Ariel Rechtshaid

“Being pulled out of my comfort zone helps me. That has a little bit to do with my personality: anything that I can fully predict, like if I know certain chords work well together, doesn't really excite me.”

The idea of ritual is an important one in the creative process. Some artists need the comfort of ritual to create, whether it’s a certain place, time of day, or even a favorite pen. Others thrive on the opposite: discomfort. It’s chaos that makes them thrive. And it’s this discomfort, this unpredictability, that has made Ariel Rechtshaid one of the most sought after and successful producers in the last decade because it’s what drives his creative instinct. He works the best when what he’s presented with—whether it’s an artist, instrument, or even chord structure—is unfamiliar to him.

Rechtshaid has won three Grammys, the most recent this year for Best Alternative Album with Vampire Weekend’s Father of the Bride. (The other two were for Adele’s 25 and Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires of the City.) Rechtshaid has also worked with U2, Madonna, HAIM, Usher, Brandon Flowers, and Sky Ferriera, among many others. He spans the genres: Rechtshaid co-wrote Usher’s Grammy winning “Climax” and produced the #1 song “Hey There Delilah” by The Plain White T’s from 2007. Read my interview with him about his creative process after the video.

Do you have any other creative outlets besides music?

A

I get so busy in the studio that it's probably easier to talk about things that have fallen by the wayside. I actually started out as more of a visual artist. When I was a kid I really liked to paint and draw. Then as I got a bit older in high school and got my hands on a computer I became interested in practical art. But music was of course always happening. I took piano lessons but dropped out. I became obsessed with records, with artwork on records, and with reading record covers inside and out. Then when I got my hands on a guitar suddenly I could play songs that I heard on those records. It immediately became a songwriting instrument.

Are you writing most of your songs on guitar?

A

I started out writing songs on guitar, and here's why. I'm an only child, and my parents both worked. They used to send me off to this hippie camp for the better part of the summer when I was a kid. It turned out to be an amazing experience. There was Cat Stevens and Bob Dylan music around, and since it was the 90s there was grunge around too. So I had a folky songwriting influence in my life and a grunge influence. Guitar was the original instrument, but I go back and forth now, depending on what I'm going for. Sometimes for a certain kind of song, a pad on a synthesizer is the easiest for me, and then other times it's as open ended as a bass guitar where I'm just playing root notes. Sometimes it even stars with drums, where the rhythm inspires the song itself.

Many songwriters have told me how using different instruments keeps their process fresh.

A

Exactly. If you sit down in front of the same instrument year after year after year, it can get stale. But if you push a button and a drumbeat starts, that creates that element of unpredictability in your process.

How important is discipline to a songwriter’s creative process? And along those lines, do you think it’s important for artists to take a break from creating so that they can come back to the process re-energized?

A

For an artist who's interested in self expression and finding those moments that define who they are, I think you need discipline. The perfect song has everything: something that really feels like you and speaks to your narrative and is in the style that you want to tap into and is likable. You can have all of those but one, and the song isn't a home run. And that takes discipline.

I do think breaks are important, but it's hard for me to say, because music has become my job, and I'm bound to the studio daily. One on hand, you need to exercise that songwriting muscle as much as you can until you feel spent. But you also need time to recuperate, a vacation just like any other job. It's important to subconsciously soak up inspiration everywhere you go and then come back into your space.

“Being pulled out of my comfort zone helps me personally. I think a lot of my best work has come in being uncomfortable, saying I can’t do this and then sitting down and actually being surprised by the outcome”

What made you want to go into production?

A

I quickly found myself not wanting to be the center of attention. I became interested in finding what the artist I'm producing has inside of them that they want to get out. That's my starting point. I want to find that authentic narrative, what's deep inside of them, then draw it out. Hopefully, I'll get inspired by it and write something new because of it. I've always been much more interested in the big concepts. I mean, I'll certainly go into a songwriting session just write a song. But I think I shine more where it's a big picture concept. That's why so much of what I've been involved with is more album oriented.

How important is environment to your process? Do you need certain things with you, or can you create almost anywhere?

A

Being pulled out of my comfort zone helps me personally. A lot of my best work has come in being uncomfortable, saying I can't do this and then sitting down and actually being surprised by the outcome. That has a little bit to do with my personality: anything that I can fully predict, like if I know certain chords work well together, doesn't really excite me. My most exciting times have been when I thought there was there was no way I was going to pull something off and then somehow it comes together. Like when I'm working in an unfamiliar genre and none of my tools are with me. Those are the most exciting for me.

Any specific stories come to mind?

A

One that comes to mind is the song "Climax" with Usher. I wasn't an r&b songwriter or producer. In fact, I was pretty far from it. His process was foreign to me because it had to be extremely uncalculated. We were writing the song from scratch in the studio. I had nothing to lean on, no pre-written anything.

I flipped through some ideas I had in a folder, and they were all very minimal, nothing fully fleshed out. They were mostly five second snippets. I'd find something and play it, then read Usher's expression. Mostly he was not reacting, then occasionally he’d react to something. There was something he reacted to that was only just a split second of something like a electronic drone sound. It was nothing; there were no cords involved.

I bookmarked that sound in my mind and went off to a little corner, and I just started to play with it. I was even using software that I'd never really used before, and I played chords around the drone in the same key. I worked on it some more and played it for him, and he lit up. He started riffing along to it in a high falsetto, and that moved me because I had never heard anything like that in front of me. I started recording it, and we started to play with it and add to the melodies. We’d find a word or two then turned those words into a story that related to him. By the end of the night we had essentially 90% of the song and it felt like a real achievement. The whole process was a heart racing challenge.

Do you typically do a lot of revision to your lyrics?

A

I think I’m annoyingly into revision. It’s important to me because I'm really into lyrics, As I said earlier, a home run is when the song really speaks to the narrative of the artist or the narrative of the album. Sometimes the song is so good, but just beneath the surface the lyrics are not hitting all the marks, When that happens, I do feel it's important to revise.

I also think it’s important to remember that original spark for the song and to go back to it so that you don’t lose it. I’ve always got those voice memos and demos to make sure I didn’t lose anything from that original spark. But I have to make sure that when I return to it, I elevate it.

Photo by Ryan Hunter