Feature by Jesus Araujo (@jesuscame)
Young Guru’s Grammy U “Era of the Engineer” tour gives students a insight on how time has changed in music technology but the phycology of a studio session is the same.
Young Guru, 39, hails originally from Wilmington, Delaware but is known for creating “the sound of New York”. From working with artist such as Jay-Z, Kanye West, Beyonce, DMX, and De La Soul to name a few. Guru has stultified himself as one of the best engineers in the business today.
“The best advice that I ever got was find a way to create your own sound, make people want to work with you because you have something that makes you different,” said Guru.
Working directly under Chucky Thompson (Bad Boy producer) after being the tour DJ for Nonchalant while they toured with the fugees in 1996, gave Guru a chance to hone his craft. Engineer greats such as Tom Dowd who engineered for Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and Dianna Ross. Tony Maserati who worked with Notorious BIG, Mariah Carey, and James Brown. Bob Clearmountain who engineered for Bruce Springteen, Rolling Stones, and Bon Jovi were direct people that allowed Guru to pick their brains and taught him how important it is for the engineer to know how the phycology of running a session and how to live as a engineer.
Having the luxury of having everything on your computer could be a gift but also a curse at the same time.
“Its weird cause technology was suppose to speed us up, but it has actually slowed us down because people got lazy,” said Guru.
In the 90’s 8-12 hour session was the norm. Everyone would be in the studio. The AR, producer, manager, the artist, and the engineer would work everything out and make decisions in that time span. Because of the Internet it is now easy to just let the engineer be in the studio by himself and clean up the record. The email process begins after that by sending the track to everyone else while he waits to hear back on what adjustment needs to be done. With music now being accessible and free with just a click of a button, the Internet has now made it a bit easier get noticed.
“Charity is the fastest way to get rich,” says Guru. “So you have to give away a lot in this new paradigm of music.”
Even with the new advancement in technology, Guru knows that there is more than having an artist sing and him working in the background. “Knowing how to run a studio session and the phycology behind it is the one thing I reiterate to these students,” said Guru. “ You can pick out the best singer in the church choir, but when you get her behind the mic in the studio, somewhere she has never been before, she might freeze up. How are you as the engineer going to be able to calm her down and get her to sing at her maximum potential? Or maybe even getting the complete other side of the spectrum and mixing for DMX?” said Guru. The relationship between engineer and artist is one of the most important bonds in the studio. The trust will help build not just the relationship but also the music to a level that both haven’t been before.
The Grammy U “ Era of the Engineer” tour gives students a chance to listen with open ears and have hands on experience with one of the best to ever get behind the mixing boards.
“Engineering allows us to present this one record in the best way possible,” said Guru.
