producers
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When Edgar Barrera first thought of bringing Bad Bunny and Grupo Frontera together for a collaboration, he thought to himself, “Wait, what am I even saying? That could never happen.” But like so many of the Mexican American songwriter-producer’s genre-bending ideas, this one didn’t just work out — it became a smash. The cumbia-norteña track “un x100to” peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May.
“To have the biggest artist, whom I had been wanting to work with, collaborate with a group from my hometown and record a cumbia, which is the music I grew up listening to with my dad, it was crazy and a full-circle moment in my career,” Barrera says today. “Sometimes I sound delusional, but the crazy thing is that the impossible happened.”
Ten years into Barrera’s career, his ability to effortlessly move across genres has made him one of the most sought-after songwriters in Latin music, with collaborators including Maluma (“Hawái”), Christian Nodal (“No Te Contaron Mal”), Grupo Firme (“Ya Supérame”), Camilo (“Vida de Rico”), Becky G (“Chanel”) and Marc Anthony (“De Vuelta Pa’ la Vuelta”), in addition to non-Latin stars such as Ariana Grande (“Boyfriend,” with Social House) and Shawn Mendes (his “KESI” remix with Camilo). In January 2021, he topped four genre charts — pop, rhythm, tropical and regional Mexican airplay — with four different songs, something no other Latin songwriter had done before. “That moment was really special,” says Barrera, 33, who also won the 2021 Latin Grammy for producer of the year. “I remember when I heard about it, I kept calling people in the industry asking, ‘Is this normal?’ ”
Extraordinary moments have defined the career of Billboard’s 2023 Latin Groundbreaker, who grew up near the border between Roma, Texas, and Ciudad Miguel Alemán in Tamaulipas, Mexico. At 6 years old, he created a rock band with his brother, cousins and a friend, who were all around his age. “I swear there are photos of me playing a guitar that was bigger than me,” he says with a laugh. “And I would write songs too. The first ones were really bad — they were about teddy bears — but come on, I was a little kid.”
It was around that time that he also started joining his father, a cumbia artist, at the studio or watching him rehearse with his band. Later, as a teen, Barrera handed out business cards and CDs with songs he had written to artists leaving local radio stations after their interviews. He still has one of those old business cards, which he proudly shows off. “I would go home and just keep hitting refresh on my Hotmail in case someone wrote, but no one ever did,” he says with a shrug.
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Still, his hustle landed him an internship across the country in Miami with songwriter-producer Andrés Castro. “It was the best decision I could’ve ever made,” he says. “I started off as an engineer, [but] I remember when artists would come to the studio, I’d make sure to tell them, ‘Hey, I’m not really an engineer. I’m a songwriter and producer.’ And I’d show them my music. I got into a lot of problems because you’re not really supposed to talk to them directly. But I preferred to ask for forgiveness later than to ask for permission. And it worked: I got what I wanted.” Later, Castro would take Barrera to Sony Music Publishing Latin America, where he was signed by president/CEO Jorge Mejía.
Now, Barrera is laser focused on BorderKid Records, an imprint he launched in February 2022, with emerging acts Alex Luna and Neeus along with marquee client Grupo Frontera on his roster. When Barrera signed the six-piece last October, it was already a popular local band in McAllen, Texas, and had just landed its first big hit, “No Se Va,” which peaked at No. 3 on the Hot Latin Songs chart.
“We’re from the same place, so we all know each other, and one day, my compadre, who had hired them to perform at his tire shop opening, kept sending me videos telling me that they wanted to meet me,” Barrera explains. Their partnership began with a meet-up at a local Starbucks. “He believed in us from the start,” says vocalist-accordionist Juan Javier Cantú. “When we first met, he asked us where we saw the group going and we told him, but he told us that we were thinking too small and that we could go so much further. He pushed us to dream big.”
Edgar Barrera photographed on September 6, 2023 in Miami.
