Cynthia Daniels is a Grammy and Emmy award-winning producer, engineer and composer working extensively in film, television, and music. Her career has led her around the world, initially specializing in orchestral pop from Big Band Jazz to Broadway, and then crossing over into producing records for young and seasoned artists in the rock, country, and folk-rock world. She is owner and chief engineer at The Hamptons first world-class recording studio, MonkMusic. She has hosted or engineered sessions for Chaka Khan, Beyonce, Coldplay, Paul McCartney, Nile Rogers, Alec Baldwin, Julie Andrews, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Billy Porter.

CYNTHIA DANIELS

We all are looking for a little magic in our lives, and I think that's what art and the creative process allow for, above all. In a world that can be either way too predictable and mundane and create tedium, the creative mind,  for me, is the curious mind and the mind that's always learning and allowing yourself to make mistakes. To generate from your core, from your soul, and from your experience something new and experimental and something that is unique to yourself.

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Some of those people who came through my first day at A&R, Steely Dan was recording Gaucho. Dressed to Kill, which was a very big film, and Annie, the musical Annie was being recorded in studio A1, and Paul Simon had just finished One-Trick Pony, and Billy Joel had just finished Glass Houses and was launching into his Nylon Curtain album.

There was nowhere else you would want to be, but A&R Recording were four rooms going 24 hours a day, and to be part of that... And that - a moment where I closed my eyes - is because that is the time when I removed myself from the verbal idea and actually try to explain to you what the purpose is of my job, which is to channel and be of service to music and to understand every aspect of music, no matter how many years that takes, be part of another creative process and to have your own creative process as a person who is channeling other people's music.

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And so that this is like a daily gift, which is why I practice every day, and that's what the artistic and creative experience is for me. So in a world that's either so impossible to control, such as political situations and world hunger and gargantuan, spiritual malaise, which is what I believe this world is suffering from because we are way too identified with our animal nature and way too unidentified with our spiritual nature, which is what I believe is required as a transformation for this world to exist. For us to become less selfish and more compassionate human beings or we're doomed.

You know, it can be painful to stay awake or it can be revelation to become awake, which is why people are learning how to meditate and why that's coming into schools because there's an awakening to yourself and the goodness and possibility in this world.

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"There are a lot of new avenues now that are opening up and also these magnet schools where I think there's a lot of possibility in educational systems. And I think that education, in general, is where the main problem is, the perpetuation of poverty and a kind of a welfare existence...

This is why meditation is so important and is now being taught in schools that even children with their febrile minds and their heavy curiosity and this unbelievable amount of input coming out of their machines, which they're allowed to have at their faces all day long. There's no time for space, and then, therefore, there's no time for intuition to enter into your psyche. And without that, you have no access to who you truly are. You are only a reflection of what's out there, and society is largely a reflection of what it's told, what you're told to do, right? Individuals are a reflection of their society and it's there's got to be a balance.

CYNTHIA DANIELS, PAUL McCARTNEY, STEVE MARTIN

I had mentors all along the way. To be quite honest, I wasn't even aware that I was "only a woman in a man's world". It didn't even occur to me that there was a difference. My entire life, I liked the things that boys were interested in. People love to teach and I loved to absorb and learn. And so I was as excited by the signal path of a live PA system for a rock band as I was going on the road and plugging into amusement parks, where we were recording some very serious acts, Ronnie Millsap, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Lynn Anderson.

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There's a great song. It's called "A Quiet Thing" and it's by Kandor and Ebb who wrote Cabaret.
The lyrics are–

When it all comes true
Just the way you'd planned
There are no trumpets or parades
It's a quiet thing.

So, you see, by the time you win a Grammy, you've probably been working for twenty or thirty years. A lot of us. Many people are of course young and get their overnight sensation, but most "overnight" sensations are a lifetime achievement. That's why I did it quietly. I ate some popcorn and called my mother and then regretted that I didn't go do it.

PORTRAIT OF CYNTHIA DANIELS by MIA FUNK

This interview was conducted by Mia Funk with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interviews Producer on this podcast was Mira Patla. Digital Media Coordinators are Jacob A. Preisler and Megan Hegenbarth.

Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer and founder of The Creative Process & One Planet Podcast (Conversations about Climate Change & Environmental Solutions).