these labels exist for all artists ... once you have your sound/niche/style it's impossible to change, leave that niche or evolve drastically in a short timespan.

madonna's probably the only example, but her whole image and steez has always been chameleon/vampire so for her fans it makes sense to see her change (sometimes 180°) from one album to the next.

but madonna is hollywood, and with the exception of Prince and U2 only few of the artists from her era still exist or are still as relevant or have the same impact (wish I could include Michael but nope).

anyway, if you would be insane enough to consider my suggestions :

- record somewhere else, with the whole band. rent a house with all necessities (plenty of rooms, bathrooms, pool, entertainment system, ...) for at least a month, preferrably with a studio included, OR nearby a good studio, in a sunny location : even better would be outside of the US and far away from any major city, to make sure noone comes to interfere in your sessions and you can just focus on the music.

I did this with a singer-songwriter whose record I produced a few years ago, we went to the south of Spain for 3 weeks, after laying down demos for 2 weeks. There was literally nothing you could do there except swim, sleep, eat or make music. For some group members this may be hard, so if you're recording for longer periods you might consider flying relatives over mid-stay.

the advantage is that you're ONLY focusing on your music, since that's the only option there. and being in a sunny environment will definitely affect the music too. if you think I'm getting new-agey, fear not : I didn't believe the singer of the group when he came up with the idea and tried to convince me by mentioning the impact of the weather, but it actually does.

you also get a lot of work done without feeling stressed ... all you gotta do is have someone who's taking charge and making sure there's some sort of schedule beforehand so that you don't end up swimming sleeping and eating your entire stay ... ;-)

- organise a rehearsal or preproduction period of at least the same length, but preferrably longer, a few weeks before leaving for the studio. Use this period to try out external production (at least if that's what you want to do). Invite people like Salaam Remi (for his work on the latest Amy), Jamie Lidell (forget the name of his producer), Roni Size, go to Berlin for a few weeks and do some workshops/masterclasses there .... BEFORE YOU THINK I'M SUGGESTING YOU TO GO FOR A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SOUND : I'm mentioning these names cos they might bring something to the Roots that you already had but forgot, or something you wouldn't necessarily think about. Not so that your next record would sound like electronica meets broken beat meets Berlin weed ;-)

the whole idea is to be ready or know what you want to do with the album before leaving. if you're using an outside producer, he should be present during the preproduction period and not just joing when you start tracking.

- if you don't wanna write all the songs yourself, check for songwriters/production via your publisher/okayplayer/myspace ... especially with you being so internetminded it makes sense to use the potential of people being online. I don't know how you contact outside producers at the moment, if this happens strictly on a personal basis, or through business contacts, ... I guess both. But you know how Dilla was timid and humble as hell, if it wasn't for Amp Tip and all of us might never have heard of him ... so maybe there's another Dilla somewhere who's not actively seeking work but has it in him/her and gets overlooked by everyone cos people only look where they always look.

- for engineering you don't need anyone else : you're already working with the best people in the biz, maybe a producer who's overseeing the whole album is a good idea, but it will depend on what you want, how much room you want to give that producer and how good he will gel with the Roots as a band (I mean the social skills). Also, at least knowing a bit about The Roots (both albums as live) is pretty essential for anyone working with y'all. Unless you're going for a "produced by" stamp and want to adapt your sound and give him carte blanche.

- very personal opinion : the Roots have a habit of changing their sound/steez every album. For the first 4 albums this has made sense to me as a fan, but after Things Fall Apart I kinda didn't see the logic in the following albums. I'll explain : before that, I could understand how the sound changed from album to album, somehow it made sense and felt natural. From Phren on, the changes between albums started feeling forced and unnatural. Why that is I have no idea, and it's strictly my own opinion, but I would try to repair the sense of continuity (for lack of better word) between albums. How to do it I don't know, but I think that recording in 1 place in a concentrated amount of time and with someone coordinating/overseeing is a good start.

- there's plenty more I could say, but I don't have the time right now to type it all. Need some time to let it digest too, since I'm learning as I make moves myself (from producing to soundtracks, coaching artists and engineering)





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