Phone Interview with Arty Skye: Music Producer and President of Skye Lab Music Group written by Katie McCort

A little bit about Arty:

“Arty Skye has worked with major stars such as Will Smith, Madonna, Alicia Keys, Santana, 98 Degrees, Queen Latifah, Missy Elliot, Public Enemy, Wu-Tang Clan and many more.”

“Skye is also the recipient of the prestigious Visionary Award presented by 3M for his outstanding work on SWV’s Three #1 HITS on the Billboard R&B Charts. As a songwriter, Arty has had Two #1 Hits on the Billboard Dance Charts, as well as writing songs for TV, movies and commercials.”

“Arty Skye has been producing and engineering in New York City for over 25 years and has worked on over 1,000 records. Soon after his band recorded with RCA in the early 80′s, Skye pursued a career as a recording engineer and music producer. His level of technical excellence and his creative musical talent quickly placed him amongst New York’s top engineer/producers, earning him 14 Platinum and Gold records and 2 Grammy nominations!”

Why did you decide to put together SkyLab?

It was back in 1994 when we [put together SkyLab]. I was working in Quad Studios at the time, doing a lot of sessions over there. I wanted a place in the city where I could do my own production. I always had my eye on a room on the sixth floor in Quad Studios. When that opened up, I went to the owner, Louis Gonzalez, and said ‘could I take over that room?’ And he said ‘yeah I was always looking to do a small studio in there, so if you want to be partners, we’ll be partners.’ He and I were partners, we included a third partner, and we called it SkyLab. Three years later, I decided it was time to move out and go on my own. I built a studio on 43rd street, which was a much bigger facility. That was around for about ten years and then we moved over to 46th street and Broadway. [There] the concentration has been more on the production company than the actual studio.

What makes Skylab so successful? Why is it different as opposed to other studios in the country?

As a studio, we’re not necessarily more successful than other studios. 9 out of 10 of the major world- class studios have closed down in the last 10 years. Most of the work that I was getting was coming from record companies and publishing companies. As records were cut and as record sales went down, as studios started to close, and as the record industry started to implode, I switched gears. We started to put more emphasis on working with independent artists and charging for our services like we would for record companies and publishing companies. It was at a fraction of the cost, but, with the technology being the way that is was, we were able to spend much less time and much less money producing a record than it used to cost. We were able to offer our services to individuals. We’ve expanded that to music marketing and we have photography services and we put together the artwork for the CD’s. We are a full service company, sort of like a record company would be.

What can you tell us about the equipment and acoustics used at the studio?

We have balanced rooms, but three of our studios just have vocal booths. We don’t have a big live room, so if we’re recording drums or if we’re recording a big sixteen piece string section we would rent out another studio for that aspect of the recording. For the rest of the recording we have Pro Tools HD systems, we have tons of plug-ins, racks for the guitars, processors, and all stuff like that. Like I said, three out of the four rooms are Pro Tools rooms. The other studio is a really nice pre-production room where we do a lot of work. We don’t have a vocal booth over there but we do a majority of our production work there.

How do you assemble your ‘dream team?’ Is there a secret to success when assembling SkyLab’s team?

If we need another production assistant or if we need a marketing assistant or whatever it is that we need, we’ll normally put it on Craig’s List, contact schools, put the word out to the people we know in the industry. I’m not comfortable unless I’m looking at at least 60 to 70 résumés. When we hit about 60 to 70 résumés, we narrow it down to about the 15 we feel are the strongest. We call them up on the phone and we have short phone interviews with them. We can usually weed out about 5 like that because if people aren’t intelligent on the phone or they don’t have any type of phone personality then we can’t use them. But, if they’re good on the phone we’ll set up interviews. I usually have about 10 people come in for interviews. We narrow it down from there and then we pick the people. There’s no real secret to it. You want somebody with a good personality. You want somebody who looks like they can figure out anything that comes up. So it’s not only a matter of what you know, it’s a matter of how intelligent you are to be able to figure out what you need to know because things are constantly changing.

You have written songs that are focused more towards the Billboard Charts and other songs which are for T.V. and Cinema. When you’re writing a song, does the purpose change the inspiration or are you usually locked in on the same group of influences?
No, 100 percent it’s the other way. You have to look at what the outcome is first, what is it you’re writing for? You have to write and you have to produce according to the market that you’re going for. If you’re producing a song for the dance market, lyrically it has to be something that can work on the dance floor, it has to be mixed and it has to sound a certain way. The vocals have to be at a certain level as compared to if you’re doing something along the lines of a commercial. That’s a whole different set of criteria. It may have to be locked into 30 seconds, the music can’t be too complicated at certain spots. The approach is completely different. If we’re writing a song and we’re doing it so an artist, say Rihanna, will be able to cover it, we’re going to write a song the way Rihanna would perform it. Would Rihanna do a song like this, would she not? We have to change the song to make it more in line with what the outcome is on the other end. It’s not just pulling information out of thin air. There are many perimeters that we have to work with.

Time and time again very successful producers started out as musicians. How does being a musician help you to be a better producer and engineer?

