HOWARD BENSON

MMUSICMAG.COM
MAY 2012 ISSUE
MMUSICMAG.COM
MAY 2012 ISSUE
producer
How do you see your role?
Projects never end for me. I started off in
this business trying to be a different type of
producer than many of my predecessors.
I wanted to stay involved, so when the
recording process was over, I’d still do all
sorts of remixes and edits. I work on both
sides of the fence a lot. I’ll produce and
help with songwriting and arranging, but
then also be very involved in the business
end—lobbying the record company, calling
the A&R guys, complaining to people that
the album isn’t doing well enough. (laughs)
I’m very involved, and I think bands like that.
It’s just the way I’m built. I want projects
to succeed, and a lot of times my extra
effort has really helped.
capitol Studios
For example?
With Hoobastank, I was listening to the
finished album [The Reason, 2003] in the
Philadelphia airport and thought, “We don’t
HOWARD BENSON
P.O.D.
From aircraft to songcraft and from aerospace to star power
For multiplatinum, Grammy-nominated producer
Howard Benson, the crucial skill that led to success in the music
business was … aerospace engineering? “music has a math
component to me,” Benson explains. “it’s complicated and fun,
and i’m blessed to do it every day. plus the same organizational
skills apply. Just instead of making turbines and airplane
wings, i’m making records.”
mind you, his musical foundation came first. Growing up in
philadelphia, he learned the technical side of music from his musicteacher mother while digging deeply into his father’s wildly diverse
record collection. Before long he was making music himself. “disco
or pop, i didn’t care what style i was playing,” he recalls. “as long as it
was music, i was into it. But when i was in bands that were recording,
i always wanted to be the producer. i wanted to be in charge.”
He earned a degree in materials engineering from philly’s drexel
university and moved to california to take a job in the aerospace
industry. He began moonlighting as a producer at Hollywood’s
Sunset Sound studios, which eventually became his full-time gig.
He built a production career throughout the late 1980s and ’90s,
becoming one of pro tools’ earliest major adopters along the way.
Benson’s major commercial breakthrough came with p.o.d.’s tripleplatinum 2001 album Satellite. Since then he has worked with
Santana, Kelly clarkson, Bon Jovi, my chemical romance, Gavin
deGraw and daughtry, among many others. He’s recently been busy
in the studio with acts including Flyleaf, daniel powter, Halestorm,
Boy, We as Human, and Skillet. “my engineering background
taught me how to keep things straight with mental and physical
lists,” he says. “i also surround myself with very talented people.
my job is to stay creative and ahead of the curve. their job is to
make sure i don’t screw anything up.” Benson discussed with us
the secrets to finding the right sound in the studio—and making sure
that sound reaches its audience once it’s released into the world.
‘It’s about great songwriting and star power. Who
cares about the other stuff?’
Jeff Fasano, Howard Benson; Harper Smith, Kelly Clarkson; Leann Mueller, P.O.D.
By Michael Gallant
have the record.” We had a couple of big
singles, but we didn’t have the taking-off
point. I went back into the studio with them,
recorded a couple of songs and we came
up with “Out of Control.” Suddenly we had
a single. It went up the charts and the rest
is history. It was worth taking the extra time
and going back to the well on that one.
Daughtry’s current single “Outta My Head”
is another good example. I wasn’t happy with
how it turned out on the record. That version
was rock, and we wanted it to be more pop,
so I went in and re-produced it. I changed
the guitars, added some keyboard elements,
some loops and some dubstep, and put out
a song that was a bit more pop. I also used
a different mixing engineer. Even while we
were working on that album [Break the Spell,
2011] the market had changed, so I drove
the process to keep his sound current. I was
prepared for nobody to like it, but I played it
for [frontman] Chris Daughtry and he loved
it. I don’t think many other producers would
have gone that far on their own.
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Kelly Clarkson
How did you find Pro Tools?
I went down to São Paulo, Brazil, to work
with Sepultura [on 1998’s Against] and ran
into a computer running this thing called Pro
Tools. Nobody had used it much in the rock
world. Given my background, I was familiar
working with computers and had been using
a two-track editing program called Turtle
Beach—but Pro Tools was different. Seeing it
was a moment of clarity. I knew that’s where
the future was. I had sold some records,
but was still pretty much starving at the
time. I used the last penny I had in the bank
to buy a Pro Tools rig.
What was the reaction?
A lot of people wouldn’t hire me because
of Pro Tools. They insisted on tape—no
computers. They thought it would make
music sterile, and some people did mess
up and edit things to death. But great artists
have made tons of computer-generated
records that still sound emotional. I’m
certain if Mozart had had access to Pro
Tools, he would have loved it and created
amazing music with it.
