John Branca - Harvard Interview - "Working with different types of recording artists"

 

John Branca explaining what it’s like working with artists of differing levels of experience

Brian Price: So, you’ve worked with some pretty famous people. Susan mentioned a few of the names. Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Dr. Dre, Fleetwood Mac, Richard Pryor, Earth, Wind & Fire, and so on, Elton John, is there any difference between working with a super celebrity and standard artists just coming up?

John Branca: Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Brian Price: Tell us about the differences.

John Branca: Well, you know, when an artist is just getting started, they need all the help they can get, all the breaks. And so, you know, the business people can loom large in their life to try to equalize the lack of bargaining position between the artist and the company. When an artist is a superstar, they’re used to getting their way. Everybody’s catering to them. And so, then the difficult part is trying to help the artist stay on track in terms of what they’re trying to do; you know, Michaels in particular. But there could be a… you know, a big difference.

Every once in a while, you see a new artist. There was an artist named Terence Trent D’Arby. I’m sure I’m mentioning names that people don’t know. But Terence was arrogant and confident from day 1. So, I never forget, came through customs in England and there was that thing on the customs form that says, “Do you have anything to declare?” and he put, “I am a genius.” Now, there’s a guy that had… that was confident.

Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA

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