Dave Genn Youtube Interview on Producing and MGB

[daniel_v]

Came across this today. Very well spoken, introspective and humble interview from Dave in 2016 regarding how he got into the business, how he got into producing, how to write good songs, and most surprisingly, some retrospective admission on his time with MGB.

 

 

If you forward to the 11:50 mark he actually confirms what Matt has always said was frustrating as far as band members trying to get their part in the songs and that he (Dave) had too much ego at the time due to his own obsession with creativity and songs being a part of one's self. He then goes on to say that he shoved certain things down the band's throat and that certain songs on Beautiful Midnight would have been better (in his mind, now) if he "had just left well enough alone". 

 

I'm not done it yet, but thought other fans of the band in the MGB days might appreciate watching and listening to it for both the MGB content and the fact that Dave is just an incredibly interesting guy to listen to. 

 

Edit- Anton, if you want to embed the video go for it. I'm dumb so I can't remember how, lol.

[adam_777]

Thanks for posting this I look forward to watching it.  I heard an interview of Dave Genn in the mid 2000's where he also discussed to some extent his time with MGB and he seemed anything, but bitter about it.  It's strange to hear those style interviews and then hear about him deliberately ducking Matt at Geoff's funeral.  It's too bad, I've always enjoyed Dave as a guitar player in his work with MGB and 54-40 and I'd be lying if I said I hadn't wished I could see him play with Matt again in some capacity, be it a tour, an album or even just a guesting spot on a single song.  

[Moonlight_Graham]

WOW what an interesting talk from him.  I never knew he was so thoughtful and phenomenally well-spoken.  He would make a great professor/teacher.  Very intelligent guy.  It's 2 hours long, I'll have to finish it.  It's nice that he admits the ego mistakes on the BM record, that's humble of him.  Had no idea he was a producer either. Amazing when he said it took him 10-15 years to listen to Beautiful Midnight after the band broke up.

 

Had no idea he was such a serious and ambitious musician either before MGB, I'm glad he saw some success with MGB, he worked his ass off it seemed.

Edited January 15, 2017 by Moonlight_Graham

[Guest girl]

Interesting video. I think I saw somewhere in that video that he said he was a teacher in the past. I did not know that.

 

He had that exact same slicked back hair style when I saw him with 54-40 on New Years Eve. We didn't stick around because there were too many people in front of us and it was too cold outside. It felt like -30 degrees Celsius.

[Outtahere]

Wow. That story and admission is surprising given how he acted at Geoff's memorial (although it was 7 years ago) and the fact he still hasn't spoken to Matt as far as we know... if he recognizes the whole ego thing then what's his beef?

 

Very interesting find!

 

Still watching it and you can really understand the dichotomy between his vision and Matt's vision with regards to songwriting. I don't think Matt's ever been one to write a song with other people given the personal nature of his art whereas Dave talks about writing lyrics and music with other artists.

Edited January 15, 2017 by Tips

[andydanger85]

Wow. That story and admission is surprising given how he acted at Geoff's memorial (although it was 7 years ago) and the fact he still hasn't spoken to Matt as far as we know... if he recognizes the whole ego thing then what's his beef?

 

Very interesting find!

 

Still watching it and you can really understand the dichotomy between his vision and Matt's vision with regards to songwriting. I don't think Matt's ever been one to write a song with other people given the personal nature of his art whereas Dave talks about writing lyrics and music with other artists.

 

I think that it's entirely possible that a person can make an intellectually honest observation about a mistake, and also still be uncomfortable about other things that may have happened. I was careful to note while watching that he never directly refers to Matt or presumes that the audience knows that he was in that band, just that one time he was in a "band called the Matthew Good Band" in the abstract, as if he just told you he had eggs for breakfast or that he just took a dump. 

 

Matt has said on various occasions (in addition to the bit that people all wanted to get "theirs" on the record) to the effect that none of them were ever really the greatest of friends from a start and something to the effect of there was a time that "if [Matt] died right then, they wouldn't have shed a tear." I think the problems were both personal and band politics; Dave may be able to admit he had a big ego music wise, but the fact that he was weird at Geoff's memorial I think still fits. 

 

Definitely an interesting talk though! He seems to be a little bit more level headed than I remember him being back in the day...

[Guest girl]

He seems to be a little bit more level headed than I remember him being back in the day...

 

Agreed, at least from what I've heard about him during the Matthew Good Band days.

Edited January 16, 2017 by girl

[adam_777]

I think its telling that Dave mentioned relistening to Beautiful Midnight a few years ago after not listening to them for a long time basically since probably when he left MGB. So to me at the very least. The fact that he choose to dust that off shows at least some change of attitude toward that part of his career in my opinion

[eclipse]

It's really interesting to hear some of the comments regarding song arrangement in hindsight of "I Miss New Wave." I wonder what songs Dave and Matt would agree on re: overproduction? It's fascinating.

[Guest jjazz]

A really interesting video to watch. I'm not going to make too many assumptions since I don't think it's all that fair or diplomatic, but watching his take on song writing really highlights the juxtaposition between the approaches he takes vs Matt's.

 

To add to it, I think the career path he ventured into is also telling of the differences that there may have been in the band. It seems to me he's more mechanical and career/money driven, which is completely fine. It just lends a bit more perspective to the tensions in the band. Especially when he talks about credit splits. And it's true, he does talk a lot about how wildly different he views those situations now versus his younger days in the business.