Natalia Aguilera
And now, Grupo Frontera is the latest Barrera success story. In August, its debut album, El Comienzo, bowed and peaked at No. 3 on the Top Latin Albums chart, and in the past year alone, the group — a 15-time finalist at the 2023 Billboard Latin Music Awards — has placed eight songs on the Hot 100.
“I promised myself that, from now on, I would work only on projects that I feel really passionate about and make me feel something,” Barrera says. “With BorderKid, it’s that. I want to be that bridge between new artists, songwriters and producers and their goals.”
Edgar Barrera will speak at Billboard Latin Music Week, taking place Oct. 2 – Oct. 6. To register, click here.
This story will appear in the Sept. 23, 2023, issue of Billboard.
UnitedMasters is partnering with Nigerian producer Sarz on his 1789 imprint that aims to discover, develop and empower the next generation of African artists and producers, Billboard can exclusively announce today (June 13).
Sarz (real name Osabuhoien Osaretin) has produced records for some of the biggest African artists, such as Wizkid, Burna Boy and Tiwa Savage, and is responsible for spreading the Afrobeats sound to the U.S. and U.K. charts with hits like Drake, Wizkid and Kyla‘s “One Dance,” which became the most-streamed song on Spotify in 2016, and Lojay and Sarz’s “Monalisa,” which received a Chris Brown remix and has amassed 297.3 million official global on-demand streams through June 8, according to Luminate. He also won the producer of the year award at The Headies last year.
LV N ATTN, the parent project of “Monalisa” that Lojay and Sarz released in 2021, as well as WurlD and Sarz’s I LOVE GIRLS WITH TROUBL from 2019 fall under Sarz’s 1789 imprint, which he established in 2018 to discover and develop African artists and producers. (It symbolizes his birthdate: March 17, 1989.) Now, UnitedMasters is coming in to amplify the work Sarz has already been doing by providing its cutting-edge label services and digital distribution technology.
“Sarz, for the last five years, has been developing some of the biggest producers on the continent that have gone on to produce for the Wizkid’s, the Burna’s, the Tems’, the Lojay’s, etc. We wanted to be able to say, ‘How do we add value to you guys and help give you resources so that way you can ultimately develop the talent on the ground?’” David Melhado, vp of music at UnitedMasters, tells Billboard. “You can see why he’s able to spot talent when you hang out with him. His energy is infectious. He’s just doing what he wishes he had. There’s something so powerful in that where he’s like, ‘I’m paying it forward to these producers.’ He’s really creating a movement.”
“I met with David and Julian McLean [director of producer relations/editorial at UnitedMasters], and it just felt right. I could tell we shared the same vision and we’re very passionate about emerging talent,” Sarz tells Billboard, adding that he hopes his new strategic partnership with UnitedMasters will bring “more opportunities to the continent, bring more opportunities to Afrobeats artists and producers globally. I hope to be the bridge between an emerging artist and everything they desire globally.”
Those signed to 1789 will be able to access “everything that you would get from a major label, from marketing to digital marketing to playlist pitching and, when the time is right, we can scale up and do radio campaigns,” says Melhado. He adds that the partnership will also provide artists and producers “transparency around the money they make” through UnitedMasters’ mobile app, where “they’ll be able to see their streams in real time,” as well as “brand partnerships with some of the world’s biggest brands [NBA, ESPN, WhatsApp], and they all have ambitions to be a part of the global music conversation.”
Adds Steve Stoute, UnitedMasters CEO/founder, in a statement: “We are extremely excited to be in partnership with Sarz and 1789. Sarz, a true hitmaker, has a keen ear for talent and has proven that he cares deeply about the artist development process. Our shared mission in supporting artists from Africa through education and resources will empower them to unlock their true potential.”
