Rascal Flatts’ Joe Don Rooney: Technology Can’t Replace The Studio
There are a lot of benefits to modern-day technology, and that’s as true in the music world as it is anywhere. But according to Rascal Flatts‘ Joe Don Rooney, there are also drawbacks. There’s still something special about doing things old school.
Thanks to modern-day computing power and fancy music software, artists don’t necessarily need to record in a studio these days. But that’s not to say they shouldn’t. “You know it’s so true in this day and age you can take a laptop and make a great song and play everything via a laptop by way of MIDI,” Joe Don says through the trio’s record label. “It’s amazing what you can come up with. There’s still something to be said for bringing a full band into a studio, like we did in this album, and having wonderful players in Nashville, Tennessee that play.”
“Yours If You Want It”
For Joe Don, it’s all about feel. “There’s a spirit there that happens that is intangible,” he says of the studio experience. “You can’t do that with a laptop you can’t feel it that way. You can make great music but there’s a spirit that happens with people, real humans in a room making music and an engineer pullin’ the faders up and down and that’s the soul of what we love about music. That’s what keeps us hungry for making more music. And, gosh almighty you just can’t beat that. I don’t see us ever changing that method of making music.”
It’s definitely one that continues to pay off. The Flatts’ latest album Back To Us has already produced a No. 1 with “Yours If You Want It.” A new tour is being planned for next year, too. Stay up to date on that here.
Teddy McDonald is a fun-lovin’ country music fan man living in Nashville, Tennessee.