 

The whole thing is just really interesting as a whole to me. The business and engineering aspect has always intrigued me, and I still consider him one of the more creative guitarists I've listened to, so hearing someone you admire talk about their life's work and craft is very cool to me.

 

From the sounds of it, he's had some very interesting dilemmas in his years. I gather he's confident and humble, isn't afraid to talk about his experiences, but understands his reputation is important and therefore still plays his cards close to the chest. This is kind of apparent when he talks about being a "finisher" so to speak. And I think it rings true for the mgb material. While Matt's quality has always been top notch, it has definitely taken on noticeable changes post Dave, and then even further on. Which again, is fine. Not many true artists enjoy staying complacent.

 

You can tell he doesn't want to name names when it comes to negative experiences, and if I had to guess, some of those are probably mgb experiences. I take it at face value though. I won't bother trying to form an opinion on it since only the band and management around it could really fully understand the dysfunction from everybody's perspectives.

A really interesting video to watch. I'm not going to make too many assumptions since I don't think it's all that fair or diplomatic, but watching his take on song writing really highlights the juxtaposition between the approaches he takes vs Matt's.

 

To add to it, I think the career path he ventured into is also telling of the differences that there may have been in the band. It seems to me he's more mechanical and career/money driven, which is completely fine. It just lends a bit more perspective to the tensions in the band. Especially when he talks about credit splits. And it's true, he does talk a lot about how wildly different he views those situations now versus his younger days in the business.

 

The whole thing is just really interesting as a whole to me. The business and engineering aspect has always intrigued me, and I still consider him one of the more creative guitarists I've listened to, so hearing someone you admire talk about their life's work and craft is very cool to me.

 

From the sounds of it, he's had some very interesting dilemmas in his years. I gather he's confident and humble, isn't afraid to talk about his experiences, but understands his reputation is important and therefore still plays his cards close to the chest. This is kind of apparent when he talks about being a "finisher" so to speak. And I think it rings true for the mgb material. While Matt's quality has always been top notch, it has definitely taken on noticeable changes post Dave, and then even further on. Which again, is fine. Not many true artists enjoy staying complacent.

 

You can tell he doesn't want to name names when it comes to negative experiences, and if I had to guess, some of those are probably mgb experiences. I take it at face value though. I won't bother trying to form an opinion on it since only the band and management around it could really fully understand the dysfunction from everybody's perspectives.

[russic]

Given Matt's general synopsis of Audio of Being, I would imagine all members of the band would agree that they forced things a bit much. I imagine that situation would have been extremely complicated... you've got a group of people in their 20s that didn't have a base of friendship trying to wrangle their egos at the same time they're becoming wildly popular. A nostalgic side of me often feels sad that MGB only produced 4 albums, but the more realistic side of me is blown away that they made it to 4.

 

I really liked hearing Dave speak in this video, so thanks for sharing. Rightly or wrongly, he's often painted a certain way but we don't always get to hear much from him. It's cool to get a quick look into his process and what makes him tick.

Edited January 17, 2017 by russic

[Moonlight_Graham]

One thing we have to keep in mind is that for us MG/MGB fans, we've really only heard one side of the story, that being from Matt's perspective.  Not saying he's wrong, but different people will have different narratives on events and relationships and it's not really fair to judge someone until they have a chance to tell you their side.

[Moonlight_Graham]

Watched the rest of the video.  It seems like Dave was an incredibly ambitious musician, and also very creative, and he wanted desperately to make it in the industry and make a living as a musician.  He was 28 years old when the band hit big with "Apparitions"/Underdogs as he said in the video, which is pretty old for a rock band, Dave said he grinded it out for a long time and didn't know if was going to ever "make it", sometimes playing in 3 different bands at the same time.  So when MGB did make it big, seems he saw it as his big break that might never come again so he fought for everything he could get in the band financially and creatively.  Dave talked a lot about songwriting credits in the video, and from what it seems, Dave fought hard for every credit he could get in order to establish himself creatively and financially, I think that was a huge point of conflict in the band since Matt was also prolific creatively.

 

Dave and Matt both seem like personalities who don't back down, and both had strong creative visions, so in terms of song-writing credits and creative control it seems there was a lot of struggle there.  Ian and Rich seemed much more laid back & content personalities. In the video Dave talks a lot about how song-writing credits can be incredibly divisive in a band, like Dave said it's hard if you have a hit record where 1 member of the band gets all the writing credit and thus a lot more of the money in compensation and the rest of the band "is stuck eating beef jerky at the husky station" or however he put it, it creates resentment.  And like Dave said, if you're trying to stick in an extra bridge into a song just so you can get a song-writing credit or artistic ego instead of serving the song itself well the band is worse off for it.

 

My favorite thing Dave said is that with musicians he produces he looks for those who are not "content", because when artists are content it usually doesn't go well.  He also says the best young artists he works with are ones that have something to prove, where someone or something has pissed them off and they have this drive to stick it in someone's face.

[Stwlegend]

Thanks for sharing this. I personally never heard Dave mention anything related to MGB. I tuned in for the MGB parts and stayed for the overall music knowledge drops which I didn't plan on. Very good video all around.