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ANDY THOMPSON
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LIFE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE GLASS
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
ANDY THOMPSON
C
omposition and Songwriting faculty member
Andy Thompson has carved a unique role for
himself in the industry as an in-demand ”demo
doctor,” a job that combines equal parts studio
musician, technician and tastemaker. Working with
established songwriter and former Semisonic frontman
Dan Wilson, Thompson takes basic vocal-plus-accompaniment song sketches provided by Wilson and turns them
into fully produced mixes, often recording, programming
and mixing everything himself. These showcase-ready
recordings are then shopped to major-label artists for
LIFE ON
BOTH SIDES
OF THE GLASS
future album projects. To date, Thompson has helped
develop demos for a number of Wilson’s co-writers,
including Rachael Yamagata, Gabe Dixon, Natalie Imbruglia
and David Cook. Recently this has led to instrumental
session work on forthcoming album tracks for two
current Wilson collaborators, Pink and Taylor Swift.
Thompson’s work with Wilson is indicative of the current
industry realities: Decision makers in the music business
expect to hear highly polished and produced demos.
Gone are the days of songs being pitched as bare-bones
recordings consisting of little more than a vocal with
accompaniment. In fact, these days it’s increasingly difficult to distinguish between the quality of the songwriting
and a song’s production quality, which is why the ”studio
BY
magic” that Thompson adds is critical to getting songs
SEAN McMAHON
placed with established artists. We sat down with Thompson to discuss his active career and get the inside story
on his life on both sides of the glass.
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SPOTLIGHT
ANDY THOMPSON
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LIFE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE GLASS
ANDY THOMPSON
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LIFE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE GLASS
INTERVIEW
Sean McMahon How long have you been
working with Dan Wilson and what’s
all involved?
FAVORITES
Andy Thompson Dan’s trajectory as a
Here’s a screenshot from
one of Thompson’s demo
sessions. Note the use of
Guitar Rig, a go-to tone
cabinet that Thompson
turns to when working under
tight deadlines. Also in view
is XLN Audio’s Addictive
Drums, a software drum
module that features
heavily in his writing.
songwriter really started to take off in the
last seven or eight years, which is when I
started working with him. Even back then
the stuff he was writing needed demos to
give to the various managers and reps for
different artists. Dan didn’t have the time
to be producing all these demos, which
increasingly needed to sound professionally
recorded and produced, as opposed to just
a simple demo. It started with him sending
me guitar and vocal or piano and vocal
F IG. A
tracks, and he just said, ”Make it sound like
SELF-PRODUCED
Thompson frequently plays
many of the instruments
on his demo productions as
well as functioning as the
recording and mix engineer.
a song. Listen to these other artists for
SM You’re a multi-instrumentalist, an expe-
muscles, but a lot of the composing I do is
you’re turning around demos very quickly it’s
an idea of what we’re going for.” He’d give
rienced engineer and a classically trained
more composing for clients, whether it’s TV
not practical and doesn’t make sense to mic
me specific style and artistic direction, and
composer. It sounds like the studio work
commercials or documentary films. I do that
up a bunch of amps, so I use Guitar Rig for
my job was to flesh out the sketch with an
you do really requires a broad and diverse
under the name ”Scribble Sound.”
many of my guitar tones. [ Fig. A ]
arrangement and turn that into something
skillset. Did you start on the music side or
that sounded like a ”real record.”
engineering side?
SM What is your studio set up like — is it
SM What other projects are you working on
more of a writing room or for tracking
beyond producing demos?
It’s exciting work because you have to work
AT I’ve always seen myself as a jack-of-all-
very fast. I usually only have a day or two
trades. I grew up playing a lot of different
to turn these around, and there’s a lot of
instruments and got interested in song-
variety with the styles. He works with a
writing and composition pretty early, so I
lot of different artists so I’m able to put on
started in music, definitely. These days I
different hats, musically speaking, and play
do a lot of record production, not only the
this or that part to make it sound current
more conceptual production, but a lot of
and authentic to whatever style he’s
the technical aspects, too. I end up doing a
going for.
lot of engineering and mixing as well, and I
Working on the demos has also been really
good training for writing music for advertising, which I do a fair amount of. Ad music
usually has compressed timelines as well.
It’s all about being able to work quickly.
find mixing to be a really good outlet for my
musical background, whether it’s arranging
or orchestration. And through the projects
I produce I end up doing a fair amount of
co-writing with other artists that I’m working
with, whether its coming up with brand new
songs or just helping them take their songs
to the next level.
As far as composing, I don’t put that many
notes on paper anymore, although I did
just do a choral commission. Every once
in a while I do have a chance to flex those
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bands or what?
Musically, my time is split between studio
AT It’s more of a writing room, but I can do
work and playing live. I sometimes play
overdubs at my place, and I go to other
drums with Dan for his shows. We’ve played
studios for larger recording projects. I some-
South by Southwest and the Sundance
times use the studios at McNally Smith,
Film Festival. I’ve also been working with
and I’ll get students to help me engineer. It
[acclaimed singer-songwriter and fellow
depends on what the project needs. It’s rare
MSCM faculty member] Jeremy Messersmith
that I would set up my drum kit and mic it at
on a new record right now and we’ve been in
my place. That can end up taking the better
the studio. I’m working with a couple other
part of a day, so I use a fair amount of MIDI
artists, too, and those projects should come
for a lot of what I do demo-wise. For drum
out sometime this next year. I also started a
programming I use Addictive Drums [by
blog — theDIYRecordist.com — where I write
XLM Audio], which has some really usable
about audio and music production. It’s a very
sampled acoustic kits. As a drummer I’m
recent development, but there have already
pretty comfortable sitting at a MIDI keyboard
been some insightful discussions and I’ve
and recording drum parts as if I were
gotten a lot of positive feedback.
sitting at a kit.
When Thompson isn’t in the studio or on stage, you
I also use [Native Instruments] Guitar Rig
can find him teaching MUS381 Songwriting III and
a lot. Again, speed is important for the kind
REC150 Sound Capture and Production at McNally
of writing and production work I do. When
Smith. To learn more about Thompson’s songwriting and production work visit www.andywho.com.
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