Hitman Of The Moment

“It’s changed a lot but, when I first visited Dublin, it was very dour and very rural,” recalls veteran music producer Steve Lillywhite. “It was a city, but more like a village. There were no cellphones, no internet, nothing like that. I’ll always remember Windmill Lane getting a phone installed in the Green Room and it took something like six weeks. When it was done, six men walked in – two did the work and four of them stood around discussing it. It was a very different place and it always seemed – actually, this hasn’t changed – very wet and very dull.”

The year was 1980 and the local band that Lillywhite was over working with on their debut album were a little-known teen quartet called U2. He’s visited many times since. The English producer will be returning to Dublin in August for the televised finals of new RTÉ series The Hit.
In the show, which originated as part of RTÉ’s Format Farm project, hopefuls showcase their songs to two established music stars with the hope that they will pick their song. The stars battle against one another and are under pressure to select one song they can turn into a hit. It’s a new take on formats such as The X-Factor or The Voice, putting the songwriter rather than the singer at centre-stage.
Lillywhite, a five-time Grammy-winner who has shaped the sound of The Killers, Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, Morrissey, The Pogues, Peter Gabriel and countless others, is the main judge. Which begs the question, if the teenage U2 played acoustic versions of the songs from Boy to him now, would he spot their potential?
“Well, the format of The Hit is that you have to be in a room with an acoustic guitar or a piano singing your song,” he says. “If Bono and the Edge would have been in the room with an acoustic guitar singing ‘I Will Follow’ I think maybe that would have done well, yeah. Then again, if they had been in there singing ‘Shadows And Tall Trees’ that maybe wouldn’t have done so well. But certainly ‘I Will Follow’ is a catchy song so maybe that one would have done well.”
Lillywhite’s talking to Hot Press down the line from New York. He’s mostly based in Los Angeles nowadays. For the preliminary rounds of The Hit, the production crew came to him.
“They came out to film my bits and made it look like I was some sort of L.A. big shot,” he laughs. “My job is to pick the songs from a list that they give me. And make some comments about the specific songs that each artist is singing and maybe give an idea of how I think they could be done. What the show wanted was just an acoustic version – either on piano or acoustic guitar or something like that. So really it’s taking the songs back to nothing but the song.
“I think it’s a good idea for a show. These other TV shows, there’s a little bit of tiredness from them. I think when you look at some of the ones in America that aren’t doing so well. Of couse, people still love music and it’s just about finding another way to present music on television, really.”
Is he a fan of The Voice and other TV talent competitions?
“Well, I’ve been living in America so I haven’t seen the Irish version or English versions, but I think the American Voice final is tonight,” he says. “I mean, yeah, I’ve watched them, it’s not Breaking Bad, it’s not Mad Men – that’s my usual TV watching. Or the new season of Arrested Development, which is fantastic. I’ll watch it if it’s on and there are some good singers there. The Hit isn’t focusing on the singers, though, it’s focusing on the songwriters – a different twist on the concept.”
What, in his considered opinion, makes a hit song?
“I don’t know what makes a hit record,” he admits. “I’ve had hits before I’ve worked with U2. I’m sort of influenced – as in we’re all influenced – by each other’s way of working. I don’t like cookie cutter approaches to songs in general. I’m a lot more attracted to something that makes you think, ‘why is this so good?’ Even when I analyze it, it shouldn’t be so good, but it just is. When I listen to ‘Beautiful Day’ – “it’s a beautiful day, don’t let it get away” – you know it’s not a brilliant lyric but just something about that record works. It wasn’t actually that big a hit when it came out. It certainly has become one of their A-list songs. I’d much rather hear a songwriter take chances and fail than just being like everyone else and doing an OK job. Aim for ‘Good Vibrations’ and ‘God Only Knows’ and, who knows, you might come up with something half as good.”
While Lillywhite has produced more than 500 records in his lengthy career, he has occasionally been known to let a potential hit slip away from him.
“I did Jason Mraz’s second album and there was a song on there called ‘I’m Yours’,” he recalls. “I remember listening to the song and thinking ‘Wow! What’s the chorus to this song?’ Every single bit of it is like a chorus. We did a version of it and we never finished it…and then the album came out and it didn’t really have a hit song on it. And then, of course, he re-cut that song and it was a worldwide smash. I remember thinking, ‘Shit, I let that one get away!’
“A good song is like trawling for gold in the river,” he continues. “You’re sieving through all this rubbish and then you see this little nugget of greatness but you can miss it. I actually had that nugget of greatness and I threw it back into the river. I learnt from that and I’m never going to let a hit get away from me again. We’re still in this world where a great song can really open the doors for you. I’m proud of most of my records, even though not all of them have been successful. I like to think that I’ve done quality music. I’ve never worked with Britney Spears or anyone like that so I think I’ve earned the right to have an opinion and for people to think that Steve sort of knows what he’s talking about.”
He’s optimistic that The Hit will live up to its title and become a ratings smash.
“It has a great chance,” he enthuses. “The music is very important, but it’s the human story as well that makes for a good TV show. See, I don’t know who these people are. It would be nice to think that there is someone there with a nice back-story. I don’t know. The producers were very fair. I didn’t know any of the back-stories when they played me the entries. I chose the song on its merits. Maybe there will be a back-story, maybe there won’t. It’s up to them now. The premise of the show in the first place was choosing the songs. So we’ll see how it goes.”