Producer JACK DOUGLAS Talks About Making Of AEROSMITH's New Album (Audio)

AEROSMITH fans looking to find out how the band's just-released, decade-in-the-making studio LP, "Music From Another Dimension!", was created can listen to exclusive excerpts from producer Jack Douglas discussing the real-time-recording of the album ahead of the release of a forthcoming record producers anthology, "Behind The Boards: The Making Of Rock & Roll's Greatest Records Revealed", due in December from Hal Leonard Books. Check out the audio clips using the ReverbNation widget below.

Among other commentary, Douglas declared excitedly at the top of his conversation on the making of the band's new LP that "I was looking to get back to the truth in both sound and the themselves, breaking it down to the raw sound that we used to get, which is two guitars, bass and drums, vocals, an occasional keyboard, an occasional lead over the two rhythms going. And then truth in sound. I mean, we recorded to tape; the processing is all old analog 2 bear, so we're really looking to get back to where we were in the '70s in feel. So that's what we're doing, trying to make a true album. Some of the albums during the 1990s, some were very successful and some were made that feel like they were trying to sell to a young audience."

He added, "On this record, we want to do two things: we want to go to the fanbase, and really the hardcore fans who let us know all over the world what kind of record they want to hear, so that's what we're doing. And then, Steven [Tyler, vocals] has created so many new fans with 'Idol', and so many people have gone back to listen to the early stuff that even the kids want to hear that kind of thing again. So we're just having a blast, and when you make a record that's about the truth, and true, it's always more fun, because you don't have the pressure of trying to be something you're not on the record."

Douglas also took fans inside the heart of the band's writing process, sharing that "the way it works is we come up with a lick, and then we develop the lick into a feel, and a feel is something that Steven can hold in his hands and bite into. And as soon as he's got that, and feels he can bite into it, we sit in the rehearsal room and we work it up so it's something that he can start singing over. Even if it's not lyrics, he starts to get a feel for what the lyrics might be, and he starts singing syllables. Then we go right in to record it while the idea's fresh. Then we listen back to it a few times, make some changes, and go on to another tune."

Once the band had reached a creative consensus on keeper tracks that have included singles like "Legendary Child" and "What Could Have Been Love", "we might come back to that tune later with some fresh ideas that may just be changing a couple of chords in a chorus, but slowly these things develop until we end up at the point where we have 15 songs that feel like they're almost complete," the producer revealed. "But now maybe a couple of chords change here or there, maybe the corner notes on the bass turn to eighth notes, things like that. All the while Steven is singing along, and he's in the control room right next to me. Sometimes I'll give him a 57, and I can be doing an overdub, and Steven is singing right into everybody's headphones, and it starts to take shape."

The book is available for pre-order at this location.