The Way I See It is the third album by the American R&B singer, songwriter, and producer Raphael Saadiq. It was released on September 16, 2008, by Columbia Records – his first for the label. Prior to signing with Columbia, Saadiq had independently released his 2004 album Ray Ray, recorded with the songwriting and production duo Jake and the Phatman. He developed a creative partnership with their colleague, audio engineer Charles Brungardt, who shared Saadiq's fascination with historic recording techniques and equipment. In 2008, the singer returned from a vacation that had inspired him to pursue classic soul music and recorded The Way I See It primarily at his North Hollywood studio with Brungardt.
Saadiq and Brungardt disregarded their previous experience in recording production while making The Way I See It. Instead, they experimented with older recording techniques in an attempt to recreate the Motown music aesthetic of the 1960s, producing a traditional soul album that emphasizes upbeat hooks and draws on the Motown Sound and Philadelphia soul styles. Saadiq, whose lyrics mostly deal with romantic subject matter, described it as a series of love songs about music and remaining faithful to it despite trends. The album's title reflects his singular vision for the music, while the packaging is fashioned after the musical eras that inspired Saadiq, evoking dramatic and colorful LP covers by artists such as the Temptations and Ray Charles.
Initially overlooked by consumers, The Way I See It charted steadily on the Billboard 200 and became a sleeper hit, selling 282,000 copies in the United States by 2011. It also performed well in European countries such as France, where it charted for 51 weeks. The album received mostly positive reviews from critics and was nominated for the 2009 Grammy Award for Best R&B Album. An exemplary release of the classic soul revival at the time, it garnered Saadiq a newer, more diverse audience as he toured extensively in support of the album, performing concerts in the US, Europe, and Asia.
Background After independently releasing his second studio album Ray Ray in 2004, Raphael Saadiq continued working as a producer, composer, and instrumentalist on other recording artists' music. He was introduced to audio engineer Charles Brungardt through production and songwriting team Jake and the Phatman, who had worked on Ray Ray. Brungardt interned at Blakeslee Recording Company, Saadiq's North Hollywood recording studio, and eventually became his principal sonic partner on projects. The two shared a fascination with historic recording techniques and equipment. They also studied the 2006 book Recording the Beatles together and had an interest in the knowledge of recording gear by engineers and technicians for the English rock band the Beatles. Brungardt increased his engineering output, and in 2007, Saadiq enlisted him to engineer and mix English singer Joss Stone's studio album Introducing Joss Stone, which Saadiq produced.
While vacationing in the Bahamas and Costa Rica in 2008, Saadiq observed people there listening to classic soul music and was inspired to pursue it as a musical direction for his next album. He recounted the experience in an interview for Blues & Soul, saying that "I was like 'Wow, maybe I should tap into this vibe, because it's actually what I LOVE!' ... I realised that, though you can hear it in many of the records I've done throughout my career, I'd never paid 100% attention to going in that direction before. So the difference this time is that I took a more focused route." As a part of Tony! Toni! Toné! during the late 1980s and 1990s, Saadiq had incorporated influences from the music of Motown in his songwriting for the group. Before recording The Way I See It, Saadiq signed to Columbia Records. Label executive Rick Rubin visited Saadiq's home studio and was impressed by his material there. He said of Rubin's visit and advice to him as a solo artist, "He told me to never box myself in. I just have to be myself. You've got to follow your own path. I've always gone down the road less traveled, but now I do it even more aggressively."
Recording and production After returning from his vacation, Saadiq started writing and recording The Way I See It, which took four months. In an interview for Sound on Sound, he discussed his comfort level when returning to Blakeslee Recording Company: "The music for this album flowed organically, naturally, and since I have my own studio I was able to perfect it and take my time to make it right. I was able to live with it day after day, and I think that had a lot to do with how the album turned out." He wrote the songs extemporaneously, often by playing guitar and improvising riffs. He subsequently sung them while playing each instrument one at a time, including guitar, bass, and basic piano parts that he planned to include on the recordings. He attributed this secluded approach to "the state of the industry" and idealized "bounc[ing] ideas off other people, do some writing with them, take the material to my band and say, 'OK, let's cut it,' with the orchestra already there. That's my dream. I'd crank records out weekly if I had staff writers like they did at Stax and Motown".
