Nathan Chapman
May. 16th, 2010 03:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
koganbotShe just shows up with unbelievable songs that she wrote, and then we just produce the songs. As a producer I'm not having to go out and look all over Music Row for a hit. She brings them in.
Good podcast interview* from early '09 with Taylor Swift's co-producer Nathan Chapman. Plays three of the four different mixes of "Teardrops On My Guitar" (album mix, country single, Top 40 single), explains the differences between them. Names his producer heroes as Mark Wright, Daniel Lanois, John Shanks, Buddy Miller, notes that Wright never himself plays on tracks whereas those other producers do. I like Chapman's sense that there are multiple ways to accomplish something and that different people have different talents and need to find the models that work for them.
Chapman was 31 when he did the interview, so was probably around 26 or 27 when he and Taylor found each other. His wife Stephanie is a performer and a songwriter; she was working with songwriter Liz Rose, and he was producing their demos, so when Liz and Taylor started writing together he produced demos for them. Taylor then asked that he be allowed to produce three tracks on her album, and those three ended up as big hits: "Tim McGraw," "Teardrops On My Guitar," and "Our Song." He and Taylor went on to produce Fearless. He said that Fearless was the first project he'd worked on where he knew that the songs were going to get on the radio.
Says he loves the sound on Switchfoot's "Lonely Nation," produced by John Fields. He'll often play his own tracks in comparison to that one to see how he stacks up. Listening to it on Lala, I'm liking how the guitar has a loud crunch while still being very clear. Not sure what's special about the rest, but then I'm not a producer, and I think Lala only streams at 128 kbps. Maybe Chapman likes that it's got a kick without turning to sludge. I wonder what he thinks of "Sister Ray."
*[EDIT: I've updated the link - the original site for Music Business Radio, who did the podcast (see comments), is long since dark, but fortunately Internet Archive's Wayback Machine preserved the interview. Distressingly, the Internet Archive is itself at risk.]
Good podcast interview* from early '09 with Taylor Swift's co-producer Nathan Chapman. Plays three of the four different mixes of "Teardrops On My Guitar" (album mix, country single, Top 40 single), explains the differences between them. Names his producer heroes as Mark Wright, Daniel Lanois, John Shanks, Buddy Miller, notes that Wright never himself plays on tracks whereas those other producers do. I like Chapman's sense that there are multiple ways to accomplish something and that different people have different talents and need to find the models that work for them.
Chapman was 31 when he did the interview, so was probably around 26 or 27 when he and Taylor found each other. His wife Stephanie is a performer and a songwriter; she was working with songwriter Liz Rose, and he was producing their demos, so when Liz and Taylor started writing together he produced demos for them. Taylor then asked that he be allowed to produce three tracks on her album, and those three ended up as big hits: "Tim McGraw," "Teardrops On My Guitar," and "Our Song." He and Taylor went on to produce Fearless. He said that Fearless was the first project he'd worked on where he knew that the songs were going to get on the radio.
Says he loves the sound on Switchfoot's "Lonely Nation," produced by John Fields. He'll often play his own tracks in comparison to that one to see how he stacks up. Listening to it on Lala, I'm liking how the guitar has a loud crunch while still being very clear. Not sure what's special about the rest, but then I'm not a producer, and I think Lala only streams at 128 kbps. Maybe Chapman likes that it's got a kick without turning to sludge. I wonder what he thinks of "Sister Ray."
*[EDIT: I've updated the link - the original site for Music Business Radio, who did the podcast (see comments), is long since dark, but fortunately Internet Archive's Wayback Machine preserved the interview. Distressingly, the Internet Archive is itself at risk.]
credits
Date: 2013-08-24 05:17 pm (UTC)Re: credits
Date: 2025-02-08 06:46 pm (UTC)