For the Record: Conversations with People Who Have Shaped the Way We Listen to Music

To celebrate its fifteenth anniversary, the Red Bull Music Academy has curated conversations with masterminds and trailblazers in today’s music on their perspectives and strategies for success.

The Red Bull Music Academy is creating the future of music by bringing the vanguard of the industry together. In the book For the Record, the leaders shaping the current musical landscape offer their insights on today’s most relevant topics and how they will affect the evolution of music production.

For the Record includes conversations between luminaries such as Nile Rodgers and Martyn Ware—the forces behind some of the biggest tunes in disco and pop from the likes of Chic, Daft Punk, David Bowie, Madonna, The Human League, and Heaven 17—who compare notes on the best way to create chart-topping hits. Erykah Badu, one of neo-soul’s defining voices, shares career advice and psychedelic wisdom with up-and-coming New York rap duo The Underachievers. DJ Harvey and Ben UFO, two different generations of DJs, talk about the good old days, the present day, and the uncertain future of selecting records for a living. Jamaican visionary Lee "Scratch" Perry is paired with UK dub producer Adrian Sherwood. Those familiar with Perry’s unique worldview will not be disappointed by this surprising and funny conversation.

In a similar fashion, For the Record also explores topics that include live performance, instruments/interfaces, conceptualism, drumming, rhythm, and many more. Together with its stunning visual design by Chris Rehberger’s agency Double Standards, the results make for one of the most insightful publications on the current state of music and the music industry.

FEATURED CONVERSATIONS:
João Barbosa x Kalaf Ângelo x Mulatu Astatke
Bernard Purdie x Jaki Liebezeit
Martyn Ware x Nile Rodgers
Kerri Chandler x Patrick Adams
Gareth Jones x Metro Area
Carsten Nicolai x Olaf Bender x Uwe Schmidt
Benny Ill x Moritz von Oswald
Adrian Sherwood x Lee "Scratch" Perry
Matias Aguayo x Sly & Robbie
Ben UFO x DJ Harvey
Cosey Fanni Tutti x Nik Void
Modeselektor x Mykki Blanco
Erykah Badu x The Underachievers
Just Blaze x Paul Riser
Robert Henke x Tom Oberheim


ABOUT THE ACADEMY:
The Red Bull Music Academy is a world-traveling series of music workshops and festivals—a platform for those who make a difference in today’s musical landscape. The Academy began back in 1998 and has been traversing the globe ever since: from Berlin, Cape Town, and São Paulo to Barcelona, London, Toronto, New York, and beyond. If you can imagine a place that’s equal parts science lab, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and Kraftwerk’s home studio, you’re halfway there.