INTERVIEW: Frank McDonough, Producer

By Connor Norris. April 23, 2020.

Drawing of Frank modeled after the norrisreport.com logo done by friend and hand model Luke Fatovic.

On Thursday, I had the fortune to speak with Frank McDonough of McDonough Management, a company that manages many of the producers and engineers that worked on some of the best (and some of my favorite) albums of the past century. Such producers, engineers, and artists include Joe Barresi (Tool's Fear Inoculum and 10,000 Days, Queens of the Stone Age's Queens of the Stone Age, Lullabies to Paralyze, Era Vulgaris, ...Like Clockwork), Mike Clink (Guns N' Roses' Appetite For Destruction, Lies, and Use Your Illusion I and II -- all of Guns N' Roses important work), and the timeless Alain Johannes (Google him--- his credits list is much too long and impressive to dumb down; My favorites are his work in Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys, and the legendary Them Crooked Vultures).

My interview with Frank brought conversations surrounding general methods of his clients and himself as a manager and more importantly, the fluid shape his road to becoming a manager took. If I was to gain anything from this interview, it would be to take it as it comes, because when one door closes, another one is undoubtedly going to open.

My effort to make this interview happen was primarily about one of my goals within norrisreport.com: if I can't get to the music itself, I'll stand right behind it, and interview those people right behind it. More and more, I am beginning to realize that the key to get into the selective green room where the artists reside is stored in a finely tuned titanium safe, to which only BBC Radio and Beats One only have the key to... However, the producers are accessible. They have an email account, and if not, their managers do. As Tariq Trotter, AKA Black Thought of the Roots, said when he was being interviewed by Jimmy Fallon instead of playing music to complement the show, "One step closer to behind the desk." In this case, one step closer to having access, as Lars Ulrich, Joe Rogan, or Sean Evans does. It'll come.

LINK TO INTERVIEW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hy_k8yh-Bg