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Bruce Swedien

 

Bruce Swedien, studio engineer, “Sound on Sound” (November 2009) (archived)

"Michael was not an ordinary vocalist or an ordinary singer,” he explains. "If any young people in the music industry take the decision to use Michael as an inspiration, that's about the smartest thing that they could possibly do. In the studio you hardly knew he was there ‑— he was extremely quiet and polite and kind ‑— but he really cared about the quality of what we were doing. Not only the technical quality, but the musicality, and his pitch, and the lyrics, the arrangements, and so on. For example, I don't think I ever saw Michael with the lyrics in front of him. He'd always been up the night before memorising the lyrics and he sang the songs from memory. And every day that we recorded vocals his vocal coach was there, and he warmed up for an hour beforehand. That made a big difference.”

Marc Salama and James Cote interview (September 25, 1990) (archived)

Marc Salama / James Cote: Could you describe a typical session with Michael Jackson?

Bruce Swedien: Well, a lot of times on the songs I produced with Michael, for instance...it’s wonderful, we’ll decide on a piece of music to do and then I kind of get to work on it on my own a little bit and then give Michael a tape once I get a rhythm track down and he’ll say it’s great but let’s do this.....then I’ll go back and work on it some more. so it’s kind of an in and out type of thing. Michael is so professional, so wonderful to work with and doing vocals with Michael is an absolute joy. he’s got ears for days and the pitch and everything. Michael is polite and kind. You know, he’ll say: "Can I hear a little more piano in the earphones please". And he’ll say thank you. this is an industry where you don’t hear those words a whole lot. So for that reason I totally respect Michael and the musical integrity is so...well we usually listen to a composition and a demo and we’ll listen and decide whether or not we want to record it. so from then on i’ll get musicians in and we’ll do an arrangement and record it. Then we’ll try Michael’s voice on it or try the structure to see how it feels and everything and then once we get passed that initial bare bones stage, once we get the overall structure right and it fits Michael’s voice, then we start sweetening and overdubbing and finishing it. So there is a stage in there where we are still experimenting to get the right structure and the right feel so that this music with what Michael will do with it.

Salama/Cote: Can you tell us more about how Michael works and how he relates to the people working with him?

Swedien: I’ve never ran into anybody that works with Michael and doesn’t regard it as a pleasant experience, it’s just great. He’s really easy to deal with in the studio because when we record vocals, there’s seldom more than four takes or five on the lead vocal. then we’ll sit there and make a couple of punches but it’s nothing. And another thing I've learned with recording Michael is I'll set up the vocal mike and i’ll have Michael perform singing on my drum platform which is an eight foot square plywood unpainted platform about eight inches off the floor, and then Michael is on that. He’ll sing and one reason is that he dances when he sings and I love to have that as part of the sound because first of all his time and his rhythm is impeccable and even when I do backgrounds, Michael does little vocal sounds and snaps his fingers and taps his foot. I keep a (?) of that as part of the recording. 
One time I even made, for one of my seminars, I made a special mix of the background vocals on "the way you make me feel", took all the band out so that my class could hear all the sounds in there, and how they work in the overall picture because when you put the rhythm section in there, you can barely hear them, but they are really there, they’re an important part I think. I would hate to record him and take what I call the clinical approach and try to have it antiseptically clean or something. I think it would lose a lot of its charm. 
Working with quincy myself and Michael has really been a wonderful experience because not only do we work together well, but we’re really friends and it’s a three men team and our votes count equally. That’s the way it works, it’s easy, it’s wonderful and we’ve had such a good time doing "Off The Wall", "Thriller" and "Bad". Quincy has just formed a Quincy Jones entertainment corporation so he’s off doing TV. and movies, and producing and directing. Doing things that he’s wanted to do for years. Quincy is not working on Michael’s new album. 
I’m producing three songs and co-producing a couple with Michael. 
Quincy is very happy. I just spoke to him yesterday and he sounds great, he’s having the time of his life and happy as a pig in the mud. so I'm doing a little different too...I’m producing and doing things in areas that I've always wanted to be involved in. Building my beautiful studio here at home just for my projects. I won’t be doing everything here because my home is a sanctuary and I don’t want to bring all my work here, but a certain amount I want to be able to do here, really looking forward to it.

