Headroom: John Stoddart on Producing Vocals and Collaboration (Episode 79)

Work begets work.

John Stoddart made his way to the big leagues as a piano player, composer and singer-songwriter, working with Celine Dion, Michael McDonald, Sandi Patty, Boney James, Al Jarreau, Will Downing, Take 6 and Patti Austin, and releasing records as an artist in his own right. He and Nomad met when they were both working with the legendary Kirk Whalum.

In Episode 79 of The Career Musician, the two old friends talk about the long game: a 20-year creative partnership, how to produce vocals, how musicians communicate, and why music production is still about human connection.

A musical gumbo, honored one tradition at a time

John started singing in church at two or three years old and hated it. He was shy, so the piano became his way out, and he barely sang again until high school. He grew up Seventh-day Adventist in a musical tradition he describes as incredibly diverse, from a cappella groups to orchestras, and he studied classical piano all the way through college. He also loved big band, 20th-century classical composers, old movie musicals, then Sting and David Foster. His wife calls it his "clean out the refrigerator soup."

Versatility is a strength, but John holds it to a standard. When someone asks why he doesn't make a pipe organ record, he takes the compliment and declines, because he knows people who practice organ six or seven hours a day.

"We honor the time it takes to not just do music, but to do a particular type of music really, really well."

John Stoddart, 11:11

Twenty years with one artist

John has worked with Kirk Whalum as musical director for years and has co-produced nearly every Kirk record of the last 20 years. Their first gig together is one of the best stories in the episode. It was a duo date, just saxophone and piano, at a church outside Chicago. At the end of the hymn "Great Is Thy Faithfulness," in E-flat, Kirk held out the five chord. Everyone expects the one chord next. Kirk played an E natural instead, a curveball to see what John had.

John found a way to make it sound like that was the plan all along. He doesn't even remember exactly what he played. Kirk has been calling him for 20 years since. John's lesson: all that theory you geek out about, all the voicings you learn and wonder when you'll ever use, is for moments like that. He calls it headroom.

"When you play the right chord, it feels differently when you had 12 other choices but you chose this one, as opposed to this was the only choice you had available."

John Stoddart, 59:57

That's Luck = preparation + opportunity. The practice is the preparation. The curveball is the opportunity.

Make time for "fallow time"

With five or six solo albums plus a Christmas record, John admits he hasn't mastered balancing his own artist career with producing and arranging for others. The artist's work gets back-burnered. Part of the reason is that inspiration needs space. He calls it fallow time, the farming term for a field left unplanted for a season.

Nomad pointed out that artists who seem to do everything at once usually have teams behind them. Both admit that letting go is hard for "control guys." John is still learning to build a team, attract great talent and accept that it won't be exactly how he would do it himself, but it will still be great.

Producing indie artists and vocals

About 40 percent of the artists John produces aren't full-time musicians. They love music, have talent, and want to make a record. One longtime session and party band singer finally made her first solo album, and they took two to two and a half years to find who she was as an artist. His analogy: an outfit can look great in the store window and not fit you, while something you'd never have picked fits perfectly. Songs work the same way. Try things, even karaoke, and sometimes just changing the key by a half step makes it a completely different song for the singer.

On vocals, John adjusts to the singer. Some great singers he cuts loose for two or three passes and then crafts. Others need to be walked through verse by verse. Either way, the producer shapes the song, and the producer provides emotional support, because singing into a dry mic is a naked, vulnerable thing.

"When your singer or your artist feels really comfortable behind the microphone and with you in that sort of naked emotional state, that's when you're going to get your most honest and your best stuff."

John Stoddart, 35:36

Nomad confessed to the old "stop the tape" habit. John's version: that was great, we're keeping that, try one more and this time try this. He records vocals dry, with no reverb or tuning, so you can hear the nuances. When stacking, every singer has to say the last consonant the same and phrase every run the same way. Attention to detail early yields the big result later.

Language is for communicating

The two of them had a theory nerd moment about how piano players, guitarists and horn players spell the same chord differently. John's point is practical. As an MD with two days to rehearse 20 songs, he writes the chord the way the player in front of him will hear it fastest. At the end of the day, language is for communicating.

And they agreed that some records still need everybody in the same room. They talked about a Nashville session with the whole band live and the story, as John tells it, that Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You," with Kirk's sax solo, was captured live. Remote production lets John bring Nomad onto projects from across the country, but there is a synergy in the room you can't get any other way.

Home training and the callback

Asked about his business principles, John credits home training: be on time or early, be prepared, over-deliver, be polite, hold the door for the musician carrying four things. So much of music happens "in between the notes," relationally.

If people like working with you, you get called back, and you get recommended. That's Low maintenance / no drama and Reliability beats virtuosity as a way of life, from a player with plenty of virtuosity.

The takeaway

John's closing words: music is synergetic and relational. Technology can let you make music alone in a room, so be intentional about staying connected and keeping people around you who challenge you and make you better. Expose yourself to music unlike what you make, especially live music. If you're preparing for your own curveball moment, start with the free Audition Secrets guide, and find John's music at johnstoddart.com.

Get the gig. Keep the gig. Build the career.

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