Butch Walker makes a living making music for other people. He’s written hits for Bowling for Soup (“Girl All the Bad Guys Want”) and Avril Lavigne (“My Happy Ending”), worked with Katy Perry, Pink and Fall Out Boy — all of which culminated in being named Rolling Stone’s Producer of the Year (2005).
Tragedy struck last November when his Malibu home burned in the wildfires that spread across California and Mexico. The blaze claimed almost all of Walker’s worldly possessions, including vintage instruments, a full recording studio, family heirlooms and the master of every song he has recorded over the past 20 years.
Almost one year to the day after the fire, Walker sits down with Street.
Street: How do you write a song for someone else?
Butch Walker: When you go and sit down with somebody else to write a song, it can’t be an experiment if you want it to turn out halfway sincere. When I’m by myself writing a song, I can just get up in the morning and do it myself. I’m not scared of what I feel or scared to say certain things. It’s different when you’re battling another person’s personality and their point of view on things and it’s not as personal. The process is very foreign and I try not to make it a formal one.
Street: Do you write songs by yourself for other people or is it collaborative?
BW: It almost always starts with an idea that I’ve already had or an idea that they’ve had and then we’ll finish it together. Once in a while a person will use the song that I’ve written in its entirety and just sing it. It doesn’t happen that often, but when it does, it sure is easy.
Street: Is there a formula for writing hits?
BW: I feel like I’ve definitely written the best songs for myself but sometimes there’s a difference between a hit song and a good song, you know? And I think that the formula is what makes a hit song a hit and not always a good song.
Street: What’s the most recent album that you wish you produced or just that struck you?
BW: Fleet Foxes has a new record out [Fleet Foxes] that is really beautiful. That’s a really interesting record to me to listen to and think, “Oh man, I don’t think I could ever play music the way they do and deliver it like that.” Producing it would’ve been a real blast, steeping everything in reverb and making it really dreamy. I love records like that.
Street: Upcoming projects?
BW: I’m doing some rock stuff. I’m doing a couple of singles on the new Dashboard Confessional record. We’re gonna do that in December. And I’m doing the new Saosin record to get some screaming out. I may do Nicole Atkins’s next record. I just wrote a bunch of songs with her, and we hit it off real well.
Street: Your Web site is www.therecordbusinessisfucked.com. If you were in charge of everything, how do you fix the record business?
BW: I say that with the most positive slant on it possible. The labels are dying, but the bands are thriving. Bands have it made now. Besides the economy taking a shit, concert attendances are good for artists that don’t have anything on the radio or anywhere. And that’s because of word of mouth and the Internet. Technology has created a whole new guerilla marketing. People don’t need to rely on the radio or a horrible video channel that doesn’t play videos. It shows you who’s got the power again. It’s great. That’s why I say it. I say it in every sense that it’s fucked, and I’m happy about it.
See the rest of this interview and a review of Butch Walker's album Sycamore Meadows at UnderTheButton.com.
