Interview with Todd Clark of Pilot Speed

So did you produce Wooden Bones yourself?

We did four songs with Denis Herring, three of which we used, and did some additional work in New York, and we did most of the record with a guy called Kevin Killen, and we produced as a band as well. It was kind of a collaboration of a number of guys. It was good that way, we learned a lot from each guy and the results are pretty good, I think. Sometimes you see the band give themselves a producer credit; that seems weird to me. You’re obvisouly involved. Everyone knows you wrote the songs.

Yeah, it’s just strange though, because I do think that sometimes producers have a greater influence than just saying, ‘Okay, do it again,’ and then press the record button in the studio.

They definitely, definitely do! One thing I learned during this album was very early on, this album is going to be the way that I want it. At the end of the day, everyone walks away from the project except you. Everyone goes onto something else. So if you finish that project and it wasn’t exactly the way you wanted it, the only person you have to blame is yourself. So the sense of, let’s work with the producer and if he is happy, then we are happy, that went out the window very early on. It was going to be the way that I wanted it to be, and the great thing was that we had the resources that could help us get it there.
I did an interview with Chris Cornell and he said that he had a producer with him on the Soundgarden records, but he would just stonewall the producer until he got his way.

Yeah, you have to, you really do have to. I think all those great artists who you can see a clear identity in what they do, if you are willing to just go with someone else’s creative visions of what your music is, I don’t think you’ll ever be happy. You have to utilize those very creative people around you, but just get it to where you’re happy. The great thing is that if you have a set of people that you trust their instincts, you are going to get a great product in the end. You really have to be driving the bus and make sure that you trust the people around you and that you trust them enough that you listen to their advice. If you have great songs, once you get into the studio, the rest should be elementary.

Wooden Bones hits stores April 28. For more info, visit pilotspeed.net.