North Texas Daily

Brittni Barnett / Senior Staff Writer –

Music industry producers discussed the mechanics of record production at 35 Denton’s “Gear and Tape Panel” on Saturday at Dan’s Silverleaf with an attendance of about 50 people.

The producers touched on topics such as working in the studio, equipment used for recording and even their favorite producers, and finished by taking questions from the audience.

The daytime discussion was the last of several informative sessions offered by the festival throughout the weekend. Other 35 Denton panel topics included social media, booking, album art and others, and provided festivalgoers an opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the music business from those directly involved.

Members of the panels include those in the industry, such as Stuart Sikes – who worked with bands like the White Stripes and the Baptist Generals.

Sikes won a Grammy Award in 2005 for Best Country Album for his work as an engineer on Loretta Lynn’s album “Van Lear Rose.”

As a producer it is important to get an idea how band members interact with each another, Sikes said.

“You’ve got to figure that out, and you’ve got to figure that out that pretty quick,” he said. “Then you’ve got to make a decision as to how you’re going to go about setting a band up.”

Baptist Generals frontman and 35 Denton founder Chris Flemmons said that as an artist, he learned a lot while recording other bands.

“I think being in the studio is a lot about people management,” Flemmons said. “I don’t think it’s any different from somebody running a bar that deals with staff. It’s egos, and it’s personalities and it’s people’s vulnerable parts.”

Producer Brent Best, member of the Denton alternative country band, Slobberbone, said that bands nowadays have no excuse not to record themselves.

Touring and recording are the top two ways bands will discover what they really sound like versus what they think they sound like, he said.

“I don’t care if it [the recording] comes out or not,” Best said. “You have much more of a notion of who you are as a band and as a songwriter by just hitting that button and sitting and listening back.”