Daniel Lanois

Legendary producer, songwriter, and GRAMMY-winning musician Daniel Lanois goes record shopping at Amoeba Hollywood in this "What's In My Bag?" episode. He recalls working with The Neville Brothers in his fabled New Orleans studio, shares the greatest lesson he learned from Brian Eno, and reflects on the importance of musical curiosity and exploration.

Daniel Lanois' new album, Belladonna Nocturne, is available now. See Daniel on tour this summer + fall. View full schedule here: https://www.daniellanois.com

Daniel Lanois' picks:
• The Neville Brothers - Yellow Moon (LP) 
• Tomita - Pictures At An Exhibition (LP) 
• Rosalia - LUX (LP) 
• Brigitte Bardot et Serge Gainsbourg - Bonnie And Clyde (LP) 
• Notorious B.I.G. - Ready To Die (LP)  
• Brian Eno - Another Green World (LP) 

Featured Artist: Daniel Lanois

Editor: Brendt Rioux
Executive Producer: Rachael McGovern
Producer/Director: Craig Miller
Assistant Director: Aaron Araki
Cameras: Derich Heath, Aaron Araki
Audio Recorded by: Patrick Emswiler
Assistant Editor: Patrick Emswiler

Watch Daniel Lanois' "What's In My Bag?" episode on Amoeba.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, I'm Daniel Lanwe here at Amoeba, and we're having the most fabulous time digging for gold. I think we found it. This is what's in my bag ⁇ I did a little bit of rummaging and found this at the Neville Brothers Yellow Moon. This is a record that I made with the Neville Brothers when I first went to New Orleans. And we made this album. And my responsibility was to represent each brother, including Charles Neville, who played the most beautiful saxophone, and we got him the Grammy Award.

SPEAKER_03 1:35

You'll be feeling that rhythm deep down in your soul. You'll be doing that all time. Rock and roll. Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Part of the attraction to New Orleans for me was I'm French, French Canadian, and I always felt some kind of a distant connection to the Cajun culture. When I started a recording studio in New Orleans, and I was very proud of that place because it was just a beautiful, architecturally significant building, 13,000 square feet of madness. And so it became a mecca of sorts, you know, like an attraction. Many, many spontaneous jam performances were had in that place, and the collaborative spirit made it so that we were able to do something completely fresh and unexpected. I made a great Bob Dylan record there called uh Oh Mercy.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

We live in a political world. The one we can see and feel, put the snow on the chair. It's all a stack deck. We all know for sure that it's real.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

We got into this because we loved other people's work. We take that inspiration and build our own sound, and then you're into the unknown. And what shall we do with the unknown? That bumps into this philosophical angle of why not bring something to a neighborhood and let the neighborhood feed off of you. You don't just take from a neighborhood. It was a great time for all of us. It's an absolute classic. It's got a lot of heart and soul, and one of the great covers. And I lost my original copy, so now I got one back. He did the most beautiful work electronically, the debut, the Claude Debut C track called Claire de Lune. I heard it last night on my phone. Even on the telephone, it really it reached me. As a kid myself, I was uh interested in electronic music. I had the first Moe synthesizer that came out, and I was really excited about the uh incorporating electronics with what I do. People might think of me as more of an analog specialist and just live stuff in the room, but it goes beyond that for me. I think it's safe to say that I'm curious about anything that's great. And this man has touched greatness. So we'll see what happens when I listen to this. I was first introduced to Rosalia from her album Los Angeles, made in 2017, and I appreciated the pure form of that record because it's largely her and a guitar player named Raul who really touched me. And I've listened to her along the way. We found her latest, of course. A very adventurous body of work because she decided to go the distance with symphonics. So way to go, Rosalia. A courageous, adventurous woman chasing her dreams. How about that? And then um, oh, I remained fascinated with what was happening in France in the 60s, style and music and film, and so to revisit this uh Bridget Bardot, Satan's Green's boo, two icons of that era. I still reference that era because film in those times there was not a lot of fast editing. And so the story uh they didn't mind having somebody smoking a cigarette for a minute contemplating life. That was a good thing. And so here we are, revisiting the uh the values of the 60s. May they never go away. Now I don't know everything about notorious B.I.G., but I've really enjoyed what I've heard.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Because I see some ladies tonight that should be having my baby. Oh, baby.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

There's a master and came up through the streets. Where I come from, we didn't have a lot of money, so the fun was had just visiting people's houses and busting out the violins and that. You know, my grandfather was a pretty good violin player, and yellow new, we called him. It's just a word for a fiddler. That music really got into me as a young child, and it's probably a big part of who I am. I could never be B.I.G. but I like that he represented where he came from and was inspired by his neighborhood and his life. We're cut from a similar cloth in regards to childhood inspiration.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

It was all a dream. I used to read Word Up magazine, something pepper and heavy D up in the limousine, hanging pictures on my wall. Every Saturday, rapper back, Mr. Magic Molly Mall.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

And then my old friend Brian Eno. I went to the Brian Eno compartment to see if we could find a version of Apollo, which is a record that I made with Brian and his brother. But I found this instead, another Green World. This is before my time with Brian. It's a lovely combination of exotic instrumentals and curious songs. And a nice reminder to me as a record maker and songwriter that people like surprises. It's good to venture into new expression and new explorations. This record for me represents that. It represents courage and exploration. We went to Ireland to work with you two together. Probably the greatest lesson I learned from Brian is we're at the console and the band asked, Brian, what's your opinion on this? And he says one thing, and they say, Danny, what about you? And I say something else. We were walking home later that night. Brian says, mm-mm mm-mm, we're working together. Both ideas were good, but two people supporting one idea is better than two people with two different opinions. So he reminded me that it's best to just get on with an idea than to present a second one. So whether he comes up with it or I come up with it, let's just stick together. We work on one idea together so that we're not seen to be concerting too many options, because options can be the enemy of art. And I carry that with me every day now. So thank you, Brian, for that little lesson.

SPEAKER_04 9:54

Thank you so much.