Music producers are the unsung heroes of the music industry. When you think about it, they have just as big a task as the artist, to make a successful record, but when you look at the front cover of the album the producer’s name is nowhere to be found, in fact it is usually in the smallest print on the back of the record. Steve Lillywhite is a name some fans maybe unfamiliar with, but they will certainly know some of his work. Lillywhite has worked with the likes of Dave Matthews Band, Phish U2, The Rolling Stones and Peter Gabriel (just to name a few). He has a total of five Grammys among other awards. Steve recently spoke about his career and the process of making records.

Steve where do we start? I read on Hollywood Reporter you have worked on something like 500 records; you have worked with the Rolling Stones, U2, DMB, Pater Gabriel and many others. Obviously you had to put in your time and work your way up but when did you get your big break?

You know this number seems to keep appearing and seems to be considered fact without me or anyone else checking because I cannot believe that I have worked on that many records. I have worked on over 500 songs but I could not have worked on 500 albums, unless it’s been calculated with certain songs being on greatest hits records as well as the original. My first hit was in 1978, so that is 35 years ago and if you divide 500 into 35 that would give you something like over 20 albums a year. I cannot do 20 albums a year, I mean over the last five years I have only done two or three because these things take time. I digress though, my big break was my first hit record. I have said this before but it’s really a catch twenty two; you really only get the work if you get the hit but how do you get the hit without having the work? My first break, was to break that cycle. My first hit was with a band called, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and their big hit was called “Hong Kong Garden” and their album was called The Scream. That was really my first big break but that was only in the UK. They did have some hits in American but that was really my first big hit. It also gives you confidence because really no one knows what they are doing when they start and its even questionable that they know what they are doing later on in their career. Most people’s careers go downhill. How many artists have made their best album on their 10th album? I would argue that none of them have. They have all acquired more knowledge in the process, but the acquisition of knowledge does not make you better at what you do; acquisition of knowledge is useful but I can say that it does not make you better at what you do. There are plenty of people who have acquired more knowledge but make worse records.

Given that you are a big name in the industry, are you very selective about who you work with or does any band, even an unknown band have a chance to work with you?

I have always been selective with whom I work with. It really doesn’t matter if you are unknown or if you are the biggest band in the world, I know what I can do and I am the only one who knows what I can do so if I tell you that I do not want to produce your record I would accept it because I know what I can do. I have turned down a lot of big bands not because I do not think
they are good, but because I know what I can do and what I cannot do. On the flip side of that, if I say I want to do your record I would be very interested in having Steve Lillywhite do it because when I want to do something I feel like I can really do it. So the answer to the question is, it really does not matter. You can only ever be successful if you are selective. I feel like I am at the twilight of my career because I cannot produce for another 40 years because I will be dead! I have a lot less time in front of me then behind. I still need to have my enthusiasm level high so that is why I am not doing as much now; I need rest periods in between albums. I just finished Thirty Seconds to Mars and I am not doing anything now till my next album. I won’t ever do something I don’t want to do because then that just makes it work and I don’t ever want to have work. No one bats a thousand, there no producer who has made hit records every time. You just try to get your percentages as high as you can. I have made records that aren’t household names but I am really proud of them and that is really all I can hope. For example, Guster’s Lost and Gone Forever, I love that album. It wasn’t a million seller but I am really proud of that album.

Something that you are very well known for is your work with Dave Matthews Band, what is it about those guys that everything just seemed to click?

I think there are many great producers in the world that do different jobs. I won’t say I am the best producer in the world because that is a ridicules statement, but at certain things I am fantastic. I am really empathetic to the concept of a band. I think bands are more important than records. I think careers are more important than songs. With Dave Matthews Band I looked at every single member of the band equally. I did not look at any individual member as a song writer or as a this or as a that; I just did not focus on one person. I like to think of myself as someone who likes everyone to be equally confident and excited. I have great belief in the format of a band, so I love it. A band as great as the Dave Matthews Band if you are going to replace something, you better replace it with something better. But with a band as great as the Dave Matthews Band, why would you want to replace anything? Why would I want to change anything? I love this band! I just have to find a way of getting the excitement that they obviously have when they have their concerts and put that in a format that people can listen to; that is a big art form, because you have to know how long the songs should be. You want to let the songs breath but you don’t want to let them carry on but you really don’t want to strangle them to three minutes and make it a pop song because that is not what the band is about. There are lots of members of the band so each member must have enough sound in the record. It is actually really simple; I don’t see my job see my job as that difficult.

How do you know when a song or album is done? How many times do you listen to an album before you turn it into the record label?

Usually it is when the men in white coats come in, and they say “Steve you have to finish now” . (laughter). No, it’s just when it all feels right. Thinking about it, I really don’t know when I know an album is done which is probably why during my first few albums, I had the men in the white coats come in. You just have to set a time limit and do it within that time frame.

When you work with one band and then you have to go work with another artist or band that have a completely different sound, is it difficult to make that transition?