Was there a learning curve?
I recorded Less Than Jake [Hello Rockview,
1998] with Pro Tools, but I had to convince
them to let me use it. Also, Digidesign
had sent me a floppy disc with some new
program called Auto-Tune. I knew about
Fourier transforms from physics classes, so
I knew it had something to do with pitch.
When I put the band’s vocals through it,
and it changed the sound from a rough
out-of-tune singer to a rough in-tune singer,
it was like seeing the future. I overused
Auto-Tune on that album, though—I tuned
everything, including the horns. I got carried
away with it, but it still sold well. I also had
to convince P.O.D. to let me produce them
using Pro Tools, but it worked. The computer
leveled the playing field for bands like them,
who were great live but hadn’t been able
to pull off records.
What do you look for in an act?
Star power. If an artist has star power and is
willing to co-write songs, then I’m pretty much
in. When I don’t see that compelling element
in an artist or an artist’s message, that spark
you need to be an entertainment star, it can
be hard. You can fix everything else, but
you can’t fix that. My Chemical Romance
had messy songs and messy writing, and
they didn’t understand arrangements. But I
knew that [singer] Gerard Way was going
to be a star, and I knew that he could take
instruction about how to put songs together.
Chris Daughtry is another great example.
When he walks in, he fills up the room. That’s
the kind of thing you look for.
Did you always look for that?
In my early days as a producer, I produced
a band called the Ernies. Their songs were
Daughtry
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MAY 2012 ISSUE
My Chemical Romance
‘Seeing Pro Tools was a moment
of clarity. I knew that’s where the
future was.’
essential benson
When did you realize that?
Meeting P.O.D. They were the first huge
band I produced. When they first walked
into the studio, there was so much star
power coming off of those guys that the
women in the studio were falling over.
I felt like an insignificant dot in the room.
I thought, “Wow, this is where it’s at.
People want to be around them.” That was
a lightbulb moment for me. I remember
being intimidated by those guys but I knew
I had to produce them. The only thing they
needed help with was their songs. They were
rapping certain parts, and I got [vocalist]
Sonny Sandoval to start singing them
instead. I’d sold maybe 100,000 records
total before that point, but Satellite was
selling 100,000 copies per week. That’s what
it’s about—great songwriting, great vocals
and star power. Who cares about the other
stuff? You can worry about guitar and bass
sounds, and that stuff is cool, but that’s not
what people are buying. They buy songs and
stars that turn them on. They want to be part
of something powerful.
Why?
It’s tribal. Your reptilian brain kicks in: “I want
to be part of that,” or “I want to sleep with
that guy or girl.” It’s a basic, fundamental
thing, and once you’re in touch with that,
Hoobastank
it’s big. We sell a lot of albums to women
because there are so many male bands out
there. You have to think to yourself, is the girl
in the audience going to want this singer in
her life? Does she want to meet him? Is he
speaking to her? Does she want to take care
of him? Rock music has always had a lineage
of sexuality at its core. A lot of records I was
doing before P.O.D. just didn’t have that.
You also have female superstars like Adele,
Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, and there are a lot
of similarities. They have great songs, sexual
star power and the fundamentals of lyric
writing that makes listeners say, “I want that.”
Neil Krug, My Chemical Romance; PR Brown, Hoobastank
about physics, molecules and stardust. As
an engineer by training, I loved it—but it
turned out to be the worst-selling record I
ever did. I don’t even know if it sold a single
copy. I thought the record [Meson Ray,
1999] was awesome, so how could I have
been so wrong? My biggest problem when I
was starting was that I was looking for bands
that weren’t stars and trying to turn them into
stars. I realized that the only way to do things
right was to start with great songs and star
power and then turn it into a great record.
Chuando & Frey
producer
What’s your own favorite style?
It’s a blessing or a curse, but I love all types
of music. I’ve done everything from Kelly
Clarkson to Sepultura. Sometimes when I
have a hit record, I don’t even really think
about it. I’m on to the next thing. It’s the
engineer in me, I guess.
Here are a few albums that demonstrate Benson’s prowess
in the studio.
Halestorm, The Strange Case Of . . . (2012)
Kelly Clarkson, Stronger (2011)
Gavin DeGraw, Gavin DeGraw (2008)
All American Rejects, Move Along (2007)
Daughtry, Daughtry (2006)
My Chemical Romance, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (2004)
Hoobastank, The Reason (2003)
P.O.D., Satellite (2001)
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MAY 2012 ISSUE
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