RS: Any funny stories from the filming of the All Things video?
Ian Nieman: That whole video shoot was surreal. Working with famed video director Wayne Isham and his crew was a complete joy. Capitol really did their homework. The Fab 5 really carried the video, thankfully, and I didn't have to dance on camera. It was awesome. The Fab 5 have to be the nicest, most down-to-earth people I have ever met. The whole production team at Scout have become like family. It was a great way to memorialize my Widelife chapter in my music career. I am so happy that Barry Harris was able to be a part of the video shoot as he certainly was a very instrumental part of Widelife becoming what it was.
I will never forget the silly beds at the hotel where we stayed. My legs went about a foot over the end of the bed. Very hard to sleep!!!!! I guess the beds were meant for other things …
RS: What other TV programs have you worked on?
Ian Nieman: Queer As Folk, Bliss, 24 w/ on Trio (theme song and music), Street Time on Showtime, and the theme song and music for Knock! First on ABC Family. Actually, the Knock! First theme song features the vocals of Faith Trent. After we wrote and produced "Body" for Faith and got her signed to Tommy Boy, she came to Toronto to visit us. When she was up, she recorded four original records that we wrote for her. They were more in the pop/rock vein. When ABC
Family was looking for a theme song, we submitted one of the songs we had demoed with Faith called "I Am" and that became the theme song. I must say, Faith is the definitely one of the best singers I have ever heard live in the studio. If you could here the demos we did with her, you would completely understand. If she is reading this, please CALL ME.
RS: You also worked on a software product with Roxio - what was that like?
Ian Nieman: Working with Roxio is great. It is another example of an opportunity coming unexpectedly. I was actually selling some outboard gear locally and a really nice guy showed up at the door and bought an old Roland delay unit. We started talking and it turned out that he worked for Roxio and he recommended me to the team leader of a project that needed audio. I went for an interview and got the gig. It brought me back to my early days of being a sound designer for a software company for two years.
With Roxio, I was hired to compose audio for their DVD authoring software. It is both challenging and rewarding because they require everything from traditional Japanese music to Christmas-inspired music. I love it …
RS: Are you mostly software-based for production with plugins or do you use a lot of outboard gear?
Ian Nieman: Well, to answer that I will give you some history. I started taking piano lessons when I was 3 and quit taking lessons at the age of 16 when I heard a Roland JX-8P for the first time. 18 years later I have built quite the collection of vintage recording gear and synths. Lately I have realized that the 'sonic sound' of dance music has changed. More and more people are getting used to music being created 100% ITB. So for me, I have decided to sell a lot of my outboard gear, synths, and drum machines. It is painful to sell something like a Roland TR-808 or TB-303 because things like softsynths don't sound as good. I have yet to find a plugin to replace my Access Virus or a Novation SuperNova. But, with the price of remixing and producing going down, it is hard to justify buying or keeping expensive gear. Many people are trading in their Neve, SSL, API etc… gear and switching to Waves, McDSP plugins etc … it is sad, and I think the quality of music will suffer in the end. On the upside, it makes music a lot more accessible to the average person, as most records these days are being produced solely on a laptop.