United Masters began discussing how to enter the African music conversation two years ago, when Stoute sent Melhado Billboard‘s 2021 feature on Wizkid following the global success of his Tems-assisted smash “Essence.” Melhado told Stoute, “‘When it’s time for us to go expand to Africa, I got a big network there.’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, you should go in December,’” Melhado recalls with a chuckle. Melhado and McLean ended up traveling to Nigeria in December 2021, where the two were hosted by Melhado’s good friend Bizzle Osikoya, a Nigerian A&R expert and music executive who founded the talent management and music services company, The Plug. “We went out to really see what the culture was, the music, the food, the fashion, the art, and really engulf ourselves in the community there but really try to figure out, ‘Where can we add value?’ We didn’t want to just go to Africa and throw money at it. We wanted to not be opportunistic from a perspective of, ‘Let’s just go sign some artists,’ but we wanted to be able to make sure that we were going to be really impactful and additive to the music scene there. We wanted to be able to find the right partner, and that’s ultimately what we did with Sarz.”
In 2015, the 34-year-old producer founded The Sarz Academy, a non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating African artists and producers and helping them launch successful careers. “I’ve always been passionate about helping people’s journeys, even unofficially I’ve mentored so many producers in the Afrobeats space before I thought about starting an academy,” he says. “It took me at least 10 years just grinding in the industry to find my position. And I thought, if I can mentor these guys, they could probably do it in two years or three years.” The academy’s esteemed alumni includes Kel-P, Legendury Beatz, P.Priime and Tempoe, who have gone on to work with Wizkid, Burna Boy, Rema, Fireboy DML, CKay, Angélique Kidjo and Teni, among many others. “I plan to break out of Africa. I am doing it for global Afro music,” P.Priime, a 2018 graduate of The Sarz Academy, told Billboard in 2020. Two years later, he was a part of the #YouTubeBlack Voices Songwriter & Producer Class of 2022 and earned credits on Wizkid’s Made in Lagos deluxe album that went on to receive a 2022 Grammy nomination for best global music album. Another 2018 graduate, Tempoe, went onto produce CKay’s “Love Nwantiti (Ah Ah Ah)” the following year, which has since garnered 2.46 billion official global on-demand streams and spent two weeks at No. 1 on Rhythmic Airplay.
After meeting Sarz through their mutual friend Osikoya in March 2022, Melhado and McLean traveled back to Nigeria this past October to witness The Sarz Academy firsthand. “He had producers and artists from all over Nigeria. There were artists that flew in from London, from Costa Rica, to Nigerians who came from Canada to be a part of this experience. They all lived in a house. And they just created some of the most amazing music that I’ve heard in a long time. The collaboration, the desire to get on, the hunger — all these kids had that. It was inspiring overall,” says Melhado. “At that moment, I knew that we had the right partnership and the right partner.”
Sarz says the music coming out of last year’s Sarz Academy will be compiled into an album that will be released next month. Three singles — “Jam One Kele” by Sarz, Millymay_pod, Gimba and Fxrtune; “Good to Me” by Sarz, Perfext and Gimba; and “Body Wicked” by Sarz and Millymay_pod — have already been packaged as The Sarz Academy Presents: Memories That Last Forever 2 and released under 1789 and UnitedMasters on DSPs last week. One of the artists, Gimba, was also recently featured on the single “Blessings” with DJ Tunez and Wizkid.
UnitedMasters’ partnership with Sarz includes supporting his endeavors at The Sarz Academy, as education is one of the company’s core missions, according to Melhado. “We didn’t just come into the business trying to tell everybody they needed to be independent. We had to walk them through what it is like to be independent, and for artists on the [African] continent, we want to be able to help artists with those tools and educate them,” he explains. “Our ambition is to be able to support these artists, see them at the beginning of their career and ultimately take them to global superstardom.”
Ableton, Logic, FL Studio. Midi versus live instrumentation. To Auto-Tune or not to Auto-Tune. There are about a million options and decisions when it comes to production platforms, plug-ins and effects that inform the way music sounds in any given moment and subsequently shapes entire genres. And in every chapter of hip-hop and R&B, there are a handful of producers who drive the conversation and direction of what’s to come.
