Levi, as you look back on the making of this record and the vital role you played in shaping the sound of it, what are your thoughts about working with Prince twenty-five years later? Levi Seacer Jr.: I would like to say this, I can’t account for all the peaceful times in Prince’s life, but I spent a pretty good amount of time with him. I felt like his Diamonds and Pearls period was very peaceful for him. Even though he could be very intense, musically, I feel like he was really happy. I felt like we were really close as a band, not just musically, but like a family. There was a lot of laughter during the sessions behind the scenes. I felt like he was at peace with the world. I saw him smile and laugh a lot. He was really enjoying his music. I really want the fans to know that. There was a good sense of family and love during that period. So, I think, Prince will be a major influence from this point on, and he’s always been, but more so now because he’s gone. People need to know what excellence is and that is what he was. Prince was an innovator beyond music; he was a trendsetter in fashion and the way he used technology in his music. As far as religion and stuff, I think he would want to be remembered as a person that was all-inclusive. He donated money to many organizations and kept it secret. He really cared about people. I hope his example will open people’s hearts, who have a lot of influence, to step up to the plate and use their power and influence to turn things around. He had a massive impact on me and everything in this life. Michael Koppelman: It is definitely a source of pride for me. I remember when I had the master tapes for Diamonds and Pearls and I was taking them to L.A. I was driving in my car, and I stopped at the bar on my way home with my friends. Years later when I was in Australia, I was in this random place and I heard the songs from this album come on. I said to myself, “These tapes were in my fucking car.” It was funny to think that I had the tapes for these songs in my car. It was just a crazy moment, connecting those dots. At one point, I said to Prince, “It must be amazing to know that your music is going to be heard by millions of people. It’s a lot different than just playing songs to your friends.” He replied, “No, no, no. It’s more fun to play songs for your friends.” It was a moment of wisdom. Ultimately, it was absolutely true. NPG were his friends and that’s what he truly loved about music, more so than the millions of people that heard it, or the millions of dollars he made. .
him write songs. I never saw that creative process. I would see him musically exploring things with the lyrics and titles for the song. I never witnessed that sort of brainstorming in that area. How many takes would he do when he was recording these songs? Since you said that he would sometimes come in with a cassette, with an idea, and then work on it. What was his process of working through a song from the beginning to the end that you witnessed? Michael Koppelman: It’s really hard to say. Many times, he would come in and start playing—just before the MIDI days—with the LinnDrum machine. That was like his old friend, in a way. I don’t think the LinnDrum ever left his setup. He would be quiet when he had the song in his head. Sometimes, he would be playing boisterous and screwing with you specifically, or joking around with the band. When he’d hear the song, he went in there and point at something. He’d speak in this very low voice and just be focused. He’d start playing on the LinnDrum and get some beat going and grab the bass and do his thing. I could see he already knew what to do, but it was still a creative process, obviously, for him to figure out how to put that down. He didn’t need to do multiple takes or anything like that, ever. I never saw him mess around. He would make mistakes occasionally, in terms of hitting the wrong note on the keyboard, but even then, he would fool around with the mistake and hit it a few more times, just to see if we were supposed to learn something from that. It had an impact on me. It was like, “Whatever it takes, let’s listen to the tape,” because sometimes those mistakes may lead you somewhere.
How involved was Prince with the mixing and mastering process?
Michael Koppelman: I would say if someone at Paisley was doing that, meaning Tom, Dave, or me from my recollection, he was involved to the end. I remember a couple times he let me mix things when he wasn’t there. I don’t think any of those made the record. He kept working on the songs, and he liked the detailed aspect of it. Many times we’d get to mix what we thought was done, and then he would come in and do some moves on the faders. With “Diamonds and Pearls,” which was one of my earlier mixes for him, the first thing he did, he came in and grabbed all the reverb faders and pulled them all down ten decibels. When I listen to the song now, it’s just soaking wet and there’s reverb everywhere. When it came to engineering, he was always on a path of discovery. I remember when I came to L.A., and he’d been there in the studio without me. Prince rarely treated me like a friend. I worked for him. So we were at Larrabee Studios one day, and he pulled up in his car. He said, “Come here!” He played me something in his car, and he was excited about it. As soon as we got into the studio, he played it and the meters were barely moving. They weren’t in the red at all on the mix. Sometimes when we would bury the needles on the mix, we were looking for what made the sound bad. We didn’t care about the total harmonic distortion. Did it sound good in the red or not in the red? We would play around with stuff like that. He was in tune with every part of that process, even though he didn’t really look at it like the engineer normally would. He wouldn’t work elbow to elbow with mixers.
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