RICHARD NILES: TV Music

Whether your bag is pop, jazz, or classical music, or even if you just watch TV occasionally, you've almost certainly heard Richard Niles's work. Mike Senior talks to one of the most versatile men in modern music.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to design a business card for Richard Niles. It'll be a tough job, even though he sports no quadruple‑barrelled Hungarian surname and has only one, rather unassuming, email address. You might think you'd got it nailed with 'Richard Niles, Arranger': there's no denying his success in this field over the last 25 years. After all, this is a man who has worked with some of the greatest pop, soul, jazz and classical artists of the last two decades — Tina Turner, James Brown, Pat Metheny and Placido Domingo to name but a few — and whose work has graced a host of chart‑topping records including recent hits by boy‑band sensations Boyzone and Westlife.

But, pithy as the description 'Arranger' is, what about Richard's increasingly long list of production credits, which includes work with Paul McCartney and The Pet Shop Boys? And before you say 'Richard Niles, Arranger and Producer', I can tell you that Ray Charles (amongst others) would think it unfair unless you made it 'Arranger, Producer and Songwriter'. But that's fine. Just make the font a little smaller and it all ought to fit in...

...until BBC Radio 2 listeners begin writing in to remind you of Richard's successful national radio series The New Jazz Standards and until his 20‑piece big band, Bandzilla, turn up on your doorstep to insist on the inclusion of Band Leader, Conductor and Musical Director. That lot ought to have you considering printing on both sides of the card, but when I add that he's also a composer and guitarist with two solo albums to his name, the director of his own record company (Nucool Records), a regular music magazine columnist and a prolific writer of music for TV (both for programmes and advertising), you could find yourself attempting the first ever wallet‑sized gatefold!

It's hardly surprising, then, to find that Richard Niles was born into a musical environment and has always had varied musical tastes: "My Dad worked with Cole Porter, Harry Warren, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope — all that generation. He played with Stan Getz, he got stoned with Dizzy Gillespie, you know, so he had a direct relationship with past music which he passed on to me. But I also grew up with the fantastic music of the '60s and '70s. Of course, I'm mostly known as an arranger for pop hits, but I also do an enormous amount of jazz — I have a whole jazz career as well. The amalgamation of all that has given me a pretty broad musical overview."

If The Cap Fits?

Niles's substantial commercial success as a pop arranger has unfortunately led some record companies to view him as a one‑trick pony, which is a source of some frustration for him: "People like to pigeonhole you, to label you. The assumption is that if you're an arranger then you can't possibly be a producer. I would like to get more pop production work myself, but it's very difficult to cross the line in the view of A&R people, because they don't understand that working on all the hit records I've worked on as an arranger, I can now have some insight into producing a record myself. Look at Quincy Jones: in the '60s he was an arranger, but look at the albums he produced!

"There's also an assumption that if you're a jazz musician you can't know anything about what's commercial. I get a lot of flak from the jazz community, because they think that I'm just some kind of commercial pop guy, but I just try to ignore all of that as long as it doesn't get in my way. The fact is, I enjoy doing a lot of different things, I enjoy the versatility that my career has been able to offer — I've been able to work with fantastic people from all disciplines, from Paul McCartney to Ray Charles to Pat Metheny. It's great working with all these people because of what you can learn from each of them."

Practice Makes Perfect

It's clear, especially from his personal web site (www.1212.com/a/niles/richard.html) that Richard Niles has many more strings to his bow than just telling string players what to bow. But this is not a man who has arrived where he is by any sort of accident, and he remains adamant that hard work is the only way to achieve any sort of lasting success: "Our culture sadly does not value hard work, but rather the quick fix and the easy option. However, there is no way around the hard work if you want to acquire musical skill. You've got to put in the hours of practising and studying. That's what all the great musicians did and what they all still do.

