MR.E.: How and where were you introduced to music and the music business?

Douglas Grean: I started playing mandolin in 7th grade. Shortly upgraded to electric guitar cause it was louder and I could play more stuff with my friends. In highschool I had a band that gig'd a lot. We were playing in bars when we were like 15, you know that same old story. I went to college in New Orleans and stayed there for 9 years playing the local scene. While I was there I started recording. At first paying other people to record my band and then slowly teaching myself and "borrowing" studio time to experiment. One thing led to another and now here I am. Shortly after that I was introduced to the music business. That's the only part I regret.

MR.E.: Do you consider yourself more musician or producer?

Douglas Grean: I consider myself more a musician. Producing only exists for me as a means to facilitate my ability to make and record better the music I create and the music others create. In and of itself, producing is a pretty empty and useless activity.

MR.E.: What instruments do you play?

Douglas Grean: My main instrument is guitar, all flavors. I also play bass guitar pretty well. I've been known to torture and extract acceptable performances from the Banjo, mandolin, Lap steel and various keyboards.

MR.E.: I think I will break that last question down. What Projects are you currently working on as a musician?

Douglas Grean: I'm mixing a record I produced, engineered and played bass on a record for a local LA singer songwriter named Craig Gore. It's sounding very good. I'm also always working on my own stuff. RIght now I'm in an instrumental phase.

MR.E.: What Projects are you currently working on as a producer?

Douglas Grean: A band called The Color Turning from here in Los Angeles.

MR.E.: What past credits as a musician or producer are you most proud of?

Douglas Grean: I don't value any one more then the others. They all represent peoples dreams and creations and far be it for me to judge and or assign levels of importance.

MR.E.: Can you tell us a little about Softdrive records? How it got started? Is Softdrive associated with any major labels?

Douglas Grean: Softdrive is Scott Weiland's label. It is distributed by Sony/Red and is partners with New West records. I'm sort of a partner and sort of a staff producer for Softdrive.

MR.E.: How did you meet Scott Weiland?

Douglas Grean: I met him in Rehab.

MR.E. What are your thoughts on the current state of the music business?

Douglas Grean: I think the business is changing and I think it will be for the best. All the business people are upset because every year for the last 10 years there's been a sharp decline in record sales. In my opinion this will never reverse for 2 reasons. (1) Downloading.. legal and illegal, and (2) the record buying public has a lot more to spend it's money on now (I'm talking mostly about kids) cellphones, video games, car notes, i-pods... There's just a lot more things teenagers can spend their money on instead of records.

Overall I think all this is good. I think that the internet has taken down a lot of the larger corporate record companies and I'm glad. I think corporations are the devil and corporations exerting their needs on a band is the worst possible way to make music. Today Radiohead self released a record. That makes me happy. I think indie music is the way of the future and makes for the best records and bands. I'm not afraid of this change because no matter what happens with music people still need to make great sounding records and so then have to hire a guy like me.

MR.E. I see on your Myspace page your headline reads "I hate Myspace" Do you truly hate Myspace? Do you feel the internet has helped or hurt the music business?

Douglas Grean: No I don't hate myspace. I was just trying to be funny. I think myspace is a great thing for bands. Go myspace!

Partial Discography Of Douglas Grean's work:

Scott Weiland - Bug - sndtrk (Film) 2006
The Actual (LP) 2006
Velvet Revolver - Live DVD (LP) 2006
Leslie Roy (LP) 2006
Kevin Max (EP) 2005
King Straggler (LP) 2005
Velvet Revolver - Fantastic 4 - sndtrk (Film) 2005
The Actual - Bewitched sndtrk (Film) 2005
Velvet Revolver (LP) 2004
Scott Weiland - Ready to Rumble sndtrk (Film) 2002
Sheryl Crow (LP) 2002
Crystal Method (LP) 2001
Scott Weiland - Not Another Teen Movie (Film) 2001
Stone Temple Pilots (LP) 2001
Scott Weiland - Austin Powers sndtrk (Film) 1999
John Taylor/Duran Duran (LP) 1999
Camp Freddy - Employee of the Year sndtrk (Film)