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GRAMMYs

Esjay Jones

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Behind The Board: Esjay Jones behind-board-producersongwriter-esjay-jones-connecting-emotionally-making-imperfectly

Behind The Board: Producer/Songwriter Esjay Jones On Connecting Emotionally & Making "Imperfectly Perfect" Records

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Jones reveals how her musical interests led her behind-the-scenes, why she keeps going back to listen to certain records and what she feels is the most important job of a songwriter and producer
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Mar 9, 2020 - 1:00 pm

For those who make a life of working in music, a career can take many twists and turns toward bulding a sharp skillset and finding a deeper truth. Meet Esjay Jones, South African-born, Southern California-based producer, songwriter and engineer who has worked with a wide variety of artists including Nile Rodgers, Sean Kingston, Krewella, Brandy and, most recently, a project to re-imagine and enhance several of the original songs by Grey Daze, the band of the late GRAMMY winner Chester Bennington before he joined Linkin Park.

Behind The Board: Esjay Jones

The winding road Jones has walked in music started young. Jones recalls her ballet teacher pulling her parents aside to tell them she might want to recosider a dancing career. Grateful for the shift, she took an internship at Northwind Recording and found her way into a fairly successful music career in South Africa as an artist. 

"As time went on, I just fell more in love with what happens behind the scenes," said Jones. "Understanding the psyche behind an artist, having come from that world, it's allowed me to really have this intimate and emotional connection with people who are precious about their songs and not sure if they want to bring someone else in. And it has allowed me to be really transparent in the curation and creation of songs."

Jones also reveals why she goes back to the same records over and over, name-checking seminal albums by Deftones and Incubus as prime examples. To Jones, it's because they are "imperfectly perfect."

"I would much rather capture those imperfect moments and figure out how to work them into the production," she said, "because I feel that is what a listener is listening for. It's that emotional connection making [the listener] go, 'Oh, that person I'm such a big fan of, they're human, too!'"

Learn more about Jones journey Behind The Board in the latest installment of the series above, and stay tuned for more episodes each week here on GRAMMY.com.

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Behind The Board: Tracy Young Breaks Down How She Approaches A Remix

GRAMMYs

Shooter Jennings

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Behind The Board: Shooter Jennings behind-board-shooter-jennings-growing-music-his-dads-best-advice-producing-great

Behind The Board: Shooter Jennings On Growing Up In Music, His Dad's Best Advice & Producing Great Records

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The GRAMMY-winning producer, who has recently made albums with the likes of Brandi Carlile, Tanya Tucker and Marilyn Manson, takes on his journey Behind The Board
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
May 4, 2020 - 12:58 pm

GRAMMY-winning producer Shooter Jennings hit the ground running, born into a family of musical royalty with parents Jessi Colter and Waylon Jennings. And Shooter has taken what he learned from those early experiences and turned them into a spectacular career as a producer. In the latest episode of Behind The Board, we learn more about his journey and how he's never done learning from the artists he works with in the studio.

Behind The Board: Shooter Jennings

"I learn from every record that I do. I'm very fortunate because I'm getting all this knowledge from other creative people that serves me in other areas, and I love that," he said. "I'm really respectful of the fact that they take me into their band. Getting to jump in and get in the mix is addictive. It's really fun. It's kinda like going on a date, a first date where you really like the girl [laughs]."

Shooter talked about learning from his experiences growing up on the road and in the studio and how it's led him to a life of learning from the artists he works with, each one offering something different to teach him.

"All the records that I've worked on this year have had their own special experiences," he said. Shooter produced Brandi Carlile's By The Way, I Forgive You album followed by Tanya Tucker's Whille I'm Livin', both of which earned GRAMMY Awards. Most recently, Shooter has gone back to his hard rock roots, producing the latest album by 4-time GRAMMY nominee Marilyn Manson, a project that had a huge impact on his career and life.

"The Marilyn Manson record was hands down the most big journey I've ever been on," he said. "It's really this poetic journey with him, and it's like this wheel of chaos that has been spinning for a year and a half of my life that I love. My life is completely different because of that record." 

In the video above, Jennings also discusses what makes a perfect record and reveals the best advice his father ever gave him.

"My dad said to me when I was younger, 'Don't ever try to be like anyone else, because you're never gonna be,'" Shooter shared. "It took a long time for me to really get that, you know. But, that to me has always stood the test of time."

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Behind The Board: Catch Up With Afrobeats Hitmaker Kel P In Nigera To Talk Music Production

GRAMMYs

Joel Little

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Behind The Board: Joel Little behind-board-joel-little-working-lorde-how-vans-warped-tour-inspired-him-more

Behind The Board: Joel Little On Working With Lorde, How Vans Warped Tour Inspired Him & More

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The GRAMMY-winning producer/songwriter talks though his path of starting a band, a record label and a successful studio career
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Apr 6, 2020 - 2:44 pm

New Zealand-born producer/songwriter Joel Little's career took off when he co-wrote and produced Lorde's 2013 smash hit, "Royals." But as with any successful professional, the journey began long before the accolades rolled.

Behind The Board: Joel Little

A guitar player since age 13, Little's road to a career in music started with Vans Warped Tour in 1998, where everything changed. He started taking the idea of forming a band seriously after seeing that show, and went on to form pop/punk outfit Goodnight Nurse in Auckland in 2001.

On the side, he started a label with his Goodnight Nurse bandmate, Sam McCarthy, and found some early success working behind-the-scenes on music. He setup a recording studio, and one of the first artists who came in to work there was Lorde. Little earned a GRAMMY win for Song Of The Year and another nomination for Record Of The Year for his work on "Royals."

