It was a pleasure talking to Orin Isaacs, the musical director for Canadian Idol last Sunday at the band rehearsal. Orin talked about the extra work that he had to do this season and whether he thinks that the inclusion of instruments this time around is fair to competitors who don’t play anything. He was the third “Mystery Idol” that I interviewed.
Murtz Jaffer You ready to rock?
Orin Isaacs: Yes sir.
MJ: It will be quick and painless.
OI: Cool.
MJ: I wanted to ask you the new rule changes on Idol that allow contestants to play instruments this season. Do you think that has added to the show?
OI: Sure. I think it has brought a different dimension. Because now, you’re bringing out a different type of musician that might not have auditioned before. You get more singer/songwriters. Mind you, at the beginning there were a lot of people who were terrible at playing musical instruments. (Laughs). But for the most part, I think a different breed of musician has come out and I think that’s made it a positive thing.
MJ: Has that made it more difficult for you to arrange the songs. You know when they come up and for example, Dwight is doing the guitar solo this week. Is it harder for you personally?
OI: It’s not harder, it’s scary at first because you want the competitor to put the best foot forward. No matter what. And sometimes, I have to make a decision and say ‘you know what? It’s not going to be best.’ ‘Cause if you are not playing at a certain level, you’re going to expose that and why do that? You know what I mean? I have only had to come across once or twice. Cats like Dwight, they are comfortable and they sound great. It’s the ones who may not be as comfortable who feel like they should be doing it. You don’t have to do it. Put your best foot forward always.
MJ: Do you think it is fair for the contestants who don’t play any instruments?
OI: Sure, it’s fair.
MJ: You think so? Because somebody could say ‘oh, if he can play guitar, that’s not fair for me to compete against him.’
OI: At the end of the day, it’s still a vocal competition. Maybe you can’t play an instrument, but maybe you’re a better entertainer. The bottom line is that when you get out in the real world, that’s what you are up against! (Laughs). That’s what you are up against. I think it’s fair, sure, because at the end of the day, it’s still a vocal competition. I think the people that are going gravitate, you’re going to gravitate whether you have an instrument in your hands or not.
MJ: How much time do you spend with the contestants in terms of rearranging songs. Each week, is there an average amount of time that you spend there?
OI: Half hour, I’d say. I have a team that goes in. There’s an army of us that go in and I have a team that kind of preps it before I go in there because too many cooks…
MJ: Will mess up dinner.
OI: Between Byrd and Marc Lalama, they get the arrangement down and once they get the arrangement down, we go in there with the troops and work it out as a whole, complete, cohesive band unit. They get as long as they want with us.
MJ: Really?
OI: We used to do it back in the day, where we did an arrangement close to how I heard it and that’s it. But because of this new flex we’re doing with the instruments, because of the whole band being here now, we actually took a whole room upstairs and we’re here with the kids and take as long as we need. ‘Let’s just get this right for you.’ So there is no specific and with two passes, in 10 minutes they are done. Some people take an hour. It varies depending on how the competitors feel. No time limit.
MJ: Can you tell me what you do from a Monday to a Monday. Like what does Orin do?
OI: Let’s take it back. Monday’s show day. What day? Wednesday, let’s say. Wednesday what happens is Byrd and Marc Lalama go in and do the arrangements. Technically I should be there on that day. I send my assistant in to document all that stuff. Document with a mobile studio. They edit up the music, they edit up the arrangement. They record what they just workshopped. Now it gets complicated. It goes up to an FTP on my server. I now download that and send it all to my orchestrator which writers out all the charts. We flag anything. Make sure it is all set-up. We go in the next day and rehearse it with the competitors. Then the next day, I take care of all the pre-production. Any of the over-dubs. If there’s strings. If there’s bells and whistles.
MJ: Horns?
OI: Horns. Take care of all of that. Do that for two days. Then we come back here and that will bring us to a Saturday or something. That will be Friday and Saturday. And then we come back on a day like this (Sunday), rock it for cameras. Soundcheck. Block. And then show Monday and Tuesday.
MJ: And also this year, you played the Top 22 shows as well so do you find that you’re more tired than usual because you didn’t do that last year?
OI: The Top 22, Top 18, Top 14, basically we did as many tunes in those three weeks as we do a whole Top 10.
MJ: So it was like a whole other season?
OI: You want us to double the amount of tunes? It was just like ‘oh.’ Hey, I thought it brought a little bit more flavour to the Top 22. As long as we can bring something extra to it, then it’s a positive thing. Is it a lot of work? Hell yeah! That’s 22 tunes in the first week! 18 tunes second week! 14 tunes third week! I am not complaining. That’s 52 or whatever my math is saying and I don’t think we even do 52 in the Top 10! But it got better. Everybody’s alive. I only lose that much of my hair. That’s the Top 22 right there (points to hair). I only lost that patch so it’s good. (Laughs).
MJ: That’s perfect, thank you so much!
OI: Thank you!
