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TO THE AVANT-GARDE OF PRODUCTION

"The greatest difficulty in producing
is to convince the artistic part and the
commercial one at the same time"

Silvia Calado Olivo. Madrid, October 2003

Tino di Geraldo (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

How do you tackle the production work?

I like that part a lot. It's hard because as a producer you're dealing directly with the business, you're between the artistic and what is purely commercial, you have to face up to both sides and convince both sides. And no matter how well you do so, if that doesn't show up in the numbers, you're always going to be a shit, you're never going to have prestige. You can make a lot of albums, nothing happens with any of them and if you produce an artist it's because he feels like it. But for you to be called by a company, it's because there are some numbers at stake... something which hasn't happened to be yet. I'd love for it to happen to me. It's a way of betting. I'd like to stop toiling and, occasionally, get a juicy deal to be able to do what I like even more so. And one of the few ways of achieving that is producing because you're betting directly, you're creating a pool and the mere fact of being able to do so is fantastic... You winning is another matter.

What is your criteria when choosing who to produce?

I'd never make a record of something I didn't like or I didn't believe in. Well, there'd have to be a lot of money on the table. I'd sell myself out... but at a high price. I did things I was neither interested in nor liked at the beginning in order to learn because producing is a job which, besides talent and good taste, requires knowledge at several levels: technical, musical... I made a few rotten albums, but on purpose. It was an opportunity. They were records with a minimumudget and there wasn't even a dime for me in them. I did it three or four times until I said "now I have my diploma, starting now if I do this it's because I feel like it or it interests me". From that moment on, I did Tomasito, Elbicho, Diego Carrasco, Jazzpaña, Luz Casal's latest album... It's not worthwhile to produce if it doesn't interest you and you don't feel like it, because it's like getting married; if you're not really sure it's horrible, it's a real nightmare.

Do you put a mark on the productions you do?

I think there is a Tino mark, although I'm not the best person to say so. On some, I've played half of what you hear. It's easy to note my mark there; it's more me. But other things like this by Elbicho I didn't play anything, but I manipulated everything with the technique we have at our reach. It might show. Everyone has his way and it's good to be recognized, although what's really good is that the record is OK, that the group and those songs are on the record and it sounds as good as possible. It's a matter of simply not ruining it. If you manage that, you've already done ninety percent. And bringing out the max, squeezing... Sometimes you come across things they haven't seen and you have to draw it out. You have to stay alert and make the most of what's there, whatever it may be.

How are new technologies influencing a producer's 'modus operandi'?

It influences first in the comfort you have nowadays of working at home, something which was unthinkable years ago. Really recording, not just demos, can be done perfectly at home without having it fitted out. You no longer have to spend two months in a studio to record. To do the same thing nowadays you only need four days in a studio... and because at home, because of the neighbors, I can't record drums. I bring the drums recorded at the studio under my arm and at home I manipulate it as I please. The budgets also change. Of course, it's kick ass to work at home, and especially to be alone, not to have even an engineer there. In a studio you're always telling someone come over here, play there, stop there. When you're alone you have no shame in doing it eighty more times. And at any time of day. And that has its disadvantages, of course, since sometimes things aren't so fresh after going through them so much, editing them so much, with all the options you have. On the contrary, at times you record a little something and it's finished in one take. And that's what I spent so much on a computer for? Well, hell yeah.

For example, the other day with Queco I needed to record clapping as a buffer, which is there in the back wrapping everything up. I did it on the computer in ten minutes. In ten seconds I did four tracks together. It turned out perfect, as if there were twenty people clapping. If that's what you want, then it's good. Why are you going to spend the whole afternoon on it? And what a pain that is. "Is that clapping OK?" And the others there sweating with their headphones on. In that case, it's not worth bringing four people, an entire day... I do it on the computer with my clapping. Now, if what you want is, as in the case of Tomasito, real clapping through soleá with breathing and olé and everything, I take five guys from Jerez to El Cortijo in Málaga and you set them up comfortably. And come on, let's record. With those takes, I still have the option of manipulating or doing whatever I feel like. And the only way is the same old one; one person and go for it.

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