In the latest episode of Behind the Board, Little shows us around his current setup, and talks about what works for him as a producer/songwriter. To Little, it's not about his ego or imposing his influnce into the process.

"I shouldn't be trying to force myself on the song," he said. "I'm there to help [the artist] say what they want to say."

He aslo recounts the best advice he's ever recieved, talks about learning the ropes and setting up his studio without studying audio engineering in school and more above in the video above.

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Behind The Board: Jahaan Sweet On Working With Boi-1da, Drake & What Makes A Great Record

 

GRAMMYs

Misha Kachkachishvili

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Behind The Board: Misha Kachkachishvili behind-board-esplanade-studios-owner-lead-engineer-misha-kachkachishvili-capturing

Behind The Board: Esplanade Studios Owner & Lead Engineer Misha Kachkachishvili On Capturing The Magic

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The producer/engineer dishes on how he learned to be a producer, creating Esplanade, where the real magic heard on a record comes from and more
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
May 18, 2020 - 5:01 pm

Producer/engineer Misha Kachkachishvili has a pretty cool office. As studio owner and lead engineer of Esplanade Studios in New Orleans, Kachkachishvili has created one of the most inspiring locations to record found anywhere on earth. In the latest edition of Behind The Board, he talked about how it came together, his path to becoming a studio professional, and where the magic of a great record comes from. 

Behind The Board: Misha Kachkachishvili

Kachkachishvili got a jump start on a life in the studio, starting music school at just 5 years old. Later he became a defacto producer and honed his ears and his chops by helping friends make music in any genre you can throw at him.

"I ended up producing Irish records that I didn't know much about, so it was kind of a learning curve." he rememberd. "What I learned is how to make any record regardless of genre."

As his career progressed, he was often working with Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and found himself looking for a place to record them. After hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, he found the abandoned building that now houses Esplanade. Kachkachishvili was blown away by the vibe and the acoustics of the big room, and Esplanade Studios was born. The world-class studio is known for it's spacious control room and glorious live room.

"The control room that used to be a choir loft. this is a 1,700 square-foot control room." he told us. "Originally I was going to partition a little differently, but because of the stained glass, I decided to keep it big and open. So that makes the space [and] the control room unique to me."

With such an awe-inspiring space to create in, you might think Kachkachishvili relies on Esplanade's hallowed walls to provide the creative energy for the records he makes. Not so...

"Everybody thinks the studio is the solution for everything. No, the magic doesn't hapen here," he said. "The magic happens on the writing side of it. Just writing the great song and delivering the song, delivering the emotion, the message. That is the most important thing. Our job is to amplify that and just make sure whatever the artist brings to us, we do justice to it."

Find out more about Kachkachishvili's path and Esplanade's history in the latest edition of Behind The Board above.

Behind The Board: Manny Marroquin On Mixing, Balancing Confidence With Humility, 'The College Dropout' & More

 

GRAMMYs

Manny Marroquin

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Behind The Board: Manny Marroquin behind-board-manny-marroquin-mixing-balancing-confidence-humility-college-dropout-more

Behind The Board: Manny Marroquin On Mixing, Balancing Confidence With Humility, 'The College Dropout' & More

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The GRAMMY-winning mix engineer shares the moment he discovered his passion for mixing music and reveals what he feels it takes to be a world-class mixer
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
May 11, 2020 - 1:17 pm

Manny Marroquin's credit list reads like a Who's Who of 21st Century popular music, including everyone from Kanye West to Alicia Keys, Taylor Swift to Lizzo, BTS to Beyoncé and so many more. The eigth-time GRAMMY winner has 28 GRAMMY nominations to his name on his way to becoming one of the most sought-after collaborators in music. 

Behind The Board: Manny Marroquin

In the latest episode of Behind The Board, Marroquin goes all the way back to his childhood, growing up in Guatemala. He recounted how the country's civil war during the late '70s and early '80s led to his mom moving the family way, but not before music made its first imprint on young Manny. 

"I remember being really young in Guatemala, music is a huge part of some of these really poor countries," he said. "I remember really, really falling in love with insruments and playing [music]."

When Marroquin got to high school, he enrolled in an electronic music class taught by current Executive Education Director for the GRAMMY Museum, David Sears, who explained to him what the process and craft of mixing involved. 

"The moment I realized that you can manipulate everything with just frequencies and levels without even changing a single note just blew my mind," he said. "I'll never forget that at that point I knew that's what I wanted to do for the rest of my life."

Marroquin decided to forego college to begin his life's work in the studio. That's when his wildly successful carrer truly began. "Then one day, the classic story, the guy doesn't show up, and I'm in there," he said. "The next thing you know, you have a career [laughs]."

"You've gotta think you're the best mixer in the world. But you also have to be humble enough to know that you don't know it all," Marroquin said. "They're conflicting personalities, right? Know how to utilize those personalities when you need them."

This concept of balance, perhaps the mix engineer's most necessary concepts to master, shines through in his mixes and keeps his name at the top of many mixing wish lists for big-time projects of all styles.

"I think artists and producers see my passion for [mixing]," he said. "That I still want to makes sure they have the best sounding, feeling record that they imagine." 

In the episode above, Marroquin also reveals the most important thing to him in making records, what it's like to work side-by-side with great artsts and be a part of so many musical movements and moments and more.

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Behind The Board: Catch Up With Afrobeats Hitmaker Kel P In Nigera To Talk Music Production

 

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Some of the content on this site expresses viewpoints and opinions that are not those of the Recording Academy. Responsibility for the accuracy of information provided in stories not written by or specifically prepared for the Academy lies with the story's original source or writer. Content on this site does not reflect an endorsement or recommendation of any artist or music by the Recording Academy.