I’ve been fortunate to be the musical director for Renée Landry‘s musical director for over ten years, and it’s one of my favourite parts about my career. We’ve just finished a run of our show, Back To Black – A Tribute To Amy Winehouse, and we’ve worked on several recordings together. Here are three things that I’ve learned working as her musical director.
- Listen! My job is to bring Renée’s vision to life. Listening is the most important part of the job. I have to hear what the vision is, what the motivation, and meanings are behind the music. With Renée and I, the amount of collaboration is incredible. Voice memos with ideas are constantly sent back, and forth – maybe that will be its own project one day! Haha! I’ve found that it’s also important to bring my own input into the process – being a sounding board, and also a solution finder. I also know that there’s a trust that has been built over years of working together, and we speak more of the same language now than ever.
2. The job is never done. I’m always updating charts, and thinking of new ways to tweak the arrangements to better serve the music. Key changes, different musicians, and evolving sounds are all parts of the job. We are always thinking a year out on what the next project entails. There were some anxious moments over the years with computers crashing – I learned to back up projects immediately after that one! Rehearsals where new and old charts were both floating around – solved with Dropbox and iPads! And many other adventures along the way.
3. It’s the best! We’ve grown as artists, and more importantly, people – what’s better than making great music with great people?
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