Understanding music is the first step towards being a producer. If you look at top music producer, Quincy Jones, the guy is an incredible musician and that’s what you need to be able to do. You need to be able to understand a number of different instruments. You have to understand from the engineering point of view the different sound qualities of the different instruments and how they all fit together. You have to have all of these tools in your tool box to become a good producer. I don’t think it’s a one-to- one correlation, but you definitely have to have a certain level of musicianship. Maybe not for
everything. If you’re doing hip-hop you may not need to be a musician. If you’re going to go into producing any type of jazz you better really know your music. It’s hard to be able to do that without fully understanding what’s going on.

Is there a difference when working with a smaller record company compared to working with a label such as Sony Music, or does it not matter whether you’re dealing with one of the Big Four or a smaller label?

It matters, but what matters more is not necessarily the company. What matters more is the representative of the company that you’re working with. If I was working with Sony Music and I’m working with an A&R guy from Sony Music, three years later he could be working for a small independent label and he’s going to operate roughly the same way. My relationship with him is going to be roughly the same way as it was when he was over at Sony. The budget is bigger when you’re working with major labels and lots of times there’s more money wasted at the big label level for some very silly things because with an independent label it goes to the owner of the label and the owner of the label is going to be concerned about his cost, he’s going to be concerned about the way things are done and they need to be done in a proper fashion without money being wasted. In major labels I’ve seen tremendous amounts of money being wasted. I’ve seen very stupid moves. I’ve seen records completely mastered and ready for release but the samples weren’t included before we did that. So we have to go back in the studios and redo the samples and remix and remaster which wastes an incredible amount of money. That’s what I find with an independent label doesn’t happen as much.

You work with so many different genres and different types of artists. Do you find that it is more gratifying to work on any one genre in particular?

I wish I could say yes, but no. I could be working on a pop thing and really get into it and then I can jump into a rock thing and pick up guitars and really get into that. Then I could be involved in a dance track that we’re doing and I’ll get into that. A lot of it has to do with the quality of the music. If the singer is a really good singer and he or she is really singing something that I’m feeling and lyrically it means something, the whole track is pumping and it’s a great song it doesn’t matter if it’s rock or pop or dance. It’s how good it is that really inspires me.

What one thing has changed the most since you started SkyLab regarding technology?

When we started we had big consoles 10 to 15 feet long, racks and racks of out-port gear, racks of keyboards, samplers, and drum machines, 20,000 feet of cable wired up, and it was a much harder learning curve for everyone involved to step into a studio and actually work. In the analog world, we had to do a lot of tricks and things that were very creative to get certain sounds. Now, with a really good computer and with some good software, we can now do more on a computer. Right now I’m sitting here and with my Mac in front of me and a small rack of gear I can now do more on this computer than I ever dreamed of being able to do on half a million dollars’ worth of gear in the original SkyLab back in 1994. It’s really come a long way and there’s good and bad in that. Most of it I think is good because if we have more tools at our disposal we can do things better, quicker, easier. At the same time, there’s part of me that misses having my hands on console and working in that world, so it’s a tradeoff.

Do you still use analog?

Very little. We have vintage analog pre amps, vintage mics, and guitars when played live, that’s all analog. As far as recording, mixing-everything is done on the computer.

What has been the hardest part about running your business?

I would say the change in the industry because I really have to make a major change to keep a business. Unfortunately, I see a lot of colleagues of mine that have won Grammys, have 20 Gold/Platinum Records, have number one hits, all have tremendous amounts of success that have left the industry because they couldn’t make a living anymore. As I said before, a lot of large businesses have closed down and it’s not the same industry that it was ten, fifteen years ago. A lot of these producers are teachers in schools, cars salesmen, and insurance salesmen. I know a guy who went into technical computer work. Thank God, I was able to make that transition for myself, which is basically marketing our services to independent labels, independent musicians, independent singers, and not rely on the record and publishing companies for the majority of our work.

Economically, have you made any decisions which you’ve regretted?

I think I closed the studio at the right time and made the transition at the right time, I got rid of the console at the right time. We closed the big studio back in 2005 and that was the right time, but I will say this: When we closed the studio that had a majority of our gear and moved into the entirely Pro Tools, all digital studios, there was a tremendous amount of analog gear that we planned on selling. Unfortunately, most of it I never got around to selling and it’s now worth a fraction of what it was. So, that’s my regret. I did not sell my analog gear fast enough. But the console, I sold, the tape machines, I sold, the expensive out-port gear, I sold, so no major regrets.

Does SkyLab completely fit your vision or is there still room to grow?

There is tremendous room to grow. My vision of SkyLab is an international music empire and I haven’t gotten it yet, but the way that I see it is, I would like to see SkyLab with 20 producers working around the clock, studios in all of the major cities. I would like us to really be a powerhouse as far as being able to break artists all over the radio. The same thing that a record company does for artists, I would like to do it the SkyLab way which is cost effective for the artist because the artists are funding it and at the same time, the artists are profiting from it. So instead of the artist taking 10 percent of a record sale, the artist is coming out with the majority of the money. So they can sell fewer records and be able to sustain their music career. We would like to do that for more and more artists. We would like this to be the way that is accepted in the industry and shape the way the new industry is.