From Alice Cooper to the Jayhawks, Bob Ezrin explains why artists keep coming back to him and why he asks permission to hold them to the best work they have ever done.
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This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on famed record producer Bob Ezrin.
Bob has worked with artists including Pink Floyd, KISS, Deep Purple, and countless others, though he is best known for his nearly 60-year relationship with Alice Cooper.
He's back working with The Jayhawks on their latest, Sanctuary Park, twenty-six years after their first project together.
We talk about how the reunion started with an offhand remark from Gary Louris, both men leaving the United States for Canada around the same time, and we talk a lot about the craft of record production.
(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are The Jayhawks - "What Led Me To This Town" and "Mr. Lincoln," Alice Cooper - "I'm Eighteen," and Tim Curry - "Sloe Gin")
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00:00 Introduction
00:57 Back in the room with the Jayhawks
01:53 Josh Sarubin, Minneapolis, and a very direct producer
04:05 "Not without me": how the reunion started
06:12 Recording live, with less adornment than Smile
07:22 Three or four takes and a mental note
09:01 Mixing between modern and throwback
10:40 Leaving room for surprises
11:07 Consensus, game plans, and cooking songs with Gary Louris
13:34 What Smile needed that this record didn't
15:24 Why Toronto
15:40 Leaving the United States
16:20 Canterbury studio
17:10 "Mr. Lincoln" and the Band
19:20 What artists are buying from a producer
20:12 Label, manager, and band: three different plans
22:10 "American Midnight," "Sanctuary Park," and a loaded word
24:06 A fix of harmony
24:39 Why his collaborations last, from Alice Cooper to the Jayhawks
27:00 The Bob Ezrin standard bar
28:09 Holding artists to their own best work
29:39 Happy to be the dumbest guy in the room
29:59 Why make an album at all
31:30 Song as script, record as film
33:23 Records that didn't work out
34:30 The one that got away
35:37 Killer, Destroyer, and records that last
36:37 Music that lifts people up
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Ezrin's production credits on AllMusic → https://www.allmusic.com/artist/bob-ezrin-mn0000059981
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