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Billboard caught up with six top producers — Nascent, Jahaan Sweet, Nova Wav, Mike Hector and Malibu Babie — responsible for some of our favorite chart-dominating songs of recent years (with many more arriving in 2023), to discuss the ways they are thinking about music today, the changes they hope to usher in and the trends they hope will die out.
Nascent
You may know him from: SZA’s “Good Days,” Kanye West’s “Hurricane”
Preferred production software: “When I was 14, I started [using] a program called Acid Pro,” he says. “[Now] I use Reason. For me, it works visually and for the sound I’m going for. It just clicked with me.”
Favorite plug-in of the moment: The Chicago-made producer usually opts for samples and live instruments, but is a fan of Keyscape.
Production must: “There’s certain things in my production that I do on purpose. Because it was inspired by music that I listened to, whether it be certain ambient textures, nature sounds, but pitched down [and] tucked in. You might not even notice it the first two or three times, but it’s there, making you feel something.”
Music trend he wishes would return: The art of bridges and “romantic lyrics.”
His biggest piece of business advice: “Build as much leverage as you can … Sometimes things can be too good to be true. And if it’s too early, then it probably is.”
NovaWav
You may know them from: Beyoncé’s “CUFF IT,” Nicki Minaj’s “MEGATRON,” Jazmine Sullivan’s “Pick Up Your Feelings”
Preferred production software: NovaWav duo member Chi started off in high school making beats on FruityLoops, now known as FL Studio. Today, she sticks to Pro Tools — after having fibbed during an internship interview in college, claiming she knew how to use the beat-making software.
Elements that define their sound: The pair defines the “core” of their music as dark and melodic. “Usually, what we’re defined by is the songwriting element,” Chi adds. “Musically, we’re not in a box.”
A genre that simultaneously scares and excites them: “Gospel,” says duo member Blu, “because people don’t really know us for that, but we do have that background and range. So I absolutely want to do gospel, [but it] makes me a little bit nervous.”
A production trend they wish would come back: “We should be reaching for the beats that are like [Clipse’s] ‘Grindin’,’ [produced by] The Neptunes, or 50 Cent type beats, Ja Rule, Jay-Z,” Chi says. “All of those beats feel free. Back in the day, they didn’t quantize. Right now we quantize and it makes it very robotic.” Blu says she’d love to see a return to stacking vocals and unique sounds. “I feel like everybody chooses the same type of chords [and sounds] all the time,” she adds.
A production trend they wish would die: “The trap R&B sound–we could retire that,” says Blu. “If we’re gonna do R&B, let’s do R&B. Why are we halfway doing it now?”
Mike Hector
You may know him from: Doja Cat’s “Imagine,” SiR and Kendrick Lamar’s “Hair Down,” Omar Apollo’s “Killing Me”
Preferred production software: Hector has been using FL Studio since he was 16 years old and doesn’t plan on changing that anytime soon. “My brother told me [FL Studios] is the program a lot of people use,” he says, “I honestly didn’t know about any other programs until way later in my career.”
How he found his sound: “I just approach things differently. When I started, I purposely didn’t watch tutorials because I didn’t want to sound like everybody else … I figured it out completely on my own. It took me longer, but because of that, it made me stand out a bit more.”
Production quirk: Hector says that when he uses sounds, he modifies almost every single one: “I’ll do things like change the pitch, or stretch things, or use a hi-hat differently, to step out of the box instead of using things how they are meant to be used.”
Production trend he wishes would die: “I think people just need to chill on the Auto-Tune a little bit.”
Production trend he hopes will return: “Disco sounds.”
Jahaan Sweet
You may know him from: Taylor Swift’s “Lavender Haze,” Kendrick Lamar’s “N95,” Kali Uchis’ “fue mejor”
Preferred production platform: Like many aspiring musicians, Sweet began his production journey on GarageBand as a middle schooler. During a jazz and piano summer music program, the budding music expert was introduced to Logic Pro X. “I remember one of the teachers was like, ‘Man, if you want to get serious, you gotta get on Logic — that’s what the real people use,’” he recalls. Now, Sweet says he works between Logic and FL Studio, where he produces his drums. “Maybe like four years ago, being around Boi-1da so much and watching him create, I was like, ‘Yo, I need to learn FL Studio.’”
