Last Saturday I attended Brad Sundberg’s “In the Studio with Michael Jackson” seminar in Orlando, Florida. What I experienced at this event was nothing short of magical. I know I can’t capture even a whisper of all that magic in this write up, but I thought I could share a bit from my experience so that those of you who are interested but unable to attend one of these seminars can share in some of the lesser known elements of Michael’s artistry and personality that I had the privilege of learning about. It should go without saying that if you ARE planning to attend one of these events somewhat soon, this will definitely contain "spoilers" for lack of a better term. So if you want to remain completely surprised, I would not read this. That said, even having attended the entire event, I would 100% attend again and again and again, even if I knew every story already. It was that good.
Also, before I get started, I want to preface this by saying I have only written up about half of the notes I’ve taken so far and am already at well over 5,000 words. So, I anticipate once I finish I will have at least 10,000 words of reflection. I know that is insane. So, with that said, I am only including excerpts of my notes and what I have written 1) to keep this post from being a literal novella length and 2) to not truly spoil the event for other people. If people privately ask, I may be willing to share the full write up with others once I complete it.
So, this should be considered an Abridged PART 1 of my experience -- I'll be sharing more soon!
Format: For the first half of the day (10am-4pm) the event covered the standard “In the Studio with MJ” session. This included going through the Bad, Dangerous, and HIStory album (with the least amount on HIStory). Then, from 5pm-9pm, Brad debuted a new segment with the working title “Day in the Life of” which is meant to capture
Michael’s perspective in the studio. So, in essence, this was an 11-hour day devoted entirely to Michael which, for me (and I’m sure many other fans), is a literal dream come true.
I woke up in the morning weirdly nervous. I had butterflies in my stomach and I couldn’t quite explain why. When I arrived at the studio, Brad and his team were still setting up as attendees were checking in. It was immediately apparent that this was a MICHAEL JACKSON event, because almost every person was wearing some kind of MJ clothing. There was a Captain EO shirt, MJ One shirt, a Dangerous zip up hoodie, a Bad t-shirt, a concert tee, etc. People were representing our man.
The event itself was held at a studio where Michael had recorded at some point, I believe in the 2000s. Despite asking about a thousand questions throughout the seminar, I somehow didn’t ask what he was recording there. However, it was hard not to think about the fact that this space we were in did not only at one point contain Michael himself, but also acted as witness to his brilliance. This is a thought I could get lost in if I let myself. Anyway, the room was set up so that three rows of folding chairs were formulated in almost a half-moon shape facing Brad. These folding chairs would, over the course of 11 hours, prove to get the best of several people. Brad was set up in front of the glass pane separating the artist from the studio engineers. He had a large projector and screen, a desk with computer equipment, speakers, and a microphone. As we waited for the seminar to begin, Brad was playing MJ music, primarily from Off the Wall and Invincible.
Though Brad didn’t begin working with Michael until 1986, in order to help “introduce” us to Michael and the team he worked with for years, he started with a brief discussion of Off the Wall. He told us that neither Michael or Bruce Swedien really liked to use the word “demo” for early recordings. Michael used to say “a demo is a promise and you can’t break the promise.” Meaning it represents a sound, energy, and spirit to fight for throughout the recording process. Brad then shared the “promise” for “I can’t help it.” I realize this demo was leaked online at some point, but I’m not sure if this is actually the same one that I heard. Either way, when he played it during the seminar this was the first time I had ever heard it. I was swept away. Michael’s voice was so free and angelic, with the song so unformed and unproduced that it actually made me cry.
Skipping past several funny anecdotes about Michael (I can definitely share these if people are interested), I’m going to move to the Bad album of which Brad spent a huge portion of time discussing. Here are some highlights from that:
- Brad clarified that despite rumors repeated over and over by some YouTubers and fans online, no one ever set up a microphone by Michael’s feet to record him dancing. All of the footwork we hear is caught from the main microphone set up for him to sing into. Brad emphasized this by saying that while he personally would have found it really cool to do that, it’s not the kind of thing Bruce Swedian ever would have considered doing.
- Just as Michael said in the Ebony Jet interview, he really did record the intro to “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” in a bed. As a huge fan of that intro, I have always wondered how this happened. Apparently, they brought in a bed (covers and everything lol) and had Michael lay in the bed with a microphone shaped like an ear and had him whisper into it. He showed us a photo of the setup and it was adorable to imagine this whole scenario.
