Multi-Grammy Winning Mixer/Producer Rob Chiarelli interviewed by TAXI’s Michael Laskow
Rob Chiarelli: Oh my God, here's how I know when a song is done. It's really, really simple. People have asked me this for years, do you remember my answer?
Michael Laskow: No.
RC: I listen to it, and if at the end of the song and nothing really bothered me, I might listen again and maybe another time or two, but that's it! Once I feel like the song is saying what it's supposed to say, I’m not going to go crazy for a month on that kick drum sound I'm not going to do it. I'm going to make the decision… that’s the hardest discipline. You know, making a decision and committing to something and letting go of it and going on to the next thing and continuing to improve every day. That's part of the process, whether it's a song, an arrangement… you can come back and revisit things, which I've done, but I feel like, you know, you can write one song for the rest of your life, and that does not mean it's going to be “The Rite of Spring.” Don't think that the song you're writing is like your last song. It’s just the first in this journey of writing many songs, and just try to make each one better in some way. And, yeah, Taylor Swift, strangely, there was an exhibit that she had a few years ago with the Grammy Museum, which everybody should go to.
ML: The one in LA?
RC: Yeah. Everybody should see the Grammy Museum. When she was in the studio, and they were asking her — this was a couple of albums back, so maybe four or five years ago, I suppose—somebody asked her what she was trying to do on the new album? It was a simple question. I could imagine her saying any number of things, but she said, I just want to make it better than the last one. And I said, “Yeah, I'm going to remember that!” Write that song, do the best you can today, learn what you can today, and go to the next one. Engineer, produce it, mix it as best as you can, but try to improve a little that day. Like every day. That's my goal. I want to be a little bit better than yesterday in every area, and in no time I think you make big progress. At least for me, it’s worked that way.