Gotye Engineer/Producer François Tétaz On Pursuing Weird & Wonderful Work

Valley Village, CA: In the one year since François “Franc” Tétaz moved to Los Angeles from his native Australia, he’s produced, mixed or mastered a few records, scored a few film and art projects, and won a few GRAMMYs. So far so good.

If you don’t recognize this name, you will soon: Tétaz is the engineer/mixer behind Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know” and the full-length album, Making Mirrors – both of which he engineered alongside Wally De Backer (aka Gotye). He’s also worked with Kimbra, the female half of “Somebody That I Used To Know”, and a flourishing pop artist in her own right. Tetaz co-wrote and produced much of Kimbra’s 2011 debut, Vows. And he’s now just come off co-mixing the new Architecture in Helsinki record with Damian Taylor (Bjork, The Killers) to a busy schedule of select record and film projects.

François Tétaz

In his early 40s, Tetaz has been at this awhile, and yet his career trajectory and current spread of work in some ways more resembles that of a multi-hyphenate millennial who’s never known a world in which one could “just mix” or “just” do anything. Likewise, Tetaz does it all – writes, composes, records, mixes, masters (for real, not just his own stuff) and musical directs (Australia’s annual APRA Music Awards) – and is determined to maintain that deep mix of work.  A multi-disciplinary approach has led him here, after all: to as big a hit song as you can have nowadays, and the chance to score and produce on his pick of projects.

Moving to LA, in fact, had as much to do with immersing in an active music scene as it did moving to the epicenter of the film world. And here, we found Tetaz working in that “LA dream studio situation”, mixing his latest project in an amazing home/backyard studio called Seedy Underbelly, originally built and owned by L.A. session legend Jeff Porcaro (Toto, Michael Jackson, etc.) in Valley Village. The studio features an API console, tons of vintage microphones and a good-sized live room.

As we sat down next to the pool I was interested in digging into Tetaz’s working philosophies, to find out what inspires him to take on certain projects and keep the balance – especially now, on the heels of all that Gotye success.

Great studio, so what are you working on now?

This week I’m on a band from Australia called Spider Bait, they’ve been around for about 20 years, and they haven’t had a record for 10 of that. Their last record was a #1 in Australia. They’re quite an eclectic pop band, it really genre-hops hugely though; they grew up listening to radio in the 70’s, so all of their songs are based around listening to the really diverse playlists. Their records kind of mirror that, jumping from glam to punk to pop…a real mishmash of all those different things. It never really seemed to work overseas, people couldn’t get their head around what they were doing.

I see them as a conceptualist pop band more or less, so that’s how I try and make their records sound.

On their previous records they would write a couple of songs, go into the studio with pretty much nothing, and then in a state of stress and mayhem pull the record together. So generally they have been interesting, but most records have two or three songs that are really great, and then the rest is a bit of a mess. So on this record I’ve tried to keep a little of that chaos, but I’ve made it more controlled. So we’ve actually finished 11 songs that are really awesome and then I’ve left plenty of room for chaos. We’ll see what happens in the end. The best of both worlds…

Why aren’t you recording in Australia?

Spider Bait

Well we recorded it there, but I’m living here now. I moved here in August of last year. There were two other Australian artists I was working with between here and there over the last year and this is the last of those projects. Everyone has been coming across to work with me here, which has been fun.

Anyway, we recorded this record at Sing-Sing in Melbourne and Studios 301 in Byron Bay, which is a really great resort town. And we’ll spend the next three weeks here finishing it up.

So have you set up a more permanent studio here?

Not yet. I have a studio in Melbourne that I’ve had for over ten years which is still running. Here I’ve been working in different studios, catching the vibe, just figuring out what works where, that kind of thing. So down in Venice, there’s a room I’m using out of Harry Gregson-Williams’ place now run by Al Clay, called West Side Pacific. The building’s got a bunch of different rooms. I’ve been using one of them for mixing and doing bits of work. At some stage I’ll look at setting up something more permanent. I have an eclectic array of things that I do so…

I wanted to talk about that — wasn’t your studio in Australia a mastering house?

Yeah, more or less. I started in my early twenties writing for lots of student films, as well as dabbling in writing pop songs, although I ended up not doing much of that…I didn’t really have a good time in it. I found it very frustrating and… So I decided that since I wasn’t enjoying that very much, I would focus more on the ‘weird and wonderful’ projects that I really enjoyed.