"You want to know how to write a hit tune? Go to the charts and take all of the top 20 tunes and analyse them. How do you analyse them? First you look at the form: this tune has an eight‑bar intro, it has a verse which is 16 bars plus a four‑bar ramp up to the 16‑bar chorus, then it repeats all of that before going to some kind of instrumental break and a further set of choruses. So you look at the form of all these 20 tunes and you look for parallels — you might notice that 16 of them have almost identical form. And guess what: now you analyse them for rhythm feel and you might find that 12 of them are similar in this respect. And then you look at the vocal range and style, and the instrumentation, and so on. This will tell you what is commercial within the field where you've concentrated your analysis.

"It's no different with performers: if you want to learn how to play a certain way, then you should definitely spend a lot of time listening to other players and transcribing their solos. Go to the greats: if you're a saxophone player, lister to Mike Brecker, transcribe his solos and try to learn them, not just by rote, but in order to try to understand the harmonic basis of all the patterns he's playing.

"The same principles apply if you want to learn how to arrange. If you want to know how best to manifest a song, the first thing you have to ask yourself is 'What stylistic area is this material best suited to?' Song arrangements must always serve the sort of voice that you're dealing with. You've got to make sure that the target sound suits the singer's vocal tone and style. Only by getting to know a singer's voice can you get an idea of what sounds will complement it in the arrangement. When you've decided on a suitable style, you have to listen to 10 different successful tracks in that style and copy slavishly the exact drum grooves on each of those tracks, either by writing them down or by programming them into your sequencer. Do the same with the bass patterns, particularly looking at the rhythms used. Work out what instruments and sounds are used on each record — for example, they might be using an electric piano, a certain type of pad, some funny little sound that's like a clavinet, or a guitar which is doing an interesting line.

"If you want to write for strings, brass and woodwind then there's only one way to learn: if you don't have a teacher, then you have to go out and get some books on orchestration and read them and absorb them. You have to know the range of every instrument. You have to know how they sound in each of of their ranges — you have to know, for example, how a baritone sax sounds in its low register, and why writing above high F sharp loses the particular tone you want from that instrument. You have to know a great deal about every instrument you write for. Equally, if you're working with electronics, you have to know the instruments you've got. I've got a Korg Trinity, so I have got to know the palette of sounds that I have in it, and what those sounds are good for. And if you have four different modules then you have to know what each one is capable of. So if I want a sound that invokes angels flying overhead singing Bach chorales, I know that there's a sound in the Wavestation which is really good for that. You've got to build up a memory for the palette of sounds within your own particular studio setup."

Windowless Arrangement

Given his success as an arranger, I was keen to find out how Niles goes about an arrangement project. But he has no secret weapon, only manuscript paper and a pencil: "When I work as an arranger, I never go anywhere near the computer. I just use a pencil and put little dots onto little pieces of paper, the old‑fashioned way. When I'm done, I'll just send it straight to my copyist. I do it all just by ear — I never bother to mock it up at all. I was very fortunate to study at the Berklee College of Music, so I was able to acquire the tools to do this. Obviously, when I started arranging it sometimes took me four days to tackle a particularly difficult arrangement, but after 25 years practice that's come down to more like four hours.

"I play the track through and make a chord chart while listening to it, writing chord symbols on one of my little A6 manuscript pads and marking down any important melodies which I have to catch. I also write down some indications of the form — verses, choruses and whatever. Then I just write the first thing that comes into my head, because it's invariably the best idea. I don't agonise about things, I just make the decisions straight away. If you keep trying out different things, two hours down the line you'll still be no closer to a completed arrangement.

"The introduction to a song can often benefit from a little hook, though the first verse usually works best with nothing on it so that you can enter with, say, the strings at the ramp up to the chorus — some soft pad with a flourish up to the chorus itself. Incidentally, whenever I do string arrangements, I will always also use a harp, because harps are very good for that sort of pop 'whoosh' up to choruses. During the chorus you might want some sort of counter‑melody, or perhaps a high pedal or some rhythmic figure — I don't have any particular formula for it, I just write.

