Photo by Dave Zylstra
Gary Tanin
Gary Tanin first saw the inside of a recording studio as a teenage rock musician in the 1960s. Nowadays, his home is his studio. Tanin’s Daystorm Music is among a handful of Milwaukee recording facilities that continue to thrive in the digital age of home recording, partly because he was an early adopter of that new technology, partly because of his long track record. Tanin’s latest project was producing Time, Time, Time, Time, Time, the new album by New York pianist-songwriter Jack Spann, a musician who recorded demos with acclaimed producer Tony Visconti for David Bowie’s final album, Blackstar.
So you know Tony Visconti?
We first connected through CompuServe back in ’93—I’d post things to this forum where I encountered Tony Visconti. At first I though there must be a million guys named Tony Visconti but he turned out to be the Tony Visconti. We started sharing production ideas, we started emailing. In 1997 when I produced Sam Llanas’ A Good Day to Die, I sent him a copy and he came back to me with a wonderful review of the record.
I would imagine that a producer in his position might ignore someone reaching out to him from Milwaukee.
I managed not to piss him off. I made sure I didn’t push it in the wrong direction and maintained proper etiquette. Also, he was aware of the work I was doing with Daryl Stuermer and Roger Powell. Tony was working on a recording at the same studio as the band Tall Boys of Kentucky and suggested that they talk to me about mastering and remixing. That was 2008. Finally, his son, Morgan, who worked for a huge advertising firm, was responsible for the 2010 J.C. Penny’s Christmas commercial and needed mastering overnight. I got it done.
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So Jack Spann came up in conversation?
Yes, we’d talk about projects he was working on. I got an email one day from Jack contacting me about remixing a couple of songs he recorded himself. I knew immediately that if this was the caliber of his songwriting, I wanted to hear more.
Did he come to Milwaukee to record If I’m Ever in Love?
It was all done over the Internet. Jack sent me files via Dropbox. I dropped them into Pro Tools and went to work. I gave him suggestions and added keyboard parts of my own. I play on nine of the 10 tracks.
Did you pick the songs?
This guy is prolific! I curated and curating material is a big part of what a producer can do. I had the idea to focus on his fabulous chops as a pianist—his ability to be lyrical and graceful on the grand piano—and picked material to support that aspect of his talent. Another part of a producer’s job should be making the songs sound like they belong together on an album.
Nowadays, when anyone can buy Pro Tools and make an album in their living room, why come to a producer at all?
First of all it’s for the producer’s experience. Together with my colleague Ric Probst, we’ve done hundreds of albums and have a hundred years of experience. You can’t get Artificial Intelligence to tell you how to do a plug-in in Pro Tools. It requires human judgment.
Jack Spann, accompanied by drummer Donna Kelly, will perform material from Time, Time, Time, Time, Time at 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 21 at Linnemann’s Riverwest Inn. Dave Fitzpatrick will open the show.