When I started getting records mastered, I couldn’t find a place in Melbourne that was really getting the results that I wanted. So I started learning about the process and started mastering my own projects and then other people’s as well. That turned into getting a whole bunch of technique down for mastering and then thinking, ‘well actually, if I was going to do this, it’s probably a good niche to be in.’ I couldn’t really make a living at 25-26 from writing music or producing. So I put mastering into the mix of things that I did. That became what I spent most of my time doing, so I took it very seriously at that stage. It was really great for me.

Given all that time delivering final product you know exactly what to go for now…

Yeah, It was also a great experience for learning to work and collaborate with people. I had a different band in my studio every day, so as opposed to producing five different bands a year I was working with more like 120. So you get to work on a big range of music, and at that point a lot of those projects were pretty ordinary, and the recordings might have a lot of problems, so it made my job more challenging. I had to employ a lot of techniques and workarounds to get things sounding good. Like something might sound pretty thin and gnarly and I would have to ask myself what I could do with it, and whether that was bettor or not, or why am I making this decision?

So all that kind of work was really helping me a lot in the other kinds of projects that I was doing, be it production or composition. Ultimately, the plan was for me to be able to spend more time writing music and doing this kind of thing [production, mixing].

It seems like you would be in higher demand now for production…

Well based on hits and stuff you get a lot of people saying “Hey, could you produce my record?” but I’m very selective about that. There’s a good blend of work for me in a year, and I try to go between doing a film, three or four albums, and then following through on a bunch of things that I’m interested in otherwise. So I try and allow time for all of those things to happen, rather then just taking on a one stream of work. They all inform each other.

View from the iso booth (overlooking the pool) at Seedy Underbelly

It’s great that the demand is there for each kind of project.

Yeah, for instance I’m in the process of finding a film to work on for the end of this year. I’ve got a couple potentials in the works. We’ll see what happens.

What are you the most excited about right now?

Well, one of the things I really enjoyed about moving Los Angeles is that there is so much going on, and that feeds my desire to work at a strong pace. So I’m very excited about the possibilities that living here is opening up. Everyday here I meet more people who are really amazing, it’s just great being in a new environment…it’s very inspiring. And also being in a place where there is such a long history of recording, and a multigenerational history of the culture of what records are…and media in general.

You meet all sorts of people who have mega record collections who have been around and have a long handle on the world of media and culture through that. Moving here has been like walking into the fourth reel of a film, trying to catch up and figure out what’s happening. And everyone has this long history and understands the relationships, what a given company or person has been doing. And I’m like ‘I don’t know who that is…’ these complex relationships are such a deep part of the culture here.

Watching that resonate out into the world is also really fascinating, because Los Angeles is a megaphone for culture. In Australia you are kind of bombarded by the output of Los Angeles…

For better or for worse.

For better or for worse. “It’s a brain dead megaphone,” in the words of George Saunders, which I really like – the idea of the media being a brain dead megaphone. There’s good and bad to that. I like seeing the internal machinations of that rather than just being on the receiving end, looking at it from a different angle.

That’s what happens here, you see a much broader array of what’s going on…not what you see from Australia.

Tetaz (middle) with Gotye. Photo by Alain Bouvier.

Have you found since your success with Gotye that perhaps that machine is now focusing on you?

I don’t know, it’s hard to say. I get offered lots of things. I guess I come across as the ‘weird Australian”? hahaha

Is there an Australian Cabal?

There is! Really more of a “gang” let’s say. The Australians are pretty tight knit culturally. All the people I work with from Australia who have had success have fairly tight and committed working relationships. At the same time, I’m very liberal with those relationships so I encourage people to go and experience the world, work with different people. I try to be a facilitator as much as I can.

Do you have a set of criteria for accepting a project?

The thing for me is finding some fascinating aspect. It’s certainly not the same thing in every project. For instance, this record [Spider Bait] is more of an entertaining pop project. But at the same time it’s quite nostalgic and a bunch of other things as well. It has a completely different agenda from some of the other more finely-crafted folk music that I’ve worked on in the past. It has a completely different sensibility and logic about it.

There’s definitely not one thing that I look for, it has more to do with the intention of the people involved. Musically I’m just so open, I’ll work across any kind of genre.

Are you writing on this record?

Yes.

Do you like to be able to collaborate on the writing process?

