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Gee Pierce - The Man With the Golden Ears By Robert E. Martin You could easily label Gee Pierce as "the man with the Golden Ears". Possessing a combination of lethal musicianship, an acute business sensibility, and an embracing personality that values the diversity of all forms of music, Pierce has achieved national (and even international) notoriety working with local Hip-Hop artists such as Mack the Jack'a, MC Breed, and The Dayton Family, while witnessing his acts climb to the top of the Billboard charts. He has worked with seminal artists such as Fab Five Freddie and received phone calls from major recording labels such as Atlantic Records, Tommy Boy and Relativity to lend his production expertise. Recently Gee was called in to produce the Dangerous Minds soundtrack, and this year was even flown to Europe to help hone the sound for a European girl group called B to B (Black to Blonde) that noted recording czar Clive Davis is interested in signing. Amazingly, Gee Pierce has achieved all of this success working right out of the basement of his own home on the east side of Saginaw, where his state-of-the-art U Be U Production house is located, reinforcing once again the incredible strength of the mid-Michigan music scene, and proving that like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, you do not necessarily have to leave your own backyard in order to find Oz. On the verge of releasing his first CD featuring 23 original tracks and entitled Well Connected, slated to hit the stores at the end of July, recently we sat down with Gee to discuss the strength of tri-city music, the shifting national focus to Urban Music, and the challenges that confront musicians on all levels. Review: Let's start at the beginning. How did you first get involved with music, and were you a musician before you turned into a producer? Gee: I grew up in Chicago and lived on the rough side of town. My Grand Dad would buy instruments to keep me busy. First he'd get me a guitar and watch me get good at it, and the next thing I knew there was a set of drums in the basement. He didn't play at all, but my aunts and nieces listened to a lot of Motown and would do these routines with broomsticks, so I grew up on that sound. I would play along to the records and learned by ear. First I started as a vocalist and wrote lyrics, but in High School I learned music theory and notes. That's when I really became a musician, when I learned to read charts. I moved here about ten years after I finished school. My Grand Dad passed away, but we made a pact before he died. He made me promise when I got out of school that I would make a job for myself in the industry that I loved. So that was my thing, and I came here. Gee Pierce with Bootleg and Madame Dane Review: Why Saginaw? Gee: My Grandma moved here and my uncle told me to get closer to Motown, so Saginaw seemed closer to Detroit than Chicago. I was fortunate to hook-up with Bernard Terry who produced major hits for Ready for the World and MC Breed. One day he left the room and I was sitting there recording The Dayton Family, and they asked me back again. I started landing tunes on records and investing money into my own company, and that's when I started U Be U. Review: How did you get to that level of having major labels phone? Gee: The great thing bout it is I've been blessed to work with groups nobody knew, and through their talent and my music we wound up getting recording deals. Word spread somehow. I'd work with one act that would nail a hit, and the next thing I knew I was working with The Skanbino Mob, another new group who their first time out scored a deal with Tommy Boy. I did an Indie record on their label. The thing is that these guys coming up now are executives, too. They invest their own money in their own acts. They'll come to me, we'll work the beats out, get into the club, and the next thing you know the record company gives them a deal. Review: I've spoken to so many great groups on the verge of being signed, or else that get signed only to have an A&R guy get canned from the label. The industry is very volatile right now, so what do you do that manages to break your music and artists through to the other side? Gee: It's important to hone your trade and get the tracks right. I have a real good family of musicians and ears around me, so before anybody gets to hear a recording, it goes through an assembly line, almost like Berry Gordy did, to make sure the music is right. The second most important thing is that you cannot simply send your CDs over to a major label. You've got to save your money, get on them airplanes, and get right in their face. I would call labels and say, 'I'll come to New York on my expense and I'll give you the CD or the tape. You tell me yes or no. You can go into your A&R meeting and I'll go to the hotel, I don't even need to be there.' But you have to make an impression. That's my way of doing things, I'll go right to the source. Believe it or not, the industry needs talent. They receive so much stuff in the mail it's hard to look at. Review: Let's talk about the Dayton Family. All those guys are getting signed. Gee: Yeah, they have a big fan base. Actually, Mack the Jack'a was one of the first acts I worked with in terms of getting signed to a major label, and Top Authority was the first one that charted. That opened a lot of doors for me and the phones started ringing. I thank them all for letting me do some tracks. As for the Daytons, I think they're hitting big now because they were the first to come with that kind of sound, and they stuck to their roots with their sound. They're from Flint and they have a strong fan base. When you can sell close to 40,000 units all on your own, record labels look at that. Saginaw Artist Mack the Jack Review: Let's talk about 'Well Connected', your new CD. What prompted you to release your own project and are the major labels interested in picking it up? Gee: The labels are interested, but I want to make a mark independently, to show the labels what we can do from a business standpoint. By releasing it independently you don't just get more money, you get more opportunity. They're interested right now, but I don't wanna play the waiting or negotiating game. I want to show them what we can do. We have MC Breed on the CD. I just did his new record for Pharmacy Records out of Detroit, which charted number one for four weeks in Detroit. That allowed me to work with Bootleg, who let me run and do my thing. It's great when indie labels support other indie labels, because that is hard to come by. Jake the Flake, Mack the Jack'a, Madam Dane, Michelle Shaw, the Skanbino Mob, Top Authority, Dangerous D, The Dayton Family are some of the artists with major situations featured on the CD. I've done their records, so they returned the favor. I produced all the new songs, so this is all new music and not a compilation. It's gonna be in all the stores like Harmony House, Media Play, Ray's Records & Tapes. Everybody is supporting it, and the pre-orders are up there. One guy ordered a thousand copies. Review: What about radio? Is that important to break a CD nowadays? Gee: It's an important part, but the key is breaking the clubs and doing street promotion. Once word-of-mouth opens the stores and radio will come. And if you do 50,000 units independently that's almost as good as an artist would do with a gold or platinum album that was signed to a major. In terms of marketing, we're going to target Flint and Saginaw first and work our way to Detroit. I figure my CD will be good for 10 or 15,000 copies in this area alone. The key is not to spread yourself too thin. If you can show what you can do in your own area, the big deals will follow. If you show you can survive in the little picture, the big picture will be interested. Review: Let's talk about this area. Through the years so many significant artists have come out of Mid-Michigan, and you're working with a lot of them and are a part of that. What is it about this area that allows so many talented artists to flourish? Gee: Apart from the talent, I think it's the consumers, too. The people are more appreciative of a record not on video around here. People in the Midwest will look for a certain record or sound. Plus, people like yourself, who take time to look at people like us. It all comes down to the area. Besides, I believe that the East Coast and West Coast had their time, now it's our time. It's time for the sound of the Middle Coast. Review: What was it like recording in Europe? Gee: They have a 'Euro' sound and it's a real mix. They're really into American music. You listen to the radio and you hear Bob Dylan and then Bobby Brown and then Hootie & the Blowfish. They aren't divided by format. They keep it flowin'. A hit is a hit. Even with me, I get attention for my Hip Hop work, but I'm also recording artists like The Process. I'm into all variety of music. Review: Do you think it's easy to over-analyze or over-produce? Gee: Well, I did my project in record breaking time. Sometimes I like to be alone and write songs, and sometimes I do it with my partner, David Burt. We write a lot of songs together, but I like to do it all kinds of ways and trust my ears and the people around me. I don't like to have rules when it comes to writing music.
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