Dan Lanois studio work filmed

Daniel Lanois, who has worked with many of the heavyweights of popular music, is the subject of the moody-but-informative documentary Here Is What Is, a behind-the scenes-look at the producer at work in his and other studios. (GREG HENKENHAF/SUN MEDIA)

For years, people have asked Canadian uber-producer Daniel Lanois exactly how he works in the studio.

The interest has been high given his impressive client roster over the past three decades includes U2, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Robertson and Emmylou Harris, to mention a few.

So the 55-year-old Hull-born, Hamilton-raised Lanois finally got around to making a movie about the experience, Here Is What Is, which debuts Sunday night at the Toronto International Film Festival.

That world premiere of the moody-but-informative black-and-white documentary will be followed by two Lanois performances at The Great Hall in Toronto on Sept. 10 and 11.

"It's okay to give away secrets, especially if they're technological or systematic," said Lanois, while strumming an electric guitar near a studio board recently in his massive, 5,000-square-foot downtown Toronto studio. "And the thing that always belongs to you really is your heart and soul and your driving force and everyone is unique in that special way. So passing on a technique -- always happy to do it -- even if they use that technique they'll get a different result because they are a different person."

Lanois was filmed by co-director-editor and Canfield, Ont., native Adam Vollick, while working on his next solo record with the likes of The Band's Garth Hudson and longtime collaborator Brian Blade on drums.

The new disc likely will be called Here Is What Is -- based on the Jamaican proverb "don't look to tomorrow, look to right now," explained Lanois -- and released next March, although it's currently without a distributor, as is the film.

"I met Adam Vollick through my brother Bob," said Lanois, who was first shot by the young photographer when he got his honorary PhD in Hamilton.

"I thought he had a good eye and a twinkle in the eye. I always like to work with up-and-coming young people if they have an appetite for good work, so it was nice to have him on board."

Lanois is also seen working in Morocco with fellow producer Brian Eno and U2 on the Irish band's next record and with Sinead O'Connor in Dublin on a song for the new film The Water Horse. There's also snippets of archival footage of sessions with Aaron Neville, Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris.

"A friend of mine said there was not a lot of footage of me working and that it might be nice if there was an opportunity to see that at this point," explained Lanois of why he decided to film himself so intensively at this point in his career.

"And so rather than dwelling too much on the past we decided to just film over the course of the year, kind of the current creative process, just to see what we would get."

By JANE STEVENSON -- Sun Media