being honest with clients
There have been countless moments where someone walks into the studio, sees the microphone collection or fixates on some piece of equipment that they find pretty, and just beyond a doubt believes that I’m some kind of magician who has infinite knowledge of every facet of music making known to man. As much as my ego would love to start rattling off intellectual buzzwords and over-explaining every little thing just to impress (often I do this not realizing what I’m doing just because I’m passionate about the subject), keeping your cards close to your chest is HUGE. Not that the point of all this is to have power or manipulate people, but I’m often reminded of one of Robert Greene’s 48 laws of power; always say less than necessary. This leaves an air of mystery to your craft that will endear people to your process, and take your opinion more seriously.
Now, the important word here is necessary. Communication is the biggest source of conflict in any relationship, and a long deliberative talk with your clients is one of the most important determinants of whether they will be satisfied with the product, or often more importantly, whether they will enjoy their time in the studio with you. When goals align is when magic can happen. During these conversations is when it’s most important not to lie by omission. I often have rappers come by the studio to record vocals to a beat that’s typically just a WAV file. And as much as they’d love to work with a producer that can whip up a beat magically before their eyes, that aint me babe. And I tell them this beforehand. In fact, I make sure to remind them multiple times so when we’re actually recording, I don’t feel pressured to do something, and they aren’t deluded to the point to ask me to do something that, well, I simply can’t do at the level that I’d be comfortable having someone pay me for.
When it comes to your strengths, however, is when you need to practice restraint. And I suck at this. Sometimes just feeling out the room and gauging reception of an earbeating about my fuzz factory pedal is the only way to know if it’s warranted or necessary. When someone books studio time with me, I always say ‘my toys are your toys.’ So occasionally I’ll need to explain how something works. I have to really hold myself back from continuing to explain beyond the bare minimum. If I go too far, I’ll remove the magic from the sonic experimentation and knob twiddling, or, even worse, turn the client off from using the toy to begin with because they associate it with with this weird guy’s obsession. You know, like when you tell someone you like a song from an artist and they start reciting their wikipedia entry. No way you’re listening to that band now, it’s this guy’s thing and this guy’s thing alone. People like it when they feel like they’re the one discovering this new thing that’s personal to them.
One final and obvious note; don’t say what you don’t know either. This happens most often when you’ve already captivated someone’s attention and you’re riding the high of impressing them. Stupid ego shit. I find that I often don’t even notice when it happens until after I’ve said it. I’ll be like, ‘wait is that me just speculating about the internal componentry of this preamp or did I hear that somewhere?’ Often it’s a moot point and they probably were zoned out from what I was saying anyway, so I just leave it.
So, bottom line, be completely transparent with what you don’t know, reserved with what you do know, and don’t let your desire to be impressive lead you to say stuff that’s not true. And I think these go far beyond consulting and freelancing; they can be used in countless interactions you have every day.
