“Here is what I want set up.” He would describe whether or not it was going to be live or acoustic drums or a drum machine, or what kind of guitar sound he wanted: distorted or clean, or which keyboard he wanted set up. What that meant was, when he walked into the studio, he wanted to be able to go from the drums to bass to keys to guitars and move through each instrument expressing his ideas. As I recall, he did most of his experimenting midway through the songs. So, he would come in with a pretty good idea of what the basic rhythm track should be, then he’d spent a good bit of the time in the middle, experimenting with different guitar and keyboard sounds. After that, there would be a pause where he would stop and go out to his car with the tape to write lyrics, or he would already have the lyrics, and we would keep on going, and he would sing the song and do all the background parts. Then we would spend the rest of the time mixing and adding the final instrumentation. Sometimes, he would call Eric Leeds to play the saxophone or Wendy, Lisa, or other people to come in to do backing vocals. For the most part, he was doing nearly everything himself. He would move through it as if he had the song pretty much fleshed out in his head, as we were going along. No one had any way of knowing how much of that was true. I could tell when he was experimenting, because he’d try one song, then he’d skip it and go to another. But it’s pretty safe to say that he had a very high capacity to imagine songs and be able to craft them. Any time an artist creates a work of art, there is art involved, which serves as inspiration, but the rest of it is going to be craft. Ninety percent of it will be craft. It’s impossible to say, when he came into the studio, how much of it was art, like how much of his inspiration started in his alone time versus how much of the art came to him, as he was in the process of making the record. I have a little bit of a hunch, but no one will ever know for sure. Some tracks we did just to dance to. Those are ones where he clearly didn’t have any songs in mind. He was just laying down a groove. Then he’d come up with some stupid lyrics, and those were tracks that didn’t end up on the album. For other tracks that were more important, I got the sense that he would come in with a strong idea. In another words, he would’ve done the creative part on his own—the actual thinking part. What I would do with him during that time period was the craft of actually making it come into reality.
It was a more collaborative atmosphere on Around the World in a Day than Parade . Most of the songs on Parade were done by Prince alone. The song “Mountains” is a shining example. The genesis of “Mountains” was done by Wendy and Lisa. The three of us did the basic track in London on our own. Prince sent Wendy and Lisa to London, and he rented a flat and bought them some studio time, and he sent me with them, so we could do some recording. We did the tracks for “Mountains” and “Power Fantastic.” We brought them back to Prince, and he added the lyrics and finished up the tracks. So there weren’t really collaborations on the Parade record. It was more of a solo endeavor. He had Wendy and Lisa collaborate quite a bit in terms of playing instruments and singing, but he was telling them what to play, with the exception of “Sometimes It Snows in April.” That song was a true collaboration. For “Sometimes It Snows in April,” he put Lisa on piano and Wendy on guitar. He gave them the chord changes and the direction, and he let them do what they did best. But the other songs on the record pretty much reflect Prince alone, other than “Mountains.” Sign “O” the Times was a little more collaborative with Sheila E., and Around the World in a Day was more collaborative with the band; but Parade was pretty much a solo expression for Prince, now that I think about it.
What about the two songs his father received credit for on this album?
Susan Rogers: His father’s inclusion wasn’t really an artistic inclusion. The truth of the matter was that he wanted his father to get a little bit of money. Prince’s father inspired him in many, many ways, so Prince would give his father songwriting credits on songs, in order for his father to get some royalty checks. His father may have played something on the piano that Prince then turned into a song. I’m not saying his dad wasn’t an artist or a piano player or an inspiration in his own right, but those songwriting credits were sometimes a little bit of a stretch. I recorded John Nelson a couple times, and he was a jazz piano player, but he tended to ideate and riff and move from one theme to another. He didn’t have a lot of cohesive ideas in his music, but that’s not to say that Prince didn’t take some of those ideas and some of his chord progressions and turn them into melodies. I think John Nelson is where Prince got a lot of his genius for melodies.
Did Prince have a set time where he would come into the studio to work?
Can you describe the studio atmosphere that existed during the making of this album?
Susan Rogers: Any time he could, which meant if he was awake and not in a business meeting or on a date, he was in the studio. If we were on tour at the end of a set in an arena, he would come off the stage and take a shower at the hotel and change clothes. Then, sometimes he’d play an after-party, or if he didn’t, we would go into the studio to start recording. Every chance he had, he would be in the studio. When we were doing the Under the Cherry Moon movie, there was a mobile truck on the movie set, so when the French crew were taking their two-hour lunches, he could be in the mobile truck recording. Studio sessions were frequently twenty-four hours long. Twenty hours was a fairly typical day. Twelve hours would feel like a day off. [ laughs ] But we would just keep on going and going until the song was done. Sometimes, we would go to bed at six o’clock in the evening or at six o’clock in the morning. We’d sleep for a few hours, then take care of some business and go back into the studio. We really lost track of time. We didn’t know if it was day or night, but it didn’t matter . It was a cycle of sleeping, eating, and recording in the studio. That’s what we did all the time.
David Z: Prince had two rooms booked at Sunset Sound. It was kind of like a beehive. There was activity everywhere. There was a basketball court outside. When everyone took a break, we’d go outside and shoot baskets. We’d go in one studio or another. I don’t think Mazarati went into Prince’s studio very much, but he’d come over to see how his project was going. It was a very creative beehive back then. I think that is what he was trying to create with Paisley Park when he built it. Everyone was interacting, which was really great because it inspired our creativity. There were other people in other rooms making music. That is really important for creativity. I think sitting at home alone making a beat is a little stifling. Music is supposed to be made with other people. There was friendly competition back then. Susan Rogers: It was pretty quiet. He didn’t narrate his process. He would come into the studio with an idea for a melody or lyric, but he wouldn’t say it. He’d like to have all his instruments set up and ready to go before he arrived to the studio. He would either give me instructions by phone or leave a written note in the studio saying,
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