Joe Chiccarelli is a chameleon.
Unlike many producers whose sonic stamp is immediately recognizable (Roy Thomas Baker or John Shanks, for example), you’d be hard-pressed to identify a Joe Chiccarelli “sound.” The same individual who engineered the rough-and-ready White Stripes’ Icky Thump was also responsible for producing the ephemeral, moody ambience of the Shins’ Wincing the Night Away and the smooth, slick jazz tones of Kurt Elling’s Nightmoves. It was this body of work that netted him a 2008 Grammy nomination for Producer of the Year.
Chat with the soft-spoken, self-effacing Chiccarelli for just a few minutes and it becomes apparent why so many artists in different genres gravitate to him. “Honestly, I don’t think I’m confident enough in my abilities to have a sound and a strong direction,” he admits disarmingly. “It’s more important to me to study the song and the artist and figure out what’s strong about them and then help the record be the best it can be.”
Originally from Boston, Chiccarelli relocated to Los Angeles in the late ’70s after playing in a series of failed rock bands. Always interested in the technical aspects of music-making, he landed a job as an assistant engineer at Cherokee Studios, but his big break didn’t come until the day Frank Zappa’s regular engineer was stranded in London with visa difficulties. As low man on the totem pole, the 20-year-old Chiccarelli was given the assignment to work with the notoriously difficult and demanding artist. Seven albums with Zappa later, he had a career.
Since then, Chiccarelli has collaborated with an astonishingly diverse group of artists, including Tori Amos, Oingo Boingo, the Black Watch and American Music Club. Most recently he produced Evil Urges, soon to be released from My Morning Jacket. And every album he works on, it seems, sounds totally different from every other album he’s worked on.
“When people ask, ‘What’s your approach to producing records?’ my answer is, ‘Well, what day is this?’” Chiccarelli laughs. “But on a creative level I would be dead if I just made the same record over and over. The personal challenge is to try and make something that’s unique to that artist.”
Clearly, he’s succeeding. Here, Chiccarelli dishes on his early days with Zappa, adjusting to Jack White’s rawness and making reverb magic with My Morning Jacket.
What did Frank Zappa see in you that made him want to continue working with you?
I was very much an open book. At the time, my only experience was in making clean, contemporary pop records, while Frank’s thing was to try the most outrageous stuff possible in order to make the music interesting, dynamic and over the top. It was a new place for me, but I was willing to go there. Perhaps he viewed me as someone who hadn’t done a lot of records and wouldn’t be as set in his ways or closed to new ideas.
Frank was all about breaking rules and challenging the norm. I learned pretty quickly during my first few days with him that you just didn’t say “no” (laughs). He really had a great sense of the big picture. Before I even had a chance to make a statement or try to do things my way, I realized that this was a guy who could see five steps down the line, so I had to learn to trust him and know that in the end it would be OK.
For more, get the latest Issue of Performing Songwriter, ISSUE No. 109
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