Elements that define his sound: “I have no clue,” Sweet shares plainly. “I’m still trying to figure it out myself. I feel like all great producers, especially the ones I look up to, all have that indicative sound or style.” When it comes to what Sweet is trying to accomplish, no matter his collaborator, it’s about simply falling in love with a song, and making sure the audio sounds clear. “You, as a producer, want to get [the song] as close to where it should be, so the mixing engineer doesn’t have to do too much.”
Malibu Babie
You may know her from: Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl,” Megan Thee Stallion’s “Her”
Preferred production software: The rising producer began making music at the age of four on an upright piano in her parents’ basement. In college, she was introduced to Logic Pro X and now works in Ableton 11. “All of my peers were using Ableton, they jokingly and lovingly bullied me into it,” she says.
Favorite plug-in of the moment: Malibu Babie says she’s been “going back through staple plugins” lately, drawing on Serum Synthesizer, Native Instruments, Keyscape and Omnisphere. “I’ve been working more so in Serum and just going through and creating custom presets,” she says.
Production quirk: “I do have an obsession with putting in weird noises,” she says. “I have started doing it in every beat. I’ll take a game alert and make it into a percussion, or a water drop, and I’ll tuck it in. I felt like it was my personal stamp.”
Production trend she wishes would die: “No one be mad at me,” she prefaces. “The sad girl bedroom pop. I’m tired of being sad! I appreciate the artistry of it and can absolutely see the value in it, but if I didn’t hear it for a few years, I’d be totally cool.”
Production trend she wishes would return: 2008 to 2013 pop elements. “Very up-tempo pop chords, like all of the songs by Ke$ha and Katy Perry,” she explains. I don’t want to say the word bubblegum, but it was like shiny, plasticky pop chords.”
It’s official: Tyler Johnson was the top producer on the planet in 2022, according to new data published by Jaxsta, the official music credits database.
Johnson, the studio whiz whose fingerprints are all over hits by Sam Smith, Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus, Cam and others, is ranked No. 1 on Jaxsta’s list of 100 most successful producers.
The U.S. producer “had a stellar 2022,” the credits specialist notes, during which he was nominated for three Grammy Awards including album of the year for his production work on Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, plus song of the year and record of the year for “As It Was,” the monster hit from the same album.
Harry’s House and “As It Was” achieved the chart double on both sides of the Atlantic.
During Styles’ hot streak, the former One Direction singer hit No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 Songwriters chart (dated June 4, 2022), while Kid Harpoon and Johnson tied atop Hot 100 Producers, thanks to their work on the Englishman’s third studio album.
Meanwhile Tainy (Rosalía, Sean Paul, Dua Lipa) and Kid Harpoon (Miley Cyrus, Harry Styles, Maggie Rogers) complete the podium, respectively.
Following the outstanding success of Taylor Swift’s tenth and latest studio album, Midnights, an album whose tracks swamped the entire top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, a record, the U.S. pop superstar comes in at No. 4 on the Jaxsta Honors List: Producers.
The top five is completed by Max Martin, the legendary Swedish record producer who kept the hits coming with his work alongside Pink, Lizzo and others.
“Congratulations to Tyler. His incredible achievements, and the achievements of all producers in the Top 100 and beyond resulted in 2022 being an amazing year for recorded music,” comments Jaxsta CEO Beth Appleton. “Jaxsta is proud to shine the light on all who create music, ensuring our official credits reflect accuracy and transparency. We will continue to use our unique database to highlight insights such as the Honors List.”
The tally is based on statistics provided by Jaxsta’s 340-plus official data partners (record labels, publishers, distributors, industry associations and charts providers) to pinpoint the world’s 100 most successful producers from January 2022 to December 2022.
