Who is Rick Rubin?
Get to know the music industry's deity and his chapel.
Rick Rubin photographed by Bryan Sheffield for FADER Magazine.
With his image as the music industry’s guru Rick Rubin is hard to miss. His long, Gandalf-like beard, his bare feet, his uniform of a t-shirt and shorts, it’s all become somewhat inescapable.
Respected by industry newcomers and veterans alike, Rick Rubin is a producer who is very open about his lack of technical knowledge about music. He doesn’t play any instruments, doesn’t sing, and doesn’t know how to operate a Protools setup or a mixing board.
And yet he became one of the most respected producers in the industry with an enviable repertoire, to say the least. Not only did he co-found Def Jam recordings in his NYU dorm room, but he also worked closely with the Beastie Boys, was the co-president of Columbia Recordings, and now owns the idyllic Shangri-La studio.
He worked with Johnny Cash for 10 years to help revive his career, and played an important role in taking hip-hop to the mainstream. He’s worked with artists including LL Cool J, Run DMC, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Slayer, Public Enemy, Mick Jagger, Joan Jenn & The Blackhearts, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Nine Inch Nails, AC/DC, Neil Young, Rage Against the Machine, Aerosmith, Jay-Z, Metallica, Adele, Lady Gaga, Wu-Tang Clan, and Blondie, to name a few. More recently, he produced The Strokes’ critically-acclaimed album (and my top album of this year) The New Abnormal.
Specifically, his work with Aerosmith and Run DMC is particularly notable in its role to make hip-hop mainstream and accessible. When listening to Walk This Way, he realised that Aerosmith was essentially making use of a hip-hop beat. You can hear him talk more about this in an episode of his podcast Broken Record, but he had the idea of combining the two. So he contacted anyone that could help him and made it happen.
That’s where his talents lie: not in any technical ability, but in his confidence and his emotional intelligence. He knows how to help musicians access their most creative ideas, their emotions, resulting in their best work. When discussing his book The Creative Act: A Way Of Being, Rubin says “So much of what happens in the studio is not anything that I know. It’s more about intuitive reactions in the moment.” He also told Complex that “It’s not about knowing. It’s about feeling and noticing what’s happening in your body. If you’re bored in your body, it’s going to be boring to someone else, chances are. And if it’s exciting to you, it’s likely that it’ll be exciting to someone else.”
His approach to making music is unconventional. He’s known for telling musicians that “they audience comes last”, because “the audience doesn’t know what they want, they only know what’s come before”. It’s this self-knowledge and human touch that sets him apart, showing creatives everywhere that perhaps technical ability is overrated, while confidence and a human touch is the true secret.
All his work now takes place in Shangri-La. The iconic LA studio was named after the novel Lost Horizon. It the novel became a movie and the actress Margo in 1958 bought this then-ranch and named it Shangri-La. Such is the history of the name.
Since then, its had many owners. The Band purchased it in 1974, who converted it into a recording studio. Its residents have included Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Pete Townsend, Joe Cocker, Billy Preston, Ronnie Wood, and Georgie Fame.
Much like Rubin, the ranch-turned-studio began to carry a lot of mystique around it.
In 2011, Rubin purchased the property for $2 million. When he arrived, the studio was almost falling apart, but under the care of Rubin, it had a life of its own and survived the 2018 California fires despite both of Rubin’s homes being lost.
Rubin still keeps Shangri-La alive, and with it its mysticism. Converting Bob Dylan’s tour bus into a studio in the backyard and maintaining the baby pink kitchen tiles, he preserved the spirit of its old days. There, artists access their deepest emotions and thoughts, with as little outside influence as possible. Rubin’s role in the production process is not so much to make the songs, but rather to help the artists cut through the noise and get to the real point of their art. Every element of his music serves a purpose. Hence why in the start of his career, he was credited as a “reducer” rather than a “producer”.
“He would come by, barefoot, cross his legs, close his eyes and just listen and really take it in and really give feedback. He was really excited about the music we were doing.”
This, of course, takes patience and dedication, something Rick Rubin seems to have an endless supply of. He serves the purpose of the work, letting it be what it wants to be rather than what he wants it to be. It’s an imperative lesson he teaches to creatives: not rushing what is a subjective telling of a personal experience. Something so specific and individual.
And yet, with all this spirituality, he remains rooted in reality. He dedicates himself to the work, and he understands deadlines. In conversation with Zane Lowe, he discusses the work and dedication that some artists simply can’t commit to, and that’s when Rubin can’t help them. He demands a lot of his artists, which does end up in some of their best work.
Still, there is something somewhat incomprehensible about Rick Rubin. As described by Kyle Eustice in his article on Rick Rubin and Shangri-La studios, “The mystique surrounding Rick Rubin has been palpable for years”.
Of working with Rubin in Shangri-La, Run The Jewels’ El-P says that “He would come by, barefoot, cross his legs, close his eyes and just listen and really take it in and really give feedback. He was really excited about the music we were doing.” Jean Dawson describes Shangri-La being as “sacred ground”. The space and the man himself put everyone at ease, simplifying not only the physical space they occupy but also life’s issues themselves.
