"I've always recorded the same way. I put down as many ideas as I have, then strip them away at the mixdown. It's better to have too much music than not enough"
About this Quote
Navarro is talking like a guitarist who’s spent enough time in the studio to distrust the romance of “capturing the moment.” The intent is practical: record wide, don’t self-censor, and let the mix become the real composition. That’s a producer’s mindset smuggled into a musician’s confession - the performance isn’t finished when the playing stops; it’s finished when the choices harden.
The subtext is about control and insurance. “As many ideas as I have” signals abundance, even chaos: extra harmonies, alternate lines, weird textures, maybe a second or third guitar part that feels indulgent in the room. Then comes the discipline: “strip them away.” That verb matters. It frames restraint not as a limitation but as an aggressive act of authorship, a way to carve identity out of possibility. Navarro’s era - post-70s maximalism colliding with alternative rock’s suspicion of polish - trained musicians to fear both emptiness and overproduction. His solution is to postpone purity until the last responsible moment.
It also hints at why certain rock records feel alive even when they’re meticulously assembled: you can keep the accidents that earn their keep and delete the ones that don’t. “Better to have too much music” isn’t just about quantity; it’s about optionality, the freedom to discover what the song wants after you’ve already given it more than it asked for. The mixdown becomes a trial, and only the essential survives.
The subtext is about control and insurance. “As many ideas as I have” signals abundance, even chaos: extra harmonies, alternate lines, weird textures, maybe a second or third guitar part that feels indulgent in the room. Then comes the discipline: “strip them away.” That verb matters. It frames restraint not as a limitation but as an aggressive act of authorship, a way to carve identity out of possibility. Navarro’s era - post-70s maximalism colliding with alternative rock’s suspicion of polish - trained musicians to fear both emptiness and overproduction. His solution is to postpone purity until the last responsible moment.
It also hints at why certain rock records feel alive even when they’re meticulously assembled: you can keep the accidents that earn their keep and delete the ones that don’t. “Better to have too much music” isn’t just about quantity; it’s about optionality, the freedom to discover what the song wants after you’ve already given it more than it asked for. The mixdown becomes a trial, and only the essential survives.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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