Hello Everyone,
I’ve got a huge announcement but let me ask you a question: you’ve produced like a pro, are you now ready to arrange like a pro?
Well, there’s a new book that will teach you this invaluable skill.
In this interview, I speak with Richard Niles, famed composer, producer, author, and educator who has worked with Paul McCartney, Ray Charles, Trevor Horn, Grace Jones, Depeche Mode, Joe Cocker, and so many more that we’d run out of space if listing them all.
Richard is a true talent and today we cover his acumen in creating arrangements for hit songs – a very exciting topic, we think you’d agree!
As our chat kicks off, one singular theme emerges regarding Richard’s unique approach to arrangement: storytelling first and foremost.
After all, aren’t all songs stories at their core?
Take most of what Paul McCartney has written throughout his career – an artist Richard has worked with more than once.
How to listeners tend to describe them? As stories, with memorable characters.
Richard and I ruminate for a few mins on the subject of artists (in the musical sense), and he makes an interesting point, that the origin of the word “art” comes from the concept of alchemy, and that the alchemist, he says, “turns nothing into something. That’s the art.”
We then move on to some best practices and specific examples as they relate to starting out new song projects; and how each one has its own unique requirements.
The Arrangement Process
“We’re all collaborative…I have to enter into a collaboration with the artist, the producer, whoever it is…your job is to make the artist look good.”
He emphasizes the concept of not holding on too tightly to a singular musical identity, “I’m a rocker. I’m a [this] or [that]. I’ve never enjoyed that. What I love is music. I love how it can express different things.”
He gets into practical limitations when being presented with songs that he refers to as “trouble arrangements” (i.e. something is structurally off from the onset), and how he deals with that:
“They do silly things like, they don’t have the vocal chorus in the chorus at a pitch, about a fourth, higher than the rest of the song…95% of hit songs have the chorus higher than the verses. It’s “Songwriting 101” and, yet, a lot of people [do that]. So then you have to think, “What can I do to the chorus to make it have that high, exciting, dynamic push ‘up’?'”
Sound advice, and one of many strategic fundamentals you can find in the book.
Then there are specific scenarios with artists, where the brilliance of the song takes the lead, and the rest follows…
Richard references Depeche Mode:
“I did two songs for them, and they were both just, really nice songs so I didn’t want to go ape-sh#@! crazy, bonkers, driller-killer – there was no need to. I wanted to enhance these beautiful songs that they’d written.”
When working on Grace Jones’ “Slave to the Rhythm”, Producer Trevor Horn gave Richard the following guidance: “Impress me.”
“That is a red rag to this bull [i.e. Richard], certainly….and I had as much fun as I could because you knew you were working with people who wanted exciting, new ideas,” continuing to say that he always makes his decisions tailored to the need of the client.
However, it’s always anchored on basic principles that “everyone should be thinking about” – which he lays out in this his course on Pro Mix Academy – such as the following:
- “Understand the song construction.”
- “See which parts of the song need helping,
- Thinking about dynamics and all these things.”
You’ll also see Richard take multiple hits from different eras of pop music and show you how they put these principles into action.
Writing for the “Evocative Register”
I relate an anecdote about an algorithm (presented to me a few years back) that was focused on looking for commonalities across many popular songs. The findings dealt with a certain vocal performance effect that seemed to guarantee appeal from the general listener.
I asked Richard for tips related to capturing this type of appeal in an arrangement.
He starts with the vocal example:
“Many songs, over the years, I’ve heard the song and I say, ‘You know the song’s in the wrong key for the singer, don’t you?’…because it’s not at that ‘edge’. You’ve gotta pitch this at least a third [degree] higher, and it’ll sound much better.”
He notes that this is an all-too-common problem he’s faced across his projects.
This is a non-trivial detail because so much of what seems to make a song resonate with a listener is the emotion it evokes.
He then talks about instrumentation:
“With instruments, it’s the same principle because what you’re taking here is about orchestration. You don’t write Jon Bon Jovi’s voice in the same range as you would write Neil Diamond’s voice because they’re different singers…it’s the same thing with cellos – you want to use their most evocative registers.”
He elaborates, “If you’re writing things like strings…you’ve got to think about where the band is. The band is right in that middle register. If you write in that [same] middle register…it’s going to get lost.”
“That’s orchestration,” he summarizes.
This underscores the reality that formulas do exist and that deliberate choices can make all the difference when there’s a goal to achieve for a musical work.
And for one final philosophical takeaway, Richard builds on the previous point, referencing an element like a guitar solo:
“You are focusing the listener’s attention on what you want them to listen to. During the guitar solo, you don’t [want to] have a lot of other stuff going on – you’ve got enough going on with that guitar solo. You want to make it sound as great as possible…you want to have all of the elements there to serve your ‘master’, which is, whoever’s in focus, at the moment.”
Thanks for watching the video and don’t forget to check out the book, which is a must-have tool for anyone looking to lean further into effective songwriting, arranging, and production.
And also if you haven’t already…get Richard’s best selling course for only $57!
Thanks ever so much and have a marvellous day!
-Warren