No because I am extremely shallow (laughter). It’s never been hard for me to make that transition; I found it to be easy. When I say I am shallow, I just half mean it, I do not think I am really shallow. My personality is very fits my job, I think. Back in the 80s I used to go walk out of the studio having done an all-nighter and it being 9:00 AM and then going straight to another studio to start setting up the drums for another record. And these are good records; it’s not as if I am talking about records no one has heard of. Back in those days I used to go back to back from doing a rock album to a country album, but I do not do that anymore. I need to charge my batteries so I can be the Steve Lillywhite everyone expects me to be.

Have you ever worked with an artist that you could not get on the same page with?

I never have worked with an artist I cannot get on the same page with, but it goes back to my original statement, that one of my biggest production decisions is to do the record in the first place. I feel like if I am not on the same page as an artist than I should not be doing his record. That is a decision I make before I even agree to work with someone. I don’t want that situation to ever come-about; I want to be on the same page as my artist.

Do you ever approach an artist and say you should work with them or do you wait for artists to approach you?

I have done that. The last time I did that it was weird, it was an okay album, but it was just weird. I loved Oasis and I always thought Noel Gallagher probably would not write another hit song but Liam has a great voice and I would put my money on the voice over the song. What I didn’t factor in was the fact was his reputation. I thought we could work better. But that was my choice, I approached them. That’s life, life moves on.

When you are working with a band and see them arguing about the sound or direction of the album, what do you do? Do you get involved or do you let them work it out?

I steer. My job is steering the ship, they built the ship but I have to steer it. I think I am very good at understanding these situations and steering these situations towards resolution. I am Henry Kissinger at times. I had to make a record with Keith Richards and Mick Jagger when they literally were not talking. It was at their lowest end with each other. It was an okay record, it wasn’t a great record. It was certainly better than any record that came afterwards when they were more open to being creative. I am very good at facilitating people.

When you hear one of your songs on the radio do you ever second guess the choices you made creatively?

No no, and I will tell you why; because when I listen to a song on the radio it is so compressed and it sounds so different to the record I made that I absolutely rejoice in how good it sounds. But then you could ask me what do you think when you listen to one of your records do you ever think you made a mistake, and the answer is, I have never listened to one of my records. I do not want to be uncertain. I have said this before; complacency and uncertainty are the only two reactions that can happen when you listen back to your own music. You can listen to it and like it and be complacent or you can listen back and not like it and be uncertain. Those are not good things to be in the music industry.

When you work with a band three or four times, do you find yourself trying to beat the last record?

I do not think of it in that sense. To work with an artist or band that many times that means we have been successful to a certain extent. I would be much more worried that we do not make the same record. I don’t really think it deserves a comparing to each album before it. Let’s say my four Dave Matthews Band albums, even though The Lillywhite Sessions, does count in my eyes, I had specific rules for all of albums after Under the Table and Dreaming; well I actually had rules for Under the Table and Dreaming. Then on Crash I loosened those rules and added more elements to the sound and made it more swaggering. And then Before These Crowded Streets I wanted to add some string quartets and other sounds. For The Lillywhite Sessions, it was sort of a dark record. If I got to finish that record then you would have definitely found a time in your life where you wanted to listen to it. There would have been a time where you would gone to that record and found solace in listening to it. I have never had the chance to finish it. I am not sure if Busted Stuff gave you that same solace.

Even though you have worked with so many legends who is someone you have not worked with that you would love to work with?

I am a big Mumford and Sons fan at the moment. I know millions of people are, but millions of people are not wrong. I have liked them from the very beginning. My son is good friends with them so I have been aware of them for a long time. I feel they are a band who could open up and there is room for them to grow. But other than that, my next album I am working with this great Latin singer called Juanes. Having done work with Dave Matthews Band, The Killers, Thirty Seconds to Mars, I wanted something wow and something different. I am excited to go on that road. I am really not doing any work on it now, but I am pre-producing and setting it up and well start working on it in the summer.

We touched on this but when you are about to work with an artist that you haven’t worked with, like Juanes, do you meet face to face to see if you gel well together?

Oh my God yes! It is like a marriage! You have to have sex before you get married.

On Twitter you had said how you have been traveling around the world for a month or so. Was that just for pleasure or work related?

I went to the “Steve Lillywhite Recording” week in Singapore. I thought I better go since it was the Steve Lillywhite Recording Week. I really liked it there. It is a place where I would like to possibly get involved with some music because they think differently. The trouble with western musicians is that everyone thinks the same. We are homogenizing the art form process. In Asia they do not have the same homogenization. In Mexican and Canada I was speaking at music conferences and being interviewed.

Wow you are a busy man.

No I am not! I am sitting around waiting for the football to start. It is frightening how my happiness can be decided by a man in shorts kicking a ball into a net!

What is your favorite Steve Lillywhite album?

Well after I am dead, Lost and Gone Forever by Guster, because I will be lost and gone forever.

One last question, what advice would you give to a struggling artist or producer?

Don’t struggle. Do it because you love doing it, and if anything comes from it that is a bonus. Don’t ever think of it as a job. I do not like of it as a job now. I met Warren Buffett’s’ son this summer and he said his dad never thinks of what he does as a job. The money is a side product of what he does. I don’t think of what I do as a job, I just do what I do and I am lucky enough to get paid for it. Everyone can do what I do, but you may just need to do it in the eight hours you aren’t working.