This is a business of favors.<\/p>\n
And only an emotional obligation would have gotten me out of the house this afternoon.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s pouring rain, and in L.A. it’s either wimpy drizzle or the end of the world bucket drops, and Jason Flom wants me at the Mint at 5?<\/p>\n
Don’t schedule anything during rush hour.\u00c2\u00a0 Which at this point is seemingly from 6-10.\u00c2\u00a0 6 AM ’til 10 PM!\u00c2\u00a0 Traffic is so bad in Los Angeles I do my best to never leave my house.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just not worth it, I’m wasting too much time.\u00c2\u00a0 I shop at the supermarket after midnight, or online.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t want to while away my life gridlocked, no matter how much I love satellite radio.<\/p>\n
It’s coming down so heavily that I’ve got my wipers on the highest speed.\u00c2\u00a0 You know, the one that makes you think you’re on meth.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m shy of Robertson Boulevard, and I’ve been in my car for an hour already.\u00c2\u00a0 I want to kill somebody.\u00c2\u00a0 The woman in the Mercedes trying to nudge in front of me, maybe myself.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s not a single band worth this hell.\u00c2\u00a0 Except maybe the Beatles.\u00c2\u00a0 I spent a good chunk of the afternoon casing out some of their videos on YouTube, there’s this incredible footage of the band in Germany.\u00c2\u00a0 You can see Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours in action.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not self-conscious, they’re not uptight, they’ve played onstage ZILLIONS of times. They don’t need no stinking backup tapes.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re enough.\u00c2\u00a0 Watch a clip and understand why we needed to go to the gig, why music revolutionized the world.<\/p>\n
As opposed to the drivel today.\u00c2\u00a0 Except for a few tracks.\u00c2\u00a0 Oftentimes completely meaningless, but oh-so-right.\u00c2\u00a0 Like the Backstreet Boys’ "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)".\u00c2\u00a0 Not that I was thinking of that number while I was stuck in traffic.\u00c2\u00a0 I was working my way up the Sirius dial from 1 on into infinity!\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, I ended up stuck at the country station.\u00c2\u00a0 Sounded like music to me!<\/p>\n
And by time I reach the Mint, after the appointed hour, but before Jason has confidentially told me the act is going to hit the stage, it’s barely drizzling.\u00c2\u00a0 But I take my umbrella with me anyway, knowing that weather comes from the west, and I’d just emerged from a meteorological event that was the H20 equivalent of a conflagration.<\/p>\n
And when I get to the front door of the venue, Jason says we can’t go in.\u00c2\u00a0 The gig was called for 5.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s 5:20.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s supposed to go on in 5 minutes.\u00c2\u00a0 But Jason says it’s a legal issue.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m a lawyer, do I know what’s going on?\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe a nightclub law, who the fuck knows.\u00c2\u00a0 But now, after racing here, afraid I’m going to miss the 25 minute set, I’ve now got to wait, outside?<\/p>\n
I stand under the canopy and check my BlackBerry.\u00c2\u00a0 E-mail Felice.\u00c2\u00a0 I think about emerging onto the sidewalk to talk to Jason, but the guy next to him is smoking!\u00c2\u00a0 Didn’t he get the memo?\u00c2\u00a0 Does he want to die?\u00c2\u00a0 This little pipsqueak with the gay sneakers is killing himself and I’m not going to stand next to him and have to put my entire wardrobe in the wash when I get home, I’ve still got places to go and people to see tonight!<\/p>\n
But Jason motions with his arm and calls my name.\u00c2\u00a0 And introduces me to this living chimney.<\/p>\n
"Bob, do you know Max Martin?"<\/p>\n
Supposedly Max Martin is an overweight fifty year old who never leaves his house.\u00c2\u00a0 Hated by the industry for his talent, unknown by so many of the masses.\u00c2\u00a0 This can’t be him.\u00c2\u00a0 This can’t be the pop svengali.\u00c2\u00a0 He must be an impostor.\u00c2\u00a0 I must have heard wrong.<\/p>\n
And while my mind is bending, they’re asking me what’s up in my life and I can barely get it out.\u00c2\u00a0 This is Max Martin?!<\/p>\n
Soon thereafter they let us in, and like a groupie I hang by the Swedish mastermind and begin to quiz him.\u00c2\u00a0 How long is here for?\u00c2\u00a0 What’s he doing here?<\/p>\n
