Features

Reid Genauer: From Stuffed Animals to String Sections: The Art of Collaboration

-Photo by C. Taylor Crothers_

This weekend Reid Genauer and Assembly of Dust will perform over two nights at New York City’s Mercury Lounge. Here’s a look back at his My Page piece, which ran in the July 2009 Relix.

There is hardly a morning that I’m not bombarded with piercing screams from either my three-year-old son or his younger brother as the two wrestle over stuffed animals, remote controls, cell phones and other assorted household debris. It drives me nuts, but it fascinates me as well.

It seems to me there’s some innate desire for individuals to “own” their lives. Most of us are control freaks in one way, shape or form—from babies to bosses, even to bandleaders. What’s ironic is that most of the greatest human accomplishments, including the domestication of livestock, the Great Wall of China, spaceships—and of course music—are all the result of successful collaborations. It’s a lesson that has taken me a long time to learn. And I’m still not sure I have it down.

As I look back at the spectrum of rock greats and even my own little corner of rock history, it’s hard not to point to collaboration as a catalyst for success. McCartney and Lennon, Garcia and Hunter, Simon and Garfunkel, even Hall and Oates! Many times, when a collaboration comes to the end of its natural life, the individual contributors are unable to attain the same richness in their art. It’s the absence of their “yang” that gets ‘em in the end.

Having said that, there are plenty of examples where musicians go beyond their own constructs to find new direction and inspiration in the heart of new partnerships. Paul Simon collaborated with [nearly] half of Africa and it worked! Garcia had a string of successful projects beyond the Grateful Dead. Aerosmith, Madonna, Béla Fleck, Philip Glass, David Byrne—great collaborators!

It’s the ability of these artists to divorce themselves from their own self-created molds and to adopt new musical genetics that has propelled their success. This insight has increasingly informed my approach to making music and also helped define the vision for Assembly of Dust’s latest record— Some Assembly Required.

My bandmates Andy Herrick (drums), John Leccese (bass) and Adam Terrell (guitar) are all accomplished musicians and veteran recording artists. The process of collaboration began, as it always does, with them. We decided to take the notion of collaboration one step further by inviting a guest musician to perform on each song. We did our best to invite artists that we thought would understand and complement our musical aesthetic. Similarly we did our best to pair artists with songs that seemed to fit their musical style—to place them in a petri dish that was hospitable. The truth was, even with all of the prep, late-night coaching and the regular prodding, there was no way of knowing what we would get back.

This creative chasm was fed by the fact that many of the recordings were done remotely. We uploaded the tracks, the artists’ engineers downloaded the tracks, artists recorded, sent it all back via the Web and then we downloaded to our studio. This virtual recording process brought us from North Carolina to Nashville, from Colorado to California and everywhere in between.

One of the most pointed surprises, and arguably one of the most interesting collaborations, was with Martin Sexton. He opted not to sing a verse or sing harmony but rather to add “electric vocals” to a track. The effect is something like a slide guitar—absolutely genius and totally unexpected.

Hands down this has been the most challenging but most rewarding record I’ve ever been a part of. It was a massive project with lots of disparate input and tons of details. The result is a meal that had no recipe but feels surprisingly balanced and intentional.

So, at the ripe old age of 36, I find myself revisiting one of the first lessons I ever learned. By way of example from my band and my two young sons, I am finally learning how to share my toys.