Grammy nominated producer Tim Palmer joins us on the podcast this week. His credits include Pearl Jam’s “Ten,” U2’s “All That You Can’t Leave Behind,” and countless other albums from the 80s through present day.
As you can imagine, he’s accumulated a priceless wealth of knowledge from his decades in the trenches and he shares a ton of it in this episode including: what it was like to work with legends like David Bowie and Sting, transitioning from fully analog to a hybrid setup, some sage advice for anyone who’s just starting out in the audio business, and much more.
“We strive for perfection when sometimes perfection isn’t what’s required. I learned this a long time ago, and it’s something that David Bowie was always emphasizing when we worked together. Don’t make everything too perfect, leave some humanity. Choose magic over sound perfection and if that means importing a part from a lo-fi demo, just leave your ego behind and import it!” – Tim Palmer
ON THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:
2:13 – If his decades of work is always what Tim imagined for himself and if he still loves it the way he always did
4:16 – How Tim felt about working with people like David Bowie when he was so young and how he handled it
9:28 – The point where Tim noticed that people wanted his opinion instead of him being the kid who needed to keep his mouth shut
13:39 – How long it took Tim to go from being a runner to working a session with Sting to getting his first gold record
17:29 – Tim’s opportunity to produce for Tears For Fears and how you can never plan for certain opportunities
20:43 – How marketing your music differs now in comparison to the old days
28:32 – The industry moving back to artist development and some artists not seeing huge success until they’re a few albums in
32:10 – What the organization, Black Fret, does for musicians and how people need to decide to let art be developed
38:25 – The home recording revolution contributing to the demise of the big studios
45:10 – If remote work has been getting in the way of learning what artists want
48:39 – Tim’s work on an album for actor Jeff Goldblum
50:08 – When Tim turned his setup into a hybrid one and if it was a difficult transition from his analog setup
58:31 – Older albums coming out great despite the technology that was used to record them
1:02:27 – Tim’s work on Ten by Pearl Jam and how it was a massive cultural shift
1:09:05 – Picking a sound that is right for the album and not being able to predict what will be “in”
1:13:08 – If Tim takes a different approach depending on what type of record he’s working on
1:18:17 – Tim’s thoughts on the idea of a secondary production process during the mixing stage and the ability to edit the life out of a track
1:25:32 – What Tim’s advice is for people who are just starting their studio business or starting to make a little money from their work
Find Tim Palmer online:
https://www.facebook.com/timpalmermixer
https://www.facebook.com/62Studios/
https://www.instagram.com/timpalmermixer/
https://www.twitter.com/timpalmermixer/
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