What does a record producer do?
A record producer is like a film director, in charge of all aspects of the making of the record: picking studios, deciding the additional musicians, what type of recording process and how much budget is available for the studio time, even down to food and taxis. It's quite a wide encompassing role.

How did you get your job?
I left school at 17 and I started straight away in a recording studio, initially as a tea boy then trainee tape operator. After a year or so as an assistant I progressed to being a fully-fledged recording engineer. I worked with producer Bruce Johnson - best known as a member of the Beach Boys - as an assistant. He encouraged me saying, 'You should be a record producer, your talents are wasted just as a balance engineer'. He took me to California where I learned an awful lot about being a record producer, I owe quite a debt. I was trained as an engineer by a famous classical engineer Mike Ross. Those foundations taught me an awful lot about microphone placement and the intricacies of sound recording, and those skills stay with me today.

Once you have become a producer is there anything else you can go on to do?
As the recording process has become more and more technical, a new role has developed - the executive record producer - who oversees a project but not necessarily day to day - from the budget right the way through to some of the creative decisions. And many producers become executives in record companies.

What advice would you have for people who want to get into music production?
When I left school I had to make a very difficult decision. Was I going to go on to college or university or was I going to start in the industry? This was 1975 when I started and there weren't the courses available that are available now in sound recording. So for parents the choice was a difficult one. There are a number of courses available at universities now and they can be very valuable, particularly for those who are unsure of whether they want to go into the recording world. It's a difficult world to enter, it is glamorous at times but there's a lot of hard work and the payments are not quite what people think. Experience is important. There is no better way than working in a studio and many will offer assistant places or tea boy places for work experience. Essentially work experience means that they're getting your services for free. Most studios won't turn that down.

Have you got any advice on how a parent can help?
I'm a parent myself, of children of exactly this age. I think if they genuinely are passionate about wanting to become a record producer or a sound engineer, please encourage them. If your son or daughter is genuinely very interested, perhaps invest in a computer or in some recording equipment for them. My advice here would be to go to specialist recording or a music shop. Don't go to a computer shop and buy a computer because they will not give you the advice that you need. The most important thing is to really find out if you do want to enter into it because it's quite a commitment both financially and artistically and emotionally.

What skills do you need to succeed?
Producers are required in all fields of music, pop music, classical music, television music. The skills required for a producer in classical music are slightly different - a very extensive knowledge of music and the ability to read a score are absolutely essential if you want to be a producer in classical music. For a producer in pop music a musical knowledge is helpful but not essential. You certainly don't need to read or play music, but having an understanding of the places of different musical instruments in a production is important. A record producer has to sometimes deal with some very difficult artists, musicians and record companies. So you need to be a very calm and collected person. You need patience and diplomacy and you need to understand the creative expression of an artist. Having computer skills is really important these days. I think it's very important that you have a knowledge of the basics of the software packages that are available, whether it's a sequencing package or a hard disc package.

What are the pros and cons?
There are pitfalls but with your advice, care and love hopefully they can get through them. The hours are not necessarily long but they're disruptive. They probably will have to live at home in the beginning because the wages on the low end are very low and it's only when they show skill that they can move rapidly up the ladder, so in the short term they are going to need quite a bit of subsidising by you. They will need emotional subsidising as well. It is heartbreaking at times the way people treat you so you do need to give them that encouragement. It is glamorous at times but most recording artists when they record are not at their most glamorous. I've seen George from Culture Club many times without his make up. Artists get terribly stressed and take it out on whoever's closest to them. The pros - the rewards are once you hear your record played on the radio or performed on the television there's nothing that is more satisfying. If you have a big success the rewards can be very great but it's worth bearing in mind that 1 or 2 percent of the entire industry have access to probably 90 per cent of all the money. So, although many people in the music industry (and that's all aspects of the music industry) can earn a living, it's not a good living - but it is a living.