Usually this is the first question most people ask me when talking about recording music. It's a question that has no definitive answer. Every producer has his own style, strengths and weaknesses. Every artist or group of artist's (in the case of a band) has their own individual needs. The producer may be asked to find songs for the artist or just help the artist sort through their own songs for the best ones. In some cases the producer will be asked to write or co-write songs. A solo artist may need a producer to find the best possible backing musicians for the material at hand. In the case of a band, the producer may not need to hire outside musicians if the band is capable of recording their own instrumental tracks.
 I could go on for pages and pages about the possible hats a producer may be asked to wear in this ever changing world of music. Instead I would like to give you some brief history of how I wound up calling myself a producer. Here goes...................
 In 1984 my band (Devonsquare) decided to record our first record. We asked our friend Peter Gallway to produce this project for us. We all respected Peter's talents as a musician, performer and songwriter and took a chance that he would be the right guy for this project although he had never produced a record outside of his own recordings. As the project progressed I found myself spending a lot of time watching how Peter got what he needed out of all the people working on this project. Including myself as a singer, guitarist and songwriter. I noticed that his skills as a people person and the respect he had for everyone involved translated into getting the most everyone could offer. Right down to the assistant engineer, everyone gave 110 %. This was the way I wanted to record always.
 By 1997 we were on our third record (Walking On Ice) with Peter at the helm. By now I was very much into arranging all of the music as well as writing and singing the title cut. I was hungry to be the producer on this CD but tried to remain in the wings out of respect for Peter. This CD was the catalyst for Devonsquare signing a 3 album deal with Atlantic Records. The rest of this story could be a novel in itself so I'll leave it for another time.
  It's now 1995 and lots has happened since Walking On Ice was released on Atlantic. We are now recording our 5th CD "Industrial Twilight" on our own label. Atlantic was not thrilled with the musical direction of the band (Beat Poetry influenced songs) and let us go. This is the first record I took credit for producing as Peter Gallway and I co-produced this. On this recording I was asked to wear many hats and on most days wound up working by myself in my project studio overdubbing everything from guitars, keyboards and weird shaky things to vocals at times. I also spent many hours experimenting with strange atmospheric guitar sounds to reinforce the poetic and dark mood of these songs. Peter had his hands full just to keep the band from strangling each other on most days and brought in some top notch NYC jazz players for a few songs. The mixes were agonizingly long and some were redone three or four times. All in all it was a great learning experience and a fascinating musical journey.
 Now that you have some background on how I found myself in the production side of the music business, I would like to share with you what I consider to be the most important side of production. The Soul of the Producer. I have known great producers who were great singers, songwriters and some who were very talented instrumentalists. I have also worked with great producers who couldn't find middle C on the piano if they had all day, but somehow knew exactly what to do with the artist they were working with. Successful producers have a musical soul that guides them with very little effort to the heart of the project at hand. I do not believe you can be taught this talent. This is what makes the right producer for the right music so thrilling when it happens.
 There's nothing like a great artist to make a producer look good. Early Joni Mitchell records had some very unusual production values that could have hurt a lesser talent. Muddy mixes, strange instrument choices, shrill vocal sound. No one seemed to care as this girl was above and beyond any of her peers at the time. Her talent could withstand just about anything the producer could do to screw it up.
 When I work with an artist, I try to let their music speak for itself. I'm a great fan of staying out of my own way in a production situation. In other words letting the artist and the music naturally dictate the course before jumping in with my own ideas. So many great ideas are right in front of you if you just leave the door open enough for them to join the party. I find this theory works well in most aspects of life. Some of my favorite projects that I have worked on have been the ones that I'm not sure what I really did as a producer because everything flowed effortlessly.

I hope this information has been helpful in some way. Below are some other attributes that I bring to the production table.

• Guitarist - acoustic and electric
• Arranger - Primary arranger for the Devonsquare catolog of songs.
• Writer - Over 45 songs published internationally
• Singer, vocal arranger
• Sound Engineer - Recording and mixing