- Somehow, Brad ended up talking about this intro at length. First, however, he played the intro for us at top volume and, let me tell you, listening to that intro with a room full of people was…something. I’m not going to say anything else about my own response to this, but those who know KNOW. Anyway, after he played this he told the story. Essentially, Michael wanted to release IJCSLY “for the girls” and wanted to include a spoken intro for the same reason (adorable). Except, he didn’t know exactly what to say in it. So, Bruce and some of the other guys came up with a list of possible phrases for him to recite. Brad pulled up a scan of a piece of paper dated 5/23/1987 with notes of all the possible directions Michael could go with this little introduction. This included options like “do you love me?” and “your eyes are star like” and “I was so lonely until I met you…” and a few of the phrases that end up in the intro. Brad shared that between the intro, how they recorded it, and the content of the song itself, all the guys on the production team referred to it behind the scenes as “I Just Can’t Stop Rubbing You” lol. I wasn’t clear on if Michael was a part of this joke, but Brad did admit he rarely tells groups that part.
- One of the first great “shares” of the day was when Brad played a very early version of Smooth Criminal. What was most noticeable about this was Michael’s vocal play on the line “Annie are you ok?” Where in the final version we hear a very consistent driving style, in this early version Michael messed around with his voice, singing it in all different tones, attitudes, and moods. It was so dynamic.
- Later Brad shared the Speed Demon demo – AMAZING. So much better than the album cut, in my opinion, because it had way more variation and funkiness to it. In this demo, Michael is heard beatboxing, singing into a megaphone, singing the synth string parts in an almost haunting way. I asked how attached Michael seemed to his own ideas. Specifically, I was interested in knowing how a demo like this might turn into a much more polished version. I wondered how often he fought for specific sounds, or ideas, to make it into the final cut of a song, or if he was just comfortable laying down whatever came to him and working from there. Brad said that Michael was very flexible, but had certain things he would fight for, with an increase in attachment over the years, which Brad saw as a good thing. Almost like a sign of his continued growth as an artist. Someone else asked if Speed Demon was really written about Michael getting a speeding ticket on the way to the studio and Brad said he’s not sure how true that is, however, Michael did get a speeding ticket and was extremely upset and embarrassed about it. Despite the fact that everyone told him it was not a big deal and everyone gets speeding tickets, Michael seemed alarmingly upset about it and almost couldn’t even talk about it.
- Streetwalker – early version – the Bill Bottrell version. Incredibly funky. So much funkier than what ends up on Bad 25.
- Next, he shared how during the Bad tour, Michael was dealing with a lot of racism, especially in Australia. He had a really rough time and needed to reset when he came back. This led to him discussing the rehearsals in Pensacola. According to Brad, it was during these couple of weeks that they recorded the jazzy intro of TWYMMF for the Grammys. He explained how MJ was staying on the top floor of the hotel across from where they were doing rehearsals. So, to record this intro, they took all the mattresses from multiple rooms and lined them up against the walls around Michael’s bedroom and they ran wiring and cables literally from the window of his top floor suite down to the portable studio they had in a truck below. Apparently, Michael was so happy with this take that he never wanted to edit it again. Brad said how whenever this happened, Michael would say “Bible” which meant “rock solid” or even sometimes “Bible Bible” which meant even better than rock solid. Basically, if Michael called something “Bible” it meant that he didn’t want to change a single thing about it.
- Family Thing Demo – full demo played. Michael’s voice in the verses was pretty low, but it was rhythmic and exciting. I didn’t take many notes on this song, but I loved it.
That’s all I’m going to share for now. There were several other things about the Bad era that were shared, but honestly, this is me legitimately trying to trim it down and that’s very hard for me (obviously). If this is too much detail for people, I will try to trim down the info about Dangerous even more, but I can’t make any promises haha.
One thing I want to note:
Brad didn’t really share any behind-the-scenes video footage, either in the studio, or otherwise from the Bad era. He did however share studio footage (both Michael recording songs, producing other singers, and casually hanging out) when discussing Dangerous and HIStory, as well as in the new segment. Maybe it's because I am such a fan of the Bad era, but I found I learned more totally new stuff after
@zinniabooklover @SmoothCriminal1995 @Jesionka @filmandmusic @MacMandy90
^ I tagged specific people who mentioned to me that they would like to read my review of the seminar. If you would prefer I don't tag you OR if you are interested and would like me to tag you in the future, just let me know! I don't want to annoy anyone OR leave anyone out. Just limiting it to specific people who seemed especially interested
