DANIEL LANOIS
The Eno/Dylan/U2 collaborator talks gospel, curation and change.
He’s aided and abetted Eno, U2, Dylan, Peter Gabriel and many others. Now the Quebecois production hand has his own music to make. In Confidential mode, he reveals what drives him.
AS A COLLABORATIVE musician, producer and general studio vibesman, Quebec-born Daniel Lanois has made his rootsy, atmospheric presence felt on key albums by U2, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel and Neil Young. Following his time as co-architect of Brian Eno’s early ’80s ambient albums, the pair took exploratory sonics into the mainstream. In recent years, he has worked on Leonard Cohen’s posthumous 2019 album Thanks For
The Dance and pursued adventures in electronica with Venetian Snares. Looping back to his early studio years in Toronto, Lanois’ upcoming Heavy Sun is a space gospel record featuring Johnny Shepherd, a singer/ organist from Louisiana.
Heavy Sun recalls your early days, recording gospel singers.
Yes, I was associated with a Christian organisation and these folks brought singing groups from all over the world to tour in Canada. One of the touring stops was two days in my studio to make a gospel record. So, I got to hear a lot of beautiful music. It was a big part of my understanding of the structure of harmony.
Why do you think you’ve proven to be so in-demand?
I like helping people. It’s always been in my nature to try and make things as good as they can be. It might be just that simple. It makes people wanna do better when they’re around me.
As a producer, how do Bob Dylan sessions differ from Neil Young sessions?
If it’s a one-on-one situation as it was with Bob Dylan on
Oh Mercy, then the work becomes a little more snapshot-driven. If we move the clock ahead to Time Out
Of Mind, we had an 11-piece band and it becomes a little less polarised. When I worked with Neil Young [on 2010’s Le Noise], there were half a dozen songs that didn’t get on the record. They were all good songs, but I provided Neil with a bit of advice about what would make for the best balance for this body of work. I suppose you could draw some kind of an analogy to an artist that’s having a show of paintings and it’s good to have a curator.
What do you remember of 1985’s aborted Scott Walker album that you tried to co-produce with Eno?
We were very excited to be working with Scott. But he was a very private man regarding some of what he was doing. He wouldn’t let us hear songs in their entirety. We weren’t allowed to look at the lyrics. At a certain point, it started feeling like we didn’t have the communication that we were used to. Y’know, if I could get in the time machine, I might be able to solve whatever problems we had. We were just making tracks and there was no singing on them. At a certain point it just became a little too mysterious and I didn’t know what to do any more.
Is it true Scott chucked the tapes in the Thames?
I like the sound of that! I’ll run with that and I’ll get back to you.
It’s the 30th anniversary of Achtung Baby this year. Those Berlin sessions were famously gnarly and nearly broke up U2…
Y’know, I hear those stories. I wasn’t fully aware of whatever difficulties were going on. Let’s call it a soul-searching record. The records we had made in the early- and mid-’80s, The Unforgettable Fire and The
Joshua Tree, we were all kids and it was as if we had come upon a beautiful verdant garden full of delights. But by the time we got to Berlin, that innocence had gone away and we had to walk through another door. I think it’s a great rock’n’roll record with very imaginative toppings. The lyrical journey is substantial.
What’s the single most important lesson you’ve learned from a lifetime in music?
Nothing stays the same. We’re lucky enough to take snapshots of what we’re doing along the way.
Tell us something you’ve never told an interviewer before.
I’ve been thinking about my teenage years and, y’know, I had a brush with delinquency. Then, at a certain point, I was smart enough to know that that was about to be a dead-end street. That fork in the road… where are you gonna go, man? I chose music. I made the right decisions to stay out of trouble.
“Y’know, I had a brush with delinquency.” DANIEL LANOIS