MusicWhy Michael Jackson only recorded his songs in the dark

Like every great artist, michael jackson He had his peculiarities when it came to working. Although everyone mentions that he was very professional both in the studio and on stage, there were some curious habits on the part of the singer, who left us in 2009.

One of them, according to the now deceased sound engineer Bruce Swedienhas to do with the lighting (or rather, the lack thereof) required by Michael when recording his songs. In an interview given in 2009 to Future Musicthe studio professional who died in 2020 said that the artist only did his vocal lines if the lights were all off.

He stated:

“Interestingly, we always recorded Michael in the dark. He hated lights. I mean, there could have been some light for him, but the studio was completely in the studio.”

Swedien, who at the time spoke about the album sessions Thriller (1982), said he had a scientific explanation for Jackson’s request.

“I think one reason he wanted this – and why it worked so effectively – is that through my studies of acoustics and so on, I discovered that the human being is primarily a visual animal. Hearing is our second sense. People can get distracted by having too many lights in the studio, to the extent that it can take them out of the music.”

The recordings of Thriller took place in the studios Westlake Audioin Los Angeles, in the United States. The work was developed between April and November 1982, with release a few days later: November 30th of that year.

Michael Jackson and professionalism

At another point in the interview, Bruce Swedien recalled that, like anyone else, he did not imagine that Thriller was so successful. We are talking about the best-selling album in the history of music, with an estimated 70 million copies sold worldwide.

“Anyone who says they thought it would be all this successful is lying, because you can’t know until it goes public and the public themselves say, ‘Wow, this is really good.’ All we did was follow Quincy Jones (producer) along the way to get the best songs we could make, with a passion for detail. Quincy was so amazing to work with, as was Michael. We had a lot of fun.”

All the work surrounding that album was facilitated by Michael Jackson, who, in addition to being talented, was very professional.

“Michael was never late for a session — he was even early. Also, I don’t remember Michael holding the lyrics while singing. He would stay up at night until he memorized the song or songs we would record that day. There aren’t many artists like that. With him, there was no difficulty at all.”

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