Prior to his death earlier this month, producer George Martin had worked to create Soundbreaking: Stories From the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music, an eight-part documentary series that features interviews with more than 150 musicians. The candid series hopes to shed light on the recording process and record the modern history of the music studio. The first two episodes are scheduled to premiere today at SXSW, and now a trailer for the series has been released.
The series is produced and directed by Jeff Dupre and Maro Chermayeff, and Martin and his son Giles — who is also a producer — recruited the artists who spoke on camera. The long list of artists includes Rick Rubin, Fleetwood Mac, St. Vincent, Bon Iver, Blondie, the Black Keys, Ringo Starr, Quincy Jones, Tom Petty, Paul McCartney, Elton John, The Beach Boys, and Beyoncé. The episodes are titled as such: “The Recording Artist”; “Painting with Sound”; “The Human Instrument”; “Going Electric”; “The Rhythm Track”; “Sound and Vision”; “The World Is Your”; and “I Am My Music.”
Courtesy of Rolling Stone, the trailer features just a fraction of the massive amount of interviews conducted for this thing. Brian Eno, one of rock’s production pioneers, gave the quote that best serves as a mission statement for the show: “It’s the birth of a new art form. They were starting to make music that couldn’t exist outside of a recording studio.”
The PBS miniseries will air in November. Watch the trailer below.