Saadiq recorded mostly at Blakeslee Recording Company; additional sessions took place at Harmonie Park Studios in Detroit and the Music Shed Studios in New Orleans. While recording, he immersed himself in a composite character of classic soul singers from videos he watched, including Al Green, Gladys Knight & the Pips, the Four Tops, and the Temptations. He recorded his vocals with only Brungardt present in the studio, a preference he felt prevented him from "looking for answers from somebody who may not really know". Saadiq said he tended to "record complete takes, and if something isn't quite right but it's got a feel that I know I can never ever capture again, I'll leave it, even if it's flat. I mean, there are flat parts on my record, because it's not about perfection, it's about the soul." He recorded background vocals for all songs. Saadiq played most of the instruments, including drums, guitar, piano, sitar, and bass guitar, his instrument of choice throughout his career. He viewed the bass playing of James Jamerson as an integral part of Motown recordings, citing it as the inspiration for his own bass sound on the album.
Saadiq worked with other musicians, including Joss Stone, percussionist Jack Ashford, string arranger Paul Riser, multi-instrumentalist Bobby Ozuna, singer CJ Hilton, and recording artist Stevie Wonder. Ashford and Riser were members of the Funk Brothers, a group of session musicians for Motown Records during the 1960s. Ashford played tambourine, vibraphone, bells, and shakers on songs such as "100 Yard Dash", "Love That Girl", and "Staying in Love". Ozuna, one-half of Jake and the Phatman, co-produced and co-wrote three songs and played several instruments, including bongos, tambourine, and drums. Hilton co-wrote "Never Give You Up" and played its drum and keyboard parts. Wonder's contribution of a harmonica solo on the song was impromptu, as Saadiq reached out to Wonder after recording the song's vocal parts with the improvised line, "I'd like to invite Mr. Stevie Wonder to my album. Come on, Stevie!" After having the idea recommended to him by rapper Q-Tip, Saadiq also reached out to Jay-Z to record a featured rap for a remix of "Oh Girl"; it was included on the album as a bonus track.
Sound engineering The Way I See It was engineered by Saadiq, Gerry Brown, James Tanksley, and Brungardt, who mixed the album with Saadiq. Saadiq and Brungardt both liked to layer multiple instruments and, prior to recording, had contemplated techniques such as sampling and drum programming. However, they ultimately found live instrumentalists more dynamic and challenged themselves to reproduce older music productions and the Motown aesthetic of the 1960s. To familiarize themselves with vintage recording techniques, they studied Mark Lewisohn's 1988 book The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, books about Motown Records, and images of the label's studio personnel, setup of instruments, and microphone placement. They also studied Motown EQs to achieve a tone they found adequate for songs' rhythm guitar parts. Saadiq said that he had to disregard "about 85 to 90 percent of the new techniques ... People used to take recording very seriously. They used to wear lab coats at Abbey Road. So I got serious with what I was trying to do, both mentally and physically." Brungardt said in an interview for Mix that he abandoned the approach learned on previous records he had engineered, where "they wanted it clean with no distortion. I was taught to make sure it was polish, polish, polish, and to make sure everything fits right, the bass hits and things are clean for the big pop vocal."
Saadiq's studio integrated modern equipment such as a Pro Tools digital workstation and an SSL 9000 mixing console, and featured various vintage gear, including Saadiq's 1960s Ludwig drum kit and a kick-drum mic purchased from Abbey Road Studios. In the studio, Saadiq and Brungardt experimented with techniques and equipment. They wanted the songs to have slower attacks like older recordings, as producers in the past did not have advanced compressors, audio tools that manipulate the dynamic content of signals and affect certain sounds in a recording's mix. Their production applied tube preamps and tube compressors, with the former used as a front end for Pro Tools.
To record vocals for the album, Saadiq used a Shure SM7 dynamic microphone to thicken and distort his voice and embellish his characteristically clean delivery, while Brungardt employed a compressor and a Pro Tools plug-in during the mix. Saadiq sought a certain "edge" for his vocals and an unpolished sonic element for the album. They also tried to record tracks onto cassette tapes in order to produce a grittier, older sound. Brungardt used a FilterBank plug-in when mixing the album to uncompress vocals and roll off high-end sound from tracks.
Although they wanted to reproduce an older sound, Saadiq and Brunghardt also wanted to capture more of the bass and drum parts to add a louder, modern element to the mix. They applied a more basic approach to miking the instruments and utilizing the outboard gear, using a Neumann U47 for guitars, alternating overhead microphones for Saadiq's drum kit, a combination of dynamic and condenser mics for the kit's bass drum, and Ampex tape machines for extra warmth to the kit. Brungardt used various standard mics for the snare drum to achieve a more solid cracking sound, rather than capturing the drum's overall tone. Their miking of the guitars' amps was adapted from The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, and as Brungardt recounted, "It really gave us warmth and character. It allowed the amp to breathe and we got the tones of the amp along with the room. For me, that really opened things up so that I could play with the live room, using different reverbs to get a sound." For Saadiq's bass, they used a DI unit to connect a microphone preamplifier, increased the gain on a plug-in for less compression, and adjusted the low-end tones with an equalizer plug-in.
Music and lyrics