GALO: What were you listening to when you were a kid?

JL: All the usual suspects. I have this theory, I mean I have a pretty strong feeling that the music you hear, from let’s say when you’re 12 to 18 or maybe even 21, is the music that gets in your DNA in such a way that it resonates with you for the rest of your life. If you make music for a living, then somewhere, somehow, you’re trying to touch on the mystery of what that was. For me, at age 14, listening to The Beatles’ “I’ll Be Back,” with John Lennon singing it, I was profoundly moved. I didn’t understand how they made the record or even particularly get the music that was going on — you didn’t think about it analytically, you were just deeply moved. You couldn’t quite comprehend why you were moved, but you knew you had to listen to that song everyday of your life. The Beatles were huge for me and all the usual suspects of the incredibly eclectic great period of music from 1964 to 1974 or ’65 to ’75. They were incredible years at that formative period [in the music industry]. So I was right at ground zero for that ten year period. It was gigantic.

I think the music that lingered and really impacted me were the Beatles, Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson, and the Rolling Stones. And then it morphed later into some kind of entrée into country music which for me was The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers, which then led me to Merle Haggard, George Jones, Johnny Cash, and of course, Bob Dylan. But I’ve always liked pop music in general. I’ve always appreciated a well-crafted pop record.

GALO: I’m curious as to your thoughts about Bob Dylan.

JL: Well, Bob…it’s almost not fair to just have one pithy comment about him [laughs] because he’s so profound. Bob’s thing is just unbelievable — the depth of it and his impact on so many levels. It’s massive, I mean, you and I could sit around and talk for days about it.

GALO: Did you ever have the chance to work with Bob Dylan?

JL: No, I never have.

GALO: Did you ever want to put out your own solo record?

JL: Sure. I still think about it and hope I do it before I lose the ability to do so. There always seems to be a few things that get in the way, [laughs] primarily making a living; I have a feeling no one is going to care about anything I do myself. I want to. I have a lot of ideas and they’re kind of strange ideas, they don’t fit into anything I’ve done so far, but I’m moved by them, so I feel like at some point, I need to do it. I have certain things kind of mildly prepared for it. Hopefully, I’ll get to do it. I have this vision of an album that flows with some instrumental interludes into songs that I sing and other people sing, and I have a few of these ideas squirreled away already.

GALO:  What makes you look closely at a song? What attracts you to it — some tune that you want to build a production around?

JL: That’s a good question. I think I’m a bit of an anomaly as a producer, as far as I can tell, since I kind of came at it slightly sideways and was never just motivated to be a producer. I’ve never solicited an artist to work with; it all kind of flowed toward me. It’s hard to describe what it is that motivates me.

I write a lot on a regular basis with a lot of the people I produce. I like that part of it, and if I’m not writing, I like the arranging part. Doing The List for Rosanne [The List was a 2009 album that Leventhal produced for Rosanne Cash, the eldest daughter of the legendary singer, Johnny Cash, and Leventhal’s wife] was a gas for me. I love the idea of taking a well-written song and changing it, and making it into something else that’s a little bit unexpected.

As far as what I hear in a song, I could talk to you for days about that. For me, on some level, there has to be something about some melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic aspect that really gets me just a step before the lyrics, but the lyric thing has to be there. I will admit — the musical thing has to hook me in initially. It’s interesting because there are some great writers where I feel like the craft of it is great and I’m impressed by the lyric, but there will be deficits in the music parts for me. The music part will sound hackneyed or overdone and I’m not pulled in. It’s clear I have my own internal barometer with some balance of compelling musical aspects combined with a great lyric. I think that at this point, I’m pretty adept at recognizing a good tune.

I’m sure you know, you can make a brilliant record out of a mediocre tune and just have it be a very moving, brilliant record. And you can make a crappy record out of a brilliant tune; so obviously, the ideal is a great record out of a great tune. That’s a beautiful thing.

GALO: Do you often play guitar on the records you produce? I believe you also play piano.

JL: Yes, for better or worse, I tend to get involved on a deep level musically when I produce. I tend to play more than one instrument. Many times, I’ll get quite excited when we’re working on a tune, and since I have a bit of facility on a bunch of different instruments, I will, in a very short period of time, grab all the instruments and go with my intuition and try to keep the first hour as unconscious as I can, keeping my critical editor voice at bay. And I throw down a lot of ideas right away when I’m sitting with an artist doing pre-production. Well over half the time, I get lucky, and there seems to be something there in that first 30 to 60 minutes.

I did a record with Marc Cohn last year and that’s basically what we did. We were sitting around and I had an acoustic guitar, a mic for my guitar as well as a mic for his vocal, and we’d get an initial thing down, and I’d say, “well, let me just throw a quick bass and drum thing on it,” and it ended up being the record, so that can happen. For me, to trust my intuitive approach to it before I get analytical or editorial about it is a major part of my process. It’s also the most joyous part of the process; that’s the most fun.

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