He is a nine-time Grammy winner who was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine. One day soon, he will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His collaborations run a gamut of genres and feature numerous legends including Metallica, Neil Young, Lady Gaga, Jay-Z, Willie Nelson, Adele, and U2. He is music producer Rick Rubin, and he is unlike anyone else in the business.
In 1984, Rubin helped define a culture as co-founder of Def Jam records. Now aged 61, Rick has remained a titan in the industry by staying true to his chief artistic tenet; never undermine your taste. He will not compromise his creative vision for the benefit of a hit single, or to sell records. And certainly not for the audience. Yet, he makes hit records that people love. “It’s not about technical skill,” Rubin avers. He insists that his value as a producer resides in his ability to trust his own opinion.
However, it is Rick’s ability to stick to his opinions that have made him a music legend. “My only goal is to make something that I like,” says Rubin. “The audience comes last. I’m not making it for them, I’m making it for me. And it turns out that when you make something truly for yourself, you’re doing the best thing you possibly can for the audience.” It takes a certain type to retain the courage of one’s convictions as an artist, but he has turned it into an artform. This is Rick Rubin relating the art of artistic integrity.
“My job is to share what I know”
Trust yourself as an artist…It doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks. I know what I know, and my job is to share what I know. That’s all I can do. I can’t second guess myself.
“I’m always surprised when anybody likes anything”
None of the artists I work with do I think ‘this is going to be popular’. It wouldn’t be realistic…I’m always surprised when anybody likes anything. Because there’s so many barriers in the way of things getting through…There are so many factors that anytime anything gets through it feels like a win.
“Infinite Choices”
Limiting your palate to something manageable forces you to solve problems in a different way. Now, in our digital age music-wise, you can make anything digitally. There was a time when if you didn’t have a guitar in the studio, you couldn’t record guitar. Or if you couldn’t hire an orchestra, there couldn’t be orchestra on your recording. Now you can just call any of those things up. So, there’s infinite choices and infinite choices don’t necessarily lead to better compositions.
“The Single Most Important Thing”
Understanding how you feel in the face of other voices, without second-guessing yourself, is probably the single most important thing to practice as an artist. Or a skill set to develop as an artist is to know how you feel and own your feelings. And the key to that is not ‘I know, so I know what’s right for you’. It doesn’t work that way. I know from me.
“That’s all it is”
The things we make are a reflection of who we are in this moment and that’s all it is. It can go on and mean more than that but that’s not in our control. It’s something that cripples artists thinking that, ‘I have to make the greatest thing ever made to humankind.’ They basically psych themselves out of being able to make something good.
“Benefit in Taking a Risk”
There’s a great benefit in taking a risk, making the thing that’s interesting to you and sharing it with the world. Because if you don’t do it, nobody else will. You’re the only one who can make the art that you can make.
“I’m in tune with my taste”
I don’t think of myself as a musician. I’m in tune with myself and I’m in tune with my taste and I can express it clearly. And that’s pretty much my job.
“This Is How I See It”
The reason I chose to be an artist is to demonstrate ‘this is how I see it.’ If I’m undermining my taste for some commercial idea, it defeats the whole purpose of doing this. That’s not what this process is about. This process is ‘I’m doing me, and I’m showing you who I am’. You can like it or not, but either way, this is still how I see it.
“That’s not how art works”
If you go to the movies, so many big movies are just not good. It’s because they’re not being made by a person who cares about it. They’re being made by people who are trying to make something that they think someone else is going to like. And that’s not how art works.
- Source: NEWHD MEDIA
