Michael Jackson - Little memories by Rob Hoffman
by
Rob Hoffman
Rob Hoffman is a producer, songwriter and recording engineer.
He plays guitar, piano, bass, drums, and has studied sitar and
tabla.
And he worked together with Michael ...
I was fortunate enough to work with MJ early in my career. He
was an incredible artist. Talented beyond your wildest dreams.
Extremely generous, and a hard worker. I actually went from
a staff assistant at the Hit Factory in NYC to freelance engineer
under Swedien and MJ. They were due to start in Los Angeles
when the Northridge earthquake hit so they moved to New York.
One room was all Bruce, the second room was the writing room.
I started assisting Bruce's writing partner Rene Moore. I would
track stuff with Rene, and Bruce would come in and tell me what
I did wrong, sit in for a few hours and set us straight. After
a couple months MJ arrived and the entire tour rig was moved
in along with Brad Buxer, Andrew Scheps, and Eddie Delena. I
continued to assist them until the whole crew moved to L.A.,
they decided to take me with them. I would assist Bruce during
the day, and help out every where else at night - assisting,
engineering, programming, and on one song playing guitar.
We had two rooms at Record One, and two rooms at Larrabee where
I met John. At one point in NYC we had just about every room
at the Hit Factory. The crew was great, and I learned so much
from all of them.
I learned to engineer from Bruce Swedien, John, and Eddie, and
got to sit in with producers like MJ, Jam And Lewis, Babyface,
David Foster, Teddy Riley, and Dallas Austin.
I was actually asked to leave the project early on because there
were too many people around and MJ didn't know me. Luckily,
I was rehired about 10 days later. At the wrap party MJ apologized
profusely, and expressed his gratitude. Truly the most sincere
man you will ever meet.
Some random memories:
One morning MJ came in with a new song he had written overnight.
We called in a guitar player, and Michael sang every note of
every chord to him. "here's the first chord first note,
second note, third note. Here's the second chord first note,
second note, third note", etc., etc. We then witnessed
him giving the most heartfelt and profound vocal performance,
live in the control room through an SM57.
He would sing us an entire string arrangement, every part. Steve
Porcaro once told me he witnessed MJ doing that with the string
section in the room. Had it all in his head, harmony and everything.
Not just little eight bar loop ideas. he would actually sing
the entire arrangement into a micro-cassette recorder complete
with stops and fills.
At one point Michael was angry at one of the producers on the
project because he was treating everyone terribly. Rather than
create a scene or fire the guy, Michael called him to his office/lounge
and one of the security guys threw a pie in his face. No further
action was needed . . . . .
During the recording of "Smile" on HIStory, Bruce
thought it would be great if Michael would sing live with the
orchestra. But of course, we didn't tell the players that. We
set him up in a vocal booth off to the side. They rehearsed
a bit without vocals in, then during the first take Michael
sang, just about knocked them out of their chairs.
His beatboxing was without parallel, and his time was ridiculous.
His sense of harmony was incredible. Never a bad note, no tuning,
even his breathing was perfectly in time.
Once, while we were taking a break, I think we were actually
watching the OJ chase on TV, there was a news program talking
about him being in Europe with some little boy. I was sitting
next to the guy while the news is making this crap up. He just
looked at me and said this is what I have to deal with.
I spent close to 3 years working with him, and not once did
I question his morals, or ever believe any of the allegations.
I wasn't even a fan then. I saw him interact with his brothers
kids, other people's children, and at one point my own girlfriend's
kids. I got to spend a day at Neverland with them. A completely
incredible human being, always looking for a way to make all
children's lives better. Every weekend at Neverland was donated
to a different children's group - children with AIDS, children
cancer, etc., and most of the time he wasn't there.
He was simply living the childhood he never had. In many ways
he never grew up.
I was assisting Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis while they recorded
the background vocals for "Scream" with MJ and Janet.
The two of them singing together was amazing. Super tight, no
bad notes. One part after another. When they took a break they
sang the showtunes they used to sing as kids. Again, perfect
harmony. Mj refused to sing the "stop f*ckin' with me part"
because he would NOT curse.
I was the tape op for the recording of the background vocals
on "Stranger in Moscow". Scared the hell out me. Michael
was dropping in and out on syllables, rearranging the notes
and timing as he put it down. No Pro Tools at the time, just
2" tape, and my punches.
I erased a live keyboard overdub that he played one night. He
came in the next morning, replaced it, and never uttered another
word about it.
I was there when Lisa Marie was around. They acted like two
kids in love. Held hands all the time, and she hung out at the
studio for quite a while. I never questioned their love for
each other.
We recorded a Christmas song during the summer of '94 that needed
a children's choir. Michael insisted that the entire studio
be decorated with xmas lights, tree, fake snow and a sled for
their recording. And he bought presents for everyone.
The last weekend of recording on HIStory he came to me and Eddie
Delena, and said "I'm sorry, but I don't think any of us
are going to sleep this weekend. There's a lot to get done,
and we have to go to Bernie on Monday morning". He stayed
at the studio the entire time, singing, and mixing. I got to
spend a couple quiet moments with him during that time. We talked
about John Lennon one night as he was gearing up to sing the
last vocal of the record - the huge ad libs at the end of "earth
song". I told him the story of John singing "twist
and shout" while being sick, and though most people think
he was screaming for effect, it was actually his voice giving
out. He loved it, and then went in to sing his heart out. .
. .
Later that night, while mixing, everyone left the room so MJ
could turn it up. This was a common occurrence during the mixes,
and I was left in the room with ear plugs, and hands over my
ears, in case he needed something. This particular night, all
the lights were out and we noticed some blue flashes intermittently
lighting up the room during playback. After a few moments we
could see that one of the speakers (custom quad augspuergers)
was shooting blue flames. Mj liked this and proceeded to push
all the faders up . . . .
MJ liked hot water while he was singing. I mean really hot !!!!!
It got to the point that I would melt plastic spoons to test
it.
Bruce and I were talking about walking to the studio everyday
in NYC, and what routes we took. Michael looked at us and said
we were so lucky to be able to do that. He couldn't walk down
the street without being harassed. It was a sad moment for all
of us.
The studio crew got free tickets to the Janet show so we all
went right from work one night. About halfway through the show
we see this dude with a long beard, dressed in robes dancing
in the aisle behind. I mean really dancing . . . it was Mj in
disguise. Kind of like the costume Chevy Chase wears in Fletch
while roller skating.
He got one of the first playstations from sony in his lounge
. . . we snuck in late at night to play the games that hadn't
been released yet.
A couple people on the session hadn't seen Jurassic Park while
it was out, so MJ arranged a private screening for us at Sony.
He was a huge fan of Nine Inch Nails Downward Spiral . . . .
I was lucky enough over the course of 3 years to have access
to the multitrack masters for tour prep, videos, and archive
purposes. To be able to pull these tracks apart was a huge lesson
in production, and songwriting. A chance to look into the minds
of geniuses.
Of all the records I've worked on, MJJ was the only company
to give platinum award records.
One day we just all sat in the studio listening to his catalog
with him for inspiration. He loved the process, he loved the
work.
Rob Hoffman
Back to Michael´s mystery