Its rankings are based on a weighted algorithm that takes into account each producer’s chart performance, Spotify streams, Grammy wins and nominations, RIAA certifications, and other producer credits over the timeframe.
Jaxsta launched in open beta in 2019 and today boasts a growing database containing over 17 million producer credits.
Click here for the Jaxsta Honors List: Top 100 Producers of 2022.
Jack Antonoff, who won producer of the year, non-classical at the Grammy Awards in April, is back to defend his title. If he wins again at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 5, he’ll become the first person to win back-to-back awards in that category since Greg Kurstin in 2017-18.
He is competing with another past winner in the category, Dan Auerbach (who won in 2013), and three producers who are looking for their first wins in the category: Boi-1da, Dahi and D’Mile. Boi-1da has been nominated in this category before, but these are first nods in the category for Dahi and D’Mile.
Boi-1da has two nominations for album of the year (Beyoncé’s Renaissance and Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers). Dahi is also nominated for album of the year for his work on Lamar’s album. D’Mile is nominated in that category for his work on the deluxe edition of Mary J. Blige’s Good Morning Gorgeous.
This is the fourth consecutive year that Antonoff has been in the running in this category. He’s the first producer or producing team to receive four consecutive nods in this category since Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis landed six straight nods (2000-05).
Thom Bell, one of the architects of the Philadelphia soul sound, was the first winner in this category, in 1975. Babyface is the only four-time winner in the category’s history. He won once with his partner L.A. Reid and three times on his own. David Foster, Quincy Jones and Pharrell Williams are three-time category champs.
Let’s take a closer look at this year’s nominees for producer of the year, non-classical.
It’s ostensibly a big morning for Greg Kurstin. As we speak in the sunlit lounge of his Hollywood recording studio, the Grammy nominations are being announced — and as is often the case, the veteran producer’s name is connected with a few very big artists expected to make significant showings.
But if Kurstin is at all nervous, he doesn’t show it. Whether out of politeness or commitment to his “maybe boring” daily routine — drop his two kids at school, come back to the studio, make hits, get home in time for dinner — Kurstin, 53, neither tunes in to the broadcast nor checks his phone as the nominees are announced.
Instead, Kurstin has the same focus as always: the music that got him here. A lifelong pianist, he amalgamates his considerable abilities on a range of instruments, his love of jazz and his history as both a session musician and band member (Geggy Tah, The Bird and the Bee) into an improvisational accompanist’s approach to pop music. The artists who’ve called on him as producer — a wide range including Paul McCartney, Sia, Beck, Halsey, Foo Fighters and Maren Morris — look to Kurstin not for a distinct, signature sound, but for his ability to bring out the best within them.
The most famous of those collaborators, of course, is Adele. Since her 2015 album, 25, and its smash “Hello,” she and Kurstin have had a prolific creative relationship — one that continued in 2022 with 30. He co-wrote, produced or co-produced six of the 12 tracks on the album, which spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. One of those was lead single “Easy on Me,” which tied “Hello” for Adele’s longest No. 1 run on the Billboard Hot 100 (10 weeks) and led Radio Songs for 15 weeks — her personal best and the sixth-longest in the chart’s history.
All of that went a long way toward making Kurstin Billboard’s top Hot 100 producer of 2022. And by the end of our conversation, the nine-time Grammy winner (including two for producer of the year, non-classical) will rack up another five nominations: best pop vocal album; song, record and album of the year (all for 30); and best country album (for Morris’ Humble Quest, which he produced). But here in the studio — emitting cool dad vibes in jeans and a T-shirt — he’s immersed in the 9-to-5 that produces that award-worthy work, insulated from much of the buzz it has generated.
“Sometimes I’ll do a song with an artist,” Kurstin says, “and I’ll be like, ‘I wonder if that song did well?’ And then you go see their show and it’s like, ‘Oh, these people know the song!’ ”
It seems like you have the luxury of choice, in terms of artists you agree to work with. Besides your track record of hits, what do you think they’re looking for from you?
