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2. Ariel Rechtshaid
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Years Active: 2005 - Present
Genre(s): Rock, Pop, R&B
Recent Notable Credits: Charli XCX - "Nuclear Seasons" (2011); Blood Orange - Coastal Grooves; Usher - "Climax" (2012); No Doubt - "Push and Shove" (2012); co-produced Snoop Lion ft. Drake - "No Guns Allowed" (2013); Mikky Ekko - "Kids" (2013); Major Lazer ft. Santigold, Vybz Kartel, Danielle Haim, Yasmin - "You're No Good To Me"; Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City (2013); Haim - "Falling," "The Wire," "My Song 5" (2013); Sky Ferreira - Night Time, My Time (forthcoming, 2014)
I realized I liked being in the studio and working on translating the ideas into recordings. I knew how I wanted it to be in my head, but I didn't know how to express myself, and that was what put the fire under me to learn the art of recording.
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3. Mark Ronson
Hometown: London, England
Years Active: 1998 - Present
Genre(s): R&B, Hip-Hop, Pop, Rock
Recent Notable Credits: Amy Winehouse - "Back To Black" (2006); Adele - "Cold Shoulder" (2008); Nas ft. Busta Rhymes - "Fried Chicken" (2008); Bruno Mars - "Locked Out Of Heaven" (2013); Paul McCartney - "New" (2013); Giggs - "(Is It Gangsta) Yes Yes Yes" (2013)
I needed a bit of that abandon, just being able to think, “F— it, I’m going to make the records I want to make.” That’s the mindset I had when I met Amy. Most of the time, when you meet an artist, you’ll play them some beats or chords over a drumbeat. I used to do that but not anymore, because I find it doesn’t really work. The first time I sat with Amy [Winehouse], instead of playing her anything, I asked her, “What do you want your record to sound like?” I was aware of her first album, but that had been released three years prior, so I thought maybe she was ready to go in a different direction. She just said, “I don’t know, but I’ve been listening to all this ’60s stuff”—and she played stuff from the Shangri-Las and by Earl and the Cadillacs. There were a bunch of things I knew, things that we had in common. I’d be playing her songs and she’d say, “Oh, yeah—I love that.” That’s what inspired us to go in that direction with her album. “What do you like to listen to?” is the simplest question to ask any musician.
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4. Paul Epworth
Hometown: London, England
Years Active: 2004 - Present
Genre(s): Pop, Rock
Recent Notable Credits: Adele - 21 (2011); Florence and the Machine - Ceremonials (2011); The Big Pink - Future This (2012); Adele - "Skyfall" (2012)
I like to think of my work as dynamic. I’m really into textures, psychedelics, space, and, conversely, density. I love the idea of things that have harmonic depth. That’s something I’ve been able to explore more using Universal Audio gear and software. I’ve been able to bring harmonics out of the tracks we record — like trying to find those even-order harmonics that you get using tape.
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5. Devonté Hynes
Hometown: New York, NY / London, UK
Years Active: 2005 - Present
Genre(s): Rock, Pop, R&B
Recent Notable Credits: Florence + The Machine - "Bird Song" (2009); Theophilus London ft. Solange - "Flying Overseas" (2010); Solange - True EP (2012); co-wrote Sky Ferreira - "Everything Is Embarassing" (2012); rumored to be working on Britney Spears' forthcoming eighth album (2013)
I just want to make music, that’s all I want to do.
6. Pharrell Williams
Hometown: Virginia Beach, VA
Years Active: 1992 - Present
Genre(s): Hip Hop, R&B, Pop
Recent Notable Credits: Frank Ocean - "Sweet Life" (2012); Mac Miller - "Objects In the Mirror" (2013); Robin Thicke ft. T.I. and Pharrell - "Blurred Lines" (2013); Pusha T ft. Ab-Liva - "Suicide" (2013)
I always remember that music is something I'm very lucky to be able to do. Teddy Riley's studio was literally two blocks from my high school in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He left New York, and out of all the places in the world he moved to Virginia Beach, which is not a music industry-type place. So I got involved in the music industry, and it was only a few months ago that I really realized how fortunate I am. I do something that people can't see and touch. You can hear music, but you cannot physically stick your hands out and feel it unless you're standing in front of a speaker, which is a transmission and a simulation, but not the real thing. It's like God or the wind.
