{"id":190260,"date":"2024-01-17T18:40:37","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T18:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=190260"},"modified":"2024-01-22T14:54:56","modified_gmt":"2024-01-22T14:54:56","slug":"when-youre-making-records-theres-always-the-odd-moment-when-you-dont-know-what-the-hell-youre-doing-but-it-generally-passes-dont-panic-is-the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/when-youre-making-records-theres-always-the-odd-moment-when-you-dont-know-what-the-hell-youre-doing-but-it-generally-passes-dont-panic-is-the\/","title":{"rendered":"‘When you\u2019re making records, there\u2019s always the odd moment when you don\u2019t know what the hell you\u2019re doing, but it generally passes \u2013 don\u2019t panic is the important thing’"},"content":{"rendered":"

MBW\u2019s World\u2019s Greatest Producers series sees us interview \u2013 and celebrate \u2013 some of the outstanding talents working in studios across the decades. This time out we meet Trevor Horn, the producer behind a string of 1980s pop classics, with an influence that stretches into the present day. World\u2019s Greatest Producers is supported by Hipgnosis Song Management<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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It wasn\u2019t until Trevor Horn scored his first No.1 hit that he realized he was never going to cut it as an artist.<\/p>\n

The Buggles\u2019\u00a0Video Killed The Radio Star<\/em> might have topped charts around the world in 1979 and become the first video ever shown on MTV two years later. But, as Horn struggled to come up with a similarly blockbusting follow-up \u2013 and the fallout from a brief, ill-fated stint as the singer in his favorite prog rock band Yes (\u201cA crazy thing to do!\u201d) \u2013 his then-wife and manager, the late, great music executive Jill Sinclair, told him some home truths.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said to me, \u2018I think you\u2019d do better as a producer\u2019,\u201d he shrugs. \u201c\u2018You could be one of the best producers in the world, but as an artist you\u2019ll always be second division\u2019. Harsh? Yes, but sometimes good advice can be harsh.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Sinclair\u2019s suggestion certainly proved to be sound. Horn had had a curious career up to that point, earning a living as a session bassist and playing live \u201cevery night of the week \u2013 but playing mainly crap at various levels\u201d, before the big Buggles breakthrough.<\/p>\n

His stint as a producer didn\u2019t look set for the most auspicious start either, as Sinclair hooked him up with naff pop duo Dollar (\u201cI was like, \u2018Dollar?\u2019\u201d he chuckles. \u201c\u2018You think that\u2019s good for me to produce? I\u2019ve been in Yes! I did three nights at Madison Square Garden!\u2019\u201d). But, regardless, he delivered a state-of-the-art production on singles such as Mirror Mirror<\/em> and Hand Held In Black And White<\/em> and it proved to be quite the calling card.<\/p>\n

From there on in, Horn\u2019s high-impact, tech-friendly style reconstructed the sonic architecture of the 1980s, helming classic albums, from ABC\u2019s The Lexicon Of Love<\/em> to Malcolm McLaren\u2019s Duck Rock<\/em> to Frankie Goes To Hollywood\u2019s Welcome To The Pleasuredome<\/em>. Along the way, he, Sinclair and NME writer Paul Morley set up ZTT Records, taking Frankie to global, controversy-strewn ubiquity and making unlikely stars of Propaganda and Art Of Noise (featuring Horn himself). He even returned in triumph to Yes, producing their 90125<\/em> album and delivering their only US No.1 hit, Owner Of A Lonely Heart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a white-hot few years, but nobody can keep it up, you know?\u201d he says, but, in fact, his legacy has endured far beyond the decade in which he made his name. He and ZTT took Seal to superstardom, and he has worked with everyone from t.A.T.u to Belle & Sebastian, Robbie Williams to Rod Stewart, as documented in his excellent autobiography, Adventures In Modern Recording<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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