2016

Great story Will! Thanks for taking the time to tell it. I hope other people pick up on what your telling them.

When Will says his career would have been made from recording those tracks, that's not self-pity, it's just a fact. But sometimes thing are actually out of our control in the business. What did Will do? He kept working. That's what a Pro does and that's what Will is!

Sometimes you get good breaks. Learn how to spot them and take them when they come along. An old friend of mine, GW, went from literally living in a van to playing with Michael Jackson over night.

Don't give up and keep working at your craft. That's the secret.

 

Very cool read. Thank you for sharing.

 

Very well said julianbre, you made telling the story worth it.

 

Oh yeah, I have a friend that has a Grammy and 45 million Soundscan, from actually being in the right room on the right day, lol.

 

Man, don't tell me that one. I was feeling pretty good a few minutes ago haha. Are you still working in Hot Lanta or have you moved on to greener pastures Will?

 

When you reach a certain level in the biz you either go where the big sessions are or you return to the indie path. In 2012 I was in LA working at Universal, Atlantic, Boom Boom Room, and Bill's Place in North Hollywood while my family was in Atlanta. I missed my son's birthday, my daughter's birthday, my wife's birthday and my wedding anniversary..... all for the first time, as my family did not want to move again, especially not to LA. At a point I realized family was much more important than Grammy's to me and that I could not go on working 16-20 hour days so far away from them, so I left the full time biz to everyone's surprise and returned to my indie roots and producing.

I have almost a million soundscan pure indie with my old friend Tech N9ne, so the indie route never was a bad thing to me. Indie to me means creative freedom. I moved with my family to a beautiful lake area and I take work over the net. I finally got back producing and using all the lessons I learned from the many talented people I worked with, and found my own sound within myself. I'm a old DJ, not a natural musician, so it took me many years to find myself musically, Ableton's Push was the instrument I've always wanted.

I worked so much for so long, and was so driven to succeed in music, I never realized what else was possible, but today:
-I'm currently working on all original modern Christmas music with my family, for fun.
-I now have the time to post on NG's like this, to pass forward what I learned, and to combat the narcissistic know it alls, that don't know much at all, or know just enough to fake it and be dangerous, lol.
-I became a beta tester for AA, as I believe in their technology 100%.
-I also went back to college, as I had promised myself I would when I was younger when I skipped out to pursue music.
-I'm learning my 3rd language in my 40's, Spanish. Poco el poco.

 

You'll love this one, lol.

Aaron moved to LA with a band, but the band broke up, so Aaron went to a music school to study Engineering. Six months out of school he's working in an old studio, in the C room. A rapper books the cheap C room on a day Aaron's in there, that song makes a soundtrack that happens to go gold. The studio has not had a hit record in 20 years, promotes Aaron to the A room. One day he's in A when it's booked for a month by a label for a new unknown group from Cleveland. After a month it's going so well, the label moves the group to a major studio, takes Aaron with them because he knows the songs. The EP is released, the group is super hot, EP goes gold, Aaron is the hot new Engineer in LA. Aaron gets a #1 record and a Grammy with the groups next album as it goes Diamond. Aaron goes on to sell almost 50 million scoundscan. Absolutely true story.

The group was Bone Thugs and Harmony.

Being a music professional is like eating a box of chocolates, as some walk away with a mouth full of yummy chocolate, while some have melted chocolate on their fingers, but everyone got chocolate. LOL

 

Last edited: Dec 27, 2016