It depends on the artist; it’s different with different artists. If there’s a gap and we naturally get along writing, or if it is really necessary, than I do. On some records it just makes sense, and on some it doesn’t. I find quite often as a producer that there’s a fine line between bringing the best out of something, or focusing and then spoiling it in some way. And I think in the history of production, from the Lomax’s onwards, that’s always been the case: you’re an editor. If you’re not careful you can make something banal or take something special out of it, like on the way from demo to finished project. I’ve done it lots and lots of times in my career, where I’ve taken a track from A to B, and there’s a compromise that happens. Like ‘I’ve added drums and it’s awesome!’ – but – it ‘doesn’t have that special feeling that it had when it was just a guitar and a vocal’.

That’s always an interesting conundrum that I think about when I’m approaching a project: Why am I the right person to work on this project? Is there someone who would be better than me? Those are always questions that I ask myself. If there’s another person or another producer who would be a better fit or if I don’t have a feeling for it that’s strong enough than it won’t really work. I have to have a really strong feeling for it to say ‘Yeah, I’m the right person for this! I love it, I like this person and I think its a really good fit so let’s make something.’ If that’s the case then it doesn’t matter what it is, I’m just in.

It’s a very confusing process for how I take on projects. I almost liked it more when I had less work and didn’t have as much choice. It was definitely easier…(laughs). I had years where I didn’t say no to anything because I didn’t have enough work. Then I get to this stage where I say gee, I need to say no to something.

…it’s hard to get out of that mindset of saying yes?

Yeah, having those choices definitely presents a new set of criteria for what to work on.

Anyway, putting it broadly I definitely look at the intent of the people I’m working with. I see myself as an advocate for the audience, so you the artist say, “I’ve got this really great idea and I think it’s really meaningful.” And I say that’s great it means a lot to you but it means nothing to me. And that’s cool, I quite often point that out: what’s at the core of an idea? Why is it being expressed? What do you do simply for yourself and the people you’re with in a moment, and what needs to be documented and put out there because it has some type of cultural gravitas to it? As a producer I’m also assessing: Why should this project exist? What’s the purpose of it? Why is someone going to listen to your record? If there is a reason for those things than it’s great, but otherwise it’s just kind of taking up my time.

It’s good to be able to keep that perspective when it’s also a paying job.

I’ve done the same thing in film, where I’ll ask ‘why should this have a score?’ I’ve had a couple of friends with films like that where I’ve felt that their work didn’t need a score, like I thought it was great as it was. I could put music on it, but I wasn’t sure it would serve any purpose…

So all this said, do you feel no compulsion to have another huge hit?

No, I love hits!!! I’m really into them. I don’t necessarily feel a compulsion that I have to, but I always try to aim that high. I love hits but I don’t mean it in the sense that we should be trying to make some sort of global smash that is competing to be the world’s ear worm. If it’s a piece of music that has such great meaning in people’s lives that they feel as though they want that as a part of their life than that’s fantastic. Whether that is for solace, celebration, whatever that may be, the function of that is really important and all I’m trying to do is make music that fulfills that.

Gotye feat. Kimbra’s “Somebody That I Used To Know” is one of the best selling digital singles of all time, selling over 13 million copies.

I really enjoy it when people come together through a song and are joined because of it, the common shared experience. That part of it is really great. In a secular society it kind of fulfills the same thing that religion would, in a way…isn’t it amazing that we all kind of feel the same?

That said, I’m a huge fan of Max Martin, just in terms of his ability to take the same ideas and twist them and re-inform them into a way in which you know it’s him, but he’s flipped it in yet another new way that is entertaining for three and a half minutes, when I’ve already heard so many of them that are great already. I find that so admirable, it’s kind of like Bach; there’s a form you’re playing with, so many variations…

Working with Wally [Gotye] on the last record he certainly had a lot of expectations in Australia and elsewhere, but to me that was unimportant. To let those expectations take up any headspace had nothing to do with the songs, you know… you’re trying to get on with an idea. I really value independence of thought like that. I feel limited when it’s an ‘I have to do this because’ scenario. I feel a little demoralized.

I need to feel free to search and find, and that’s what I try and maintain. It’s certainly not about being contrary, it’s about really great ideas resonating. And that can be really hard to do.

Franc Tetaz is managed by Liz Hart / Miss Management.

Bo Boddie is a Grammy winning engineer/mixer and composer. Visit him at http://www.boboddie.com.

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