"Having said that, you have to remember that if you're going to spend the money to have strings and brass on a track then they'd better be doing something that's fun to listen to! You've got to give value for money, so you've always got to look out for where you might be able to add hooklines that are important to the track. I'd rather hear from a producer that my arrangements are 'a bit busy' than hearing that they're 'a bit boring', so I always err on the side of too much rather than too little — you can cut something out much quicker than you can put something in.

"Every once in a while, I might just pick up the guitar and play through the chord chart and sing some stuff, because I always think in terms of melody. The most important thing that people hear is melody, so that's what I concentrate most on. I'm very fortunate that I was brought up listening to great singers and instrumentalists who made fantastic melodies, so I'm always thinking melodically. The first thing that people hear is melody, the second thing they hear is counter‑melody and the third thing they hear is rhythm. The last thing that they can have any awareness of is harmony, in spite of the fact that it's something we musicians like the most — the punters don't really understand it even though they may have a feeling of whether they like or dislike it."

Dynamic Processes

Even though he's written more for live ensembles than most people in the industry, it's refreshing to see that Richard Niles is also no stranger to the art of programmed arrangement, and he was happy to pass on a few of his own tricks for achieving a natural and musical result from modest resources: "When I do demos, obviously I can't afford a real string section. However, it can be difficult getting synthesized strings to sound anything other than cheesy. What I do to avoid that is to keep them pitched fairly low, because they tend to get cheesier the higher you go. However, if you want the typical high string line, then keep it low in the mix — a little bit of it with tons of reverb goes a long way.

"I do have my own specific technique for programming strings, which I find amazingly effective: I normally use the Korg Trinity's 'Stereo Strings' patch, and I program the parts using step time — I am the step‑time king — such that every note of each line is entered into the sequencer as a whole row of 64th notes. This means that there are hundreds of events going on every bar, each of which has a velocity value. By going into the controller editor, I can create swells and sforzandi just by tweaking these velocity values, which makes the string sound much more real. Sometimes this isn't necessary, but I do end up using this technique a lot, particularly for long held chords and lines which need some movement. Obviously, this trick doesn't work with every synth sound, but it's great on the Trinity.

"Dynamics are everything in music, and I think that the saddest thing about the way people use sequencers is that they don't use dynamics. When I program drum parts I'm very conscious of dynamics so that every snare hit isn't exactly the same. It's great for making little snare rolls and ghost beats. That's really important, and most people don't do that. I hear a lot of drum tracks that just sound like machines. If you're going to use programmed drums, then let's at least give them a little life — use your creativity and make them musical."

Pros And Cons

Having worked with so many famous producers and artists, Niles has had the opportunity to experience a wide variety of different production styles and working habits. With this perspective, he has an unashamedly traditional stance with regard to what constitutes professionalism within the music and recording industries: "Absolutely the most important thing about any kind of professional work is getting breakfast, lunch and dinner! This is not merely a humourous comment, it's also a serious one — you have to have good work habits. I hate these guys who want to stay up all night, just smoking and drinking lots of coffee. I think that's stupid: you don't get any good work done like that. Getting into some kind of spiritual state of angst over every little note isn't worth it. It is true that some records couldn't have been created outside of that sort of environment, but I'm just glad I wasn't there, because it wouldn't have been any fun.

"I've got to a point in my career where I don't have to work for people who are belligerent or clueless. These days, because I'm involved in so much production and other projects myself, I don't work for that many other producers any more. They have to be someone who I know is talented and easy to work with.

"I will say that, if I'm not the best producer in the world, I'm certainly the fastest and the most economical. In the studio, 'time is money and money is everything'. If you have it all in your head already, then it's just a question of recording. I am ridiculously efficient and the biggest thing that works in my favour is that I am professional. You ask me to do something, and it will be done perfectly, under time. That's it, and I expect other people to be the same."

And, of course, he's hit the nail squarely on the head. What could more concisely sum up such a multi‑talented producer, arranger, songwriter, radio presenter, band leader, musical director, conductor, composer, solo artist, journalist and record‑company director than 'Richard Niles: Professional'?