Danny Tenaglia - Music Is The Answer Studio Session from AXIS Recording Studios

A MAJOR FIND!! I was digging around in the vault looking for this video treasure, and actually found it! It’s so much better and longer than I remembered. It’s the perfect video to share in completion of the #musicistheanswer25 year anniversary challenge… Here is some rare footage from my favorite recording studio session at ’AXIS Recording Studios’ (in the penthouses of the Studio 54 building, owned by a mentor of many, Francois K) during the production of Music Is The Answer. This old way of recording with tape machines is how everyone made tracks for many, many years using not 1 but 2 machines. To think that the Beatles wrote some of the world’s best songs on just 4 track machines and then evolving up to 24 Track Machines. Then we could sync them and have up to 48 Tracks. These days with Logic, Ableton, Pro-Tools etc, you can record a million tracks! LoL In the video, you’ll see equipment like the AKAI 1000 Sampler, Roland 909 and E-Mu SP-1200 Drum Machines and I think the programming software at the time was Vision or Performer. We were deep in the production of my album “Tourism” at this point. ROB RIVES (aka Floppy Sounds and my recording engineer) even asks me if I’ve chosen a name for the album yet. You can also see the huge road case with 100’s of floppy disks which I described as “my life in a box”. Each floppy disk could only hold about 16 bars of music! Now I could fit them all on 1 key and still have a ton of room! This was the earliest days of me using all forms of computers and tape machines in all of the productions which was so exciting. You might have also noticed my long time friend CEVIN FISHER sitting at the console groovin’ to the tracks. I don’t recall but it was very likely the same day we might’ve also recorded Cevin’s vocals for another song on my Tourism LP called “The Better Days“. Where has time gone? So many incredible memories. While making this song in the studio and even upon the release date, you’d never think that it’s still going to be played 25 years later. I just remember thinking how much I was loving the groove and melody, and was so proud of myself for not needing a musician to help me and of course, Celeda’s amazing lyrics and vocals have given a genius hook people of all backgrounds can grab onto. When I play this track today, I still feel the magic we created together. PS: We recorded the “Be Yourself“ vocals the same day as MITA! That’s another post .... :) Thank you, everyone, for keeping Music is The Answer alive.