What an awesome question! Let me tell you why it’s an awesome question… I get all of the potential answers from this question.
I’ve worked with bands that don’t want to do overdubs or many overdubs, because they’re like “We’ll never be able to perform this live!” And then I’ve worked in other situations where they have too much going on and it’s not necessarily a live thing- it just starts to get really crowded and starts not sounding like a band anymore!
As those of you who follow me know, my favorite band (and the reason why I started doing music) was Queen! The album was A Night At The Opera! To say it’s densely tracked would be the understatement of the decade! It’s super dense! But does it ever feel like it’s too much?
The basis of a song, like a Queen song for example, is Drums, Bass and Piano. Then it’s the layering of guitars. Because it’s so well produced and it fits the song, at no point are you overwhelmed by it and do you believe that it would be disappointing to see them live! If you watch live footage from that period, it’s pretty amazing what they do!
What they did when they did Bohemian Rhapsody live is actually use a tape for all of the massive harmonies! P!NK does Bohemian Rhapsody live and her along with all her back up singers pull it off and it’s amazing! Now if Queen had gone out with a bunch of background singers as well, they probably could have pulled it off!
My point is, is that it’s dependent on one thing and one thing only… THE SONG!
If the song carries the big production, then it’s fine! If it feels like it works, if it feels like it needs a gospel then great! Do it!
I hope you enjoyed today’s FAQ Friday! I’ll see you next week!