He must be nominated for some Grammy award.\u00c2\u00a0 But he tells me he’s here to cut a track with the Backstreet Boys.<\/p>\n
Isn’t one of them gone?<\/p>\n
Yeah, but he wasn’t a key vocal element.<\/p>\n
Yeah, the only key elements were Lou Pearlman and this shrimpy little 38 year old.<\/p>\n
That’s what he told me his age was.\u00c2\u00a0 I started getting his background.\u00c2\u00a0 He played in bands.\u00c2\u00a0 Then he went to work for Cheiron.\u00c2\u00a0 I had no fucking idea what he was talking about.\u00c2\u00a0 I just looked it up on Wikipedia.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a studio, there was this guy, who did Ace Of Base.\u00c2\u00a0 Max gave up singing and started writing and producing.<\/p>\n
And this is where I come in.\u00c2\u00a0 I tell him the conventional wisdom is wrong!\u00c2\u00a0 People say everything is cyclical. There were kid hits in the sixties, the boy bands were no different, it’s just the passing of the generations.\u00c2\u00a0 I told him this was incorrect.\u00c2\u00a0 New Kids On The Block sucked.\u00c2\u00a0 Their material was less than memorable.\u00c2\u00a0 But "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)"?\u00c2\u00a0 It may be meaningless, but it’s a fantastic record!\u00c2\u00a0 Same deal with "I Want It That Way".<\/p>\n
I tell Max Bruce has got it all wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 He needed to create one incredible track and whore it out.\u00c2\u00a0 Fuck an album.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the old model.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s about money, not music.\u00c2\u00a0 If the Boss had just had one killer track, Top Forty radio would be forced to play it.\u00c2\u00a0 He could whore it out for commercials, sports shows.\u00c2\u00a0 The track could become a cultural institution.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, he plays in front of ninety odd million people and moves a grand total of 250,000 records.\u00c2\u00a0 And if he’s lucky, 175,000 next week.<\/p>\n
So what kind of music does Max listen to in his spare time?<\/p>\n
Actually, he doesn’t listen to that much at all.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s a regular consumer.\u00c2\u00a0 He comes home and plays with his seven year old in silence.\u00c2\u00a0 He listens to the radio in his car. It’s an era of singles.<\/p>\n
But I tell him it’s about careers.<\/p>\n
And then, worried about monopolizing him, I let Max go.\u00c2\u00a0 He says we’ve got to continue the conversation, but is that just a figure of speech or..?<\/p>\n
I catch up with Lee Trink, talk to him about his new deal with Kwatinetz, and end up watching the show right in front of Doug Morris.\u00c2\u00a0 And although Oliver Leiber and the band are killing it, and the first track by Jason’s protege is quite good, I can’t stop thinking about Max.\u00c2\u00a0 And then it hits me.\u00c2\u00a0 I just met a rock star.<\/p>\n
I would have nothing to say to Britney.\u00c2\u00a0 Not more than a word to Kelly Clarkson.\u00c2\u00a0 They were just two dimensional vessels, marketed to the masses.\u00c2\u00a0 But what made it all work were the tracks underneath, so often written and produced by Max Martin.<\/p>\n
I bought that initial Britney Spears albums.\u00c2\u00a0 "…Baby One More Time" is one of the best tracks of the nineties.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s as much sex as any hip-hop hit, but a sassiness and intimacy and a catchiness evidenced in the classic pop tracks.<\/p>\n
And the reason anybody even cares about Kelly Clarkson is "Since U Been Gone".<\/p>\n
I realized I wasn’t as jaded as I thought.\u00c2\u00a0 Max was unassuming, but I was still infatuated.\u00c2\u00a0 How did he do this?\u00c2\u00a0 How did he come up with this material?<\/p>\n
Oftentimes in collaboration.\u00c2\u00a0 Hours were spent in perfecting the material.\u00c2\u00a0 But what was ultimately released, this was what was infiltrating the minds of the younger generation.<\/p>\n
This was not a hack.\u00c2\u00a0 This was a guy working at the zenith of his abilities.\u00c2\u00a0 He took an oftentimes vilified musical form and created art!<\/p>\n
On my way out of the Mint, Max caught my eye.\u00c2\u00a0 Told me he thought the girl had a great voice.\u00c2\u00a0 I told him what she needed most was him!\u00c2\u00a0 A great production by the Scandinavian wizard.\u00c2\u00a0 Who the mainstream wrote off, but the true cognoscenti knew was a genius.<\/p>\n
The Beatles live in Germany<\/span><\/p>\n