“Vibe” (June 25, 2011) (archived)

It was very obvious to both me and Quincy [Jones] how great Michael was. He was somebody really special… the ultimate talent. We did a bunch of demos after listening to Rod Temperton’s music for  Off The Wall . And Michael, in his typical fashion, went home, stayed up all night, and memorized the lyrics and we recorded those demos without a piece of paper in front of him. You tell me one other singer that could do that.

“Time Out” (Abu Dhabi) (December 24, 2013) (archived)

One of the inescapable attributes of Jackson’s music is the highly polished production. Swedish sound engineer Bruce Swedien was largely responsible for the pop icon’s definitive sound.

He explains that he and Jones referred to this as ‘the Acusonic Recording Process, adding: ‘Some guy from Japan came on a plane to California wanting to buy an Acusonic recording processor. We used it to describe the way that I worked with sounds. It means ‘accurate science’.

This process encapsulated Quincy Jones and Bruce Swedien’s ability and willingness to experiment with sound. Swedien recalls one of the tricks he used with Jackson. ‘Michael would sing close to the mic, then we’d have him move back a little further. What that does is create a sonic energy with the sound, which means that when you combine those tracks it’s magic and you can stagger them and have one right, one left and one in the middle.’

“The National” (Abu Dhabi) (September 25, 2013) (archived)

“Some people thought that it was an actual device and one guy from Japan wanted to buy it,” said the assistant producer Bruce Swedien about the famed Acusonic Recording Process used to record the albums. “It actually means accurate sonic recording, which is what Quincy and I do all the time.”

Swedien says he incorporated a lot of sonic techniques to give the three albums a cutting-edge feel: “Sometimes I would have Michael sing close to the mic and double [track] it and then tell him to move back further and the third time even further. What that does is create a sonic energy with the sound and then you can stagger it, making the sounds come from the left [speaker], the right and the middle. When it all combines together on the record, it just sounds magical.”

Bea Swedien, wife of studio engineer Bruce Swedien, “My Life as a Studio Wife: A Lifetime of Love and Music with Bruce Swedien” (August 11, 2025) (Excerpt below based off Bruce Swedien’s CNN interview dated July 4, 2009 (mirror) (mirror archived) (date archived)

CNN wanted Bruce to do an interview with Don Lemon. He went to Orlando to do the taping. Don asked him about working with Michael. Bruce said, “Michael was the ultimate professional. He also had a wonderful human side to him. He was polite and gentle. In a business where we didn’t hear these words too often, when Michael would ask for something he would say “Please,” “Thank you,” “You’re welcome.” He was loving and kind. He wasn’t the kid next door, I don’t mean to imply that. But he was phenomenal to work with. His dedication to the work was total, he always had the lyrics memorized, he’d stay up all night preparing.”

Don Lemon commented that Michael had said that “Have You Seen My Childhood” was his most biographical song. Bruce had his score of “Childhood” with him. He showed it to the camera and said, “This is typical Michael Jackson. He had inscribed: ‘To Bruce Swedien, working with you is complete Love, in the highest sense.       I will always care for and love you. Thank you for executing the song that’s most important to me. “Childhood.” It’s a statement I’ve always wanted to make. Love, Michael.’”

Bruce continued, “I have trouble speaking about him in the past tense. It’s going to take me a while to get used to that. It doesn’t seem like he’s gone.”

Bea Swedien, wife of studio engineer Bruce Swedien, “My Life as a Studio Wife: A Lifetime of Love and Music with Bruce Swedien” (August 11, 2025)

[Bruce and I] loved movies too. Every night after dinner, Bruce would say, “To the movies!” Over 600 films in various formats filled the shelves in our screening room. Michael had given us our first projector and I still sit in the relaxing massage chair he gave us one Christmas years ago.

 

Bea Swedien, wife of studio engineer Bruce Swedien, “My Life as a Studio Wife: A Lifetime of Love and Music with Bruce Swedien” (August 11, 2025) (Excerpt from “Acknowledgments”)

…To the late, dear sweet Michael Jackson who was love personified. His drive towards perfection in his art changed all of us; we rose to his ideals and were better for it. We had a warm, special friendship for many years.