How Daniel Lanois made those adventurous records with Dylan, U2 and Willie Nelson

How Daniel Lanois made those adventurous records with Dylan, U2 and Willie Nelson

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold May 29, 2026 Duration: 37:49

Daniel Lanois built a studio in his basement in Quebec and began producing local acts when a teenager. Through work with Brian Eno, he went on to record U2, Bob Dylan, Arcade Fire, Emmylou Harris and scores of others with a method that’s unique, cinematic and utterly extraordinary, a brand of sonic architecture that creates settings to accommodate the songs, often in exotic and stimulating places. And he's made nine albums of his own, the latest the magical instrumental suite ‘Belladonna Nocturne’ – “hear this and you may never go home again”. This rich and fascinating conversation includes …

 

… how the place you record affects the way you think

 

... producing Dylan and Willie Nelson in an abandoned Mexican cinema

 

… why the first record he bought was Wipe Out by the Surfaris

 

… the process of “printing sound” and his Music Minus One theory

 

… “Songs are doorways to another dimension”

 

… Eno’s working method: “he walked round the studio for 45 minutes ringing bells to map out the length of the album”

 

… drawing song sketches to stop everyone having to crowd round a laptop

 

… making the Unforgettable Fire with U2, “expanding Slane Castle ‘til there were little critters crawling out of the walls!”

 

… conjuring the tropical heat of Robbie Robertson’s Somewhere Down the Crazy River

 

… and what Hells’ Angels like to do to his music.

 

Order Belladonna Nocturne here: https://artsmusic.lnk.to/BelladonnaNocturne


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There’s a particular kind of conversation about music that happens between friends who’ve spent a lifetime immersed in it-not as distant critics, but as participants in the culture. That’s the atmosphere you’ll find in Word In Your Ear, a podcast from Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, and Alex Gold. With a collective eighty years of writing and broadcasting for titles like Smash Hits and Mojo, and shows from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" to VH-1, they don’t just recount history; they unpack the stories behind it with the ease of a shared laugh. This podcast grew naturally from their work on the late, great magazine The Word, where they began recording over thirteen years ago, building a dedicated following who found something genuinely special in the mix. Each episode weaves together music, commentary, history, and interviews, moving seamlessly from deep-dive analysis of a seminal album to a frank chat with a surprising guest, all delivered with the warmth and wit of a late-night chat. It feels less like a formal show and more like you’ve been invited to pull up a chair in a room where the anecdotes are plentiful and the expertise is worn lightly. The result is a consistently engaging listen that treats music not as a museum piece but as a living, breathing part of our lives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Word In Your Ear
Podcast Episodes
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