I recently sat down with one Mr. Kyle Crusham – producer, engineer, composer, and jack of all trades.
We discuss working with the likes of Charlie Sexton, Christopher Cross (both huge talents but particularly on the guitar), Edie Brickell, AND Paul Simon!
A Little Background
Kyle began his early career at Tequila Mockingbird wearing many hats but, predominantly engineering and composing songs for commercial content. He quickly moved on to producing some Herculean musical acts and eventually, starting his own music company.
One thing that struck me about him – and this is an attribute I have found in those I admire – is being able to diversify his music-adjacent talents, while also knowing how and when to best play to those talents, and ultimately get the job done right. He also emphasizes the importance of being a “yes” person in a studio context – figuring out what you don’t know, quickly.
He credits a lot of his cross-discipline knowledge to this earlier exposure to commercial music production, particularly with observing sound design – and this came into play later, when working with Paul Simon.
A few years into his career he found himself engineering Edie Brickell’s 3rd album (playfully referenced as “Weenie Dog” you’ll see what we mean), with Sexton producing. Kyle developed a great rapport with the artist and, as things tend to happen, led to a project with the one-and-only Paul Simon.
But that’s the sense you get from Kyle: he’s a talented, well-rounded person who gets to work with talented people (who happen to be ultra-famous) due to the merits of his work. When speaking on any of his guitar contributions on the tracks he’s worked on he simply looks at it as, “playing the right thing, at the right time.”
And that also hints at the fact that (being a musician himself) he understands how they think, and work, in a writing and studio context. Kyle relates an anectdote about working with Edie Brickell and her band, where she had no material coming into the project; and how he was able to work off of her unique process and cues, in order to help shape the songs and recordings. That’s a skill you don’t come across often!
Now, another part of this conversation that resonates with me, personally, is his work with Paul Simon. Growing up, Paul Simon’s guitar playing was hugely influential on my development as a guitar player – particularly on the acoustic guitar.
Which brings us to his role on Paul Simon’s “Seven Psalms” album.
“Seven Psalms”
After having a few of Edie Brickell’s albums under his belt, she approached him with the following proposition, “Hey, you’re going to work with Paul…”
Excuse me?
Of this experience, Kyle relates the following:
“The initial recordings were done in Connecticut…we were working in a log cabin [in Texas]…with bad power and it was really noisey…I would try to match as he would come up with new parts…”
Naturally, recording new material is rife with challenges but it becomes a different beast when that material already exists in one form.
Kyle continues, “Paul would say, ‘I’ve written a melody’ and we would have to either edit it or replay and, kind of, concept how it would work.”
Talk about a challenge and opportunity as well! There were also some logistical snags that arose when tracking new parts. Kyle was looking to work around Paul Simon’s already tride-and-true process, rather than box him in.
He had kept moving back from the mic, caught up in the moment (as true artist does).
“Eventually I put things behind the furniture so he wouldn’t move backwards.”
And then there were some of the other challenges: “The temperature would be different; the guitar would sound different.”
Regardless, the result was nothing short of stellar and Kyle managed to both capture great performances and allow Paul Simon todo what he does best, make unforgettable music.
Watch here to learn more about this process from the inside and so many other great behind-the-scenes moments from Kyle’s career!
Listen to Paul Simon’s Seven Psalms here!