I’d like to think that they’re coming to me because I want to support their vision and learn where they’re going musically and try to achieve that somehow, to bring out the best song they could possibly need at this point in their career. Everyone is different. A lot of people I work with are people I’ve worked with before, over and over, and so there’s a lot of history there, too.
You’ve said that artists come to you for the support you provide during the process, rather than for a particular sound.
I don’t think I necessarily have a sound or a particular style that’s recognizable. People have said to me, “I could tell you did that song,” and I’m like, “Really?” I just bring it all back to when I was just a side musician accompanist working with a singer. I would try to support what they’re doing and not be a distraction, but to bring out the best emotion by finding the right chords and the right arrangements. I translated that to production, in a way.
Adele’s songs in particular are so intensely personal. To what extent are you helping her unpack that emotion?
I’m definitely there to navigate that emotional terrain. I have to find the right sequence of chords or the beginning of a song that ignites something in her and whatever lyric she’s wanting to write that day. So, I will search. Sometimes it takes a long time; sometimes it happens immediately; sometimes it’s at the very end of the day. Usually, I’ll just improvise, trying to imagine where she wants to go.
Are there conversations happening as you work?
We don’t really discuss it… I get on the piano and then I’ll get a sense of, “Oh, she likes this little bit I’m playing right now,” so I’ll stay there. Sometimes I do that for an hour or two while she’s formulating lyrics, and I just know I don’t want to move; I don’t want to change anything, because if she’s writing, I feel like it’s going well. So I’ll stay where I am. It’s like a meditation. Also, it’s amazing how much she remembers — just a little seed we started like, a year ago, she’ll say, “What about that little thing we did?”
Is the pressure around a new Adele album something you have to try to tune out?
Yeah. I mean, it’s so hard for me to tune it out. It definitely stresses me out, in a very positive way. There’s excitement, but there’s also just the feeling of like, “I don’t want to be responsible for something not performing.” That’s just me. I probably would take it personally, which I shouldn’t, but a lot of us artists have issues where our self-worth is wrapped up in our performance. But I try to stay grounded and healthy and just know it’s out of my control… Grammy time brings up a lot of those feelings again, because the attention on the album starts coming back.
Despite your accomplishments, you keep a low profile. What’s your day-to-day life like?
My days are pretty normal. I mean, aside from that I work with these extraordinary artists. I take the kids to school, then go to the studio. I just focus on the thing I’m working on, try to do a good job with that, then try to get home by dinnertime. That’s pretty much my life, which is kind of unusual in my line of work. A lot of producers work on the opposite time frame. When I’m going to bed, they’re starting.
For me to be healthy, I have to have a schedule, a structure. The way my mind works, it will start to race, and if I work too late, then I have trouble sleeping and that messes up my next day. Artists are happy to adapt to working that schedule. I want to do a great song for them and send them on their way so they can have a life and go out at night to do whatever they want to do. I’m totally friends with a lot of artists I work with… but I don’t want to keep someone longer than they want to be there.
You mentioned the anticipation you feel around Grammy season. What is your relationship with the awards?
It’s a crazy experience to be invited or involved, and I know I won’t be invited forever. There will be a point where people will be like, “OK, you can go now.” (Laughs.)
Eventually they’ll show you out the back door.
Exactly. Like, “We’ve had enough of you.” While it’s happening, I’m just going for the ride. It feels very good for your work to be recognized. I don’t take it lightly when people are voting for stuff I’ve worked on. I have fun when I go, although it makes me nervous when I’m there, because I hate speaking in the microphone, but that’s also a good problem to have.
Where do you keep the nine Grammys you’ve already won?
They’re in the bedroom, kind of staring at me. If I’m in a bad mood, I can look up and be like, “Come on! Chin up.”
All that said, do you want to check and see if you’ve been nominated this year?
(Looks at phone.) OK, I got best pop vocal album, song of the year, album of the year, country album and record of the year. So there’s that!
This story will appear in the Dec. 10, 2022, issue of Billboard.