Rees Shad Interview

INTERVIEW WITH REES SHAD FROM TheCelebrityCafe.com ARCHIVES

DM) You've run your own record label for a while?

RS) Yep, about 15 years ago, I started a recording studio as a ways of getting my songs recorded, thinking I would save money that way. If you know anything about the industry, that's a complete farce.

DM) Did you have other acts, too?

RS) We did a lot of stuff. My wife and I found an old farm which needed a lot of work. Then, in the barn, I built a recording studio. At first it was just local acts. And then the next year, we put all the money back into the company, and every year 75%-95% of the income was going back into the company. By the end of it, the likes of Joan Osbourne and Shania Twain and Eddie Cramer and Puff Daddy were coming through. It was a residential-in-the-middle-of-nowhere recording studio. It was mostly people on the road, as we are so much out of the way. Puff Daddy was just editing samples for his dancers to move to. The studio built upon itself, and then there was a record company and a publishing company and an interactive software division.

DM) And recently you just focused on the music?

RS) Yeah, I'm a singer/songwriter with a family.

DM) How has the experience of managing a recording studio helped your career as a musician now?

RS) I think I understand the recording industry...being able to sit down with a publisher, sit down with him and say, "I know what you do; I'm not as successful as you are, but I do understand the amount of work that takes place here; so what can I do to help you?" I think that brings a different reaction out of people. I think they appreciate the attitude, and it gives me a much better idea of my responsibilities as an artist.

DM) Speaking of touring and managing your life, I've always wondered how somebody can maintain a sane life with such a hectic lifestyle of touring?

RS) Well, for me personally, I thrive in a multi-tasking atmosphere. If you're geared the way I am, you can see that I tend to either go lethargic very quickly, or go crazy. I was hyperactive as a kid and I guess I'm the same way now.

DM) So what do you do to get out of your "lethargic" mode?

RS) For me, it's a matter of something that just piles up in front of me. If I begin to lose focus a little bit, all the work comes and I get that focus back.

DM) Occasionally I've spoken to musicians who were touring and whose lives have become manic...from lethargic mode to hyperactive mode. I always wondered how a person can successfully handle that?

RS) It's difficult. I know a lot of musicians who do have that same situation, where it's an "all or nothing" proposition. That's part of the reason I've geared my life the way I have...to be able to decide how I was going to live it and what I was going to do. I've decided to tour from South by Southwest to Thanksgiving. And the rest of the time, I'm here at home, spending my time with my family, or in the studio recording. I just have to keep notched up all the time. A lot of people get the feeling, "Man, I'm so exhausted. I'm going to lie down here"-- and then it's two weeks later and they're still lying down.

DM) That's the stage that I think everybody faces...when they find that they're lying down for two weeks and realize that they need to get out of that.

RS) Then don't lie down in the first place.

DM) Is it that simple, though?

RS) I've got enough people who are involved in not letting me lie down, and if I do lie down, they make sure I wake up. For example, I have a 12-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter, so if I get home they want my attention. Family wants certain continuity, so the minute I begin to get lethargic, the family keeps me stable.

DM) It sounds like if you were living on your own, it would be more difficult.

RS) Oh, definitely. I don't think I would be creating if it weren't for my family.

DM) Really?

RS) Oh, yeah. If you listen to my music, you will realize that it's about this personal life that I live. Living in rural America and focusing on what's important, which is the family, and being one at peace with myself.