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7. Rick Rubin
Hometown: New York, NY
Years Active: 1981 - Present
Genre(s): Rock, Pop, Hip-Hop
Recent Notable Credits: Adele - "He Won't Go," "One And Only" (2011); Lana Del Rey - "Ride" (2012); Kanye West - Yeezus (2013); Eminem - "Berzerk" (2013); Lady Gaga - "Dope" (2013)
I don't know anything about music. My job has very little to do with music. It has more to do with taste and culture and balance.
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8. Flying Lotus
Hometown: Winnetka, CA
Years Active: 2006 - Present
Genre(s): Hip-Hop, Electronic
Recent Notable Credits: Hodgy Beats - "Lately," "Lamented" (2012); Captain Murphy - Duality (2012); Mac Miller - "S.D.S." (2013); Captain Murphy ft. Viktor Vaughn, Earl Sweatshirt, and Thundercat - "Between Villains" (2013)
I find that there is a crazy, purist mentality with hip-hop. People are like it’s gotta be a certain way. It’s gotta be boom-bap. You gotta talk about the streets. This and that and whatever. Fuck, man. What if I just wanted to do something different? A lot of times, people from the hip-hop community, they would front on me. They would just front on my shit. I was like, 'You know what? I’m a just fuck with this electronic shit.'
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9. Danger Mouse
Hometown: White Plains, NY
Years Active: 2003 - Present
Genre(s): Hip-Hop, Alt-Rock, Psych-Pop
Recent Notable Credits: The Black Keys - El Camino (2011); Norah Jones - Little Broken Hearts (2012); Portugal. The Man - Evil Friends (2013)
What changed everything was when I got into Woody Allen...When I got to college, I saw 'Manhattan' and 'Deconstructing Harry.' I thought to myself: Why do I relate so much to this white 60-year-old Jewish guy? Why do I understand his neurosis? So I just started watching all of his movies. And what I realized is that they worked because Woody Allen was an auteur: he did his Thing, and that particular Thing was completely his own. That's what I decided to do with music. I want to create a director's role within music...
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10. Dave Sitek
Hometown: New York, NY / Los Angeles,CA
Years Active: 2000 - Present
Genre(s): Rock, Indie Rock
Recent Notable Credits: Foals - Antidotes (2008); Wale - "Triumph" (2009); Maximum Balloon ft. Karen O, Little Dragon, David Byrne - Maximum Balloon (2011); Santigold - "Fame" (2012); Lianne La Havas - "Forget" (2012); Kelis - "Jerk Ribs" (2013) Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Mosquito (2013); Oh Land - "Renaissance Girls," "Pyromaniac" (2013)
I work with bands all the time. And we’re working on something until seven in the morning and everyone in the room at eight in the morning says, “Let’s put it online right now. Let’s put it out right now!” Having that momentum and that kind of hunger is a valuable thing. I think it’s the most valuable thing. That feeling of I know that the time is now.
(Source)
11. James Murphy
Hometown: New York, USA
Years Active: 1996 - Present
Genre(s): Pop, Rock, Disco, Electronic
Notable Credits: LCD Soundsystem (2001-2011); Gorillaz, Andre 3000, James Murphy - "DoYaThing" (2012); Yeah Yeahs - "Buried Alive" (2013); Arcade Fire - "Reflektor" (2013)
You're supposed to be lost in the rock zeitgest. But if that's not what you're interested in, then it's kind of liberating. You don't really have to worry about it. It's not that we're consciously trying to strike a balance, it's just that we're not worried about the other stuff, so you just get to make what you like. There's all this anxiety that people are going to "catch" you. No one wants to get called out for being derivative or something. It's like, we're all making rock. No one's reinventing the wheel over here. If anything, the balance is struck by not worrying too much about it. So I'm spending my energy trying to make a good song rather than spending my energy trying to cover my tracks.
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